Queen Maya was sitting at her desk in her room, writing something. The candle placed in front of her provided light only over her desk, while the rest of the room was plunged in darkness.
An unnatural silence filled the space, the reflection of the light revealing only a fraction of the Queen's face, while the rest of it vanished into the surrounding shadows. The only things that seemed capable of breaking this stillness were the scratch of her pen and the gentle clinking of the ornaments on her wrist.
Suddenly, a strange aura swept through her body, causing her to lean back sharply in her chair. The candlelight flickered and went out, as if extinguished by an invisible force. She gripped her pen so tightly that the nib snapped under the pressure. Ink spilled across the paper, but Maya didn't even flinch. Every hair on her body stood on end, and her spine felt entirely too weak to support her weight as she sat.
Her lips were parched with fear. Even after wetting them with her tongue, they remained dry. Earlier, the silence of the room was broken only by her pen and jewelry, but now, heavy breathing and the rapid, pounding rhythm of her heartbeat filled the entire space.
Just then, she felt someone's presence right behind her. Terror locked every joint in her body, making it impossible for her to turn around. She realized someone was stepping close to her ear, and a heavy, feminine voice whispered,
"What will you do now, Maya? The plan is almost ruined."
Queen Maya tried desperately to force herself to calm down. Closing her eyes, she slowly tried to regulate her breathing, then said with trembling lips,
"What is Suxang doing? He killed him, so what is this feeling?"
The figure behind her suddenly burst into a chilling, distorted laugh. Maya could feel that the entity had placed a hand on her shoulder, but she was completely frozen in place.
"Do you honestly think Negate can be killed? And with Siyam around, do you think Suxang could ever pull that off?"
Maya's eyes instantly turned crimson, the blood-red glow within them reflecting her fury, deep humiliation, and utter failure. She cried out, sweeping everything off the table in a fit of rage. Breathing heavily, she snarled,
"There is still time, I can still do something. I won't let Sameer live in peace as long as I draw breath."
Before Maya could finish, a guard knocked on her door.
"Your Majesty, are you alright? Is everything okay?"
Maya quickly composed herself as she stood up from the chair. Clearing her throat slightly, she called out,
"N-nothing, everything is fine."
After a brief moment of thought, as she nervously began biting her right thumbnail, she said,
"Alright, come in."
The guard hesitated outside for a second before opening the door and stepping inside. The clanking of his iron armor echoed loudly in the quiet room. The guard looked both shocked and terrified, his gaze dropping involuntarily toward the Queen's feet. Yet, his instincts and his sixth sense screamed at him that an invisible terror was lurking here. Stepping further into the room, he realized there wasn't a single flicker of light, yet the air felt strangely suffocating. The moment he entered, the Queen ordered him to shut the door. The guard had barely closed it and hadn't even gotten a chance to react or understand what was happening.
When his entire body violently twisted like an empty bottle. There wasn't even enough time for his iron armor to clatter; his eyes bulged and popped straight out, and his entire body crumpled in a split second. A spray of blood hit the Queen's face, while the rest of his mangled entrails splattered across the room. A demonic smile spread across Maya's face, bathed in blood, she slowly laughed. It was as if her bottled-up rage had finally found a release after a very long time.
The shadowy entity standing behind her looked slightly surprised by Maya's action, but hiding its reaction, it leaned close to Maya's ear and whispered,
"Are you trying to bring all those old things back into your life?"
Maya was about to reply when the door slowly creaked open. Startled, Maya turned her gaze toward the entrance to see King Simanto walking in. As Simanto stepped inside, his path was slightly blocked by something on the floor. Giving it a gentle nudge, the light from the hallway revealed blood and scattered entrails covering the floor. Before stepping fully inside, he glanced outside to signal someone, then hurried in and quickly closed the door.
Seeing the Queen drenched in blood, he rushed over, grabbed her by both shoulders, and shook her anxiously,
"What happened to you, my Queen? You said everything was under control, then what is the meaning of all this?"
Maya jerked away from his grip, stepping back slightly. Shaking her head, she muttered,
"Nothing is fine, Your Majesty, nothing at all. Didn't you feel that aura?"
Simanto looked at the Queen and snapped his fingers. Instantly, all the lights in the room flared to life. Turning around, he walked over to the crumpled mass of twisted iron armor. Staring down at it in silence, he gave the armor a light nudge with his boot and said,
"There was no need to reduce him to this state."
Wiping the blood from her face while remaining seated in her chair, Maya replied,
"Am I not even allowed to vent my anger somewhere?"
Looking at the fuming Queen, King Simanto let out a heavy sigh.
"Even so, you didn't have to do it to a palace guard. There are thousands of commoners in the palace, if a few of them vanish quietly, no one would ever care."
Maya began biting her nails again, clear traces of panic etched across her face. The sagging skin near her jaw twitched, showing how deeply terror was fracturing her focus. With a trembling voice, she asked,
"Will Sameer figure out that we were behind all of this?"
King Simanto walked over to the Queen and pulled her into a tight embrace. He could feel that despite trying to act tough, Maya was shaking from head to toe, her whole body gripped by a bone-chilling fear. Stroking her hair, he whispered,
"Sameer will think Siyam is responsible for everything. Nothing will trace back to us, because Siyam knows Sameer is the guilty one, and to Sameer, Siyam is just an obstacle in his way."
Maya hugged Simanto back, gripping him so tightly that the King realized if he were an ordinary person, his bones would have snapped right then and there. In fact, calling it a broken bone would be an understatement, her grip was strong enough to tear a body right down the middle. Simanto knew this state of Maya all too well. She hadn't been this terrified even during the Great War.
Gripping her head gently yet firmly, he said,
"Without dirtying our own hands, we became part of Suxang's plan. Trust me, I am here and I won't let anything happen to you."
The moment he finished speaking, the pupils of the King's eyes flared into a brilliant, fiery red for a brief fraction of a second before returning completely to normal.
Meanwhile, Siyam hurried into his room, grabbed a bag, and began pulling out his clothes with a frantic expression. His hands trembled so badly that the neatly folded clothes scattered everywhere in a messy pile. Ignoring it completely, he started tossing things around the room, driven by such an intense and desperate search that failing to find what he was looking for felt like a catastrophic disaster.
Humaira rushed into the room, and seeing Siyam in such a state, asked him what was wrong. Siyam gave her no answer. Knowing that pressing him for answers right now would only make things worse, she silently sat down on the edge of the bed. Siyam frantically emptied everything out of the bag, then began rummaging desperately through the pile of clothes on the floor. Unable to keep herself from stepping in, Humaira knelt in front of him and pulled him tightly into her embrace.
As she held him close, Humaira could feel that Siyam's entire body was burning up with feverish heat. Every single muscle in his face was twitching, and he was drenched in sweat. Siyam hadn't been in a state like this since the Great War three hundred years ago—why was it happening again today?
Without a second thought, Humaira held him even tighter against her chest. A brilliant, glowing white aura erupted around them, beginning to heal Siyam's body. The light slowly calmed him down, and his breathing gradually returned to normal. With his head resting against Humaira's chest, his eyes fluttering half-closed, he whispered weakly:
"Water..."
Humaira pulled him onto her lap and urgently called out for the maids. A servant standing just outside the room asked if anything was needed. Humaira told her to bring water immediately, then pressed a soft kiss to Siyam's forehead.
Meanwhile, locked in a fierce mental battle with Suxang inside his mind, Siyam was nearly exhausted. He barely had the strength to keep his eyes open. Why was Suxang pushing him to this extreme? Why was Suxang so desperate to go see King Maciej?
Just then, a maid knocked on the door with a glass of water. Siyam slowly pulled himself up. Humaira helped him sit, then walked over to the door to fetch the water. Siyam sat on the floor, pressing a hand to his throbbing temples as a severe migraine pierced through him. Suxang had never acted this reckless before, so why was he pushing so hard now? Lost in thought, he blinked and slowly looked up.
Through the dim, hazy light, the image of Humaira kneeling before him with a glass of water slowly came into focus. Siyam took the glass from her hand, drained it in a single breath, and forced himself to stand up. But the sheer heaviness in his head made it agonizingly difficult to keep his balance. Looking straight at Humaira, he said,
"I need to go to the Orel Kingdom right now. I have to see King Maciej."
With that, he turned toward the door. But Humaira instantly grabbed him from behind, wrapping her arms around him.
"I won't let you go alone. I'm coming with you."
Siyam turned around, cupping Humaira's gorgeous face gently in both hands, and pressed a soft kiss to her lips. The warmth of Siyam's breath and the touch of his lips caused Humaira to close her eyes. This felt like the most peaceful moment in the entire world, she wished time would just freeze right here, forever. But shattering that brief peace, Siyam slowly pulled his lips away from hers and said,
"Your place is right here, protecting Yameen. And above all, you need to stay safe. I promise you, I will be back very soon."
Before Humaira could even find the words to respond, he turned and strode quickly out of the room. Siyam went straight to the royal stables, carefully selected a horse, mounted it, and galloped off directly toward the Orel Kingdom. He kept repeating a single thought over and over in his mind:
"Maciej, please, hold it together just this once. I'm coming; I won't let anything happen. Not this time."
He dug his heels deeper into the horse's flanks, pushing the animal to gallop even faster.
"Three hundred years ago, Maciej was the only one who could wield the Light Sword. The Dark Sword was entrusted to Siyam, and the Light Sword to Maciej, because the two of them alone possessed the worthiness to wield them. Suxang and Maciej's angel, Uriel, were twin brothers, a truth Siyam and Maciej only discovered during their battle against Sameer. And the only reason they managed to bring Sameer down back then was because of Maciej's combat mastery and power. Now, Suxang was frantically searching the basement for the key just so he could take the Dark Sword and reach King Maciej. Suxang never does anything without a reason, and from what I can gather, trouble is about to strike the Orel Kingdom very soon."
As these thoughts raced through his mind, Siyam urged the horse faster. Sweat pooled behind his neck, and the biting rush of the cold wind chilled his bones to the core. Ringing in his ears was the single promise he had made to Maciej, and the time to keep that promise had finally arrived.
Ahead of him, the sun was sinking below the horizon in a blazing red glow, while Siyam rode like the wind into the gathering dusk, chasing the looming shadow of destiny toward the Orel Kingdom.
In the dark, pitch-black night sky, tiny sparks of fire drifted upward, dissolving into the wind. A spine-chilling silence surrounded the area, broken only by the crackling snap of burning wood in the campfire. Sitting beside the flames was Tameem, sharpening his blade against a whetstone, while Sameer sat close by, deeply immersed in meditation. It was hard to tell whether he was meditating or sleeping, but the sharp sching-sching sound of the blade being sharpened seemed to herald an impending flood of destruction.
Suddenly, Tameem stopped sharpening his weapon, gazed toward the brightly lit palace of the kingdom a few miles away, and asked:
"Why aren't we attacking right now? Is waiting for morning really that necessary?"
Scratching his hair lazily, Sameer replied,
"Some things are best enjoyed at the very first light of dawn. Besides, the morning for the kingdom ahead should begin straight from hell. Let them have their peaceful sleep and joy for just one more night."
With a faint smirk, he bit into a piece of roasted rabbit meat roasting over the fire, tearing it apart with his teeth. Watching him devour the whole rabbit like that, Tameem stared in wide-eyed astonishment. Sensing the look, Sameer held the piece of meat toward him and tilted his head inquiringly.
Startled, Tameem quickly straightened up, forced an awkward smile, and shook his head to refuse. Without asking a second time, Sameer went right back to chewing. Tameem resumed sharpening his blade and asked:
"If you don't mind, could I ask you two things?"
With his mouth full of food, Sameer nodded affirmatively. Tameem shifted back a little, cleared his throat, and continued:
"Why did you choose to destroy the Orel Kingdom first? What do they have that you want? And how can you even see anything with those seals over your eyes?"
Sameer leaned back against a nearby boulder and said,
"Aren't you asking for a bit too much? Just because you helped me get out doesn't mean you have a right to know everything. I didn't break free on my own because I knew you would come, and I'm going to need you for my next plan."
Tameem swallowed hard, fell silent, and lowered his head. He knew Sameer could kill him in the blink of an eye, so he dared not push any further. But then, to Tameem's surprise, Sameer tilted his face up toward the sky and said,
"I can't see a single thing because of these iron seals over my eyes. I only sense the life force of things around me and the matter they are made of."
With that, he brought the iron bracelets on both of his wrists together and tapped them against each other, producing a sharp clink. Smirking, he added,
"And King Maciej of the Orel Kingdom is the very person who placed these seals on me."
Thousands of questions were swirling in Tameem's mind, but he no longer had the courage to voice them. Keeping quiet, he shifted a bit to the side and tried to lie down with his eyes closed. Sameer glanced at him once, then turned his gaze back toward the direction of the kingdom. The Orel Kingdom was just a few miles ahead; though Sameer couldn't physically see it, he could feel every single human emotion within its walls, their laughter, cries, noises, fears, and joys. Amidst all of that, a tear slipped from his eye, only to get trapped behind the iron plate sealing his vision.