Life Passed

A Transgender Paranormal Fantasy

From the Paranormal Visitor Universe

Chapter Nineteen: The Devastating Assault

By Sasha Zarya Nexus

How will Helen's last explosion of sacrificial unconditional love spread out on the battlefield be recieved?
What will become of the circle that Minuet has with her mother and Zibella and the Laura's family circle after Helen's effort?

Copyright 2008, 2025 by Sasha Zarya Nexus.
All Rights Reserved.

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Helen's announcement that she must make the ultimate sacrifice had left our entire community reeling from the magnitude of what lay ahead. But as Laura and I sat together in my bedroom the morning after Helen's devastating revelation, we could sense that the final confrontation was no longer approaching—it was here.

"Minuet," Laura said, her hand pressed to her Celtic Triquetra necklace as dark visions flowed through our telepathic connection, "they're moving. All of them. Elias has gathered his entire congregation, and Crane has organized them into attack teams."

Through our enhanced magical perception, we could see the truth of what was happening. This wasn't going to be another harassment campaign or isolated incident—Elias and Deacon Amon Crane had coordinated a simultaneous assault designed to overwhelm every circle, every practitioner, every family that carried the ancient wisdom in their hearts.

"It's happening now," I breathed, understanding flooding through me as I sensed the supernatural disturbances rippling across Cedar Hollow. "The final battle Helen warned us about."

Zibela and Michelle arrived and told me "We will go with you." Jubilee and Gladys arrived and told Laura the same thing.

The assault began at dawn, striking with military precision across our mountain community. Through our shared consciousness, Laura and I could witness the horror unfolding at multiple locations simultaneously.

At the Moonrise Circle's sanctuary, Sarah and her members found themselves surrounded by armed followers carrying iron weapons and protective charms. The building was already beginning to smolder from Elias's residual elemental energy, forcing the practitioners to choose between fleeing into the open or being trapped inside a burning structure.

"They've cut off all the escape routes," Laura reported, her mental voice tight with fear as she accessed visions of the coordinated attacks. "Crane planned this perfectly—every circle is isolated, unable to help the others."

The Oakwood Coven faced a similar assault at Marcus's family home, where three generations of practitioners had gathered for what they thought would be a protective ritual. Instead, they found themselves under siege by a mob that seemed to know exactly where their sacred items were hidden and how to disrupt their defensive spells.

"They have inside information," I realized with growing horror. "Someone's been feeding them details about our practices, our meeting places, our vulnerabilities."

But the most devastating attack was reserved for Tabitha's circle at the community center. Elias himself led this assault, his elemental powers no longer hidden or controlled. Flames erupted from his hands with each gesture, while his followers wielded iron weapons designed specifically to harm magical practitioners.

Through our telepathic connection to the various circles, Laura and I felt each defensive barrier crumble under the overwhelming assault. The protective wards that had taken years to establish were shattered within minutes by the combination of elemental fire and iron weapons.

"The Riverside Gathering is down," Laura reported, her voice hollow with despair. " The others tried to create a group barrier, but there are too many attackers. They're being forced out of their sanctuary."

One by one, we felt the magical defenses of our community collapse. The circles that had stood for generations, the sacred spaces that had protected practitioners for decades, the carefully woven network of spiritual protection—all of it was being systematically destroyed.

"We have to help them," I said, my thirteen-year-old voice cracking with the strain of witnessing such devastation. "We can't just sit here while everyone we love is being attacked."

"With what?" Laura asked, her own despair evident. "Our powers are still developing. We're just children against an army of adults with weapons designed to kill us."

Through our enhanced perception, we could see the supernatural threads that connected all the attacks. Elias's elemental power was flowing through his followers, giving them strength and coordination beyond normal human capabilities. Crane's organizational skills had turned a mob into a military force, striking at precisely the right moments to cause maximum damage.

The reports that reached us through our telepathic connections grew increasingly desperate as the assault continued. This wasn't just harassment or intimidation—people were being seriously hurt.

"Tabitha's been burned," I gasped, feeling her pain through our spiritual connection. "Elias hit her directly with elemental fire. She's alive, but barely."

Marcus from the Oakwood Coven had been struck down by iron weapons while trying to protect the younger members of his family. Sarah from the Moonrise Circle was trapped in her burning sanctuary, unable to escape without abandoning the sacred artifacts that had been in her family for generations.

"They're not just trying to drive us away," Laura realized with growing horror. "They're trying to destroy us completely. To wipe out every trace of the old ways from Cedar Hollow."

Through our shared sight, we could see the elemental fire spreading beyond Elias's direct control. Buildings were catching fire spontaneously, the very air seemed to shimmer with supernatural heat, and the ancient protections that had kept our community safe for centuries were burning away like paper.

"The altar," I whispered, understanding the full scope of Elias's strategy. "He's not just attacking the circles—he's drawing power from the ancient altar to fuel his assault. Every act of destruction makes him stronger."

As the situation reached its darkest point, as our community's magical defenses crumbled and our friends faced mortal danger, Helen appeared one last time. But her spiritual form was different now—blazing with accumulated energy, more solid and powerful than I'd ever seen her.

"Girls," she said, her voice carrying the authority of someone who had already transcended death, "it's time."

"Helen!" I cried out, relief flooding through me. "You can save them. You can stop this."

"Not save them," Helen corrected gently. "But I can give them—give all of us—one chance. One moment when love might triumph over hate."

Through our connection, Laura and I could feel Helen gathering every remaining bit of her spiritual essence. The energy she had been conserving for her final journey beyond the veil, the power she had been holding in reserve—all of it was being channeled into one desperate gambit.

"What are you going to do?" Laura asked, though I suspected we both already knew.

"I'm going to use everything I have left to create a bridge," Helen replied, her form beginning to glow with brilliant light. "A bridge between the living and the dead, between love and hate, between what is and what could be."

What happened next would be seared into my memory forever. Helen's spiritual form exploded outward, her essence flowing across Cedar Hollow like a wave of pure love and acceptance. For a moment, every person in our community—attacker and defender alike—was touched by her presence.

Through our telepathic connection, Laura and I felt Helen's love flowing into the hearts of Crane's followers, showing them the fear and pain that drove their hatred. We felt her compassion reaching out to Elias himself, trying to touch the broken soul of Ruth buried deep beneath his elemental rage.

"She's trying to heal everyone at once," I breathed, understanding the magnitude of what Helen was attempting. "She's using her entire spiritual existence to show them that love is stronger than hate."

For a moment, it seemed to work. The attacks faltered as Crane's followers found themselves overwhelmed by visions of the people they were hurting—not as demons or enemies, but as neighbors, friends, fellow human beings seeking only to live authentically.

Even Elias stumbled, his elemental fire flickering as Helen's love crashed against the walls of rage he had built around Ruth's authentic self. For just an instant, I saw her—the frightened transgender girl who had been beaten and broken until she forgot who she was.

But the elemental's power was too strong, its accumulated rage too deep. With a roar that shook the very foundations of reality, it rejected Helen's love and struck back with everything it had.

The backlash was devastating. Helen's spiritual form, which had been blazing with accumulated love and wisdom, suddenly began to fade. Not the gradual dimming we had witnessed before, but a catastrophic dissolution that left nothing behind.

"Helen!" I screamed, reaching out through our connection, but there was nothing there. No warmth, no presence, no sense of her continued existence anywhere in the spiritual realm.

"She's gone," Laura whispered, her voice hollow with shock. "Really gone. Not just faded or weakened—completely gone."

Through our telepathic connection to the circles, we felt the moment when every practitioner in Cedar Hollow realized what had happened. Their spiritual anchor, their guide, their source of wisdom and strength—Helen had sacrificed herself completely in a desperate attempt to save them all.

And it had failed.

Elias rose from where Helen's love had momentarily staggered him, his elemental power now burning brighter than ever. The fire spirit had not just rejected Helen's sacrifice—it had consumed her spiritual essence, adding her energy to its own destructive force.

"You see?" Elias called out, his voice carrying across the burning community with supernatural power. "Even your greatest demon could not stand against divine judgment. Now witness what happens to those who traffic with evil."

The attacks resumed with doubled intensity. Crane's followers, shaken by their momentary experience of Helen's love, threw themselves into their assault with the fury of people trying to deny what they had felt. The elemental fire spread faster, burned hotter, and consumed everything in its path.

As the sun set over Cedar Hollow, painting the sky the same orange as the fires that consumed our community, Laura and I sat in my bedroom surrounded by the wreckage of everything we had believed in. Our circles were scattered, our friends were injured or missing, our sacred spaces were burning, and Helen—our spiritual guide, our anchor, our source of hope—was gone forever.

"What do we do now?" Laura asked, her twelve-year-old voice small in the darkness.

I looked down at the Celtic Triquetra necklace around my neck, expecting to find it cold and lifeless now that Helen's presence had been completely extinguished. Instead, I felt something impossible—a faint warmth, a subtle pulse, as if some tiny spark of her love had survived the elemental's consumption.

"I don't know," I admitted, my voice trembling with the weight of our impossible situation. "Helen was supposed to guide us through this. She was supposed to show us how love could triumph over hate. But she's gone, and we're just children facing an enemy that's more powerful than ever."

Zibela, Jubilee, Michelle and Gladys intervened with Zibela speaking for them, " Our two circles will stand in the gap so that the plan will be accomplished."

Through our telepathic connection, I felt Laura's despair mixing with my own. We had been chosen as guardians, marked by ancient magic, blessed with awakening powers, and none of it mattered. We were twelve-year-old girls facing a supernatural force that had just consumed the most powerful spiritual presence we had ever known.

The war for Cedar Hollow's soul was over, and love had lost.

The Celtic Triquetra necklace pulsed once more against my chest, so faintly I might have imagined it. But in that tiny spark of warmth, I felt something that might have been hope—or might have been the last echo of a love so profound that not even elemental fire could completely destroy it.

This was absolute and devastating: Helen had sacrificed herself completely in a desperate attempt to save our community, and it had failed. Our spiritual guide was gone forever, our defenses were shattered, our friends were scattered and injured, and Elias's power had grown beyond anything we could hope to face.

The darkest hour had arrived, and we were alone with our circles in the darkness, armed with nothing but the fading memory of a love that had proven insufficient against the ancient rage that threatened to consume everything we held dear.

But sometimes, in the deepest darkness, the smallest light can illuminate the path forward. And sometimes, love's greatest triumph comes not in its moment of apparent victory, but in its refusal to be completely extinguished, even when faced with forces that seem infinitely more powerful.

The real test of our faith was just beginning.