CHAPTER 31: BROTHER VS. SISTER - PART 1
POV: Alen
The Gothic nightmare that had replaced Salvatore School stretched before Alen like vision ripped from collective unconscious, familiar architecture twisted into psychological horror that defied euclidean geometry. Corridors extended infinitely in directions that shouldn't exist while emergency lighting cast shadows that moved independently of their sources.
Hope met him at the warped gates with expression that mixed relief and terror in equal measure, tribrid composure cracking under weight of crisis that exceeded normal supernatural disaster parameters.
"Josie absorbed the Mora Miserium," she said without preamble, words carrying finality that made protective wards hum with distressed energy. "She's gone."
The admission hit like physical blow, guilt crushing down through enhanced consciousness while recognition crystallized around terrible truth. He'd been hunting cultists miles away while his sister fell to corruption he should have prevented, cosmic responsibility meaningless when applied too late.
"I failed her. Failed my family. Failed the most basic duty of protecting people I love because I was obsessed with external threats while internal crisis festered in plain sight."
"She's rewritten reality," Hope continued, briefing him with clinical efficiency that barely masked underlying panic. "Everyone's trapped in fear-prisons. Your dad's unconscious. Lizzie's trying to reach her but it's not working."
"I should've noticed," Alen said, voice cracking with accumulated self-recrimination. "I was too focused on—"
"We fix this. Then you blame yourself." Hope's words carried authority that cut through spiral of guilt threatening to paralyze his enhanced capabilities. "Right now, Josie needs help more than you need self-flagellation."
They entered the transformed school together, reality bending around them like fever dream given architectural form. Students wandered corridors that led nowhere, trapped in manifestations of personal terror that fed on psychological vulnerability.
Marcus—the rescued werewolf child from Triad facilities—cowered against walls that bled with remembered torture, silver chains materializing from nightmare logic to bind limbs that had healed but never forgotten violation. Rafael faced endless loop of his parents' deaths, forced to witness trauma that had shaped his entire existence while being unable to change predetermined outcome.
Alen siphoned their nightmare-prisons with systematic efficiency, draining dark magic that had transformed fears into physical restraints. Each liberation revealed more about what Josie had become—powerful beyond normal limitations, creative in ways that exceeded academic training, cruel with precision that suggested intimate knowledge of personal vulnerabilities.
"She learned by watching me. Every spell I crafted, every technique I demonstrated, every shortcut I discovered through enhanced intuition. She absorbed my methods while everyone assumed she was just supporting character."
His own techniques had become weapons turned against people he'd sworn to protect, cosmic abilities corrupted through desperate ambition and filtered through ancient evil that amplified every dark impulse.
POV: Alen
The central courtyard had been transformed into throne room fit for dimensional ruler, crystallized magic forming elaborate seat from which Dark Josie commanded her warped domain. She looked up as they approached, black veins covering exposed skin while obsidian eyes reflected light without warmth.
"Hello, brother," she said with voice that carried harmonic discord painful to hear directly. "Come to show off more impossible powers?"
"Jo, this isn't you," Alen replied, stepping closer despite every instinct screaming warnings about proximity to corruption this absolute.
"This is finally me." Dark Josie rose from crystallized throne with grace that suggested supernatural enhancement beyond normal siphoner limitations. "Powerful. Seen. Special. Like you."
She attacked without warning—spell-crafted chains erupting from transformed stone to wrap around his limbs with precision that spoke of intimate familiarity with his defensive patterns. Force manipulation followed, gravity becoming suggestion rather than law as she demonstrated mastery of techniques that should have required years to perfect.
Alen defended without retaliating, siphoning her attacks while crafting protective barriers that absorbed supernatural assault. "I won't hurt you!"
"Coward!" Dark Josie intensified her offensive, ancient artifact feeding her abilities power that dwarfed normal magical limitations. "You hold back because you think I'm weak! Because you think good old reliable Josie couldn't possibly be threat!"
"She's right. I am holding back. Not because she's weak but because she's family. Because underneath this corruption is my sister who deserves salvation rather than destruction."
Alen tried his Word of Command, channeling enhanced reserves into cosmic authority that had never failed against supernatural opposition. "STOP!"
Dark Josie countered with stolen technique, her own command detonating through courtyard air with power amplified by ancient evil. "BREAK!"
His Word shattered like glass against superior force, reality bending to accommodate impossible counterattack that turned his own abilities against him. The impact sent him stumbling while recognition crystallized around horrifying truth.
"She learned by watching. Every Word of Command I used, every technique I demonstrated, every power I revealed thinking family was safe to witness. She memorized everything and now it's all turned against me."
POV: Alen
Lizzie arrived with tears streaming down her face, twin connection driving her toward corrupted sister despite obvious danger. "Jo, please! I'm your twin. Your other half."
"The weak half," Dark Josie replied with casual cruelty that cut deeper than physical violence. "I don't need you anymore. I don't need anyone."
"You're right," Lizzie said, voice breaking on admission that cost everything to make. "You're stronger. Smarter. More powerful than I'll ever be. But I need you. Josie needs me. We're supposed to be complete together."
Dark Josie hesitated—first crack in armor of enhanced arrogance, ancient artifact's control wavering as genuine emotion penetrated corruption. The pause lasted microseconds but felt eternal, hope flickering through cosmic darkness.
Alen saw the opening and took it, channeling every ounce of enhanced honesty into confession that might reach his sister beneath layers of accumulated evil.
"Jo, I'm sorry. I made you feel invisible. That's on me." The words emerged raw with accumulated guilt, truth that cut through supernatural barriers more effectively than any magical assault. "But this power will consume you. I've felt it—the darkness that comes with harvesting souls. It's eating me alive. Don't follow me down this path."
"Every resurrection coin I've forged has cost pieces of my humanity. Every soul I've harvested has left scars that won't heal completely. The cosmic responsibility I carry is slowly transforming me into something my old self would find horrifying."
"She deserves to know the price of power. Deserves to understand what enhancement really costs when pursued without limitation or conscience. Maybe honesty can reach her where magical force cannot."
"Maybe admitting my own corruption can save her from following the same destructive path I've chosen in service of cosmic responsibility."
Dark Josie's facade cracked visibly, obsidian eyes flickering with momentary recognition as enhanced honesty penetrated ancient artifact's influence. "You're suffering too?"
"Every day," Alen admitted, meaning it completely. "Let me help you."
She almost relented—genuine emotion surfacing through corruption while recognition battled supernatural influence for control of enhanced consciousness. For eternal moment, Josie seemed to remember who she'd been before desperation and ancient evil had consumed everything decent about her existence.
Then the Mora Miserium pulsed with renewed strength, reinforcing its control while whispers of unlimited power drowned out family bonds and personal connection.
"NO!" Dark Josie screamed, power erupting around her like visible aura of cosmic fury. "I am power! I am significance! I will not be overlooked!"
Reality destabilized further as ancient artifact asserted absolute control, dimensional barriers thinning while nightmares bled through weakened cosmic boundaries. The school began collapsing around them—walls crumbling, dimensions bleeding through, physical law reduced to suggestion as corruption reached critical mass.
The real battle was just beginning, and Alen realized that saving his sister might require sacrificing everything he'd built toward cosmic responsibility and family acceptance.
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