265 CCLXV. The Black Veins

"Your brother is so stubborn... Despite all he had to go through, he has not yet realized that he will never get rid of them..." Roar whispered, with his deep, demonic voice.

"What are you talking about? Get rid of who?!" Gridd naively asked, her swords pointed at him.

"The Frostsinners are superior cosmic beings whose power goes beyond our comprehension. Their means are effective and perfect, we humans have two choices: surrender to their supremacy and accept the benefits or die without honor" continued the beast-man, whose wounds were beginning to heal.

"What is this monster blathering about? Why do we keep listening to him?! Let's kill him instantly!" Ellen exclaimed, after seeing Kjell on the ground unconscious, with his chains just a few feet from him.

"Killing me will do no good, they will always know your position... there is no corner of this planet where you can hide! That girl only makes the process easier... hahahah!" replied Roar.

"The girl... do you mean..." Gridd said in a low voice, in disbelief at what she had just heard.

...

As Dag and Karl looked closely at the wound, Freydis grabbed Dag's arm.

"What was that? I didn't touch you, did I hurt you?" he asked, trying to look her in the eye, without finding her gaze.

The hold on Dag's arm grew even stronger.

"Hey, what's going on?!" he continued, looking at the wound at the same time, which kept throbbing.

The blackish veins that started from the scar spread all over her neck, reaching her arms.

"Freydis, you're hurting me... what the fuck is wrong with you?!" he exclaimed, as Karl stared in disbelief at his sister, whose arm muscles looked harder and more resilient.

"Dag, Karl! Get away from her! Move, quickly!" shouted Gridd, waving her swords at them, trying to get noticed as soon as possible, after Roar's warning.

"What?!" said Dag, not understanding why his sister was so frightened by Freydis, who was suffering.

At last, she opened her eyes, slowly turning her gaze towards Dag.

They looked completely different: the pupils were narrower and a deep purple, while the sclera was no longer white, but black as charcoal.

"Freydis?! Sister, what's wrong?!" Karl exclaimed, who already knew the answer to his question inside him, but didn't want to realize what was going on.

Holding Dag's arm tight in her hand, without even getting up from the ground, Freydis threw him away, making him fly for several meters before ending up with his back on the ground, his eyes wide open in amazement.

"Oh, fuck..." he whispered to himself, after realizing that Roar was not lying and Freydis was involved in their evil plan to destroy the city.

The red-haired girl rose to her feet, with an expression that instilled fear and her body completely covered in blackish veins.

She looked at Karl and began to walk towards him, who walked back frightenedly.

"Hey, what are you doing? Freydis, it's me! I'm your brother!" he said, holding the shield, leaving the tomahawk in his belt.

Karl's arm touched the stone altar, which prevented him from continuing to retreat.

Dag got up from the ground and began to run towards them, screaming.

Meanwhile, Freydis grabbed his brother by the neck of the leather armor and lifted him off the ground.

Karl dropped the shield, not knowing how to react, and fearing that if he responded to the impending attack, he would damage his sister.

She lowered her arm and opened her hand.

The air around it began to twirl in a dark vortex, concentrating in the center of her palm and taking on a spherical shape, while her black and purple eyes pierced Karl's soul, which continued to tremble like a leaf, failing to react in any way.

Dag, despite running at great speed, knew that he would not be able to get there in time, because the dark energy sphere in Freydis's hand had already become quite large and continued to absorb more energy from the space around it.

At one point, before Karl was hit by that deadly attack, a shock wave repelled Freydis, who left his brother, causing him to slide back onto the rave of the crow and fall to the ground, over the temple stairs.

Karl turned to the source of that shock wave and to his astonishment noticed that Sivert was back on his feet, one hand clinging firmly to the stick and another pointed towards Freydis, while the arrow was still in his back.

"Get away... boy... I warned you... It's too late now..." the old man whispered, still sore from the blows he had received just before.

"No, no! Stop it! She's my sister, we have to bring her back!" yelled Karl, towards the man who had just saved his life, but also stabbed a dagger in his arm.

Without even resting her hands on the ground, Freydis stood up, levitating as if she was a specter and falling back on her feet, which touched the ground gently.

Dag slowed his advance towards her, stopping about two meters away.

"Freydis..." he whispered, as tears of pain came down his face, looking at what his woman was turning into and failing to figure out how to stop the process.

At the same time, Roar, who was still kneeling while waiting for his injuries to heal completely, was hit hard in the head and put his arm on the ground to avoid falling.

He tried to turn his head backward, but another violent blow hit him on the temple, destabilizing his balance.

"What did you do? What did you do to that poor girl?! Make her come back to the way she was before, otherwise, I swear I'm going to rip you apart like a young goat!" Ellen yelled, with the head of her rod full of magenta blood.

"Haha...*cough*... hahah... she's gone by now, you can say goodbye to her... forever!" the goat demon whispered, coughing up blood on the ground, feeding the purple pool beneath him.