The howl of the ancient one, a feral bellow of rage and despair, thundered through the crumbling spires as Elara released a final, desperate burst of wild power. The rune on her hand glowed with a fierce, blinding light, a harbinger's lantern in the closing shadows, and the scarlet sigils on her skin pulsed with a mad rhythm, a cacophonous symphony of defiance. From the depths of the chasm, the voice of centuries breathed, "If I may not have you, none shall," a chilling promise as the chasm began to implode, poised to suck them all into a crimson whirlpool and obscurity.
The boiling whirlpool, a maddening combination of rubic light and strangling dark, intensified, its hold an inescapable force to rend them apart. The buildings around them crashed down into nothingness, rock and shadow entwining with the boiling chaos. Elara's own form, quivering at the raw power that flowed through her, felt the dark energy of the ancient one ripping at her mind, an unsuccessful try at reclaiming her vessel.
"Elara!" Caius shouted, his voice cracking, his eyes afire with desperate hunger. He sprang towards her, beyond the leaning stones and the swirling vortex, his hand outstretched, a lifeline in creeping darkness. "Break! You have to break the connection!"
Elara, her eyes red, her mind a struggle between her own will and the ancient creature's, could sense the dark power encroaching, attempting to bind her to its will. The rune on her palm pulsed, its light burning into her skin, a black mark that hungered to consume her.
"I'm trying!" she panted, her voice taut, her fists clenching into fists. "But it's… it's too powerful! It wants to command me, to use me!"
The voice of the ancient one, a chill whisper in her mind, grew louder, became more insistent. "You are mine, Elara. By blood, by rune, by the vows you broke. You cannot flee your destiny. You are a tool for my power."
The whirlpool grew deeper, its power drawing closer, the maelstrom energy swirling around them, in peril of tearing them asunder. The destruction on all sides was swallowed up by the void, and they were left hanging in a swirling vortex of rubicund light and stifling night.
Caius, his own hand still outstretched, reached out to her, his eyes blazing with a fierce resolve. "Elara, look at me," he pleaded, his throat hoarse. "You're not alone. I'm here. We'll endure this together. Your willpower is stronger than any spell of the past."
Elara, her gaze jerking between the roiling whirlpool and Caius's set jaw, felt a strange warmth ignite in her breast, a hesitant glimmer of hope in the looming darkness. She saw the unbreakable determination in his eyes, the fierce devotion that burnt within him, a love that was mightier than the old force.
"I. I can't," she hissed, her throat constricted, eyes wide with desperate pleading. "It's trying to control me, to use what there is between us to tear everything apart."
"Feday them, then," Caius said, his voice determined, his hand coming to rest upon her cheek, his fingers stroking across the chaos in soft caress. "Fight us. Fight for what could have been between us. Fight for the love that binds us, that it may never be able to understand."
His words, a final appeal against the authority of the ancient one, echoed in the dim spark of hope she clung to. She felt the red power thrumming in her, the raw power that had forged their bond, pounding between them, a physical link that would not be refused by the ancient darkness.
She leaned toward him, her fingers trembling, tracing the hard set of his jaw. "I will," she whispered, and in her voice there was a new resolve. "I will fight for us. I will not let it have victory."
The scarlet figure stood before them, its shape fading and uncertain, watching them, its eyes with a burning passionate possession. The whirlpool pounded, its strength moving around them, a chaotic rhythm of darkness and light.
Caius, his eyes burning with a desperate gentleness, approached, his warm breath on her lips. "Then show me," he whispered, his voice a harsh caress. "Show me how strong you are. Show me the love that burns stronger than any magic power of the ages."
His words, promise and challenge ignited a flame in her, a raw, savage hunger that blazed over the lingering fear. She pressed against him, her lips travelling to his in a wild, frenzied kiss, a kiss against the ancient power, a kiss that forged a new bond in the midst of the chaos.
The crimson energy around them grew stronger, pulsing and swirling, a physical manifestation of their bond. The ancient entity let out a roar, a snarl of anger and frustration, its form trembling and wavering. The vortex throbbed, its energy spinning around them, an unstable dance of light and darkness.
As they deepened the kiss, the red energy flared between them, a wild, untrammelled power that had them in its thrall, a bond created in the crucible of chaos, a bond that was unfathomable yet unbreakable despite the ancient shadows. All that lay outside them tumbled into a mad whirligig of red light and blinding dark, a whirligig dance of rebellion and passion. Elara was able to feel the power of the ancient entity diminish, its hold on her mind weakening, as the pressure of their passion pushed the ancient shadows back. Hand in hand, with an unbroken fury, they raged back at the encroaching darkness, and the enchantment of the kiss, this ugly and beautiful thing, began to change the vortex itself.
As their kiss intensifies and the red energy entwines them around one another, the red shape charges, its shape becoming more solid and blacker, and its voice changing to a sweeter and more deadly sound, "If I am not going to get both of you, then I will take you both with me," and the whirlpool begins to collapse, threatening to pull all of them in with it into a crazy grip of darkness and desire, and the red energy within the whirlpool begins to respond to their combined power, changing and shifting.