Chapter 3

2

The Ravager's power was terrifying, and Yara suggested we use a dual-seal spell.

It required perfect synchronization between two people.

But at the critical moment, Yara withdrew her power and left me alone in the kill zone.

I was trapped between the beast and the failing spell.

Yara stood outside the barrier, laughing as the beast tore into me.

I managed to sever one of the Ravager's wings and seal it back into the earth.

However, the cost was devastating.

My internal energy was depleted, my spirit was crushed, and my veins were shattered.

When I confronted Yara, she didn't even try to hide her malice.

"Did you really think I was here to help you? You're just a shield for me."

Her eyes burned with a pure, unadulterated hatred.

"You're just a lowly bastard. Why should you have more talent than me?"

"You don't deserve that face or that power. Everything you have belongs to me!"

She smiled a twisted, hideous smile as she drained what was left of my energy.

Then, she kicked my broken body off the cliff into the Abyss of Souls.

The Abyss was a place where light never touched the ground.

It was a wasteland of fog, monsters, and the bones of the forgotten.

"Go ahead and die, Finley. The Silver City belongs to me now!"

Yara purposely wounded herself and ran back to our father with a fabricated story.

She told him she had sealed the beast alone while I tried to sabotage her.

She claimed I tried to kill her to steal the glory, but she was too smart for me.

She said I fled in shame because I knew I would be punished.

She cried so convincingly that my father believed every word.

He comforted her and called me a heartless monster.

He rewarded Yara, calling her a once-in-a-thousand-years genius.

Meanwhile, he declared me a traitor and a disgrace to the pack.

He issued a death warrant, vowing to burn me at the stake.

But I wasn't dead; I was lying in the cold, dark depths of the Abyss.

I felt like giving up, but the thought of my mother and my pup kept me breathing.

Three hellhounds picked up my scent and began to circle me.

Their eyes were blood-red, and their breath smelled of rotting meat.

I prepared myself to become their dinner.