Chapter 90: The Broken Vows
Javien slumped against the base of a large tree, far from the desolate tower.
His breathing was ragged, every intake of air feeling like a blade slicing through his lungs. The blood flowing from the wound in his abdomen had begun to congeal, sticking to his tattered clothing.
I should have gone further. I should have kept running.
But my legs were dead.
Something inside my chest... felt as if it had been violently ripped away.
"Argh!"
Javien clutched his chest, his fingernails digging into his skin until it bled. This pain did not stem from sword wounds or the demon curse flowing through his blood. It was the pain of losing something I had never realized I possessed.
Something warm... something that, all this time, had been the only light in my cursed, dark existence.
It was gone. Extinguished. Just like that.
"Olivia?"
The name escaped his lips, soft and trembling. He did not know why that name had slipped out. Why was he calling for her? She was not here. She should have been somewhere safe, far from that accursed tower.
Suddenly, the air around Javien shifted. Javien’s body collapsed onto the grass, his chest still aching, his breathing unstable.
Suddenly...
The air around him "tore" slightly. It was as if something was trying to pierce through the world, ripping reality apart to reach him.
Demon Guardian, broken, fragmented whispers.
"...Javien..."
The voice did not come from his ears. It came from within his skull, echoing with a hoarse and tormented tone. Javien stiffened, his eyes darting around to find the source.
"Who... is it?"
The voice struggled to stabilize, as if it were being dragged by an immense force.
"...not... enough... strong..."
Javien gripped his chest tightly, his fingernails digging deep into his skin.
"Speak... clearly!"
And finally...
A single sentence managed to "pierce" through to his mind, stabbing as sharply as a dagger
"Olivia... is still... in the cell..."
Javien’s eyes widened. His purple pupils trembled violently.
"...what?"
The pain in his chest shifted. It did not vanish. It morphed into a devastating, crushing panic. It was as if something he had almost let go of... something he thought was already lost... was actually still there, waiting for him in a state perhaps worse than death.
He forced himself to stand. Even though his legs almost buckled and his body was riddled with wounds, he forced himself upright.
"Where?!" Javien screamed, his voice hoarse and shivering.
The voice of the demon guardian, his supposed companion, grew faint.
"...but her time... is almost up..."
Zupp.
The connection severed instantly. The forest around Javien fell silent once more. No more voices, no more whispers. Only the cold night wind slapped his pale face.
Javien stood rigid. He did not know the exact location within the tower. He did not know which floor, which room. The Desolate Tower was vast, filled with secret corridors and an endless labyrinth of dungeons.
"Olivia...!"
He began to run, turning back toward the tower. Every step felt as if he were walking on broken glass. He did not know the way, but his heart pulled him back toward that place.
She is still there. She is still breathing. She is waiting for me.
Javien sprinted through the undergrowth, his blood dripping onto the soil. He did not have time to think about what would happen if he arrived too late.
He only knew one thing,he would destroy anyone who dared to touch Olivia, even if he had to burn the entire world to prove it.
"Don’t die... please... don’t die!"
Every stride was a desperate prayer. He did not know that at the other end, Olivia’s time had already run out moments ago.
Javien rushed into the tower with his remaining strength. His breath was short and stifled, mixed with the scent of his own blood filling the corridor. He smashed through the heavy iron door until it slammed against the stone wall with a thunderous crash.
The room was silent. Too silent.
On the cold stone floor, Olivia’s body lay still, but the sight tore Javien’s soul apart. Olivia’s body began to fade, slowly turning into fine ash that drifted like particles of light in the air.
Javien froze.
He stepped inside with trembling legs, as if the world around him were collapsing. He fell to his knees beside Olivia. With shaking hands, Javien tried to reach for the fragments of ash one by one, trying to hold them in his palms, but the dust kept slipping through his fingers as if blown away by an unseen wind.
Javien shook his head violently. His face was filled with utter horror.
"No... no, no, no! Not a second time!" Javien roared, his voice breaking and filled with despair.
"Please... don’t do this to me!"
In the chaos, his eyes caught sight of Olivia’s wrists. His heart felt as though it had been pierced by a blade when he saw the severe bruising there marks of an incredibly strong grip, as if she had been bound by something cruel.
Not only that, his gaze shifted to Olivia’s neck. A faint blue circular mark was etched there a clear sign that her life had been forcibly taken through a brutal binding spell.
Javien no longer cared about the ash drifting away. He touched Olivia’s cheek and gripped her hand, which still held the last remnants of warmth. The warmth was fading, but Javien held it tightly, as if he could force time to stand still.
Ignoring the fact that her body was turning to ash beneath his touch, Javien pulled her body into a suffocatingly tight embrace. He held her with all his might, as if he wanted to piece her back together.
Javien sobbed uncontrollably, a harrowing cry from a man who had lost all hope. His shoulders shook with overwhelming grief.
"Please... don’t leave me," he whispered between sobs.
"I didn’t even... I didn’t even get to do anything. Don’t do this to me, Olivia. Don’t..."
His tears fell, drenching the remains of Olivia’s clothes. In his arms, he could feel her body becoming lighter, fading away, but he refused to let go. He buried his face in Olivia’s neck, searching for the last trace of her presence while the body he held slowly dissolved into ash within his arms.
Inside the room, only a heavy, suffocating silence remained. Olivia’s ashes still drifted slowly in the air, illuminated by the dim torchlight like dying stars. Yet, in the dark corner, Delia remained.
She laughed.
Very soft at first, like a knife scraping against stone, then growing louder, more piercing, like someone who had finally won a gamble she had been planning for hundreds of years.
"Ha... hahahaha..."
Delia bowed her head, staring at the drifting ashes with empty eyes filled with insane satisfaction. Her body began to change. Her skin cracked, emitting a painful black light, as if an entity within her was tearing its way out or shattering from within.
However, she did not care. She was still conscious. She was still smiling broadly.
"Sad, isn’t it, Javien?" her voice was soft, yet every word was laced with venom.
"You arrived late. Just like before. Still useless."
Javien did not move. He stood tall, his back to Delia, staring at the spot where Olivia had been. His shoulders did not shift in the slightest, as if he had turned into a statue of stone.
Silence.
The only sound was the faint dusting of Olivia’s ashes falling onto the cold stone floor.
Delia laughed again, her voice now shrill, shattering the silence.
"Do you think she would wait for you? She died because of you, you know? Because of your own weakness, you useless wretch," she licked her dry lips, her eyes glowing with hatred.
"Or perhaps... because you were destined to be weak from the very beginning? Look at those around you die! Tragic because they knew a man who brings only misfortune like you."
Delia’s smile widened, revealing immense joy.
"If you were strong enough, she wouldn’t...."
Silence.
Everything stopped.
Delia suddenly fell silent. The laughter that had just erupted died instantly. Not because she feared death, but because she could feel an absurd shift in the air.
It was as if the whole world was holding its final breath, as if reality itself were cracking before them.
Javien slowly turned his head. When their gazes met, Delia stiffened.
Those eyes.
Burning red, sharp, and filled with an endless darkness. Those were no longer the eyes of a human. They were the eyes of a predator that had lost every shred of its humanity.
Delia was left speechless. For the first time in history, she had no words.
"...oh?"
Javien stepped forward.
Crack.
The ground beneath his feet cracked and splintered under the pressure of his aura.
Second step.
The air became heavy and dense, as if the space itself were kneeling in fear before the wrath unfolding. Delia still tried to put on a brave face, attempting to maintain her cynical smile even as her soul began to shudder.
"...are you angry?"
However, before the sentence could even finish on her lips...
CHOKE.
In the blink of an eye, Javien’s hand was around her throat. The grip was so strong, so fast, as if time no longer held meaning. It was no longer the strength of a human, but a power capable of collapsing empires.
He lifted Delia with one hand, as if she were a worthless doll.
"Uh—!"
The stone walls behind them cracked and shattered from the pressure of Javien’s aura. Delia tried to laugh, tried to mock him, but her voice was strangled in her throat. Javien did not speak. He only stared straight into Delia’s eyes with a vacant gaze no mercy, no hesitation, only burning vengeance.
Then...
BOOM!
Delia’s body was slammed out of the tower with enough force to obliterate anything in its path.
The stone walls of the tower shattered. The ferocious night wind roared in, carrying the scent of death. Delia’s body flew out, falling plummeting into the endless darkness of the night outside the tower.
However, before Delia could disappear completely into the night, Javien’s voice arrived low, hollow, yet sharp and venomous like a curse that would haunt her for eternity
"...Maybe you won this time."
He paused momentarily, his voice echoing amidst the howling wind.
"...but after this..."
The red eyes glowed deeper, illuminating the darkness of the night with a deadly threat.
"...never again."
BLACK SCREEN / END VOL 1
