Crimson Core

Syther was ready to leave Salinger for Isabella; she just had to see Salinger one last time before she would give in to Amal’s love for her.

Coincidentally, it was the day that Salinger brought Isabella home.

Syther could see how she looked at Sullivan; it irritated her to her limit. She was a woman after all; she still had female instincts.

And so began her plan to take Salinger for herself. Syther implanted books about her in the house of knowledge, where Salinger usually went to read to pass the time.

She built a shrine for herself and waited for nature to take its course, although she helped it a bit. Now and then, Syther would whisper into Isabella’s mind, bringing Sullivan into the light and making him look better than he already was.

She simply pushed Isabella to cheat on Salinger, and Sullivan welcomed her with open arms. He’d be foolish to reject such a gift. She was no saint.

Of course, Amal was not totally oblivious to Syther’s actions but he didn’t know that Syther had fallen in love. She had told him that she wanted to mess with them for fun, and he believed her.

It didn’t take long for Syther’s plans to come into play; it was perfect. Salinger was so heartbroken and so tired of being weak… Or so Syther made him think with all the subtle whispers she kept forcing into Salinger’s mind through his ears.

Salinger found Syther’s temple and called out to her. She took time not because of anything but because she, a goddess, was anxious of meeting a mortal. This was all weird to her.

Salinger thought he wasn’t calling her hard enough so he tried harder.

“Who are you to disturb me?!”

Salinger was shocked. Although he had prayed and wished hard, he was still confused about what to do when the goddess answered.

To make the long story short, he was granted power and had a mistress... A hot one at that. Whom shockingly he fell in love with along the line.

After removing those who pushed him to the dark side... His brother and his former lover decided it was time to take over the kingdom so he took care of his parents as such.

They didn’t love him. They weren’t happy about his progress; they sided with Sullivan even when everyone could see that it was Sullivan’s fault. To the new Salinger, they were simply worthless.

Soon, around a few hundred years later, the affair between Syther and a human was known to all beings in the god realm. Amal felt simply heartbroken; in rage, he did a background check and found that this human had a brother, who was the beginning of his revenge on Salinger.

Syther had become human; she was Salinger’s last wife and most loved wife. They had a secret together.

Syther took up the name Aria, forsook her powers as a god and became a human without any elemental affinity; all she wanted was a quiet life with the love of her life. She knew what she was doing was wrong but she was in love.

Amal found Salinger’s brother and he was a stud. Sullivan was perfect for him to use. It was all so simple: Sullivan gives him power and he kills Salinger and Syther comes back to him. It was a win-win situation for the two parties and Sullivan loved that idea very much, owing to the fact that he came back and took over from his brother after killing him and his clan.

Syther changed Salinger’s memories to hide the truth from Kai. To keep him safe.

Syther was simply heartbroken when Salinger died, she could only pick his soul up and take it to the underworld, she had never done such a hard ‘pick up’ in her long life as a god.

Amal found her and forced his love on her. She had no choice; she had lost everything; she could only agree to him. That’s what she wanted them to think.

After another two thousand years of torture, Syther could smile again because she felt her son’s heart beat again. Fast forward to a few years later, when Kai died, Syther did not take his soul to the underworld; instead, she fused her soul with his, thus bringing him to life.

Amal over the years had become power-drunk; he got the nickname the tyrant god because it was either his way or the highway.

He found out what Syther had done. But before he could get his hands on her, she disappeared to a place that even gods had a hard time finding—the devil’s space.

When she had finished fusing all the knowledge into Cipher, a spirit tool, her location was compromised. She was escorted to the realm of the gods, where she was held prisoner by her husband Amal.

All gods were under a restriction by beings even stronger than them, the laws. It stated that gods could not directly bring harm to any human. But that didn’t cover everything.

Amal had a pet. Well, his child but with a lesser being, a dragon, Belzu. The pet was none other than Vilholin.

Belzu was a beauty to behold. When she changed to her human form, very few could resist her charm; even in her dragon form, she was simply majestic. Amal found her worthwhile and shape-shifted into her husband, Aska, and lay with her.

To put it in simple words, it was the wildest night in Belzu’s long life. She would have questioned his identity but she was overcome by pleasure. After the deed was done, Amal manipulated Aska’s memory, telling him that he had sex that night with his wife, Belzu.

The bastard son of the tyrant king of gods was about to be useful to his father.

“Find Kai and kill all that he holds dear; make me proud of you.” Amal said to the kneeling Vilholin.

"Yes, father, you will be proud of your son.” Those were the last words before Vilholin set out to end all that Kai held dear.

Kai and Vilholin hit off quite well; they seemed to have a lot in common. Soon it came to a point when the both of them were asking each other questions.

“What’s the most important thing to you, my friend?” Vilholin asked; he seemed to be tipsy on something and so was Kai because of what he said next.

“Let’s see, I have a lover, Chelsea. She is the most important aspect of my life— hoc— I think.” Kai had dreamy eyes as he spoke about Chelsea. He had let his guard down.

“She sounds important to you; tell me more.” Vilholin seemed eager to hear about Chelsea. Kai didn’t talk a lot so when he was given the opportunity to talk, he would let it all out.

“well…. Blah blah,” Kai opened his mouth and spewed everything about Chelsea. What he said was more than enough for Vilholin to use.

“My friend, I like you I am about to do something that you are sure to hate me for but please remember this... We are all pawns. Now sleep.”

Kai was drugged—well, not drugged—but was under a spell the moment he stepped foot into the cave. The words of violin became the law for him.

Everything Kai was told to do by Vilholin was exactly what he did, so at this moment, Kai had fallen asleep at the dining table.

“I am sorry.” Vilholin said these words to the sleeping Kai as he placed him on his bed.

Vilholin tore through the space and left the land. He had stayed there long enough; it was time to be useful to his father.

“Did you sense something?” A noble mage asked another noble mage.

The two managers had come today to see how the assessment was going.

“Not at all.” The second mage shrugged.

“Hmm, maybe it sensed wrong.”

Vilholin had just passed in front of them; not even the wind broke nor did the wind whistle as he passed by

.

few moments later, Kai woke up with a pounding headache; he felt as though his head was going to explode any minute.

“What… Vilholin what happened to me?”

Kai was confused; he clearly remembered that he was having dinner with a mystical dragon and the next thing he knew, he was awake.

“When did I fall asleep?” Kai asked no one in particular as he came down from the-comfortable bed and walked around the cave trying to find Vilholin.

As expected, vilholin was no where to be found. “Maybe he went out side,” Kai said, trying to comfort himself.

It didn’t take much for Kai to understand that vilholin was not coming back.

‘Why am I having this bad feeling?’

—BOOM—

A meteor-like object hit the Mashall manor’s front lawn, destroying the stature of city Lord Marshall, levelling it and leaving a huge crater in its place.

The sound of the object landing was loud, causing a huge cloud of dust.

“What’s all this ruckus about?!” Gilbert walked out the door to see the cloud of dust dissipating, only to see something that made his face darken.

“Hey… Gilbert, is it? That’s the name you use now, right? Take me to Chelsea.”

Gilbert had a secret that no one knew except his father and the beings in the higher echelons of the god realm.

A few decades back...

"Father, I am ready.”

A young man was kneeling in front of King Sullivan; his red hair appeared to complement his attire.

He was decorated with expensive ornaments. Not too much though, just enough to make him look important. He was important, by the way. He was Prince Denzel.

King Sullivan had bought Chelsea before she was born, as a form of revenge... Twisted revenge. Lady Irene, Chelsea’s mother, had different plans; she tried to run away.

She had found another continent she wanted to run to so she could raise her unborn daughter. She took a few servants and Lord Marshall’s right-hand man, Gilbert.

But all plans don’t work out as planned. When Lady Irene ran away; before she could cross over to the other continent she was ambushed, and her entourage was slaughtered, leaving her alive.

She was carried back to the imperial palace and kept in confinement. Lady Irene was tortured every day and most times Lord Marshall was brought to watch this cruelty.

The intensity of the torture grew as Lady Irene’s baby bump grew. At first, sometimes they whipped her; she was a strong mage but the whip was infused with essence, causing Lady Irene’s skin to tear every time the whip lashed her.

Eventually, as time went by, varieties of torture methods were introduced... She was pregnant but she was in more pain and had experienced more torture than the mind could conjure.

She was treated way worse than a piece of filth; she was covered in scars and open wounds. Her wounds had begun to decay; larvae were swimming in her rotting injuries.

“AHHHHHHHHHH…”

Her cries filled the dark dungeon where she was kept. It kept going on for a few months, and soon Lady Irene grew numb to the pain induced by the torture. But the pain in her heart could not grow numb; every time she saw her husband, his sparkle had disappeared. He always had eye bags under his eyes; it was clear that he hardly slept.

Lord Marshall was a strong man; he had experienced a lot of shit before getting together with Lady Irene, but every time he saw her, he couldn’t bear to watch her suffer and worst of all, he could do nothing about it… He was powerless.

Lady Irene had gone through a lot of pain; she was always close to death at the time they finished her torture session every day. It was just cruel.

That day was the final day of her torture and the beginning of another page of schemes. Lord Marshall had been made to think that Gilbert was still alive and was being tortured as well, but in the actual sense, Prince Denzel had replaced him.

Prince Denzel was truly a prodigy; he was heaven’s favorite son of heaven’s favorite son... Sullivan.

He had the cognitive ability of ten sages put together, the strength of an elephant; he was simply perfection. At a young age, Denzel had mastered the art of war, the art of disguise, the way of alchemy, the art of manipulation, etc

Peeling off Gilbert’s face, Prince Denzel used it to produce a mask, a mask to fool Lord Marshall that he was Gilbert. It was on this day that Prince Denzel had finished the mask and had come to report to his father about the new development.

Lord Marshall was sent for with the message that his wife would be released today. It didn’t take long for Lord Marshall to be present in the imperial palace.

Lord Marshall was taken to the dungeon where his wife was kept; he had a smile on his face as he walked down the stairs to find King Sullivan already in the cell with his wife.

“My love… You will be released today.” Lord Marshal plopped on the ground closest to Lady Irene and said to her, but she didn’t hear him; she was unconscious.

His fingers almost touched her. He was so close. Lord Marshall was pulled to a chair and he was sat down.

“Walter… I did say she would be released today,” King Sullivan’s voice was heard as he addressed Lord Marshall from inside the cell. “…but I didn’t tell you to where she would be released to.”

Lord Marshall at this point had a really bad feeling in his stomach. His chest tightened as he saw King Sullivan bring out a knife from God-knows-where.

“Now let me release her, and put her out of her misery.”The words to describe what King Sullivan did next can only be summed up to: Inhumane.

“No! Please, take me instead, please!!” Lord Marshall begged and struggled but the deed was done, Lady Irene was dead with her stomach carved open, and her child fell out.

“WAA~”

The newborn was not happy leaving the comfort of her mother’s body.

“Please let me take my child,” Lord Marshall pleaded… It was all he could do.

Fast forward to a few hours later in the carriage headed to Lord Marshall’s home. Lord Marshall held his child, his lovely baby girl who was covered in blood and water… This child in his arms was his life now.

There was another person in the carriage as well, it was none other than Gilbert. Lord Marshall’s right-hand man. The ride home was awkwardly silent. All this torture was for Lord Marshall to tell them where Kai was.

Over the years, Chelsea was everything Lord Marshall had left in this world; she was his reason for getting out of bed every morning.

Unsurprisingly, Gilbert fell in love with Chelsea. He made it known as Prince Denzel of his intentions to make her his when she turned twenty-three.

Of course, every true born of the royal family knew of Vilholin; they knew that he was a dragon, and his father was the tyrant king of the god realm.

Although Denzel was a strong mage, stronger than most, he still could not compare to Vilholin. He had learnt that the hard way.

“Please follow me.”

Gilbert led Vilholin into the Marshall manor. The guards saw all this unfold right before their eyes; to be honest, they were dumbfounded. Some beastly human just destroyed Lord Marshall’s front porch, and Gilbert did nothing about it; instead, he led him into the house.

Vilholin was led into the Marshall manor. Lord Marshall heard the sound of an explosion and came to see what was going on; he had sensed that someone had just entered his manor.

“Who are you?”

Lord Marshall questioned as he saw Vilholin and Gilbert walk up the stairs.

"Gilbert, who is this?”

Lord Marshall asked, looking at Gilbert with questioning eyes. The next words that came out of Gilbert’s mouth were words that even he, in his wildest imagination, would have never thought that Gilbert would say to him.

“Get out of the way; we have no business with you, old man.” Gilbert’s words were harsh, and the expression of disgust was even harsher.

Lord Marshall was dumbstruck; he was the man of the house for fucks sake, and they said they hadn’t come for him. His thoughts were going for the worst. “Old man, you are not leaving?”

Vilholin’s words were harsh; he was even older than Lord Marshall and his ancestors.

“You would have to go through me.” Lord Marshall had that resolve in his eyes; his decision was firm and final.