Surrendered To The Lord Of Sin

Chapter 89: Layered in black

She was hurt.

Lucrezia’s face drained of color as a low, strained sound slipped from Vespera’s lips, barely audible over the ringing in her ears. Her eyes remained closed, her body unmoving save for the faint rise and fall of her chest, and the glistening sweat that trickled with blood in her temples.

For a moment, Lucrezia couldn’t move, mortification chilling her bones. She thought she’d witnessed a worse scenario far away than when close. The world seemed to narrow around that single sight with her, lying there, too still, and too quiet enough to handle.

"No..." the word left her in a fragile and disbelieving whisper. No, no, no, no, no!

Her mind was messed with panic and urgency. Lucrezia’s hands trembled as they reached for her side, instinct faster than reasoning. "V-Vespera... Vespera, I’m here..."

A painful moan escaped the lady’s lips, but her eyes remained closed. The tension in her face said enough that whatever held her was not just the pain, but something deeper she was fighting through.

Lucrezia swallowed hard, forcing her trembling hands to steady as she pressed firmly against the wound, hoping—praying—it would be enough to slow it. "Stay with me... please, just stay with me," she whispered, her voice breaking despite her effort to keep it together.

The world around them still burned with chaos—distant crashes, scattered cries, and the lingering tremor of something unseen—but in that moment, none of it mattered. Not the danger or the fear clawing at her chest, but the lady before her.

Lucrezia leaned closer, her breath uneven, her hands tightening with desperate resolve. And though her body ached and her mind threatened to fracture under the weight of everything pressing in, she held on, refusing to let go, even as the air around them shifted once more.

Never had she touched blood this much in her entire life. Neither had she encountered a situation centered directly on someone who was on the verge of death. It was all new to her and terrifying at the same time.

Lucrezia tried to fight against the spell of vertigo pulling at the edge of her mind, applying more pressure to the wound.

With shaking hands, she tore at the slit of her gown, ripping a strip of fabric free. She folded it quickly and pressed it down, her grip faltering for a moment before she forced it steady again, pushing harder despite the tremor in her fingers.

The cloth soaked through almost instantly. The pale fabric darkened, the stain spreading too quickly until it was no longer cloth but something heavy and ruined in her hands.

Her breath caught. She was bleeding too much.

Panic surged, sharp and suffocating. If this didn’t stop—if she didn’t stop it—

Lucrezia tore another strip from her gown, more frantic this time, her movements rough and uneven, unable to let her thoughts wander. To let the inevitable truth sink in.

There was no way she would let her die. No way.

She pressed it down again, harder, as though force alone could will the bleeding to cease. But it met the same fate, darkening far too fast beneath her hands.

"No... no, no..." she whispered, her voice breaking. Her vision blurred, her chest tightening as cold fear took hold fully now. "Gods above..." she breathed the words in quiet desperation. "S-Stay with me. Please, stay with me..."

Her plea was accompanied by another distant clash that echoed louder than it should have. Lucrezia flinched out of reflex, applying more pressure to the wound. Her fingers were coated with blood, trembling in a quiet resolve.

A quiet moan slipped off Vespera’s lips as her eyes fluttered open. Lucrezia breathed, a faint smile touching her lips when her eyes met those glistening ones.

"J-Just hold on a moment longer," She tried to mask the tremor in her voice, hoping to whatever gods that cared to listen it appeared steady enough to be believable. "You’ll be fine. I-It’s just..." A small cut, she completed the rest in her mind, unable to tell an obvious lie.

Vespera gave her a look as if to say "I know", and it broke her heart that she was in such a terrible condition. The pieces left of it were completely shattered as more and more blood gushed from the wound, despite her best efforts to prevent it.

There was a particular feeling that came with trying to help only to fail, again and again. It was the kind that lingered, heavy and unrelenting in one’s soul. Lucrezia felt it, and it hurt her to admit there was nothing either of them could do.

Despite Vespera’s effort to remain calm, the veins popping around her forehead were a sign of pain, struggle, and survival. She swallowed, taking a slow and careful breath, before reaching out to her side, her hands resting on top of Lucrezia’s stained ones.

Lucrezia knew that look, and she shook her head. Firmly. No!

A lone tear escaped Lucrezia’s eyes as she held on, tearing another piece of her garment,

disposing of the already-soaked one. Cold bit into her skin, freezing her bones sharper than she imagined, but perhaps she was more carried away by alarm than the appeal of her body.

She applied pressure, and just as obvious as the previous ones, it didn’t take long before it soaked up.

No, no, no, no, no!

As if that wasn’t enough, there was something about the air that changed course. It wasn’t violent like the strikes before, subtle at first, and heavy when it appeared.

There was a familiar weight to it that made Lucrezia go still.

The noise did not return as chaotic and overwhelming this time, but quiet and deliberate, like something threading its way carefully through everything else.

Just like she was taught, she focused on that sound, tracing it, until it was like a loop right before her. And slowly, Lucrezia turned her head.

At first, she thought it was only the haze of her vision playing tricks on her again. But no. Someone stood at the far end of the ruined square, still and unmoving, but watching with a calm intensity that caused goosebumps on her skin.

Lucrezia’s breath hitched and her entire body went cold.

From his looks, it was clear he didn’t belong to the chaos around them. While everything else burned, shattered, and screamed, he stood untouched, clung to darkness like something worn.

His attire was intricate, layered in black upon black like it had been carved rather than stitched, and a long cloak draped from his shoulders, heavy, unmoved by the wind, trailing behind him like a living thing.

As if that wasn’t enough, his face ran her blood cold. He was pale, too pale as the dead, but wrong in a way as though life had been drained from it and replaced with something colder. Something hollow.

Those eyes burned with a quiet, consuming glow that pierced through the distance between them. It was not anger, nor madness, but certainty, and her fingers froze against Vespera’s wound.

The sound she had been following... it wasn’t scattered anymore. It led to him. Her pulse spiked, hammering violently against her ribs. Something told her he was the reason she couldn’t reach the peak of her ability. The hindrance.

It was him.

No...

No, no, no—

A sharp, cold realization settled into her bones, and it didn’t take long to realize that the creature was not part of the chaos but the cause of it.

He was here for her, just like the dream.

The air around her shifted again, heavier now, pressing down against her lungs until each breath felt like a struggle. From this distance alone, something about him felt suffocating, like standing too close to the edge of something endless and knowing, without question, that it would swallow you whole if you stepped closer.

And he hadn’t even moved an inch yet she could feel it press into her bones. Lucrezia’s grip tightened instinctively, her hands trembling harder against Vespera’s side.

If he felt like this from afar... Her breath stuttered at the sudden thought. What would he be like up close?

"Vespera..." She whispered, her voice barely holding together. "W-We have to go... we have to leave, right now..." But even as she said it, she knew they wouldn’t get far.

Her eyes darted around desperately, searching for anything—any path, any cover, any way out that wasn’t already swallowed by the destruction. But the square... it was closing in.

The creatures hadn’t disappeared at all, but they had only stopped. Lucrezia didn’t need to be told to realize he was the cause of that also.

Her stomach dropped.

"I—I can’t carry you," she admitted in a broken breath, panic creeping sharper into her voice. "But I’ll—I’ll try, I just—please—"

Her arms slid beneath Vespera’s shoulders carefully, trying to lift her despite the protest of her own body. Pain shot through her limbs as a result of her strength already worn thin, but she forced herself to move.

She had to.

"I’m not leaving you," She said, more to herself than to her. "I won’t—I won’t—"

Her footing slipped slightly against the frozen ground, but she steadied, pulling again, dragging if she had to.

Come on! She screamed to her aching limbs, her butt occasionally catching the frozen ground. Just a little more. A little more.

Behind them, the air shifted once more, closer this time, but Lucrezia didn’t look back. She couldn’t, because deep down, she already knew he was no longer standing where he had been.