A Wolf's Howl, A Fairy's Wing

Erik listened to Liam's words patiently as he looked at the man with amusement. Exactly what use did this man think he had for the wealth and power of a weakling?

So he shrugged, "No deal."

Before Liam could say anything else, Erik grabbed his neck and tossed him down the stairs into the cellar.

The cold, dimly lit basement, which used to be a wine cellar, echoed with the thuds and screams of Liam rolling down the concrete steps until he hit the floor, where he continued to lay groaning.

Erik was grinning at the top of the stairs before stepping to the side, allowing Emily to descend into the basement.

With a heavy thud, Erik closed the door behind the corrupted, doll-eyed girl before Elora suddenly appeared from a cloud of light specks leaving Erik's body and immediately began drawing a sigil on the basement door.

Unable to contain her curiosity any longer, Emma hesitated for a moment longer before finally asking, "Sir, what's the plan exactly?"

Erik turned his gaze towards Emma as an approving smile appeared on his face. Happy she was taking some initiative, he unravelled the strategy to cleanse Emily's corruption. "Once Elora finished sealing the door, she'll release control of Emily.

At that point, Emily will be confused, her memory of the last two days gone, despite finding herself back where Elora first sealed her mind."

He continued, "However, that won't matter much. When Emily lays eyes on Liam and realises she's alone with him, her corrupted mind will focus solely on Liam. The man responsible for all her troubles since the awakening.

She'll be consumed by the desire to make him pay.

While she vents her rage on Liam, the grip of the dark corruption will start to loosen. After all, the hatred and fear she harbours for him are the very foundations upon which the corruption has distorted her positive emotions."

Erik explained further, "Ordinarily, this wouldn't be enough since there are always new fears and hatreds for such corruption to attach itself to. But with your light affinity, Emma, we can cleanse the corruption before it finds another foothold.

You won't need to do much, however, as Elora will be the one doing the cleansing through her connection with Emily. You only need to provide her the light-attributed energy."

During his explanation, Elora had finished applying the sigil that would keep Emily locked up until the process was done.

Sounds still came through from the other side, however, as Liam could be heard yelling at them to let him go and threatening to hurt Emily, who appeared like she wouldn't fight back. At the same time, his intermittent groans of pain echoed off the cold walls.

Then, Elora gained a malicious grin, "It's time," she said.

Inside the basement, Emily's eyes started regaining their liveliness after two days of empty existence, as her previously slack body stance turned back to one of paranoia and hatred, ready to fight or flight at a moment's notice.

Her corrupted red eyes blinked and flickered with awareness as she scanned her surroundings. Confusion clouded her expression briefly, but as her gaze fell upon Liam, who was just preparing to attack her, a sinister smile crept across her face.

The hatred and paranoia within her had already begun to take control.

On the other side of the door, Elora, in her small fairy form, put her tiny hands on the door and closed her eyes in concentration before she said, "Get ready to channel your energy, Emma."

A little confused about what she was supposed to do exactly, she turned to Erik with anxiety on her face.

He explained, "Just hold your hands on either side of Elora and channel energy from your aetherium storage through the light affinity in your magic core and then to your hands, just like I taught you earlier."

Emma was nervous, clearly not wanting to mess anything up. Still, she did as Erik said, and soon, a light bubble formed between Emma's hands and around Elora's body. Next, a small magic circle appeared where Elora was touching the door.

Meanwhile, inside the basement, an Emily driven by dark emotions, prepared to launch a frenzied assault on Liam as her inner rage and sadism found the perfect outlet.

Using tendrils of darkness to suspend a now fearfully screaming and wailing Liam in the air, she began forming various sizes of pitch-black floating bubbles.

Despite still being confused about how she got into this situation, Emily didn't care as she looked at the now-suspended Liam with an undisguised desire for violence and began cackling.

At the same time, a sinister smile appeared on her face. A smile that grew more distorted with every word that followed,

"Oh, Liam, Liam, Liam. I don't know how we got into this situation, but, well, how did you put it so eloquently seven years ago? I don't know what god or coincidence or whatever gave me this opportunity, but I'll kiss their feet in thanks? I think I finally understand the sentiment."

Liam screamed when he saw the black orbs floating around him and remembered the pain from his flesh melting seven years ago, "Wait, wait! We can talk about this, Emily! I know I was wrong, but your parents and I were friends!

Does that count for nothing anymore?! At least give me a quick death!"

At this point, his fear of Emily's darkness made him prefer death over anything Emily had planned.

Unfortunately, his words only angered Emily more as she screeched, "You dare speak about my parents, you putrid stain on existence?!"

Immediately afterwards, the first black orb approached Liam and started covering his entire body, but while Liam did scream, it seemed more fear than pain as the darkness didn't appear to hurt him.

However, This didn't surprise Emily as her distorted grin remained, "My control has gotten much better than before, little stain. My darkness will only devour what I wish it to."

She then waved her hand, and all the darkness on Liam's body began to move towards his hips while removing any and all clothing and hair it came across without harming the man himself.

Emily also noticed the magic circle on Liam's chest and the heavy scarring from where her darkness hit him seven years ago. However, she ignored them both, as she had other things on her mind.

When everything had gathered around Liam's crotch, Emily's smile grew possibly even more sinister as she balled her fist, "Let's finish what I started back then, shall we?"

Liam began to scream again, but this time, it truly was from pain as the darkness began to, ever so slowly, consume his genitals.

At the same time, inside Emily's mostly black soul, tiny strands of darkness began to be released. They started floating around with nothing to hold on to anymore.

Yet, immediately afterwards, a bright white light entered the soul and burned the strand of darkness into nothingness.

Emily noticed nothing of this as she continued to indulge in the sadistic pleasure of finally being able to unleash her wrath on the one that had haunted her for so long, even while the darkness that bound her mind began to wane.

Back on the other side of the door, the people gathered there began to hear the sounds of Liam's desperate wailing and struggling. Still, no one batted an eye, not even the usually kind Emma, as she had only one thing on her mind right now: her sister.

While having no idea what was happening in that basement exactly, Erik saw Emma begin to strain a little and quickly put a hand on her shoulder to give her some encouragement and send his own pure aetherial energy into her body.

In this way, time began to pass quickly, as screams of agony echoed across the walls of the Ashcroft estate while Emily's corrupted soul struggled against Emma's purifying light, pulsing with the interplay of light and darkness.

The fate of the two sisters hung in the balance, and it took an hour before the screams finally started dying down.

At this point, Emma was only still standing by the grace of Erik's arm around her waist, as her head hung low, her entire body trembled with effort, and all she could do was continue to keep her hands up and flood Elora with any last shred of light-attributed aetherium she could find.

But, in the end, her efforts paid off as Elora removed her hands from the door and dispelled the magic sigil before saying, "You can stop now, Emma. It's done."

Hearing those words, Emma released a heavy sigh. She completely sagged into Erik's embrace, only barely holding on to her consciousness.

Elora turned around and smirked at the exhausted young woman, "I admit, you impress me more and more, girl." But that was all she said, as she once again disappeared into Erik's soul, her part in all this played.

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