Chapter 44

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sebastian

I WATCHED as she vanished into the light, slipping out of sight. I let out a slow, deliberate sigh, rolling my shoulders to ease the tension. Enough of this charade. That so-called poison? A pitiful concoction. Not even fit to kill a rat, let alone a monster like me.

With a flick of my wrist, my sword materialized, the cold steel glinting under the dim light. My gaze swept across their terrified faces, a cruel smile tugging at my lips. I had ensured her escape, because I knew she had endured far worse than these fools could ever imagine. The memory of her exhausted yet defiant eyes, her fragile body struggling to stand, only fueled the bloodlust coursing through my veins.

The mere thought of tearing apart every single one of the scum who dared to push her to that brink made my fingers twitch with anticipation. And to think I already had the pleasure of tormenting one—oh, the Grand Duke’s face, twisted in agony, had been a sight to behold. It was almost... intoxicating, the way he suffered as his daughter had.

I couldn’t suppress the grin that spread across my face. My hand moved to cover my mouth as I chuckled darkly, the sound low and menacing. “Yes... I shall make them all pay,” I murmured, each word dripping with malice. “Starting with that wretched woman who dared interfere. The one who dared wound her.”

Before I could relish the thought further, a frantic voice broke through my musings. “Your Highness!” One of the pathetic recruits Reynald had sent stumbled forward, eyes wide with concern. My eyes narrowed in annoyance as I turned my gaze to him, a low growl rumbling in my chest. How dare he interrupt me.

“Are you—”

His words were cut off, quite literally, as I swung my blade with lethal precision. His head separated from his shoulders in a single fluid motion, the momentum sending it rolling across the ground. Blood sprayed in a crimson arc, splattering my face with warm droplets. The corpse crumpled at my feet, still twitching as if it hadn’t yet realized it was dead.

For a heartbeat, there was only silence. Then, chaos erupted. Gasps, screams, and the stench of fear filled the air as the others froze, their eyes wide, bodies trembling. I could barely make out their faces through the haze of my rage, but I knew—oh, I knew—their eyes were wide with terror. One of Reynald’s creatures, the only one with enough sense to appreciate true carnage, started cackling madly at the spectacle.

“Why did you kill him, Your Highness?” Another voice, shrill with panic, cried out. Tears streamed down his cheeks, a pitiful sight that only served to amuse me.

I let out a mocking laugh, my voice echoing in the silence as I casually kicked the severed head away like a piece of garbage. “Your Highness, you say?” I drawled, each word laced with disdain. “I hereby renounce your pathetic guild. Let the Emperor turn his eyes elsewhere.” The words slipped from my lips like poison, and I could almost taste the sweet satisfaction of rebellion.

They surged forward, a chaotic mass of fury and desperation, as if they thought sheer numbers would be enough to stop me. How foolish. My grin widened, stretching into something monstrous.

“That’s right,” I whispered, more to myself than to them, my grip tightening around my sword. “Come to me, you worthless vermin... let’s see how long you last.”

And then, I leapt into the fray, a whirl of steel and shadow, ready to turn this place into a bloodbath they would never forget.

The thrill of the hunt coursed through my veins like fire as I lunged forward, sword raised high. The first unfortunate soul in my path barely had time to blink before my blade cleaved through his torso. A wet, sickening crunch filled the air as flesh and bone gave way, his body splitting in half with a grotesque squelch. Blood sprayed like rain, warm and thick, painting my face with the color of death.

I didn’t stop to savor the kill. Another came at me, desperation in his eyes, swinging a dagger wildly. Pathetic. I sidestepped his clumsy attack with ease, the wind of his blade barely grazing my cheek. In one swift motion, I drove my sword through his chest, twisting the blade with a cruel smile as he choked on his own blood. The gurgling sound that escaped his lips was almost... musical.

With a savage yank, I ripped the sword free, letting his lifeless body crumple to the ground. The scent of copper hung heavy in the air, mingling with the acrid stench of fear. The others hesitated, their resolve faltering as they saw their comrades fall like wheat before the scythe.

I let out a dark, mocking laugh that echoed through the blood-soaked clearing. My eyes gleamed with a sinister light as I surveyed the scene, lips curling into a cruel grin. “Is this all you’ve got?” I snarled, voice dripping with venom. I tilted my head, a grotesque curiosity dancing in my gaze, as if I were dissecting some amusing insect. “I expected more from Reynald’s pathetic little mercenaries.”

I could see their fear—a delicious terror that sent shivers of pleasure down my spine. One of them, a burly man with a scarred face, let out a roar of fury and charged at me with a greatsword. His blade came crashing down, aiming to cleave me in two. But I was faster. I sidestepped the swing, letting his momentum carry him past me, and with a swift flick of my wrist, I severed his Achilles tendon. He collapsed with a howl of agony, clutching at his ruined leg.

“Crawl,” I hissed, kicking him in the face with enough force to shatter bone. Teeth flew from his mouth, blood splattering in all directions. He whimpered, crawling away like a wounded dog, but there would be no mercy. With one swift motion, I swung my sword, severing his head clean off his shoulders. The heavy blade buried itself into the ground, sending a spray of blood arcing through the air.

A wave of attackers surged forward in a desperate bid to overwhelm me. Fools. I relished the chaos, spinning and slicing with an elegance that belied the brutality of my actions. Arms, legs, heads—all severed and sent flying as I moved like a whirlwind of death. The ground became slick with blood, turning the battlefield into a grotesque mosaic of crimson and flesh.

I locked eyes with a trembling archer trying to draw his bow. His hands shook so badly the arrow slipped from his grasp, clattering uselessly to the ground. I was on him in an instant, my sword plunging into his gut. I leaned in close, watching the light fade from his eyes as I whispered, “Tell the afterlife that Sebastian sent you. I’ll be sending plenty more.”

Another swung at me with a warhammer, a desperate swing aimed at my head. I ducked, the hammer whooshing over me harmlessly, and drove my sword up through his jaw, piercing his skull. The blade emerged from the top of his head, and I yanked it free with a wet, sucking sound. His body went limp, collapsing in a heap at my feet.

The last few men were trying to flee now, stumbling over the corpses of their comrades in their haste to escape. Pathetic insects. I couldn’t help but laugh—a dark, twisted sound that echoed like a death knell across the clearing.

“Leaving so soon?” I taunted, voice laced with cruel mockery. I stretched out my hand, summoning dark tendrils of shadow that erupted from the ground, wrapping around their legs like the grasp of death itself, dragging them back toward me. Their screams filled the night, a symphony of despair that was music to my ears.

I moved with brutal efficiency, hacking limbs from bodies, reducing them to nothing more than mutilated husks. One man, his face pale with terror, fell to his knees, hands clasped in a futile plea for mercy. His pitiful sobs only fueled my bloodlust.

“Mercy?” I laughed, a hollow, joyless sound. “The only mercy you’ll find here is a swift death... if you’re lucky.” I drove my blade into his throat, silencing his cries with a spray of crimson.

As the last body hit the ground, I stood amidst the carnage, my chest heaving, blood dripping from my sword in thick rivulets. The stench of death filled the air, a testament to my handiwork. I looked around at the slaughter I had wrought, feeling a sick satisfaction rise within me. All that remained was silence, broken only by the crackle of dying breaths and the soft drip of blood pooling at my feet.

I sheathed my sword with a flourish, turning my back on the massacre as if it were nothing more than a fleeting distraction. “If this is the best they can muster,” I muttered under my breath, wiping the blood from my face with the back of my hand, “then they deserve to rot in the darkest pits of hell.”

I strode over to Reynald’s unconscious form, each step accompanied by the sickening squelch of blood beneath my boots. The metallic scent of iron hung thick in the air, a grim testament to the carnage I had wrought. I paused before him, crouching down until my eyes were level with his bruised, slack face.

My lips twisted into a cold, mocking smile as I gazed at him. “You really enjoyed playing the Emperor here, didn’t you?” I whispered, my voice dripping with contempt. I seized a handful of his hair, yanking his head up until it was level with mine. His limp body dangled like a puppet whose strings had been cut. “Remember, I only let you indulge in that fantasy because I was tired of being one myself back in our kingdom.”

I tilted my head, studying the broken man before me, amusement gleaming in my eyes. “You loved that woman so desperately,” I continued, my tone almost pitying. “So much so that you tried countless times to bring her back.” I chuckled, a low, bitter sound. “You went to such lengths... and for what?”

The word ‘love’ lingered on my tongue like a curse. Perhaps it was that damned emotion that led me astray, that caused me to betray our original plan.

In every loop of this infernal cycle, I relived the past, retracing my steps, knowing that any attempt to alter the course of fate would be in vain. Every time I tried to change something, the world would reset, snapping back to the cruel reality it was destined to follow. Yet this time... this loop... something was different.

My gaze darkened as my thoughts turned to her—the woman who upended everything. Was it because of that Intruder? The one who dared to disrupt the flow of this cursed existence? I played my part well, feigning fury when I already knew from the start she wasn’t the real Arthemice. The color of her soul was all the proof I needed. Her every gesture, every word, was foreign, unbefitting of the cruel villainess I once knew.

But that wasn’t all. The way she treated others with a gentleness that bordered on naivety, the subtle shifts in her personality, and—damn it all—my cursed sickness... She healed it. I had believed killing Arthemice would be the key to ending my torment, that her death would rid me of this affliction. But she did the impossible. She made me feel something—something I had forgotten in the endless cycle of blood and revenge. For the first time in centuries of regression, I felt... alive.

I clenched my jaw, the realization cutting through me like a blade. In her presence, the world seemed less cruel, less suffocating. The hollow emptiness that had plagued me for so long began to crack, and from those cracks, something new emerged.

“No one,” I growled under my breath, my grip tightening in Reynald’s hair until his scalp bled, “no one will stand in her way. Anyone who dares to interfere with her quest for vengeance against you...” My voice dropped to a menacing whisper, “I’ll personally sever their heads.”

Even if I had come to this revelation too late, even if the path forward was drenched in blood and shadows, I would see it through. I would slaughter everything in my path, destroy anyone who dared to challenge her resolve. The cold resolve settled in my chest like steel, unyielding and absolute.

Because for her... for that intruder... I would turn this cursed world inside out.

“Ha...” I disheveled my hair.

I stared down at Reynald’s face, memories of our shared past flooding back with a bitterness that stung deeper than any wound. For a moment, I saw not the broken man before me but the friend I once knew, the one who stood by my side when everything else crumbled.

Reynald and Charlie had been my closest companions since childhood, back when our kingdom still thrived on the map. I was a prince then, and they were my loyal knights, bound not just by duty but by a bond forged in the fires of camaraderie. But that bond was shattered the day the Emperor of this wretched kingdom declared war on us. Our kingdom fell into ruin, consumed by flames and bloodshed, leaving only a handful of survivors. We were among the few who escaped the carnage, bearing the weight of our fallen homeland.

Driven by the flames of vengeance, we set our sights on this kingdom, determined to bring it to its knees. We journeyed through hostile lands, relying on Reynald’s uncanny ability to manipulate and control minds. We infiltrated the palace, killed the late Emperor, and brought his reign to a brutal end—except for his son, whom we spared for reasons I can no longer remember. They wanted me to ascend the throne, to become the new Emperor, but I refused. The crown felt like a noose around my neck, a burden I could not bear. So, instead, we placed Reynald on the throne in my stead, a puppet ruler with a prince’s blood on his hands.

But the gods, or perhaps the devils, cursed me with this endless cycle of regression—a loop that traps me in the same tragic story over and over. Every time, it’s the same... my lives are snuffed out, only to be resurrected and forced to relive the same torment, the same despair. I’m so tired of it, so sick of watching everything I hold dear crumble to ash, only for it to be rebuilt and destroyed again.

Reynald... he wasn’t always this mad. He fell in love once, with the High Priestess, but her heart belonged to another—the Grand Duke. Consumed by jealousy and despair, Reynald made a terrible choice. He opened a portal to the underworld, unleashing a horde of monsters that ravaged our already shattered kingdom. That cursed tree took root beneath the Imperial Palace, its blackened blossoms fed by the lives it consumed. Ironically, that very act made our plan to destroy this kingdom all the easier, as chaos and despair took hold.

But the High Priestess discovered his dark scheme. In a desperate bid to stop him, she stole the sacred orb from the temple, sealing away the portal at the cost of her own life. She drained every last drop of her strength to stop him, leaving only a prophecy behind—a promise that her unborn daughter would carry her power and finish what she started. The High Priestess’s dying words haunted Reynald, she foretold that her child would destroy him and bring an end to his madness.

Years passed, and Reynald’s grief twisted into obsession. He discovered a way to revive the High Priestess, but at a monstrous cost—he planned to use her daughter’s body as a vessel. He went mad, preserving the body of Artemisia in a twisted attempt to bring his lost love back. The madness consumed him, driving him to manipulate the Grand Duke, pulling the strings of his dark plan for years, all in the hope of a resurrection that should never be.

I let out a deep, weary sigh, the weight of countless lifetimes pressing down on me. “I let you run wild in every regression, letting you chase after shadows and ghosts,” I muttered, my voice low and filled with a fatigue that no amount of sleep could ever cure. “But this time... this time, it ends.”

A bitter laugh escaped my lips, the sound hollow and devoid of warmth. I let his leash slip from my grasp, believing that if I gave him freedom, he might find redemption. But all I did was turn him into the worst monster this world has ever seen. My hands are stained with the blood of the innocent because I let him become this way.

The cycle of suffering, the endless loop of life and death—it would stop here. I would make sure of it, even if it meant tearing apart the very fabric of this cursed world.

I released his hair, letting his head thud heavily against the blood-soaked ground as I rose to my feet. My voice was low, almost a whisper, but it carried the weight of my resolve.

“I’ll spare your life, for now. Not out of mercy, but because I want the lady to be the one to take it from you,” I murmured, a cold smile tugging at my lips. “She’s suffered more than you could ever fathom because of your twisted schemes. Perhaps facing her wrath will give you a taste of the torment you so freely inflicted.”

The cold breeze brushed against my skin, sending a shiver down my spine as if the world itself had paused to listen. I leaned closer, my eyes gleaming with a dark promise. “You crave revenge, don’t you? Then surely, you’ll understand her desire to see you bleed. Her hands will be the ones to end your miserable existence, and I’ll make sure you live just long enough to see it coming.”

I turned my gaze to the sky, where dawn was breaking. The first light of day painted the horizon in soft hues, but the moon’s shadow still lingered above, a ghostly remnant of the night. I smiled faintly, something wistful in the curve of my lips.

“I’ll see you soon, my moon,” I whispered.

fin.