❁ Her Prologue • I ❁

Malachi Leo Litchenegger, Heir to the Immortal Land of Garnet.

My nemesis, the sworn enemy I've been battling for longer than I can possibly remember. And whom I always tried to surpass with my blood, sweat, and tears (of anger, for a matter of fact), as we've stayed in a equal footing out entire life. Until now.

His hunger for power was so big that it seems like it blinded him, as he seemingly killed his father, the King of the Immortal Land of Garnet and absorbed his soul and power, all because Felix Litchenegger was the strongest immortal with a demonic cultivation in their realm. The one who was above him, just as my mother, Queen Cornelia Madritsch, is the only one stronger than me in Heavenly Soul Recesses.

Absorbing a soul gives you a insane instant amount of power, but it causes your soul to be corrupted forever. It's been millennials since an immortal last did that, and all the consequences were chaos in it's purest form. Once you absorb one, you will be overwhelmed by hunger and will never have enough, thus you will keep absorbing more and more souls, corrupting yours further and further. It brings you to the brink of insanity, and makes all rationality vanish from your mind.

You become a monster, forever bloodthirsty for power, unable to ever satisfy yourself. All of your morals turn to dust. What started with a simple desire to get stronger and break through your limits, turns into a mindless craving for death everywhere you go.

That is what is happening to Leo. I may hate him, but I never wished him to have such a fate, because I used to respect him.

I always respected his strength that came in equal footing to mine. His demonic cultivation aside, Leo was self-centered and strong like no other male Immortal, besides his father. He has morals and beliefs that, as annoying as it is, were a bit similar to mine. After 77550 fights, we came to 25 loses of mine and 25 loses of his during our teenagehood, and 77500 draws during our adult life, I was also frustrated by never being able to get through this and win again, but I would never go to such lengths.

We met when we were both 15 years old, and in these 55540 years I've known him, I always thought he had a different mindset from others users of demonic cultivation, given the obvious bad side of that. It seems like I was mistaken, he was unable to resist the call of chaos and mayhem. As his ancestor of millennials ago, he gave in to power.

The Leo I knew looked up to his father as a devotee look up to a deity, he was his hero, and the one he wanted to impress. He would have never do anything to harm him, even less kill him and absorb his soul, not at his own accord. But that Leo is now dead. His shallow body taken over by a real demon that was born after his ambition to surpass me. To win.

I have absolutely no idea what happened in these three years since I last saw him to now, or what made him change his mind so drastically. If it was for manipulation of a third party, or what. But the deadline stays, he lost his mind.

He invaded Heavenly Soul Recesses and killed all immortals on Mounts Pauritsch, Bluemel, Hagenauer, Kochert, and Lössl, absorbing all of their souls on the process. And I would have stopped if I could.

Which ain't the case, since I'm locked up on the strategy chambers since yesterday, as mother put on a unbreakable barrier around me, knowing that I would run to where he is right away, to try and stop him, even if that now is a suicidal mission. At least, I'm not alone. As mother locked me with my younger brother (by 105 years) Franz, and my sister-in-law, Larissa Lössl-Madritsch, who's the same age as him.

Though she's been crying for an hour now, since the magical lantern of life from Mount Lössl turned red, a sign that there's no living beings there anymore. Meaning that her family died. Her parents, who were friends with ours, and her three older and three younger siblings. All by Leo's hands.

I sat down on the cream leather couch, fists and jaw clenched, legs crossed and concentrated my QI on all of my meridians, trying to gather as much power as possible, to be able to fight him when he came to us. And he will come!

"And you said he would never do that," Franz scoffed bitterly at me and when I glared at him, he gulped. "To think you respect this monster, elder sister!"

"Yes, I did. So?" I arched my eyebrows menacingly and both of them avoided my eyes. "Respect can coexist with hatred, as long as the person is deserving of it, Franz. In all of the 55540 years of my rivalry with Leo, he was the only one strong enough to go against me on an equal footing. He gained my respect as an immortal cultivator that could rival my power, which resulted in countless of draws in our duels."

Larissa clenched her jaw, "He's a monster. A killer!"

I tilted my head, trying to control my anger, "The person who's out there doing all of this, isn't Leo anymore. This Malachi Leo Litchenegger is but a shallow vessel for evil. All that he ever was is lost and will never be again. The rival I respect is gone forever. You should know that, sister, as your family was one of the most acknowledged on this!"

"Are you defending him?" Ah, she's always been kind of shallow when it came to intelligence. I don't know why I'm surprised.

"How is this me defending him, Larissa? I've never defended him and I never will, I simply have the understanding that the situations are very different. Malachi Leo Litchenegger is but my sworn enemy, my rival, and the fact that he's gone off the end doesn't change that. He simply lost my respect with what he's done. We are all set to loose those we love in this fight, sister-in-law, so, do not act as if you were the only one in grief."

She scoffed in distaste, "But you," I stopped her.

"I am better at managing my emotions than you are, why are you even surprised? Just because I'm not freaking out hysterically and balling my eyes out, doesn't mean I'm not going through grief. I am to be the Queen of Heavenly Soul Recesses, and all the twelve Mounts were to be under my power and protection. Your family were also my people, and losing them and the others from the other Mounts that have fallen pray to Malachi's hunger, ache my heart and soul," I closed my eyes, controlling my breathing and temper. "Believe me, I'm the one who's angriest about these deaths!"

Franz sucked on his cheeks, gripping his sword harder, "We have to go out and fight, elder sister," he hissed at me. "If we try harder, we can break through the barrier."

"If that was possible, I wouldn't be here right now, second brother. Mother knows what she was doing, I am not as power as her yet. Besides, if I waste my energy on trying helplessly to break the barrier, I will not be in my full power when I fight Malachi!" And I've wasted a handful of my energy yesterday, but thankfully I restored it in time. "He will come. He wants me dead more than anyone else in Heavenly Soul Recesses."

"If he gets you, he'll be invincible, elder sister!" Larissa gasped.

"That won't happen. I won't let him absorb my soul, what do you think I am? An amateur? Yes, he's ridiculously strong now, but that ain't going to happen," I hope not. In any case, if it comes to that, I'll use the prohibited power I've tripped on after our last fight three years ago. I'm not sure I've fully mastered it, but it'll be enough to give us time.

"What do you think mother did to create this barrier?" He insisted.

Sigh, "She connected it to her power. As she's stronger than both us, we cannot break it even if we get together. Nevertheless, if her power lessens up even for a bit, we'll be able to break it!" Which will only happen when he gets here. It's a painful bargain, but there's genuinely nothing I can do to break through it.

My brother and Larissa shared a scared gaze, "That means the only way we can get out is if our mother is wounded, or worse… How can that be? How could she put on such barrier?"

I felt my anger trying to get the best of me again, "Can we not talk about that? I may seem calm, but I'm anxious precisely because of that. As mother only put this up to keep me locked away, given my impulsivity, if she gets wounded, I'll feel guilty. I don't want to feel guilty, so, shut up!" I hissed and they flinched at my words. "Sit down and cultivated your energy. It won't be long until Malachi reaches us. We'll need to be prepared."

As we waited in silent agony, the lanterns of life of Mounts Morina, Kastriot, Belushi, Tahiri, Adamata, and Shehhi slowly turned red, leaving only the lantern of Madritsch lightened up. When he arrived in front of our recess Mount, I felt the dreadful wave of blood and death hit my nostrils, and nausea took over me. By channeling my water, earth, and wood Yin energy on my kidney, spleen, and liver, respectively, to subside the fear, worry, and anger that were trying to blind my rationality.