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Long Live The Dead Ep 2026- Hot π π β
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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.
07:55She became siren nobles in the back.
08:01The Queen's eye on the right, and looks like the her son was the opposite of an ancientbior,
08:03and in fact in fact the only ship was shown outside the ΠΏΡΠΎΠ± queen.
08:08Blood.
08:19You um, while you're injured and evitarly Palm, you will survive you, and have made hundreds.
08:22Then sent to die on a pyre.
08:25Liar!
08:26The king is watching this miracle!
08:28You're an anomaly.
08:30And anomalies make powerful people nervous.
08:32Come with us.
08:33Quietly.
08:34I do not trust them.
08:36Not after they stood by while I was condemned.
08:38In light of what you have shown here,
08:40and the unrest caused by your eyes,
08:42you are stripped of the Stormcrest name.
08:45Effective immediately,
08:46you are to be exiled to Blackstone Culp.
08:52Blackstone Culp is a death sentence.
08:54People say even rats go mad there.
08:57I'll go.
09:00Cassandra rules the capital through morality.
09:03Sophia rules the empire through lifestamp.
09:06And I?
09:07Coming!
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,
09:21power 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
09:33may be the best place in the world for me to begin.
09:40The moment I tried to pick up the chest again,
09:43that 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,
09:58then to scrub,
09:59then to sand.
10:01The farther they went,
10:03the more uneasy the guards looked.
10:05Cecile sits across from me now,
10:07no longer flickering in and out like before.
10:09In life,
10:11she was all softness and worship.
10:13In 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,
10:23he'll freeze to death out here.
10:28I can see more than ghosts.
10:31I can see death itself.
10:33Now these eyes seem determined
10:34to drag me past time itself.
10:37I see the dead.
10:39I 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.
10:58And I see electric shock-like sensation
11:01swept through me in an instant.
11:04Then her injury closes.
11:06The charred wound zips itself shut
11:09under a pulse of violent light.
11:13Lady Lyra,
11:15you can restore us.
11:17You can restore us!
11:25It may just be muscle memory.
11:28A doctor sees damage
11:29and wants to cut, fix, stitch, understand.
11:32And apparently,
11:33I could also mend souls now.
11:38I called these little surprises
11:40luck.
11:42The carriage rolled to a stop
11:43in front of Blackstone Cape's
11:45rusted iron gate.
11:51This 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.
12:10Back off!
12:10They didn't listen.
12:11Spirits with no shape and no sense.
12:14Just raw, hungry instinct.
12:16Suddenly, 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.
12:46My body was stolen.
12:47My soul, though?
12:49It just won't die.
12:50Leela moaned.
12:51Take a good look.
12:53Blackstone Cape isn't a castle.
12:54It's the Empire's soul 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.
13:09Visions flooded my sight.
13:11Overlapping.
13:13Chaotic.
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 Saintus' hearts to extend his own life.
13:31He's just a supplier.
13:33The real customer is the king.
13:35And the one swinging the blade?
13:36That's your sister.
13:38Why are you telling me all this?
13:40Your mother asked me to.
13:41She told me to wait for you here.
13:43Leela,
13:44see your power for what it is.
13:46You can read how the dead died.
13:47You can mend their wounds.
13:49But that's just the beginning.
13:51Next week,
13:51the 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.
14:07Who 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,
14:22you'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
14:40lay 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
14:51with shattered images,
14:52I saw my mother.
14:54She hadn't died from postpartum weakness.
14:56She had been down in this dungeon,
14:59frantically 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.
15:18And my mother,
15:19she might have been that replacement.
15:21The moment I tried to pick up the chest again,
15:23that same agony came flooding back.
15:31Lady Mondae left a magic mark behind.
15:34It was meant to 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?
15:57My 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 from her hollow chest,
16:15looking 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
16:27is worthy of pureness.
16:29Back then,
16:30the king ripped out my heart,
16:31trying to turn me into the purest battery
16:33for Blackstone Keep.
16:35Your mother used that open heart moment
16:37to secretly stitch part of my soul
16:39into the keep'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 her reasons
16:54for saving me.
16:55Will you come with me, Alaric?
16:57Lyra,
16:59if you want to take me with you,
17:01you'll have to use that blade.
17:03Stitch my ghost into your shadow.
17:05From then on,
17:06your life will be my anchor.
17:12His cold, weightless body
17:14fast gleaming and embrace,
17:16then dissolved into swirling black smoke
17:19that shrank into my shadow.
17:24Let's go,
17:25getting away the scalpel.
17:29After 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
17:42stirred restlessly,
17:44as if echoing the undercurrent
17:45surging in my heart.
17:46My second sister Sophia
17:48appeared behind me without warning,
17:49her 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 exchange
17:59of vitality,
18:00the king would use Sophia's hand
18:02to transfer Bella's vitality
18:03to the third prince.
18:04It was never Lila,
18:06I was Leia.
18:07After three years of protection,
18:09it was now my turn
18:09to come back
18:10and clean up this mess
18:11with my own hands.
18:14The banquet reaches its peak.
18:16Leta 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
18:25peels away in my sight.
18:27The beautiful faces wrinkle,
18:29collapse, rot.
18:30Under their silk and velvet,
18:31I see patchwork flesh
18:33and old sutures
18:33and stolen years
18:34barely held together.
18:36Seal materializes
18:37in the center of the hall.
18:38Cursed dead white face.
18:39All of it appears
18:40before the assembled lords
18:42and ladies.
18:43For a heartbeat,
18:44no one moves.
18:45Then someone screams.
18:46The saint.
18:47The saint is back.
18:48The hall explodes
18:49into the night.
18:50Cecile raises her sword
18:52and starts chatting
18:53to the crowd.
18:54Every thrust lands
18:55in the transplanted heart.
18:56Walk toward them slowly.
18:58My violet eyes burning.
19:00Today is where we came.
19:01Kill that witch.
19:02The king lords
19:03by slamming a hand on the table.
19:05The royal guard searches forward.
19:07My shadow erupts.
19:08Black blades raise
19:09across the floor.
19:10Sparing a new soldier
19:12in his own shadow.
19:13Bodies crumple
19:14and weather away
19:15before they even scream.
19:16Half of our rises
19:17from the darkness
19:18and wraps one spectral hand
19:19around 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?
19:32You 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 true daughter.
19:43King does not panic.
19:44Not 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.
19:52The modern scalpel in my hand
19:54lets 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,
20:09everything stops.
20:10The silver flash.
20:12The wet sound of impact.
20:13Sophia looking down
20:14at 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
20:20before 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.
20:33One whole side of his face shrivels
20:35before our eyes.
20:36Collapsing 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 cocks up black blood
20:46and drives my wrist.
20:47Our lives were tied to the king
20:48when we were children.
20:50She whispers.
20:51Mother made a deal.
20:52Cecile returns it around.
20:54Sword for me.
20:55Lady Lyra.
20:56The noble said that.
20:57The stolen ears are snapping back
20:59all at once.
21:00Did you do this?
21:01The three plants in pieces
21:03and they're all at once.
21:04If Sophia is one half
21:05of the king's living life
21:07and Cassandra is the other.
21:08My mother used her daughters
21:10as thorns hidden inside
21:11the king's 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.
21:28That is Cassandra's domain.
21:30Unlike 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 pontiff Julian.
21:41He smiles with his eyes lowered,
21:43a holy white aura blazing 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.
21:51I feel it at once,
21:53the pressure,
21:54heavy enough to crush thought.
21:55Cassandra says nothing.
21:57She does not stop him.
21:59That tells me everything
22:00I need to know.
22:01Sophia broke the link too early.
22:03The truth is leaking.
22:04Julian 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,
22:20dense and vicious.
22:22Enough to shred the mind.
22:23Before he can strike,
22:24my shadow spills
22:25across the floor beneath him.
22:27A scaled hand punches up
22:28from the darkness
22:29and catches the holy light barehanded.
22:31The light vanishes into shadow.
22:33The hand is scorched to pieces
22:35for the effort.
22:36But enough,
22:36Julian,
22:37he says,
22:38voice low and filthy with contempt.
22:40The pontiff sees his face,
22:41Prince Alaric,
22:42and he shrieks,
22:43impossible.
22:44Your soul should still be trapped.
22:48My pulse stutters.
22:50Alaric's identity is bigger
22:51than 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 Alaric 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.
23:14I hurl the scalpel.
23:16The blade slices straight
23:17through the holy white ring
23:18above Julian's head.
23:20And in the instant
23:20that false halo breaks,
23:22Sandra's world breaks with it.
23:24She does not see
23:24radiant virtue anymore.
23:26She sees faces,
23:27hundreds of them.
23:29All the people she condemned.
23:30All the scraps of goodness
23:31stripped from them
23:32and packed into Julian's crown of mine.
23:34The dead crowd the room
23:35with their grief.
23:36My shadow breaks them in.
23:38Some become wind around Alaric.
23:40Some harden his armor.
23:42Some sharpen the sword in his hand.
23:44The rest gather behind him.
23:46Farmers with pitchforks.
23:48Men's with candlesticks.
23:49Cavalrymen with split skulls
23:51and phantom horses.
23:52Cassandra presses bloody fingers
23:54to her eyes.
23:55No, she whispers.
23:57No, that 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.
24:07And I.
24:08The doors blow open.
24:10The king enters with half his face
24:11rotten and Bella in one hand
24:13like a butcher carrying meat.
24:14Lyra, he rasps.
24:16Give me the knife.
24:17Or I cut out what your mother
24:18hid 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.
24:27Through her gown,
24:28strange violet light pulses
24:29from her abdomen
24:30in the exact shape of the array
24:32beneath Blackstone King.
24:33And before anyone can hear it,
24:35the king hands his hand
24:36in 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, Cassandra gasps.
24:49Mother's plan cannot end here.
24:51Then, to my shock,
24:53she grabs him.
24:54Not to escape,
24:55to hold him still.
24:56Lyra, she screams.
24:58Now, at the same instant,
25:00Alaric steps fully out of my shadow.
25:02He is taller than before,
25:03more solid,
25:04more terrifying.
25:05His 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 I glimmerly agree.
25:14Forty years
25:15and 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
25:22the cleanest battery
25:23I can't hide.
25:24And now look at me now.
25:26Kingdom, no body,
25:27not even proper life.
25:29What gives you the right
25:30to stand in my way?
25:31Alaric does not clench.
25:33The ground under the throne
25:34and still remembers
25:35your true title.
25:36New surfer.
25:37His eyes cut toward me.
25:39I understand at once.
25:41The dead were bringing me too.
25:42Their grief turns.
25:44Not just into mourning.
25:45Into vengeance.
25:46For honor.
25:48For innocence.
25:49For 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.
25:59I grabbed Cassandra's arm
26:01and forced myself to focus.
26:05Cassandra leaned
26:06against the stone pillar,
26:07coughing 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,
26:15ignoring his arm
26:16that was spurting
26:17black blood,
26:18lowered his head
26:19and tore at something.
26:20I could see
26:20it was a fresh heart.
26:22Leia, now.
26:23Alaric roared.
26:24The wind around him
26:25turned into
26:25countless black chains,
26:27tightly binding
26:27the king's enormous,
26:29misshapen body.
26:30His withered left face
26:31slowly recovered,
26:32even growing younger.
26:34Madness blazed
26:34in his eyes
26:35and his voice
26:36warped and stretched.
26:37You think I have
26:38no point in to?
26:39You are as naive
26:40as you were decades ago.
26:41Bella's heart
26:42should not have
26:42rivaled the city's.
26:44Yet the king's body
26:44swelled,
26:45his severed arm
26:46went through.
26:46Face after face
26:47surged into his chest
26:48and countless soul fragments
26:50on the ground
26:51were sucked into him.
26:52Some of the undead
26:53beside me
26:53were ground
26:54directly into dust.
26:55I was not one
26:56of the undead,
26:57but blood kept
26:58seeping from my eyes.
26:59Nevertheless,
27:00I struggled
27:01against the wind
27:02toward the king.
27:03Cassandra took my hand.
27:04Her tattered robe
27:05flapped loudly
27:06in the gale
27:06and a white light
27:07shielded me
27:08from applying
27:08shards of souls.
27:10The undead around
27:10Alaric were constantly
27:12being drawn away
27:12by the king,
27:13fighting back
27:14the urge
27:14to vomit blood.
27:16I saw him
27:16turn his head
27:17and shout at me,
27:18remember what I told you?
27:19Yeah?
27:19Save his souls together.
27:21You have to command him.
27:22Alaric
27:23drove his grave sword
27:24into his chest.
27:25As a forensic doctor,
27:26I knew this race
27:27was fighting devil too low.
27:29Cassandra held my hand.
27:31I stabbed the spell
27:32in the backhand
27:33and you were cracked
27:34broken abdomen.
27:38The blade tip
27:39precisely avoided
27:40all vital points
27:41on Cassandra,
27:42neatly severing
27:42the self-destruct
27:43pact stitched
27:44inside her.
27:44Cassandra let out
27:45a low groan
27:46as I tore the purple
27:47core straight out
27:47of her body
27:48and held it
27:48high above my head.
27:49The core drew
27:50the undead energy
27:51that had flooded
27:51into the king's body
27:53swirling back toward it.
27:54Cassandra struggled
27:55to straighten up.
27:56I used the blade
27:56to stitch
27:57and mend
27:57the scattering
27:58undead forces
27:59around us.
28:00Then held the scalpel.
28:01It pierced the purple core
28:02and drove straight
28:03into Alaric's back.
28:04His body stretched
28:05and twisted violently
28:06in the center of the hall,
28:08devoured by netherfire
28:09until nothing remained
28:10but a murky shadow.
28:11To his mother's heart,
28:12everything was already
28:13too late.
28:14The king's body
28:15disintegrated into act.
28:17He turned his head.
28:18Half his handsome face
28:19was eaten away
28:20by ghostly blue flames,
28:21rain and purple light
28:23flickering alternately
28:24into his bones.
28:25His features twisted
28:26with an eternal madness
28:27that I've never seen before.
28:28Behind his hunched silhouette,
28:30he placed the bloodstained
28:31crowned steadily
28:32upon his own hand.
28:34I snapped open
28:35my purple eyes,
28:36piercing heels
28:37condensed for him,
28:38and at last saw
28:38the premature of the heart
28:40in a moment
28:40like scalpel touched him.
28:41A dopey and self-destruct
28:43rune would detonate instantly,
28:44erasing all souls
28:45sown within it.
28:46Just then,
28:47Alaric,
28:48completely consumed
28:49by 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
28:56to 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.
29:05My 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
29:13that 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
29:22on the hilt.
29:23Lyra.
29:25Kill me.
29:26I move,
29:27fast.
29:28I rush straight
29:29into his arms.
29:30He is too locked
29:31in pain to stop me.
29:32The scalpel flashes.
29:34I drive it toward
29:34the glowing core
29:35in 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 takes me,
29:54is the worst
29:55gruff rejection
29:55I've ever seen.
29:59When I wake,
30:00the war is over.
30:02The king is gone.
30:03The immortality system is gone.
30:05Everyone who lived off stolen years
30:07begins aging naturally
30:08or dying naturally at last.
30:10Later,
30:11in the Imperial Archives,
30:12I discover the final piece.
30:14Bella really was Lady Monda's daughter.
30:16Just not by the Earl.
30:18She was the child of 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.
30:25I return to Blackstone Keep.
30:28The dead come with me.
30:29My sisters walk beside me.
30:31When we pass through
30:32the 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
30:41what my mother left behind.
30:42Then I begin searching
30:43for Alaric.
30:44The dead help me collect
30:45every scrap they can find.
30:47But his fragments
30:48are too small.
30:49Too scattered.
30:50Even my violet eyes
30:51can barely hold onto 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.
31:14This 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.
31:26In that deal,
31:27Mother had traded
31:28her own heart for it.
31:29Carving it into the ground
31:30ruins of the laboratory
31:31as the core that summoned me
31:32across time and space.
31:34Among Mother's belongings,
31:35I found a letter written
31:36in modern English.
31:38Unfolding it,
31:38I stared at the familiar
31:39modern handwriting.
31:41I am the beginning
31:41of this tragedy,
31:43and you, night,
31:43are its end.
31:44Alaric's body was ground
31:45to dust by the King
31:4640 years ago.
31:48I thought a heart
31:48for a heart
31:49was an equal exchange.
31:51Yet it was nothing
31:51but the King's life.
31:53The King had never
31:53kept his promise
31:54to release Mother's daughters
31:55Cassandra and Sophia.
31:57Instead,
31:58he told them
31:58for his own purposes.
32:00After her heart
32:00was cut out,
32:01Mother died
32:02with bitter pain.
32:03Her soul frightened
32:04as needed
32:05in this ancient castle,
32:06searching day and night,
32:07until she finally
32:08created the way
32:09to summon a traveler
32:10from another world.
32:11Her third daughter,
32:12one out of wedlock
32:13with Calvon,
32:14was sent to a convent
32:15in dear time.
32:16I am sorry to make
32:17him in this way.
32:18Her handwriting
32:18was scribbled hastily,
32:20as if written
32:20in extreme urgency.
32:22These were her final words,
32:23and she revealed
32:24the method of resurrecting.
32:25Lila's heart
32:26must have stopped beating
32:27before 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
32:34spirit and his fragments
32:35piled on the operating table,
32:36my eyes glowing
32:37with the 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
32:46the operating table,
32:48gripping the scalpel tightly.
32:49This was the ultimate surgery,
32:51with no assistive needed.
32:52I sliced open
32:53my own chest,
32:54out of precision.
32:55I cut out
32:55half of my own heart,
32:57being violent,
32:58shimmering with the radiance
32:59and underworld fire.
33:03Those soul fragments
33:04were drawn
33:05to the heart
33:05in my hand.
33:06Alaric's eyes
33:06snapped open,
33:07and in those
33:08emerald green pupils,
33:09my haggard yet
33:10triumphant face
33:11was reflected.
33:12He sat up,
33:13staring blankly
33:14at his own hands.
33:15His memories
33:15seemed frozen
33:16in the moment
33:17he had driven
33:17my blade
33:18into his body.
33:19Only when he saw me,
33:20pale but smiling,
33:21did he breathe in disbelief
33:23and pull me
33:23into a fierce embrace,
33:24a real,
33:25tangible embrace.
33:26With a heartbeat,
33:27breath,
33:27and the warmth
33:28of my body.
33:29I can actually
33:30hold you now,
33:31Layla.
33:31His voice was hoarse,
33:33trembling at the end.
33:34You have given me
33:35new life.
33:36A week later,
33:37the imperial capital
33:38changed dynasties.
33:39I looked down
33:40over the entire realm,
33:41restored to life,
33:42then turned to smile
33:43at Alaric.
33:44In his eyes,
33:45I saw a flood
33:46of emotion.
33:47I glanced back
33:48at the city's inhabitants,
33:49humans and undead alike,
33:50all looking up
33:51at me in reverence.
33:52In this world,
33:53the nature of power
33:54was no longer
33:55to take
33:55but to protect.
33:56Long live the dead,
33:57I whispered softly.
33:59Alaric took my hand
34:00and kissed my fingertips.
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