Chương 43: The Black Witch's Execution

Noah walked over to Reverie. She lay on the broken floor of the throne room, black blood pouring from both of her eye sockets. For a moment, she did not move. Noah stopped beside her.

"I know you can't die unless your heart is destroyed." His voice was calm. Tired.

"How much longer are you going to play dead?" Reverie was silent. Then the blood around her eyes began to shift. Flesh repaired itself slowly. New eyes formed beneath the black blood, one after the other, until she could see again. Only then did Reverie sit up. Her long blonde hair fell across her face as she looked toward Cyrus and Cynthia. Both of her children were still unconscious. Fear filled her eyes.

"I can't face them." Her hands trembled in her lap.

"Not again." Noah lowered the Lion King of Heroes. Reverie's voice shook.

"Not after all this time." Noah looked at her for a moment. Then he sat beside her. Ava quietly joined him, sitting a short distance away with her bow resting across her lap.

"Before they wake up," Noah said, "talk to me." Reverie did not look at him.

"Tell me everything you can." The throne room was quiet. The battle was over, but the wounds it left behind still filled the air. Reverie stared at her children as if they might vanish if she blinked. Then she spoke.

"It was about a century ago." Her voice was soft. Hollow.

"The three remaining members of the Hero's party had managed to steal three of Vanitas's Demonic Eyes." Noah listened without interrupting.

"The rest vanished," Reverie continued.

"They reincarnated into new bodies, as Demonic Eyes always do." Her fingers curled against her robe.

"I watched them." Ava's expression tightened.

"They were laughing." Reverie's voice became quieter.

"The dwarf in their group had ripped my husband apart." The black book lay near her side, still pulsing faintly.

"He turned Vanitas into artifacts. A coat from his skin. A sword from his horns. A book from his heart and organs, and so many more." Her hands shook harder.

"At most, I could only recover the book and the sword." Ava looked toward the black book. Then back at Reverie.

"What happened to the sword?" Reverie closed her eyes.

"I entrusted it to an old friend of mine." Her brow tightened with pain.

"I hear his son is the current king of Helheim." Cyrus shifted faintly on the floor, still unconscious. Reverie did not notice.

"I could not bear to hold that sword." Her voice cracked.

"The one my husband's soul was trapped inside." She pressed a hand against her head.

"The screams…" Noah's grip tightened around his Regalia. Reverie's breathing grew uneven.

"I heard them constantly. His pain. His hatred. His confusion." A tear ran down her cheek, mixing with the black blood beneath her eyes.

"Even that was too much." She bowed her head.

"And I was already breaking." Reverie wiped at the black blood beneath her eyes, though it only smeared across her face.

"Later, I killed the three remaining members of the Hero's party." Her voice was quiet.

"I stole the three Demonic Eyes they had taken from Vanitas, along with the book and sword." Noah did not speak. Ava sat beside him, her expression heavy.

"As for Lumiar and Olivia…" Reverie's hands tightened in her lap. This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it"I couldn't bring myself to harm them." Noah looked at her.

"Despite their betrayal, they did it for Helheim." Her smile was weak. Painful.

"And they were still my family." She let out a small laugh. It sounded broken.

"Only for me to find out the Emperor killed them anyway." The throne room fell silent. Reverie looked toward Cyrus and Cynthia again.

"The three Demonic Eyes I stole were the Philosopher's Eye, the Monarch's Eye, and the Timekeeper's Eye." Ava's gaze sharpened.

"The Timekeeper's Eye?"

"It can freeze time on whatever its gaze touches," Reverie said.

"A person. A body. A moment." Her voice grew softer.

"So I brought my children to a hidden place in Helheim." She folded her trembling hands together.

"I used the Philosopher's Eye to make them forget me." Cyrus stirred faintly on the floor. Reverie's breath caught, but he did not wake.

"It seems it did not work as well as I wanted." Her eyes lowered.

"I only wanted them to live without those memories. Without the war. Without Vanitas's death. Without me." Noah's chest tightened.

"Then I used the Timekeeper's Eye to seal them away, frozen in time." Reverie swallowed.

"I left the Monarch's Eye and the Timekeeper's Eye with them." Her voice shook.

"One last inheritance for my children." A tear ran down her cheek.

"I heard it took around a hundred years for them to be found." She smiled faintly, looking at Cyrus and Cynthia with a warmth that made her grief even sharper.

"Their current father is a good man. The royal adviser to the king of Helheim." Her smile trembled.

"My children are living a good life now. A life of comfort. Of safety. Of luxury." Ava looked at her softly.

"But a life without their mother." Reverie froze. Then her face crumpled. Tears spilled from her eyes, clean and black at the same time.

"I know." Her hands covered her mouth.

"I know…" She bent forward, shoulders shaking.

"Even after all this time, I was scared to meet them." Her voice broke.

"Scared to see their faces." She looked toward Cyrus and Cynthia again.

"Scared to hear what they thought of me." Noah's grip tightened around the Lion King of Heroes. Reverie's whisper barely carried through the room.

"I saved them from my memories." Her tears fell onto the broken floor.

"But I also stole myself from their lives."

"Do you think they'll forgive you?" Noah's voice was calm. Reverie looked at him.

"Do you want them to forgive you?" For a long moment, Reverie said nothing. Her hands trembled in her lap.

"I don't know." Her voice was barely above a whisper.

"I don't know." She looked toward Cyrus and Cynthia again, fear and longing twisting together in her eyes.

"I was too afraid to learn the answer." Then Cyrus stirred. Reverie froze. His eyes slowly opened. For a moment, he only stared at her. Reverie's breath caught in her throat. Cyrus pushed himself up, one hand pressed against his head. His glasses sat crooked on his face, but his gaze never left her.

"Mom." The word broke something in her. Reverie covered her mouth as fresh tears filled her eyes. Cyrus stood on unsteady legs and walked toward her.

"Please come back with me." Reverie shook her head faintly.

"I…"

"Everyone in this castle too," Cyrus said.

"Quinn, Lillian, Milo, Millie, Johan, all of them." His voice softened.

"I'll make sure there's a place for them." Reverie stared at him, unable to move. Then Cyrus wrapped his arms around her. She went completely still. As if one wrong movement would shatter the moment. Then, slowly, her arms rose. She hugged him back. Her fingers dug into the back of his coat as she began to cry against his shoulder. Ava turned her face away, eyes wet. Noah watched them quietly. Then he stood.

"There's one last thing we need to do." Cyrus looked back at him. Reverie lifted her head.

"What?" Noah raised the Lion King of Heroes. A flash of gold cut through the room. Reverie's head fell from her shoulders. Ava shot to her feet.

"What are you doing?" Cyrus blinked once. Then twice. Reverie's head hit the floor and glared up at Noah. Noah crouched politely beside it.

"I'm going to need to keep this." Ava stared at him in disbelief.

"So, can you regenerate instead of reattaching it?" For one second, the throne room was silent. Then Cyrus laughed.

"Oh." He pushed his glasses up, a grin spreading across his face.

"I see your plan, psycho." Black Mist poured from Reverie's neck. Her body twitched, then a new head slowly formed from the dark liquid, blonde hair and small horns taking shape piece by piece. When her mouth finished forming, she immediately screamed.

"What was that for?" Noah picked up the severed head by the hair. It looked disturbingly real, since technically it was. Proof. A trophy. A corpse for the Emperor. Noah turned toward Reverie.

"From today onward, the Black Witch Medusa is dead." Reverie went quiet. Noah stood tall, though his body was barely holding together.

"Cyrus and Cynthia Sanguine never stepped foot in this castle." Cyrus's smile faded slightly. Ava looked at Noah, finally understanding. Noah held the severed head at his side.

"That is my official statement as the Hero." Reverie stared at him.

"In return, you will return to Helheim with your staff and your family." Noah looked toward the black book.

"And you will use the Black Book to heal Nox." His voice remained firm.

"Do you agree?" Reverie's newly formed eyes filled with tears. For a moment, she looked at Cyrus. Then at Cynthia, still unconscious on the floor. Then back at Noah. She bowed her head.

"I accept." Her voice was soft.

"Thank you, young Hero." Noah lowered the Lion King of Heroes. The golden light around the blade faded into something warm and quiet. The Black Witch was dead. Medusa was gone. And Reverie Sanguine had finally been given a path home.