The Burnt Woman lost sight of her anger the moment she saw the lines of power that covered this place.

She brought out her power and the fire burned everything except the pods where her children were.

She thought to bring herself near the pods when she saw a pale shine of light. Looking at the pale shine of light, she saw a woman whose pale hair and red eyes resembled her. She carried a white lance that brimmed with a compressed of power.

“The Lady of the Pale Shine Pass…why are you here?”

Her white lance instantly broke through and tear through time. The Burnt Woman raised her guard and defended herself from the pale light that was invisible to the naked eye.

“Your poor child,” the Pale Shine Lady said to herself. “To reach out to the Pale Light in hopes of salvation. You are a liar, Ciara Salvatore, you are a liar. In the end, you cannot give up on hope. That’s not you, isn’t it?”

“Who are you to speak my name?”

“Your name?” She snarled. “Why does the Burnt Woman take on this body’s name? Oh, you nameless child, how can you lie so badly?”

The Burnt Woman did not reply with words, but with power. The Pale Shine Lady complied with power as well.

“You are fire, while I am light. I am the gentle shine, while you are a raging torrent. I will not last. But in accordance with the soul that has wished for hope. I shall fulfill Ciara Salvatore’s wish.”

“Another fragment of mine?”

The Pale Shine Lady summoned her white lance. She sang a song and the world seems to awaken. The stars shone behind her back, combating the sun that the Burnt Woman had summoned.

“Why? I just want my children back.”

“I know,” said the Pale Shine Lady. “But a selfless child had finally given in. She had given in the desire that had wonderfully kept even inside the abyss. Such a pitiful child who could not fall. This is her wish and I hope you can defend.”

Ciara tried to bend the light. It didn’t work. She pulled on the strings of power and tried to weave a spell. But that didn’t work either.

“You bend reality but I see you. Because of light, you can see. And because of the light, you can control. But I AM the light. The Pale Shine of light that you looked up to. The moonlight that soothes the weary traveler.”

“DO NOT GET IN MY WAY.”

“Hush, child.”

Her white lance conjured a thousand spears of light. Each spear contained the force to break the world. Ciara caught all of them and disposed of them. Her body burned with power and her rage grew. She grabbed hold of the sun and used it to swat away the Pale Shine Lady.

The Pale Shine Lady broke through many mountains. She lifted herself, caught the Burnt Woman’s blow, and returned it with a push that almost buried the Burnt Woman into the core of the world.

“You are too late,” she said. “Too late, as usual.”

“What?” The Burnt Woman wiped her mouth.

“Did you think that they would allow them to live? You created your children with your power. Did you think that the Observer, the one who knows you so much would not expect this?” She pointed at the pods. The pods were covered with bright flashes.

“YOU DARE.”

The Pale Shine Lady slapped down Ciara on the ground. She sang. “I sing the song of power and conquest.”

A great force weighted over The Burnt Woman. Her eyes became the sun as she tried to overpower the power of the Pale Shine Lady.

“Do not be so rough. I am only a phantom summoned. I am the granter of power to this poor soul. You didn’t know that they were nothing but just the hearts of your children? Look around, Burnt Woman. There is nothing but the motherless in the fire you created.

She turned her eyes into the place where the settlement was. A young girl held a toy while crying in her mother’s embrace. Her skin burnt and her life dwindling as her cries were muffled by the fire around her.

“I will not seek forgiveness.”

“Of course you won’t,” said the Pale Shine Lady. “You are the Witch of the End, the Machina, the destroyer of worlds. You are driven by the fire of your heart. To tell you that you are wrong is nothing short but a hypocrite. I shall tell you this, you have come for nothing. This poor child had seen the children and had given them an escape. You will find their physical and spiritual body here. Ciara Salvatore, the War Maiden and Song Maiden of mine had saved before you could. You will find nothing here other than the world you burned.”

“YOU LIE!”

This time the spear of fire took the left side of the Pale Shine Lady.

“It seems that I’ve come to an end.”

The power that wrought her suddenly disappeared. She fell on the burnt world with a thud. The Burnt Woman immediately pounced to the pods only to see nothing but the remnants of the hearts of her children. The Burnt Woman’s rage grew. She pounced to the vessel of the Pale Shine lady with a spear made of the sun.

“You!”

The woman looked like her. The Burnt Woman tried to take her soul but there was a refusal. Her soul rejected this woman’s soul.

“Nolan…I’m coming. I did good, as well. I tried too.”

“What are you saying?”

The Burnt Woman peered through her mind and saw this woman’s dance. Her pain, her sorrows, and heartache. The Burnt Woman tried to take it all, for her, but she couldn’t. The light of the Pale Shine Lady guided her soul into a milky path made of stars.

“Wait!” She said, crawling to a stand. “Please, please, no!”

The path disappeared. But what was left in this burned world, was the figure of a woman who ruled nothing. In the crumbling world, she stood unable to do what she came here for, she reached out, crying, “Save me.”

Chapter 300: The Pale Shine’s fury.

END OF BOOK 3