Cursed Blood (part 4)

Noctis awoke at dawn. Reluctant to leave the embrace of the blankets. Then with a sigh, he straightened up.

"It's time to face a new day and...there's a lot to do."

A dull pain radiated from his right leg. He looked down with a confused expression and a shock went through him.

"My-my leg?"

Indeed, he was missing a leg.

Noctis grimaced, then stood up and grabbed the cane lying against the bed.

He managed to get dressed as best he could.

He left his quarters and passed the servants who were already at work. Everyone bowed respectfully and greeted him in a warm voice. The sight filled him with a strange feeling of superiority.

Servants prepare everything but one thing. He would not allow anyone else to do so.

Entering his study, he approached the broken sword on the table.

He looked at the sword for a moment, slowly caressing it with a distant expression. A subtle, dark expression appeared on his face.

After a moment, a rapid footstep came towards him.

"Dad!"

He turned and smiled at the girl leaping at him.

"Ohoh, you're trying to take your old dad by surprise, not bad but your attack lacks subtlety." He said as he caught her in an embrace.

The girl laughed.

She was 9 years old and on this occasion, her mother had dressed her in the most beautiful clothes she had. She looked almost like a princess.

"Daddy? Is it true? Am I really going to meet the goddess?"

Noctis smiled.

"Of course you are."

"But...won't the other gods be angry with me?"

"Gods! Lady Velzard gives us shelter and safety, protects us from the corrupt monsters of hunger, disease and even other humans. She deserves our adoration!"

With that, he slammed his cane against the ground, and a wind surrounded the two.

"Let's go."

They flew out of the mansion and followed the black butterflies that guided them. They advanced at a rapid pace. The sun was falling across the world.

Noctis was enjoying the beauty of the world and its tranquillity. Before, his life had been one of bloodshed and pain before reaching the holy land of the protector of the moon.

"One day I'll have my own sword and I'll fly faster than you!" Cried the young girl. Looking up at the sky with stars in her eyes.

Noctis just laughed.

..

In silence, they landed on a vast plain bathed in moonlight. The silver grass is brilliant. Ribbons of shimmering rivers crossed the plain, and in the distance, the most beautiful city he had ever seen in his life was built of white stone that rose from the ground like a mountain, topped by a white tower that seemed endless.

He couldn't help feeling small in front of it.

"Daddy, what's up there?"

Noctis snapped out of his reverie and looked at his daughter.

His eyes widened. The sun was normally no longer present, but it seemed that a second one had appeared just above him. It was swollen with black light. The clouds had all disappeared. The world was getting extremely hot.

His eyes suddenly narrowed.

"Nannnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn!"

In the next second, a pillar of black flame fell suddenly from the sky, piercing the earth. A bolt of lightning drowned the world in white, and through it, a terrible sound travelled the world.

The hill they were standing on turned over.

The ground opened up, and fountains of black flame shot into the sky, drowning the world in black flames.

Everything collapsed.

The last thing Noctis saw was his daughter being engulfed in the flames of the apocalypse.

And then he died. 

..

A crack forms over his heart.

***

Noctis emerged from his cave and breathed in the cold mountain air.

The world rustled softly, as if to greet him and congratulate him on his breakthrough to conqueror.

A cold mist rolled across the mountains, and the mountain wolves howled happily at the sight of the new moon.

He patted the ground and sighed.

He could see the whole world from this cave, including the sacred domain of the ice dragon.

Suddenly, something fell from the sky, forming a huge crater in front of him.

There stood a pretty young woman in a simple white tunic, her legs slender and bare ivory. She had a graceful figure and a face so beautiful that it simply demanded to be looked at, and frosted white hair that fell like a waterfall.

Noctis looked at the young woman, fascinated by her beauty.

"Why are you here, Velzard?"

A dark smile appeared on the face of the beauty called Velzard. She stood up slowly and faced Noctis. Her radiant eyes burning with an icy light.

"I've heard rumours from the east that throughout the kingdom of the confines, a man is spreading lies on the whisper. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that it was you who was the source of this plague...you!"

She clenched her fists suddenly.

"I came here hoping to be proven wrong...but instead I see that the accusations are true. You've managed to break your bond with the whisperer."

"You are a mistake that must be eliminated."

"So what? You're just blinded by the accursed will of that accursed goddess."

"Traitor! How could you betray us!"

She suddenly raised her hand.

Noctis frowned as he noticed a strange black sphere appear.

Suddenly a cold sensation gripped his chest, causing him to grimace painfully.

"Bitch..."

He raised his hand and summoned a magnificent jian bearing the colours of night.

"I won't give up without a fight!"

The young woman facing him smiled, her eyes shining with a cold light. She simply said: 

"Domain of Eternal Frost."

***

"Ahhhhhhhhhh..."

All of him was in pain. And all around him, burned in flames of ice. He could hear the cries of the wolves echoing down the mountain in the dust.

He lay half dead in the middle of an icy inferno, shards of ice piercing his body.

He coughed, unable to breathe with his lungs punctured.

"I've lost...."

A feeling of utter weakness and despair in the face of death drowned him in a deep abyss.

And in that cold abyss, alone, he died.