Listen While Reading: Pt-9 :Zai

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Teressa couldn’t help but feel utter disbelief and disgust as she saw the thing Helena had become and the disgusting cursed powers coursing through her body, which didn’t belong to any Evil God at all.

“Helena… What have you done?!”

It was something completely foreign!

After having been almost completely frozen and having her head destroyed, when Teressa aimed at Helena’s heart, she suddenly revealed a strange, dark power within it.

This dark power not only managed to repel Teressa but also somehow kept Helena conscious and alive despite her tremendous damage.

Her metal and her frozen body, now fragmented into pieces, fused together into a monstrosity of ice and liquid metal, releasing a pitch-black aura.

“Ugh!”

Teressa wanted to assess things properly, but she couldn’t calm down, not when her whole arm was missing, calcinated into black ashes, thanks to the strange black and purple fire released from Helena’s heart. The wound left behind over her shoulder, black and purple-colored, wouldn’t regenerate.

“Such a strong curse…! Do I need to cut off my shoulder to regrow everything back?! But that’ll take a lot of Arcana and my Stamina…!”

“Kill…! I’ll kill…. KILL YOUUUUU!!!” Helena screamed, her head fragments fusing back together to reveal a horrendous, disfigured face opening her jaws wide in fury. “THEN HE’LL BE MINEEEE… THE EMPEROR’S LOVE… WILL ONLY BE FOR MEEEEE!”

“To think you would go so far for his false love…” sighed Teressa. “Helena, that man can no longer love… He’s bitter and emotionless!”

Vlad’s mother stood up, summoning her frozen aura as she couldn’t afford to damage the cursed area, which would only cause more harm to her, before regenerating a new arm and forming a prosthetic arm made of her frozen blood instead.

“SHUT UP!”

Helena’s chest opened to reveal a mass of metal and flesh, shapeshifting into a monstrous jaw and gathering purple-colored electricity, before unleashing a massive thunderous cannon towards Teressa.

“Ahh!”

Teressa panicked, gritting her teeth as she summoned all her frost powers at once. Her frozen blood arm transformed into a huge dome of frost surrounding her completely.

BOOOMMM!!!

The enormous beam hit her with immense force; the electromagnetic forces that Helena could manipulate were heightened to the point where she didn’t even need the metal anymore, but just the innate magnetic powers of her bloodline.

Crack, crack…!

“N-No…!”

Teressa despaired as she saw countless cracks spread across her defensive barrier of ice. She tried to patch them, but her blood power and arcana were running low already.

“My energies… Is it that curse?!”

She noticed that the curse on her shoulder, although it didn’t spread further, was slowly draining away her own energies, despite being Tier 8, which should make her have an incredibly large pool of Arcana and Blood Power; she barely had any now!

Crack… CRACK!

Teressa continued gathering her powers into the barrier, strengthening it constantly; more and more cracks spread everywhere. If she stopped touching this ice, it would immediately break, meaning she couldn’t even escape if she wanted to.

“Vlad… Camilla…!”

Teressa started crying—something even more odd for a heartless vampire. She wasn’t crying because she was afraid of dying, though; she was crying because if she died now, she wouldn’t get to see her children ever again.

“I’m sorry… for being so weak..”

CRACK… CRAAACK!

Teressa faced her death as she stood up. The blood coming from her wounds, which had yet to regenerate, gathered around her, forming hundreds of thousands of icicles.

“{Blood Frost Demon Arts}: {One Million Crimson Icicles}”

CRAAASH!

Her barrier shattered as the beam reached her, and at the same time, Teressa unleashed all her icicles, clashing against the massive beam as her entire body was being electrocuted and fried alive.

“RAAAAHHH!”

Even as her entire body was being boiled alive and even her brain started leaking out of her nose, she kept pushing forward, her barrage of icicles barely beginning to push back the beam of thunder.

“Your mother… Is not so weak, no! If I die, even if I die, I’ll take her down!”

As Teressa roared, her Blood Core and her very Soul resonated together, shining brightly and unleashing an azure and crimson aura, encompassing her entirely.

Memories of her giving birth flashed through her mind. Of the cry of her son, of his little body in her arms. And of how the coldness of her heart slowly faded away as she couldn’t help but love this little creature she gave birth to.

Teressa’s tears continued freezing as she pushed forward; her arms were already disintegrated, yet her aura was unstopable, pushing forward faster and faster.

Then memories of her daughter emerged in her mind—of her second miracle—a beautiful girl, more beautiful than anybody else. She remembers how she felt when she learned that even her second child was a “dhampir”.

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She couldn’t blame her; she couldn’t blame Camilla for this.

She only blamed herself for being weak…

“You are not to blame… my children… Your mother will take responsibility, and I will love you… forever and ever.”

The lightning continued burning through her entire body; her legs were slowly burning and disintegrating, and so was her skin, once beautiful and white, now burning to a crisp, charred black.

Her face disfigured, yet her eyes remained looking at her opponent, the aberrant monstrosity that Helena had become.

“Helena… You were always so jealous of me…”

She reached her, as her aura encompassed the monster.

“Despite being so miserable, you wanted me to be even worse, didn’t you?”

“DIE! DIE! DIE!!! THE EMPEROR IS MINE! MINE AND ONLY MINEEEEE!”

The monster unleashed a barrage of silver spears against Teressa, piercing her entire body with them. Even as her cannon of lightning had finally dissipated, Teressa was already too far gone.

CRASH! CRASH! CRASH! CRASH!

“Ungh…?!”

Teressa’s mind and body began to fragment and fall apart. Yet a hand made of ice managed to slowly reach Helena, and at that very moment she started to fall into pieces.

“I’m sorry, Vlad... Camilla…”

She looked into the sky, the three moons above the sky.

“Please... Oh moon goddess... protect my children...”

“W-Wha…?! AAARRGH!”

At the same time, the scream of Helena reverberated across the ruined city as her entire body began freezing with the strength of Teressa’s very soul.

FLUOSH!

“Uuuaaaarrgghhh!”

Until she became an ice statue and no longer could move, collapsing on the ground into countless pieces, leaving behind a frozen landscape.

The burned, torn-apart torso of Teressa remained over the ice, her eyes still open, her consciousness fading away. She looked ruined, so beautiful, yet now...

Covered by a deadly curse that didn’t let her regenerate, she was slowly decaying.

(Listen while reading: 進撃gt20130218巨人 )

“Please, protect… my children…”

“Mamaaaa!”

The scream of Camilla echoed behind Teressa as the girl went flying towards her mother, or what remained of her.

“Mama… MAMAAAA!”

She started crying as she saw her mother’s body. She tried touching her, only to see the part she touched fall into ashes.

“No, no, no…! Mama…! Mamaaaa!”

“Ca… milla…”

“Don’t die! Don’t leave meeee!”

“Be… strong… my daughter…”

“Noooo! Mamaaaa!”

Camilla continued weeping as her mother tried to smile at her daughter; despite how disfigured she was, she wanted to calm her down.

It was the duty of a mother to calm their child, even if the situation was dire, even if they didn’t know if there was going to be a solution.

“Everything… is… okay…”

“Hahh… Mom…”

Camilla looked at her mother in disbelief as her eyes closed, and she stopped breathing, moving, or anything.

“What happened here?!”

Suddenly, Camilla was startled from her daze, seeing Alitheus above the skies.

“Big brother Alitheus! P-Please help… Help Mama! She can’t regenerate! Please help her! Please save mamaaaa!”

“T-That’s Teressa?!”

Chris gasped in horror at what he saw. What he thought was nothing but a black piece of rubble was actually what remained of Vlad’s mother, Teressa.

He ran towards her, sitting right next to her and unleashing all her healing powers into her dying body, golden and white light encompassing her.

Yet…

SPARK!

“Ah! What the…?! This Curse is too strong…!” Alitheus muttered. “Ugh, it’s fighting back?! What in the world is this thing?!”

He kept trying to heal her as much as possible; the curse fought back constantly, yet it was being pushed back.

But it wasn’t enough.

“Please do something, mama. Mama will die!”

Camilla kept crying as she asked Alitheus to save her mother.

“I’m trying my best, okay? Please calm down- Ugh!”

Teressa’s consciousness was slowly drowning in an endless darkness.

The light of the outside world was fading away as her senses continued to dull.

But she could still slightly hear their voices.

“Camilla… I love you… my daughter…”

Images of Camilla started appearing through her mind one after another as the darkness swallowed her more and more.

“Mamaa! Heheh!”

Of her first steps as she helped her move.

“Uwaah… I spilled…”

And sometimes, when she fed her blood into a bottle, she would sneeze and end up spilling it over her.

“Mama… The kids don’t like playing with me.

And of the other times when she had to comfort her daughter because she would feel sad and helpless.

“Then those children are simply stupid! Don’t pay attention to them, dear… Let’s play together instead, hm? How about we lighten the day for your brother? He must be awake in bed by now.”

“O-okay!”

And then images of her son appeared, flashing through her last moments of consciousness.

“Vlad, my boy… I love you too…”

Of how he was always bullied and looked down, and of how much of a crybaby he was, always crying to her, for everything.

“Why can’t I walk, mom?”

“Why do they bully me so much…”

“None of my brothers like me…”

“They’re always saying you cursed me…”

She would always try to keep her cool and comfort him, but sometimes she wouldn’t be able to hold on to it anymore and would start crying too.

“I’m sorry… for everything… It’s my fault you were born like this…” she kept blaming herself. “I’m so sorry…”

“Mom…” Vlad would quickly calm down and hug her back, realizing how truly frail she was, deep down, below the cold surface she showed to everyone. “I-It’s ok… I didn’t mind being bedridden… The bed is comfortable, and... you and Camilla gave me company…”

“Is that so…”

Teressa couldn’t help but feel so terrible for having given her son such a frail body.

She always blamed herself for everything…

“I’m so sorry, Vlad… I wish things… could have been different…”

Memories of her childhood flashed—of her mother and her father living in the countryside.

Of her memories learning how to use weapons and hunt beasts.

And of her memories of learning how to cook and use magic with her mother.

And memories of him.

The Emperor.

She was the first woman to ever make him feel emotions.

She was the first woman to truly capture his cold heart, even though he had already met a few before.

Her honesty, her strong heart, the meals she cooked, and her strength.

“Teressa… I love you; please marry me…”

“E-Eh?”

She couldn’t believe such memories would resurface now, after so many years since then.

Were all those just lies?

Love her?

As if…

If he truly loved her, he wouldn’t have let this happen to her.

“You deceived me… my dear husband…”

Always playing in the hands of others.

Never truly free.

Not even her children…

Always…

“This world… It’s so rotten…”

As her consciousness continued to fade, she prayed again.

“Please… goddesses of the moon… keep my children… safe…”

And then she saw them, three beautiful moons above the night sky.

“Come with us, Teressa.”

“Stay with us.”

“Watch the world in here.”

Their hands extended towards her.

She didn’t know if she was hallucinating or not.

Was this a calling to go to the afterlife?

For a moment, within the darkness, Teressa extended her hands, she wanted to grab the hands of the goddesses and go with them.

But at the same time, leaving everything behind…

“I’m sorry…”

She moved away, surprising the figures of the goddesses, resembling the bodies of beautiful women made of silver, red, and green light, whose heads were the moons themselves.

“I love my children too much to leave them alone…”

“I see…”

“You’re a good mother.”

“A rare sight in such a dark Realm as Obscuritas.”

The goddess pointed her fingers at her as light reached Teressa’s soul.

“Then go…”

“They’re waiting for you.”

“Never leave them alone anymore, Teressa.”

Red, green, and silver light engulfed her.

“We shall give you the power to protect your children and make up for the curses that those malefic evil gods have left on them.”

FLASH!

And then Teressa slowly opened her eyes again, breathing in and out, feeling her legs, arms, fingers, and all her senses.

Her skin was smooth; she even had her hair back.

“Mom!”

“Mother!”

And the screams of her children as they ran and hugged her.

“I-I… didn’t die?”

Teressa looked in front of her, noticing Alitheus' angelic form, exhausted, gasping for air.

“Hahhh… Hahhh… I did it… Agh, I did it…”

He collapsed on the ground, sighing and gasping for air.

And then she looked at the skies, at the three moons.

“Did the goddesses really talk to me?"

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