Past, Present, Future

CG Chapter 100: Past, Present, Future

After entering the king's chamber, Tom thought he would find answers to his questions, but now he realized he might leave with more questions than answers.

He wanted to question the king further, but when he saw the king's unwavering smile, he felt that things might not go as he wanted.

"What…" Tom showed a rare hint of hesitation.

Whether his hesitation was genuine or an act he put on to draw the king into his trap was unclear. "There's something that I don't understand. What did the gods do to make you resent them so much?"

He thought, Out of all the people in this world, you'd think that the seven kings would be the last to harbor any kind of hatred toward the gods. The long legacy of the seven kingdoms they take such pride in wouldn't have lasted even one thousand years, let alone six thousand, without the gods acting as a symbol of legitimacy.

Sofos dismissed the question with a shake of his head. "I believe our terms of exchange were clear, my little friend: one question, one life. You should continue with what you came here to do without asking any more about the gods."

The thought of torturing the king for more information crossed his mind for a brief moment, but Tom knew that people in such a state of desperation wouldn't be swayed by pain; they were already torturing themselves each day by the simple act of living.

As Sofos spoke about the gods, Tom noticed his eyes flicker for a brief moment toward the painting he was drawing.

When Tom looked at it, he didn't see anything special, so he made a mental note to check on it later.

Suddenly, Tom's mouth flew wide open, and he spat a needle that seemed to come out of nowhere.

The needle made its way to Sofos's side, landed exactly between his eyebrows, pierced his brain, and came out the other side.

Time seemed to stop briefly. The abrupt change in the situation was too much for most people to handle. In less than a second, they went from having a normal conversation to the sudden appearance of the needle, followed by it piercing the king's head.

The king didn't sense Tom's movements, but feeling the hole in his head, he reached to touch it. Instead of feeling anger or betrayal at Tom's sudden attack, the king smiled--a smile that seemed to reflect his true happiness for the first time in a long while. His murky eyes cleared for the last time, as he was finally freed from his long pain.

"Thank you." A single sentence escaped his lips before his head slumped forward. Yet, despite the force, he didn't fall from his seat, as if the might of a king held him upright for one final time.

Before leaving, Tom decided to look around the room. He wanted to see if there was anything useful that could make the final battle against the gods a little easier.

He knew that, no matter how many soldiers he had now or how powerful he seemed at the moment, he would ultimately have only himself to rely on when that time came. He smiled a long, knowing smile, for this feeling was too familiar to him.

The first item that caught Tom's attention was none other than the painting the king had been mesmerized by before his death.

The painting depicted a beautiful young woman with long, flowing brown hair who was sitting outside in front of a tiny hut. A river stretched from the green hills, with mountains acting as the backdrop. The woman sat on a small chair, smiling as she looked at the painter. She seemed to be completely immersed in the moment, with the moonlight caressing her face.

The more Tom observed the painting, the more baffled he became. Despite how long he looked at it, the painting didn't seem to have anything unique about it.

Knowing that staring at it wouldn't change anything, he decided to take the painting with him before he made his escape. He didn't want to be there when the palace descended into a hellish inferno.

As he wrapped the painting, his eyes turned toward the corner of the room, where the legendary rapier, Stulte, was lying. Tom's mind wavered on whether to take it with him or leave it behind. The rapier might be useful, but at the same time, it was an unknown factor since it came from Lumina.

His hesitation didn't last long. Tom grabbed the rapier and disappeared from the palace as if he had never been there.

As Tom looked back at the smoke rising from Sollaria in the middle of the night, appearing as a large red cloud, he sighed.

At that moment, Sollaria looked dimmer than ever, as it had just lost its past, present, and future. The only things that remained were the weeping of the lost souls and the power struggle that would soon erupt. The remaining members of the Astrial royal family would fight for the fallen throne, clawing at each other to become the next king.

The wiser ones, however, would understand that this throne would only make them a target in the eyes of an enemy no one would wish to provoke after today.

The impact of Tom's short stay in Sollaria was but the first bell in a long chain; its echoes would only grow louder as they resonated with the other six bells, eventually causing the whole world to shatter under their weight.

And it seemed it wouldn't take long for the second bell, in the snowy mountains, to pierce through the frozen winds.