The King's Gamma (#Wattys2024)

Fifty Eight

Third Point of View

The light faded slowly and where Ppalgan once stood was a completely different woman. Hair as red as fire, skin snow white glowing with a faint silver light. Golden eyes burning with a fire that could never be doused. The power that rolled off her was tangible. Like a beast that had been caged for years who finally found freedom, and decided to attack their captors. She watched the elder with a sneer, her expression betraying the fact that she very much intended to kill him. 

"Ppalgan...?" Korain asked hesitantly. Having seen glimpses of the red hair before, he already expected her to be special, but seeing it was something else entirely. "That is you, right?"

Her eyes instantly snapped to Korain, and her expression immediately softened into one of doting. She strode towards him without much ceremony, catching the still shell shocked men around them off guard. She was taller than she had been before, but still not nearly as tall as he was. Throwing her arms around him, even he froze.

"Marcenia." She corrected him. "But Ppalgan is fine, if you prefer it."

"Marcenia!" The Elder shouted, seeming livid as he watched the scene of his beloved in another's arms.

Though all of them were God's chosen, there was a reason as to why The Elder was so respected. Korain, afraid of having her hurt, drew her to stand behind him. Though she was one of them, without a doubt, he was still afraid of her getting hurt.

"Get away from my wife!" The Elder shouted, a ball of pure energy shooting from his palm as he aimed for the head. It was the only part he knew she wouldn't be hit behind the man. However, her reaction was faster. Years trapped in a more human body did not mean in any way that her prowess hadn't grown. She was close to a thousand years old, and having used her wits and skill for years with plants had still cultivated her innate talent. 

Each chosen had their own way of training, and her training had consisted of pouring her powers unknowingly into the plants she harvested and used daily in food and medicine as well as the poisons she had made herself immune to through years and years of use and study. Korain didn't know it yet, but it was this very thing that had made him and those who enjoyed the luxury of tasting her food or medicine much stronger. The humans had realized the difference, he in turn, thought that he was simply recovering daily from the poisoning he had suffered.

And Marcenia, having cultivated herself this way for a thousand years... she was well aware of how much power her body now held, and was currently circulating the power throughout her entire being, waking her every sleeping nerve and using them to a mere quarter of her potential.

A beam shot out of seemingly nowhere, bending to meet his own beam head on, instantly eviscerating it from existence. 

She moved an instant later, streaks of lightning could be seen as she moved at a speed none could follow. The sound of thunder alerted them to her striking The Elder. (Yes, I decided that would be his name. I don't really care to give him a name at this point.)

He flew through the air a second time, hitting a wall of his gilded glass chapel. The wall cracked, revealing beams of moonlight from the outside. She did not stop there, lightning again flashed past them. Thunder deafened them as she struck him a third time, forcing him outside the chapel entirely.

Crazed, The Elder stared at her with a sick and devoted expression. "Yes, my love, come to me. I know you are angry. I took too long in finding you!" He coughed, his mind not yet realizing the broken state his body was entering. "We will be together forever now."

She didn't respond, stepping through the gaping hole slowly as she watched for his next move.

"Darling, let me kill that pest and we will spend our lives together."

She walked towards the side, watching him, almost like a beast stalking a prey. The men, still shocked yet interested in what was happening, followed after, paying no mind to the frightened women they were leaving behind as they watched her.

"I forgive you for your little tryst. He's nothing to you, I know. Like them, he filled your head with lies, didn't he?" He continued. 

She did not respond, her eyes keenly watching his every move as he started to pace forward and back, a laugh escaping his lips. His expression became sickly sweet a moment later. "You know how I love you, my darling. Will you hold me and sing for me again?"

His eyes pleaded as he stopped in his tracks, a soft smile on his lips as he watched her. 

"Darling, come here. We can renew our vows."

She gave a snort, and his expression once again changed, a rage filling him as he suddenly strode forward and slapped her with what they could tell was all his strength. Her lip burst open, but other than that no reaction could be seen. She simply continued to watch him like a beast it's prey.

"YOU WERE ALWAYS A BITCH!" he shouted at her. "Always enticing me with your singing and then forcing me away. You know how you used your wiles on me. You know as well as I do what you did. You flirted with me, calling me Brother with such a sweet voice. You were finally of age and we could finally marry. You said you would accept me!"

"I never said that." She spoke simply, her voice flat in tone. 

"You said you love me!"

"I said I love you like I love my brothers."

"You said you would be with me forever."

"I said I would always be there for you if you needed someone to listen."

"You were forced into that marriage."

"I agreed to a marriage to a man I respected and thought I might grow to love as a husband as the years passed."

Every word he spoke sounded of insanity, an Elder they did not know was standing before them, pleading, crying and threatening a woman in turn as she rebuffed every word he spoke. It appeared that the man had developed a one sided obsessive love for a beautiful girl he grew up with and being abused as a child, that love twisted more and more over the years as they grew older and she remained the only constant sweetness in his life. 

And when she accepted a marriage on behalf of her family, the man snapped. 

He had, over the years, convinced himself that she loved him as a man and killed everyone around her that spoke otherwise. He even killed her fiancé, a well respected General at the time that he had gotten close to on purpose as a 'concerned friend' of the bride. The General had accepted his request to join the newly created army of the God's Chosen, him, and agreed to marry into his bride's family instead of the other way around to make it easier on her. 

On a regular hunt, he slaughtered every man and every woman while she was resting, as she had been weak as a child, often getting ill or tired. This had been one of the days where she needed to rest more than normal. And he slaughtered them all the same way a butcher would. Displaying their skins like trophies while their butchered bodies lay around, being feasted on by his hounds. What stood out, though, was that the man had been crazed enough to take the then fifteen year old to inspect his handiwork, thoroughly traumatizing her.

This led to the girl refusing to speak or sing after that day. When she finally reached the age of eighteen, he married her in the very chapel they had been in just a few minutes ago. But, much as the story goes, she fell as the earth crumbled beneath them at the lightning, never to be seen again. The villagers had found her in her red wedding dress with blood everywhere. Her head had been hit so bad that her memory was completely wiped and her sense of time never really registered in her brain. The memory of the blood and red dress led to the name Ppalgan. And so, she was a well protected secret of the village for a thousand years, until Korain's men dragged her to his kingdom to help the poisoned king.

"You will not slaughter the man I married this time." She spoke firmly, her eyes drifting for a moment to the shell shocked group of men, watching as Korain stood there unable to fully register what had been exchanged.

He stalled, his expression blank for a moment as he looked to where she had looked. His eyes zoning in on Korain again.