CHAPTER 358: WHICH IS REAL-II

Noah didn’t seem impressed by his words. He shifted his hand for the spear to plunge straight toward Alice’s neck but in a moment she managed to swat the spear away. They were all impressed, wondering how could such a normal hand would be able to go against a weapon only to find out that on Alice’s arms were scales.

Seeing this, Arabella frowned, taken aback even.

She recalled seeing this in the books, something about morphing... something about gaining a demon’s power to the point that their flesh slowly become one with the demon.

One of the demons in the book was known as a snake demon, Malphazor. In the book it says that Malphazor’s greed was to have a flesh of a beautiful maiden and in return for his power, he would slowly absorb the flesh of the beautiful maiden.

One of the patient written in Circe’s book even said to have scales covering all over her arms before dying as her entire body turn frozen in time covered with nothing but scales.

So Alice...

Was the next witch who had dipped her hand to work with the demon!

IIn the next heartbeat, Arabella finally understood what it meant to witness a witch’s battle.

Alice moved like a spider, unnaturally swift, darting between Circe’s strikes. She floated weightlessly, clinging to corners of the ceiling, and without hesitation seized an innocent bystander, yanking them forward as a living shield.

But Circe was no less merciless.

Even as Alice dragged the terrified vampire into her grasp, Circe’s hand swept downward. Five more crystalline spears erupted from the air and plummeted toward the shielded victim.

The vampire shrieked, certain death was seconds away.

And then, light flared. A barrier shimmered into existence around her, catching the spears in a burst of iridescence like fractured rainbows.

Arabella stood with both hands raised, power burning in her veins.

"Don’t drag the innocent into this!" she shouted, voice ringing over the chaos. With a sharp motion, she pulled the vampire free from Alice’s grip and sent her tumbling safely toward the crowd, where Helena caught and shielded her.

"This is your battle," Arabella said, eyes locked on Alice. "Don’t make the innocent pay for your war."

Noah didn’t flinch, didn’t even look and only harrumphed while Alice let out a louder laugh, "It is up to our will whether to attack your people or not."

Cassius scoffed at this, "Sounds like you wish for us to enter the brawl."

"So what?" Alice turned to him, smirking, "As if a half baked witch and a vampire would be able to add the slightest damage to me."

But Arabella didn’t immediately move, holding to Cassius’s hands.

It was their battle.

It wasn’t theirs.

But it was different for Atlas who had moved forward, standing in between Alice and Noah by shielding Noah’s body behind him.

At this, Noah seemed irked with annoyance.

He snapped, voice breaking with rage, "Move away! I’m not her!"

Atlas didn’t flinch. His eyes burned as he answered, steady and unyielding, as if this was his only chance and the thought of losing him yet again was far more terrifying than death.

"Once again you lie to me. Arabella told me everything. How you never loved Rafael, how you stayed only to protect me. You carried that alone, and you never said a word."

Noah’s crimson eyes flickered, anger, despair, the desperate need to flee. He looked like a man who would rather tear himself apart than let his truth be seen.

"I told you. I am not her," he hissed, the denial like a wound.

But Atlas only stepped closer, his voice shaking now with conviction."No... you are her."

It wasn’t logic, it wasn’t proof, it was deeper than that. Something in him, his soul, his very existence, recognized the person before him. No mask or body could disguise her.

His voice cracked as he whispered, "Circe..."

But before the name could fully leave his lips, Noah’s hand lashed out, shoving him violently aside.

And in that same heartbeat, an icicle ripped through the air, piercing Noah’s chest.

Falling down to the ground, Noah let out a groan while Atlas caught his body before a terrible fall.

And following the fall was a louder laughter coming from Alice.

"I don’t like it that you two forgot that I exists. This isn’t your time. It’s mine!"

The darkness that had once smothered the room receded, replaced by blinding light seeping from every corner. And with the light came hands, dozens of them, stretching hungrily toward Arabella, desperate to seize her.

Cassius’s grip shot out, yanking one of the figures from its hiding place. Arabella, already bracing her magic, raised an extra shield around Atlas. Friend or not, Circe could not be trusted, but Atlas was.

Then came the gasp.

A familiar voice, trembling.

"Bella."

The sound rooted Arabella in place. Her breath caught, her eyes snapping to Cassius—who had not pulled out a sorcerer at all, but Ariel.

Her sister.

"Stop!" Arabella’s cry tore from her throat as she saw Cassius’s hand tighten, ready to rip another intruding limb apart. "That’s my sister!"

Cassius faltered, brows furrowing, his sword pausing mid-motion. But behind Ariel, another pale hand reached forward. This one he did not spare. His blade cut through it mercilessly.

And then—

Out from the light stepped another figure. Same hair. Same eyes. Same trembling lips.

Another Ariel.

Blood still dripping from her torn wrists, yet walking as though pain could not touch her.

The Ariel Cassius had released smiled too wide, too sharp—then slashed a dagger across his throat. The blade barely kissed his skin before his hand clamped around her neck. With terrifying calm, he slammed her into the marble floor, the crack echoing like thunder.

Arabella gasped. "Cassius—!"

"It’s not her." His voice was flat, unshaken. His grip didn’t falter as the false Ariel’s skin began to bubble and drip away, her features collapsing into the ashen face of a man who grinned through the distortion.

A hiss of steel cut the moment. Alice stepped forward, the serpent dagger gleaming in her hand, the same one she had so mockingly pressed into Atlas’s palm before. She drove it against Arabella’s shield, the impact rattling through her bones.

"I forgot to mention..." Alice’s smile widened, her tone sing-song and cruel. "One of those hands belongs to your sister. She wants to see you so badly..." Her eyes gleamed with delight as she twisted the dagger harder against the barrier. "So do be careful, Bella. Wouldn’t it be tragic if you cut the wrong one?"