Missing Piece

Nightmares

Nobody is born evil, they say. People are formed by their surroundings. That's how it's been forever. The Sin of Guilt is something one has to earn with the actions they take as their life goes on.

And the Mad Prince has lived a long life. Not that he himself has chosen to do so. He was trapped in an endless cycle of suffering and death until he finally managed to solve the impossible puzzle he was fated to solve.

And he did.

Not only that, but he made sure that every single one of his friends would make it out alive from that dreadful tomb. His life was only burdened with one final task: to make it out of there for the sake of being with his loved ones.

Over the years, though, that number of loved ones diminished. He grew tired of trying to save them all. He only wanted one but knew that he ultimately needed them all to survive to make his wish come true.

So he prevailed. He pushed forward with a will that was barely held together by the Sin of Solace for thousands of years, only to be discarded at the end. Deep inside of him was still a little bit of humanity left, and that part was hurting like nothing else he had ever experienced before.

He felt betrayed; nothing he did for them seemed to matter because he was no longer a man but an abomination. That much was clear to him from the moment he looked into their eyes. The hate and spite in their eyes broke the last piece of humanity that had been keeping him from really losing it.

Now that it was gone, he wanted nothing more than to kill them all and make them suffer like he did.

Except for one.

As he fought, his mind wandered from madness to love every time Nephis came into view. Her silver hair—he had drowned in her blood thousands of times, painting it a beautiful scarlet red. He couldn't bring himself to hate her.

Not her, not in a million years.

But everyone else was only a matter of time before he would slit their throats and display their bodies on spikes for everyone to see. His fury burned hard as he went after them with only one word echoing in his mind.

‘Kill.’

The madness evident in his eyes dominated the battlefield like a storm of death. He made sure to do it slowly, to make them suffer before their deaths. Nothing less would suffice. He wouldn't rest until everyone else was dead and he could stand on the mountain of corpses with his beautiful radiant queen by his side.

‘If she has no one to turn to, she will have no other choice but to choose me!’

That was his goal since he was reborn in the body of a shadow. He knew that it was only a matter of time until his former self would lose to the corruption planted inside of him and become something that would erase the two worlds for him, to make room for a new world where he and Nephis could rule.

That was the wish he always chased, like a mindless beast following the orders it had been given by its long-dead owner. And soon he found his first victim.

Bloodwave shot forward for once to engage in a battle he didn't feel confident in. The last couple of hours had been a reality check. Until today, he always thought that being a saint meant standing on the same stage as others of the same rank. But today's battle showed him that he was not on par with others just because he was of the same rank.

Naeve was doing no better. He could feel his essence on the edge of collapsing. His whole body ached with pain as cuts continued to drain him of blood. His mind couldn't help but wander to his family—not just the cousin that currently faced the Mad Prince all on his own, but his wife and daughter too.