-Chapter 53.5-
Penelope.
—-----------------------
Part four.
-Three months later-
A hooded stranger entered the city of Farrien, hiding his face as he did so. But it was not an uncommon sight. Farrien is the subject of many comings and goings of people who wished to encounter no trouble on the streets.
This stranger entered a random inn situated in the commoner’s suburb of the city, ordered a room and went straight to it, carrying little luggage.
As soon as he entered, he collapsed onto the chair, panting harshly. The signs of feebleness he had hidden when entering the city, now surfaced.
Reaching down, his shaky hands tore aside his coat and shirt, revealing a grievous wound. Oozing out of the gruesome, exposed flesh, was a mixture of dark red blood and some other stringy, breathing, black substance.
Aelius reached down with his hand to cup the wound, panting harshly at the pain running up the side of his waist.
“This Devil’s Poison has no effect on me. You can lace your weapons with it all you want,” he breathed as his hands began to glow with orange, fiery essence.
The inheritance that his Violet left for him, as she died, did its miracle as it always had. Aelius watched as the wound closed itself up and he felt the pain subside, though not entirely, before he leaned back, gasping for air.
“Ugh…” he groaned, feeling his eyes fall shut. That’s another Devil down, he thought to himself as he drifted off to sleep.
—-----------------------
When the morning came, Aelius did not entirely feel like new. With dark circles under his eyes, he had yet to rest enough to recover entirely from the otherwise life-threatening wound his opponent for the last three months inflicted him with.
Still, he came out the victor, as he always did. His curse of life will never allow him to die. This was the fate chosen for him by the Goddess.
But at least he still had one member of his family alive. Aelius began to pull his cloak back on, when he heard a ‘whooosh’, and a set of soft footsteps gently thump onto the creaking wooden floor.
A sensual hand ran up his back, and he felt a pair of breasts push into his back, a warm breath in his ear.
“Are you off to see that sister of yours?” a seductive voice asked and Aelius nodded. “Have you considered you should take a rest first?”
Aelius shook his head, his eyes narrowed.
“I am fine. Besides, I couldn’t sleep at night these past three months, thinking about Penelope,” he answered.
“Oh? I thought I was the one who kept you awake. Don’t tell me, you were thinking about another woman all along?” the red head joked and Aelius gave her an unamused, exhausted glare.
“Something about that household puts me off. She’s my sister. The only one of my blood-kin remaining, and I can feel that something was wrong there.”
“Yes, yes. I was just speaking out of concern for you. Oh well, go on then. I won’t interfere with your agenda today.”
Aelius grimaced as Asura waved her hand and began to disappear in a small flash of red bubbles. “...Thanks, ‘Sura.”
—-----------------------
When Aelius set out that day, his patience already thinned due to his poor night’s sleep, and poor recovery from the Devil’s Poison he was inflicted with once again, he was not prepared for what awaited him.
Aelius arrived back at Penelope’s manor, or rather, her husband’s manor, with a shaky breath. He was preparing himself for her beratement. It made sense she hated him, because he had been gone for so long.
But it was never too late to come back. They were the only family left in this world. If she would let him in, he’ll make it all up to her. He vowed it.
As Aelius stepped up to the gate, he looked up from beneath his hood and met the eyes of the guard from last time standing at the bars.
“Halt! State your business, commoner!” the knight captain demanded. Aelius reached up to pull his hood down, wearing a pair of cold eyes.
Upon revealing his face, he found it off at the sudden gleam in the other knight’s eyes. Something flashed in his gaze, and the knight’s harsh facial features suddenly softened into a polite smile.
“Oh… it is you again, brother of Mistress Penelope.” The knight began to step aside, his attitude entirely polar opposite to how his welcome was last time.
Aelius found it odd, but in the back of his mind, he thought, perhaps the explanation was that finally Penelope was welcoming him back?
“This way please,” the knight gestured with straight posture, and Aelius stepped past with his hunched figure, his eyes narrowed into a glare as he observed the courtyard they were passing through.
Within a few minutes, Aelius had been guided to the guest room and presented with tea with the utmost hospitality.
Nervous, he did not drink the tea. Instead, he kept his cold demeanour, gazing out the window at the fortress-like walls.
It was not uncommon to have tall walls around a manor, but for some reason, this place felt more like a prison than anything else. Was he just imagining things?
The layout. The structure. The architecture. The patrols. The number of knights. It felt like a prison.
Finally, the door opened and Aelius flinched. Feeling his heart race in his chest, he rose to his feet as he turned to the other side of the room, but then his earnest face twisted back into a cold, apathetic gaze upon seeing it was not Penelope who had entered.
Instead, it was a different woman.
“Good day to you, sir,” the woman smiled with a small bow and confidently seated herself opposite him. “Please, sit. No need to remain standing on formality.”
Aelius slowly, reluctantly, did as she suggested, leaning forward with his elbows resting on his knees.
“Penelope. I came to see her.”
The woman gave a small smile as she began to pour out herself a glass.
“Allow me to introduce myself first. My name is Lady Iuane, I am the lady of this house. In other words, my husband is the owner of this manor,” she smiled.
Aelius could immediately tell something was immensely wrong. Her surname was the name of Penelope’s husband. With a first, he slammed down onto the table, with a growl.
“Are you saying that my Penelope has been reduced to but a concubine, in this household?” he spoke lowly.
The startled woman flinched in fear, her previous bravado melted by Aelius’ aggressiveness, and a tear began to fall from her eye.
“No, not at all, sir.” She reached up to wipe it with a sniffle. “You see, miss Penelope… Goddess bless her soul, passed away some time ago.”
At the words, for a moment, Aelius was stunned. And then, his mind began to whirr again, and he leaned forward.
“If you’re playing some sort of twisted joke, my face will be the last face you ever see,” he growled, his hand slowly inching across the table towards her.
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
The woman gulped, nervously eyeing his approaching threatenance, before she quickly continued.
“She met with an unfortunate accident. My husband had her buried in the same week. He was broken when we met, and I consoled him. Though he has yet to move on from Penelope, I was able to enter his life. That is why I am here. He agreed to marry me, and I have agreed to wait for him. Forgive me, that is not your sister greeting you today.”
“...She’s dead?” Aelius repeated.
“Yes. We buried her with her mother. Please, go visit her. When you’re done, by all means, return to us once more. We have some of her belongings for you to retrieve.”
Aelius felt his breath catch in his throat. After a moment of looking at nothing in a daze, he sprung to his feet and wordlessly stormed out the manor.
Passing by the courtyard where there were knights on break, he saw some of them snicker at him, and his fists clenched.
If Penelope is truly dead… I don’t know what I’d do…
—-----------------------
At his sister’s grave, beside his mother’s, Aelius bit his bottom lip in a pained expression. His fists clenched up in a ball, he took a deep breath.
“Asura…” he called the crimson devil’s name. “Is she in there? My younger sister… my last blood remaining…?”
Out of a mist of red, her flesh conjured into existence, and Aelius felt her soft touch wrap around his chest from behind.
For a long moment, she was silent. And that was enough for him to know.
“Yes. Her dead body is beneath that dirt. The blood matches.”
For a long moment, he did not move, only gazing at the grave in silence. And then he turned away, and still without a word, began to stroll down the path, his trembling face scrunched in an expression of toughness.
Asura watched him with a sad expression, remaining at the grave. The figure of his back appeared so lonesome, ethereally and painfully. But she spoke no words. With a saddened gaze, she turned to glance at the grave one final time, before disappearing back into red sparkles.
I did this. As Aelius thought those words, it felt like a thousand swords were being stabbed into his back. Each sword belonged to a person he had let down. Each sword significant - each sword, the weight of an entire life; the weight of an entire world, and a thousand of them hung upon him. Or were they anchors? He could no longer tell.
Every second, every waking moment, he carried them with him.
As he walked, one final sword formed in the air above his head. It was a pink one, holy and sacred in design, ordained with purple shades, perfectly reminiscent of his younger sister’s dark pink, flowing hair. Humming with a deep vibration, it twirled in the air until it faced Aelius, and plunged itself into his flesh, joining the ranks of its fellow blades.
Aelius felt the pain open up on his back. It travelled deeper and deeper in. He felt it resound in his soul. He stumbled for a moment when it shot him. His chest shook for a moment.
In that moment, it was overwhelming. The desire to cry. Breakdown. Bury his head in the dirt. Plunge a blade through his own throat. Roar out in rage. Kill those who are better off than him. Fight god, and die utterly powerlessly.
For a moment, it was overwhelming.
And then he kept walking.
The swords clunk and they clunked. Cumbersome. Laborious. Heavy. Burdening. And yet, he kept walking. There was no expression on his stone-cold face.
No expression at all.
—-----------------------
By the time Aelius arrived at the manor, he wanted answers. As he approached the manor gates again, he noticed there were far more knight guards than before.
But he disregarded it. He was interested in only one thing.
He was greeted at the door by the new wife yet again, and her mundane pleasantries. She led him deeper and deeper into the manor until finally, they arrived at a courtyard some of the way into the plot.
She ushered Aelius out and then shut the door behind, and he heard a click.
“What…?” With a glare, Aelius turned back around to face the yard. Dozens of knights had been seated about, clearly awaiting something. And upon seeing him, they all rose to their feet, wearing hostile gazes.
“What is the meaning of this?” Aelius muttered, reaching down to the hilt of his sword, as the knights all began to encroach onto him, readying their weapons. “You bastards… you wish to die!?”
“Hohoho,” a laugh interrupted them and they all stopped. Aelius’ head whipped to the source of the laugh, and saw a figure reveal itself from the backline of the fighters, giving a slow clap. “This one is fierce. It runs in the blood, clearly.”
A Nobleman dressed with a fancy robe came to the front, and gave Aelius a smirk.
“I heard last time, you came by my manor uninvited. Well, now your sister’s dead,” he shrugged his shoulders.
Aelius clenched his shaking fist, inhaling sharply as he waited for the man to continue.
The man saw Aelius’ judgemental gaze, and stopped. His expression of amusement and mockery suddenly twisted into an unhinged, angry glare.
“You bastard. I had everything perfectly within my grasp. She was never going to resist me again. But then, you, who was supposed to be dead for years, just had to resurface to give her hope! And then, we found her hanging from a chandelier, thanks to you! You took her away from me…” The clearly crazed madman reached up to cup his forehead with his hand, laughing hysterically. “And now, you’ve delivered yourself to your death. How foolish of you to return to Farrien, if you were alive all along. Did you not realise the Queen wished you Kanarians dealt with? I loved her, and I was going to protect her… but you… you took her away from me!”
Aelius’ shoulders shook with rage as he processed everything.
Hanging from a ceiling? The Queen’s wish? “You Kanarians”?
In an instant, he put together what had happened. And that was why his sister, his strong, resilient and smart sister, would do such a thing to herself.
“Knights! Bring me his head!” the Nobleman ordered.
The knights began to walk forward, but then, they froze.
Echoing around them, was a quiet laughter. But, it quickly grew louder, louder, and more maddening. A man even madder than the mad Nobleman. A man who had been driven to madness by horrors and nightmares none of them could ever have imagined.
You dare say you loved her? She’s dead in the ground because you drove her to suicide… you twisted, disgusting lowlife. You… you’re even worse than the Devils!
“Did you think I was some helpless prey? Did you think that just because my sister gave into you, that I was free game?” Aelius clutched his stomach, laughing through every word. “Did you think that with merely these men, you have a grace’s worth of chance at defeating me?”
The knights gulped, and even the mad Nobleman’s expression had turned to one of horror. That was because, before they could even take three steps, they felt it.
They felt it deep in their souls. Something that had been hidden. Something they had failed to notice before.
Something that their target desperately tried to keep under wraps. But because of their actions, the man standing before them, no longer had any interest in pretending.
A strange sensation hung in the air. A suffocating, overwhelming amount of killing intent.
“G-guh… gah… what in the world are you…!?” the Nobleman felt his lunch eject from his stomach, throwing it all onto the grass beside him. “H-how can this be?” his muffled voice struggled through the stomach acid in his mouth.
Standing before them was Aelius. Standing behind him however, was a gigantic hell-spawn, looming over them like a murderous, devious grim reaper, taking delight in their deaths.
“Who did you think I was? You dared to do such things to my sister? Is this the price of my actions, for sparing this country all those years ago? In the end… mercy…” Aelius’ voice fell quiet as he looked down at his hands. “Mercy is weakness.”
The embodiment of his rage sent a slash that took the earth with it as it shot out. Like a powerful wave, it swept up even the concrete into the air, firing outwards in a gigantic ring, leaving nothing behind.
—-----------------------
It was a beautiful, sunny day in Farrien Capital. Dozens of people were going about their day on the streets, travelling, shopping, visiting cafes and resting. A bustling metropolis of a flourishing society.
But then, one by one, the people began to notice that the others around them were all gazing at something. Their eyes were strangely focused off in the distance, in the sky.
So they too, turned their eyes into the same direction, and then they too, would be mesmerised by the sight.
Anyone who failed to notice at first, would notice those around them who had already noticed. Then they’d turn, and they’d see it.
Off in the far distance, on the other side of the city, a gigantic pillaring vortex of black and purple swirled and breathed, touching the clouds. A fearsome storm of power.
And then, they heard the rumbling. The sound of something coming closer, from that pillar. But by the time they realised, it was too late.
Like an earthquake and a tidal wave combined in one, a fearsome shockwave pushed through the buildings. They couldn’t even scream as they were swept up into the debris.
The shockwave continued like it encountered no obstacle at all, carrying with it the earth, the pavement, the hundreds of buildings in its wake, and nonetheless, continued.
By the time it finally slowly weakened and eventually died out…
Three quarters of the Royal Capital of Farrien was nothing but a crater. Standing at the centre of it was a single figure, who had stripped himself of all ties to this accursed land.
In the end, he left years ago as a nobody and an outcast. He returned years later as the person responsible for destroying this city.