NOVEL NEXT Chapter 313: Love.
"A protector you no longer needed or a foolish sister?"
Her words shook the already fragile and broken hearts of her siblings. For a moment, they forgot to breathe as the cold words of Shadeva echoed through their minds like the whispers of the damned.
They stood there, frozen, not even knowing what to say or do. But that didn't last long.
Mortis's eyes flared with anger, but also with indignation.
"We did all this for you! We did all this for you, sister! We enslaved ourselves to these powers because we didn't want you dead!" Mortis said as he glued his face against the prison's bars, looking like he wanted to break through them so badly.
"Do you think we enjoyed this?! Please, sister… who the fuck would enjoy being at the mercy of those bastards?"
"But we did it. WE DID IT FOR YOU!"
"FOR YOU!!"
Mortis bellowed, his voice echoing like thunder through the prison, making the very air quake with dread.
After that, he lowered his head, his body shaking as if about to collapse at any moment.
"We… did this for you, sister. And now… and now you come here discarding everything you were? Discarding everything that made us… siblings?" His voice was meek, almost a whisper.
Ebony and Sylphira bit the insides of their lips tightly, holding themselves back from shedding tears, but they couldn't stop their trembling bodies and their sporadic, broken breathing.
Shadeva looked at all of them, her expression calm outwardly but inwardly… inwardly her heart was being squeezed tightly.
It hurt… it hurt so much to see her siblings like this, in pain.
It hurt so much to see them looking at her as if she was no longer their sister.
It hurt so bad… so, so bad…
Her fingers started to tremble, but none of them noticed. They were all inside their own teary bubbles, thinking the world was falling apart.
Shadeva steeled herself. She couldn't let go—not today. No… because if she did, it would mean that all the suffering she went through when they sealed her meant nothing.
And that would be a lie.
It did mean something. And it was something agonizing.
"You did all that for me… you chained yourselves for me… but why? Why didn't you tell me? Why didn't you discuss it with me so we could find a way together?" she asked, her voice shaking softly.
"You wouldn't have accepted," Ebony said, staring at Shadeva with a disappointed and hurtful gaze. "You wouldn't have accepted that fate. You wouldn't have accepted being locked away. You wouldn't have accepted us being chained. So we did the best we could at that time. We chose for you. We chose the path where you'd still be alive, even if you suffered. But at the end, you wouldn't die by their hands. At the end, our sister would still be somewhere. At the end… we wouldn't lose you. We did all this because we love you."
She paused, then said more softly—
"Yes… we love you."
There was a sorrowful silence after her words.
Because all of them felt the weight of those words.
Love…
What a beautiful—but dreadful—feeling.
It can make you do anything, and you wouldn't even know if what you did was wrong or not because… you loved.
A person can be changed for the better… because of love.
A person can overcome their trauma… because of love.
But in the same way, a person can kill because of love. A person can hurt you deeply—without even realizing it—because of love.
Just like Shadeva's situation.
Her siblings sealed her away because they loved her too much to let her be killed by those beings. And in the process, they hurt her so deeply, so profoundly, that if not for Noah and his family…
Shadeva would've become something entirely harrowing for all of them.
Because even love and gentleness have limits.
And the most terrifying bad people… are those who were once kind and gentle, but the world made them cruel.
Shadeva chuckled bitterly in defeat.
She would've loved to make them understand that what they did was wrong. But if all they thought was that they did it out of love, and that she should be grateful to them…
Then it's useless.
They wouldn't understand…not just by talking.
"Fine…"
"Then let me return the favor. Let me imprison you for eons, because I love you, my dear siblings. Because I don't want you to suffer outside the universe where beings that can kill you roam freely. Or even after what you did to my children… Premier and Lorna."
She smiled.
"You angered their father. That was a very stupid thing to do—especially when he's the only one who can get rid of the chains binding you. But now it's too late."
"To protect you from my love… I'll have to seal you to appease him."
It was bullshit.
Noah would hardly do anything to them just because of Shadeva. Well… as long as they didn't cross the line.
And they hadn't yet.
So all of this was Shadeva trying to make her siblings feel the same way she had felt but…
"You are not our sister anymore," Mortis spat with anger.
"You no longer have shadows within you. You no longer carry the scent of shadows… how could you call yourself our sister in that case? Us? The originals born of shadows?"
"You are not our sister."
Those words hurt more than Shadeva had ever expected. Her heart sank, her breath became ragged—but she steeled herself even further, trying not to show how affected she was.
And the worst part…
They weren't even done.
"You… you are not the sister I spent eons tormenting myself to meet again. You are not the one whose shadows and presence made me feel at ease. Protected." Sylphira said, as tears started to fall from her face.
"Right now all I feel is an unfamiliar power… an unfamiliar presence… so who are you?"
Shadeva stayed silent.
She was afraid that if she spoke, she would break and tears would fall from her face.
But she couldn't stay silent after all, not replying would mean rejecting the one who had saved her from eternal damnation.
So she opened her mouth—and a cold but warm voice echoed through the air, making her siblings want to cry.
"I am Shadeva Shadow Vaelgrim, the Womb of the Fallen, the Elysiari of Motherhood, and wife of Noah Vaelgrim."
A small, woeful smile appeared on her lips.
"And… and… your sister, against all odds."
'Ah… I am so pathetic.'
—End of Chapter 313—