Sons of a devil-Chapter 88: blood ties and broken chains

Their father staggered.

"You're not meant to have that power," he hissed.

Selene stood her ground, even as her knees buckled. Cain caught her just in time.

"I wasn't meant for you," she said through gritted teeth.

Their father lifted both hands, summoning a storm of pure darkness—but Neriah stepped forward, glowing with celestial fire.

"That's enough," she said.

She looked at her children. "You do not need to fight him alone."

Her light met her husband's shadow mid-air—two worlds colliding, shaking the realm itself.

Behind the blast, Eira moved forward. Quietly. Silently.

"I remember you," she whispered. "I remember what you made me do."

She raised her blade.

But he was faster.

Shadow tendrils grabbed her, hoisting her into the air. "You were always the weakest."

Cain's scream echoed in the catacombs, raw and broken. "Let her go!"

Eren and Leo surged forward, but the shadows held them back.

Selene, her body trembling from overuse of power, stood anyway.

"I can't... let him hurt her again," she said.

She placed a hand on Cain's chest. "We do this together."

Their energies merged—fire, light, shadow, and storm.

A single pulse of combined magic.

The shadows snapped like twigs.

Eira fell.

Cain caught her.

Their father dropped to one knee, blood dripping from his mouth.

"You were never supposed to win," he rasped.

Cain stood, eyes glowing, as he helped Selene support Eira. "Then you never understood what family means."

Their father vanished in a burst of smoke—defeated, for now.

The catacombs went silent once more, lit only by the glow of the family standing together—bloodied, bruised, and finally free from their chains.

But in the distance, a new darkness stirred.

And it was watching.

The silence after their father's disappearance was deafening.

Cain stood in the center of the ruined catacombs, his arms still wrapped tightly around Eira, who trembled in his grasp—not from pain, but from the emotional collapse that came after surviving yet another brush with death. Selene clung to Cain's other side, her strength nearly gone, but her heart refusing to rest.

"Is he really gone?" Leo asked, eyes flicking through the shadows that still danced on the walls.

"No," Neriah said quietly, stepping toward them. "He's wounded. Not gone. Evil like his doesn't vanish so easily."

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Eren ran a hand through his blood-matted hair, his voice hoarse. "So we won... but only for now."

Cain gently lowered Eira to the ground. Her eyes fluttered open, red-rimmed from the tears she hadn't realized she'd cried. "I tried to kill you," she whispered. "All of you."

"But you didn't," Cain said softly. "You fought it. You found your way back."

She turned her face away. "He broke something in me."

"We all came back broken," Leo said, sitting beside her. "But now... we fix each other."

Selene sank to her knees, placing her hand over Eira's. "He might have used your hands, Eira. But your soul belongs to you. And you chose us."

Eira's lips quivered as the tears fell. Cain squeezed her shoulder.

The others gave them space.

A gentle wind moved through the catacombs, stirring the dust and quieting the tension.

Cain finally stood and reached down to help Selene up. "You're exhausted."

She nodded, her head resting briefly on his shoulder. "That power... I don't know what it is. It scares me."

"But it saved us," he said, his voice low and raw. "You saved us."

Their eyes met—tenderness blooming in the middle of their exhaustion. He brushed a strand of hair from her face, leaning in.

"You're not alone in this, Selene. Whatever this is, we'll figure it out."

She exhaled shakily. "I don't want to lose myself."

He cupped her cheek, forehead touching hers. "You won't. Not while I'm here."

They kissed—soft and slow. A promise, not a distraction.

Not far away, Neriah knelt beside her children, her expression one of both sorrow and relief. "I never thought I'd live to see you fight him. Let alone win."

Eren looked up at her. "It wasn't just us. You were part of that too."

She smiled through tears. "You've all grown so strong. Stronger than him. Stronger than me."

Leo smirked, though his voice cracked. "And way better looking."

Eira chuckled weakly, leaning against him. "Even after I tried to stab you?"

"Especially after," he said. "That's my type."

They laughed, even through the pain.

From a distant ledge, hidden in the shadows of the cavern's crumbled arch, a figure watched.

He was cloaked in the veil of dusk, a god of old—bruised but breathing.

Their father.

He touched his chest where their magic had struck him and smiled faintly.

"They're not ready," he murmured to the darkness beside him. "But they will be."

And behind him... something monstrous stirred.