Chapter 25

25 “Abyss”

Eleanora’s pov ~

Everything was cold and dark around me... and weirdly familiar. With a startling realisation, I realised I was still in the Abyss again.

So the past few days was really my memory?

Where is the goddess?

She told me that it was my third life, not a dream.

Then why am i still here?

Am hearing sounds, but i can’t tell what it is about or who it is. I had so many questions going through my mind.

I knew from previous experience that there was no escaping the Abyss, not until it was ready to release me.

I would need to wait in the empty, the darkness, the nothing... alone.

.....

Then, a light suddenly surrounded me and I somehow found myself at the trial grounds, staring up at the noble council who would decide my fate.

It was just like before but there were small changes.

Cathain was facing the elder head nobles, his back to me as he addressed them.

Jena had wrapped herself around him like the snake she was, smiling at me with her true face.

Her true face was an destroyed face of an angel, which now looks like a demon, more precisely like a zombie.

The sky was dark and the moon was bloody red.

It offset the scene before me as the light had cast itself down.

Suddenly Cathain spoke, bringing my attention back to him.

“You have been found guilty of the charges against you. The murder of the empire’s heir, in addition to the harm caused to queen Jennifer, carry the harshest sentence,”

Cathain started.

He turned around and Jena finally stepped back, her smile never faltering as she fed on the anticipating of waiting to watch me die.

Her hunger was insatiable as she looked as if she was holding herself back from killing me herself.

“Therefore, with the power held within me, I, Cathain Valentino, Emperor of the Valentino empire, sentence you, Eleanora Dalton, former empress of the Valentino empire, to death.”

I looked up to meet his eyes as he carried the broadsword in his hand as if it was entirely natural for him, as if he’d held it many times before.

I looked into his red eyes and saw the same cold look I was so familiar. A look of hatred.

“Cain...” I called for him.

But he ignored me completely as the scene continued like a script of the original memory.

It was like I was unable to make a difference, everything was predetermined.

“Your sentence is to be carried out immediately.”

He continued to walk towards me with the sword in hand, unstopping and uncaring about anything I had to say.

This time, i wanted to make the scene that i didn’t did before.

I wanted to scream at him that this was wrong, that i was innocent, but suddenly my voice was gone again.

Every time I tried to speak it was like I was being suffocated, and every time I tried to get up to run my body would refuse to listen.

There was no waiting for me to place my head on the block. No, he immediately stepped forward and swung his arm back.

I looked behind him for one final moment and saw Jena to his left staring at me with such greed, almost salivating at the final blow about to be struck.

However, to my utter shock and horror, to his right, I saw the Goddess herself watching on.

She was a silent bystander, unmoving and expressionless as she stood and witnessed what was about to occur without a single ounce of remorse showing.

She had told me I wouldn’t be alone this time, and yet she showed no regret at seeing me killed.

I wanted to laugh out loud.

The goddess told me to write my own destiny and here everything is going according to the script she has written.

I can’t even say a single word that isn’t written in the novel of my life called ‘Fate’.

I met Cathain’s red eyes as he brought the sword down. I wanted to watch this time, not die in the darkness as I had the last time.

The impact was quick and swift as he finished the job in one movement. And finally, I felt at peace.

__

I woke up to the feeling of someone lightly shaking my shoulder.

I wanted to protest against the touch and refuse to open my eyes, but the shaking was insistent.

“Ele?” a voice called to me.

It was familiar and warm. It sounded like father.

I managed to open my eyes a bit, fighting against the bright light that was piercing my gaze.

But after several seconds of adjusting, I managed to make out the face of my father.

“Ele?” He called again.

“I’m alive...?” I said, my throat dry and sore.

Maria quickly brought some water to my lips and I began to sip on it, enjoying the refreshing feeling that came with it.

“How are you feeling?”

My father asked as he put his hands on my forehead to cheak ny temperature.

How was I feeling? I was sure I had died again.

I was in the Abyss, I saw the memory. It was just like how it had felt last time.

So, how was I feeling?

I felt confused by the entire situation right now.

“I should be dead,”

I replied.

Father’s face instantly turned black, also a little shocked by my blunt response.

“Leave us alone.”

My father spoke in a cold voice and in an instant, everyone left the room.

“Don’t say something like that, Ele. Father won’t let you get hurt anymore.”

“Daddy...”

“You have me and everyone... Why would you be death? You have everything and everyone’s love for you...”

He said as he hugged me in his arms and i wrapped my tiny hands around his shoulders.

Does this mean I was never in the Abyss? Had it just been a nightmare the entire time?