01. The Promise of Death

'Fuck!'

'Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!'

'FUCKKK!'

I cursed in my heart with a hot angry breath escaping my nostrils as I fumed with rage.

The sound of my teeth ground bitterly, resonating with a clattering sound of irritation as they almost sank and cracked into each other.

A bastard!

That's what he is. 

That's what he will remain to me.

This Hero who everyone adored.

This fucking Hero whom everyone worshipped!

A conniving snake! 

That's what he is!

A vicious wolf in sheep's clothing!

To me, he was the son of the devil himself.

A son of a bitch! 

A bloody bastard!

Tch! Despicable!

A power-crazed asshole!

…A power-crazed asshole, whose life I shall snuff out with my own hands, no matter how many lifetimes it will take.

Yes, I returned.

For him, I came back.

I returned to kill the Hero.

*********

Tch, how could I have forgotten how much I loathed these humans?

'Hehe, you brought this one upon yourself, Luxane.'

I laughed not because anything was funny to me.

I was laughing at myself.

I laughed because I was grossly disappointed in myself.

I was laughing at my own folly.

'Fuck! You really messed up, Lux. You've really messed up!' 

I guess it's true that one's life does flash before their eyes when they near their death's door.

As I lay on the grassy floor of this dense forest, looking up and having nothing but the night's moon and the chirping of unseen insects as the only seeming allies, blood started to seep out of my mouth from the corners of my lips.

Thump~ Thump~!!

My heart raced with a gravely violent beating.

Thump~ Thump~!!

I felt the intense pressure.

My heart pounded boisterously inside my chest, enough to vibrate my entire rib cage at this point.

Every heartbeat ushered a pang of pain like a hammer to my bones and as much as I sought even the slightest form of relief, I couldn't find any.

Even I felt and feared that my chest would explode anytime from now.

Ding~!

A row of texts flashed before my eyes; my cube device notifying me of my imminent doom.

[The Venom of the Crimson Viper has spread throughout your body]

I sluggishly, thanks to the excruciating spasms of pain that coursed through my body, smacked my forehead.

In that instant, the memories of my life played like a slideshow inside my head.

The faces and the names of those persons whom I had become accustomed to their company, at different times in my lifetime, came to mind.

The ones that had been the closest things I had to 'friends'.

Emelda.

Jerry.

Cassandra.

…

…

Everyone was already dead!

Dead and gone!

Everyone was dead, thanks to the bastard standing in front of me!

There was no way I was going to let the bastard get away with what he had done.

No fucking way in Heaven and Hell would I let him!

The Venom of the Crimson Viper, huh?

Stupid me!

I chuckled at my own stupidity as a memory came to mind at that moment.

To think that I was the one who slew the Crimson Viper and gifted it to this bastard.

Now, I'm going to die from the venom of the same beast?

I managed to drag myself up to my feet. 

One look at my legs and I saw how terribly they were shaking, barely able to hold my weight as I staggered in unbearably painful, slow steps.

Nothing was holding me up other than the sheer will to strangle the blond-haired bastard who was standing in front of me right now.

"Terrence, you bastard!" I yelled at the top of my lungs, nearly killing myself as my chest burned and twisted inside the moment I shouted.

Cough~ Cough~!!

Eek!

My inside felt like a burning furnace. 

It scorched terribly.

Immediately, a copious amount of my blood forced its way out of my mouth after a sudden retching, splattering on the ground and turning the grasses it touched to ash in an instant. 

Fizzzz~

The blood that I had vomited which was red with a tinge of purple soon turned black just in a few seconds of being exposed to the atmosphere again. 

After an even lesser number of seconds, the blood evaporated into the air.

'Black blood?' a worrying thought sparked inside my head as I saw the liquid I vomited.

This spelled bad news for me.

The manifestation of black blood was an ominous sign. 

I was closer to my end than I thought.

Seeing this, I could only imagine how badly my internal organs had been damaged, thanks to the Venom of the Crimson Viper.

I already knew that there was no way I was getting out of here alive. Not as I was very weak and outnumbered.

At different spots were members of Terrence's group—a bunch of mindless lackeys that would easily kiss and lick his boots even if they were smeared with dirt and dung.

Pfft! Pathetic lots, those ones.

I knew that but I still wanted to take Terrence along with me to the Other Side… somehow.

How did that saying go again? Yes… the more, the merrier.

Tch! 

I gritted my teeth and held my heart to give myself some fruitless comfort.

Step~ 

"Why…"

Step~ 

"Why?"

Step~ 

"Why did you do it, Terrence!"

The blond-haired bastard couldn't even look me in the eyes.

He could not talk to me face-to-face. 

No. He didn't even talk to me at all.

He remained in the same position for minutes, standing silent like a stone sculpture.

The only voice that breezed into my ears throughout this time was that of the annoying red-haired slut. 

The redheaded bitch who was head over heels for Terrence—Claudia, the Red Witch. 

A fucking whore!

If I had even the slightest possibility of surviving today, I would strip her skin from her body while she still breathes.

Bang~!!

Fuck!

I felt a massive impact on my solar plexus that caused me to fall to my knees and screech on the floor from the gut-wrenching pain that this bitch's kick had triggered.

"I'm surprised you are still alive, Lux," the red-haired bitch's voice permeated my eardrums.

'Of course, I am. I'm taking you with me after Terrence,' I retorted internally, not saying a single word to her.

I could hear her footsteps approaching toward me, unhurried and purposeful.

"Usually, the venom of the Crimson Viper should have killed you but for some reason, it didn't do as much damage as we calculated. Safe to assume that you've acquired some level of Poison Resistance. Am I right?"

Claudia crouched in front of me and stroked my dark hair gently.

All I could feel was her malicious intent travelling through every strand of hair on my head as she touched them.

'Stupid bitch!'

I managed to raise my eyes and get a good look at Claudia, something I would come to wish that I didn't.

Argh!

The heels of her boot pressed down strongly on the head, smearing my face on the grasses of the forest as she cast a luscious gaze on Terrence, hoping to impress the blond brat.

"My handsome Hero, it seems your fight with the brat weakened him. Surely that was the trigger for the venom to work."

Terrence said nothing.

That bastard neither moved nor opened his mouth to speak. 

Through all this time, he just turned his back to us, not even willing to defend himself and give me a reason why he did what he did.

I struggled to break free of Claudia's stomp but I couldn't. 

I was just too weak; too weary to do anything that would be impactful to my freedom.

Life was hazy before my eyes and the entire forest was starting to spin… everything my eyes were cast on doubled.

As Claudia tortured me, then did I hear a laugh, a raucous laughter coming from Terrence.

"Finally!" Terrence shouted excitedly.

That bastard was not one bit remorseful. 

If anything, I could feel the tinge of pleasure, greed and satisfaction that came from his voice.

"Raise him up, Claudia."

Claudia made a gesture with her hand, signalling the lackeys do what Terrence had asked for.

They pulled me up to my feet. Even as I struggled, they easily overpowered me.

Gasping and clinging to life like a cockroach, I set my eyes on the one man I wanted to kill more than anything or anyone right now—the Hero, Terrence Kenton.

He was the bastard responsible for all that had happened.

The man who had betrayed our entire guild for his own selfish reasons.

The man who sold us out for nothing.

For the first time, Terrence turned and met my gaze.

I could see the sheer malice and intense lust that beamed from his red eyes.

That man was dead. 

Dead inside, I tell you.

He was no longer the Terrence I was familiar with.

Definitely, that was not a man who told me that he wanted to save the world and end the era of Dungeons and Monsters.

That Terrence was surely gone for good.

The person who stood before me was the epitome of evil and everything vile.

He started to approach me in measured steps and with his hand slightly abducted, he summoned one of his weapons into his hand with a single command.

[Crimson Viper Fang]

A fine, divinely crafted dagger of red and black colour appeared within his grasp in an instant.

"Why, you ask?" Terrence began to speak, not stopping his match toward me. 

"You really want to know why I did it, Lux. The reason for everything?"

A smug beamed from his face as he started to babble. "What good would it do me if I ended it all? What will be my benefit if I end all the Calamities?"

"You are the fucking… *cough*... you're supposed to be the fucking Hero, Terrence! We all believed in you! We all believed in the peace that you would bring!"

Tears generously poured from my eyes as I spoke.

It was unbearable for me. 

Unbearable that the one who made me let my guard down… the man who I once called 'friend' was the devil himself.

Terrence cupped my chin in his hand and smirked. 

"But I didn't ask you to do all that, Luxane. Everything you did, you did freely and that made things easier for us… no, for me. Otherwise, I would have had to kill you a long time ago.

"I must say that your strength is remarkable, considering how long you have had that venom coursing through you. But it's over for you, Luxane…"

Stab~ 

A second later, the red and black blade of the Crimson Viper Fang was laced with my blood and a deep wound was carved on my belly, spurting blood everywhere.

'Fuck! This is how it ends?'

My eyes rolled up and more blood poured from my mouth and from my belly where Terrence had stabbed me with the Crimson Viper Fang.

Fuck!

Fuck!

FUCCCKKKK!

As life slowly left me, I grabbed hold of Terrence's armour as I dropped to my knees, my head pressed against his body.

For some reason, even amid the intense pain that ravaged my body, I began to laugh.

I wasn't going to give this bastard the satisfaction of seeing me die a painful death.

Never!

I was going to keep laughing until I couldn't anymore… until I drew my last breath.

That's what Cassandra would have wanted.

I grabbed his cloth with the remaining ounces of strength that I could muster, something that wasn't even worth being called a grip. 

Terrence flicked my hand off him, causing me to fall to the ground.

I cast one last glare at the Hero and he looked down at me with a disgusted expression on his face..

"You best make sure that I'm dead, Terrence," I threatened with a rage-filled voice.

"You best make sure because if I am not… you, the Hero, must die by my hands."

At the end of my sentence, I felt another sharp gash across my chest and everything became an absolute blur and eventually all I could see was darkness.

Deep, empty darkness.

So this is what death feels like.