Read Novel Full Chapter 204: Fragments of Despair
Chapter 204: Fragments of Despair
A girl in a dainty white dress sitting on a swing whistled. The rusted chains holding up the seat squealed and threatened to rip from the rotted wood.
♫Hm-hm-hm. Hm-hm-hm!♫
The girl kicked her feet back and forth, her long blue hair swaying in the breeze.
Her voice was shrill, high-pitched, and damning.
♫Pray the demons go away♫
♫Go away. Go Away♫
♫Pray the demons go away♫
♫If they don’t. That’s okay♫
♫Hm-hm-hm. Hm-hm-hmm!♫
♫Hm-hm-hm-hm-hm-hm-hm!♫
As she sang, the wind quieted down.
The girl closed her eyes and rocked her head.
She continued to kick, a bit of her feet scraping the ash below her, staining her unblemished skin.
♫Pray the demons go away.♫
♫Go away. Go Away♫
When she opened her eyes, the girl looked at something inexplicably far away, yet suffocatingly near.
Her eyes began to blacken and melt as she stared at it.
The wind returned and began raging.
♫Pray the de-mons go away♫
The girl’s skin grew flaky as it peeled off.
Her voice broke.
♫Go. Away.♫
Becoming shrill and reverberating.
"Go away."
***
Mias and Ophelia, along with the three others, ran.
Kicking up mounds of ash with each step.
It followed.
***
’Why...’
Vale cursed under his breath as he held the beautiful woman as she breathed her last.
When he set her down, the ash consumed her.
He dropped to his knees and screamed:
"Why did it have to end this way?!"
It was inevitable.
’But why did it have to be you...’
***
Diligence fell to her knees as the blade pressed against her neck.
"What now?"
"Don’t you already know, Leila?"
***
"Hold your ground!"
"It’s not possible! Its pressure is too overbearing!"
"I don’t care! Hold. Your. Ground! Else we’ll all die!"
***
Envy stood atop a mountain, drenched in blood.
In her right hand, she held her severed left arm.
"This is it, huh? This is how it ends?"
Below her, an endless horde of Corrupted beasts clawed at the cliff, slowly dragging their bodies upward.
A man’s voice boomed from above.
"It doesn’t have to be."
***
Gluttony held her splintered Dungeon Core in her hands as the last few of her warriors desperately held back the Corrupted.
Her Champions already all slaughtered.
’At least I got to see you one last time.’
It shattered.
***
Wrath stood amidst a sea of fire, looking vacantly off toward the engulfed horizon.
"Burn."
His anger only grew.
"Burn!"
His helmet long been shattered and lost in the ash beneath his feet.
"BURN! ROT IN HELL!"
***
Zayn looked at Maribel with tired eyes.
The succubus begged him:
"Please! Please don’t go!"
The man avoided her gaze.
"I’m sorry. I’m sorry I was so late."
He summoned his cloak of night and disappeared into the portal, leaving Paradise behind.
The portal, which shattered upon his entrance.
Maribel fell to her knees, tears streaming down her face.
"No! Come back!"
***
A nameless woman screamed at a nameless man.
"This isn’t right, you bastard! He’s your son! Do you not care about him at all?!"
"Is he, now? I don’t remember giving birth to a beast."
"Liar! You raised him! You fed him! You brought him here! You made him a beast!"
"He was always a beast. I brought my daughter here; he just so happened to get dragged along by coincidence."
The other two there looked dazed and confused, as if they’d just walked into the room.
Well, that’s because their memory was being continuously wiped.
The nameless woman growled, her long white hair flowing in the wind.
"So be it..."
***
Rivania held the broken corpse of a young maiden in her hands.
She looked up at the vile existence. The Vice that took them all away.
"Lust..."
Tears stained her eyes as she stood and drew her sword.
The man looked confused, like he didn’t even know how he’d gotten there. Like something was wrong with his mind.
Rivania charged and activated the Item.
Ash engulfed them both.
***
Vale stumbled around and clutched at his head.
’What’s going on?!’
The voice of his father drifted in his ears.
"It’s okay, Val."
His mother’s voice followed.
"Just rest, honey. We’ll take it from here."
Salome spoke next:
"Val, let it go."
Sivian added:
"Let it all go."
Ximena whispered:
"And let me in."
***
A lone man lay sprawled upon an island no more than two paces wide.
He cursed internally.
’I had him.’
He grit his teeth and threw a clump of sand in the air, watching the grains scatter.
’I almost had my revenge...’
Alone for once, Lucas began to cry the first tears he’d ever allowed himself.
They would be the last as well.
***
A pudgy man snapped his fingers.
A moment later, he’d traversed a few seconds back in time, but it didn’t matter. He fell forward onto the ground and began coughing up blood, the result of overusing his Privilege.
The dark-skinned man looming over him looked dazed.
But a few moments passed, and the hint of realization plagued the man’s gaze. He looked down at the pudgy man and opened his mouth.
"Your Restriction is..."
***
Axel frowned as he looked over at his friend.
"Why are you crying?"
"I’m sorry."
"Huh?"
"I’m sorry."
’What’s wrong with him?’
"I’m sorry. I’m sorry! Sorry! Sorry! Sorry! Sorry!"
Axel tilted his head in confusion.
Then, he looked down at the empty book his friend had given him.
An insidious presence crept and nestled in his soul.
Axel’s eyes went wide...
’No!’
His gaze snapped to his crying friend.
"It was you!"
It was too late.
***
A man who was once a king watched it all.
He watched it all collapse.
He watched it all fade.
He watched it all return to dust.
***
A chained man hummed to himself a poem, invoking his ability.
"Tempered by flame
Forged by fate
Where fires cry
New life awakes
Tempered by flame
Reforged by hate
In the world that drowned
I await."
The chains rattled, then snapped.
His divine grace drew memories from countless past and future lives into his mind, and their weight swelled his power.
The man stood, opened his eyes, and breathed in the toxic ash.
Despair smiled.