Chapter 53: Chapter Fifty-Three: Take it by force.
Cassian’s breath hitched as he stared at the relic before him.
It hovered slightly above the crystal-like orb swirling with veins of light and darkness at the same time. The ancient symbols pulsed faintly across its surface in a language older than the kingdom itself.
It was like the relic had come to life.
A rush of power seeped through the chamber almost becoming a palpable material. Cassian’s orange eyes reflected the light of the relic, gleaming with unseen hunger and greed.
"So this... is the power you all hid from me." his voice came out, low and raspy but dangerous enough to send a shiver crawling down Xypherion’s spine.
The old physician stumbled backward, his trembling hands clutching at his robe.
"My lord, you do not understand— the relic cannot be touched by rejected hands. It’s bound to the bloodline of—"
Cassian turned to him slowly, cutting off his words with a single glare.
"I am the bloodline," he said, his tone quiet but filled with rage. "And I am done being treated like an outcast."
The orb flickered in that moment as though it recognized him.
A sudden wind burst through the chamber, sending dust spiraling upward. The blue runes on the walls and pillars came alive, spinning faster until the entire chamber seemed to breathe. Cassian stepped closer, his long black coat whipping behind him like the wings of some shadowed creature.
"Don’t!" Xypherion croaked out, reaching a hand toward him. "If you touch it— it will devour your soul!"
Cassian turned his head slightly, the corner of his mouth twisting upward.
"Then I’ll make it choke."
He thrust his hand forward and gripped the relic.
A blinding surge of light exploded through the chamber, throwing Xypherion backward. His back hit the wall with a sickening crack and he went still. The air was filled with the sound of crackling energy from the runes and relic.
Cassian screamed as the power forcefully entered his body and the relic’s energy poured into him. His veins glowed through his skin, throbbing with red and black light. His coat tore from his shoulders as his muscles tightened and the veins on his neck bulged.
But his scream didn’t sound like he was in pain. It was ecstasy.
A black mist began to spill from his body, filling the room, crawling up the walls, devouring the air. Xypherion tried to stand but his knees buckled under the crushing pressure. He had seen many things in his years serving the crown, but never this.
Cassian’s voice turned guttural.
The ground trembled beneath him as the relic reflected into a thousand shards of dark energy that surged straight into his body. The physician looked on in horror. The relic has never reflected black in all his years in the palace. What did he expect? A rejected soul was handling the most powerful object ever known.
As the shards gathered themselves with speed into his body, Cassian howled once more before everywhere fell silent.
The light and dust settled soon after and Cassian stood in the center of the wreckage with his head bowed and his chest rising and falling slowly. Steam rolled off his shoulders. When he finally lifted his head, his mutated orange eyes had mutated again to a wicked shade of black.
He clenched his fist, and with it, the reflected shards from the relic rose from the ground and hovered around him like orbiting stars. Each one carried a fragment of power and all of it now belonged to him.
Cassian thrust his arm forward, forcing the shards to merge into his body. His skin darkened for a brief moment and scales glided over his forearm like black diamonds before vanishing again.
When the transformation ended, he exhaled slowly.
He felt alive. He felt limitless. Powerful.
Behind him, Xypherion dragged himself across the ground, coughing blood.
"My... my lord—"
Cassian, suspended in the air, turned to him, his eyes glowing in the faint light of the chamber.
"Do you believe in gods, Xypherion?"
The old man hesitated. "I... I serve them my—"
"Then watch closely," Cassian said, spreading his arms wide as dark energy curled around him like smoke. "Because from this day forward, the gods will serve me."
He snapped his fingers — and the chamber’s walls cracked.
The old pillars vibrated and dense chains, slithered up like serpents, wrapping themselves around the walls. The chains pulled at the walls, sending it crashing down on the ground.
Xypherion screamed as the ground gave way beneath him from the impact. The old man grabbed onto the edge of a broken slab that was attached to the side of the ground as he dangled above a chasm of darkness that had opened in front of the relic’s altar.
"Your Majesty— please!" he begged. "Don’t do this! You’ll regret th—"
Cassian looked down at him, his face cold. "I have nothing to regret."
He raised his foot and pressed it down on the old man’s hand. Xypherion struggled to hang on to the dangling slab but he quaked from the force exerted by his foot. And then he was gone, swallowed whole by the black abyss.
Cassian looked down into the darkness and grinned.
"Two down, one to go." he muttered wickedly to himself.
Isolde stumbled through the hallways, clutching at her blood-stained gown.
Bodies of guards and servants decorated the courtyard and the curtains were ripped from the walls. The smell of death was truly suffocating.
Her trembling fingers grasped the walls as she made her way toward the throne room. She met the doors wide opened, stepped inside and then she stopped.
A tremor ran through the castle floor.
From deep within the earth and a low, beastly growl resonated, shaking the chandeliers above her. She gasped and turned toward the direction of the secret chamber.
What was that? What has he done?
Before she could take another step, a violent wind burst down the hallway, throwing her off her feet. She screamed as an invisible force flung her against the wall. When she lifted her head, a shape emerged from the door behind the throne.
Cassian.
But this wasn’t Cassian anymore.
His eyes gleamed like burnt charcoal lifelessly sitting on his face. Power radiated off him in waves that bent the air around him so much, it was more suffocating than the death that surrounded her.
He tilted his head slightly at her with an amused smirk.
"Still alive?" he asked in a calm voice, though it carried enough weight to freeze her blood.
"Wh-what have you done?" Isolde stammered.
Cassian’s lips curled into a smirk. "I’ve done what no king before me dared to. I’ve taken what belongs to me."
"That relic was sealed by the ancestors!" she shouted, summoning the last of her courage. "It wasn’t meant to be touched by rejected hands!"
Cassian’s eyes darkened at her statement, his smirk vanishing. "Then perhaps the gods should have known better."
He moved toward her steadily as if he had all the time in the wall. Isolde backed up as he got closer until her back hit the wall.
Cassian stopped inches from her, leaning down until his breath brushed her cheek.
"Do you feel it, Isolde? The end of this kingdom?" he whispered. "It begins with me."
"You’ll destroy everything—"
"Then I’ll rebuild it in my image."
She slapped him hard across the face but before her hand even landed, he caught her wrist mid-air, gripping it tightly.
Cassian looked down at her hand and then at her face. "I should kill you right now..." he drawled, reaching out for her neck again. A wave of terror washed over her being and the memory of what he had done to her minutes ago, clouded her mind. She shrank back in horror, afraid of a redo.
He leaned closer, his lips brushing her ear. "Call me Your Majesty. And I just might spare you"
"Never."
Cassian’s grin returned, sharp and deadly. "Oh? I see you would love to meet Xypherion then." Before she could utter another word, Cassian had her neck in his palm again. With a dash, he reappeared in the secret chamber, floating in the air with Isolde dangling helplessly from his hand.
She looked down, only to find herself over a deep, dark abyss.
"Call me your majesty." Cassian said, slowly loosening his grip on her neck. Isolde kicked feebly in the air as she relived the same traumatic experience again.
"Well then. Enjoy your time down there, you’ll need it."
Cassian let go of her neck with disdain. An ear shattering scream echoes from her throat to the walls of the abyss as she fell deeper and deeper into it. She continued falling, screaming with each passing second until the ground finally appeared beneath her. He didn’t bother to look down. Instead, he silently floated away from the abyss, cackling crazily.
Cassian stepped out of the chamber as lightning cracked across the dark sky outside. The clouds were already heavy and ready to weep by the time he appeared out of the secret chamber. He took the hair of the king from the maze like image in his palms and conjured up black fire that consumed it in a second. The door to the chamber shut instantly, locking its prisoners at his mercy.
He rounded the throne and came right in front of it. Cassian climbed the dais slowly, each step seemed to hum with his newly acquired power. When he finally reached the throne, he ran a hand over its golden armrest, brushing away the invisible dried blood of his father.
"So this is what it feels like," he murmured as he rounded it, running his hands over the golden crest.
Then he sat down.
The black aura that surrounded him spread, seeping into the floor. The walls around him darkened, together with the gold.
Outside, the banners and flags that hung outside the kingdom thrashed wildly from the strong breeze before bursting into flame.
The thunder rolled across the heavens as if marking the beginning of a terror filled regime.
Cassian leaned back on the throne, one leg draped over the other.
His voice echoed across the room in a guttural growl.
"Let it be known," he said slowly, his voice dripping with
authority even though he was the only one there "...the age of kings has ended."
He paused, smiling faintly. "...and the reign of gods begins."