The bewilderment Phantom held in his eyes as they roamed on her body revealed that he was stunned at something. Aselia stole a look at herself and all the inkiness was gone. Guswikle gasped seeing how the serum didn’t work on her.

The serum had failed to transform her and that bafflement in Phantom’s gaze changed into madness. His facial muscles tightened and went rigid and he visibly grimaced while grinding his teeth.

He grabbed her hair and yanked her up into a standing position. Aselia flinched from the pain. She was still trying to figure out the weird dream she just had.

"What are you?" He hissed, his nostrils flared and his cheeks turning upwards in annoyance. Every plan of his was failing. She was testing the patience he didn’t even possess and although he wanted to break Xiran down by torturing her in front of him, he could sense all his plans were backfiring.

"Your death," she hissed back at him with triumphant eyes. Xiran stopped struggling for a second. Knowing his father would hate her retorts. He was astonished to see how all the blackened veins were nowhere to be seen.

Phantom was infuriated at her answer. There was only one way left to break both of them down.

"We will see about that," he wanted to rip her clothes apart and humiliate her in front of Xiran as he had done to countless elves. Yet, his hands wouldn’t move as he stared into her defiant eyes. And there was the moment he knew he was screwed. He could only tug at her hair.

"Stop hurting her. Don’t you have a shard of mercy in your heart? What have we ever done to you? Except to seek peace in this forsaken world, the world you have created. You couldn’t even love your wife and child," Xiran yelled, trying to turn his attention towards him.

"Mercy? That word is alien to me. I never had it, how will I give it?" He turned towards his son while pushing Aselia forward so she stood in front of him and faced Xiran. Her face and neck had so many injuries, it was breaking him and he could sense his blood surging faster and faster in his veins.

"Release her and I will do everything you will ask. I won’t complain," he almost begged his father, he could no longer see the torture the very inflicting on her and he knew this will not end there. Aselia held a stoic expression, she didn’t seem afraid or scared. Phantom ignored his son’s pleas. He didn’t want to admit that it had begun to affect him.

"Call my son," he ordered Guwiskle, who was still standing in the corner, dumbfounded. He shuffled and hurried out the door.

"Father, please!"

"Stop begging him, Xiran. Let him do what he wants. I am itching to see how low he can fall," Aselia’s voice came out low and bizarre. Any fear she had for him in her heart had evaporated like water drops under the scorching sun, after talking to Hildara. She knew pleading with him wouldn’t work.

A sense of calmness had settled in Aselia’s eyes and her demeanour and it was unsettling Phantom. He had begun to understand that she would never submit to him, even death didn’t scare her. Everything he had done to her she never begged him for mercy.

Phantom’s fangs elongated and tilting her head he buried them in her injured neck. She simply closed her eyes and let the pain envelop her.

"Aselia," Xiran affectionately called out to her rattling the chains, his eyes breathing fire at his father. He ferociously bit her and the white shirt she adorned was crimsoned with her blood.

The door opened and Xifin entered with a smirk. Sensing him, Phantom stopped and taking his canines out, pushed her towards his son.

"She is all yours, have your way with her," his words stung Xiran like a thousand bees. His whole body convulsed and something suppressed deep inside him stirred. He could sense his body temperature rising and a whole lot of sweat broke out.

Xifin caught her with a malevolent gleam that spoke of his twisted mind. Phantom left the room without turning in anyone’s direction. The pleasure he thought he would attain from such command was missing.

Aselia simply watched Xifin with a nauseated gaze, she hadn’t expected anything else from these fiends. She was surprised that they had lasted this long without trying to violate her. Treia had already done it to Xiran, it was only a matter of time before they did it to her.

They were going to drive Xiran insane, she could feel his emotions through the bond.

Abhorrence

Revulsion

Fear

Helplessness

Anger

Fury

She could feel it all, she didn’t even want to look at him, it would break them both.

"Xifin if you dare even touch her that way, I swear I will forget you are my brother. I have always respected Sohlia, I never laid a hand on her even after everything you and she did. Let my Leia go and walk away from this," Xiran’s laboured voice came. He was struggling to breathe and sweat covered his entire body.

"You have already forgotten I am your brother, you chose her over us. And I always wanted to fuck an elf and feed on her at the time and she is delicious," Xifin tore open Aselia’s bloodied shirt as she fought against his grasp. Repugnance shot through her making her skin crawl at his touch.

The urge to break his hands which touched her was overwhelming as he licked her bleeding wound with his coarse tongue travelling from her neck down to her collarbone and the swell of her bikini-clad breasts.

His hand cupped against it and tears of mortification flowed down her cheeks as she closed her eyes and squirmed against him. Her silent cries were heard by her love.

An indomitable force surged to life within Xiran, awakening with an unimaginable ferocity as he beheld the unfolding scene before him. Like a torrent of liquid silver, it surged and slithered, tracing intricate patterns along the right side of his torso. Its ethereal tendrils extended further, engulfing his chest, neck, and finally, his right arm, transforming his once-flawless skin into a canvas of meticulous inked designs.

The power coursing through his veins grew to such a magnitude that it threatened to consume him entirely, like a vessel about to rupture under its weight. He tugged at the silver chains holding him and they broke like flimsy threads and he was free.

His eyes shimmered with an otherworldly luminescence, captivating and entrancing, like two silver gems as he stared at the man he called brother.

This was too much, the last flickers of hope he carried for his brother to choose the right side, dimmed and vanished with what he was doing. For Xiran, his brother was dead.

With a grand flourish, his magnificent wings unfolded, stretching outwards in all their splendour. Along the ridges, a mesmerizing silver lining shimmered, as if infused with an ethereal radiance. They extended gracefully, seeming to expand in size, casting an imposing presence that dominated the space around him.

In an outburst of primal fury, a blood-curdling shout erupted from his lips, echoing with an unsettling intensity. The sound pierced the air, carrying with it an undeniable sense of menace and impending doom. Without hesitation, driven by a consuming rage, Xiran lunged forward. His target was his very own brother, and it became clear that no obstacle would deter him from exacting his vengeance.

Xifin’s eyes darted towards him and widened as Xiran grabbed him by his neck and yanked him away from Aselia, who crumbled to the ground and scurried away from the raging storm that Xiran had brought. Trying to cover herself with her arms.

Xiran banged him on the ground with such ferociousness that the ground cracked making a massive hole. His merciless fists launched at Xifin’s face for all Xiran could see was red. Xifin whimpered and spluttered out blood.

"Please! I am your brother," he began begging as Xiran plummeted on him.

"I warned you, I requested you but you dug up your own grave. You should never have touched what’s mine, you died the moment you did. Brothers don’t do that," Xiran snarled at him, his eyes glowing like sparkling stars in a distant galaxy as his hand shot towards Xifin’s chest and without any remorse passing over his face, he ripped his brother’s heart out.

A silent cry was carved on Xifin’s face as his lifeless eyes stared up at the ceiling, never to blink again, never to hurt an innocent soul again, Xiran ensured that. He slowly stood up and held his brother’s bloody heart in his hand and with a shake of his head he threw it on his mangled body and stepped back.

His eyes roamed the room and landed on her, she was sitting in a corner with her legs raised, her soft sobs and beating heart was all he could hear and in a split second, he was kneeling beside her.

"Leia! He is dead, he will never hurt you again," he calmly whispered. His eyes instantly softened along with his voice.

(Picture of Xiran’s new form for reference is attached, hopefully, you people will like it.)