Chapter 260: It’s over...
"ORION DADAAAAA!!!"
Jasper lunged forward, forgetting everything...forgetting safety protocols, fear and even the monster looming right behind.
All he saw was the crimson wolf’s massive chest split open by black tendrils, blood steaming against the sand... his eyes dimming... his life seeping out as he smiled.
"No... no no no no no, please don’t...Orion Dada...hey...hey...buddy...buddy...Look at me...Please..." Jasper’s little hands clawed at the writhing spears of shadow. He gripped them with all his strength, fingers burning, skin tearing...but yet he pulled.
His voice cracked, breaking apart with every word. "Get out! Get out of him! Let him breathe! You are hurting him, stop it...STOP IT!!!"
The tendrils twitched like snakes under his grip, resisting, but Jasper screamed and wrenched with everything in his tiny body. Tears streamed hot down his cheeks, dripping into the open wound he tried to shield.
"You will be alright, Orion Dada! Mama will heal you. She must be coming any moment now...Please...please wake up! Don’t close your eyes, don’t leave me... I need you, buddy...remember? You are here to save me!!!"
His sobs choked him. The words wouldn’t come...each syllable more broken than the last.
Freya’s heart lurched. She darted forward, her claws digging into the sand as she skidded to Jasper’s side.
"Jasper! Stop, stop...he is...he is gone...I am so sorry...there is nothing you can do!"
" NO!!! You are lying! Orion Dada will never leave me and Mamma! Never!!! "
"Jasper! I am sorry. But he gave his life to save you...if you don’t move you will die too! Come back! You can’t let his sacrifice go to waste..."
Her hands seized his collar, yanking hard, but he shoved her off with a wild, grief-stricken strength she hadn’t seen in him till then.
"No! Don’t touch me! He’s my Orion Dada...I can not leave him..." Jasper collapsed against the wolf’s bloody fur, hugging the lifeless body as though his little arms could hold him here. "Please, please, don’t go... I will be good, I promise, I will listen to everything you say...I swear...Just stay... please...this is my fault...it’s all my fault..."
His tiny body shook with every sob, shoulders heaving, his face buried in blood and fur.
Freya looked around helpless...her golden eyes burning as her own tears fell.
She didn’t know what to do...how to comfort the little boy sobbing in front of her...her chest hurt so much it felt like it would rip apart.
Slowly, she knelt beside him, her claws trembling, and wrapped her arms around him from behind.
"Jasper... Jasper...it’s not your fault..." Her voice broke, too fragile to finish. She pressed her forehead to his shaking back. "I am here. I won’t let go of you.Please don’t cry...you are making me sad too..."
He turned, his tear-streaked face crushed with grief, eyes wild and desperate.
Freya hugged him tighter, tears streaming freely now.
The shadows shifted.
A low chuckle slipped from Roanoke’s many mouths, curling like poison smoke. He loomed above them, his form swelling, his tendrils stretching wider, hungering for their fragile bodies.
"Ahhh... lambs that cuddle at the slaughter.This is the end..." His whisper slithered across their skin like ice. " Perish...so I can rise with your strength...."
The air grew heavier.
Immense dark energy coiled, twin spears of shadow snapping back, poised to strike.
Freya felt it before she saw it. Her arms wrapped tighter around Jasper. She squeezed her eyes shut.
"Hold me...don’t look...," she whispered.
Jasper sobbed, but his little arms lifted, locking around her shoulders. He clung to her desperately, burying his face in her neck.
"I am scared, Freya..."
"I know." She pressed her forehead against his, her little body trembling. "Me too."
The shadows shrieked, stretching forward...the children held each other tight... bracing for the impact...
The shadows shrieked forward but then...
"Shhhrrkkk!"
A sickening rip tore through the silence like a jagged knife.
Roanoke’s entire body jolted forward.
The writhing tendrils froze mid strike, quivering violently as if something had ripped their strings.
His monstrous bulk twisted in stuttering jerks.
Jasper looked up first...his cheek still pressed to Freya’s trembling shoulder...
Freya’s golden eyes cracked open, her breath catching. "What... what happened??"
Roanoke’s endless mouths gaped and hissed in pain as his head turned slowly as well... creaking, dragging, like stone grinding against stone.
His chest heaved, shadows writhing around the wound...
Lyla stood behind the beast, drenched in her own blood.
Her face was ashen, lips trembling, tears streaking through the dirt on her cheeks. Her body shook violently...every nerve screamed in agony.
Both of her hands were buried deep inside Roanoke’s shadowy body, pushing the weapon further...and further inside...
Her fingers, slick with red, had torn open her own flesh...split open her own ribcage...
Cartilage snapped...her sternum cracked wide as she did pry her own bones apart only to rip out the ultimate weapon against her vicious father. One of her own True Ribs.
She had ripped through herself...knuckles shredded, her entire form bleeding and trembling...
Her chest heaved around the gaping cavity. Blood poured down in thick ropes, soaking her dress.
And that rib still dug deeper into Roanoke’s chest.
It’s pointed tip had punched through his writhing heart, black ichor gushing, steaming, splattering across Lyla’s face and arms...
She staggered, coughing blood, but her arms never wavered. She pushed harder, her scream tore from the depths of her being...half agony, half defiance... remorse and hatred pouring in plenty...
"DIEEE...."
The monster shuddered. All his mouths opened in one ghastly, soundless howl as if the world itself recoiled.
The children could not move. Jasper’s eyes bulged, his sob strangled in his throat.
Freya’s claws dug into his back as she stared, her own tears forgotten, replaced with sheer horror at the sight of her ’mother’ tearing herself apart to strike the beast...
Blood ran down Lyla’s lips. Her knees trembled. She sagged, her arms still lodged in the monster’s chest, bone piercing black flesh to its root.
Her gaze lifted to the kids once, faint and flickering, like the last flame of a candle. Her lips quivered, shaping words through the blood.
" Kids...you are safe now...It’s over..." Her eyes found Freya’s. " My brave girl, look after your little sister... "