Door to Redemption

It's a decisive rematch for the two Aristian royalties – a repeat of that horrendous debacle from a faraway past where one had emerged victorious while the other was vanquished.

As they continued exchanging looks of detestation like ravening wolves, that conclusive moment sprawled intolerably in the midst of nothingness and evanescent quietude.

Dropping his firearm meant giving rise to more red flags. However, Hal was no newbie in this kind of charade.

He knew that doing otherwise was equivalent to finding a corpse of an innocent victim, which would waste all his hard work on keeping the villainess at bay. For now, he entrusts his fate to his comrades who're just minutes away from ambushing that place.

"What a surprise, Empress. Who would've known that only a young girl could push your buttons to this extent?" he commented in hope to buy time.

Venus let his quip fall on deaf ears, expression aloof. Her finger slowly comes in contact with the trigger as if taunting him but to no avail.

Hal only emulated her insouciance - the look of having something up his sleeves.

All hell broke loose when the sound of gunshots filled the air.

At that exact moment, the barren space was suddenly engulfed by an agglomeration of glass panes encircling the two like new contenders joining the fight. Dumbfounded, Hal only gawked at the unannounced intrusion before realizing his unharmed frame.

There were no signs of any bullet passing through.

Staring ahead of him, his jaw dropped at the sight of Venus's unanticipated withdrawal. She was gripping her wrist, one that was holding the gun, and aiming upward as if she had abruptly changed targets at the pull of the trigger.

However, her astonished look says she didn't do it on purpose.

True enough, it wasn't her who moved the gun away from him, but her other self on the mirror.

On the surface of a looking glass beside her, Eli was mirroring Venus's posture with a look of unparalleled tenacity.

"Don't hurt him," she firmly daunted, locking eyes with the unmoving villainess.

Both Hal and Venus were speechless by this point. Eli made Venus drop the revolver and glass shard by raising her arms upwards and unclenching her fists. She then made her turn to her, planting her palms on the cold surface of the mirror just beside hers.

They're now facing each other with the glass in between.

Infuriated at this puppet show, Venus tried to squirm and resist her control but did not succeed.

"It's no good like this, Venus. Nothing's going to change if you do it..." Eli started, voice brittle and barely audible that she sounded like crying.

"...How could you blame them for your own death? And no, it's also not them who made you want to do it. It's your pride and selfishness! How could death release you if you're the one who chained yourself up in the first place? Had you not sealed your fate, you could've changed and started all over again. You're responsible for your own demise, so stop taking it out on them!"

Then all of the sudden, the glasses fractured one by one until they completely shattered into small pieces. The world crumbled at her outburst, forming interstices across the darkness with light passing through them.

Stunned for the hundredth time that day, Hal only stood still and continued watching the ongoing confrontation before him.

"When you said you didn't need to live again, I felt how much you meant it and it upset me because even though you didn't regret killing yourself, I know you regretted living that kind of life. You're not mad because you died. You only loathe yourself for living that way for a very long time..."

Venus was frozen in place.

Befuddled, she silently listened to Eli's rambling and before she knew it, she's already drowning in her own tears.

She braced herself, not wanting to be fooled by mere, empty words, but then she started plummeting in an ocean of memories instead – ones she had buried deep within.

Venus recalled how she took her childhood for granted, thinking that her parents were far from deceasing, that her fiancé was a trustworthy partner, that she'd grow into a virtuous and upstanding noble, and that she'd continue spending her days in bliss.

Yet, when the prophecy of her becoming Empress came, her freedom was immediately taken away from her. She was trained and raised to be the empire's highest ranked lady, only to spend the rest of her childhood in loneliness, to see her parents die in the hands of envious aristocrats, to find her fiancé in an affair, and to have her entire house fall and fade away.

"Venus, you're on your own now. Do everything you can to survive. Grasp whatever your hand can hold onto... All these so you can see the prophecy through..."

Stripped off of all her possessions, title, identity and dignity, she was forced to marry the Emperor at a young age. She was belittled and persecuted inside the castle.

Everyone had turned against her, which eventually led her to shut the world off.

"Get rid of your fears. Hide all your weaknesses. Conceal every emotion... No need for any unnecessary endeavours and trifling pursuits..."

She strived to stand on her own feet and rise from the ashes of her bitter losses, relying on no one but herself. At that point, the only thing that kept her moving forward was her promised future as Empress.

But then came a new prophecy about a different ruler, wasting everything she'd been through and worked hard for.

All went downhill for her from then on.

As it turned out in the end, her prophecy had only happened for the sake of another prophecy.

"You don't have to pave a way for me, Venus. You should create your own path from now on – in this world where nothing's determined, where you're free to do as you wish, where you can correct your wrongdoings, where you can start all over again..." Eli cut in, snapping her out of her stupor and halting her reminiscing.

Then, in the blink of an eye, they switched places.

Venus returned on the other side of the mirror while Eli got her body back. Even then, their eyes remained glued at each other, trapped in their own little world.

Closing the gap between them, Eli rested her forehead on hers before fluttering her eyes shut and saying, "...And most of all, where you're no longer alone."

In that moment, Venus's invisible wall – once unconquerable and indestructible – finally shattered into tiny glass splinters.

Something about the way Eli said it made her yearn the freedom she lost a long time ago. Something about the way she looked at her made her feel deserving and worthy again.

She knew that her sins may never be forgiven. She could never live a normal life after everything she did. Even now, she's burning with the thirst to kill. She's still filled with fervent ire. She's still not brave enough to face herself.

But a second chance she'll take.

The darkness then gradually vanished along with any traces of magic.

Like glimmering specks of silver, the mirror from which Venus was reflected on slowly dispersed from top to bottom. Venus was still crying when Eli gently touched the glass and stroked it, caressing her cheek and brushing away her tears.

With a relieved smile, she continued comforting her that way until the entire looking glass vaporized into thin air.

"From now on, I'll be here for you – every step of the way."