CHAPTER 54: CHAPTER 54: THE HEALER’S FALL

The air over the Black Forest in central Europe felt thick, as if it had been holding its breath for centuries, waiting for something to break the silence. High in the canopy, hidden utterly to the eye and shielded from all known magical tracers, the Black Force held their stronghold—a repurposed subterranean base hidden in myth and shadow.

There, the remaining four corrupted leaders gathered in urgency.

Zhao Wei was dead.

Evon had made his move.

The mood among them was cold and electric.

Maria Santos, once the beloved Oracle of Light, now stood at the edge of a long black console lit with runes of corrupted holy glyphs. Shimmering threads of twisted divine energy surrounded her like serpents. Her once-golden aura was dimmed, replaced with pale, corpse-like radiance.

"He defeated Zhao faster than projected," she said, voice calm but sharp. "We can’t waste time. We end him now."

"Elena is already tracking his most recent teleport residue," Kenji Nakamura rumbled, his stone-plated fists clenching. "We’ll surround and crush him before he even knows we found him."

"No," Ahmed Hassan said, voice layered with demonic undertones. "That won’t work. He sees too much."

"Then what?" Maria asked, eyes narrowing.

Ahmed’s form shifted slightly, his face contorting into its darker, inhuman form. "We change tactics. Instead of waiting... we attack together. All at once. Before he reaches us."

A silence followed.

Then Elena emerged from the shadows, her hood down, twin blades drawn.

"I know the coordinates of his forward command post," she said. "We strike now."

But before they could even finish forming their strategy—

The walls of the command hall exploded inward.

A blade of pure starlight tore through reinforced stone, and a shockwave rippled through the chamber like a bell ringing through time.

Evon Wang stepped through the smoke and ruin, eyes glowing silver, the Blade of Fate drawn.

"You picked the wrong day to stand together," he said calmly.

The four leaders froze.

"He found us?" Kenji growled. "How?"

Maria’s voice cracked like broken glass. "He’s using fate itself to see our footprints. We’re past brute force now."

Elena vanished—teleporting behind Evon instantly, blades stabbing for his spine.

But his **Eyes of Fate** saw her strike three seconds before she moved.

He twisted, deflecting both blades with a reverse grip, and swept her feet from beneath her with a blast of wind-charged Naia resonance. She hit the stone floor and vanished again into black mist.

Kenji charged with full force, the ground shaking. Evon stepped back as the massive earth-fused warrior slammed hammerlike fists into the ground. Stone erupted beneath Evon’s boots—but he leapt backward midair, then propelled himself forward with **Veyra’s booster flash**. His blade caught Kenji’s shoulder in mid-stride, slicing through two layers of corrupted armor.

The behemoth stumbled.

"I’m not playing your game anymore," Evon said—and the temperature dropped.

Ahmed raised his arms and summoned a vortex of darkness—spinning seals powered by forbidden barrier magic, designed to warp spatial structure and trap his foes within separate mini-realms. The ground folded in fractal spirals as towers of black crystal formed behind him.

Evon moved faster—invoking **Destiny Prison** on a three-second delay, locking Ahmed’s gateway sequence halfway through. His magic stuttered, destabilizing.

Maria took the moment to open her palms and release a wave of inverted holy light. The energy twisted through the air in elegant spirals, targeting Evon’s soul directly—light corrupted to decay the essence of living souls.

Evon let the hit pass through fabric—but not spirit. In his soul realm, all four Fated pulsed bright, and Naia’s voice rang through as calm as always.

*"I will filter the poison. Stay focused."*

Holy light collided with Evon’s soul—but was drowned in purity.

Evon’s aura surged, the **Blade of Fate** pulsing with Naia’s water and Yena’s faint memory. He breathed once, then in a single chain of moves, disappeared and reappeared mid-air—bringing down a scything arc of flame just above Maria.

She screamed—teleporting upward just in time to evade the full strike, but not before the flame sliced through her corrupted robe and singed part of her arm.

"You’re fast," she hissed, landing across the chamber, "but I was the light."

"You’re the memory of light," Evon responded. "I have the real thing coming."

Elena appeared again above Evon—a flipping strike from the ceiling, blades scissoring downward. This time he didn’t defend—he blinked back with subtle wind magic, letting her strike the floor.

In response, he hurled a compressed ball of **Veyra’s charged lances**, set with a delay-triggered sub-circuit. Elena dodged right—into it.

The pulse burst behind her spine. She screamed as current locked her teleport ability mid-cast. Trapped.

Evon capitalized. In a breath, he was behind her.

One slash.

A cyber-clean cut through her shoulder guard—sending her skidding across the chamber, blood flickering across her blade.

"I doubt you’ll keep blinking much longer," Evon muttered.

Maria, furious and shrouded in darkened wings of inverted holy light, hovered now halfway to the ceiling. Glyphs spun around her hands. She was incanting something older—something deep. The light curdled as it moved—writing not meant for mortals.

Evon looked up.

His eyes focused.

And he saw it.

A soul-rending curse—made from her own corrupted core, powered by the fragments of Yena’s undone frequencies.

It wasn’t just an attack.

It was an attempt to destroy his **connection to any divine being**—temporarily severing his bond with the sealed ones.

Evon whispered, "I don’t think so."

He focused on the orb of Naia, floating quietly in his soul realm. Then to Lyria. Veyra. Sythara. All pulsed in unison.

Evon drew from all of them.

His aura pulsed silver-gold.

A faint voice echoed—not from his Fated—but from something deeper.

A fragment of Yena herself:

*"I may not be free—but I never abandoned you."*

The corrupted light Maria released struck the shield around Evon’s soul like a cannon—and shattered into harmless particles.

Maria’s eyes widened.

"No... That was supposed to—!"

Evon surged forward—chains of **Destiny Prison** binding the air around him in glowing arcs.

Maria’s wings trembled.

One final attack.

She hurled a spear of false light, aimed straight for his heart.

Evon caught it in his hand.

It burned.

He smiled anyway.

Then stepped in and drove the Blade of Fate into her corrupted core.

Not to kill.

To purge.

Flame and water surged.

Electricity hummed.

Draconic pressure cracked the floor.

The moment lingered—then passed.

Maria collapsed to her knees, twitching.

Part of her light had returned. She looked up at him, tears in her eyes.

"I... tried to stop it. I really did."

"I know," he whispered.

And with a final breath—her body burned into pale silver flame, leaving behind only a feather of light.

A memory returned to the world.

Kenji, Elena, and Ahmed—wounded and furious—escaped through a black tear that Ahmed conjured in raw desperation, carrying them into shadow before Evon could follow.

He didn’t chase.

Maria’s corrupted light had been purged.

Three still to go.

He stood in the broken ruins of their base, chest heaving, the air thick with the scent of ozone and ash.

Exhausted, but standing.

He activated his comm.

"Commander Jaun," he said, voice hoarse. "Target two down."

"And Yena?" Jaun asked.

Evon looked up at the stars.

"Still waiting."

He placed the Feather of Light beside the four sealed orbs in his soul space.

The fifth resonance trembled.

The hunt continued.

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