After hearing those words, Eyshan tried to move a few times, but it was futile; she could do nothing but make slow, rigid twitches back and forth.
"Mora, my old friend. My sister!"
The long-faced woman, her body mutated beyond recognition, dropped to her knees in mid-air and bowed her head to the ground as if in prostration.
"I am a sinner. Up until this day, even up to this very moment, I have done unimaginably wicked things, but please, listen to me! Before you take my life, just listen to me, please!"
Something unexpected happened; the Queen of Hell was begging in a tone of voice no one had ever heard from her before.
"Eyshan!"
"Mora, I'm not asking you to forgive me! Just listen to what I have to say!"
Despite the blood daggers pressed against her throat, the Queen of Hell didn't flinch a single millimeter and kept pleading. With death knocking at her door, she had chosen this path as her absolute last resort.
"Mora, kill her!" "Don't listen to her, kill her!"
The people on the ground, watching the battle with bated breath, were furious at this turn of events. They were screaming in unison for Eyshan's death.
"You, the almighty Queen of Hell, Eyshan... does it suit you to fall to your knees and beg before me?"
"Mora, how could my name even be spoken where your shadow falls? It's all because of that demon called the Master! Let me explain everything!"
The blood daggers pulled back a fraction of an inch from her neck; Eyshan wasn't about to let this opportunity slip by.
"I was ten years old, the firstborn child of my family. My mother chased after glamour and vanity; my father lusted for power and dominance. And then there was you—more beautiful, more talented, and stronger than me!"
Eyshan paused for a moment; the blood daggers were no longer in sight.
"I waited for things to change as we grew up, but as the days passed, the gap between us only widened. And then, there was another contender for the throne. My younger brother was my father's new favorite; while doting on him, he didn't even acknowledge my existence.
It was while I was living through all that hell that the man came. He appeared in my bedroom one night. All alone, he had easily bypassed all the defenses of the Hell Palace. I thought I was going to die of sheer terror. He was so powerful that I couldn't even imagine taking a breath without his permission.
He told me exactly what I had to do, promising that if I obeyed him, the entire Hell Realm would be mine. Understand me, Mora, we were just kids, and I honestly thought I would die if I didn't become Queen.
You and my brother got along so well, and my father kept going on and on about how you two would make a blessed couple. He told anyone who would listen that he wouldn't marry me off, that a weak bloodline had no place in the future of the royalty.
I made a choice. I traded the lives of the people I loved to save my own."
Mora dropped to one knee and lifted Eyshan's head. Eyshan's face, strained by her bloated body, was covered in tears, and her eyes couldn't bear to meet Mora's.
"Eyshan, you were my only friend. I always loved you as if you were my own sister!"
Mora slowly leaned forward and pressed her forehead against Eyshan's. Two teardrops slipped from her cheeks, falling silently toward the earth below.
"Technique Dispel!"
Eyshan muttered it softly at first, but then screamed it at the top of her lungs.
"Rot in hell!"
A dagger materialized in her right hand and struck at Mora's heart, while her left hand hurled a cloud of purple dust right into Mora's face. Eyshan's body reverted to the state it was in before she stole the male Apostle's energy—frail and repulsive.
"You stupid bitch! After everything that's happened, you still swallow my lies! You might have beaten me today, but my return will be spectacular. I will bring the Master with me and wipe every last one of you out of existence!"
Eyshan immediately bolted away; she had no intention of wasting a second to make her escape.
"Eyshan!"
The pitch-black sky on the eve of the solstice was torn asunder by that scream, and a beam of light cast down upon Mora. The dagger the long-faced woman had struck with was firmly lodged in Mora's left hand, yet Mora held her bow steadily, even though her eyes were completely shut.
Though she had managed to avert the lethal dagger strike to her heart, the purple dust had clearly robbed her of her sight. Her fleeing enemy made no sound, distancing herself while unable to hide the smirk of a plan well-executed.
A blood-red arrow, three spans long, materialized out of thin air in Mora's right hand. Without pulling the dagger out of her left hand, she drew her bow and nocked the arrow. She waited, waited, waited... and then released the crimson arrow adorned with faint flame patterns.
Eyshan kept one eye looking back; no matter what, the person targeting her was someone she used to be terrified of. Seeing the arrow leave the bow, she stopped and tracked its trajectory, her hands trembling involuntarily.
"Ha, ha, ha! You blind whore, you couldn't find me once I masked my energy, could you?"
The long-faced woman yelled through gritted teeth; the long arrow was flying meters below her.
"Eyshan, you might have forgotten the past, but..."
Mora fell silent, the arrow flew on, and the red-haired woman spoke once more.
"Blood never forgets!"
She raised her right hand to the sky. At that exact moment, the arrow violently changed direction and impaled Eyshan's body right above it.
"N... No way! Impossible!"
The long-faced woman's body burst into flames. She was clearly trying to neutralize the poison in the arrow, but judging by the look on her face, she was failing miserably.
"Don't bother struggling; this is completely out of your hands! Remember... remember the cut you took on your body the day you murdered your father. The arrow you were just shot with was forged from your own blood, and the poison inside it was brewed specifically for you.
I knew this day would come as surely as I know my own name. Don't worry, the poison won't kill you—it will only ensure you can't move a single muscle!"
Having finished her words, Mora walked with calm, measured steps toward the paralyzed Eyshan. The long-faced woman tried to say something, but it was useless; she couldn't even twitch her mouth.
"What a tragedy that your venomous tongue can no longer spit its lies; you might have actually managed to fool me again. You could have spun a tale about how someone else pushed the dagger you tried to plunge into my heart, or how innocent and pitiful your childhood really was.
Do you think those years were easy for me? Even though I knew the truth, do you have any idea how many nights I cried until dawn, blaming myself for my mother's death? Do you know how many days I waited by the window just to catch a single glimpse of my father's face?
Your family became the substitute for the family whose warmth I never got to feel. You stripped all of that away from me, and you're still trying to make me pity you? You are heartless, Eyshan. There might be an organ beating in your chest, but you won't find a single soul who would call it a heart.
Today, I'm taking it. Because you don't even deserve that!"
Mora extended her right hand. Coated in manifesting blood energy, her hand morphed into a claw and slowly phased into Eyshan's chest. Two breaths later, Mora had what she wanted right in the palm of her hand. Through it all, she never broke eye contact with Eyshan.
She yanked her hand back, and right in front of everyone's eyes, she crushed the beating heart in her palm, utterly obliterating it. As Eyshan's lifeless corpse and the blood dripping from Mora's hand hit the ground simultaneously, Mora watched them in silence.
The garden where they had once played so joyfully as children was now blanketed by the breathless corpses of Eyshan and thousands of others.
"Goodbye, my greatest enemy... and my best friend!"