Chapter 120:
"Where the world forgot time, Varek still remembered pain."
The sanctuary existed beyond the flow of time. A single day in the real world could stretch into months—even years—within that domain. Aisha didn't realize it, not at first. Not until her body began to change. Not until the weight of a new life stirred within her.
Varek watched from the shadows, his gaze heavy with longing and despair. The image of Aisha, untouched by pain, should have brought him peace. Instead, guilt clung to him like a second skin.
"I brought you here to save you from them... from everything. But I can't save you from me," he whispered, more to himself than to her.
Aisha began to stir, as if waking from a dream long and fragmented. Her eyes searched the stillness, reaching for something she couldn't quite recall.
"Where... am I?" she asked, her voice a tremble.
"You are safe," Varek said, stepping closer. "Here, there are no battles, no pain. Only peace."
But the peace was not hers. It was built, enforced by Varek's will. And something within her pushed back.
Fleeting—the image of a man flashed in her mind. A face without a name. And yet, it sparked a fire.
"Who... ?" she murmured, clutching her chest.
Varek saw it—and rushed to silence the flame.
"Aisha, please... don't think about that. Think of us."
She met his gaze. Her eyes flickered with doubt. Then resolve.
"Us? I don't remember choosing this, Varek."
"I love you, Aisha. I've always loved you. Even if you don't remember yet—what matters is that you're here. With me."
She had given birth in that place. But the memory was buried.
Every time she reached for truth, a heavy fog smothered it. Varek wrapped her in words—in promises half-true, in a prison with no bars.
And yet, her chest tightened with something unnamed.
Before the radiant cradle, a chill traveled her spine.
Then she felt it.
A flutter. Subtle. Undeniable. Not pain. Not confusion.
Warmth.
From deep within her belly, it rose like a breath of life.
A bond.
She didn't know how she knew. But she knew.
"It's your daughter, Aisha," Varek said gently, but with undeniable gravity. "Ours."
The world tilted. Something in her screamed this was wrong.
And then she saw the child. Small. Fragile. Peaceful in a cradle of light.
Her heart pounded.
"No..." she whispered, clutching her head.
A memory just beyond her reach slipped away like sand between fingers.
Varek moved closer, cloaked in comforting lies.
"It doesn't matter what you remember. She's here. I'm here. If you stay, you'll never have to fear again."
The sanctuary bent to Varek's will. With every doubt, her past blurred further.
But something endured.
The wolf within her growled.
A tremor rippled across her skin. Invisible pressure tried to drag her down, to unravel her.
Run.
The voice boomed from within. Primal instinct ignited. Fire roared in her soul.
Aisha felt the pull.
This wasn't just about memory. This was about her soul.
The wind shifted. Her skin prickled.
And when she looked into the surface of the nearby water—she saw it.
Not a prisoner.
A warrior.
Golden eyes, blazing with feral clarity.
I am not a captive. I am the flame they could not extinguish.
Her growl rumbled from her core.
The sanctuary trembled at her defiance.
Varek reached for her, desperate.
"If you cross that portal, you can never return."
She stared at him. Her voice was steel.
"I don't need to. My home isn't here."
"If you go back now... you'll forget what awaits you," he said, voice cracking. "But I would love you even if you forgot me. And if you must return to him—to save him—then go."
The ground shattered beneath her.
And in the breaking of the world, the portal split open—
—and so did her cage.
With one final step, she shattered her invisible chains. When the light of the portal collapsed behind her, war had already begun. Aisha landed with fire in her veins, feet rooted in the end of the world.
Behind her, Varek's whisper:
"I always knew... that if I truly loved you, I would have to let you go."
And it wasn't the portal that opened. It was her will.
The sanctuary didn't collapse because she left. It collapsed because she remembered who she was.
The burst of energy cracked the battlefield.
"Where the hell have you been, Aisha?!" Salomon roared, parrying a blow with his sword.
She didn't answer.
She simply nocked an arrow.
And fired.
The shaft pierced through a vampire's chest. It crumpled, gurgling blood.
"We won't live to tell it if we don't fight together!" Aisha shouted, breaking through the melee.
Her gaze met Sanathiel's.
He was a tempest of claws and shadows.
And then their eyes locked.
"Aisha!" Sanathiel roared, dodging a lethal strike.
For a heartbeat, pain clenched his chest as if he'd already lost her.
As if the soul remembered what the mind did not.
He didn't know if they would survive.
But this was never about survival.
This was about never abandoning each other—even when the world broke.
Her voice rang out:
"We live and die together. That is my promise to you, Sanathiel."
Something in him howled.
The White Wolf surged.
Sariel struck.
The clash echoed like thunder.
Sanathiel danced like a predator, barely dodging a swipe that would have torn his throat.
But Sariel wasn't just an enemy.
He was the shadow of a brother long lost.
"You still cling to a humanity that no longer exists," Sariel spat, unleashing a wave of dark energy.
Sanathiel blocked it—barely.
The impact dragged him across the charred ground.
He rose again, breath ragged.
"Better to die a man… than live a monster."
He charged.
Steel and shadow collided.
Each blow split the earth, cracked the sky.
Sariel seized him by the throat, lifting him with ease.
"You were always the weakest. You can't save them. You can't save her."
Air fled Sanathiel's lungs.
And then—
He felt it.
A heartbeat.
A call.
Aisha.
A roar tore from his soul.
The wolf awoke.
With one final surge, he plunged his sword into Sariel's side.
Silver light exploded.
"I. Will. Never. Surrender!"
The medallion on his chest blazed with ancestral fire.
Sariel's darkness unraveled.
His form shredded into vapor.
But his voice lingered, sharp as prophecy:
"When the moon bleeds a third time... none of us will remember who the enemy was."
And then—only silence.
A silence heavy as the sky.
The demon's shadow writhed once more.
Then dissolved into light.
And into Aisha's arms, Rasen collapsed.
She held him like something sacred.
His face was pale, nearly still.
Then—
A single white flower fell at their feet.
Impossible.
The wind lifted the dust.
The sanctuary remembered her—even if she had forgotten it.
His eyelids fluttered. A faint breath passed his lips.
His chest rose, fragile but alive.
Hope trembled in her hands.
She leaned in, whispering:
"You came back once, Rasen... I'll bring you back again."
Not knowing...
She had already lost him once.
And she would lose him again.
But even in ignorance—
the wolf's blood still flowed.
Hidden.
Waiting.
Because the sanctuary didn't just hide memories...
It guarded unborn children, nameless legacies...
And wars the world soon wouldn't know how to remember.