- 6 hours ago
Long Live The Dead - Fu - Fantasy
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🎥
Short filmTranscript
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!
00:19You're in fire!
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 Sazend 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!
00:53Only fire can cleanse your sins!
00:56My name is Leia.
00:57Not Leila.
00:59As the top forensic pathologist of the 21st century,
01:03I have dissected thousands of corpses
01:05and heard countless last words from the dead.
01:08I transmigrated to this backward medieval era,
01:11becoming Lila,
01:12the illegitimate daughter of a noble count,
01:15branded a cursed star for her purple eyes,
01:18pushed to death by her own father.
01:21I found my eyes had mutated.
01:24I cannot only discern wounds clearly,
01:27I can also see the lingering victims who haven't yet departed.
01:32Valerie, 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, Arpaship.
01:39She's wearing an emerald silk dress,
01:41but her throat is charred black,
01:42marks from concentrated strong alkali corrosion.
01:44Didn't she keep grabbing your left hand
01:46when you made her drink that cup of holy water?
01:49Silence!
01:50The witch is casting a curse!
01:54Archbishoped,
01:55does your left hand still hurt?
01:59You're lying!
02:00Start the fire!
02:02Now!
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
02:16at the archbishop's residence.
02:17I can see the empty cavity in Cecile's chest
02:20as clearly as if I had opened it myself.
02:25He cut out her heart
02:27simply because he believed it would prolong his life.
02:32Suspicious eyes turn toward Valerius.
02:35He's the real servant of darkness,
02:38not me.
02:39Burn her!
02:40Burn her now!
02:47The wind stops.
02:50I owe you one.
02:51Command me.
02:53Now is the time.
02:54If you want him in hell,
02:56lend me your hands.
02:58The sky blackens at once.
02:59Clouds swallow the sun.
03:01The flames at my feet go out,
03:03then flare back to life in a strange blue fire.
03:06They do not burn me.
03:07They only eat through the ropes.
03:09Valerius suddenly starts convulsing.
03:12His left arm jerks up against his will.
03:14The old scratches split open again,
03:16blackening as they tear wider.
03:18The cross slipped from his fingers
03:19and 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
03:28as though ink has been poured over glass.
03:30The seal takes form.
03:31Her neck is scorched black.
03:33Her body is half-burned.
03:35Tears still stain her face.
03:36Stepping onto the loosened rope
03:38and rising to my full height
03:40on the execution platform.
03:43Now, I get to judge you.
04:14I had only been in this world a short time.
04:15Maybe it feels like stone.
04:17Fear ripples through the people,
04:19but so does doubt.
04:21Marquis de Morae,
04:23who was sent to supervise the execution.
04:25Everyone,
04:26do not be fooled by this witch's tricks.
04:29Even if Valerius is guilty,
04:31the church should judge him.
04:32You expect us to trust the word
04:35of a demon-eyes girl?
04:36Your visions prove nothing.
04:40The dead don't invent tricks.
04:42They only tell the truth people buried.
04:44Take your eldest son, for example.
04:47The one who vanished three years ago.
04:49Valerius told you he died on pilgrimage, didn't he?
04:52The Marquis goes rigid.
04:53His sword shakes.
04:56Your son is right behind you.
05:00He says he saw Valerius torturing a novice
05:03inside the confessional,
05:05so Valerius silenced him.
05:07He was never buried in holy ground.
05:09He was chopped into pieces
05:11and hidden under the old laurel tree
05:12in the church garden.
05:16That's impossible.
05:17Cecile, show him.
05:20Her shadow stretches across the ground
05:22like spilled tar,
05:23then tears toward the cathedral
05:25and a shrieking wind.
05:26The Marquis runs after him.
05:28So do the townspeople.
05:34When they come back,
05:36the Marquis is staggering.
05:38In his hands is a sealed gold vessel.
05:41Inside it is a shriveled heart.
05:43That is the end of fate.
05:45The square erupts.
05:47Kill him!
05:48Burn the carous eater!
05:51Tear him apart!
05:54The mob swallows Valerius gold.
05:59I stand on the stake
06:01and watch the archbishop die.
06:03The trial has only just begun.
06:07Leela!
06:10You're alive!
06:11Thank God!
06:13She is the adopted daughter
06:15who entered the convent with me.
06:17She is also the one
06:18who drugged my food,
06:20deepened the unnatural color
06:22of my eyes
06:22and pointed at me
06:24in front of the church
06:24and cried witch.
06:26Leela!
06:28Bella!
06:29Don't expect me to forgive you
06:31like before.
06:32I'm not the old Leela.
06:33Not that saintly little fool.
06:36What are you saying?
06:38I was worried about you.
06:39I never thought
06:40they were really bad.
06:41I looked at the looming shadow
06:42behind her.
06:43The wreath was furiously
06:44tearing at Belly's hair.
06:46Bella knew nothing of it,
06:48only busy putting on
06:49her act of sisterly affection.
06:50And in that instant,
06:52another truth falls into place.
06:54Next month is the coronation.
06:56The prince's bride,
06:58the future queen,
06:59was supposed to be me,
07:01the only marriageable
07:02daughter of the house.
07:03She was trying
07:04to take my place.
07:06At this moment,
07:07heavy hooves crash
07:08against the stones
07:09outside the square.
07:11The crowd carts.
07:12Two lavish carriages
07:14roll in beneath
07:15the protection
07:15of mounted knights.
07:17The royal crest
07:18and the holy sigil
07:19are carved into both.
07:21The doors open.
07:22Two women step down.
07:30The woman on the left
07:31is my elder sister,
07:33Cassandra.
07:34She sees good and evil
07:35as clearly as color
07:36and turns morality itself
07:38into force.
07:39That power made her
07:40the royal court's
07:41cleanest blade.
07:42The woman on the right
07:43is my second sister,
07:44Secure.
07:46She can see the end date
07:47on every life.
07:48She steals years
07:49from the condemned
07:49and gives them
07:50to dying nobles.
07:51That is how she built
07:52her influence.
07:54You should not be alive.
08:01You should not be alive.
08:04Your countdown reset.
08:05A forbidden force
08:06rewrote your fate.
08:11As the daughters
08:12of the woman
08:12who once married
08:13into this house,
08:14we should have been
08:15house stormpress pride.
08:18Only I was packed off
08:20to a convent
08:21whilst still a child.
08:23then sent to die
08:24on a pyre.
08:25Liar!
08:26The king is watching
08:27this miracle!
08:28You're an anomaly
08:29and anomalies
08:31make powerful people nervous.
08:32Come with us.
08:33Quietly.
08:34I do not trust them.
08:36Not after they stood by
08:37while I was condemned.
08:38In light of what
08:39you have shown here
08:40and the unrest
08:41caused by your eyes,
08:42you are stripped
08:43of the Stormcrest name.
08:45Effective immediately,
08:47you are to be exiled
08:48to Blackstone Cult.
08:52Blackstone Keep
08:53is a death sentence.
08:54People say
08:55even rats go mad there.
08:57I'll go.
09:00Cassandra rules
09:01the capital
09:01through morality.
09:03Sophia rules
09:04the empire
09:04through lifestamp.
09:06And I?
09:07Coming!
09:08I am being thrown
09:09into a ruin
09:10full of dead things.
09:12To them,
09:13it is exile.
09:15To me,
09:15it might be a door.
09:19Because in this world,
09:21power may wear
09:22the mask of virtue
09:23or time,
09:24but under both
09:25lies the same foundation.
09:29Bones.
09:30And if what I hold
09:31is really tied to death,
09:32then a fortress
09:33full of corpses
09:34may be the best place
09:35in the world
09:35for me to begin.
09:40The moment I tried
09:42to pick up the chest again,
09:43that same agony
09:44came flooding back.
09:50The road to Blackstone Keep
09:51is lined with
09:52nameless graves.
09:53As the carriage
09:55moves north,
09:55the city gives way
09:57to empty land,
09:58then to scrub,
09:59then to sand.
10:01The farther they went,
10:03the more uneasy
10:04the guards looked.
10:05Cecile sits across
10:06from me now,
10:07no longer flickering
10:08in and out
10:09like before.
10:10In life,
10:11she was all
10:12softness and worship.
10:13In death,
10:15something colder
10:16has settled
10:16into her bones.
10:18Lady Lyra,
10:19that god's soul
10:20was fading away.
10:22Three hours from now,
10:23he'll freeze to death
10:24out here.
10:28I can see more
10:29than ghosts.
10:31I can see death itself.
10:33Now these eyes
10:34seem determined
10:35to drag me
10:35past time itself.
10:37I see the dead.
10:40I see the wounds
10:41that killed them.
10:43I hear their whispers.
10:45Sometimes I see the memory
10:47of the moment they died.
10:50I raise my hand
10:51and touch the scorched hollow
10:53of Cecile's throat.
10:58an icy electric shock
11:00like sensation
11:01swept through me
11:02in an instant.
11:04Then her injury
11:06closes.
11:07The charred wound
11:08zips itself shut
11:09under a pulse
11:10of violet light.
11:13Lady Lyra,
11:15you can restore us.
11:18You can restore us!
11:26It may just be
11:27muscle memory.
11:28A doctor sees damage
11:29and wants to cut,
11:30fix, stitch,
11:31understand.
11:33And apparently,
11:34I could also
11:34mend souls now.
11:38I called these
11:39little surprises
11:40luck.
11:42The carriage rolled
11:43to a stop
11:43in front of Blackstone
11:44Cape's rusted iron gate.
11:51This wasn't
11:52an old castle.
11:54This was a giant morgue.
11:58The moment I stepped
12:00into the great hall,
12:01they came for me.
12:03My brain screamed.
12:04My eyes wept
12:06blood from the strain.
12:08I ordered.
12:09My voice cold.
12:10Back off!
12:10They didn't listen.
12:12Spirits with no shape
12:13and no sense.
12:14Raw, hungry instinct.
12:16Suddenly,
12:16a gust of wind
12:17scattered them.
12:19Don't bother
12:20begging them like that.
12:21It's useless.
12:22Beneath the shattered,
12:23stained glass window.
12:25Half hidden in shadow.
12:27Sat a man.
12:28Like he'd been
12:29waiting for me all along.
12:43Who are you?
12:44A failure.
12:46My body was stolen.
12:48My soul, though?
12:49It just won't die.
12:50Leela moaned.
12:51Take a good look.
12:53Blackstone Keep
12:54isn't a castle.
12:55It's the Empire's
12:56sole alchemist's factory.
12:57They haul souls here.
12:58From commoners
12:59from criminals,
13:00grind them to dust,
13:01and refine the purest life force.
13:03Then they ship it
13:04to the capital.
13:05Following his lead,
13:06my violet eyes
13:07began to pulse wildly.
13:09Visions flooded my sight.
13:11Overlapping.
13:13Chaotic.
13:14They were the
13:15collective memories
13:16of the dead.
13:16So you're a
13:17harvested battery, too.
13:20I'm a battery
13:21they'll never drain.
13:23They chopped up my body,
13:24but my soul
13:25was too hard to chew.
13:27Listen.
13:28The Arcan
13:29isn't ripping out
13:30Saint's hearts
13:30to extend his own life.
13:31He's just a supplier.
13:33The real customer
13:34is the king.
13:35And the one
13:36swinging the blade,
13:36that's your sister.
13:38Why are you
13:39telling me all this?
13:40Your mother asked me to.
13:41She told me
13:42to wait for you here.
13:43Lila,
13:44see your power
13:45for what it is.
13:46You can read
13:46how 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
13:53is taking a new bride.
13:55Another sacrifice.
13:57The king needs
13:59a top-grade spare part
14:00to keep himself alive.
14:02Guess who they've chosen
14:03as the next offering?
14:04Bella thought
14:05she'd stolen a fortune from me.
14:07Who knew she'd actually
14:08stolen a death sentence?
14:12What's your name?
14:14Alaric.
14:15Deep under Blackstone Keep,
14:16there's something
14:16your mother left
14:17before she died.
14:18I've kept it safe for you
14:20for decades.
14:21With that,
14:22you'll get closer
14:23to the truth.
14:26I followed the spiral staircase down.
14:29The underground didn't smell
14:30of rot like I'd expected.
14:32Instead,
14:33there was a sharp,
14:35chemical scent.
14:36Something like formaldehyde.
14:38At the bottom of the stairs
14:40lay a precision laboratory.
14:41In the center,
14:43on a stone table,
14:44sat a heavy iron chest.
14:47The moment I touched the chest,
14:49my violet pupils erupted
14:51with shattered images.
14:52I saw my mother.
14:54She hadn't died
14:55from postpartum weakness.
14:57She had been down
14:58in this dungeon,
14:59frantically recording something.
15:01She wasn't a victim.
15:02She was a key node
15:03in this whole
15:04immortality experiment.
15:06Connecting it
15:07with what Alaric
15:07had told me,
15:08the current king
15:09wasn't the first beneficiary
15:10of this immortality scheme.
15:12They had used Blackstone Keep
15:13to drain life force,
15:15but when the keep
15:15stopped working,
15:16they needed a replacement.
15:18And my mother?
15:19She might have been
15:20that replacement.
15:21The moment I tried
15:22to pick up the chest again,
15:23that same agony
15:25came flooding back.
15:31Lady Mondae
15:33left a magic mark behind.
15:34It was meant cement
15:35to someone from her world.
15:38Someone like her
15:39to end all of this.
15:43Now,
15:44can you tell me
15:45your 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.
16:08Lady Lyra,
16:10I can feel the wind now.
16:12She pulled a longsword
16:13from her hollow chest,
16:15looking just as shocked
16:16as I felt.
16:18I'm going to use
16:19this blade
16:20to carve out
16:21that old immortal's heart.
16:25Only the one
16:26who picks up this blade
16:27is worthy of pureness.
16:30Back then,
16:30the king ripped out
16:31my heart,
16:32trying to turn me
16:33into the purest battery
16:34for Blackstone Keep.
16:35Your mother used
16:36that open heart moment
16:37to secretly stitch
16:38part of my soul
16:39into the king's foundation.
16:40She saved my consciousness,
16:42but trapped me here,
16:44unable to leave.
16:45She was a brilliant stitcher.
16:48She did all of this
16:49so the immortality fast
16:50would end with my generation.
16:52And she must have had
16:53her reasons for saving me.
16:55Will you come with me,
16:56Alaric?
16:57Lyra,
16:59if you want to take me with you,
17:01you'll have to use that blade.
17:03Stitch my ghost
17:04into your shadow.
17:05From then on,
17:07your life will be my anchor.
17:12His cold,
17:13weightless body
17:14fast gleaming
17:15and embrace,
17:16then dissolved
17:17into swirling black smoke
17:19that shrank
17:19into my shadow.
17:24Let's go,
17:25putting away the scalpel.
17:30After the coronation banquet
17:31in the imperial capital,
17:33Bella,
17:33wearing a pure white wedding dress,
17:35held the hand of the king's
17:36most beloved third prince.
17:38I hid in the shadow
17:39of the huge stone pillar
17:40in the banquet hall,
17:41and the shadow under my feet
17:43stirred restlessly,
17:44as if echoing the undercurrent
17:45surging in my heart.
17:46My second sister Sophia
17:48appeared behind me
17:49without warning,
17:50her tone trembling imperceptibly,
17:51and her eyes were filled
17:52with unprecedented anxiety.
17:54It turned out that Bella
17:55had been a pawn
17:56from the very beginning,
17:57used to carry a cruel
17:59exchange of vitality.
18:00The king would use Sophia's head
18:02and transfer Bella's vitality
18:03to the third prince.
18:05It was never Lila,
18:06I was Leia.
18:07After three years of protection,
18:09it was now my turn
18:10to come back
18:10and clean up this mess
18:11with my own hands.
18:14The banquet reaches its peak.
18:16Lila lifts the golden cup
18:18with shaking excitement.
18:19The prince does the same.
18:21I object.
18:22I step out of the shadows.
18:23At once,
18:24the glamour around the nobility
18:26peels away in my sight.
18:27The beautiful faces wrinkle,
18:29collapse, rot.
18:30Under their silken velvet,
18:32I see patchwork flesh
18:33and old sutures
18:33and stolen years
18:34barely held together.
18:36The seal materializes
18:37in the center of the hall.
18:38Her dead white face.
18:40All of it appears
18:41before the assembled
18:41lords and ladies.
18:43For a heartbeat,
18:44no one moves.
18:45Then someone screams.
18:46The saint.
18:47The saint gets back.
18:49The hall explodes.
18:50The seal raises her sword
18:52and starts cutting
18:53through the crowd.
18:54Every thrust lands
18:55in the transplanted heart.
18:56Walk toward them slowly.
18:58Among violet eyes burning.
19:00Today is where we can.
19:01Kill that witch.
19:03The king lords
19:03slamming the hand
19:04on the table.
19:05The royal guard
19:06searches forward.
19:07My shadow erupts.
19:08Black blades raise
19:09across the floor.
19:11Scaring each soldier
19:12through his own shadow.
19:13Bodies crumble
19:14and weather away
19:15before they keep the screen.
19:16Half of hour
19:17rises from the darkness
19:18and wraps one spectral hand
19:20around the prince's throat.
19:21Bella drops to the floor.
19:23Stunned.
19:23I crouch in front of her
19:24and I smile.
19:25Thanks for dying in my place.
19:27She jerks back,
19:28finally recognizing the danger.
19:30Why are you still alive?
19:32You bitch.
19:32Catch her wrist
19:33and 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?
19:41She's not Lady Monda's
19:42true daughter.
19:43King does not panic.
19:45Not even a little.
19:46He is staring at the scalpel in my hand
19:48to be a bit of second.
19:49Once,
19:50the hidden mother array
19:51beneath the floor ignites.
19:53The modern scalpel in my hand
19:54lets out a shrill metallic crack.
19:56Then it rips free of my grip.
19:58It 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,
20:09everything stops.
20:10The silver flash.
20:12The wet sound of impact.
20:13Sophia looking down
20:14at the blade
20:15sticking out of her chest.
20:16I reach her as she falls.
20:18At a glance it looks fatal.
20:20But I am a doctor
20:21before I am anything else.
20:22Something is wrong.
20:23There is no arterial spray
20:25and my breath catches.
20:27The 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.
20:34One whole side of his face
20:35shrivels before our eyes.
20:37Collapsing into dried rot.
20:38Now I get it,
20:39I say,
20:40gripping the scalpel.
20:41The blade didn't attack her.
20:43It cut out the parasite.
20:44Sophia talks up black blood
20:46and drives her wrist.
20:47Our lives were tied to the king
20:49when we were children.
20:50She whispers,
20:51mother,
20:52mother,
20:52cecile returns in a rhyme,
20:54sword for people.
20:55Lady Lyra,
20:56the noble said that,
20:57and stolen ears
20:59are snapping back
20:59all at once.
21:00Did you do this?
21:02The truth lies in pieces
21:03and they're all at once.
21:04Sophia is one half
21:05of the king's living room,
21:07and Cassandra is the other.
21:08My mother used her daughters
21:10as thorns
21:10giving her sight
21:11with his body.
21:12At my call,
21:13my shadow boils.
21:14Move!
21:15I drag Sophia with me.
21:17Cecile shields us.
21:18Alaric wraps us in black force
21:20and sends us crashing
21:21through the palace windows
21:22and down into the freezing mode below.
21:26North of the capital
21:27stands the Holy Court.
21:29That is Cassandra's domain.
21:31Unlike the banquet hall,
21:32this place is clean
21:33to the point of madness.
21:34With a bleeding Sophia
21:35in my arms,
21:36Cassandra is already seated
21:38at the judgment bench.
21:39Beside her stands
21:40high pontic Julian.
21:41He smiles with his eyes lowered,
21:43a holy white aura
21:44blazing above him
21:45so bright it almost hurts
21:46to look at.
21:47My child,
21:48Julian says,
21:49stepping down from the dais,
21:50I have waited for you.
21:52I feel it at once,
21:53the pressure,
21:54heavy enough to crush thought.
21:56Cassandra says nothing.
21:57She does not stop him.
21:59That tells me everything
22:00I need to know.
22:01Sophia broke the link
22:02too early.
22:03The truth is leaking.
22:05Julian needs me dead
22:06before the room catches up.
22:07All those crimes,
22:08he says softly.
22:10The archbishop,
22:11the broken marriage,
22:12the chaos in the palace,
22:14such evil.
22:15Death is the only thing
22:16that can cleanse your soul.
22:17He raises his hand.
22:19White light gathers in his palm,
22:21bends ambitious.
22:22Enough to shred the mind.
22:23Before he can strike,
22:24my shadow spills
22:25across the floor beneath him.
22:27A scale can punches up
22:28from the darkness
22:29and catches the holy light
22:30barehanded.
22:31The light vanishes
22:32into shadow.
22:33The hand is scorched
22:34to pieces for the effort.
22:36But enough.
22:36Julian,
22:37he says,
22:38voice low and filthy
22:39with contempt.
22:40The pontiff sees his face.
22:41Prince Alaric,
22:42he shrieks.
22:43Impossible.
22:44Your soul should still be trapped.
22:48My pulse stutters.
22:50Alaric's identity
22:51is bigger than I ever guessed.
22:53He is the king's brother.
22:54The prince the crown
22:55should have gone to.
22:56Lyra,
22:57Alaric says without looking back,
22:59protect your sister.
23:00He draws a massive black sword.
23:02Cecile steps in front of me
23:04and Sophia.
23:05Julian does not attack
23:06Alaric 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
23:13from hitting Sophia too.
23:15I hurl the scalpel.
23:16The blade slices straight
23:17through the holy white ring
23:19above Julian's head.
23:20And in the instant
23:21that false halo breaks,
23:22Sandra's world breaks with it.
23:24She does not see
23:25radiant virtue anymore.
23:26She sees faces.
23:28Hundreds of them.
23:28All the people she condemned.
23:30All the scraps of goodness
23:32stripped from them
23:32and packed into Julian's crown of life.
23:35The dead crowd the room
23:36with their grief.
23:37My shadow breaks them in.
23:38Some become wind around Alaric.
23:40Some hardly his armor.
23:42Some sharpen his sword in his hand.
23:44The rest gather behind me.
23:46Farmers with pitchforks.
23:48Men's with candlesticks.
23:49Cavalry men with split skulls
23:51and abandoned horses.
23:52Cassandra presses bloody fingers
23:54to her eyes.
23:55No,
23:55she whispers.
23:57No,
23:57that can't be true.
23:59You're indispensable.
24:00I tell her coldly.
24:01Mother didn't surrender.
24:03She planted blades.
24:05Sophia was time.
24:06You were morality.
24:08And I.
24:08The doors blow open.
24:10The king enters
24:11with half his face rotten
24:12and Bella in one hand
24:13like a butcher carrying meat.
24:15Lyra,
24:15he rasps.
24:16Give me the knife.
24:17Or I cut out
24:18what your mother hid
24:18inside your sister.
24:20He claws open his robe.
24:21A black smoking heartbeat
24:23in his chest.
24:24Then he squeezes it.
24:25Cassandra drops to her knees.
24:27Through her gown,
24:28strange violet light
24:29pulses from her abdomen
24:30in the exact shape
24:31of the array
24:32beneath Blackstone King.
24:33And before anyone
24:34can do it,
24:35the king chances
24:36hand in Julian's bag
24:37and reaches for Cassandra.
24:40The king's fingers
24:42tear through flesh.
24:43Julian's blood pours
24:44into the glowing array
24:45on the floor.
24:46The whole hall shakes.
24:47No,
24:48Cassandra gasps.
24:49Mother's plan
24:50cannot end here.
24:51Then,
24:52to my shock,
24:53she grabs him.
24:54Not to escape,
24:55to hold him still.
24:56Lyra,
24:57she screams.
24:58Now,
24:59at the same instant,
25:00Alaric steps
25:01fully out of my shadow.
25:02He is taller than before,
25:04more solid,
25:04more terrifying.
25:06His black sword slams
25:07across the king's claws
25:08and stops them cold.
25:09My dear brother,
25:10the king hisses,
25:11his.
25:12One good idea
25:13in the green.
25:14Forty years
25:15and you're still a fool.
25:16Father wanted
25:17to give you the throne.
25:18Said your soul
25:19could not rot,
25:20so I took the heart.
25:21I turned you into
25:22the cleanest battery
25:23you can't hide.
25:24And now look at you now.
25:26Kingdom,
25:27no body,
25:27not even proper life.
25:29What gives you the right
25:30to stand in my way?
25:31Alaric was not clenched.
25:33Ground under the throne
25:34still remembers
25:35your true title.
25:36Jesus,
25:37you surfer.
25:38His eyes cut toward me.
25:39I understand at once,
25:41the dead behind me too.
25:43Their grief turns,
25:44not just into mourning,
25:45into vengeance,
25:47for honor,
25:48for innocence,
25:48or what was stolen.
25:50I clench my jaw
25:51and get ready to move.
25:53Alaric drives his sword
25:54through the king's chest.
25:55I can hold him
25:56for three minutes.
25:57He roars.
25:58Three minutes.
25:59That is all.
26:00I grab Cassandra's arm
26:01and force myself to focus.
26:05Cassandra leaned
26:06against the stone pillar,
26:08coughing up blood violently
26:09from the shock
26:09of the king's heart.
26:10Yet she stubbornly
26:11shook her head.
26:12I am guilty.
26:13I have to stay here.
26:15The king,
26:16ignoring his arm
26:16that was spurting black blood,
26:18lowered his head
26:19and tore at something.
26:20I could see
26:20it was a fresh heart.
26:22Leia,
26:22now.
26:23Alaric roared.
26:24The wind around him
26:25turned into countless black chains,
26:27tightly binding the king's
26:28enormous,
26:29misshapen body.
26:30His withered left face
26:31slowly recovered,
26:32even growing younger.
26:34Madness blazed in his eyes,
26:35and his voice warped
26:36and stretched.
26:37You think I have no clue.
26:39You're as naive
26:40as you were decades ago.
26:41Bella's heart
26:42should not have rivaled
26:43the same.
26:44Yet the king's body swelled,
26:45his severed arm went through.
26:46Face after face
26:47surged into his test,
26:49and countless soul fragments
26:50on the ground
26:51were sucked into him.
26:52Some of the undead
26:53beside me
26:54were ground
26:54directly into dust.
26:56I was not one of the undead,
26:57but blood kept seeping
26:58from my eyes.
26:59Nevertheless,
27:00I struggled against the wind
27:02toward the king.
27:03Cassandra took my hand.
27:04Her tattered robe
27:05flapped loudly in the gale,
27:07and a white light shielded me
27:08from applying shards of souls.
27:10The undead around Alaric
27:11were constantly being
27:12drawn away by the king.
27:13Fighting back the urge
27:15to vomit blood.
27:16I saw him turn his head
27:17and shout at me,
27:18remember what I told you before?
27:20So the souls together,
27:21you have to commend her.
27:22Alaric drove his great sword
27:24into his chest.
27:25As a forensic doctor,
27:26I knew this race
27:27was fighting devil too well.
27:29Cassandra held my hand.
27:31I stabbed the skull.
27:32That kind of thing
27:33was in her crack,
27:34broken abdomen.
27:38The blade tip precisely avoided
27:40all vital points on Cassandra,
27:42neatly severing the self-destruct
27:43pact stitched inside her.
27:44Cassandra let out a low groan
27:46as I tore the purple core
27:47straight out of her body
27:48and held it high above my head.
27:49The core drew the undead energy
27:51that had flooded into the king's body
27:53swirling back toward it.
27:54Cassandra struggled to straighten up.
27:56I used the blade to stitch
27:57and mend the scattering undead forces
27:59around us.
28:00Ben hurled the scalpel.
28:01It pierced the purple core
28:02and drove straight into Alaric's back.
28:04His body stretched
28:05and twisted violently
28:07in the center of the hall,
28:08devoured by nether fire
28:09until nothing remained
28:10but a murky shadow.
28:11In his mother's heart,
28:13everything was already too late.
28:14The king's body
28:15disintegrated in throughout.
28:17He turned his head.
28:18Hatha's handsome face
28:19was eaten away
28:20by ghostly blue flames,
28:22green and purple light
28:23flickering alternate
28:24against people.
28:25His features twisted
28:26with an eternal madness
28:27you had never seen before.
28:29Behind his hunched silhouette,
28:30he placed the bloodstained
28:31crunk steadily upon his own head.
28:34I snapped open my purple eyes,
28:36piercing through his condensed form,
28:38and at last saw
28:39the true nature of the heart
28:40and the moment
28:40his scalpel touched it,
28:42the open self-destruct rune
28:43would detonate instantly,
28:45erasing all souls
28:45sown within it.
28:46Just then,
28:47Alaric,
28:48completely consumed by the heart,
28:50let out a beastly growl
28:51and swung his greatsword
28:52horizontally at me.
28:54I do not stand there
28:55waiting for love to save me.
28:57I throw myself sideways
28:58behind a broken stone pillar
29:00and wrench the scalpel
29:01back into my hand.
29:03I have to kill him,
29:05I whisper.
29:06My voice does not shake.
29:07Do I love him?
29:08Maybe,
29:09but that isn't the point.
29:11What matters is this.
29:12If I don't cut that heart out now,
29:14he will become worse
29:15than the king ever was.
29:16He drives his sword
29:17into the floor
29:18to keep from moving.
29:19Most of his face
29:20is gone to blue flame now.
29:21His hand shakes on the hilt.
29:24Lyra.
29:25Kill me.
29:26I move,
29:28fast.
29:28I rush straight into his arms.
29:30He is too locked in pain
29:31to stop me.
29:32The scalpel flashes.
29:34I drive it toward
29:34the glowing core in his chest.
29:36Alaric smiles.
29:37Then,
29:38instead of stopping me,
29:39he grabs my wrist
29:40and forces the blade
29:41deeper into himself.
29:43Boom.
29:43The blast throws me backward.
29:45As I black out,
29:46I see him dissolve,
29:48not into ash,
29:49into light.
29:50That,
29:50I murmur to myself
29:51in the last moment
29:52before unconsciousness
29:53takes me,
29:54is the worst
29:55gruff rejection
29:55I've ever seen.
29:59When I wake,
30:01the war is over.
30:02The king is gone.
30:03The immortality system
30:04is gone.
30:05Everyone who lived
30:06off stolen years
30:07begins aging naturally
30:08or dying naturally
30:09at last.
30:10Later,
30:11in the imperial archives,
30:12I discover the final peace.
30:14Bella really was
30:15Lady Monda's daughter,
30:17just not by the earl.
30:18She was the child
30:19of an affair.
30:20That was why the king
30:21could still use her heart.
30:22Shared blood is useful,
30:24even when it is not perfect.
30:26I return to Blackstone Keep.
30:28The dead come with me.
30:30My sisters walk beside me.
30:32When we pass through
30:33the Stormcrest lands,
30:34my father kneels
30:35and offers me his staff
30:36as if submission might
30:37by forgiveness.
30:38I look at them
30:39and feel nothing.
30:40I take only what
30:41my mother left behind.
30:43Then I begin searching
30:44for Alaric.
30:44The dead help me collect
30:46every scrap they can find.
30:47But his fragments
30:48are too small.
30:49Too scattered.
30:50Even my violet eyes
30:52can barely hold on to them.
30:53So I go back
30:54to Blackstone Keep.
30:55What are you trying to do?
30:57Sophia asks weakly.
30:59Rebuild him?
31:00His body turned to ash.
31:01His soul shattered.
31:03You'd be stitching emptiness.
31:05As long as even one trace
31:07of him still exists
31:08in the world's field,
31:09I say without looking up.
31:10I can recreate him.
31:15This was an unprecedented
31:16full organ reconstruction surgery.
31:18Alaric once told me
31:19that mother had kept
31:20a fragment of his soul.
31:21I dragged my broken body
31:23back to the underground laboratory
31:24of Blackstone Fortress
31:25point 40 years ago.
31:27In that deal,
31:27mother had traded
31:28her own heart for it.
31:29Carving it into the ground
31:30ruins of the laboratory
31:31is the core that summoned me
31:33across time and space.
31:34Among mother's belongings,
31:35I found a letter written
31:36in modern English.
31:38Unfolding it,
31:39I stared at the familiar
31:40modern handwriting.
31:41I am the beginning
31:41of this tragedy,
31:43and you, night,
31:44are its end.
31:44Alaric's body was ground
31:46to dust by the king
31:4740 years ago.
31:48I thought a heart
31:49for a heart
31:49was an equal exchange.
31:51Yet it was nothing
31:52but the king's life.
31:53The king had never
31:54kept his promise
31:54to release mother's daughter
31:56to Sandra and Sophia.
31:57Instead,
31:58he told them
31:58for his own purposes.
32:00After her heart
32:01was cut out,
32:01the mother died
32:02with bitter confusion.
32:04Her soul fragments
32:04entered in this ancient castle
32:06with a searching day and night.
32:08And she finally created
32:09the great son of a traveler
32:10from another world.
32:11Her third daughter
32:12was born out of wedlock
32:13within that long.
32:14He sent to a convent
32:15and dear child,
32:16I am sorry to meet you in this way.
32:18Her handwriting
32:18was scribbled hastily,
32:20as if written
32:20in extreme urgency.
32:22These were her final words,
32:24and she revealed
32:24the method of resurrecting.
32:25Lila's heart must have stopped
32:27beating before you arrived.
32:28From the moment
32:29you opened your eyes,
32:30you have been living
32:31off the life force
32:32within Alaric's heart.
32:33I looked at the shattered spirit
32:34and his fragments
32:35piled on the operating table,
32:37my eyes glowing with a divine,
32:38desperate resolve.
32:39If you are willing
32:40to give half your lifespan
32:41to rebuild his circulatory system,
32:43he will live.
32:44He is a capable ruler.
32:45I lay beside the operating table,
32:48gripping the scalpel tightly.
32:49This was the ultimate surgery.
32:51No assist of needed.
32:52I sliced open my own chest,
32:54out of precision.
32:55I cut out half of my own heart,
32:57being violently,
32:58shimmering with the radiance
32:59under a fire.
33:03Those soul fragments
33:04were drawn to the heart
33:05in my hand.
33:06Alaric's eyes snapped open,
33:07and in those emerald green pupils,
33:09my haggard yet triumphant face
33:11was reflected.
33:12He sat up,
33:13staring blankly
33:14at his own hands.
33:15His memories seemed frozen
33:16in the moment
33:17he had driven my blade
33:18into 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, tangible embrace.
33:26With a heartbeat,
33:27breath,
33:28and the warmth of my body,
33:29I can actually hold you now,
33:31Layla.
33:32His voice was hoarse,
33:33trembling at the end.
33:34You have given me new life.
33:36A week later,
33:37the imperial capital
33:38changed dynasties.
33:39I looked down over
33:40the entire realm,
33:41restored to life,
33:42then turned to smile
33:43at Alaric.
33:44In his eyes,
33:45I saw a flood of emotion.
33:47I glanced back
33:48at the city's inhabitants,
33:49humans and undead alike,
33:51all looking up at me
33:51in reverence.
33:52In this world,
33:53the nature of power
33:54was no longer to take
33:55but to protect.
33:56Long live the dead,
33:57I whispered softly.
33:59Alaric took my hand
34:00and kissed my fingertips.
34:01personalĺżµdevice.com.
34:03dafĂĽr is not allowed to do loose.
34:04No,
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