Fate (3)

The Empress held Eve's head, and the sword began with a golden yellow power.

Eve looked at Zion with bloodshot eyes, helplessly staring at the child she would give her life to protect. His diamond-shaped, sky-blue eyes, which had always reflected the stars, were red from crying. The eyes that had always shone with happiness when looking at her were now empty; she felt nothing in her child's gaze. The eyes that used to smile at her now looked at her the same way they looked at everyone else. Her only child had lost faith in her. For her, this was a punishment worse than death.

Eve's dried tears began to fall again involuntarily. 'No, no' she didn't want to show her pitiful side to her son in her final moments. She didn't want to. Zion had to remember his mother always smiling, but when she looked into her son's eyes again, the painful truth hit her like a slap in the face. "I couldn't be a good mother."

As Eve spoke, Zion continued to look at her. The Empress's sword, filled with divine power, slowly began to descend. 

"Goodbye, my baby." More tears began to flow from Eve's eyes, and her vision blurred. 

'It's finally over... I've escaped this cursed world.' Eve was smiling at her son, but she was unaware of her own smile; it was an involuntary smile that came from within.

A golden line appeared in the air, and the sword effortlessly severed Eve's head from her body. Finally, all the whiteness in the hall was stained red.

"We can go now. Leave this trash here. Tell the servants to take it to the imperial palace." The empress sheathed her sword and began to walk toward the exit, and all the lights in the hall slowly began to dim.

The executioner nodded in agreement as the empress spoke, then left Zion behind and exited the hall with the empress without saying a word.

After everyone had left, Zion stood alone in the pitch black hall, motionless. He was able to hear the sound of blood flowing from his mother's body. Crawling over to his mother's head, which had rolled in front of him just moments before, he picked it up. He was covered in blood, but he didn't care. He continued crawling until he felt a wall, and finally found one he could lean against. He leaned his back against it and continued to cry silently, holding his mother's head. "Mother, you can't leave me alone."

The things he had experienced up to this point began to replay in his mind like a movie. He had always had to struggle to survive, and because of the Empress's constant tortures, he had never had a single night of peaceful sleep. 

He was beaten and humiliated almost every day. Over the years, he had grown accustomed to such things. He no longer cared about such things; what was hardest for him to endure was not being loved. Not being loved was as terrifying as death... or so he thought. Today, as his mother died, she smiled at him, as if a weight had been lifted from his heart. He had never seen his mother so happy before, not when she told him stories, not when they played together, not even when they hugged and slept together.

Zion had been deceiving himself all this time, perhaps he was wrong about the truth. Now he understood better. Actually, dying was nothing; living was terrifying.

Today, his hopes had died along with his mother, leaving behind only dreams he could never realize. Perhaps it was because of those dreams that he was still alive. Somewhere inside, he still believed he could make his dreams come true, or at least he wanted to try. 

Zion screamed and cried, clinging even tighter to his mother's head. After reviewing his life countless times, he had come to understand one thing. This scene was a bloody masterpiece painted by many hands. He had sacrificed his tears for the rain and his mother for the red paint. It wasn't life that was tearing his soul apart, but the artists...

He had to do something; he couldn't live in the same place as these monsters hiding behind goddesses. Maybe someday he could reveal the true faces of these monsters and take revenge, but the idea came and went; after all, if everyone was fake, what was the point of telling the truth? He wanted to kill everyone in this rotten palace. 

He wanted to cover this disgusting darkness hidden behind the light with his own darkness, to show these frauds the real darkness, the dark sky covered with beautiful stars he had always imagined.

Even if it meant destroying all the lights, he wanted to spread that beautiful darkness throughout the empire. After making his decision, his deep screams slowly turned into a heavy silence; he had already let out his final scream. Those who remained silent in the face of his cries would scream in his silence.