Chapter 171. Back in Valtoria

Desmond paced through the dust cloud, staggering from side to side, his vision unsteady. He could feel his life slowly seeping out of his body, his bones aching with every step like they were moments away from falling apart. His eyes were half closed; his lower jaw was smothered with blood. Only a few pieces of his armor remained on him, the rest crushed by the overwhelming weight of his brother’s power.

“How did he become like that?” Desmond shuddered at the thought of his brother’s menacing eyes. “When…”

“Alethea,” he struggled to say, his voice smoky. His right hand pressed against a wound torn into his stomach by a sharp rock, and his left hung low like a tassel in the wind.

He stumbled over the feet of a dead soldier on the battlefield and fell on the side of his face, panting lightly with his eyes shut. His eyes creaked open, and he found the dead soldier lying beside him, his face shrouded in the dust.

The wind slowly blew the dust away, revealing a tr