"Let me... take her place."
"Become your vessel."
The calm voice echoed in the vast, cold expanse of the Black Iron Hall.
In the instant Shiayar uttered those words.
The shadows, which had lingered in all directions, suddenly thickened greatly.
Increasingly dark and eerie, carrying some kind of unknown, indescribable danger.
Hathaway distinctly saw, at the moment she heard Shiayar's answer.
In the shadow beneath the Black Iron Throne, in that illusory brass-colored pupil, a barely perceptible color flashed by.
She felt that some lofty, majestic will, with unspeakable taboos, slowly descended within her bloodline.
Inside Hathaway's body.
All the crimson gold magic power, which had been gathered and directed by her will, on the brink of collapse and about to erupt completely.
In an instant, it calmed down again.
Like a dead, lifeless lake.
No matter how hard she tried, how she exerted her will to its fullest, focusing her spiritual power, trying to awaken that magic power once more.
But her body seemed as if it had lost control.
As if all her power flowed away entirely with the opening and closing of that brass-colored pupil.
Took away all her supernatural abilities, also all her strength.
Letting her, in an instant, fall from that powerful and invincible Legendary Golden Elf Sorceress, who could contend against the entire Council single-handedly, back to the mundane world once more.
Hathaway seemed to return to a thousand years ago, to the moment when the great catastrophe erupted, and the Royal Court collapsed.
And she became once more that Golden Elf child, unable to even tie up a chicken.
In bewilderment, loss, and despair... watching her parents, friends, and kin lose control, go mad, kill each other, even cannibalize their own kind under the light of the Fallen Sun.
And she could do nothing but helplessly sob beside them.
All that was once beautiful, all the peace, ended in that instant.
Then the Royal Court fell, Eternal Night became a curtain blocking out the day.
Since then, Golden Elves fell into a boundless darkness, until just recently when the light returned once more.
But that was only an illusory, fleeting dream.
The light vanished in an instant, darkness remains eternal.
So, all my struggles.
In the other's eyes, seem so ineffectual?
Her lips curled into a bitter smile.
Just now, Hathaway thought she was using her own strength to fight against the curse and control of that Ancient Sun God.
She thought that by relying on her own will, she could self-implode her spiritual power, self-implode her magic power, to win Shiayar a chance to break free from suppression and escape the Astral Realm.
But now it seems, how laughable that is.
The other side could take away all her power with just a thought, turning her back into a child who can't even tie up a chicken.
Moreover, what she thought was perseverance, resistance, even self-destruction, was actually just the other side letting her off easy.
This Ancient Sun God wanted to deliberately prolong her struggle, using such scenes to gradually wear down Shiayar's will, making him surrender and agree to his demands.
Just like a turkey flapping desperately before a farmer's carving knife, thinking it could find a chance at survival.
But actually, the farmer was just livestreaming, showing the audience how lively, how healthy this struggling turkey was, how tender its meat was.
The last ounce of strength in her body, along with her last will, dissipated, falling into the void.
Her figure softened, her frail form helplessly swaying, falling to the cold ground.
But immediately, Hathaway felt herself being caught by someone.
In that now blurred final vision, she saw those human eyes again, and that familiar face. Check latest chapters at NoveI[F]ire.net
He was smiling gently like that, yet in those dark eyes was an unmistakable hurt.
"Don't because of me, be coerced by Him..."
The unfinished words still carried out.
In the next moment, Hathaway's last bit of strength was completely exhausted.
Her mind gradually becoming hazy, spreading into boundless darkness.
Yet she was reluctant to fall unconscious, that last thread of consciousness stubbornly refusing to disperse, flickering in that sea of darkness.
Only the vague, ephemeral sounds from afar remained.
Shiayar caught the tender form of the Golden Elf.
Then, gently, he laid the half-conscious girl down.
"Truly troubling indeed."
"If not for now getting to know, I wouldn't have realized, that the Golden Elf Instructor I knew, still had this fierce side behind her."
"But, even such a Master, I still like just the same."
Then, Shiayar lifted his gaze again, looking at those brass-colored eyes opening and closing amidst the illusions by the Black Iron Throne.
"I've already agreed to you, that I will take her place, willingly become your vessel, your host."
"But, I have a condition too."
"As my voluntary surrender and becoming your vessel in exchange..."
He lowered his eyes slightly, looking at the Golden Elf girl beside him.
Shiayar gently crouched down, using his fingers to wipe away the dust from her face, acquired during the earlier nuclear explosion, and then spoke again.