novelraw Chapter 1524 - 1523 - Gone
Chapter 1524 - 1523 - Gone
King Mandrell frowned at the report in front of him.
The chaos in Carta had far exceeded his expectations and that was not good. He quickly summoned a minister and gave him some materials to be laced around his eldest son. He had always favored his siblings over the needs of the kingdom.
He always prepared to sacrifice one of his children, especially if they proved troublesome to his own reign.
Things were already in motion when he was surprised by someone. The female Fiend had come and she looked at him with a smile that did not excite him.
He actually felt the revulsion most cultivators felt when faced with a Fiend and he had never felt that from her before.
"Always meticulous in your preparations. Normally, it would divert the fools that dare call themselves supreme but the game has changed my dear partner. Surely you know whom I speak about?" She moved delicately through his chambers.
She picked up a portrait of a gorgeous human woman but she smiled at the resemblance to her. He recalled how the artist had been entranced and later killed by her.
It was a mercy for his excellent work.
She caressed the silver frame as a warmer smile temporarily replaced the chilling one but then it vanished into her golden ring on her left hand. Another gift from him. She had many.
A sort of premonition fell on Mandrell at that moment. He realized what she was talking about.
His schemes would derail many other powers because they dealt with similar issues in their own or were commonplace enough that they would be satisfied.
A new power had arisen, however, that did not suffer from such issues. Further, it never gave up once an ally of Fiends was found.
The Frey Clan and now the Harmonic Dragons of the Throne of Defiance. To put the icing on the cake, the target had been the ancestor of both powers! Mandrell was doomed and he knew far too much.
"So, I am to become a part of you?" His voice was remarkably calm. It was like a door had closed and he no longer considered other options.
Honest surprise crossed her face before real laughter came out. It was still her vile voice and disturbing energies but he was long since used to it. He actually smiled to see her so happy.
"Honestly, I am sad to do this. You have been a refreshing experience in my long life. The Great One actually asked me to make reports about my experience to see if we could find others like you but you are unique." She then moved closer and her shimmering black robes were silent.
She then pushed him back from his desk and sat in his lap while never breaking eye contact with him.
"I always wondered what you felt with each other. Lust is something we grasp easily but love? Love is alien to us. Yet, I find myself reluctant to kill you. That is probably as close as any of my kind has ever come to it." Her smile was no longer the disturbing one from before and her distorted eyes bore into his own with a gentleness no Fiend had ever shown anyone.
"May I know one thing?" She pulled back and frowned but he smiled up at her as he took off a ring from his left hand and offered it to her. "I care not how others remember me but you know the true me. Take this and if it is not offensive, remember whatever brought you joy."
Conflicted emotions flared on her face before she leaned her forehead against his.
"You truly are the one for me. I am actually so glad you chose me as your companion back then. It has been a good time for me. Also, you will not be gone for a long time to come." Confusion flared before his body flared in pain like he had never felt before.
His crystal desperately tried to resist at first but he calmed his emotions and let it happen. He opened his eyes and looked at her as something precious slipped from him into her hands.
A soul was something tangible to Immortals and thus he recognized his own. He had heard the horror stories from those barely saved in time but he found the words did not do the process justice.
His sense of his body was fading but his awareness was not! He was still him as the world began to fade away. The last thing he heard before darkness closed in on everything were words that moved him.
"You will always be with me, beloved." The voice was distorted by tears. A Fiend could cry!
Mandrell fell deeply into darkness for what seemed forever until things slowed down. He heard something faintly that then grew stronger.
Screams, begging, crying, and so many wails for mercy began to surround him. Mandrell should have been disturbed but once more he simply grasped the truth. He had reached the dantian of a Fiend.
It was not a pleasant experience but he had known going in what his fate would be if he did not die before it was all over. Only a fool deals with Fiends and did not grasp that fact.
He had made peace with it long ago.
Did he have no survival instincts at all? Not at all. He was displeased that he had not succeeded at all his endeavors. He had lived long enough to see the twilight of his life and he did not like it.
A body that had endured had begun to wear down. Immortals could not endure without progressing or some kind of external renewal. Only the soul endured beyond physical existence.
He disliked the inaccuracy but now that he was a soul he knew it was a strange way to live. All his personality and knowledge was intact yet he felt incomplete. The distraction of the pain as he settled into his one place was almost welcome.
It was only when the refinement began that he too began to grunt and squirm. She was going to turn him into her foundation and he finally resisted! He did not want to die that way!
It was only at the moment he truly grasped the horror of what was to come! He was just a pill or other resource to her! He was nothing but food!
His mind tried to reject it but the pain would not let him as he felt the Fiend Qi work on slowly eroding his existence into her own!
[NO! NOT LIKE THIS! I DO NOT WANT TO DIE!]
His wail joined the others and Mandrell only found his humanity at the very end of his existence.
⬧⬧⬧⬧
The office was empty. It had been empty before at times but for her, it had never felt dead. She did not like it.
His face, so docile and accepting, even as he had to have been in horrible pain, was deeply imprinted in her mind.
"Lynella, they are coming." She turned slowly to see a robust male Fiend standing near the tunnel entrance in the bedroom. He looked with disdain around the room and for the first time in her life she wanted to kill him.
He was defiling it!
"Go." Her single word made his head whip around in surprise that turned to anger.
"You will come with–" He had only taken a step when her sharpened nails were at his dantian. A single surge and he would die!
"I said go. They must find one of us here or they will find the rest. You will go now." It was pragmatic and not bad as a plan but he rebelled.
"NO! You cannot stay here! I will st–" She shattered his dantian and kicked his body into the tunnel before sealing it shut. She heard his screams of denial but did not care. He had thralls he could exchange with to save his life.
He could not get back in time to save her.
Of all beings, Fiends knew what it was like to be refined as a living being. She had killed him because she had to, but now that he was gone, eternity held no appeal to her.
"No wonder we do not love. I do not like it." She looked at the bed and felt a tug in her heart. She gently reached out and slid her ash gray hands across the surface before laying down on her usual side.
In that moment, she felt revolted by her own existence. She did not regret what she had done as that would be hypocrisy and she loathed that, but given a choice, she would rather have been like the human version in the portrait.
She would rather have lived a life with Mandrell.
Time moved on before new sounds came. Guards screaming and the all too familiar sounds of battle and death.
She slowly sat up and moved from the bed. She did not want to violate it with what was to come. She grabbed his chair and slowly sat down at the desk. She smiled at the order of it.
Mandrell was always so controlled until she came for him. He then gave into his desires and he was quite inventive during those times.
The wooden door had its arrays flare until it shattered apart. A woman with short green hair and cold violet eyes stalked in with a whip in her hands.
Lynella actually smiled warmly at who had come.
"Lady Shoti Frey, I welcome you to my chambers." Shoti froze across from her as it was likely she had not expected such sincerity from a Fiend. Her head tilted before something flashed in her eyes.
"By the spirits, you have been crying! Where is King Mandrell?" Lynella slowly stood up and gently rolled out the withered husk from behind it. Yet she treated it gently and it made the human woman seem to piece something together.
Lynella was surprised as a gentle question came to her.
"Did you love him?" Lynella wanted to sneer and play the part but to hear someone affirm what she felt made the words die in her throat.
She held up her left hand with 2 golden rings on it.
"Set him free. Set them all free." She then knelt before Shoti and the woman looked down at her with a level of understanding she doubted anyone else would have given her.
"Do you have a name?" Lynella finally smiled up at her with her best sneer.
"Erase me but remember at least that such a man existed that turned my heart. I am still a proud member of my people." Shoti snorted at the last line. The lie was too clear to another woman.
The whip shined before it struck out. Time slowed down for her and Lynella re-lived all her days in those chambers. The day she stood with several other Fiends in front of him and he chose her.
She recalled thinking how foolish he was to deny the lure of eternity only to surprise her with his methods and desires. He was a complex man in some ways but simple in others.
He was never satisfied with his life but did not want to compromise on his choices. Such a man would never live again.
As the whip separated into several elemental versions, she felt the Laws touching the Dao and destruction finally came for her.
As she was ripped apart, she saw a familiar soul flare up into the world, too damaged to stay but complete enough to turn back and see her die. Understanding passed between them one last time and then both of them were gone.