Stella's eyes widened as a wave of ash so dense it could be confused for a landslide surged down into the arena with such force it made the ground shake.
Luckily Stella had been expecting the incoming ash, so she had time to react and set an anchor point to quickly open a portal. As space tore open to reveal a path to safety, Stella winced as she saw the imminent surge of ash crash on top of Kassandra.
Within a second, half of the arena was consumed by the ash, and before it could smash into her, Stella stepped through the conjured portal and felt the temperature drop as she exited into a dark tunnel.
A burst of ash impacted her back as the portal collapsed behind her, not from her free will but because the dense ash cloud severed her connection as it devoured the spatial Qi.
Whew, I made it out with a second to spare. Stella let out a sigh. If she hadn't been forewarned about this part of the plan, she wasn't totally sure if she would have been able to escape in time.
And without my spiritual sight, I wouldn't have had a way to enter the spatial plane and set up an anchor to teleport out, so I would have been forced to try and find my way out of the ash storm.
Screams of mortals echoed from one side of the tunnel as they scrambled to escape the ash rapidly rising after blanketing the entire arena. Stella knew they would be fine, as Larry had no plans to kill them.
Brushing herself off, Stella could see the ash storm rising and swirling around the demonic tree through the tunnel exit.
"Roselyn!"
Stella turned to the voice and saw a beaming Elder Margret emerge from the tunnel's darkness, "I'm so proud of you!"
"Why?" Stella tilted her head.
Elder Margret laughed, "For creating a Profound tier pill, obviously! I have never heard of someone learning alchemy as fast as you, and you came second!"
"Oh, thanks?" Stella replied with a feeling of awkwardness. She rarely received praise and wasn't sure how to respond correctly.
Stella then noticed the other Ashfallen sect members and the Redclaw family standing behind Elder Margret. Stella wasn't surprised to see them hiding here as they had all been part of the plan. Under the shroud of the fog and ash, they would retreat here.
Diana and Elaine walked over and removed their masks.
"I'm surprised you're here," Stella said while looking Elaine up and down, "Won't your family notice you're missing?"
Elaine gave a weary smile, "They likely already have, but if I stay behind at the mansion, I will be forced back to Slymere with my brother, and I want to remain here with you guys."
"We did suggest she allow herself to be taken away to gather intel for us after this is all over," Diana chimed in, "But she said that getting information to us would be near impossible due to the void arrays that coat their mansion in Slymere."
Elaine bobbed her head in agreement, "Yeah, and I really don't want to see my Father ever again."
Stella hummed and looked between them, "I see, so what are your plans now?"
"My job here is done," Diana shrugged, "So I guess I will wait here for a portal back to Red Vine Peak, and I assume Elaine and some of the others will join me."
"I will be remaining here with Sebastian and Ryker," The Grand Elder said with his hands behind his back, "To help start the civil war."
Stella nodded, "Okay, glad to see the plan hasn't changed."
"What about you?" Elaine asked, "Are you coming back with us?"
"No, I still have some unfinished business," Stella waved her off, "I just have to wait for the signal from the Patriarch—"
Stella felt the breath knocked out of her as there was a sudden presence. Her head snapped to look toward the source, and at the end of the tunnel, she saw the demonic tree that had previously felt like any other tree now had that distinctive presence of Ashlock.
"He's here," Stella smiled, "The Patriarch has arrived."
Everyone except the Grand Elder had stumbled back several steps and were in various stages of recovering from the sudden burst of power as if some divine being had abruptly descended.
Stella calmly watched the swirling ash beyond the tunnel, patiently awaiting Ashlock to tell her when it was time for her to kill Kassandra and end this hatred burning in her heart.
There was a burst of void Qi from the demonic tree, and then shortly after, a portal manifested in the tunnel. Everyone turned to look at it. Stella saw the dim cavern below Red Vine Peak through the wobbling lilac-tinted portal.
"See you later," Diana waved to Stella and stepped through alongside the other Elders and Elaine, who also bid her farewell with words and waves.
The portal snapped closed, and silence briefly returned. Stella took this moment to eat a Lightning Qi Barrier fruit in preparation for her upcoming part of the plan.
"Theron is dead," Ashlock announced in her mind while she was finishing off the fruit. She paused mid-bite and shuddered a little.
The way Ashlock announced the death of someone that seemed so arrogant and powerful in her mind as if he were talking about the weather, showed how little of a challenge killing someone like Theron Skyrend was to him.
I remember him as a weak little sapling that needed my protection. Since when did Tree grow so powerful.
Stella summoned the black wood dagger crafted from the sticks Ashlock had gifted her all those years ago. She felt its weight and rubbed her finger along the wood grain.
This dagger had been used to save her life from the conspiring servants, and now she planned to use them to execute a noble cultivator. Gripping it tightly, Stella asked Ashlock, "And what of Kassandra? Is she still alive?"
"Incapacitated within the ash cloud as planned," Ashlock replied, "She's all yours. Just be careful. Dante Voidmind has a Star Core Elder combing the ash cloud to find you, and there are others..."
"Star Core Elders?" Stella murmured in slight awe, "If not for you, a force like that would be enough to force many noble families to surrender their land."
"Indeed," Ashlock mused, "However, with Larry's ash, a high costing Qi affinity like void becomes a major disadvantage."
Stella nodded, "That's true, but how will I fight Kassandra in the ash? Spatial is also a high-cost affinity, and I cannot locate her without spiritual sense."
"I will flood the area surrounding Kassandra Skyrend with spatial Qi and then open a portal for you," Ashlock continued, "I know you are much stronger than her, so feel free to toy with her, but please keep the body in one piece. I might make an Ent out of her corpse."
Stella could sense the slight anger and seriousness in Ashlock's tone. Clearly, she hadn't been the only one infuriated by Kassandra over the last few days, so Stella sighed, "Fine. I won't tear her limb from limb."
The dark tunnel leading outside rippled as space was torn apart, and a portal manifested, and through it, all Stella could see was the ash cloud.
Hesitantly stepping through, Stella's vision was a blur due to the swirling ash all around. Her Star Core flared up, and purple flames illuminated a mere centimeter around her, keeping the ash from invading her mouth and nose.
"Kassandra should be nearby," Stella glanced around but was completely blind. Without her soul flames fending off the ash, she would be suffocated to death.
Closing her eyes, Stella found she could spread her spiritual sense and perceive an area of a few meters around her due to spatial Qi being pumped into the storm from the tips of black roots poking out of the sand.
"There you are," Stella muttered as she noticed lightning Qi superheating the ash around it in an effort to fight back. Due to Kassandra's towering height, her burning silhouette in the ash made her look like a blazing demoness that had crawled straight out of hell.
Licking her lips behind the cloth mask in anticipation of her screams, Stella lowered her body and dashed forward, cleaving her way through the ash and arriving right behind Kassandra.
"Who—" Kassandra shouted through the roaring storm as she seemingly sensed Stella. She started to turn and look over her shoulder, but Stella didn't waste a second and ruthlessly slashed at her ankles with her aflame black wood dagger and easily cleaved through her skin.
Stella frowned a little at how easy it had been to slice through Kassandra's defenses as blood splurted from her legs and was carried away by the violent winds and coated the swirling ash crimson.
"AHHHH!" Kassandra's Qi-empowered howl overcame the roaring winds of the storm as she stumbled forward a few steps. Her lightning Qi crackling across the surface of her skin flared up as if out of control and began lashing out.
Unfazed by the lightning-burning holes in her clothes, Stella strode through the ash while twirling her dagger and stopped before Kassandra.
Despite the pain and confusion evident on Kassandra's twisted face, she still raised her fists up in the air and tried to pummel Stella with vengeful fury and a half-pained warcry.
"Who DARES!" The ash parted as Kassandra tried to destroy the person who attacked her, but Stella effortlessly raised her palm and caught Kassandra's fist.
With the power of the Lightning Qi Barrier fruit and her own dao comprehension, Stella easily resisted Kassandra's attack. Perhaps if the woman was trained with the sword or was more capable at stealth, this would be a more challenging fight... but Kassandra was clearly far too arrogant to use man-made tools and would rather depend on the lightning from the heavens to smite down all who opposed her.
But what was she without lightning? Just a somewhat strong Soul Fire cultivator—an ant in comparison to Stella.
The two exchanged a glare, and Kassandra's glowing eyes widened at the realization of who she faced, "Roselyn? So you finally show yourself," Blue lightning crackled down her arm, but Stella just tilted her head, entirely unbothered, as the lightning blasted into her hand and singed the sleeves of her clothes.
Realizing her attacks were having no effect and gritting her teeth through the pain, Kassandra tried to pull her arm back, but Stella easily held it in place.
"You were so arrogant before," Stella sneered, "Some bad weather dampen your spark?"
"You bitch," Kassandra hissed as she stumbled and fell to one knee due to her severed ankles finally giving out.
"How dare you sneak attack me," Kassandra spat to the side and shouted over the storm, "Do you have no honor?!"
Stella tightened her grip on Kassandra's fist and twisted it, snapping her bone with a satisfying crunch. A chilling scream left Kassandra as she reeled back her obliterated arm.
Stella shivered in pure ecstasy. She had been hungering for this moment for days—a time when she didn't have to tiptoe or bow before this woman due to external factors like politics.
Here in this prison of ash, away from prying eyes and assistance, only the strength of the individual mattered.
"You speak of honor and demand it from others," Stella reached forward, grabbed the side of Kassandra's head, and kneed her in the face breaking her nose and making her collapse to the sand, "Yet you cheated at every turn and hid behind your family name to bully the Redclaws who you refer to as lessers."
Kassandra spat a mouthful of sand and blood as she propped herself up. Her spatial ring flashed, and a group of pills appeared in her nonbroken hand.
"Go on," Stella stood there with her arms crossed as the ash swirled around her, "Eat all the pills you want. You will die here all the same."
"Foolish girl," Kassandra had a blood-filled grin, "You dare act arrogant before me—"
Blood splurted out her mouth as Stella withdrew the dagger she had just thrust through a quickly conjured portal.
"You said... you would let me eat..." Kassandra gasped out.
Stella shrugged, "I lied."
Kassandra trembled as she reached up with her only functioning arm and tried to block up the hole in her neck that was oozing blood. A strange wheeze left her mouth as she tried to force the blood-covered pills down her throat but violently coughed them up, and they were whisked away by the fierce winds.
As Kassandra saw her pills vanish, Stella saw the arrogance fade and pure despair overtake Kassandra. Her glowing eyes dimmed as she kept wheezing and trying to breathe through her blood-filled neck with little success.
Stella slowly walked over, kicking up sand as she stepped closer, one step at a time.
Kassandra tried to shuffle away with fear as she stared death in the eyes.
Stella reached down and grabbed a fistful of Kassandra's hair and began dragging her by it.
"You wanted me to be chained to your porch as a slave to your brother," Stella said coldly over Kassandra's spluttering screams, "So how does it feel being dragged around like a chained dog? Humiliating, perhaps?"
With some force, Stella hurled Kassandra back down to the ground and then crouched down and held Kassandra's face a few inches from her own. Only her purple flames illuminated both of their faces as Kassandra's lightning had died down.
As Stella stared the dying woman in the eyes, the pure hatred she had cultivated in her heart mellowed out, and all that consumed her mind was how pathetic this person was.
"You know what I hate, Kassandra?" Stella said, "Wasted potential. You were born with money, status, education, resources, and a loving home. And what do you do with this high station in life? You prance around flaunting your family name and pathetic strength while spitting on those you deem lesser."
Stella tightened her grip, making Kassandra groan in pain, "And all for what? We could have been friends and pursued immortality by uplifting one another. But you would rather boost your ego to the point you were so blind and offended the wrong person. Now look at you. Beaten and broken, alone in the sand."
Kassandra wheezed and clawed at her neck as if trying to free her windpipe from the blood, and Stella felt her words of ridicule die in her throat.
Why had her anger faded? Why did this feel so immoral? Kassandra had done so much wrong to her and the Redclaws, yet as she had the half-dead Kassandra in her hands, the idea of killing her didn't sit right.
Have I become like her?
Stella released her grip, allowing Kassandra to collapse to the sand, and stepped back. The image of the arrogant woman that she had dreamed about brutally murdering in her mind was broken when she stared at the pathetic sight.
What if Kassandra was just misguided and would be willing to repent? Would I even be willing to spare her?
Stella felt the chaotic ashen storm matching her jumbled thoughts. She had never had second thoughts about murder before... in fact, she had been the one to suggest killing Elaine. She had always seen murder as the most efficient solution to dealing with her problems, but now she wasn't so sure.
The dagger in her hand felt heavy as the tip pointed to the floor. If she killed Kassandra right here, wouldn't she be just as bad as her? Kassandra used her political weight behind her to spit on the lessers. Meanwhile, Stella had abused her superior cultivation to beat Kassandra half to death.
Who was really in the right here?
Stella looked down at Kassandra, "Do you wish to be spared?"
Kassandra's eyes briefly widened but then dulled. With a grunt, the dying woman pushed herself onto one knee and spat a large glob of blood onto the sand, "May I know your true name?"
Stella paused for a moment to consider, but she was curious how Kassandra would react to knowing she had a noble family name, so she honored the woman's request. Reaching up, she removed her mask.
"My true name is Stella Crestfallen..."
Due to her height, the two were at eye level—Kassandra grinned with blood-stained teeth and crazed eyes and said slowly, "Stella Crestfallen... to spare me would be an insult. I desire no pity from someone destined to be nothing but a lowly pill furnace."
Stella closed her eyes and plunged the black wood dagger straight into Kassandra's heart, causing her to groan and fall into her embrace. Stella supported the dying woman's weight and whispered into her ear as she drew her final breath, "I spit on destiny, just like you do on those you deem lesser."
Stella then twisted the dagger and ruthlessly pulled it out—ending Kassandra Skyrend's life.
Stepping to the side, the colossal body unceremoniously crumpled to the ground. A mixture of emotions and thoughts spiraled in Stella's mind as she saw the lifeless corpse bleeding out on the sand.
It was over... yet why was it so bittersweet? Why did she feel like, in a twisted way, Kassandra had won?
She was prideful to the bitter end. Not even death could break her arrogance.
A portal opened nearby, and Stella watched as a black vine coated in spikes coiled around the corpse and then dragged it away.
"Satisfied with your revenge?" Ashlock asked within her mind.
Unfortunately, Stella wasn't sure what to say as she saw the foot of Kassanda's corpse vanish through the portal.
"Maybe not every problem can be solved with murder," Stella eventually answered, smiling behind her mask, "But this one certainly was."
Stella then raised her mask slightly and spat on the blood-soaked sand where Kassandra had died, "And that's for the Redclaws."
