A/N: The chapter ahead is raw, which means not been proofread yet nor edited.1***1From Cosmo-Vale, everyone is witnessing it. All that they could do is tremble from the impending doom that's about to come, and the Deities are not resting easy. The Matriarch is, however, watching it all unfold with a calm demeanor. However, her face tells a different emotion.
"Lioran..." She called her name with a low tone. Is it sad? Who can tell?
"Yes! Yes, yes, YES! MY GRANDMA! COME!" Lorreign cheered excitedly and danced in the air.
Finally! Finally, finally! Lioran, the Deity of Darkness, is returning to where she belong!
"I can't wait---"
Lorreign, from where she's levitating to, flew to the other side after receiving a punch from something she did not feel and see.
She's not recovering yet from the shock when she received another punch, and another---she received so much until she's frustrated and pissed! Because she can't see it! She can't feel its presence either so she couldn't tell where it's coming! She tried to unleash an area of Chaos Disintegration but her attacker was not affected and received more punches.
Xerena stepped back when she heard glass-like shattering noises come from the person she choose to wake.
One of her Hand was already freed, and it immediately set out to search for Lorreign. It was Acht, and it's the one raining punches against Lorreign.
Yes, she chose Azarese.
And yes, both the Relics had decided to sacrifice themselves to wake the most brutal, the cruelest, the one and only, the notorious Wicked Empress of Heart,
Empress Azarese Elyzena Dragunovv-Warlock.
Xerena, kept on wiping her face but she couldn't stop grieving for her friend. As a remembrance, they left her a tiny piece of themselves.
"Please... Please, wake up sooner. Wake up faster."
Azarese opened her eyes.
But it was the void she sees and not the light.
"Azarese... Azarese...!"
She turned around, searching for the voice. It sound like her. It's sweet, so she knows who it already is.
"Golden Azarese,"
As soon as she mentioned the name, her surrounding brightened. When her sight adjusted, she found herself standing to the place she once gone to before, where Golden Azarese took her to when she first learned about her reincarnation. The place with infinite walls surrounding her supposed to be Core Essence.
And standing before its doors were goodness in her that she lost: Good Azarese and Golden Azarese.
"Come! Look at this!"
They waited for her. They hold both her hands and showed her a tiny hole in the door.
"Try to peek! Tell us what you see!"
She looked at them and did what they said.
"What's in there? Tell us! Come on! We want to know!"
But she really couldn't see it well. The hole is tiny and narrow. The doors were so thick that the distance adds up to what she could see.
"I see the color of green."
"O-Oh?" The girls were confused, "Why green? Our color is blue!" They meant the Imperial color, the signature color of Warlocks.
"I don't know? Tsk. Why am I even here?"
"Why do you think? That hole was not there before. Look, it's also tiny, but there's another hole up there," Golden Azarese pointed somewhere. Azarese did not follow.
"What do you want?"
Good Azarese hold her hand, "Don't be mean. We only want to show you. Are you not happy? You will soon...use your powers."
Azarese pulled her hand away.
"Nice. But I don't need it much."
The girls smiled wryly.
"Azarese," called the golden one, "Please don't be so hard on yourself. Please be kind. At least to yourself."
The Good one embraced her, "Let it leak, just feel it. Then use it, unleash it. Let it be free, then you will see the beauty of it. Your Bloodline. A war is looming in, and what you have won't be enough. Your tears can heal."
"What are you talking about? What 'war' are you saying?"
The girls let her go and pushed her. Something pulled her away.
"Hey! Tell me what you mean! Brats!"
"Go, Azarese! You can do it!" They cheered and she cursed them until they're out of her sight and slowly coming back to the void.
"Please...save our sons," they murmured while waving their hands to her. Their tears fell but they kept on smiling.
She opened her eyes for real and the first thing she heard was Xerena's heartbreaking sobs. She get up and gave the girl a wondering and frustrated glare.
"What the fuck are you crying about? And who the fuck are you?"
Xerena was surprised. When she laid her eyes on Azarese, it gave her the greatest relief. But also, a great pain for remembering what she had to lose.
"Please help me! Help everyone! Prince Valerian... He's dead!"
"FUCKING---SHOW YOURSELF! WHERE ARE YOU!?" Lorreign screamed, finally losing it and threw her magic everywhere. Acht went through her chest and squeezed her heart out and dragged her down.
The impact upon collision shook the ground. When the dust and smoke were swept away, Lorreign was still, then aback, and felt something in her ignite when she found Azarese over her head.
"AZARESE ELY---"
Sieben pulled her jaw away and punched her solar plexus using it.
"Where are my sons, Lorreign? WHERE. IS. VALERIAN."
Lorreign healed herself and laughed on her face.
"Valerian!? Who? You mean, that?" she played and pointed Prince Vyldread who's hanging by a thread. Azarese kept her eyes on her.
"Wahahaha! Can't you see what's over your empty head, slut!? That's him! HE'S GONE-GONE, bitch! Your son is DEAD!"
Hands pinned her harder and punched her stomach, burying her deep the surface.
Vier and Funf went to Azarese to check on her, worried and anxious. However, they were confused when they couldn't read her mind nor her face. It was as if...
She's only staring blankly at Lorreign, devoid of any emotion and expression. Her eyes were not dull but they are lifeless.
"Quit playing and prove yourself to me, bastard."
Lorreign chuckled and spit blood. In a blink of an eye, Azarese's Hands were severed.
"They're pretty annoying to deal with. You wouldn't mind, right?"
What remained of Hands wiggled. They couldn't heal but they're not dead either.
"Stop wiggling like bitches and get inside me, Hands," she scolded Hands coldly, upsetting them, but they went inside her anyway to not get in her way.
In that same moment, Lorreign encaged Azarese in a sphere.
"I heard you're an immortal through and through. And I heard how badly you want to die. Lucky you, I can grant that."
Chaos smoke filled the sphere, containing decaying properties. As it get on Azarese's skin, it burns and sizzles, giving Lorreign not so quite the show because her enemy is not reacting.
"You can't kill what's already dead."
She teleported behind Lorreign and landed a kick against her back, breaking her spine and pushing her to the far Other Side.
They exchanged blows. Chaos Magic for Lorreign but Azarese is all but physical strength. Her Hands are gone but it doesn't mean that she's at a disadvantage.
"Is punches all you've got!? Shame!"
Lorreign burned through holes in Azarese's body with chaos energy balls. It didn't stop Azarese from chasing her and beating the shit out of her.
This is not the fight she was expecting.
Lorreign wants more than Azarese's fist fights.
She want the Third Lady of Heart. If she can't squeeze it out of Azarese, then the Wicked Empress at least would be enough.
"Why do you think it's boring? I thought you're going to kill me? Now, don't disappoint me."
Azarese grabbed her head and brought it to the ground to slam it.
A reason.
She must provoke Azarese. Make her rage. Let her rage.
Lorreign managed to get away from her, but she's not adjusting yet when she found Azarese's face right in front of her again when she turned back. She teleported away instantly.
Still mid-air, Azarese changed her direction and followed her.
Lorreign waited for her with a grin. And as Azarese close the distance between them, pulling her hand back for a punch, she switched her places with Prince Zodiac. Thus, his body received his mother's punch, destroying him to pieces upon impact.
"OH MY GOD!" Lorreign cried out in horror after witnessing what she did.
(A/N: "What she did" may go both ways, for Lorreign and for Azarese.)
Azarese's heart skipped a beat.
"Y-You... Prince Zodiac! How could you!?" Lorreign cried and descended to collect the pieces of flesh of the Prince's body. Her touch disintegrated the Prince's flesh as her crocodile tears fall on them.
"How could you do this to him? Your son!"
Azarese's body began to tremble as her head slowly went down to look at her hand, tainted with her own son's blood.
And she saw. She saw. Before it, she saw.
The Prince is without a head.
"W-What..."
Her breathing became labored as the memories of her first miscarriage return to her mind.
Lorreign stood behind her, giving her light back massages.
"You did it. It's an accident, Azarese. It's because you are not enough. You are not fit...to become a mother."
She turned Azarese to where the Palace is and send a wind to slice the establishment. The upper part of the Palace began to slide down and fell, revealing its open interior below. She brought Azarese with her to show her what happened in the throne room, only to find Cecilia, Wattroid, and Xerena doing some business.
Using Azarese's jars of tears, they're pouring her ears on them to 'heal' them.
Xerena, eyes burning with fury and overflowing with tears, looked up and gave Lorreign a middle finger.
Duke Paris opened his eyes.
"YOU FUCKING BRATS!!!"
She slapped Azarese away and summoned concentrated Chaos Storm. It will kill them. It will certainly kill them, but who cares. That'd be their end game anyway. Deity Lioran will kill them, too. Those Warlocks won't stand a chance.
When her attack suddenly bounced back to her.
She was shocked and still; her eyes looked down to her body that sustained damages.
Prince Davorin stand up and glared at her.
"I knew you had it in you, bastard."
Lorreign cracked a single laugh.
Her aura flared up visibly. Her chaotic aura glows with swirling hues of vibrant blue and deep magenta, blending together in a luminous, electric-like nebula.
"Davorin, you don't have what it takes to beat me."
"Really?"
The salty wind blows with sand on Lorreign's face. She turned away to avoid it. When she looked back, she found herself in the situation as before.
In front of her is Voltage Xirquit, waterboarding her bastard son with Ohms Xirquit in front of her.
.
.
.
"K-Kuya... Hnnngh... I-I don't...want to d-die---"
"S-Shhh... Matthew, look at me. Don't sleep, okay? Don't sleep. S-Shit, baby. Don't sleep."
Kendrew crawled the remaining distance between him and Matthew patiently. To make it short, Lorreign found them, they fought back but she's overwhelming. They didn't stand a chance against her at all. She beat them to up and after that, she dismembered Matthew. She tore his limbs and left him hanging for his dear life, while Kendrew's body was...in a state of decay.
The same situation fell upon Lord Thirdy and Miss President. Watts Xirquit's people are nowhere to be found already because they've already returned to the Heavens. Wattroid made it in one piece, but he witnessed the horrors of Lorreign's cruelty. Lord Thirdy pushed him back to the Office and closed the door in time before Lorreign could get her hands on him.
Even Leandrew was not spared.
"MOMMY! DADDY!" Xerena jumped on her parents while crying her little heart out.
Cecilia punched the last Jar of Tears of the Third Lady of Heart. The tears poured out to the floor and they were everywhere. First, it melted, then it crawled on the victims, and did its wonders. When Emperor Maxism was awakened, the first thing he do was look for his wife outside the fallen other half of the Palace.
"CLASTIGAUFEAS! MY LOVE! MY DARLING! BABY, WHERE ARE YOU!?" He screamed with his terrified heart as he went through the rubble.
Mila rose from the ground. The Emperor spot them. They were inside a barrier: the Empress is safe with her servants.
"T-Thank the gods!" The Emperor collapsed when it made it through her side. The Empress...is not hurt, but she will soon give birth.
"M-Maxism... T-The baby...is coming..."
"R-Right now?"
The timing is not timing! Not right now! Not when there's war that's about to happen!
"Your Imperial Majesty," Mila, sitting beside him, said, "We will take the Empress to the Gothic Cathedral. I had mobilized our knights to gather our people and bring them there. We will protect the Empress. But please, leave the Princes with us. Our strength wouldn't be enough."
Emperor Maxism shook his head and kissed his wife's hands.
"No. N-No. I'm not leaving her side. I need to be here!"
"A-And send our sons out here? With that crazy bitch and b-bitchier twin?" Empress Clastigaufeas glared at Lorreign who was frozen in the air, under the influence of Prince Davorin's Illusion.
"But my love... I need to be here."
Empress Clastigaufeas whimpered and hang on him tightly, "M-Maxism..."
"Yes? Yes, Mommy? I'm here. I'm here, baby."
"D-Do what Mila said."
The Emperor was dumbfounded.
"Leave our sons behind with me to protect me. T-The bell... If you hear it ring once, then it means I have given birth. Twice, then the baby is born. Thrice, the baby is alive. And if you hear another---"
"STOP IT, CLASTIGAUFEAS!"
Empress Clastigaufeas let his hand go and grabbed onto one of her ladies, "Maxigaufeas... My boy... He's here...right?"
Her tears cascaded down to her face. She felt it. She knew, and the Emperor looked down with guilt. He nodded.
"Discipline him."
She doesn't know what he did yet (killed his son), but she knows that her Emperor son did something bad. Gut feeling of a mother. She knows her youngest very well.
"Fine." The Emperor made up his mind and carried her.
They rushed to the Gothic Cathedral, the only and first cathedral in the world that he built himself for his religion, the Empress. It was protected by archmages and the materials used to build the cathedral were all enchanted. This is where he married her again, too.
They made it to the Sanctuary, a bedroom for the Empress, where she will be taken care of as she give birth. She's still in the tiresome labor. After exchanging assurances and promises, the Emperor went out to calm their people and found out what the Whitecloaks did to them.
After promising assurances, the Emperor left with fury, but he calmed himself to return to the Throne Room where the others are. Some are taking their time to heal (like His Equal and Watts Xirquit) but already conscious.
Prince Izaac is not regenerating, but that doesn't mean that he's dead. His torn flesh were covered in magic, like a sheet, to preserve him.
"W-Where are you brothers? Where are they!?"
Elektra groaned, half of her body is still 'asleep'; the curse is receding gradually.
"I-I don't know! They're outside with Uncle Thirdy. M-Miss President, too. I don't know... Hnnngh, Mommy!"
Franchetti Xerene punched the ground and pushed herself up. She's shaking, raging---but above all, dejected...and betrayed.
Her eyes cried for her eldest daughter, for Lorreign, if she still is hers, that is.
What went wrong? Just...what went wrong?
"I-I'm sorry... I'm sorry... Please, I'm sorry..." She begged with her shaky voice. She covered her face, ashamed that she mothered something like Lorreign.
Like her, the Mistress of Death is grieving for her eldest son. She's hugging his body while his head is on his chest, screaming and cursing Ral'zunr Liorei who did this to her beloved son.
King LIFE staggered as he step back from them. His depression fit with rage and though he tried to call for Excalibur, his heart ached so much when he remembered that his friend is gone. He's drowning. He couldn't take all of it.
They're dealing with their own situations, when the worst situation there is landed before their faces.
Who else would it be, other than Azarese?