Eternal Saṃsāra: The Wanderer of Worlds, Book 2

[226] The Sun Rises Again

Chapter 226: The Sun Rises Again

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The tropical island was a wasteland, its former beauty marred by the scars of battle. A one-sided battle. The air, thick with the scent of scorched earth, carried the echoes of destruction.

The waves lapped against the shore, indifferent to the devastation around them, the only sound that dared to break the oppressive silence.

Lilithra lay on the ground, her body battered and bruised, her breath ragged. Blood trickled from her wounds, but she barely noticed the pain. Instead, she giggled, a sound that was hollow, desperate. It was all she could manage after everything that had happened.

She did not want to die. Not like this, after finally meeting him after three hundred years. She didn't have the courage to face him, but she forced herself to in the end... but now, she was splattered on the ground, bloody and wounded. Her skin was red, not from her transformation, but from her own blood.

It hurt to see him hurt her. But this mustn't be the fraction of what he felt when I slammed that dagger into him...

She had three hundred years to go over that scene over and over again, every sleepless night, every terror-filled nightmare, she wondered about that night. That night when she killed her love with her own hands. Did she have the jurisdiction to complain now, when all of this was her fault?

Acceptance was the only thing she could do.

If this is what he wants... she thought, her voice barely a whisper as she spoke, "If that's what you want, my love... I don't mind. If you want me dead, so be it."

He stood over her, his gaze cold, devoid of the warmth she once knew. His shadow was long, taller than it used to be, just like him. He didn't look like the man she loved, the demonic man above her was far different than her Seriphoth. Despite that, she knew the soul was his. He was the same man she had fallen in love with, even if that love didn't exist in him anymore.

He didn't reply. He opened his mouth, true, but no words came out of his lips. His initial glee seeing her hurt was not there anymore. He looked bored after a series of one-sided attacks.

Instead, he looked up at the sky as if searching for answers in the churning clouds above. A scoff escaped his lips, bitter and filled with contempt.

Without a word, the man wearing a morphed mask of her husband turned and began to walk away.

What... what is he doing? Confusion gripped her heart as she watched him move. She hadn't expected this, hadn't prepared for him to simply walk away.

"Why?" she called out, her voice trembling. "Are you really walking away now, after pushing me to death's door? Why aren't you killing me? Finish it! End my misery!"

She did not want to live in a world where her love of life hated her. Lilithra's demonic heart burned.

He stopped but didn't turn to face her. The silence that followed was suffocating, every second dragging out her torment.

When he spoke, his words were colder than the void itself. "Death is a simple punishment for you, don't you think? So I changed my mind."

No... The realization struck her like a blow. No, please... She had prepared for death, welcomed it even, but this... this was something else entirely. Why would he choose this?!

"You'll live," he continued, his voice devoid of any emotion. "You'll live, and you'll watch me be happy with others. Speaking of, did you know I've slept with Akeno? Your Queen."