[Mek-pendragon]  Short Chapter but oh well! Please let me know of any grammar errors and the like!

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Chapter 7: Death’s Decay

.............ah.

Along with these dusty old tomes, I plummeted on the ground. It was foolish of me to think that that massive sword was all he got. If I could conceal a knife in my clothes, then why can’t he? That presumptuous thinking led me to my demise.

My throats burning with something unpleasant, but an even greater feeling overwhelms that dreadful sensation. A deep ache spreads from my waist up to my right shoulder.

I moved my hand to trace the pain’s origin. My fingers ran across something thick and gooey. I tilted my head to the side and looked. Just like the Piofonera's petals, it was a beautiful red color.

.....................all of this.....is my blood?

As I check my own pool of blood, footsteps erupted all around me and add the multiple voices that echoed in this hallway, it made me wonder if I’m simply hearing things. I can’t think clearly. It feels like this cut on my chest is playing with my head.

“………Sieg!”

“………………Wait.”

“……Call for help!”

“…………It’s too late, princess.”

Someone’s fingers brushed my neck. I had no more strength to define whether my body was tensing or I’m experiencing a tender gesture. The only thing that’s clear was that the owner of those fingers moved my hair to the side.

Another warmth expanded on my cold left hand. My fingers intertwined with hers and as if electricity bounded our hands together. “Hers”, because I know full well the owner of this small hand. She was clumsy, demanding, egoistic, but she made me feel important.

I tried to focus my hazy vision. The last time I saw that face, she had a sleepy expression. And now, all traces of that drowsiness is gone.

“……………sorry.”

Because of this warm liquid called blood purging my insides, that single word was all I could muster. I think they’re still taking, one is even crying, but I could not properly hear anymore.

But that’s all behind me now. Soon, everything will come to an end. Even this pain that’s gnawing me apart, inside and out—all will cease to exist.

“Kekewne!”

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I heard a voice.

But just like a drop of water that loses its identity when it joins the ocean, I am unable to properly clarify. But because of that voice calling out to me, I gained confidence. Confidence to last amidst this bottomless pit of hell.

“Those wings that waved chaos on our land, those horns of death that stood out like a crown, those scales that emits an aura of supremacy, I remember you!”

“You, who decapitated my daughter, you, who burned my wife to ashes for fun, I will never forgive you! My skin still burns from the trembling heat of your breath!”

“Hahaha, finally! We have waited an eternity for this chance! You will rot here with us!”

“You killed us, Kekewne! You killed us!”

Good gosh… they got some issues.

Immediately upon opening my eyes, there were various floating entities that circulated around me. I call them entities because it’s my first time seeing them.

Aside from my weird point of view, everything else seemed to function normally. My talons responded as if they were part of my body exactly from the beginning.

………………………Wait, talons? Didn’t I have hands? Wasn’t I a human? Or this is one of those mirages that plays with your mind?

That aside, I thought the world after my death would be filled with darkness, fitting for its name. A place that will burn your soul for eternity, and depending on how heavy your sins were, the deeper your soul would drown in that whirlpool of shadows.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

However, from my vision, the underworld is quite a livable place. Albeit destructed and lonely, it seemed to have its own inhabitants. Although the weird organisms who lives here doesn’t strike me as the friendlier ones, it makes me happy to think that it’s not as devoid of life as I assumed it to be.

I figured I’d say hi and ask for directions. But, the moment I opened my mouth to speak, a concentrated line of energy debuted instead of words, and that line of fire blasted a few mountains into smithereens.

A huge explosion occurred and the weird entities around me cursed me once more.

“Even in the afterlife, you dare to pester us?!”

“I will curse you, I will curse you, I will curse you, I will curse you, I will curse you—”

Man, they’re even worse than a psychopathic stalker.

I gestured to shoo them away, yet it only served to anger these vengeful spirits. In an attempt to rid myself of their overly familiar friendliness, my claws ripped through space and time, vacuuming these idiots inside a vortex where they’ll continuously perish.

Oooops! Hopefully, the lord of the underworld wouldn’t mind!

Still, what type of abomination have I transformed to?

As much as I like to go insane, I felt like that was just the beginning on how weird things “had” become. I decided I want to return to my older self, and I suddenly shrank to the size of this world’s residents.

My talons returned to being hands, but they’re still covered by these dark scales and I feel like I sprouted wings on my back too. Something was also bothering me on top of my head, so I reached to it; and I realized I’ve grown a pair of horns.

“………………Ah, is this really the afterlife?”

I questioned myself. It seems like I can speak without causing destruction now.

“Have you asked yourself what the underworld looks like? What will you see after you died?”

Another spirit levered to my side. From the tone of his voice, he seemed like a wise old man.

“I have not. I’ve read some books, but nothing in regards to a place like this.”

“Hehehehe……”

“What’s so funny?”

“There is no escape. Once you land here, you’re to rot in this menacing darkness until your mind breaks, and after that, you will suffer the same fate as these foolish souls.”

His ghastly skeletal hand pointed to the vengeful spirits gathering around me.

“They run on nothing but negative emotions. Burning hatred to the very being that led them to their demise.”

“So you’re saying I killed these spirits?”

“Not just killed. You ruined their lives! Ahehehehe!!”

Just when I thought I found someone with a clear head, it was just another lunatic in disguise. Already, I want to stop thinking about things. If I’m to rot here as he speaks, then so be it. It’s not like I don’t believe in what he just said, but when and how did I ruined these people’s lives?

While I was musing about pointless things, I started to walk. I have no particular destination, and the only thing I could see around me is destruction. Aside from the gigantic tree standing tall in the middle of this “afterlife” that is.

The boundaries which divides truth and lies, life and death, are at best shadowy and vague. Just like how I’m feeling right now.

It may or may not answer my questions, but I followed my curiosity to where it led me to.

I guess that would mean infiltrating a certain library was a heavy sin? It's the reason why I was sent here, right?

I also feel like I’m forgetting something, something important, but I decided not to bother with that uncertain feeling in my chest.

All I did was continued to walk.