It was too much. Liv disappeared inside herself. Simply drowned out from her own senses.

Her doom encroached.

That laughter was unmistakeable. Hakro Manus.

She lay there for a moment, acting as dead as she felt. Then she made her move. Suddenly, bursting and diving to grasp a hold of Fabian. With matter manipulation faster than anything she had ever even attempted before, she sunk them into the ground. Moving the ground beneath them on top of them to bury them inside the wall.

Her focus was almost shattered as she heard Hakro hacking at the ground with something.

She had never felt terror before. An emotion so acutely lethal that it paralyzed had eluded her all her life. But it was there now.

It. Was. There.

Liv let out shuddered breaths as her heartbeat made her deaf to the racket. She reinforced the matter above them and tried to bury them faster and cover her tracks better while deviating the path.

She had to get away. Turn back and die.

When she finally stopped in place, she reinforced the sphere around him and Fabian before finally being able to take a breath.

But she couldn't breathe. It was all just sobs and choking on the very air that was meant to keep her alive.

It was so dark in that sphere of wet and metal. She was on all fours over Fabian. He was long dead. She knew it. She had known it even as she buried them. She just wanted to hold him

Even as his spirit faded, and the thing that had once made him a man was no more, she held him in her arms and pressed her face to his chest like she had done just a few minutes ago. While his blood still pumped the blood that soaked Liv's white robes.

"Sorry," she said, her voice coming out as a high-pitched whine. "Fabian... if you can hear me. I'm so sorry. I'm—" she choked.

No more words would come and she brought her head back. Fabian's blood flowed down her face, and her own flowed down the side of her neck.

Whatever innocence she had... it was time it died.

Her eyes burned as her nails dug into the sides of the rock grave she had made for them. Her breathing turned ragged. It intensified. Everything intensified. Preparing to explode.

Then it was silent. Her body calm. She lowered her hands slowly and cupped Fabian's face, wishing she could at least see it one last time. But she couldn't. That had been taken from her.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

Hakro had laughed. But he didn't do it because killing was fun. He'd done it because he realized what happened. A projectile meant for Liv had killed the only one she cared about. All because she moved. Maybe if she had taken the blow on, it wouldn't have killed Fabian. It was thrown hard, but maybe hitting her body would have redirected it. So in the end, it was her fault. Everything around her died. Loved or hated. What a fate. Hilarious.

Liv imagined how Fabian's dead eyes must've looked staring up at her. Did they still hold a remnant of life? Emotion? Anger?

Right. That was supposed to be her primal response. An uncontrollable rage bursting out of her that was reserved for only the most animalistic creatures on the planet. Not some fucking pathetic terror.

Right? Right?!

Liv's nails dug into Fabian's face. He was dead. Taken. And she couldn't take it. How could she? How could she run? Worship her own life like it was worth something?

No. It had never been worth anything. What she dedicated it to. That was worth something. Liv took her hands off Fabian and hit and clawed herself until the blood covering her face was a mix. Fabian's and her's mixed into an amalgamation. Their last bond.

A sound started to come from her throat with no feeling. She put her nails into the wall and scratched at it. The sound from her intensified with the screechy scratching as her nails broke and bled. Then it was a full and frenzied shriek of pure rage, echoing inside the sphere like the last sound of a small world.

She hit the walls as the sound turned into a roar before shaking her head and purging every useless thought. And they were all useless. Emotions were thought useless all the way up until something broke and that primal instinct that evoked the greatest of them showed itself and unleashed its true nature. When men learned that their animal roots were not a myth. And when pushed into a corner, an animal did not shrivel up and die. That was when it was at its most dangerous.

And in the same manner that Quinheart transfigured himself into a monster for the gods to fear, Liv harnessed the power of her eyes, converting it to something that was never meant to touch this mortal plane. It hurt. The stinging in her brain made her envy those who burned to death. But at the same time, she laughed. For the pain was merely a forecast of the fates of those who stood before her.

Then she burst out, matter yielding in front of her. She touched the light once again and was reborn.

The space that wavered once before, bent and broke at her touch.

The Hexa had known of the temple for a while. It was all set up too perfectly. The chances of success had been sky-high with their plan. However, what they surely had stapled in the backs of their minds as a nightmare sequence was brought forth into reality. None would wake.

Liv looked for the Space of Hexa first. That person had to be close. Nobody could do that sort of tampering from a distance.

Liv blipped from spot to spot, jump-cutting through reality before catching sight of a petite woman in hiding. She took her trusty rock into her hands and teleported.

The woman hadn't seen Liv. She screeched at a touch in utter shock and scrambled away. Liv was faster. She grabbed her face and smashed her head into the ground before stabbing her left eye four or five times with the piercer until her body no longer twitched.

At last, she heard movement from the right. She looked, and stopped, her blodied arms hanging loosely on her sides. It was him.

His blonde hair was tied to reveal her chiseled jaw, tilted up as she peered at Liv with his disgusting, dark eyes. She knew what he saw. A woman in the robe of the gods, soaked in the blood of friend and foe alike. White under red coating. A needle in hand, that even his neck would not escape.

Liv spread her arms, her silent, dark gaze upon the man who was starting to believe in a myth. The most powerful eyes in all of reality staring at him. She said nothing.

No words were appropriate. No. No words was appropriate.

She clasped her hands together, and hell became of the world.