The vampires moved as one. A wave of bodies surged forward, claws and fangs flashing in the dim light.
And in that final moment, when death was already breathing down Ethan's neck, the wind tore open in front of him and Anna appeared. She materialized directly between him and the oncoming horde, arms spread wide. Her coat fluttered, her face deathly pale with horror.
"Stop!" she shouted. Her voice, amplified by magic, hurled the first vampires backward.
"Ethan, don't! Please stop!"
Ethan froze. Relief flashed across his face first, then displeasure.
"Anna…" he said quietly. There was no warmth in his voice, only pain.
"You came to stop me?"
She took a step closer, keeping her arms raised. The vampires behind her growled but didn't attack,someone was clearly holding them back.
"I couldn't not come," she whispered.
"Gerard… he summoned me. I couldn't disobey. You don't understand, Ethan. He controls my mind far more than you think."
"But I'm here to save you! Please, don't do this. If you strike with full force now… you'll die, and they will tear you apart."
Ethan stared at her. The last remnants of trust slowly died in his eyes.
"I trusted you," he said coldly, almost in a whisper.
"I believed in you. I thought you would help me. And you… you've sided with him and now you want to stop me."
"I didn't side with him!" Anna cried out desperately. Tears glistened in her eyes.
"I can't resist him! This isn't a life, Ethan. These are chains. But I'm risking everything just by standing here. If he finds out I'm trying to warn you…"
She didn't finish. One of the vampires behind her growled and leaped. Anna instantly spun around and struck him with a wave of shadows, throwing him back.
Ethan stood motionless. His fingers trembled. The seal on his hand pulsed harder. The darkness inside him demanded release.
"Step aside, Anna," he said at last. His voice became alien, filled with barely contained rage.
"If you're with him, then you're no longer with us. I won't stop. Not even for you."
Anna looked at him with such pain it was as if he had stabbed her in the heart.
"Then you'll have to kill me," she replied quietly. "Because I won't move, and I can stop you right now."
The vampires around them stirred, preparing for a new attack. Upstairs, Hale continued holding the guests hostage, while down here in the trap, the fate of several lives was being decided. Ethan and Anna stood face to face, separated by an abyss of betrayal that could now cost them both everything.
Ethan could no longer hold back. Rage mixed with the bitterness of betrayal flared up inside him like black flame.
"Enough," he growled.
Without looking at Anna anymore, he pushed off the floor. Shadow power surged through his veins, strengthening every muscle and bone. In a single leap, he crossed the distance to the VIP balcony, flew over the railing, and crashed down to the main hall on the first floor.
The landing was devastating. Ethan dropped to one knee, and at that exact moment, thick black sludge, living shadow mist, erupted from beneath him like living armor.
It wrapped around his knee, cushioning the impact, then spread across the floor in dark tendrils, forcing the nearest guests to recoil in horror. The floor beneath him cracked in a star-shaped web.
Hale stood only a few meters away, still controlling the crowd. He spun around sharply, but it was already too late.
Ethan shot upward like a living shadow. His hand lightning-fast grabbed Hale by the collar of his expensive suit and yanked him forward with such force that the fabric tore.
"You!" Ethan snarled into his face.
"You're part of this plan too."
Hale tried to break free, but the grip was iron. Ethan gave him no time. Turning, he smashed through a huge panoramic window with his shoulder. Glass exploded into a thousand shards, and both of them hurtled outside.
The wind roared to meet them. They fell from the height of the hundredth floor, tumbling through the air. Hale recovered instantly and slammed an elbow into Ethan's jaw. The blow was heavy, but Ethan only bared his teeth.
"You chose the wrong side," he hissed through the roar of the wind.
Hale twisted in the air like a cat and unleashed a series of rapid kicks. Each strike was accompanied by a flash of his own dark energy. Ethan blocked them with his forearms, wrapped in shadow sludge that absorbed the force of the blows.
They tumbled, switching positions, sometimes Ethan was on top, sometimes Hale tried to pin him against the building's wall.
"Gerard warned that you might snap!" Hale shouted, drawing two short blades from his belt.
The blades flashed in the light of the street lamps.
He struck downward. Ethan caught one wrist, but the second blade slashed across his shoulder, leaving a deep cut. Blood sprayed into the air, but the darkness immediately sealed the wound with a viscous black film.
"And I'm telling you, I'm done holding back," Ethan replied.
He spun sharply, using the momentum of the fall, and drove his knee into Hale's solar plexus. The shadow sludge on his knee transformed into a sharp spike that pierced Hale's defense. Hale gasped in pain.
They continued falling, exchanging blows. Each strike produced flashes of shadow lines and Luft. Ethan attacked furiously, pouring all his accumulated pain into every strike.
Hale responded with cold, calculated killer technique, searching for weaknesses.
The ground waited below for the two beings to crash onto the asphalt.
At the last moment, Ethan wrapped Hale in shadow tendrils, flipped him beneath himself, and accelerated their fall with a powerful burst of darkness.