CHAPTER 118: THE TRANSPARENT SCOURGE

The bullet from Luca’s silver pistol shrieked past the black entity, harmlessly embedding itself in the ancient stone of the altar.

The monstrous form ignored the attack, its entire being focused on Alessia.

It was a cold, suffocating vortex of pure void and hunger.

It didn’t simply touch her; it engulfed her.

A soundless, blinding flash of crimson light was the only indication of the impact.

The unholy, swirling shadow merged with the intense red aura emanating from Alessia, and for a terrifying instant, she became the nexus of all the dark power in the room—a star of terrible, chaotic energy.

Then, the light vanished.

Alessia collapsed, her body limp on the cold, cracked floor.

The black smoke entity was gone, completely absorbed. The only remaining evidence was the unsettling silence, the smell of burnt ozone, and the faint, residual heat radiating from her skin.

"Alessia... " luca screamed her name, dropping the pistol and sprinting across the shattered floor.

He reached her side, his hands trembling as he gently turned her over.

Her eyes were closed, her breathing shallow, but the terrifying red glow had receded.

She looked pale, exhausted, and utterly human again.

He cradled her head in his lap, his world collapsing into the singular, desperate focus of his wife.

Behind them, the chaos began to stir.

Lorenzo, his face a mask of shock and rage, slowly pushed himself up from where the backlash had thrown him.

His pristine suit was torn, and a thin stream of blood trickled from his ear.

"It worked," he hissed, his voice raw with a mixture of terror and triumph. "The gate is closed, but the shadow is through. It’s inside her. She is the living gate."

Daisy, equally dazed but quicker to recover, scrambled to her feet, her eyes darting between the unmoving corpse of Donato, the furious Lorenzo, and Luca protecting Alessia.

She re-leveled her gun.

"It ends now, Lorenzo Di Marco," Daisy spat, her voice shaking but firm.

"No, Loyal Thorn," Lorenzo sneered, wiping the blood from his ear.

"It only begins, The game is over, and I won."

He looked at Luca, a cold, empty hatred in his eyes. "You were meant to be the offering, Morano. But I’ll take the gatekeeper instead."

He lunged for the small, metallic Profane Heart that had fallen near the crypt opening.

He needed the key to control the gate.

A shot rang out.

It wasn’t Daisy.

The bullet tore through the air, hitting Lorenzo’s outstretched hand with a sickening crunch.

The heart clattered across the floor again.

Lorenzo cried out, clutching his shattered hand, spinning to see Donato Jordan—the dead brother—standing over his tomb, his dead eyes fixed on the silver pistol he now held, a fresh plume of smoke rising from its barrel.

He was the loyal thorn, the true shadow of the curse, and his loyalty was not to Lorenzo, but to the original plan.

Donato—Lorenzo’s brother’s corpse—stared at Luca, his lips cracking into a dry, terrible smile.

He raised the pistol, aiming it at his living namesake.

"The call has been answered, little Morano," the dead man rasped, his voice a dry, echoing whisper. "You cannot stop what is already inside."

Alessia suddenly felt her hands going deeper into the floor, the floor began to soften as her hand grabbed something buried deep inside.. She brought it out and it was bloody - shaped heart. She just found the buried hearts in the city. The corpse and Lorenzo let out a loud scream and there was black out.

Alessia woke to a feeling of incredible lightness.

She woke up in the morano mansion, on her private inner room as Luca lay by her side, sleeping soundly.

The crushing pain and cold were gone, replaced by a deep, peaceful warmth.

She wasn’t on the stone floor of the chapel.

She was standing on a cobblestone street under a flawless blue sky. The air was clean, carrying the scent of salt and ancient mortar.

"Where... are we?" she whispered.

",my love," a voice answered from beside her.

She turned it was Luca. But not the terrified, desperate man from the chapel.

This Luca was calm, dressed in a timeless, beautifully cut charcoal suit. His eyes held a gentle, carefree warmth she hadn’t seen since the earliest days of their courtship.

He took her hand, his touch grounding and real.

"A day out, you had been dreaming ," he murmured, raising her hand to kiss her knuckles. "No Morano, no dead corpse, no city of buried hearts.... Just her and Luca."

They walked hand-in-hand through the piazzas.

But Alessia new the dream was real somehow, she had accomplished the mission. As she smiled to herself.

********

Later in the day Luca took Alessia out to Rano city for tourism - The city was stunning—ancient, vibrant, and alive with the bustle of a thousand different eras.

The people here didn’t rush; they strolled.

The marble monuments were softer, the light warmer, and every shadow seemed to hold a secret history.

"It’s beautiful," Alessia breathed, a genuine smile finally lighting her face.

"It’s ours," Luca said, pulling her gently toward a small, sun-drenched cafe. "I have to show you the best gelato in the city. You need your energy, and to clear your head too."

As they sat, Alessia watched the world flow by.

A sense of profound peace washed over her, and for the first time in months, the frantic pulse of the curse was silent.

"I know what I have to do now," she told Luca, the words simply coming to her. "The power is mine to wield, not to be a vessel for. I’m not a gate, I’m the lock."

Luca simply smiled, a genuine, loving warmth in his eyes. "I know you are. Now, eat the gelato. We have a long journey back."

The peace was total, the love surrounding her absolute.

The dream was so real—the warmth of the sun, the taste of the lemon gelato, the solid weight of Luca’s hand in hers.

It was a perfect, brief escape.

A sudden, sharp pain flared in her stomach—the fierce, protective flutter she’d felt in the chapel.

She looked down, but her dress was pristine.

When she looked up, the cafe was gone. She was back in the empty, beautiful square.

"Luca?" she called out.

The gentle, warm air turned immediately cold.

A single shadow detached itself from the wall of a building. It was tall, perfectly dressed, and its eyes were empty and dead.

A figure stood silhouetted against the morning light. He was covered in blood, but it wasn’t his own. He was tall, his dark hair slicked back, It was Enzo....

The bodyguard who had betrayed Luca, the one who had disappeared after the ambushing Donato -Luca’s brother in virenkai.

Enzo didn’t speak. He lowered his eyes locking onto Luca. His face showed no remorse, no fear, only a cold, unsettling focus.

"Sir luca Morano," Enzo’s voice was utterly flat. "The betrayal was a necessity. I am the true protector of the Morano lineage, not your brother’s curse."

He glanced and bow his head.

"Here is a message sir. The Morano Estate is compromised. I’ve come to protect you and the... morano as a whole... I felt bad for my betrayal, it was jealousy and something dark, whispered to my heart I can be the over all ruler without the Moranos, why are the Moranos always victorious? I felt I was a nobody, I felt I need to make a name, I need to make a fame, what I couldn’t do when I served your father, I felt I should do it now as I served his son or I will become a nobody, a mere servant forever... But I was wrong, leaving the morano only stained and painted me black, my name died faster too... I have come to amend my wrongs and to work with the Morano empire again.".....

*********

Romeo leaned against the low stone wall in Daisy’s new apartment.. gazing out at the water.

"Sometimes you have to take the help you can get, i’m happy for the new space i got for you and bruno, it’s more safer here. "

Daisy smiled and nodded as she stood on opposite him....

They stood in comfortable silence for a moment, the sound of the surf filling the quiet.

Daisy felt her tension ease just slightly in his presence. She looked at Romeo, the man who had been her anchor, her secret weapon, and her quiet strength throughout this insane, criminal world.

"Daisy," he began, his voice barely a breath above the waves. He turned to her completely, and she saw a flicker of genuine terror in his eyes—not from an enemy, but from pure hope.

He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a small, velvet-covered box.

"I’m tired of the shadows," he said, his hand trembling slightly as he opened the box.

Inside, a simple, stunning platinum band with a single, elegant diamond caught the moonlight. "I’m tired of hiding and fighting and fleeing. I want... an honest life. With you."

He cleared his throat, a sound thick with emotion. "I know the timing is insane.

But after seeing seraphina, after seeing what we almost lost... I realized this can’t wait. I don’t want to be Romeo the consigliere anymore. I want to be Romeo the man who takes out the trash and comes home to you. Marry me, Daisy. Let’s buy a small vineyard somewhere quiet when this is over. Let’s make a life that’s only ours, To let the cat out of the bag i know we have been in love with each other."

A warm, overwhelming tide of emotion flooded Daisy, washing away the fear. This was the one good, clean thing in the middle of all the corruption.

She felt the fierce burn of unshed tears. She knew she had been in love with Romeo at first sight. But his dark stories revolving around Seraphina made her not to fully trust him.

She reached for his hand, ready to laugh and cry and say yes.

Just as her fingers brushed his, the sharp, insistent ring of his phone shattered the silence.

It was an encoded ringtone—the kind reserved for a need-to-know threats that bypassed all normal channels.

Romeo’s expression went instantly cold, the soft vulnerability vanishing as if wiped clean by a cloth. His hand, still holding the open ring box, froze mid-air. He looked down at the phone, then back at Daisy, his eyes empty of the life and love they had held moments before.

Without a single word, or even a moment to close the box, Romeo pulled his hand away. The platinum ring lay exposed to the moonlight.

He turned and bolted, sprinting down the terrace steps and back toward the villa, leaving Daisy alone in the moonlight.

The open ring box, with the diamond glinting like a lonely star, remaeined in her hand.

She stood there, frozen, the single, unanswered ring of the phone still echoing in the warm night air. She was left holding his promise, his dream, and the heavy implication of a fresh, consuming nightmare that had just stolen him away, without putting the rings on her finger.....