Chapter 1461: Story 1461: The Triple Crown

The Monarch filled the chamber like a living eclipse. Its three skulls rotated on a crown of bone and shadow, mouths open in a scream that was more vibration than sound. The light around it bent, shivering as though it could not bear to touch its form.

Elena stumbled back, pressing Mira against the spire’s remains. “Don’t look at it!” she hissed. But the command was useless—Mira’s eyes were locked on the creature, her veins glowing so brightly now they carved her silhouette against the dark.

The Monarch’s howl shifted, folding into words. Not spoken, but pressed directly into their minds.

“Vessel.”

Mira gasped, doubling over as if the word were a hook in her spine. The shard in her palm throbbed violently, threads of light spreading across her skin, racing toward her heart. She dropped to her knees, clutching her chest, teeth chattering.

Elena threw herself in front of her. “She’s not yours!” she screamed into the void, voice breaking. “You can’t have her!”

The Monarch tilted one of its skulls, jaws cracking open wider. Black ichor dripped in threads, sizzling on the floor. It lowered itself, so close Elena could smell the rot steaming off it.

“The shard is bone of our gate. She bleeds its marrow. She is not yours to guard.”

Mira’s fingers dug into the stone, leaving scorch marks where her glowing blood touched it. Her voice trembled, layered with that metallic undertone. “Elena… it’s pulling me. I can’t— I don’t know if I can stop it this time.”

Elena knelt beside her, grabbing her face, forcing Mira’s eyes onto hers instead of the Monarch. “You’re stronger than it. I know you are. You’ve fought every step—don’t stop now.”

But Mira’s pupils had gone glassy, swallowing the blue light until her eyes looked hollow. Her lips parted. “What if I’m not fighting? What if… what if I want this?”

The Monarch’s central skull reared back and unleashed a new sound—an exultant wail that cracked the chamber walls. Spires collapsed, glass flesh splintering into dust. The gate yawned wider, spilling tendrils of darkness that slithered across the floor, reaching for Mira.

Elena leapt to her feet, swinging her jagged shard-blade wildly, cutting through the tendrils. Each one she severed shrieked like a dying animal, but more kept coming. She screamed with every strike, desperate, furious, terrified.

Mira’s body jerked upright, no longer under her control. She rose slowly, suspended by unseen strings, her veins blazing. Her voice—two voices layered together—spoke in harmony with the Monarch.

“Through the Vessel, the gate breathes. Through the Vessel, the Monarch feeds.”

Elena froze, her shard trembling in her hand. For a heartbeat, it wasn’t Mira she saw—it was the figure of glass and bone from before, reborn inside her friend.

But then Mira’s eyes flickered, blue giving way for just an instant to the old, human brown. A tear slid down her cheek. Her lips whispered, barely audible:

“Elena… kill me… before it’s too late.”

The Monarch’s triple scream shattered what was left of the chamber, and the gate behind it flared open.