Dark Resurrection: Shadows of Nekrom [Dark Fantasy | Isekai | Soft-LitRPG | Slowburn | Time Loop]

Chapter 157 - The Cost of Our Dreams



Saying out loud that she was a visitor from another world felt liberating. As if an unbearable weight had been lifted, even with the high probability that one of those three would murder her without a second thought, as dictated by the primordial and collective social order of the Empire of the Night's Watch.

Something that didn't happen. The opposite, in fact. Hearing her say those words out loud created a very emotional ripple effect.

"Ha... Ha...!" Auron seemed to be in limbo between wanting to laugh or cry. His hands trembled in his lap. His eyes glittered, wild emotions flashing before them that only he understood. "Blessed Valdrek, smiling at a wretch like me..."

"S-Stranger... A Stranger." Astoria's face had reddened from the urge to burst into tears. Her mouth had pursed, resisting the sobs that wanted to escape, the sensations inside her screaming and wrapped in a hellish frenzy. "I can't believe this. A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity… What did I do to deserve it?"

Only Severus maintained a solid level of skepticism. He stood by the fireplace, arms still crossed, despite all the inhuman hatred that pooled on his handsome face and twisted it into something terrifying.

"Am I the only one who doubts the word of someone I've never met in my life?" he asked. "The thought that she's lying hasn't even crossed your minds?"

"You have no choice but to take my word for it, Severus. How could I prove it to you? I don't even know who I am; it wouldn't do any good to explain things about my world to you, would it?" Tristessa smiled apologetically at him, making him even angrier. "The Mercer-Archeos have helped me a lot these past two days in learning about myself and Nekrom. I know I'm the owner of four Divinities..."

"FOUR?!" The blood elf couldn't contain himself, exclaiming to the top of his lungs, his eyes widening. His surprise was even greater than that of the excited gunslinger and knightess. "You're lying... Lies! It can't be true!"

"Bring a trusted Mystic Tattooist here and they'll confirm it for you. But don't take too long: time is running out for everyone, specially for the Mercer-Archeos."

That was pure psychological manipulation, and Tristessa regretted resorting to such a vile method, effective in delivering a low blow to Severus and making his invisible walls tremble. Forcing him to think against the clock, nerves and anxiety taking their rightful place alongside the fear that had remained after the phantasm apparition of -possibly- the Lord of Forbidden Knowledge in his workshop.

"What Divinities…? No, no, wait. Let me ask the most important thing." Auron ran his hands through his short black hair, tousling it in an attempt to control his erratic emotions. As he lowered them, he adjusted his handkerchief out of pure reflex and asked, "Why did you choose us, lady?"

Easy to explain, with the purest of truths.

"Because thanks to one of my Divinities, I know a few things about you. And I know that, beyond the fact that you have desires that only a Stranger can help you fulfill, you are good people," she explained with an honest smile. Directed equally at all three of them. "And I know you don't need a relationship like Severus's to want to save a family from dying at the hands of the Coven. I know you would want to help… I can feel it."

"Ha! You give me too much credit, lady… At the end of the day, I want my pay."

Auron scratched the back of his neck, uncomfortable, averting his gaze in embarrassment. Meanwhile, Astoria had lowered her gaze, too overwhelmed by her thoughts to ask anything or offer an opinion for the moment.

Severus, on the other hand…

"I'm going outside for a bit."

He passed by Tristessa, who was stunned. Without even looking at her, and left, slamming the door behind him, echoing throughout the suite.

"Sev…"

Without him present, she realized the fireplace wasn't as warm as it had been seconds before: all this time, it had been the blood elf the most powerful source of heat, controlling his inherited anger.

"Sev! I-I must go!" she said to the two warriors, with pleading eyes. "Auron, Astoria…!"

"Go and bring back that failed thaumaturge. We still have to…reason this through, you know. I'm sure Silverthorn agrees with me."

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"Y-yes…"

Nodding, they gave Tristessa free rein to leave the room and ran frantically down the hallway, as if pursued by vengeful spirit.

"SEVERUS!" she shouted, the elf's name echoing outside and through the upper floor of the great hall. "SEV…!"

"Shut up, will you? I just left for some fresh air, dammit."

Her concern had been unnecessary: ​​at the other end of the rows of cubicles lined with customers and hostesses who were staring at Tristessa like a freak, Severus had leaned against the metal railing.

Before looking over his shoulder to silence the boisterous, gray-eyed girl, he had begun to scan the ground floor. Watching the cabaret getting filled with its usual clientele, now that the curfew had ended and the fear of the Evil Dream had been exorcised until further notice.

Wanting to focus on something other than what he'd just heard in the suite. An impossible intention to fulfill, with Tristessa having set out in search of him.

"So, the cost for our dreams is conspiring with a Stranger..." he whispered as Tristessa approached and stood beside him, leaning on the railing too. His blue gaze resembled the three-dimensional figures of local Nekromian animals floating near the ceiling, created with illusion thaumaturgy. "You've been in this world for two days, and you already know how to bend the will of poor idiots like the three of us. I doubt the Mercer-Archeos taught you that... Is it because of one of your Divinities?"

"Exactly... And I can't say much more, you know? Anomalous effects," she replied, feeling the cold touch against the railing gradually fade, giving way to the warmth emanating from Severus.

"I see. How convenient."

"I'm not lying… You can believe whatever you want about me, just help me save the…"

Severus interrupted her by slamming his fist into the railing. The metal rattled, Tristessa felt the vibration before letting go, frightened by his reaction and the way he was looking at her. So full of hatred…

"I would die for the Mercer-Archeos, have no doubt about that, Irandell…" he said, his fear for that family firmly in place, and that last name pronounced with disgust. "I will help you, a Stranger, even if my ancestors are currently turning in their graves."

He brought his face even closer to convey his determination. Making Tristessa feel the hellish heat radiating from him, the natural scent of his skin, how handsome he looked this angry, like the avenging hero she remembered from loops past…

She loved him. Her heartbeat with the speed of a lunatic running straight into the abyss, a victim of love. She loved him, even so, without a trace of the man who could show joy and not so much darkness incompatible with his luminous soul. She loved him, she loved him so much. With each passing loop, she loved him even more. Every time she saw him smile, every time she saw him die... Love, pure as the despair that her soul distilled every time she returned from Death.

She loved him… Even if he, in that loop, had nothing remotely like that to offer her.

"I want the best for the Mercer-Archeos, but my dream, my deepest desire, is to kill the Shadow Queen," he whispered to her, so close that Tristessa felt the air around them heat up and starting to hurt when breathig. "Do you think you can grant that to me?"

A goal that sounded impossible. Like stopping the rain with bare hands, or outwitting Death itself for all eternity.

And yet, she nodded, biting her lip to keep the sobs inside, trapped in her throat.

"Y-yes… I will help you get your revenge."

With a skeptical gasp—clearly not believing her—the blood elf stepped back, allowing her to take advantage of that space to speak without breaking down. Yet.

"You really hate me, huh…"

A confirmation that Severus was quick to reaffirm.

"Of course. It doesn't matter what world you came from, or what kind of person you are: Strangers like you caused the near-extinction of my species."

Saying that, Severus looked downstairs. At the multitude of customers and hostesses gathered in booths to chat or stand around the large round table to help themselves to hors d'oeuvres. Humans. Daemonions. Surely beastlings from Crywolf. A single Stranger, at his side. But no elves.

"I will never forgive your kind. Even if you intend to save the Mercer-Archeos, you are my enemy. All you will get from me is the wrath of millions of angry spirits demanding your kin's blood for ours."

Severus didn't wait for her to reply and turned to walk back into the suite, leaving her there alone with her miserable, broken heart.

"Sev…"

The pain was deep. Cruel and merciless. The chaos of fate and time had conspired against her, and now the man she loved not only had no way of remembering everything they had experienced together in pasts that no longer existed, he also detested her. He loathed her. He felt nothing but hatred toward her; circumstances being such that this outcome had happened out of the unfolding of events.

Tristessa saw his silhouette entering the hallway. She knew she had to follow him and continue with the plan she had devised in her mind palace, but the pain inside her was too great to even let her take a single step.

"We didn't plan this scenario, Lenore... And it hurts so much..." she thought, having to lean against the black railing again to allow herself to be supported and for all the suffering she had been bottling up inside to come out in the form of sobs and tears. "S-Sev... Oh, Sev..."

It hurt. That may be how Severus felt when he allied himself with people he hated. And that's how Tristessa felt, her heart being torn into a thousand pieces.

Broken, beyond repair… Indeed, a high price to pay for one's dreams.


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