Free Web NovelChapter 370: The Burden Of Mercy
[Music recommendation: Civil Twilight - Human]
.
.
Eve looked directly at Selene and began..
"You used the innocent and spilled their blood. You murdered the true Selene, who was meant to be the queen of a prosperous kingdom and live in a loving union with her king. You stole her right to marry, her right to a happy life, and her right to give birth to me."
Her voice trembled, but not with weakness, "You robbed me of the mother I was meant to have."
Her gaze hardened further, her fury sharpening into something colder.
"You tortured me every single day since I was a child... and made me forget it. You made me forget ever meeting the only love of my life... my soulmate."
Each word fell more heavily than the last.
"You hid behind a sweet facade to deceive everyone around you, while harbouring filth so vile for a child who was never meant to be yours. You made him forget. You stole his innocence by taking his mother’s life... turning his world upside down. You took a loving mother away from an innocent child, while a wife away from a loving husband."
Eve leaned slightly closer, her golden eyes burning with a holy fire.
"And beyond that, you took the lives of countless innocent people, leaving their families to grieve over the loss of their loved ones. All because you were too blind, too deaf, and too selfish to accept a simple truth... that you cannot claim what was never yours."
She paused, and her voice dropped, colder than before, "You do not deserve to see with those malicious eyes...and you certainly do not deserve to hear anything you could twist and use against others."
Eve held her hands on either side of Selene’s head. Golden power radiated from her palms directly into the demon’s elongated ears. Selene’s screams grew more frantic as the flesh began to melt away under the divine heat.
"I have taken your sight and your hearing," Eve said. "But even after all this, it is your heart and soul that remain corrupt beyond repair. I will take those as well."
As Selene’s ears melted completely, Ivan stood a short distance away, watching Eve deliver her final punishment to the heartless creature.
Something pulled at his heartstrings as he witnessed the absolute frost in Eve’s demeanour.
He watched her rise to her feet and settle in front of Selene. With a single, clean strike, Eve cut open the demon’s chest with her sword. She then used her bare hands to tear the wound wider, revealing the dark, beating heart within.
Just as she was about to seize it, Ivan’s feet moved on their own. He was at her side in an instant, appearing right behind her. ƒreewebɳovel.com
Leaning down, he wrapped one arm around her shoulder. His other hand reached out, covering her own as it trembled, inching closer to Selene’s heart.
He buried his nose close to her ear and whispered, "Don’t."
Eve’s golden eyes widened as she slowly turned her face toward him. Their noses brushed as she searched his molten orange eyes, silently questioning why he had stopped her now.
"You do not have to do this," Ivan whispered.
"Let me. She is a sinner, the greatest of them all, and she deserves every ounce of brutality shown to her. But.... I will not have it come at the cost of you losing yourself."
His gaze softened, though the fire within it did not fade.
"Let her blood be on my hands instead. I know she was never truly your mother, even if you once believed her to be. But this is not a burden you have to carry alone. Allow me... to carry this for you."
Eve gulped hard, drawing in a shaky breath as she tried to collect herself.
She understood why Ivan had stopped her. Or perhaps... she understood that he understood her far too well.
Even though Selene had committed unforgivable crimes that could never be erased... even though Eve knew this woman had never truly loved her, had never been the mother she pretended to be... there was still a small part of her that made her hand tremble as she reached for her heart.
Because with that motion came memories.
Memories of moments when Selene had shown her affection, even if it had all been a lie, still held a faint, lingering weight within her.
The fact that she had given birth to Eve gnawed at her. And then there was something else...
Back in the tower, when Eve had been unconscious, held captive, she had still, somehow, heard Selene’s voice as she ordered that Drake was not to be allowed into her room... not to be allowed to violate her.
That memory had stayed.
Eve had often asked herself why.
Why would this woman care about what might happen to her in her most vulnerable state?
And somewhere, deep within, an answer had quietly taken root.
Perhaps... it had been a fragment of mercy. A minuscule, almost insignificant trace of it.
As to why, she still did not know.
But a small part of her wondered... if it had anything to do with the fact that Selene had given birth to her.
Perhaps that was all it was.
Perhaps that was all it had ever been.
With Ivan’s words resonating within her, Eve asked herself what would happen if she went through with it.
Would she become just like the woman before her? Cold and heartless... would there be any difference left between the two of them?
The answer was one she did not like.
Maybe.
With that "maybe" lingering heavily in her mind, Eve allowed Ivan to slowly pull back her hand, which was still hovering over Selene’s heart. In quiet understanding, Ivan gently released his arms from around her and shifted so she could rise to her feet.
The moment she moved back, Ivan did not hesitate.
In one swift motion, he drove Incendium straight into Selene’s beating heart.
A searing heat erupted from the blade, forcing a final, agonised scream from Selene as her heart burst into countless pieces.
But it did not end there.
The divine power coursing through the sword was overwhelming. Within seconds, her entire body caught fire, flames consuming her where she lay.
The wind howled fiercely as Selene burned.
Eve stood to the side, her eyes closed, overwhelmed by the storm of emotions raging within her.
Ivan stepped in front of her and pulled her into a warm embrace, feeling every bit of her turmoil. Relief. Pain. Hurt. Justice. All tangled together.
She was not the only one.
Solan, Septimus, and Iskara all felt something within them finally settle. Selene’s death meant something. It marked the end of the immense suffering she had caused throughout her existence, not just to them... but to the entire world she had thrown into chaos.
And the effects were immediate.
With Selene finally gone, the creatures and rifts that had been sustained by her dark magic began to collapse. The ground trembled as the gateways to the depths of hell started to close.
The demons and creatures that people were still fighting remained on the surface, but the endless tide that had once poured through was cut off. Those that attempted to emerge were mercilessly crushed as the rifts sealed shut.
A collective sigh of relief escaped Alex, Caleb, Damien, Cece, Edward, Oliver, Professor Dante, Seira, and Leo, who had regrouped after clearing their respective areas, only to arrive in time to witness judgment being delivered by Ivan, after Eve had already inflicted devastating damage upon the woman.
Glancing around at the now-closing rifts, Ruth asked softly, "Is it... finally over?"
Her voice was barely above a whisper as she read the sombre atmosphere, watching Princess Evelyn still wrapped in Prince Ivan’s embrace.
Ruth had heard rumours of Prince Ivan falling hard for a Lumen Princess, but seeing them together like this spread a sudden warmth in her heart. Even though she did not know them personally, she could feel it.
She could see how deeply those two loved each other, and more than that, how much the people around them cared for them in return.
Ruth did not know the full story of what had happened with the woman named Selene, but hearing everything Princess Evelyn proclaimed before delivering justice made her heart shudder at the demoness’s ruthlessness.
Yet, seeing Evelyn in such a sombre mood made her realise that the brutality she had witnessed earlier was not the full truth of the Lumen Princess. She also possessed a kind heart. After all, who else would feel such weight after finally killing their greatest nemesis?
Her thoughts were interrupted by a disturbance from the other side of the field, where the Demon Prince had been thrown by Prince Ivan.
Cece replied to her question in a grim tone, "Not yet."
"The thousand-year-old fossil is still left," Damien added.
He eyed Azrath, who emerged from the debris looking absolutely livid. The demon’s eyes had darkened to a void-like black, and his red hair whipped fiercely in the wind. Behind him, his newly generated tentacles were already slithering, ready for a final, desperate strike.
