Ep ue

  Drip.

  A drop of liquid streaked down her cheeks, falling unto the pool of filth beh.

  Was it blood? Tears? A halluation?

  ‘I o get up.’

  Her trembling legs shifted and waned, struggling to support the rest of her body in the pool of flesh and blood. It was akin to drowning ih. No matter where her eyes fell, death filled her vision: of her brethren, of her allies, of her dear friends. The ground was muddled with their remains, and even the sunless sky ainted in red.

  She raised her head once more, her gaze sharpening unto the source of this madness.

  A lone figure, standing in absolute serenity with closed eyes. Their chilling white hair ulled back like a lifeless river behind them.

  It was almost as if the figure could not perceive the horror that filled the world surrounding them. The stench of blood, their own bleeding wounds, the translut s that her allies died to shackle on them.

  Her trembling legs began to move again.

  A siep.

  Then another.

  A another.

  One by one, with every step eg in ched bones and sptters of blood, she closed the distaween them – fully knowing that she was trampling on the remains of those she onew.

  Instead of m their deaths, she stepped forward. Instead of celebrating her survival, she chose to throw it bato this hellish flict.

  She could no loell what it was that was driving her. It wasn’t sorrow, nor hatred, nor revenge. She left those things behind in the midst of this deathly abaddon.

  Slowly, the figure’s eyes slithered open.

  Their eyes met hers.

  But eveheir gaze locked, she could not see anything. The figure’s eyes were colorless aionless, as if staring into ay void.

  They, too, had left it all behind. In the far past that none could prehend.

  “Child.”

  The voice emitted by the figure was that of a dry, powerless elder. Ahere was no voice more terrifying to her.

  “Serenis.”

  As her name echoed throughout their surroundings, she came to a stop.

  Who was Serenis?

  Mother. Friend. Starchild. Dragonlord.

  The ruler ons that led the most powerful tribe of this star.

  The eldest demon that facilitated peace between theirs and humans.

  But none remaio refer to her as such. At least not here.

  A coarse, bitter voice escaped her lips.

  “Do not speak my name.”

  “…”

  “Of every soul on this star…you are the least deserving to say that name.”

  A soft sigh escaped the figure’s lips. Standing tall whilst calmly watg her approach, it seemed nothing short of a parent looking down on their rebellious child.

  And to someohis whole flict may be nothing more than that.

  But to someone else, it was a struggle to break free of their leash.

  “Why struggle?”

  “…”

  “Enlighten me, Serenis. Why did this happen? What drove so many of you to let go of the life you were bestowed?”

  Serenis ched her fists. Her hands bled from the nails digging into her skin.

  She no longer had the strength to take form ahe figure’s revolting head off his neck.

  Reduced to her mere human form, she struggled to even tinue breathing.

  A, she took aep forward. The st one she o reach the figure.

  “Because…”

  She unfolded her bleeding hand, grabbing the figure by their throat. Her bloody nails began to dig into their skin this time.

  “We’re…alive.”

  “…”

  “…Unlike you.”

  A figure without even a proper name. Ay simply known as “the First”, said to have existed sihe dawn of this world, filling the world with life and prosperity.

  But in truth, it was just a lifeless cog that kept the world turning how it pleased, keeping all lives at the tip of its fingers.

  She had to but tighten her grip. Then this would all be over. Depleted of mana and ed from every ahere was no way the First could resist any further.

  But her trembling arm struggled to do even that.

  Serenis gred into the figure’s empty gaze. She desperately begged her arm to move, to snap off this wretch’s neck.

  “You’re hesitating.”

  She bit her lips. Fresh blood trickled down her .

  What if this isn’t the end?

  What if they were nowhere he end?

  What if this was all just a careful deception, and her brethren died in vain?

  “Turn away, Serenis. It’s not too te.”

  “…”

  Hearing the st remark, Serenis’ eyes regaiheir blue gleam. She smirked, arembling lessened.

  “That’s the first time.”

  “…First time?”

  “That you begged for your life.”

  Serenis tightened her grip. A deadly g noise followed. When she ripped her hand out of the figure’s flesh, she could feel something spttering unto the pool of blood beh her.

  Her eyes sed the body in front of her.

  Every limb ed, their skin purplish and dry from toxins and maion. But it remaianding, even with its head torn off.

  The drago out a small chortle, turning away as she dragged her limping body towards a nearby boulder. She colpsed down, leaning her back against the hard surface.

  She could barely move a finger. With her body torn and broken, there was little doubt that she stood on the brink of death herself.

  The bodies of her allies filled her bloody vision.

  She’d die here, just like everyone else.

  “I’m…sorry.”

  If only she hadn’t hesitated to join the fray.

  If only she hadn’t spent her life in peace.

  If only she had another day to live.

  All this time, Serenis led a life without any memorable regrets.

  At the end of her long life, she was finally beginning to realize that that was only because she believed her life to be eternal.

  If she khings would eually, then surely, she’d have dohings different. So many things would’ve ged.

  ‘Every star eventually dies.’

  And from mere dust and ash, stars are born anew.

  “…”

  She slowly shifted her broken body and lifted her trembling arm. With a fiip soaked in blood, she began to write on the boulder.

  Eden.

  Ivaratus.

  Arkrana.

  …

  Soon, the boulder was filled with names of the fallen. And at its very st bit, she’d write her own name.

  Serenis.

  Here we lie at the summit of our world, freed from the shackles that bound us.

  Praybird