CHAPTER 441: TO MAKE A DOLL-II

Faced with Morpheus’s own face, Arabella’s heart raced. Anger flashed in her eyes like a striking whip as she muttered a spell under her breath, the words hissing through her lips like fire. But before she could finish, Morpheus caught her wrist and leaned close— so close she could feel his cold breath brush her ear.

"Do you know," he whispered, his voice rich with mockery, "that your beloved vampire is about to die soon?"

The words struck her like a dagger. Her breath hitched— hesitation came quick, cruel, and absolute. The power that had been gathering in her veins stilled, the half-formed incantation unraveling into nothing but silence and shock.

"Arabella, move!" Cassius’s voice cut through the air, sharp as thunder. He seized her hand just as a violent tremor ripped through the castle.

The ground split beneath their feet, the walls groaning like a living beast. Dust rained from the ceiling, and the chandeliers swayed violently, their glass ornaments shattering against the marble floor.

But Cassius refused to fall. His grip around Arabella’s hand was iron, his stance unyielding— even as the world quaked, even as power crackled through the air like storm lightning.

Then he saw her face. How her pallor. The horror dawning in her eyes after she had heard what Morpheus had whispered to her ears.

"Arabella—"

"Move," she breathed, voice trembling. "Be careful!"

He barely had time to react when the air behind him split open. A wet, tearing sound filled the room— a grotesque symphony of bone cracking, flesh stretching, and sinew snapping. From the rift in the air, something stepped out.

The creature that emerged was vast— its head nearly scraping the high ceiling. Its skin was slick and pale, the sickly pink of a newborn creature, glistening as though perpetually wet. Veins pulsed visibly beneath the thin membrane, writhing like worms under its translucent flesh.

Its limbs were too long, jointed wrong, ending in clawed hands that dragged against the floor with a wet scrape. From its hunched spine jutted twisted horns, curling like blackened roots— and where its eyes should have been, there were hollow pits leaking trails of dark smoke.

Its mouth gaped wide, stretching from ear to ear, filled with rows of jagged teeth slick with drool. That grin— it wasn’t merely hungry; it was delighted. The kind of grin that belonged to a thing that knew the taste of fear and savored it.

The creature’s tongue slid out, tasting the air, and the stench that followed was that of a rotten body and sulfur —the scent of a thousand corpses left to dry beneath the sun, the type of scent so sharp and rotten that it would make anyone hurl in disgust.

It stared at Cassius and Arabella, and though it had no eyes, they could feel it seeing them.

Cassius didn’t let go of her hand, not even when the monster’s shadow loomed over him like a curse from the pit of Hell itself. The creature raised its weapon— a jagged machete, blackened and rusted as though it had been forged from the bones of the damned. Its blade dripped with molten darkness, and every breath it took came with the stench of brimstone and rot.

It lifted the machete high, aiming for Cassius’s neck— one clean strike that would have severed his head and painted the marble floor in red.

Arabella’s heart stopped. She knew this was exactly what Morpheus wanted.

To corner Cassius in that impossible moment— to make him choose between her life or his own. To watch him tear himself apart for her, again and again, until nothing human remained.

"See that?" Morpheus’s voice slithered close to her ear, rich with venom and triumph. "Soon, he’ll reach for it. That demonic power buried deep in his blood. He’ll beg for it, and when he does... he’ll burn. Do you know what it takes for a mortal to turn demonic? How it splits the body, how it peels the soul apart? It’s hell, Arabella. Hell made flesh.

"

"Fuck you," Arabella spat, her voice trembling but fierce, every syllable a blade.

Before the demon’s strike could fall, she whispered a spell— quick, desperate, her voice shaking yet clear. Her fingers moved through the air, tracing runes of light, and in an instant a glowing sigil burst to life around Cassius’s neck.

The air crackled with power. Cassius felt it too— the warm pulse of her magic wrapping around him like chains and protection both.

He turned to her, fury flashing in his crimson eyes even as the monstrous blade came crashing down behind him. The impact roared through the room; the ground shuddered, the walls screamed, and the shimmering barrier Arabella had summoned fractured, spiderweb cracks spreading across it like broken glass.

She met his gaze— one last, trembling smile between them— and whispered, soft enough that only he could hear, "I’ll be back soon. I promise. I trust you can kill that demon."

"Don’t do it." His voice was rough, low, the kind that cracked from rage and fear alike. "Don’t you dare—"

But before he could move, the demon’s next blow fell, smashing against the shield so hard it blazed white-hot— the spell buckled, the light exploded outward— and Cassius roared as darkness surged behind him.

"Protect yourself first," Arabella warned, "I’ll kill Morpheus and come back," she then oathed a promise, letting her fingers slipping away from his hand.

As the darkness swallowed her whole, Arabella’s last sight was of Cassius— fury blazing in his eyes as he lunged toward her, only for the abyss to slam shut between them, cutting off all light, all sound, all warmth.

Cassius stood frozen, the void’s echo ringing in his ears. His chest heaved, rage boiling through his veins like molten iron. He stared down at his empty hand— the one that had just slipped from hers. He could have held on. He could have dragged her back. But if he had... he would have torn her arm apart.

She knew that. She let go— to save him.

And he knew it. She let go— because she didn’t want him to see her die.

"Wouldn’t becoming a demon be better?" Cassius muttered under his breath.

The castle trembled, its walls quaking as Arabella’s protective barrier shattered into shards of light that faded into nothing. The demon across from him grinned, certain he was about to devour a new soul.

But Cassius turned slowly, his gaze split— crimson in the left eye, gold in the right. Power pulsed from him like a heartbeat from hell itself.

"That’s it," he hissed, voice low and venomous. "I’m killing everyone."