THE REAL PROTEGE

Pharsa's throat tightened. "I'm scared," she admitted. "Not just of Dale. Of... becoming something I don't recognize."

Ling Li reached out, placing one hand on Pharsa's chest, just above her heart.

"Then recognize yourself here. Not in the ritual. In the fight. In the choice."

The words settled deep into Pharsa's bones.

Moments later, Shinsei approached with Chatty in tow. The latter looked nervous but resolute, his ceremonial tunic fastened with trembling fingers.

Pharsa stood slowly, chest rising and falling as if trying to balance two worlds.

She met Shinsei's gaze.

"I'm ready. Not for what they want from me... but for what I want to deny them." Pharsa said.

The monk nodded solemnly. "Then let us begin."

==========

In a remote chamber carved into obsidian cliffs, Enchanted Dale sat within a pentagram laced with bone ash and red sap. His breath was slow, deliberate, as he reached into a brass urn beside him.

Inside, three bloodstones pulsed faintly —each linked to his targeted vessels.

Only two remained intact. The third, Pharsa's, had turned cloudy, faded, and sealed.

Enchanted Dale snarled.

"They cloaked her. Severed the thread!"

He pressed his palm into the ash and began to chant in a dead tongue that made the walls tremble. Around him, the spirits he had bound writhed violently. One snapped free, shrieking into the chamber and shattering the ceiling's protective sigils.

The ritual candle flickered. Then turned pitch black.

A mirrored basin beside him hissed as an illusion formed: Ling Li and Shinsei, mid-ritual, encircling Pharsa in elemental seals.

"You think this will protect her?" Enchanted Dale snarled. "I have walked beyond veils. I will not be denied."

He reached for a twisted dagger carved from firestone, dipped it into serpent venom, and sliced his palm. Blood fell into the basin, and the image distorted —shimmering violently.

"Tonight... let their ceremony be a beacon. If I cannot reach her spirit, I will burn through the flesh of those who shelter her!"

Outside, ravens scattered from the cliffs. The wind shifted unnaturally.

==========

And far away, Ling Li's spiritual wards flared —something was pressing against them, clawing like teeth into silk.

Shinsei paused mid-incantation, brows furrowed. He turned to Ling Li.

"He's coming through the *ether now. He knows."

Pharsa trembled. Chatty stepped closer, gripping her hand with solemn resolve.

"Let him try," Ling Li whispered, eyes gleaming with stormlight. "We'll carve his defiance into the stars."

Wedding Climax: Sacred Vows and Spiritual Bond

The ceremony had shifted into a realm beyond time.

Silken incense veils floated in the air like ancestral spirits. Pharsa stood beneath the celestial arch, her ceremonial robe layered in flowing silver and water-blue silk, embroidered with protective dragons and phoenixes.

Pharsa's eyes shimmered —not with fear now, but with conscious devotion. Chatty waited, his tunic midnight-dark, clasped with elemental sigils gifted by Shinsei himself. Though his fingers twitched slightly, his expression was open, reverent.

Shinsei stepped forward, drawing a sacred circle of powdered pearl around them.

"With this binding," he intoned, "you reclaim your essence. Not as sacrifice —but as sanctuary. The union must be more than flesh; it must awaken purpose."

As vows were spoken, the ritual flames flared with each syllable —Pharsa's words drawing heat from the air, and Chatty's grounding them in stone.

Then came the sealing kiss.

Chatty was grinning from ear to ear. He can't hide his excitement.

Pharsa "...."

It was hesitant at first —a brushing of lips trembling with mutual weight.

But the moment it happened, the elemental circle ignited in pale blue and ivory light, winding around their bodies like dancing ribbons. A low hum echoed from the heavens, as if approving the match.

They were led into the sanctuary chamber under a canopy of charms and river blossoms. The room was lit with moonstone lanterns, each casting soft light and protective warmth.

In their union, Pharsa felt her breath sync with Chatty's heartbeat. His fingertips trembled as they traced her cheek, her collarbone, her soul's edge. She closed her eyes —no longer hiding, no longer resisting. She let the energy bloom, wrapping around them like silk and storm.

Their joining was gentle, patient, sacred.

Pharsa's aura pulsed once —then sank deep beneath her skin, sealed not in secrecy, but in shared spiritual convergence.

Elemental winds rustled outside the chamber.

==========

But something darker stirred within them.

Dale's Breach: Assault on Li Estate

Miles away, the scrying mirror shattered. Enchanted Dale's scream cracked stone, and he stepped from his lair into the night with fury wrapped around him like fire.

"They've sealed her. I'll rip it open myself!"

Using a soul-bound amulet stolen from a fallen monk, Enchanted Dale tore a rift in the ether —a shortcut into forbidden sanctums. The air around him screamed, twisting in pain as he folded through shadows, bypassing wards not meant for his breed of magic.

.

.

.

Back at the Li estate, the protective talismans above the ceremonial hall burst into flames.

Shinsei, mid-chant beside the outer altar, froze.

"Something's ripping through."

A tremor shook the ground. Ling Li leapt to her feet just as fire cracked through the western wall —a spiraling eruption of dark wind and acidic energy. Servants screamed.

A protective dragon glyph shattered mid-air.

"He's here!" Mushu shouted, already forming shield sigils with his blood.

Enchanted Dale emerged from the flame, half-shrouded in smoke, his eyes glowing sickly green. His aura was distorted —powerful, rabid, unnatural.

"Give her to me," he roared, voice booming like collapsing temples.

Ling Li didn't answer. She blasted him with a gust of pure wind magic, forcing him back half a step. Shinsei dropped a containment seal —but Dale twisted it mid-air, sending it ricocheting into the roof beams.

Inside the chamber, Pharsa jolted upright. Her eyes flared.

Chatty clutched her hand. "Stay behind me."

But Pharsa rose, robe trailing with activated sigils. Her hair floated around her face, lifted by elemental force. Her skin glowed faintly — not with fear, but with AWAKENED LINEAGE.

"He wants power," she whispered. "He'll choke on mine." Pharsa snorted. A new, unfamiliar expression appeared on her face, catching Chatty off guard.

The chamber doors burst open.

"We fight as one." Pharsa declared as she met with Ling Li and Shinsei. Chatty followed closely behind.

Battle Unfolds: When Shadows Meet Light

Outside the ceremonial chamber, the sky fractured.

Storm clouds did not roll —they tore apart. Celestial wind howled as Enchanted Dale stepped through the breach he had carved in ether, his body trailing smoke laced with distorted runes. His eyes glowed like molten jade, and his aura —once serpentine— had twisted into something rabid, unstable. His skin cracked with energy, as if containing forces too great for flesh.

---------- Ether means The Stratosphere, the air, or the sky. ----------