King Mandrell frowned at the report in front of him.
The chaos in Carta had far exceeded his expectations and that was not good. He quickly summoned a minister and gave him so materials to be laced around his eldest son. He had always favored his siblings over the needs of the kingdom.
He always prepared to sacrifice one of his children, especially if they proved troubleso to his own reign.
Things were already in motion when he was surprised by soone. The female Fiend had co and she looked at him with a smile that did not excite him.
He actually felt the revulsion most cultivators felt when faced with a Fiend and he had never felt that from her before.
"Always ticulous in your preparations. Normally, it would divert the fools that dare call themselves supre but the ga has changed my dear partner. Surely you know whom I speak about?" She moved delicately through his chambers.
She picked up a portrait of a gorgeous human woman but she smiled at the resemblance to her. He recalled how the artist had been entranced and later killed by her.
It was a rcy for his excellent work.
She caressed the silver fra as a warr smile temporarily replaced the chilling one but then it vanished into her golden ring on her left hand. Another gift from him. She had many.
A sort of premonition fell on Mandrell at that mont. He realized what she was talking about.
His sches would derail many other powers because they dealt with similar issues in their own or were commonplace enough that they would be satisfied.
A new power had arisen, however, that did not suffer from such issues. Further, it never gave up once an ally of Fiends was found.
The Frey Clan and now the Harmonic Dragons of the Throne of Defiance. To put the icing on the cake, the target had been the ancestor of both powers! Mandrell was dood and he knew far too much.
"So, I am to beco a part of you?" His voice was remarkably calm. It was like a door had closed and he no longer considered other options.
Honest surprise crossed her face before real laughter ca out. It was still her vile voice and disturbing energies but he was long since used to it. He actually smiled to see her so happy.
"Honestly, I am sad to do this. You have been a refreshing experience in my long life. The Great One actually asked
to make reports about my experience to see if we could find others like you but you are unique." She then moved closer and her shimring black robes were silent.
She then pushed him back from his desk and sat in his lap while never breaking eye contact with him.
"I always wondered what you felt with each other. Lust is sothing we grasp easily but love? Love is alien to us. Yet, I find myself reluctant to kill you. That is probably as close as any of my kind has ever co to it." Her smile was no longer the disturbing one from before and her distorted eyes bore into his own with a gentleness no Fiend had ever shown anyone.
"May I know one thing?" She pulled back and frowned but he smiled up at her as he took off a ring from his left hand and offered it to her. "I care not how others rember
but you know the true . Take this and if it is not offensive, rember whatever brought you joy."
Conflicted emotions flared on her face before she leaned her forehead against his.
"You truly are the one for . I am actually so glad you chose
as your companion back then. It has been a good ti for . Also, you will not be gone for a long ti to co." Confusion flared before his body flared in pain like he had never felt before.
His crystal desperately tried to resist at first but he cald his emotions and let it happen. He opened his eyes and looked at her as sothing precious slipped from him into her hands.
A soul was sothing tangible to Immortals and thus he recognized his own. He had heard the horror stories from those barely saved in ti but he found the words did not do the process justice.
His sense of his body was fading but his awareness was not! He was still him as the world began to fade away. The last thing he heard before darkness closed in on everything were words that moved him.
"You will always be with , beloved." The voice was distorted by tears. A Fiend could cry!
Mandrell fell deeply into darkness for what seed forever until things slowed down. He heard sothing faintly that then grew stronger.
Screams, begging, crying, and so many wails for rcy began to surround him. Mandrell should have been disturbed but once more he simply grasped the truth. He had reached the dantian of a Fiend.
It was not a pleasant experience but he had known going in what his fate would be if he did not die before it was all over. Only a fool deals with Fiends and did not grasp that fact.
He had made peace with it long ago.
Did he have no survival instincts at all? Not at all. He was displeased that he had not succeeded at all his endeavors. He had lived long enough to see the twilight of his life and he did not like it.
A body that had endured had begun to wear down. Immortals could not endure without progressing or so kind of external renewal. Only the soul endured beyond physical existence.
He disliked the inaccuracy but now that he was a soul he knew it was a strange way to live. All his personality and knowledge was intact yet he felt incomplete. The distraction of the pain as he settled into his one place was almost welco.
It was only when the refinent began that he too began to grunt and squirm. She was going to turn him into her foundation and he finally resisted! He did not want to die that way!
It was only at the mont he truly grasped the horror of what was to co! He was just a pill or other resource to her! He was nothing but food!
His mind tried to reject it but the pain would not let him as he felt the Fiend Qi work on slowly eroding his existence into her own!
[NO! NOT LIKE THIS! I DO NOT WANT TO DIE!]
His wail joined the others and Mandrell only found his humanity at the very end of his existence.
????????
The office was empty. It had been empty before at tis but for her, it had never felt dead. She did not like it.
His face, so docile and accepting, even as he had to have been in horrible pain, was deeply imprinted in her mind.
"Lynella, they are coming." She turned slowly to see a robust male Fiend standing near the tunnel entrance in the bedroom. He looked with disdain around the room and for the first ti in her life she wanted to kill him.
He was defiling it!
"Go." Her single word made his head whip around in surprise that turned to anger.
"You will co with–" He had only taken a step when her sharpened nails were at his dantian. A single surge and he would die!
"I said go. They must find one of us here or they will find the rest. You will go now." It was pragmatic and not bad as a plan but he rebelled.
"NO! You cannot stay here! I will st–" She shattered his dantian and kicked his body into the tunnel before sealing it shut. She heard his screams of denial but did not care. He had thralls he could exchange with to save his life.
He could not get back in ti to save her.
Of all beings, Fiends knew what it was like to be refined as a living being. She had killed him because she had to, but now that he was gone, eternity held no appeal to her.
"No wonder we do not love. I do not like it." She looked at the bed and felt a tug in her heart. She gently reached out and slid her ash gray hands across the surface before laying down on her usual side.
In that mont, she felt revolted by her own existence. She did not regret what she had done as that would be hypocrisy and she loathed that, but given a choice, she would rather have been like the human version in the portrait.
She would rather have lived a life with Mandrell.
Ti moved on before new sounds ca. Guards screaming and the all too familiar sounds of battle and death.
She slowly sat up and moved from the bed. She did not want to violate it with what was to co. She grabbed his chair and slowly sat down at the desk. She smiled at the order of it.
Mandrell was always so controlled until she ca for him. He then gave into his desires and he was quite inventive during those tis.
The wooden door had its arrays flare until it shattered apart. A woman with short green hair and cold violet eyes stalked in with a whip in her hands.
Lynella actually smiled warmly at who had co.
"Lady Shoti Frey, I welco you to my chambers." Shoti froze across from her as it was likely she had not expected such sincerity from a Fiend. Her head tilted before sothing flashed in her eyes.
"By the spirits, you have been crying! Where is King Mandrell?" Lynella slowly stood up and gently rolled out the withered husk from behind it. Yet she treated it gently and it made the human woman seem to piece sothing together.
Lynella was surprised as a gentle question ca to her.
"Did you love him?" Lynella wanted to sneer and play the part but to hear soone affirm what she felt made the words die in her throat.
She held up her left hand with 2 golden rings on it.
"Set him free. Set them all free." She then knelt before Shoti and the woman looked down at her with a level of understanding she doubted anyone else would have given her.
"Do you have a na?" Lynella finally smiled up at her with her best sneer.
"Erase
but rember at least that such a man existed that turned my heart. I am still a proud mber of my people." Shoti snorted at the last line. The lie was too clear to another woman.
The whip shined before it struck out. Ti slowed down for her and Lynella re-lived all her days in those chambers. The day she stood with several other Fiends in front of him and he chose her.
She recalled thinking how foolish he was to deny the lure of eternity only to surprise her with his thods and desires. He was a complex man in so ways but simple in others.
He was never satisfied with his life but did not want to compromise on his choices. Such a man would never live again.
As the whip separated into several elental versions, she felt the Laws touching the Dao and destruction finally ca for her.
As she was ripped apart, she saw a familiar soul flare up into the world, too damaged to stay but complete enough to turn back and see her die. Understanding passed between them one last ti and then both of them were gone.
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