Events of the Past Coinciding with the Present 2/2

"Ahhh!"

The shrill cry resonated in the still night air, startling Versailles out of her daze. She hurriedly looked around her but found nothing.

Deciding it was time to leave, she ran through the woods towards her Wain and jumped on it without a pause in her step. Lightning flashed across the dark sky and the horrified howls of wild beasts resonated in the cool night air.

Something was terribly wrong. She could feel in her gut.

"Pita? Pera?" She called out the names of her closest confidantes, hoping they had followed when she suddenly ran off.

However, there was no response.

'Something is definitely wrong.'

She pulled hard on the reins in her hands, sprinting back to the cave.

The moment she arrived, her vision turned dark.

"No. No. No!" She internally screamed as she jumped off her Wain, stumbling her way to the cave.

The sight made her stomach turn, her heart-wrenching in pain.

Blood. Blood was everywhere.

The blood of the ones that followed her, was everywhere. She could not tell where one person's corpse began and the other ended.

All she knew was that everything was over.

Just as she had wished.

But this was not the ending she wanted.

Her head throbbed like a drum, her heart thumping in her chest like a thousand nails were being hammered into it, the anguish so agonizingly painful.

However, not a single tear fell from her eyes.

She did not feel like she had the right to cry.

Most definitely not after wanting everything to end a while ago.

"Huaaa."

Breathing became arduous as she gasped like a fish out of the water, falling on her knees.

Scrambling through the pool of blood, she cried in search of a familiar face.

"Pita, Marn, Anta!" But no answer came.

"Anta, Marn, Pera!" Madly shrieking, blood splashed on her pale face, giving her a ghostly appearance.

"Eona, get out of here…" The feeble groan came from deep in the dark, breaking her mournful cries.

She numbly scurried towards the sound, denial the only force driving her forward.

Denial of the irrevocable tragedy.

"Nothing can happen to them." She repeated to herself as she reached one of her fervent supporters.

"Marn, Pita, Pera, Anta, where are they?" She anxiously asked. But before the man could answer, an eerie voice filled with bloodlust and cruelty entered her ears.

"Kekekeke.....Aren't you a pretty little thing?" It cackled with sinister darkness.

"Leave her alone," Croaked out the wounded man.

However, Versailles heard nothing, saw nothing but red.

She felt the sinister presence around her, but her mind was blank. She smelt the metallic scent of blood, but her heart was dark.

It was a long while later, after the shriek of the last remaining man pierced her eardrums, that her red vision cleared and her mind registered what her eyes were seeing.

The mangled bodies of her beloved friends and protectors were piled together, their blue and dark clothing the only thing separating them from the rest of the troop. Their blood flowed like a broken dam, forming a red river under her trembling body.

In the instant the horrified howl left her throat, seven-colored lightning flashed across the black sky, directly smashing onto her blood-soaked figure.

"Why?"

Was the last word that came out of her blood-soaked lips before her vision turned black.

***

Stranded in an unfamiliar land, Versailles ran as fast as she could, trying to outrun the shadows relentlessly chasing after her.

Her white sari got caught in the branches of the dark trees. When she yanked it free, she fell roughly on the black ground.

Forcing herself back onto her feet, she started into a stumbling sprint again. The pain slowed her down, blurring her vision. But she could not stop.

Gasping roughly, her lungs desperately burned for more oxygen. Still, she kept running, afraid of what would become of her once she was caught by her pursuers.

Ahead, she heard and saw no sign of life. The trees were dead and frozen, small icicles jutting out dangerously from their branches and twigs.

But she kept running forward anyway. Because the only other option was stopping and returning, which was no option at all.

She struggled to make her way around the frozen trees as gingerly and quickly as possible, desperately trying not to incur another wound that would slow her down even more.

As the cold breath of her pursuers brushed against her nape, goosebumps formed over her bare arms and she scuffled forward, her eyes scanning for familiar grounds.

In the next moment, her pulse quickened and her stomach tightened with tension. A frozen and desolate landscape stretched before her eyes.

Versailles' purple pupils focused on the body of water and dashed towards it, her nostrils filling with the scent of blood and sweat.

After what felt like forever, she halted in front of the water, her mind straining to comprehend what her eyes perceived.

Hopelessness and defeat made her stomach turn, the sudden lack of mobility causing the cold to seep into her frozen skin.

Her body swayed, confusion and exhaustion bringing her to her knees.

At this moment, a force heavily slammed into her brain, sharp pain coursing through her head. Her face contorted in agony as the flood of memories cramped in her head.

She could not understand what was going on.

In the cottage of the Waru Mountains, she was being dragged away by Lim while her Grandpa bled to death, the betrayal of her birth parents eating at her core.

Then suddenly, her surroundings started spinning before her vision turned black.

The next moment she gained consciousness, she somehow ended up in the body of a girl addressed as Eona, but called herself Versailles, living a life of misery and loneliness exactly similar to hers. She felt the girl's pain as she lamented her fate, her heart forever scarred by the abandonment of her parents.

"Was the girl I saw, myself from my past life? Was that why her pain and agony resonated with me?" Her brows furrowed into a frown as she wondered out loud.

It was possible.

After all, before being reborn in the Sybil realm, she was a serpentine of the Snake clan in the Nar realm.

Due to a series of unforeseen and unfortunate events, her soul ended up in the sacred serpent valley of Lord Tarke.

And it was at that exact time the valley was invaded by the evil eagle lord who desired to steal the magical gem.

To prevent the eagle lord from possessing the gem, she directly snatched it from the golden statue's head with her own hands, causing her soul to instantly evaporate.

Then she was reborn in the Sybil realm as Versailles Skyler.

It could not be a mere coincidence that she entered the body of a girl with the same name and appearance as her. The two girls' life experiences were also very similar to each other.

"The gem I snatched was called 'three lives', meaning past, present, and future. After getting reborn in the Sybil realm, I had never felt the presence of the gem, but maybe the repeat of events from my past life with my present triggered the gem's ability?"

After all, the gem was associated with Lord Tarke, who was also the protector of the snake clan. Additionally, the duty of protecting the magical gem was handed to the serpentines of the snake clan by Lord Tarke himself.

"If what I saw earlier was my past life, then could what I am seeing and going through at this moment be a figment or glimpse of the future? Is the 'gem of three lives' trying to tell me or warn me of something? There was a dark presence at the scene of slaughter in my past life. Maybe it has something to do with that shadow. But why and for what was that shadow after me?" Versailles felt confused by the whole series of events.

What was really happening to her and what was that shadow?

What did it want from her, and why was it after her?

It seemed to be after her even when she was just an ordinary human. A human being struggling every day to survive in a world of deceit and schemes.

As she analyzed the series of events she went through in her first life, Versailles' soul shuddered.

There was something chasing after her. She was certain of that.

Maybe it was even after her life, and yet, she had no idea why.

This fact chilled her heart, sending shivers through her body.

If the shadow was really after her when she was just an ordinary human, could it have been after her when she was a serpentine as well?

Could it have had something to do with her unfortunate ending in the Nar realm before her soul arrived in the Sacred Serpent Valley as well?

If so, now that she was reborn, was there also a possibility of it chasing after her again?

In order to get to the bottom of everything, she needed to find out what or who that shadow was and why it was after her. Moreover, she needed to take a stand. She was no weak human.

She was not weak even when she was a human in her first life. So how could she allow a measly village head's son to walk all over her? Whether she was a serpentine or not, she was still Versailles. And Versailles neither allowed herself to be wronged in the past and nor will she allow herself to be wronged in the future as well!

Slowly rising to her feet, she turned her head to the side to take a glimpse of the monstrous shadow behind her.

Shocked, she jumped into the icy water, screaming at the top of her lungs.

'What is that thing?'

That was the only conscious thought she could form before her figure submerged into the icy embrace of the vast black water.