It wasn't all of them, just yet. But Seishan was the key. With her choosing her sisters over her mother, Moonveil had followed… Beastmaster, as well. The rest would fall behind their eldest sister, too.
Boiling and seething, the greatly diminished river of blood rippled and coalesced into a human figure. Ki Song looked at Nephis, a pale smile illuminating her beautiful face.
"Are you saying this to shake my resolve?"
Nephis shook her head.
"I just want to see if you care about them at all."
The Blessing lashed out once again, scorching the ancient bone and forcing Ki Song to retreat.
"Beastmaster was barely alive when I healed her. Moonveil was dying… she would have been dead by now, if not for me. Their mother led them to their deaths, while their enemy saved them. Isn't that ironic? Even as we speak, my flames are permeating them, granting them power. However…"
Her voice grew cold.
"My flames can both create and destroy. Now that they are a part of my Domain… do you think I can burn them to ash, instead? Shall we see?"
The smile on Ki Song's face turned brittle.
"Are you threatening to kill my daughters, Nephis?"
Instead of answering, Nephis lunged forward and pierced her with the incandescent blade of the Blessing.
Far away, a terrible wound opened on Cassie's chest, and she fell to her knees, her flesh being burned and blackened, then mended by the white flames.
Nephis felt a new emotion…
It was anguish.
This battle of theirs was going to end soon.
She said calmly:
"No… I am promising to keep them alive. As long as you don't retreat from this battlefield until one of us is dead."
The Queen had to have other puppets hidden in secretive places. Even if Kai had managed to destroy those that had been left in Ravenheart, there would have been more elsewhere. And since any of them could serve as Ki Song's primary vessel, the only way to kill her was to make sure that she chose to fight to her death.
The only weakness the Queen had was her daughters.Her love for them, no matter how twisted, was her flaw.
And Nephis was not above using that flaw to destroy her.
Ki Song raised a hand and grasped the scorching blade of the Blessing, looking at the beautiful spirit of light in front of her with her eerie dead eyes.
"Do you think you can kill me here, Nephis?"
Nephis channeled her flames through the Blessing, knowing that Cassie was screaming somewhere far away.
"Did you think that you could kill my father?"
As Ki Song pulled her closer and thrust her pale hand into the incinerating radiance of Neph's Transcendent form, shredding her soul with her Will, Nephis asked evenly:
"Did you think that you could destroy the Immortal Flame clan?"
The two of them stood still, ravaging each other.
"Did you think that the end justified the means? That all your sins would be forgiven, as long as you had won?"
There was one more emotion, now…
A strange, childish sense of hurt and resentment.
"Then why didn't you win?! If only you had won… then I wouldn't have to… I wouldn't be suffering all this pain because of you!"
Somewhere far away, the last of the Queen's blood evaporated from Cassie's veins. The blind seer curled on the ground, shuddering, tears streaming down her blackened face.
Moments later, the soft radiance erased the terrible burns, restoring her exquisite beauty.
But the echoes of pain in her eyes remained.
Ki Song slowly shook her head, her smile slowly crumbling.
"You don't even know… what you are unleashing, child…"
And then…
She burned.
She burned and burned, disappearing into the merciless flames.
But until the very end, she did not retreat.
That was how Ki Song, the Raven Queen, died.