"Leave the innocent out of this!" At that very moment, Melania descended upon the castle garden, riding the winds with Aria's aid. Her voice cut through the chaos:
"Deux, there's no use trying to ripen a rotten apple. But if you have a problem , settle it with me."
Everyone was at ease as the empress arrived, her words resonated with their hearts and brought a sense of security.
" Here comes the empress, your expression right now makes me too excited, you look worried, angry, sad and disappointed. Who would have expected the tough elf would see a day like this."
"Shut up deux, or the consequence would not be good for you."
While their confrontation raged, a thunderous explosion echoed from behind. Melania turned — and her heart shattered. The elves, her people — her family — were killed right before her eyes, they were reduced to ashes.
This wasn't just an attack. It was a targeted annihilation.
The spell used was a rare one and was used against dangerous enemies, a type of self destruction magic deployed against the will of the user — one that required teleportation crystals. And only one person was capable of wielding such a spell using teleportation crystals.
Melania's lips trembled as the name surfaced against her will. Among the mages casting protective spells a familiar silhouette stood out , a person wearing a black hood removed it only for it to be revealed as Rica.
"Ha ...ha ...serves you right elf, serves you right. Skeleton lord attack everyone"
Casper issued the order, " Head priests dispel the darkness with your karmic energy."
Boom...boom....swishhhh....swashhhh....there was chaos outside the people's protection barrier, but the priests were on the wining side, their divine powers worked efficiently and so either Casper or Melania did not had to intervene.
Melania was flabbergasted.
Her chest tightened. Her mind screamed in denial.
"No... it can't be..."
But the truth stood right before her eyes.
Tears welled up as she screamed, "Rica! Why?! Was our friendship so shallow that you had to stoop this low? You were the last person I could even imagine doing something so cruel. I had trusted you Rica. People used to give the epitome of our friendship, it was known to all to. TELL ME RICA, WHY DID YOU DO SO?
Rica didn't feel a bit of remorse for what she did, she did not utter a word of justification but just said these words through the mind voice, "You took away my everything".
Melania was disheartened, her trust was broken, a seed of betrayal from her most trusted person was planted deep within her heart, she could only feel hatred for the person she loved.
Melania sent a mind voice to Rica, the unrepentant Rica finally had a tear in her eye.
Danver took hold of Rica tied her hand behind with the help of magical cuffs which drained out mana ensuring she couldn't use any more spells, he brought these when he came out of the royal treasury, thinking he would require it sometime soon. And he was right, but did not think it would be Rica. He was disappointed. After all the events in the castle, he still thought that Rica would never have a hand in this. But he was proven wrong. He did not utter her word to her, but his gaze did meet Rica.
Rica just blatantly ignored Danver, he wanted a explanation from her but now was not the right time. Rica just turned her head away from Melania and Danver's gaze.
There was chaos within the protective shield, people were afraid after seeing such a horrific scene and within this chaotic situation was a perfect moment to deal the final blow.
Before Melania could react to kill the very enemy that trespassed this place, Deux lunged forward and plunged the sword into Melania's heart — the very sword Rica had been told to safeguard in the treasury.
Blood oozed out of Melania's heart spilling like a fountain of water, it pierced right through her spirit core as expected of a spiritual weapon bound by a forbidden curse.
The havoc around settled down, as something unbelievable happened before their eyes, at an unusual speed something which no ones eyes could follow.
A cheap move, an attack from behind was despicable. If it was a face to face battle, the one lying down would be deux, such thoughts came across each and everyone.
There was silence for a moment, then a surge of noise was heard, everyone started screaming and crying. Their eyes in disbelief, their empress was covered in blood.
Melania fell, her life spilling away like sand through fingers. A quick shadow moved across everyone's eyes. It was Dani . Arriving at the scene, she caught Melania in her arms. "Melania!" she cried. "Someone heal her — quickly!"
The divine healer Sophia came hurriedly. She was the strongest and capable of all She started to tend to Melania's wounds immediately, for the was curse so huge, it left a hole in her body. All the priests knelt down, and started praying to goddess Lunaris earnestly to quickly recover their empress. Everyone started praying for they wanted their empress to be alright. Prayers echoed around the whole garden chanting the goddesses name.
Casper came forward with the sword in his hand , grasped tightly, to attack this malicious person. But Deux surrendered willingly with a cruel smirk and the skeleton lord had disappeared. Casper got hold of deux along with the other knights surrounding him if he tries to run away. But looking at deux, he was not trying to struggle in any way. Even with the skeleton lords disappearance, there was darkness looming around .Deux's plan had reached its climax, this was what he was waiting for more than anything- Melania's death.
Casper was devastated. He had seen everything yet couldn't stop it. Deux had cast a curse spell on the spiritual weapon — it went berserk hence was so fast that even the sharpest eyes couldn't follow. Casper was seriously regretting as he could not do anything to the enemy who tried to kill his loved one. He wanted to strangle deux, but could not do anything as some task were still left, to know who the mastermind was and why did they do something so vicious.
"This skeleton mage is a forbidden magic from that vile group of people who use necromancy," Casper whispered. "This points to one group — the cruelmancers…"
CRUELMANCERS, DEUX AND RICA.... Many questions were still left to answered.
Everyone was helpless in this situation; the curse had seeped so deep that there was no turning point.
Melania's pulse grew fainter with each passing second. She looked up at Dani and whispered weakly, "Stop the healing… nothing can reverse this curse now."
Her voice trembled as she clutched Dani's hand.
"I knew… I suspected who was behind this all…but I was too late. Kill those cruelmancers for me."
Dani did not listen to Melania's words to put a hold on her healing and told Sophia to continue with her healing. She wanted to try everything that could be helpful to Melania.
Melania thought to herself, that humans were greedy and there was no need to associate with them in the first place.
My mother was right, I should have never trusted them. Mother, I wish you were with me today, I want to seek my vengeance, I feel so bitter I don't know what do. I am only a few minutes away from crossing this line of life to afterlife, I don't want to die yet as I am want to know their reason behind these evil intentions. What would happen to Memoria after I die, it would be broken apart, was this their plan all along?
I am to blame for this downfall, I forgotten your lesson, mother, that the people most close to us are the ones who hurt us. I should have been careful. Your death, mother, I didn't believe it that time, to be humans, when you whispered in my ears at your final moments to beware against them. I only thought all humans to be as kind and caring as Rica and blindly believed them all. Even Rica was fake. Mother, please forgive me for my incompetence.
I want to be reborn, I want to take my REVENGE. I wished I could reverse time over.
She cried bitterly in her mind, What's the use of being so powerful when I couldn't change anything, the world before the great war and now, nothing seems to have changed.
Such thoughts crossed Melania's words, WHERE DID IT START TO GO ALL WRONG?
It was as though fate had some other plans for her as everything slipped through her hands today, like grains of sand slipping out of her control.
The divine spells was also of no use, everyone was in panic not knowing what to do.
With her final breath, Melania smiled faintly. Then, from the Sword of Unity embedded in her chest, a radiant light erupted — bright as the noonday sun.
The darkness disappeared but everyone was astonished especially Dani as the body above her knees felt cold, lifeless.
Everyone cried bitterly, YOUR MAJESTY, it echoed through out.
This was what Melania heard before taking her last breath.
Melania thought she was in her afterlife.
As the light was becoming brighter with no ends or boundaries to be seen.
All her memories of her past life flashed before her eyes.
She thought about the great tree of life, about her mother, her elven siblings, her people, Dani, Danver and Casper and her spirits she had connection with.
The vivid sceneries of Memoria were still alive, those beautiful landscapes of Eleirs where she passed her time.
"I will miss them all."
"Oh, the great tree of life, listen to my prayers, I want to stand up for my kin, I regret everything, I want to have a second chance, I want to save my mother and all my innocent kin.
Suddenly, it became dark, Melania couldn't process anything as she was still in shock after all these events. She felt as though she was losing herself. And finally everything became still.
In an unfamiliar place,
a faint voice echoed,
"WHERE AM I…?"