LOCATION - BETRAYAL 2

|Location: Wasteland, center. |

-NUK-

I could feel my chest clenching by itself from the pain I experienced and my mind is having a hard time focusing on what's in front of me, making my eyes see in doubles. But it's certain that the woman started to walk towards my direction, she gave me the creepiest grin which gave my back chills that ran down to my legs. "Once upon a time there was this kid, which was me."

"What are you doing?" I spoke against that woman. Once upon a time? Is it mocking me right now? It won't even take me seriously. Is that how weak I look to her? I clenched my fist in the ground and suddenly threw a rock at her. She easily dodged it and seemed to be continuing what she was saying.

"She was loved by her mother and the sister she admired and alongside the brother that seems to be loathed by everyone."

What she said caught me off guard. The fact that she knew of this didn't sit well with me, it started to aggravate my emotions. "You!"

"Then one day, the brother was fed up with all the people around him." She said as she narrated a story that's very familiar to me, which stirred up some of my emotions that I long buried away. "He ran away!"

As unsettling memories appeared inside my head my breathing rapidly increased despite my chest screaming from pain, [Nuk!] it was a memory from games ago. The memory I never wanted to remember, but it came flooding to my direction.

[They don't want me; it would be better if you have just left me!] The distant memories of the argument with my mother run wild in my mind, the regret I have begun eating me from the inside. Remembering my mistake, my guilt flowed over and was getting harder to control.

"Stop!" I screamed at the top of my lungs as I begged for it to end, but when I looked in the front. I saw her face. Dia looks exactly like mother and even the expression she makes right now was similar to what she had back then.

I can't help but feel weak.

"Running through the forest barefooted, his feet bleed." She continued.

Clenching my fist against my chest as my guilt ate me up, I ignored my screaming body and rushed towards her. Grabbing her shirt, I pinned her down against the ground and yelled as hard as I could. "I said stop! How do you know any of that!"

Denial after regret and sadness after anger, I tried my best to take control of my emotions but I can't help it from overflowing.

"Whoa getting impatient I see." She smiled at me as she said that. Despite the tension around us I can hear her giggling even though she tried to hold it back. She nonchalantly placed her hand on my shoulders and patted it. "How about you sit down and Listen!"

Then suddenly a thick wooden vine sprouted from the ground, wrapping me from behind and immediately pulled me away from her. It instantly locked my legs and torso from moving.

"Kack!" The wooden vines slither its way around my body tightening it to the point I can no longer feel any sensation from my legs.

The women stood up and said with relief. "Phew! Those will hold you."

"Freak!" I looked at her with bitterness in my eyes while grinding my teeth as I said that.

"That's rich coming from you, the village's bastard." She rolled her eyes and sigh, from the looks of it she acted as if she couldn't believe what I just said towards her. But still giggled afterwards. "A good title if I may say."

She pulled my hair up to lift my head, despite wanting to push her away I couldn't do anything because of the vines that's wrapped around me. She smirked towards me after insulting me.

"Y-you can't say t-that using that f-face." My voice trembled as I tried to protest.

"Ouch! You made it sound like I'm using someone else's body." She suddenly slapped my face and let go of my hair. She looked at me in disappointment, but only to sigh after. She clapped her hands together. "Okay where are we? Ah right the barefooted part."

"You!" I said as I attempted to escape the vines.

What's wrong with her she still kept on talking about this, does she really think it will make me believe that she's, my sister. What can she gain from all of this, why is she doing this, and where is DIa?

"The ground he stepped on was marked with his blood which his beloved mother used to look for him and there it was, a boy reaching a sacred ground, a place where the tree of life once stood." What is this? Sacred grounds? I can't believe this, I let my emotions get the better of me. She probably only heard this from someone with how she tried to place fiction to this 'story' of her's.

"You probably just heard that story from the tribe. I don't know who you are but cut the crap and let's fight!" I could hear my heart beating loudly as I tried to fill my head with doubt that that thing will never be my sister as she claimed. Right! She must be somewhere right now; she must be safe. I just need to escape from this place with Zero.

Despite what I said she didn't do anything to me but to continue with her 'story'. "His mother held him dearly saying 'child don't mind them I love you and your sisters that's what matters'. Ugh! I almost choked up when I heard that."

I was stunned by what she said, the way she said that and the contents of what she said, it was similar to what mother said to me. "That line just now, how?!"

Is she really Dia? No that can't happen, there's no way. She's incapable of something like this.

She smirked and started to caress the vines around me. She looked at me gently before she proceeded to talk.

"The mother hugged her son so tenderly and lovingly. So sweet." After saying that out of nowhere her attitude changed. Her carefree demeanor suddenly turned into a hell of a twist. She grabbed the vines that sprouted from the ground and crushed it in one hand before she frantically flew into rage and destroyed the vines around us, "Like hell that's sweet! And what's with 'don't mind them' that's just plain stupid. But what's worse is she's my mother, that woman gave birth to me, used her own body and gave me life. Like what the hell did she ask me?"

"What are you talking about?!" I could only look and gasp in disbelief.

"What? Is it really a shocker to hear your little sister talk trash to her mother? That woman used to open her legs for anyone. Crazy right!" I could see from her face that she finally went crazy especially when she started to scratch her nails on her own body.

But I don't care that she describes my mother 'our' mother like that. At this point I'll be blind if I won't accept things as they are. The Person in front of me could possibly be my sister.

"W-why?" How did things turn out like this, what happened to my sister to act like this. This person might be my sister but maybe just maybe, I hope I could save her from this madness.

"What's worse is she used her filthy body to conceive. Me!" I could continue to grit my teeth and furrow my brows as I watch her. Her skin began to bleed with the way she scratched herself. "If it wasn't for her my life would have been different, I would have been bathed with all that glory. Ah!!!! Just thinking about how she ruined my life, I wished I was the one who killed her."

She started mumbling every detail about how she hated our mother, despite her raddled looks I can't find myself to feel pity for her. The only thing I felt the longer I looked at her is regret and anger. Anger for the fact that she forgot what our mother did, anger for the fact that I believed in her, and anger for the fact that I made myself look like a stupid person denying and hoping that it was not her.

And now I can feel my resentment for her is rapidly rising.

"You!" I shouted, "How can you talk like that, do you even know how mother suffered just to save us!"

After what I said she turned around and with her eyes wide open, she looked at me. "Who cares!! Do I look like I give a damn?"

I can't. I used to call this thing my sister, hoping that this was a lie but I need to face the laid-out truth in front of me. Despite the gap in power between us it didn't stop me from telling her what I feel at the moment. "You should have not been born!"

"Gosh finally you manage to understand me." She smiled towards my direction.

I was stunned by what she said. Despite my anger I couldn't hold back the sadness I felt at this moment and before I knew it my eyes could no longer stop my tears from falling down. "You all those years, was it all an act? Is this what you truly feel about your family?"

"Are you stupid. Of Course!" I lowered my head as I felt like the sole reason for being alive had finally lost its purpose. "Brother, what do you think of this marking on my body?"

What is she talking about, "Do you think I'll care?"

"You see. After that leg spreader managed to inflict a heavy wound to the guardian, that very guardian tried desperately clinging to this very tree. And wellbeing an innocent child back then I approached it out of curiosity the guardian couldn't even stop me from approaching. Stupid bastard wouldn't even let me touch it before." With how quickly she could change her expressions, I could no longer be shocked at how quickly she became calm.

Still, what she said has indicated that she was here, even before the incident happened. "What are you saying you have been there before?"

"Anyway at least the leg spreader managed to kill it." I can't believe her; she can't even say that it was her own mother. Is this how far she has fallen? She continued. "So going back to what I was saying. I saw the truth of this world, the history long forgotten. I saw everything the moment I touched this tree."

"You're just plain crazy, I don't know what you're saying." I can no longer listen to her. She's already too late to be saved from her delusions. " I don't even understand any of it, nor do I want to care. Even if you're my sister or not I'll kill you!"

"Shut up, how dare you raise your voice to me. I'm a person who received the grace of god. I witness the forgotten world. And the truth which he desperately buried." She turned around and began praising the tree.

I can't take this anymore. I need to escape from here.

I noticed that her attention was no longer mine and was focused on caressing the huge roots of that tree. I took this opportunity to use my ability to lose the ground around me and destroy the foothold of the vines that strapped me down.

Because of what Dia did a while ago the vines were already heavily damaged and the soil was already loosened up. All it took was for me to use a small amount of stamina in exchange for using my ability and stealthy escape.

While that crazy sister is still preoccupied at what she was doing, I took this chance to immediately strike with all I've got and slice her neck off.

"Shut up you lunatic." Using my ability, I made a sword out of earth and putting all of my strength to it, I rushed towards her and sliced her neck off her body. It slowly rolled down to the ground.

My body felt weak from using my ability to its fullest, I was about to sigh in relief but something got caught on the corner of my eyes.

"Kyah!! My head! My sacred head!" I turned around and saw the most golden blood I could have ever seen in my whole life and it flowed out of my sister's body.

••••••••