Aeliana’s world had collapsed into pain, but this—this was worse.
The agony tearing through her body was unbearable, but the betrayal—the betrayal—that was what made her blood boil, what made her want to claw at him, to scream, to fight.
And still, Luca just watched.
Silent.
Unshaken.
Unmoved.
Her breath came in ragged, uneven gasps, the cursed veins in her arms pulsing as if alive. She forced herself to look up at him, her vision swimming, her hatred burning through the haze.
“You…” Her voice was hoarse, raw. Her fingers curled weakly against the ground, trembling with fury.
Her lips trembled, the words breaking between gasps of pain.
“You… bastard…”
Luca didn’t flinch. Didn’t react.
“You used me.”
Her body spasmed violently, but she forced herself up, even if it was just an inch. Even if every nerve in her body screamed for her to collapse.
“Was this always your plan?!” she choked out. “Was I just a tool to you?!”
Luca exhaled softly, tilting his head slightly, his expression unreadable.
And then, his lips parted.
“I indeed used you,” he said smoothly, without hesitation.
Aeliana’s breath hitched, her entire body shaking.
Luca crouched slightly, lowering himself just enough so that his gaze met hers. His dark, bottomless eyes reflected the firelight, but for some reason, she couldn’t see past them.
They shone, but the light wasn’t warm. It wasn’t soft. It was obscuring.
Blinding.
A cruel, celestial glow that made it impossible to see what lay beneath.
“And?” he murmured. “Can you do anything about it?”
Aeliana’s chest constricted, white-hot rage coiling through her even as her body betrayed her.
Luca’s smirk widened as he studied her—not with amusement, not with mockery, but with something far worse.
Indifference.
At least that was how she had seen in her mind, as that light obscured her vision completely.
She glared at him, her vision narrowing to a single point.
That was all she had left—the last bit of strength, the only thing she could still do.
And yet—
Luca chuckled softly.
“That is a fierce glare,” he mused. “Will that work, though?”
Aeliana gasped sharply as her body convulsed again, more of that dark blood spilling from her lips, staining the stone beneath her.
Her vision was flickering—collapsing—but she refused to break.
“Will that fierce gaze save you?”
She hated him.
She had never hated someone this much in her entire life.
“All the things…” she rasped, “all the things you said… about being different…”
Her body trembled violently, her fingers digging into the ground.
“They were just lies, weren’t they?”
Luca’s smirk widened.
But—
For just the briefest moment—
Aeliana saw it.
A faint twitch at the corner of his mouth.
A hesitation. Your journey continues with My Virtual Library Empire
Something almost… off.
She barely had time to register it before the fury consumed her again.
To her, it was nothing more than mockery.
Her nails scraped against the stone.
Luca’s voice dropped lower.
“What do you think?”
Something inside her snapped.
Her teeth clenched so hard it made an audible grinding sound.
And in that moment—
Hatred and rage were the only things keeping her alive.
Aeliana’s world shattered.
Everything—everything she had ever known—was breaking apart, just like the body she could no longer control.
The pain was unbearable, but the betrayal—the sheer, soul-crushing weight of it—was worse.
Her entire life, she had been cast aside.
She had been nothing but a burden.
Too weak. Too fragile. A nuisance to her father. A disgrace to her bloodline. The people around her had always worn masks—pretending, whispering, waiting for her to finally break.
She had never been wanted.
Never been chosen.
Never been anything.
And then he came along.
Luca. Lucavion. The man who had carried her through battle. The man who had smirked at her, challenged her, made her feel like she could stand beside him rather than constantly being dragged along.
She thought—
No.
She believed he was different.
But now?
Now, he was just like the rest of them.
No.
He was worse.
He had lied.
He had used her.
And he was watching her die without a second thought.
Something cracked inside her.
Her trembling lips curled back, her breath coming in short, ragged gasps.
And then—
“I hate you.”
Her voice was hoarse, but the words carried like a curse, laced with something raw and unforgivable.
Her fingers scraped against the stone, her body writhing, her vision swimming in and out of focus.
“I HATE YOU!”
The force of her scream ripped through her lungs, tore through her throat, so violent it felt as though it would burn her from the inside out.
But it wasn’t enough.
Not nearly enough.
“I WILL KILL YOU!” she shrieked, her voice breaking, her entire body convulsing violently. “I WILL BUTCHER YOU ALIVE!”
Luca remained still. Watching. Letting it happen.
His silence only made her rage burn hotter.
“DO YOU HEAR ME, YOU BASTARD?!” she screamed, her throat raw, her chest heaving as if the words themselves could rip free from her skin. “I WILL TEAR YOU APART PIECE BY PIECE!”
Her nails curled against the stone, digging in so hard they cracked, but she didn’t stop.
“I WILL RIP OUT YOUR HEART AND WATCH YOU BLEED!”
The cavern walls trembled with the sheer ferocity of her voice.
“I SWEAR TO THE GODS, TO THE HEAVENS, TO EVERYTHING THAT EXISTS, I WILL MAKE YOU SUFFER!”
And still—
Luca just stood there.
His expression unreadable.
His dark eyes glowing, obscuring.
Mocking.
Aeliana snapped completely.
“I HOPE YOU ROT, YOU MONSTER!” she screamed. “I HOPE YOU BURN IN A PIT SO DEEP EVEN HELL WOULD REJECT YOU!”
She spat at him, blood and fury mingling in her mouth.
“I HOPE YOU DIE ALONE—FORGOTTEN—JUST LIKE YOU DESERVE!”
Her voice was a broken thing, raw and vicious, but she did not stop.
She could not stop.
Every ounce of hatred, of grief, of pain she had ever held inside—she let it spill out, unchecked, like an endless, raging storm.
And Luca…
He only listened.
And that made it worse.
Aeliana wanted something out of him. A flicker of remorse, a sliver of regret—anything. She wanted to see him react, to see him hurt.
But he didn’t.
He just stood there. Silent. Detached. Unmoved.
And it drove her mad.
Her body trembled violently, but she kept screaming, kept spitting out every ounce of hatred she had buried inside her for years.
“IS THAT IT?!” she shrieked, her voice breaking. “YOU DON’T EVEN HAVE THE DECENCY TO DEFEND YOURSELF?!”
Luca’s expression remained unreadable.
“SAY SOMETHING!” she choked, her throat raw, her lungs burning. “SAY ANYTHING, YOU COWARD!”
Nothing.
Aeliana’s vision swam, fury and pain blurring everything together, but she didn’t stop.
“WAS IT FUN?! USING ME?!”
Her hands slammed against the cold stone, her nails cracking against the jagged surface.
“WAS I NOTHING MORE THAN A TOY FOR YOU TO THROW AWAY WHEN YOU WERE DONE?!”
Still—Luca didn’t answer.
Aeliana let out a ragged, gasping breath, hatred coiling around her like something alive, something monstrous.
She didn’t realize it at first.
But the air around her had begun to shift.
A faint glow flickered around her body, pulsing like an unsteady heartbeat. It was subtle at first, barely noticeable against the firelight.
And then—
SHRIEK!
A sound like tearing reality itself. A piercing, inhuman wail that sent vibrations through the air, rattling her skull, shaking the cavern walls.
The ground beneath them rumbled.
Aeliana froze. Her hatred still burned, her body still trembled, but something deeper stirred inside her—a primal, suffocating force pressing down from above.
Luca exhaled softly, as if bored, and raised his head.
“It appears that our talk is over.”
Aeliana’s breath hitched.
She followed his gaze, dragging her aching body to look upward—
And there, beyond the cavern ceiling, where the eerie, starless sky stretched out into an abyss—
A shadow.
Massive.
Moving.
Watching.
A shape too vast, too terrible to comprehend.
And then—
A single, monstrous tentacle came crashing down.