Chapter 145 - Enough

Francis and Annak examined the boy that resembled Ander from head to toe. He was not like the other illusions that they had met in the palace. He didn't absorb their memories or try to fool them and as far as Annak could tell he was somehow connected to the maze of illusions they were stuck in.

The blood from Ander was giving her chills, she couldn't put her finger on what was causing the illusions and the prison but she was roughly guessing that whoever it was knew Ander and was using his memories to cause them harm.

Her instincts were finding it hard to let go of the possibilities of Ander being behind everything. It wouldn't surprise her too much if the boy did turn out to be alive after all no one knew the trick to cheating death than the dragon king.

"We should find Alex and the others and figure a way out of this," Francis said unable to bear the sight before him for much longer. Seeing Ander hurt like that was making his heart hurt with guilt.

"Does it hurt you to see me like this?" Ander asked him like he could read his thoughts. "It isn't fair that you get to choose what parts of me you get to see. I want you to take a closer look at the outcome of your choices," he added lifting his hands up to give Francis and Annak a better view of his bleeding hands..

"I don't think we can leave," Annak stated.

"I know that you think that he could be the key to getting out of here but he isn't. We need to leave," Francis let out.

"I meant I don't think we can leave because is swallowing us up," Annak informed him. Francis looked down and indeed the ground was swallowing them. He reached his hands to grab the desk by his right only to have the desk move away from him. 

Annak tried to cast a spell to get out of there but her magic wasn't working. Slowly and surely their bodies were getting deeper and deeper into the ground.

They remained calm to avoid panicking but their hearts were pounding in their chests from seeing their end right before their eyes.

"You will now understand what it means to be helpless. Unable to save yourself from drowning no matter how much you try. Today Fran… sorry I'm still under the illusion that you are Francis my father's lover but in truth you are Avan, the liar who played with me," the boy uttered.

Francis looked up at Ander with surprise in his eyes. It was either the room was very good at reading their memories or it was taking guesses. The room only played with illusions of their fears and more times it had gotten things different from how they really happened. 

"I have never played games with Ander," he said trying to test his theory. He wanted to know if what he was thinking was the truth or just another illusion. 

"Lies," Ander screamed loudly in anger. The room shook from the sound of his voice. "You have lied to me since the very day we met. You stole from me and lied about it, true or false?" Ander asked to him unable to contain his anger.

Francis smirked at his outburst. "So you want me to understand what it means to be Ander?" he questioned. "What makes you think that I don't understand and how is killing going to make understand what it feels to realize that the one you love doesn't belong to you?"

"Its not," Ander replied. "But while you are stuck here your beloved is selling his soul to me. You will understand when you will lose him forever," he added.

It was fun for Ander to watch how the smirk that was on Francis's face drop. Francis struggled to get out and go save Alex from whatever that Ander planned to do with him. The more he struggled the faster he found that he was sinking.

"What do you think will happened after all this Ander?" he asked his voice weak from the helpless condition that he was finding himself in. It was very sad and painful to know that the person he loved the most and was finally free to love was going away from him at that veery moment and not be able to save him.

"It will end," Ander told to him.

"This is not happening right now," Francis screamed. He couldn't believe that it was the end of his love story and just like that the ground returned to normal and the illusion broken.

"If you think that I am letting you out of this room then you are mistaken?" Ander said to them.

"Enough," Francis let out irritated by him. He grabbed his sword and jumped towards Ander. Before Ander could move out of the way, the sword had pierced through his heart. "I have had enough of you," Francis said to him.

He glanced into the creature that he was sure was posing as Ander and using the boy's memories to try and ruin them.

"I don't value life, that was what you said right?" he saw the memory from when he had spoken with Ander by the balcony of the palace years ago.

"How are going to make it up to me. How will you balance it?" he heard even though Ander didn't open his mouth to talk to him. 

"Balance? Balance what?" he recalled asking the boy that day.

"You love my father and Avan a lot don't you. So how will you balance the love between the three of us?" he asked him. "I have an idea, why don't you love me more," Ander suggested.

"I think I can do that," he remembered saying to Ander once he stopped laughing at how ridiculous Ander sounded.

Francis shook his head from taken back to the past by the boy. "Once you had said that I didn't value life that is why it was always easy for me to think of death as the answer to all my problems," Ander finally spoke coughing blood from his mouth. 

"I….I…" Francis couldn't come up with a reply and then he realized that he didn't need to. It wasn't really Ander and he owed no stranger explanations for the choices that he made in his life.

"Congratulations, today even you have learned how to think of death as the solution. Consider this my compensation for all the promises you broke," Ander spoke before closing his eyes shut. He dropped to the ground his knees unable to keep him up anymore. 

The illusion in the room vanished and found himself on top of Ander's bed in the palace with his sword inside of Natalia's chest. He gasped taking his sword back and moving away from the girl.

Annak who stood not to far from him took the chance to examine Natalia, she sighed in relief when the girl proved to still be alive but what troubled her was the feeling she got of a soul departing from the room. From her familiarity with Ander soul as she had tried to save a while back. She was certain that it was Ander's soul that Francis's sword shattered.

Since Francis's sword was made with dragon breath there was no way that Ander could survive the attack no matter how powerful he was. For the first time in learning of Ander's death he felt sad because this time the dragon king had no way of returning since he was scattered to pieces.

"Natalia is alive," she told to him. Francis felt life returning to his face after hearing what she had to say.  For a moment there he had thought that he had killed her. "But," Annak started unsure of how to deliver the news of Ander's death.

"B…But what?" his heart was trembling from what he was hearing from her. The but meant that there was a problem and he couldn't take that at the moment when he was also worried about Alex.

"But now we are stuck together just the way our story began," he heard and saw the ghost of Ander say to him. Just then pieces of the shattered body of Ander flew to him and attached to his sword before disappearing. "Now that you have killed me using wish magic, im stuck to you forever. And that is a long time so buckle up because this is going to be the worst years of your life," Ander added and let out an evil laugh.

"But I am afraid that Ander's soul was inside her when you struck with your sword. You haven't hurt Natalia but your sword has killed Ander," Annak said.

Francis was so shocked by what he heard. Never in his life did he think that such a day would come but it did. Ander had tricked him into killing him.

"By the way bear in mind that you have killed the black moon dragon. Thus when you get out of here, you will unleash the curse unto the world," Ander informed enjoying himself.