CHAPTER 370: YOU’VE BEEN PLAYED-II

Alice had never been a friend, never an ally, only a snake, her eyes glazed with envy and greed, ready to swallow friend and foe alike if it brought her closer to power.

Circe had long since put Rafael to death. And Alice?

Her punishment had been years in the making, sown by Circe’s own hand, though even Circe herself had not realized it. Now came the day she would watch the serpent finally crumble.

Through Noah’s body, Circe bore witness as Cassius wielded her power, the very force that had once shaken the foundations of Versailles. He cast it upon Alice’s monstrous form. She turned to flee, but found herself bound, her swollen body unable to escape the crushing weight of that unleashed destruction.

For one fleeting instant, Alice’s scream split the air. Then the world went white as the sphere of annihilation struck her face.

Struggling to hold herself together, Alice forced scales to crawl across her head, layer upon layer, sacrificing the rest of her defenses just to shield her face.

She couldn’t believe it. She wouldn’t believe it. How could she, Alice, chosen vessel of one of the Seventeen, lose to a nameless wretch of a vampire?

This bastard was nothing compared to her. Nothing! She had devoured her demon’s power whole, had let it consume her body and soul until she stood above mortals and monsters alike. Her scales were unbreakable, forged from infernal might itself.

It shouldn’t be possible.

And then—

Crack.

Her green, slit pupiled eyes widened as she saw it: the scales splintering, fracturing like brittle glass.

Impossible. Unthinkable. A power like hers could only be broken by one greater, one of the Five. The demons of highest regard.

For the first time, terror flooded her chest. If Cassius’s strength truly belonged to one of them... then she was never fighting a bastard at all.

But that wasn’t possible. It couldn’t be possible!

And yet, her shield was already falling apart.

Alice had found out everything on how Cassius managed to get that power and it’s said that he had dueled with a demon to get the power. A normal human couldn’t achieve that feat and even a pureblood vampire won’t allow a person to get the upper hand on killing a demon who was a million time stronger than them.

Yet Cassius had managed to win the duel which had made Alice to think that the demon he had killed was just another nameless and unknown demon, even further beneath the hundredth rank.

But how. How could a pureblood goes against the five ranking demons?

How...

As the power began to sizzle to her face, Alice let out a far piercing hiss, her head moving left and right in fear to dodge the deadly attack to no avail.

But what she didn’t realize was that Arabella had been standing just beyond the edge of the chaos.

The light was blinding, searing her vision until tears welled at the corners of her eyes. Still, she refused to falter. With trembling hands raised to shield her face, she whispered the incantation Circe had taught her, voice raw but unyielding.

The moment the last of their defenses shattered, the spell burst free. From Arabella’s palms surged a beam of radiant power, cutting through the suffocating brilliance.

Alice’s eyes widened. In the span of a breath, her world twisted, her head rolling away from her serpentine body. She caught a glimpse of her own tail just before the thud of her lifeless form echoed like a closing curse.

The battlefield fell into stunned silence.

Cassius staggered, breath ragged, his chest heaving as he stared at the slain creature. His sword flickered, fading from his grasp as if even the steel had reached its limit.

Without hesitation, he flew to Arabella’s side. She caught him, her arms bracing his weight, her face carved with worry.

"You’re far too pale," Arabella whispered, brushing a hand across his cheek. "Are you—"

"I only used more strength than I intended," Cassius cut her off with forced nonchalance. Yet his voice carried the exhaustion he tried so hard to hide. His gaze lingered on his vanishing blade, an unspoken admission of his current limits. "What about you?" He was about to inspect her from head to toes when something caught his eyes.

Then his eyes shifted, sharp as a predator’s, but not at her. They tracked Noah.

The boy staggered forward, every step dragging his body closer to collapse, yet his lips were split wide in a triumphant grin. He reached for Alice’s severed head, his breath coming in short, ragged bursts.

Around them, the onlookers had yet to erupt into cheers, caught in the spell of silence. But Noah’s smile, hungry and almost delirious, said everything. The glory was his to claim.

"You," Noah smiled faintly, though his voice carried a weary tremor, "are always so empty, Alice. No matter what power you steal, no matter how many people you crush beneath your feet, you can never fill that hollow pit inside your heart. You’re insatiable. Always envious, always clawing, never satisfied. You thought you could devour the world, yet look at you now."

He let out a breathless laugh, his chest rising and falling as exhaustion tugged at him. "Devoured by your own pride. What a pitiful ending."

Alice’s slit eyes darted frantically from side to side, hatred burning in their glow, but her broken body betrayed her. She could not move, could not even snarl.

Noah crouched closer, his expression softening into something almost mournful. "Do you know why you never felt enough, despite holding everything in your hands? Because you hated yourself too much to see your own worth. And when you can’t stand yourself... the world will always seem brighter in comparison. Everyone will always look like they shine more than you."

His voice lowered, a whisper that cut deeper than a blade. "Maybe if you had learned to love yourself, just a little, you wouldn’t have ended so empty."