This Gothic World
Chapter 6

Irene

Dead…Halona is dead…

The voices inside her head laughed and screeched yet her body remained silent as the night. What in the world was going on? Why was she here? Moreover, what had she done?

Magic and mayhem went hand in hand, my child.

No, it couldn’t be happening to her. No…she had damned her own fate just to save the one remaining piece of laughter in her life…

Halona is dead…

“No, she is not dead.”

Her voice pierced the night yet there was no reply. His Majesty was snoozing like a cat. There was no sound but the rustle of hay and the cawing of crows who were singing their prayers for forgiveness.

Halona is dead…and so are we…

Irene closed her eyes as she chanted the prayers of the Almighty Destroyer along with the crows of the night. She could no longer function with the amount of grief and anger churning inside her. No…it wasn’t true…Halona was still alive…

Then why did Temperance Methuselah not drag her out to meet Irene as she had returned? Where was Halona as of yet? What was going on in Temperance’s controlled cruelty and sharp remarking brain?

“No, she is not dead.”

Irene mumbled as she continued to chant the words of the Almighty Destroyer over and over and over. Yet, it led to nothing.

You are damned, Irene, you are damned to ever enter Hel. You are damned to ever have an afterlife. You are damned forever…

Tears sprung to life as Irene continued her chants to appease the Almighty Destroyer. Blood dripped down her cheeks as she chanted. Yet nothing happened as silence took over the world.

Irene

“Rise and shine, my sweets!”

The voice and the manner of speaking broke Irene from her sleep as she felt cold shivers go down her spine. She immediately bolted up to her sense as her eyes witnessed one of the most horrid sights of her life.

Her devilish blue eyes danced around and her porcelain white skin marked by ruby lips smiled in utter glee.

Nahass Judas

“Miss me dear?”

Her voice was like an icepick as it chipped away quickly through the thick locks of fear in her system and indulged Irene in utter ruination.

“Won’t you speak up, my dear? I miss the sound of your voice.”

Eternal damnation…complete eternal damnation awaits you Irene…

She was lost for words as Nahass pouted and then waved like a pixie to bring forward two guards inside the cell. Irene’s breath caught at the sight of His Majesty King Ceres in shackles and head bowed down in front of the entourage. Nahass Judas is here to damn you…you are damned forever…Forever…

“Chop chop, let us leave this stinking place before my skin takes in any filth!”

With another wave of her fingertips Irene felt a jolt of lightning-fast pain all over her body as the guards posed her face down low in order to drag her out of the cell.

She could see nothing. She could hear nothing. She was lost in her mind. Far too gone to notice how it was still night outside and no stars shone upon the great earth as even the Moon hid her face in fear of insolence.

Irene was dragged through the corridors of the ruined floors. The gentle night breeze comforted her not since she was frozen inside her mind in eternal torment.

All she could see were the images of her family’s death. The night of the blood bath…the night Alina Methuselah died and was sacrificed to the Evil High King of the Banished realm.

The screams of pain and horror echoed through Irene’s ears as her body jostled with goosebumps and the rough handling of the guards.

“Remember this moment, Alina Methuselah, for this moment is your last in existence. Not even Hel will take you now. You will never return to an eternity of peace. I will make sure of it now.”

Irene’s ears could hear the distant chanting of the same evil words which had been uttered the night of the blood bath. The same evil chants invoking the Evil High King’s steed to come through the great barrier and ravage the earth.

Her heart thumped as the beat became stronger with each moment. Her mind whirled as she saw the darkness being lit with heinous green fire. Fire was always Red…Green was never the usual color…

They arrived at the open court of her father, Temperance as he sat still in his stone throne and watched over the evil worshippers chanting relentless whispers of the Evil High King’s might. Irene wanted so much to shut out the horrid noise and sink back into obscurity. But, the chants started to increase as she was dragged with might towards it.

Finally, the chanters stopped as Nahass Judas came through and bowed at the darkened sky residing over the sheer dropping cliff.

“Friends, and followers of the one true ruler…Tonight we shall be rewarded by his presence…”

Her voice was drowned in thousands of jovial screams while Irene was still held bowing down by Nahass’ guards. Her voice soon returned to grace everyone as Irene listened on.

“Tonight, we finally meet our Lord and Champion…the true King of this land! For tonight we have the false King as the sacrifice!”

Thousands of drumming hands made sounds as thunderous words were spoken by many. Irene felt her stomach clench as she fought the urge to puke in front of everyone something she revolted to do due to it denoting weakness.

Nahass started to chant as thousands joined on with her and they finally finished the chant when she invited his Majesty the King up on the Altar.

“Come now, Ceres, we shall sacrifice you to the High King’s Altar. Smile! Cheer!”

Irene could take it no longer as she used all her remaining force to finally make herself look up at the devious ritual. Her eyes landed on the illuminated fiery circle which somehow surrounded Nahass and now the King who was bowing his head in shame. Shame of being powerless to stop the stupid woman from managing to kill the mighty King borne of Old Magus Blood…Irene’s blood boiled as she took in the sight and heard the sounds of joy in the King’s death.

“Smile, Ceres, after all, your pretty little head will join the beautiful collage over there!”

Irene’s blood went cold as a shiver went down her spine. She turned her head in the direction Nahass pointed towards and her eyes bled at the horrid sight.

There were four heads spiked on the candelabra displayed for the world to see. Irene observed them each and felt immense guilt for each death being done under her family’s orders. Her soul was gone. It was truly gone as she took in the dried blood still stuck to the pikes.

Yet none of it made her skin crawl and her heart stop…except for one head in particular…

Green eyes…bright moss green eyes stared back at the viewer…set in a pale face of an angel…

Even in death…her plea for life was evident…also the shock and horror were more prominent to Irene than anyone…after all…they were the same the other night…even set on a slightly different angelic face…the expression was the same…

“You Monsters!”

Irene’s voice screamed with pure horror and anger as she yelled at the top of her lungs. Even after all the trauma and all the cruelty…even after all this mortal and psychic injury…she had thought of saving one soul…one soul for her miserable existence…

“Liar!”

Her heart broke and her body lit up in flames of anger as she cried tears of blood. Her eyes would not stray from the horrific image. Her heart would not take this last stab. Her body would not take any more abuse.

The chants went on. The laughter went on. Everything moved on as Nahass raised her hand to magically conjure a dagger of green fire. Ceres still knelt down on the altar with his head down low. All of it came at once as Irene felt her magic burn out through her veins, her body, and onto the world as electricity zinged in the air.

The last words of the chant were spoken as Irene grasped everything inside her soul and spoke the first words of magic she had ever used.

“Subsisto Infinitum”

In an instant of warped time, Irene felt everything fall into place. It was as if time stood still as she wove through the crowd with unimaginable strength. She took a hold of the King and raised him. Turned out, he had a small nick in his neck but not much blood had fallen...yet.

Irene’s expression remained grim despite everything as she grabbed Ceres’s limp body and with one last glance at them all, her eyes flashed with one last bright purple and she immediately flashed away as purple clouds erupted all around her.

Let the world fall…we shall stand and right all wrong…Blood magic flows through the land…no evil shall mark time’s sand…

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