NOCTURN BRIDE • genshin Impact | ✓

CHAPTER TWENTY NINE.

her story began tragically. born unwanted, a girl who would ruin the hierarchy and order in celestia, they could not let her live so happily. she was a divine being, a threat to the throne, so they'd torture her; no one would dare to imagine the immense pain she had gone through. being stabbed, being tortured, being abused, for what?

but here's a catch. a curse she was placed under where she could never kill herself. for the only way she could die, would be in the hands of another. with another condition; that is to experience love.

and so, that was the beginning of her tale.

however, there are those people. the kind of archons, the particular one who looks for a benefit if they were to take in someone as their disciple. and this, was the apostle's first encounter with rex lapis ━ the god of contracts. well, he left a rather long lasting impression on the apostle.

in celestia during her horrid day of birth, the creator of god would chain her up, shackle her hands and legs, bound onto a shard that was left behind by the unknown god. a constant reminder of her, being an unwanted creature. she was not needed, nor was she wanted. that, was a gift celestia bestowed upon her every year.

naturally, if archons or divine beings were to witness a bloodied deity chained onto such sacred shard, the only looks she would receive would be filled of pity and scorn. the only words she would receive... no, she wasn't even receiving those words! she'd only hear them from a distance as people would whisper to one another, "hurry let's leave", or maybe even the most pretentious thing she had ever heard, "she deserved it".

what had she done to deserve it?

"are you alright?"

the apostle looked up. she was perhaps... ten? or eleven. she had long forgotten ━ because it would mean she had went through eleven long darned years of hell ━ she lived too long for her liking that she wanted to perish and disappear into nothingness. but when she first heard those three words, she could never forget them.

that, was the first encounter with rex lapis. on her birthday, tied onto a fragment of her ancestor, bloodied and almost on the verge of death, but she couldn't die right yet, as she hadn't met the requirement of love.

"do you want to be free?" the man asked. when the apostle first heard it, her eyes glimmered in a sparkly fantasy, a new world that she'd dared not dream of ━ freedom, peace, and this foreign thing named love ━ but, why would this strange man who met her once, want to free her? "or would you rather stay here, rot and decompose in the painful mercy celestia is giving you?"

what a stupid question.

wasn't it?

"please... take me." her lips quivered, though, no tears streamed down her face. perhaps, it was due to the lack of affection since a young age. she did not know how to love, she did not know what was love, neither did she understand why do others love. for she did not understand the concept, she had nothing to lose; thus, sadness and pain, was also something foreign to her. "i want... i want to be free."

"very well." with that one word said, the apostle's life changed. she was taken under the custody of the odd stranger ━ who he introduced to be rex lapis. with a condition in a written contract, a very odd one that seemed to not benefit him at all.

"i want you to be happy."

sympathy? it was quite odd in a sense, as the apostle didn't understand those words. she was still young. far too young, far too fragile to experience the daunting things in the world. however, she had rex lapis. he would be her saviour, her protector, her shield and fatherly figure.

and of course, being with rex lapis for so long, she had become an adeptus.

but, living had also become an abdominal burden that her shoulders could not carry anymore. perhaps it was the old scars that'd affected her perception in life, and that in order to fulfill the contract, she'd needed to be happy.

and so, she killed herself.

however, her dream of happiness was met with nothing but delusion and failure. for celestia, had placed a curse on her ━ cruel, cunning and callous. but then again, destiny brought her to meet with her fated lover; barbatos.

that was when it all began.

for once, she felt free. she never felt so happy and alive when she was around him. it was different as compared to when she was with rex lapis, or even alatus. to her, they were more of a family, growing up together with them, going on adventures with them, they were like an irreplaceable part of her memory. barbatos on the other hand, was like a part of puzzle that was meant to fit with her heart.

through her long hazardous journeys of ups and downs, meeting new comrades, even her own lover. everything seemed to fall in place. that is, until the archon war happened. because celestia, could never sit still and witness such a boring and uneventful theater. 

celestia decided to open up seven divine seats. and of course, this caused a lot of cause and dispute, war was inevitable. 

and then, was when everything fell downhill. everything, everyone, every shard of happiness that existed in the apostle's memory seemed to be a mirage and illusion. a temporary lasting happiness before reality comes in and stabs her back ten times harder.

she killed, she loved, she died.

but oh, celestia wouldn't let her die of so easily. perhaps that was the reason she found herself breathing once again, in a pile of rotten corpse when she should've rot and decompose down into the ground.

so now, why did the apostle stab herself? well, she couldn't die if she used her very own hands to stab her heart.

and so, she used barbatos's hands.

so that finally, she could have her peace. because she'd fulfilled all the conditions that celestia had put onto her. fall in love once, give an entertaining performance, and die by someone else hands.

she could finally.

rest.

━━━━━

( CHAPTER XXIX )