- 5 hours ago
Long Live The Dead 💕 ☘ ☘
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00:00Burn her! Burn her! Burn her!
00:03My name is Leia.
00:0524 hours ago, I was New York's top forensic pathologist,
00:08calmly cutting open the chest of a powerful man.
00:11Now I'm bound with rough ropes to the cursed execution platform,
00:15my feet surrounded by grease-soaked firewood.
00:18The witch!
00:18You're in my assault!
00:20Those eyes of yours that can see spirits are the mark of Satan!
00:25But I don't struggle.
00:26I'm just waiting.
00:27Behind these fanatical rioters stands an army they cannot see.
00:32Hundreds upon thousands of resentful ghosts.
00:39Since you wish to do God's will,
00:42why don't you first ask the Saison if she approves?
00:45The air reeks of cheap grease and pine.
00:48Lilla, those cursed purple eyes of yours can see Satan's illusions!
00:52Only fire can cleanse your sins!
00:55My name is Leia, not Leela.
00:59As the top forensic pathologist of the 21st century,
01:03I have dissected thousands of corpses and heard countless last words from the dead.
01:07I transmigrated to this backward medieval era, becoming Leila, the illegitimate daughter of a noble count,
01:15branded a cursed star for her purple eyes, pushed to death by her own father.
01:21I found my eyes had mutated.
01:23I can not only discern wounds clearly,
01:27I can also see the lingering victims who haven't yet departed.
01:31Valerie, are you sure you want to light the fire?
01:34Silence!
01:35The witch is casting a curse!
01:36A curse?
01:37Sister Cecile is right behind you, Archbishop.
01:39She's wearing an emerald silk dress but her throat is charred black,
01:42marks from concentrated strong alkali corrosion.
01:44Didn't she keep grabbing your left hand when you made her drink that cup of holy water?
01:49Silence!
01:50The witch is casting a curse!
01:54Archbishop, does your left hand still hurt?
01:58You're lying! Start the fire! Now!
02:02Why so nervous?
02:03I sweep my gaze over the unsettled believers in the square.
02:07Do you want to know where the saint's heart is?
02:10It never went to heaven.
02:12No one breathes.
02:13It's hidden behind the secret door inside the confessional at the Archbishop's residence.
02:17I can see the empty cavity in Cecile's chest as clearly as if I had opened it myself.
02:24He cut out her heart, simply because he believed it would prolong his life.
02:31Suspicious eyes turn toward Valerius.
02:35He's the real servant of darkness, not me.
02:39Burn her! Burn her now!
02:47The wind stops.
02:50I owe you one. Command me. Now is the time.
02:54If you want him in hell, lend me your hands.
02:58The sky blackens at once. Clouds swallow the sun. The flames at my feet go out.
03:02Then flare back to life in a strange blue fire.
03:06They do not burn me. They only eat through the ropes.
03:09Valerius suddenly starts convulsing.
03:11His left arm jerks up against his will.
03:14The old scratches split open again, blackening as they tear wider.
03:18The cross slipped from his fingers and clattered to the ground.
03:21He lets out a scream that does not sound human.
03:24Then he looked behind him in terror.
03:26A black shape thickens in the air as though ink has been poured over glass.
03:30Cecile takes form. Her neck is scorched black.
03:33Her body is half burned. Tears still stain her face.
03:37Stepping onto the loosened rope and rising to my full height on the execution platform.
03:43Now, I get to judge you.
03:47I had only been in this world a short time, but I had already seen enough.
03:52I knew exactly where power came from in a crowd like this.
03:55Build a line. Name a common enemy.
03:59At that moment, Valerius' left hand, the one covered in claw marks, is crushing his own throat.
04:06He hangs half in the air, kicked up by the saint's dead grip.
04:10His legs thrashing. The square sinks into a silence so heavy it feels like stone.
04:17Fear ripples through the people, but so does doubt.
04:21Marquis de Moray, who was sent to supervise the execution.
04:25Everyone, do not be fooled by this witch's tricks.
04:29Even if Valerius is guilty, the church should judge him.
04:33You expect us to trust the word of a demon-eyes girl? Your visions prove nothing.
04:40The dead don't invent tricks. They only tell the truth people buried.
04:44Take your eldest son, for example. The one who vanished three years ago.
04:49Valerius told you he died on pilgrimage, didn't he?
04:51The Marquis goes rigid. His sword shakes.
04:56But your son is right behind you.
05:00He says he saw Valerius torturing a novice inside the confessional, so Valerius silenced him.
05:06He was never buried in holy ground. He was chopped into pieces and hidden under the old laurel tree in
05:12the church garden.
05:16That's impossible.
05:17Cecile, show him.
05:19Her shadow stretches across the ground like spilled tar, then tears toward the cathedral in a shrieking wind. The Marquis
05:27runs after it.
05:28So do the townsfolk.
05:34When they come back, the Marquis is staggering. In his hands is a sealed gold vessel. Inside it is a
05:42shriveled heart. That is the end of fate. The square erupts.
05:46Kill him! Burn the Karis eater!
05:51Tear him apart!
05:54The mob swallows Valerius blood.
05:59I stand on the stake and watch the Archbishop die.
06:03The trial has only just begun.
06:07Lila!
06:10You're alive!
06:11Thank God!
06:13She is the adopted daughter who entered the convent with me.
06:17She is also the one who drugged my food, deepened the unnatural color of my eyes, and pointed at me
06:23in front of the church and cried witch.
06:26Lila!
06:28Bella!
06:29Don't expect me to forgive you like before.
06:31I'm not the old Lila. Not that saintly little fool.
06:36What are you saying?
06:37I was worried about you. I never thought they were really bad.
06:41I looked at the looming shadow behind her. The rest was furiously tearing at Belly's hair.
06:46Bella knew nothing of it, only busy putting on her act of sisterly affection.
06:50And in that instant, another truth falls into place.
06:54Next month is the coronation.
06:56The prince's bride, the future queen, was supposed to be me, the only marriageable daughter of the house.
07:03She was trying to take my place.
07:06At this moment, heavy hooves crash against the stones outside the square.
07:10The crowd carts.
07:12Two lavish carriages roll in beneath the protection of mounted knights.
07:17The royal crest and the holy sigil are carved into both.
07:21The doors open.
07:22Two women step down.
07:30The woman on the left is my elder sister, Cassandra.
07:34She sees good and evil as clearly as color, and turns morality itself into force.
07:38That power made her the royal court's cleanest blade.
07:42The woman on the right is my second sister, Cyria.
07:45She can see the end date on every life.
07:47She steals years from the condemned and gives them to dying nobles.
07:51That is how she built her influence.
07:52So, you should not be alive.
08:01You should not be alive.
08:03Your countdown reset.
08:05A forbidden force rewrote your fate.
08:11as the daughters of the woman who once married into this house
08:14we should have been house storm press pride
08:18only i was packed off to a convent whilst still a child
08:23then sent to die on a pyre
08:24liar the king is watching this miracle
08:28you're an anomaly and anomalies make powerful people nervous
08:32come with us quietly i do not trust them
08:35not after they stood by while i was condemned
08:37in light of what you have shown here and the unrest caused by your eyes
08:42you are stripped of the stormcrest name
08:45effective immediately you are to be exiled to blackstone cult
08:52blackstone keep is a death sentence
08:53people say even rats go mad there
08:56i'll go
09:00cassandra rules the capital through morality
09:03sophia rules the empire through lifestamp
09:06and i
09:08i am being thrown into a ruin full of dead things
09:12to them it is exile
09:14to me it might be a door
09:19because in this world power may wear the mask of virtue or time
09:24but under both lies the same foundation
09:28bones
09:29and if what i hold is really tied to death
09:32then a fortress full of corpses may be the best place in the world for me to begin
09:40the moment i tried to pick up the chest again that same agony came flooding back
09:49the road to blackstone keep is lined with nameless graves
09:53as the carriage moves north
09:55the city gives way to empty land
09:57then to scrub
09:59then to sand
10:01the farther they went
10:02the more uneasy the guards looked
10:05cecile sits across from me now
10:07no longer flickering in and out like before
10:09in life she was all softness and worship
10:12in death
10:14something colder has settled into her bones
10:18lady lyra
10:19that god's soul was fading away
10:22three hours from now he'll freeze to death out here
10:28i can see more than ghosts
10:31i can see death itself
10:32now these eyes seem determined to drag me past time itself
10:37i see the dead
10:40i see the wounds that killed them
10:43i hear their whispers
10:45sometimes i see the memory of the moment they died
10:50i raise my hand and touch the scorched hollow of cecile's throat
10:58an icy electric shock-like sensation swept through me in an instant
11:04then her injury closes
11:06the charred wound zips itself shut under a pulse of violet light
11:12lady lyra
11:15you can restore us
11:17you can restore us
11:25it may just be muscle memory
11:27a doctor sees damage and wants to cut, fix, stitch, understand
11:32and apparently i could also mend souls now
11:38i called these little surprises luck
11:41the carriage rolled to a stop in front of blackstone cape's rusted iron gate
11:50this wasn't an old castle
11:54this was a giant morgue
11:58the moment i stepped into the great hall
12:00they came for me
12:02my brain screamed
12:04my eyes wept blood from the strain
12:07i ordered
12:08my voice cold
12:09back off
12:10they didn't listen
12:11spirits with no shape and no sense
12:13just a raw, hungry instinct
12:15suddenly a gust of wind scattered them
12:19don't bother begging them like that
12:21it's useless
12:22beneath the shattered stained glass window
12:25half hidden in shadow
12:27sat a man
12:28like he'd been waiting for me all along
12:43who are you
12:44a failure
12:45my body was stolen
12:47my soul though
12:48it just won't die
12:50lyla moaned
12:51take a good look
12:52blackstone keep isn't a castle
12:54it's the empire's sole alchemist's factory
12:57they haul souls here
12:58from commoners from criminals
13:00grind them to dust
13:01and refine the purest life force
13:03then they ship it to the capital
13:05following his lead
13:06my violet eyes began to pulse wildly
13:08visions flooded my sight
13:11overlapping
13:12chaotic
13:14they were the collective memories of the dead
13:16so you're a harvested battery too
13:20i'm a battery they'll never drain
13:23they chopped up my body
13:24but my soul was too hard to chew
13:27listen
13:28the arcan isn't ripping out saint's hearts
13:30to extend his own life
13:31he's just a supplier
13:32the real customer is the king
13:34and the one swinging the blade
13:36that's your sister
13:38why are you telling me all this
13:39your mother asked me to
13:40she told me to wait for you here
13:43lyla
13:44see your power for what it is
13:45you can read how the dead died
13:47you can mend their wounds
13:49but that's just the beginning
13:51next week
13:52the king's sickly son is taking a new bride
13:55another sacrifice
13:57the king needs a top grade spare part
14:00to keep himself alive
14:02guess who they've chosen as the next offering
14:04bella thought she'd stolen a fortune from me
14:06who knew she'd actually stolen a death sentence
14:11what's your name
14:13alaric
14:14deep under blackstone keep
14:16there's something your mother left before she died
14:18i've kept it safe for you
14:19for decades
14:21with that you'll get closer to the truth
14:26i followed the spiral staircase down
14:28the underground didn't smell of rot like i'd expected
14:32instead
14:33there was a sharp
14:34chemical scent
14:36something like formaldehyde
14:38at the bottom of the stairs lay a precision laboratory
14:41in the center
14:42on a stone table
14:44sat a heavy iron chest
14:47the moment i touched the chest
14:49my violet pupils erupted with shattered images
14:52i saw my mother
14:53she hadn't died from postpartum weakness
14:56she had been down in this dungeon
14:58frantically recording something
15:00she wasn't a victim
15:02she was a key node in this whole immortality experiment
15:06connecting it with what alaric had told me
15:08the current king wasn't the first beneficiary of this immortality scheme
15:12they had used blackstone keep to drain life force
15:14but when the keep stopped working
15:16they needed a replacement
15:17and my mother
15:18she might have been that replacement
15:20the moment i tried to pick up the chest again
15:23that same agony came flooding back
15:31lady monday left a magic mark behind
15:34it was meant cement to someone from her world
15:38someone like her
15:39to end all of this
15:43now
15:44can you tell me your real name
15:58my name is lyra
15:59i'm a medical examiner
16:02cecil stood behind me
16:05her voice was no longer ethereal
16:07lady lyra
16:10i can feel the wind now
16:11she pulled a long sword from her hollow chest
16:14looking just as shocked as i felt
16:18i'm going to use this blade
16:20to carve out that old immortal's heart
16:25only the one who picks up this blade is worthy of pureness
16:29back then the king ripped out my heart
16:31trying to turn me into the purest battery for blackstone keep
16:35your mother used that open heart moment to secretly stitch part of my soul into the keeps foundation
16:40she saved my consciousness
16:42but trapped me here
16:43unable to leave
16:45she was a brilliant stitcher
16:48she did all of this so the immortality fast would end with my generation
16:52and she must have had her reasons for saving me
16:55will you come with me alaic
16:57lyra
16:59if you want to take me with you
17:01you'll have to use that blade
17:02stitch my ghost into your shadow
17:05from then on
17:06your life will be my anchor
17:12his cold weightless body fast gleaming in embrace
17:16then dissolved into swirling black smoke that shrank into my shadow
17:24let's go getting away the scalpel
17:29after the coronation banquet in the imperial capital
17:32bella wearing a pure white wedding dress
17:35held the hand of the king's most beloved third prince
17:38i hid in the shadow of the huge stone pillar in the banquet hall
17:41and the shadow under my feet stirred restlessly
17:43as if echoing the undercurrent surging in my heart
17:46my second sister sophia appeared behind me without warning
17:49her tone trembling imperceptibly
17:51and her eyes were filled with unprecedented anxiety
17:54it turned out that bella had been a pawn from the very beginning
17:57used to carry a cruel exchange of vitality
18:00the king would use sophia's hand to transfer bella's vitality to the third prince
18:04it was never lyla
18:05i was leia
18:06after three years of protection
18:08it was now my turn to come back and clean up this mess with my own hands
18:14the banquet reaches its peak
18:16leather lifts the golden cup with shaking excitement
18:19the prince does the same
18:20i object
18:21i step out of the shadows
18:23at once
18:24the glamour around the nobility peels away in my sight
18:27the beautiful faces wrinkle
18:29collapse
18:29rot
18:30under their silk and velvet
18:31i see patchwork flesh and old sutures and stolen years barely held together
18:35seal materializes in the center of the hall
18:38cursed dead white face
18:39all of it appears before the assembled lords and ladies
18:42for a heartbeat
18:43no one moves
18:45then someone screams
18:46the saint
18:47the saint is back
18:48the hall explodes into pain
18:50cecile raises her sword and starts chatting to the crowd
18:53every thrust lands in the transplanted heart
18:56walk toward them slowly
18:58my violet eyes burning
18:59today is where we came
19:01kill that witch
19:02the king lords by slamming a hand on the table
19:05the royal guard searches forward
19:07my shadow erupts
19:08black blades raise across the floor
19:10sparing a new soldier in his own shadow
19:13bodies crumble and weather away
19:15before they even scream
19:16half of hour rises from the darkness
19:18and wraps one spectral hand around the prince's throat
19:21bella drops to the floor
19:22stunned
19:23i crouch in front of her
19:24and then i smile
19:25thanks for dying in my place
19:27she jerks back
19:28finally recognizing the danger
19:30why are you still alive
19:31you bitch
19:32catch her wrist and wrench her upright
19:34then i turn toward the king
19:36your majesty
19:37is this the heart you wanted
19:39do you even know what she is
19:40she's not lady monda's true daughter
19:43king does not panic
19:44not even a little
19:46he is staring at the scalpel in my hand
19:48in an infinite second
19:49once
19:50the hidden mother array beneath the floor ignites
19:52the modern scalpel in my hand lets out a shrill metallic crack
19:56then it rips free of my grip
19:57it does not fly toward the king
19:59it does not fly toward the prince
20:01it shoots straight across the hall
20:03and buries itself in sophia's chest
20:08for one second everything stops
20:10the silver flash
20:11the wet sound of impact
20:13sophia looking down at the blade sticking out of her chest
20:16i reach her as she falls
20:18at a glance it looks fatal
20:19but i am a doctor before i am anything else
20:22something is wrong
20:23there is no arterial spray
20:25and my breath catches
20:26the blade is not in her heart
20:28it is embedded in a black throat
20:30at that exact moment
20:31the king lets out a monstrous scream
20:33one whole side of his face shrivels before our eyes
20:36collapsing into dried rot
20:38now i get it
20:39i say
20:39gripping the scalpel
20:41the blade didn't attack her
20:42it cut out the parasite
20:44sophia cocks up black blood and drives my wrist
20:47our lives were tied to the king when we were choking
20:49she whispers
20:50mother made a deal
20:52cecile returns in a ride
20:54sword for me
20:55lady lyra
20:56the noble said that
20:57the stolen ears are snapping back all at once
21:00did you do this
21:01the three plants in pieces
21:03and they're all at once
21:04sophia is one half of the king's living life
21:07and the saddest is the other
21:08my mother used her daughters as thorns hidden inside the king's body
21:12at my call
21:13my shadow boils
21:14move
21:15i drag sophia with me
21:16cecile shields us
21:18alaric wraps us in black force
21:20and sends us crashing through the palace windows
21:22and down into the freezing mode below
21:26north of the capital stands the holy court
21:28that is cassandra's domain
21:30unlike the banquet hall
21:31this place is clean to the point of madness
21:34with a bleeding sophia in my arms
21:36cassandra is already seated at the judgment bench
21:39beside her stands high pontiff julian
21:41he smiles with his eyes lowered
21:43a holy white aura blazing above him so bright it almost hurts to look at
21:47my child julian says
21:49stepping down from the dais
21:50i have waited for you
21:51i feel it at once
21:53the pressure
21:54heavy enough to crush thought
21:55cassandra says nothing
21:57she does not stop him
21:58that tells me everything i need to know
22:01sophia broke the link too early
22:03the truth is leaking
22:04julian needs me dead before the room catches up
22:07all those crimes
22:08he says softly
22:09the archbishop
22:10the broken marriage
22:12the chaos in the palace
22:13such evil
22:14death is the only thing that can cleanse your soul
22:17he raises his hand
22:18white light gathers in his palm
22:20dense and vicious
22:21enough to shred the mind
22:23before he can strike
22:24my shadow spills across the floor of the mutant
22:26a scaled hand punches up from the darkness
22:29and catches the holy light barehanded
22:31the light vanishes into shadow
22:33the hand is scorched to pieces for the effort
22:35but enough
22:36julian he says
22:37voice low and filthy with contempt
22:39the pontiff sees his face
22:41prince aleric
22:42he shrieks
22:43impossible
22:44your soul should still be trapped
22:48my pulse stutters
22:50aleric's identity is bigger than i ever guessed
22:52he is the king's brother
22:54the prince the crown should have gone to
22:56lyra
22:57aleric says without looking back
22:59protect your sister
23:00he draws a massive black sword
23:02cecile steps in front of me and sophia
23:04julian does not attack aleric head on
23:07he comes for me
23:08cecile takes the blow instead
23:10white heat tears part of her form away
23:12but she keeps the strike from hitting sophia too
23:14i hurl the scalpel
23:16the blade slices straight through the holy white ring above julian's head
23:19and in the instant that false halo breaks
23:22sandra's world breaks with it
23:23she does not see radiant virtue anymore
23:26she sees faces
23:27hundreds of them
23:28all the people she condemned
23:30all the scraps of goodness stripped from them
23:32and packed into julian's crown of life
23:34the dead crowd the room with their grief
23:36my shadow breaks them in
23:38some become wind around aleric
23:40some harden his armor
23:42some sharpen the sword in his hand
23:44the rest gather behind me
23:46farmers with pitchwords
23:47men's with candlesticks
23:49cabarener with split skulls and phantom horses
23:52cassandra presses bloody fingers to her eyes
23:55no she whispers
23:56no that can't be true
23:58you're indispensable
24:00i tell her coldly
24:01mother didn't surrender
24:03she planted blades
24:04sophia was time
24:06you were morality
24:07and i
24:08the doors blow open
24:10the king enters with half his face rotten and bella in one hand like a butcher carrying meat
24:14lyra
24:15he rasps
24:16give me the knife
24:17or i cut out what your mother hid inside your sister
24:19he claws open his robe
24:21a black smoking heartbeat
24:22in his chest
24:23then he squeezes it
24:25cassandra drops to her knees
24:26through her gown
24:27strange violet light pulses from her abdomen
24:30in the exact shape of the array beneath blackstone
24:32and before anyone can hear it
24:35the king hands his hand in julian's bag and reaches for cassandra
24:40the king's fingers tear through flesh
24:43julian's blood pours into the glowing array on the floor
24:46the whole hall shakes
24:47no
24:48cassandra gasps
24:49mother's plan cannot end here
24:51then
24:52to my shock
24:52she grabs him
24:53not to escape
24:55to hold him still
24:56lyra
24:57she screams
24:58now
24:58at the same instant
25:00aleric steps fully out of my shadow
25:02he is taller than before
25:03more solid
25:04more terrifying
25:05his black sword slams across the king's claws
25:08and stops them cold
25:09my dear brother
25:10the king hisses
25:11his
25:11one good i deliver in a dream
25:13forty years and you're still a fool
25:16father wanted to give you the throne
25:18said your soul could not rot
25:20so i took your heart
25:21i turned you into the cleanest battery
25:23and now look at you now
25:26kingdom
25:26no body
25:27not even proper life
25:29what gives you the right to stand in my way
25:31aleric does not cringe
25:33the ground under the throne still remembers your true title
25:35his
25:36new server
25:37his eyes cut toward me
25:39i understand at once
25:40the dead are bringing you too
25:42their grief turns
25:43not just into mourning
25:45into vengeance
25:46for honor
25:47for innocence
25:48for what was stolen
25:50i clench my jaw and get ready to move
25:52aleric drives his sword through the king's chest
25:55i can hold him for three minutes
25:56he roars
25:57three minutes
25:58that is all
25:59i grab cassandra's arm and force myself to focus
26:05cassandra leaned against the stone pillar
26:07coughing up blood violently from the shock of the king's heart
26:10yet she stubbornly shook her head
26:12i am guilty
26:13i have to stay here
26:14the king
26:15ignoring his arm that was spurting black blood
26:18lowered his head and tore at something
26:19i could see it was a fresh heart
26:21leia
26:22now
26:23aleric roared
26:24the wind around him turned into countless black chains
26:27tightly binding the king's enormous
26:28misshapen body
26:30his withered left face slowly recovered
26:32even growing younger
26:33madness blazed in his eyes
26:35and his voice warped and stretched
26:37you think i have no clue
26:38you're as naive as you were decades ago
26:41bella's heart should not have rivaled the city
26:43yet the king's body swelled
26:45his severed arm went grew
26:46face after face surged into his chest
26:48and countless soul fragments on the ground were sucked into him
26:52some of the undead beside me were ground directly into dust
26:55i was not one of the undead
26:57but blood kept seeping from my eyes
26:59nevertheless
27:00i struggled against the wind toward the king
27:02cassandra took my hand
27:04her tattered robe flapped loudly in the gale
27:06and a white light shielded me from applying shards of souls
27:09the undead around aleric were constantly being drawn away by the king
27:13fighting back the urge to vomit blood
27:15i saw him turn his head and shout at me
27:17remember what i told you
27:19so the souls together
27:21you have to commend him
27:22aleric drove his grave sword into his chest
27:25as a forensic doctor i knew this race
27:27he was fighting devil too well
27:29cassandra held my hand
27:30i stabbed his father
27:38the blade tip precisely avoided all vital points on cassandra neatly severing the self-destruct
27:43pact stitched inside her
27:44cassandra let out a low groan as i tore the purple core straight out of her body and held
27:48it high above my head the core drew the undead energy that had flooded into the king's body swirling back
27:53toward it
27:54cassandra struggled to straighten up i used the blade to stitch and mend the scattering undead forces around us
27:59then hurled the scalpel it pierced the purple core and drove straight into aleric's back
28:04his body stretched and twisted violently in the center of the hall devoured by nether fire until nothing remained but
28:10a murky shadow
28:11to his mother's heart everything was already too late and the king's body disintegrated into act
28:17he turned his head
28:18half his handsome face was eaten away by ghostly blue flames
28:21rain and purple lights flickering alternately in his wings
28:24his features twisted with an eternal madness i've never seen before behind his hunched silhouette
28:30he placed the bloodstained crowned steadily upon his own hands and turns
28:33i snapped open my purple eyes
28:36piercing heels condensed form
28:37and at last saw the premature of the heart
28:40in the moment my spell will touch it
28:41a built-in self-destruct rune would detonate instantly
28:44erasing all souls sewn within it
28:46just then aleric completely consumed by the heart
28:49let out a beastly growl and swung his greatsword horizontally at me
28:54i do not stand there waiting for love to save me
28:57i throw myself sideways behind a broken stone pillar and wrench the scalpel back into my hand
29:03i have to kill him
29:04i whisper
29:05my voice does not shake
29:07do i love him
29:08maybe
29:09but that isn't the point
29:10what matters is this
29:12if i don't cut that heart out now
29:14he will become worse than the king ever was
29:16he drives his sword into the floor to keep from moving
29:19most of his face is gone to blue flame now
29:21his hand shakes on the hilt
29:23lyra
29:25kill me
29:26i move
29:27fast
29:28i rush straight into his arms
29:30he is too locked in pain to stop me
29:32the scalpel flashes
29:33i drive it toward the glowing core in his chest
29:36aleric smiles
29:37then
29:38instead of stopping me
29:39he grabs my wrist and forces the blade deeper into himself
29:42boom
29:43the blast throws me backward
29:45as i black out
29:46i see him dissolve
29:47not into ash
29:49into light
29:50that
29:50i murmur to myself in the last moment before unconsciousness takes me
29:54is the worst grot projection i've ever seen
29:59when i wake
30:00the war is over
30:01the king is gone
30:03the immortality system is gone
30:05everyone who lived off stolen years begins aging naturally or dying naturally at last
30:10later
30:11in the imperial archives
30:12i discover the final piece
30:14bella really was lady monday's daughter
30:16just not by the earl
30:18she was the child of an affair
30:19that was why the king could still use her heart
30:22shared blood is useful
30:23even when it is not perfect
30:25i return to blackstone keep
30:27the dead come with me
30:29my sisters walk beside me
30:31when we pass through the stormcrest lands
30:34my father kneels and offers me his staff as if submission might by forgiveness
30:38i look at them and feel nothing
30:40i take only what my mother left behind
30:42then i begin searching for alaric
30:44the dead help me collect every scrap they can find
30:47but his fragments are too small
30:49too scattered
30:50even my violet eyes can barely hold on to them
30:53so i go back to blackstone keep
30:55what are you trying to do
30:56sophia asks weakly
30:58rebuild him
30:59his body turned to ash
31:01his soul shattered
31:02you'd be stitching emptiness
31:05as long as even one trace of him still exists in the world's field
31:09i say without looking up
31:10i can recreate him
31:14this was an unprecedented full organ reconstruction surgery
31:18alaric once told me that mother had kept a fragment of his soul
31:21i dragged my broken body back to the underground laboratory of blackstone fortress point 40 years ago
31:26in that deal mother had traded her own heart for it
31:29carving it into the ground ruins of the laboratory as the core that summoned me across time and space
31:34among mother's belongings
31:35i found a letter written in modern english
31:37unfolding it
31:38i stared at the familiar modern handwriting
31:40i am the beginning of this tragedy
31:42and you night are its end
31:44alaric's body was ground to dust by the king 40 years ago
31:47i thought a heart for a heart was an equal exchange
31:50yet it was nothing but the king's life
31:52the king had never kept his promise to release mother's daughter cassandra and sophia
31:57instead controlled them for his own purposes
31:59after her heart was cut out
32:01the mother died with bitter pain
32:03her soul fragments numbered in this ancient castle
32:06searching day and night
32:07until she finally created the way to summon a traveler from another world
32:11her third daughter
32:12one out of wedlock with cat long
32:13was sent to a pond at my dear child
32:16i am sorry to make him in this way
32:17her handwriting was struggled hastily
32:19as if written in extreme urgency
32:21these were her final words
32:23and she revealed the method of resurrecting
32:25lila's heart must have stopped beating before you arrived
32:28from the moment you opened your eyes
32:30you have been living off the life force within alaric's heart
32:33i looked at the shattered spirit and his fragments piled on the operating table
32:36my eyes glowing with a divine
32:38desperate resolve
32:39if you are willing to give half your lifespan to rebuild his circulatory system
32:43he will live
32:44he is a capable ruler
32:45i lay beside the operating table
32:47gripping the scalpel tightly
32:49this was the ultimate surgery
32:50with no assistive needed
32:52i sliced open my own chest
32:54out of precision
32:55i cut out half of my own heart
32:56being violent
32:57shimmering with the radiance of underworld fire
33:03those soul fragments were drawn to the heart in my hand
33:06alaric's eyes snapped open
33:07and in those emerald green pupils
33:09my haggard yet triumphant face was reflected
33:11he sat up
33:13staring blankly at his own hands
33:15his memories seemed frozen in the moment
33:17he had driven my blade into his body
33:19only when he saw me
33:20pale but smiling
33:21did he believe in disbelief
33:23and pull me into a fierce embrace
33:24a real
33:25tangible embrace
33:26with a heartbeat
33:27breath
33:27and the warmth of my body
33:29i can actually hold you now
33:31layla
33:31his voice was hoarse
33:33trembling at the end
33:34you have given me new life
33:35a week later
33:36the imperial capital changed dynasties
33:39i looked down over the entire realm
33:41restored to life
33:42then turned to smile at alaric
33:44in his eyes
33:45i saw a flood of emotion
33:46i glanced back at the city's inhabitants
33:49humans and undead alike
33:50all looking up at me in reverence
33:52in this world
33:53the nature of power was no longer to take
33:55but to protect
33:56long live the dead
33:57i whispered softly
33:58alaric took my hand and kissed my fingertips
34:02the nature of power was no longer to take
34:03the nature of power was no longer to take
34:03the nature of power was no longer to take
34:04the nature of power was no longer to take
34:04the nature of power was no longer to take
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