Mystic High ✓

MH │56

CHAPTER FIFTY-SIX

Uilliam tried to reason with the Morrigan and to find out more about what she wants. She was a powerful Celtic goddess, long imprisoned in another realm.

In Avestan, an old forgotten language, the Morrigan told him who she was. Who Maeve was ― who turned out to be a fraud and was actually Macha, the shapeshifting druid who had a penchant for wrecking havoc and creating diversions.

Macha and Medb are her dubailt, having willingly split herself into three parts so her enemies wouldn't imprison all of her. It turned out to be a smart idea because her legacy lived on. Medb became a great Irish queen, who had given up her immortality for power, and Macha lived on in an obscure existence.

At first, he too was struck by the similarities between her and Maeve O'Connacht, the woman who set him free. He almost would've thought she was Maeve if not for her heavily crooked smile and the exceedingly violent gaze in her eye.

He had no clue how she was able to establish a line of communication with this fool. She called him 'the Nameless One'. Perhaps he was nameless and would forever remain nameless. His body was now a heap of mess on the cold stone floor, never to rise again.

"As I said," he gritted out as he kept gathering a steady mass of shadow around him. "There is a reason why the god fire is borne and kept in a mortal vessel. It is to prevent chaos, to prevent an imbalance in the forces of the world."

"You are a fool, Ahriman," she replied in Avestan. "You have yet to learn from your mistakes millenia past. As the keeper of wisdom and knowledge, I expected more from you. Now, there is no longer a choice."

With a downward cast, she sighed and then, in lightning speed, raised her staff and shot a blast of energy at him with the weapon. The squawk of her crow was his only warning.

Uilliam countered the sharp bolt by gathering his shadows into a shield of darkness but his feet slid backwards, a testament to her power.

She was powerful indeed. All these years in her imprisonment, she must've had been gathering power. This was not power typical of the gods, no matter which pantheon. It looked like she wasn't even using her full strength, merely a fraction of it.

Uilliam couldn't even retaliate. As blast after blast of pure electricity shot at him from all sides, all he could do was keep his miasma from fully disintegrating under the onslaught. He thought about the god fire within Oriane...

Despite the wrongs committed to him by his Avestan brothers and sisters, he would continue to do the right thing. The god fire must remain within the chosen bearer, the one as designated by nature. There would be order in the world even if he used the last of his newly recovered strength. He could only imagine what this vengeful goddess would do with the god fire at her disposal.

He dug his heels into the ground, the force turning the stones into small pebbles gathering around his boots.

With all his might, he gathered the shadows that basked the chamber and, in one fell swoop, doused the Morrigan from above where she wasn't looking. The darkness that he controlled was not merely a shield for him, but it devoured energy. The Morrigan was sure pumped full of it. Whether they were naturally-given to her or not was another matter but the fact remains that as the darkness fed off her, her attacking power lessened, especially when she was attempting to raise her defenses.

Too arrogant, he mused. Much like how he was long ago. Yet, it wasn't without cause that she was confident.

There was an abrupt spike in her powers as she unleashed a flash of energy all around herself. The violet rays were almost blindingly white.