The kingdom of Aetheria shimmers beneath a sun overflowing with magic, where the streets bustle with a noisy life mixed with the fragrance of spells; merchants call out to their goods with enthusiastic dedication, and children run in the alleys with loud laughter, showing off their small magic sparks in front of their peers in an innocent display of power.
Yet this lovely bustle is not devoid of sharp glances cast by the nobles with arrogance and contempt toward those of lower status, as if the earth is only worthy of its masters' footsteps.
Far from the noise of the commoners, we turn toward the dark and majestic side of Aetheria; where the Palace of the Dragon Reaper stands.
A palace whose walls scream with obscene wealth, and from whose ancient corridors wafts the distinctive scent of ash that tells the tales of fallen dragons.
In the main hall, guards and servants stood on high alert, filled with a mix of awe and loyalty, awaiting the first heir's appearance.
The massive doors swung open for him to enter with an earth-shattering majesty; he was wearing his black royal suit studded with gold threads, and his blazing golden aura radiated the cold scent of death that freezes blood in the veins.
He stepped forward with an unbroken royal arrogance, and with a gesture full of dignity, he raised his hand to sweep his rebellious brown hair back, revealing features as sharp as a sword.
That sarcastic side smirk never left his face, a smile telling the world that everything he sees is nothing but private property under his control.
His footsteps over the cold marble played the melody of sovereignty, and everyone around him held their breath, for in the presence of the Reapers' heir, silence is the only possible greeting.
Andrew stopped before the giant doors of the royal meeting room, that hall which only the elite Reaper leaders enter.
With a single strike from the guards' hands, the heavy doors opened to reveal a scene overflowing with awe; senior leaders gathered around the circular table, and at its head sat the Leader of the Reapers, his father, with a majesty that overpowered everyone in the room.
Andrew's side smirk widened when his sight fell upon his father, walking with confident steps suggesting victory, as if his features screamed:
"The mission has been accomplished as you wished"
He stood in the middle of the hall, with his head held high, while the Leader of the Reapers placed his massive hand over the marble table, gazing at his son with looks as sharp as blades, looks that almost killed him before he uttered a single letter.
The Leader of the Reapers growled with a voice coming from the depths of his chest:
"Wipe that damned smile off your face.. and tell me, did you kill that scum?"
Andrew answered with complete confidence, placing his hand behind his back in a dignified military posture:
"It didn't take a single second of my time.. What would a human without a single drop of mana do before the soul of a dragon?"
The Leader of the Reapers hummed, the sharpness of his eyes intensified to let his aura rage with silent anger, and his hand gripped the armrest of the golden chair with a force that made the gold melt under its lethal heat, as if his doubts began to gnaw at his certainty in his heir.
He said in a calm and terrifying tone:
"Really?.. Then, where is Caius?"
A dead silence prevailed in the hall.
Andrew swallowed hard with difficulty, struggling to hide his confusion behind a mask of coldness, but the beads of sweat that broke out on his forehead betrayed him before his father's piercing insight.
Suddenly, the Leader of the Reapers burst into a brutal scream that shook the palace walls:
"Why didn't you bring him, you cursed one?!"
The Leader's golden aura surged out of control, surrounding the entire palace, announcing the eruption of a relentless volcano.
The chandeliers shook and the glass shattered in the corridors, while Andrew remained frozen in place, realizing that his lie had placed his neck beneath his father's guillotine.
The Leader of the Reapers rose from his throne with a terrifying slowness, as if a mountain of lava had begun to move.
He headed toward Andrew with measured steps, every step echoing in the hall like a death sentence.
His features were as sharp as a blade, and his eyes gleamed with an explicit threat of murder, making the air freeze in the chests of the attending leaders.
He didn't even grant him the honor of blinking; and with a lightning-fast motion, his thick hand pounced on Andrew's neck, squeezing it with brutal force, lifting him off the ground as if he were a doll.
Andrew's face reddened intensely, and his eyes bulged as he gazed at his father with terror mixed with realization; he fully understands that this man before him possesses not an atom of mercy, and will not hesitate to crush his throat and end his life at this very moment.
Andrew struggled to force the words past his bluish lips, speaking with extreme difficulty while his face turned dark blue from excessive choking:
"I.. saw her.. with my own eyes.. her body was completely destroyed.. I sensed no pulse.. nor breathing.. she died.. I am sure.. even Caius.. fell to the ground.. collapsed.."
As soon as he finished his halting words, his father threw him to the ground with tremendous force, Andrew's body slamming against the cold marble, producing a muffled sound as he coughed and tried to recover his stolen breath, while his father remained standing above him like the Angel of Death, analyzing the truth of his words amidst an aura of ash and anger.
I sat cross-legged on the laboratory bed with complete ease, as if I hadn't just been a human wreck struggling with annihilation a short while ago.
I stretched my limbs forcefully, feeling a strange pleasure as I heard the cracking sound of my shoulder and neck bones regaining their flexibility, which sent an indescribable comfort through my body as if blood had started flowing in my veins for the very first time.
With total coldness and deliberate disregard, I raised my hand to run it through the strands of my glowing red hair, combing its rebellious waves with my fingers and rearranging it slowly, while all their eyes remained fixed on me in stunned silence.
The scene around me was bursting with contradictions:
Christoph stood in front of me blinking with a comical, blank expression, signs of complete disbelief etched across his entire face; he couldn't comprehend how I had come back to life, and even returned better and stronger than I was previously thanks to the insulating stone material that mended my shattered pieces.
Caius—I caught him out of the corner of my eye, sitting with his overwhelming majesty, leaning against the chair with terrifying focus.
His sharp yellow eyes gleamed with a predatory sparkle as they tracked the movement of my fingers precisely through the strands of my hair, causing a vague, semi-side smirk to form on his face, as if he now saw in me an opponent worth the trouble of waiting.
As for Vasileus, he was the calmest; his arms were crossed over his chest, his back leaning against the medical device, and he was gazing at me with a slight smile filled with professional satisfaction.
He broke the thread of awe that enveloped the place, saying in a tone that finally carried a breath of relief:
"Aria has returned..."
I smiled inwardly as I felt a renewed power flowing through my entity; I was no longer that victim anticipating death, but I had become the death that others fear.
I raised my head and challenged Caius's yellow gaze, as if telling him silently that the game had just begun.
My feet slipped over the cold laboratory floor; the texture of the hard marble beneath my skin restored some of my lost reality.
I left behind the white bed that reeked of unpleasant antiseptics, my body swaying lightly as if I were learning how to walk all over again.
"A warm bath and tank hibernation.. that's all I need right now before uprooting heads."
I muttered in a husky voice, my eyes searching for the exit as if looking for a lifeline from this glass prison.
The echo of my words had barely faded when a masculine laughter pierced my ears, mocking and cold like a blade.
"Tank hibernation?! Aria, you've slept for a whole week.. It seems I'm really going to suffer."
I froze in my place.
The blood congealed in my veins and I furrowed my brow in astonishment, trying to grasp the impact of those words.
A week? Did he say a week?
I turned very slowly, as if my neck were rusty joints, and said in a tone filled with denial:
"Liar.. that's impossible."
Yet Christoph's blank features, and the evasive eyes of Vasileus—which were roaming every corner of the room except my face—were the shock that confirmed the bitter truth to me.
I placed my hand over my mouth, and a stunned, hysterical laughter erupted from between my lips, while my eyes widened as I gazed at Caius.
He was returning that look with his customary mockery and provocative coldness, and damn him...
Even the bond between us had begun pumping his certain feelings into my chest, feelings that left no room for doubt.
Vasileus sighed deeply, injecting his sober tone into the chaos that had begun to ignite inside me:
"This is normal, Aria.. Your body was completely destroyed from the inside, to the extent that you survived by an unbelievable divine miracle."
I remained staring at Caius in silence, trying to swallow the magnitude of the temporal disaster I had fallen into, while my mind was still trying to comprehend that the world had continued to spin for seven whole days while I was merely a lifeless corpse on this bed.
I closed my eyes tightly until I felt my eyelids trembling, as if trying to trap a volcano of blood behind them.
In that darkness, I saw nothing but the cursed face of "Andrew." I began cursing him with words dripping with poison, for every cell in my body cursed the moment he dared to destroy my necklace.
Had it not been for him.. had it not been for his foolishness and that filthy hand that reached out for what belongs to me, everything wouldn't have collapsed, and I wouldn't have surrendered to this devastation tearing apart the place and my soul right now.
"I swear by the darkness of this world, I will uproot that damn head of his.. I will rip out his filthy heart with these two hands of mine, and I will pull out his entrails coldly and tie him up with them like a humiliating sacrifice!"
My voice came out fractured, sharp.
I raised my hands in the air, mimicking the motion of tearing and killing with bitter ecstasy.
I felt the veins in my head and neck standing out like tight ropes about to burst beneath my skin, while the black aura of nothingness began leaking from my pores, wrapping around me like hungry vipers writhing in a funerary dance, drawing its strength from my fast, agitated breaths.
In the corner of the room, Caius was watching me.
He didn't move; instead, he remained standing coldly, his hands resting in his trouser pockets with provocative indifference.
I caught that slight side smirk forming on his lips, while his golden eyes gleamed with a strange flicker, as if he were watching an entertaining theatrical show rather than a monster about to explode.
In contrast, Christoph stood confused, shifting his anxious glances between me and the destruction surrounding us.
He stepped forward, whispering in a pleading tone:
"Aria, calm down.. please.."
"I won't calm down!"
I cut him off with a scream that tore through the silence of the place, a scream that didn't emerge from my throat but from the rage lurking in the depths of my being.
"I won't calm down until I carry out this crime of mine literally!"
I turned away from them with a body trembling from an excess of bottled-up power.
With every step I planted into the floor, the marble groaned and shattered beneath my feet, and the walls around me cracked and fractured the moment my black aura touched them, as if the place itself trembled at my passing.
I strode toward my room, leaving behind a trail of ruin, and an intent to kill that no power in this world could extinguish.
I entered the room and pushed the door behind me with all the spite I could muster, causing it to slam against the frame with a thud that shook the foundations of the walls.
I needed to quench this burning fire beneath my skin.
I headed straight toward the bathroom, letting the warm water flow over my body, trying to persuade my tense muscles to relax, but alas; the image of destruction and ruin was engraved behind my eyelids, fueling the fires of my hatred for "Andrew."
I walked out a short time later, the towel wrapped tightly around me, while steam rose from my warm body to mingle with the coldness of the room.
I moved with quick, confident steps toward the closet, my breathing still heavy, and every cell in me screaming for vengeance.
I grabbed a pair of short shorts and put them on indifferently, leaving the upper part of my body in just a bralette, for I was not in a state that allowed me to endure the feel of extra fabric against my skin, which was glowing with heat.
I flung myself onto my bed, but I didn't feel the comfort I was seeking.
I felt my body like a boiling cauldron; that dark power, the aura of nothingness, was still pulsing in my veins, flowing like volcanic lava and demanding one thing only:
Andrew's blood.
I lay down while watching the ceiling of the room, my eyes gleaming with a predatory sparkle.
The heat coursing through my body wasn't due to the warm water, but rather the "fever of rage" that had taken up residence in my soul.
I could hear my heartbeat thumping like war drums, and every single beat whispered his name.. promisingly, vengefully, and with a retribution whose waiting would not be long.