(Mintaka)

(Violence ahead. Please read with precaution. Keep your mental health in check.)

I can’t believe what I am seeing. Not only have our powers but also Meissa’s powers have merged, creating this final barrier against our so-called mother.

A part of me aches, seeing how ugly she has turned out to be. Not physically but truly rotten from the inside. No one should have to see their mother in such a light.

She screams for her mate. He seems to be busy battling our forces outside.

She wails, her powers trying to break the barrier to hurt us or probably kill us. But Amaia stands firm. Her wings shoot out, carrying the parts of us. They flap with such force, dissipating the darkness like wisps of smoke evaporating into thin air. Our combined shield holds every wisp of darkness back.

Amaia swings her sword, holding it from the centre, creating this whirlwind of her combined infinities.

A swirling mass of fire and static black charge forms. Amaia hits my mother on her remaining arm, cutting it off and sending her sprawling to the ground.

Thud!

She confidently walks over, while we watch.

Putting her foot on her half-burnt face, Amaia presses it on the hard ground.

"As I said, I won’t let you hurt another innocent soul." She stomps on her face, making her body spasm and squeal in agony. "Since you love to silence the weak. I will be taking your tongue now."

The next thing I know Amaia has opened her mouth and wrenched her tongue out, throwing it on the ground, splattered in blood. Her foot repeatedly comes down on her face.

Meissa trembles beside me, and a sniffle escapes her. She wraps her arms around herself, trying to comfort herself.

This is not easy on any level.

I have to intervene, Amaia is surrounded by darkness and she will end up killing her.

"Amaia, let Saiph take over. We are done here." My arms go around her, pulling her back.

She listens, her body is shaking from the bouts of rage she is experiencing. Eyes blown wide.

"Make her feel the pain of every rape she carried out on Rigel. Every child she snatched from a mother’s arm. The pain of taking Alnilam’s wings. She should feel every ounce of ache and she shouldn’t die," Amaia screams in my arms as I hold her to my chest, trying to calm her down.

The barrier that had formed around us lifts at her words and slowly descends on my mother, like an outer cast of black frozen mass. Turning her into a statue with her face frozen in an eternal scream.

Saiph touches her temples, trapping her in nightmares, finally putting an end to her tyranny.

A silence falls. My mind goes numb. I thought I would be happy but this is morbid. Meissa’s knees give way and she stumbles to the ground. Alnilam catches her.

Rigel stares at her remains in disgust. Stepping forward he spits on her.

Alnitak is standing with his face set in stone and eyes shining with tears. We won against her and yet there is a sense of loss.

"Take them back to Orion and throw them in the dungeon," Amaia says to the sentinels, opening a portal.

They obey, dragging the remains of B-Twins and her back to Orion.

Amaia turns in my hold. "We need to free the prisoners and send them to Orion. Then return to the battlefield."

"I should take Meissa back. She is in no condition for more bloodshed," Alnilam wisely says. "Will check up on them too, ensure they are no more than statues."

Amaia nods at him and opens a portal to our palace.

Alnilam carries Meissa back and the portal closes behind them.

"I should check what’s happening outside and assist," Saiph says, placing his scythe on his thick shoulder.

"I will come with you," Alnitak offers. There is a heaviness around Alnitak, I can sense he is drowning from what we did.

"Rigel and I will go with Amaia and free all the prisoners from the dungeons." We decide and part our ways.

Two sentinels and vampires remain by our side as we begin our quest to clean up this palace from the wretched people that dwell here.

One of the guards, afraid of losing his life, takes us to the dungeons where faes and other innocent people are being kept as prisoners.

The filth and smell make me want to puke. How these innocent people have been living in these conditions.

The sights we find there and the horrors we witness leave me speechless. Not only adults but even children have been experimented on, turned into monsters, chained to dirty walls and floors.

"I am going to raise this place to the ground. Let’s get these people out of here first," Amaia declares with a sigh.

Hence we begin the extraction of every prisoner, every trapped soul, every child.

The happy cries, the prayers, the incredulous look in their eyes as we rescue them make my heart settle.

We did it. We rescued the people. We saved a race from complete annihilation and genocide. They rush to Amaia, hugging her, knowing she is the one who has come to their rescue. Anyone else who comes in Amaia’s way is obliterated.

I can sense her heightened emotions as she hugs her people. The tears that flow nonstop and the genuine love she has for her kind.

Once everyone has been gathered, Amaia opens a portal to Orion and people are ushered to safety along with the sentinels.

Vacating the dungeons, the castle, the torture rooms.

"It’s time to turn this place into dust," Amaia says. Her huge wings flap behind her like the masts of a ship. She takes flight, her destructive powers flow out of her in abundance, flattening every standing structure of Istrale that belongs to them.

The symbol of oppression and hatred is turned to dust in front of our very eyes.