As Veravos inched closer to the guards, I murmured under my breath, "Yes… destroy their hearts."
Veravos didn't hesitate. He surged higher into the air like a phantom risen from the deepest abyss, dark wings cloaked in shadow. His ascent warped the air, bending the sky to his will. Tendrils of darkness slithered beneath him—alive, purposeful. They writhed across the battlefield, lashing out like serpents and dragging the Love Fairy Guards into the soil as though the earth itself had finally grown tired of their arrogance. They disappeared screaming—nothing more than dust returning to dust.
And just like the lores warned… Veravos was real. And he was everything they feared.
An arrow—sleek, silver, fast—cut through the air, aimed at his chest.
But my hand moved before thought could catch up. Pure instinct. My fingers flared open, and mist—scarlet and seething—erupted from my palm, shattering the arrow mid-air like brittle glass.
I gasped. Not from the danger—but from relief.
Yes.
My powers were working again.
Veravos had bought me time. Time to breathe. Time to burn. Time to remember that I wasn't helpless.
I would not let him think I was just some fragile flower waiting to be saved.
No. I am so much more.
The mist obeyed my call. Scarlet orbs pulsed in my hands like molten hearts. They spun into a perfect triangle—sharp, balanced—then morphed, warping into a spinning pentagon. Red mist clung to its edges, thick and alive, pulsing like a heartbeat just beneath the surface.
My kind of magic.
And it danced with his.
In the sky, Veravos paused—his gaze flicked to me. And there it was. Shock.
Yes. Let him see. Let him see what I've become. Let him understand that I'm not someone to be trifled with. I am not disposable.
I had to be useful. Powerful.
If I wanted to matter enough to him.
"Stop her!" one of the guards shrieked, his arms clawing at the writhing earth that clutched his legs.
"What magic is this?!" an elder bellowed from the distant gates of the Kingdom, his voice cracking with fear.
I didn't care how long he'd been standing there. Didn't care how he got there.
My answer would be the same.
"My kind of magic," I said, my voice slow—calculated, sharp as a dagger drawn from silk.
And I smiled. A smile that shimmered with something twisted and radiant—a little too wide, a little too proud, a spark of madness dancing behind my eyes.
"I call it a Love Pentagon."
Then I let it explode.
The pentagon pulsed once—then surged outward. Not fire. Not ice. Not brute force.
Something worse. Something deeper.
It wasn't meant to break bodies.
It was meant to break hearts.
The wave sank into minds like needles under skin—quiet, sharp, invisible. The remaining guards' faces twisted as the spell coiled into their thoughts.
Suddenly, they turned on one another. Fighting. Sobbing. Clinging. Laughing hysterically.
One screamed a confession. Another knelt and begged forgiveness. Two clashed, overcome by jealousy. Another shouted a lover's name as if it could save them.
Chaos bloomed in the cracks of their discipline.
And Veravos?
He watched.
His own spell, half-cast, dissolved into nothing.
His lips parted—not to speak, but in silent awe.
He didn't interfere.
He didn't need to.
I needed him to save his strength.
Because I knew this wasn't over.
Not yet.
The few surviving guards—those who still had enough sense to run—fled toward the Kingdom.
"We need backup!" they howled, their cries swallowed by the mist curling across the battlefield.
Veravos descended—calm, elegant, deadly. His cloak billowed behind him like smoke trailing from a wildfire. He landed softly, as if the ground chose not to resist his touch.
He looked at me with eyes like ink and steel—intense, unreadable.
And he pulled out the silver contract once more, its glow colder than before.
"I've proven my worth now, Love Fairy," he said, his voice curling with smugness. "Your move. What will it be?"
Of course he'd be arrogant. He was Veravos.
But I wasn't just a wilting Love Fairy anymore.
I had faced his challenge.
I had thrived in it.
Still… he had earned it.
His dark magic had amplified mine. He moved like a shadow behind my flame, dangerous and effortless.
The kind of partner one doesn't reject lightly.
I took the contract.
And signed it.
The ink shimmered as I wrote—binding, old, and absolute. A silent knot forming between us.
The deal was made.
"Scarlet?" He read out my signature, almost unsure.
"It's Scarlette…" I corrected him, my voice waning as he smirked.
Then the world tilted.
Pain stabbed behind my eyes. The fight. The spell. The truth.
It all rushed in like water into sinking lungs.
My hand trembled. The emerald slipped from my fingers.
Clink.
It hit the stone—soft, cruel, final.
Then everything went black.