READ NOVEL ONLINE Extra Chapter: Luisa
Luisa was kneeling on the floor, breathing heavily, the once green expanse of grass all around her was stained red by all the corpses laying everywhere, many of them had the armor of the knights of the kingdom and the church, most were clad in simple dark robes or simple leather armor, her many underlings of her own cult.
On either side of her, there laid the next two highes ranked members after her, their blood spewing freely from the many cuts across their bodies, they fought to the bitter end, even when completely surrounded by knights they didn’t cease their assault, regardless of how many spears had already pierced them or how many swords had slashed at their flesh, they did not stop.
It was only when the golden blade of the Hero emerged, that they finally fell.
Fanaticism truly was a scary power, they were so driven by their desire to become powerful and their hatred for the kingdom, they truly believed that if they followed her they would be able to dispel their perceived injustices one day, they truly were her most foolish puppets.
So easy to manipulate and make dance for her amusement, such perceived injustices were truly the easiest to be exploited, they always had been and now this fanaticism had driven them into their early graves, fighting alongside and believing in someone who never bothered to learn their names.
But of course, Luisa couldn’t act like she was any better, like her own hatred, and need for revenge hadn’t driven her to the very same fate, that her own fanaticism wasn’t also her own undoing, because even now, exhausted, her body ravaged by wounds and the golden blade just about to fall down to end her life.
She still only had eyes for one person, standing but a few paces further back, multiple knights surrounding them, as well as a fiery red barrier, unreachable for both magic and physical attacks, looking down on her from his mighty position above the clouds.
He was such a disgusting hypocrite, that Luisa couldn’t help herself but laugh, the action causing blood to spew forth from her mouth, her raw and battered throat screaming out in anguish, as did. her entire body as it rocked back and forth, she simply didn’t care.
"How hilarious, the righteous High Priest of the elves, about to watch the execution of one of his fellow compatriots, all the while being protected by a person from the people he had sworn to eradicate for the purposes of endless prosperity and peace for the elven race. Truly it’s moments like these that truly make the saying of 'Reality is stranger then fiction' it’s credibility, wouldn’t you all agree."
For The briefest moments, her eyes wandered to the faces of those around and before her, obviously the many knights had no reaction, their professionalism was truly something to be commended, not that Luisa cared about them all that much, she was much more interested in the reaction of those three and she wasn’t disappointed.
She could see the hero‘s hand shack for a moments a single moment of hesitation in his willingness to kill her, Next her eyes meet those of the demon currently protecting the high priest, it wasn’t just any demon, the many golden marking on her horns easily giving her away as one of the royal house of demons, her face turned into a fierce glare of anger, she seemingly dislike being reminded who she was, how novel.
But the one she was most interested in was the high priests reaction, as his face contorted into a grimace of unease, how elating that felt, to be able to break the stoic persona he had.
Even while surrounded by multiple of her pawns did the stoic facade of his not stir one bit, so be able to break it with just a few words? Despite her body’s massive complaints, she kept going, her anger now overwhelming her.
"No wait, that isn’t right is it? You wouldn’t consider me a compatriot would you? Despite sharing the same ears, the same tongue and the same eyes, all I am to you is but barley a fruit fly, isn’t that right? A simple vermin to be eradicated, because how dare I exist? How dare I breathe the same air as you?! How dare this dirty and disgusting vermin breathe and exist?!! It must be disposed off immediately, right?!"
"The high priest is a pious man, unlike you, he would never disregard any life as worthless, he…" One of the knights standing near the priest called out in anger, but he could never finish his sentence, as Luisa erupted in pure rage.
"HE DOES NOT DISREGARD ANY LIFE AS WORTHLESS?!! THEN TELL ME WHY I WAS SENTENCED TO DIE THE MOEMNT I WAS BORN! WHY MY OWN PARENTS REFUSED TO EVEN LOOK AT ME AND SIMPLY THREW ME ONTO THE STREETS!! WHY THE ONE PERSON WHO SHOWED ME ANY KINDNESS WAS KILLED AND BURNED BY AN ANGRY MOB?!!!"
Her angry rant was only interrupted by her own bloody coughing, the hero had a very somber expression on his face and he had long since lowered his blade down, Luisa saw something like recognition in his eyes, it only served to make her even more angry.
"… do you know why… this all happened to me… it’s because of him… he was the one, to give out the edict, that sealed my fate… the edict to kill all elves that had Dark Magic… and what was the reason… because a dumb oracle from hundreds of years ago said that one would bring disaster…"
She could hear little gasp coming from all around her, looking up from the small puddle of blood her coughing had created, she could see the high priest look towards the ground, his fist clenched and shacking, the demon had a look of pure shock on her face, hands at her mouth, and the hero, he still had that look in his eyes, that look of pity, that look of understanding.
Luisa hated it.
"That edict you speak of, it’s no longer in effect, it hasn’t been for many years at this point… I’ve thought I had gotten rid of all those fanatics that still enforce it regardless, tell me where you were born right this instance, so that I may punish those you dare go against the authority of the true god! To think that there still were those who worship that backwards belief…"
"And you think this makes it somehow ok?! The fact is that you killed uncountable lives with that decision, you almost killed me! The only reason I am alive now is because of-…"
Luisa was stopped mid sentence as she was suddenly pulled up from the ground, the high priest holding her up by her collar, he was surprisingly fast and strong for being stuck inside his cathedral most days.
"At the time, I was still blind to the brilliant light of the true god, now with their guidance such wrongdoings will never occur anymore, though it is hard to believe he will allow you in particular, the golden god does not discriminate, so long as you live and abide under his golden rules, salvation will be waiting for you!"
He let go of her collar and she fell onto ground, she tried to get back up, but her body simply refused. She had strength in her body anymore, everything hurt and she could feel her consciousness slowly falling out of her grasp.
"What happened to you was a great misfortune, caused by traitors to me and the church, the golden god will punish them accordingly, like they will everyone that comes before their golden halls, but these circumstances are not enough to release you of your own responsibilities, you have committed many sins, unforgivable sins. As such you will be punished as well. And we will deliver you to his halls, however, the golden god is fair, if you tell us all of your sins and admit to them, I will pray for his golden light to deliver a lighter sentence. So I ask you, what do you have to confe-…"
Luisa tuned out whatever else was being spoken, she simply couldn’t anymore. Her head was pounding and her entire body was aching in pain, looking up, she could barely recognise what was going on anymore, her head was swaying back and forth as she fought a losing battle to not fall to the dark grips of unconsciousness.
Through her cloudy vision she could see… that demon woman shouting at the high priest… The Hero was next to her side, his weapon raised and the knights have theirs raised against them, they seem to have gotten into some kind of argument.
She lowered her head, darkness began to encroach her vision more and more and the pain only seemed to increase, it won’t be long until she won’t be able to cling to her consciousness, in her mind she repeatedly cursed every person present, she hated them all, why did they have a great life and she didn’t?
Why did she have to suffer while they lived in positions of power and respect? Why did she have to submit to a Monster just to survive?!
They all had it so good while she was fearing for her life every single day, that one day, the monster would grow bored and kill her, make her suffer for as long as possible, hadn’t she suffer enough already?!
"But she was nice to you~ Our mistress treated us so much better then everyone else~"
There it was again, this voice had been with her ever since she had actually managed to escape Hanna‘s clutches, it was alluring and sweet and continues to speak to her in her mind.
"Do you remember how she let you kill those two elves~? Don’t you remember how lovely their screams sounded~?"
It always taunts her with these memories, telling her that the time spend in servitude to a monster was the best time in her life, that she needs her to survive, that her purpose in life is to serve her, that she wouldn’t hurt her like the others in the world did.
It had been a part of her since she had finally been able to rid herself of that monster in that forest, whispering to try and bring her back into that servitude, at the beginning, she was easily capable of ignoring it, but it never stopped, and every time she thought she would have a quite moment, it came back and began it sweet whispers of nothingness.
And as more and more time passed, the more her mental defences started to crumble, she found herself reminiscing about that time more often, and she even started to see Hanna in her dreams, telling her to come back to her, to find her so they could crush anyone who opposed them.
After having witnessed the fate of Adeline however, the voice stopped coming to her for some time, only ever coming back when she was under extrem stress or particularly angry, and in this current case, both of those things were true.
"The mistress has done so much more then anyone else, has done more then any god would ever do for us~ She would care for us~ and let us have our much deserved revenge~ All we have to do is to submit to her and all of our worries would disappear~!"
And oh, how wonderful these words sounded in this moment, but she knew those words were nothing but empty promises, Hanna could not deliver her the revenge she so desperately craves, she had disappeared and hasn’t returned since.
Luisa knew her well enough that she would not be able to keep herself hidden for that long and considering the country only recently emerged from a war, the people were still very much on edge, making them far more alert then usual. If Hanna truly was out there somewhere, news would have spread about her almost immediately.
"You and I both know our mistress is still there, we‘ve felt her just earlier today did we not~? So don’t worry your pretty little head, our mistress would never abandon us~ Let us submit to her, and our revenge will be secured~!"
Are the words getting louder? Luisa wasn’t sure, but as she was teetering the fine line at the edges still being awake, these words felt like a rope of security, keeping her from falling down, tightly squeezing her neck more and more… it was getting harder to breathe, her hands were struggling to loosen the rope, but she was losing strength at fast rate, the words only growing louder, the rope tightening more and more until it was to much.
She couldn’t breathe and her entire body felt weightless and it only got darker, darker and darker. She tried to struggle, but her limbs no longer responded to her will.
"No need to fret, our mistress will be here shortly~ Just close your eyes and rest~ You deserve it~“
Luisa felt like she was falling, she tried to scream, to flail, to just do anything, but no matter how hard she tried, there was nothing, her mind only continued to fall, before suddenly stopping and in her mind she felt like she was being embraced by something warm and fuzzy, it felt so comfortable that she couldn’t help her self any longer.
With pain erupting all over her body, open wounds all across her body and mentally to exhausted to care, she closed her eyes. Escaping in the warm embrace that had caught her.
The world around her disappeared and soon she could feel nothing anymore, she couldn’t see nor hear anything, she was completely alone in a dark and warm embrace.
From which she would never wake again.
