Arinay, realizing that his options were dwindling, felt the crushing weight of despair seep into his bones. The once unshakable ruler of Mytheria, feared and revered across the cosmos, now stood powerless—his spirit shackled by sorrow, his body frozen by betrayal.
Before him, the sight was unbearable.
His queens—his light, his heart—were imprisoned, bound in restraints forged from cursed mana. Their cries were muffled by the silencing enchantments that wrapped around their forms like serpents.
Arinay clenched his fists until his nails drew blood from his palms. His voice came out hoarse, barely above a whisper.
"…If I accept your feelings… will you let them go?" His eyes didn't meet hers yet. "Will you set them free… and swear not to harm them?"
Valtheria's gaze softened for a heartbeat. Her lips curved into something sweet—but too sweet, too perfect.
"Yes, my love," she said gently, as if soothing a child. "I will let them go. I won't hurt them… Just say you'll be mine."
But Arinay's keen senses didn't miss the slight twitch in her eye. His voice turned cold as frost. "You know… you still have a habit of twitching your eye when you lie."
Her mask cracked in an instant.
Her smile curled into something vicious—unhinged. "You really do know me well, don't you?" Her voice shook with restrained fury. "Everything… except my feelings for you."
She screamed, her voice rising like a wounded beast, but she quickly steadied herself. In her hand, a dark artifact shimmered to life—a strange black two rings veiled in wisps of forbidden magic.
"This… this will fix everything," she whispered, her tone now disturbingly calm. "I shaped my whole existence around this gift, Arinay. Every heartbeat was for this moment."
"Because of that damned cursed future vision… we were never supposed to be together!" Valtheria's voice cracked, laughter and sorrow clashing in every word. "That's why I started pulling away when I was sixteen and you were seventeen… I saw our love ending in ruin. I thought I was protecting us—protecting you." Her eyes shimmered with madness, tears mixing with a smile too wide to be sane. "But they took advantage of that distance, didn't they? They crept into your heart… one by one… stealing what was mine. THEY only meant to be used as a tool"
She stepped closer to Arinay, slow and deliberate, until she stood just before him. With a soft breath, her hand slipped between her breasts, drawing out a slender ritual dagger nestled close to her heart—like a secret she had always kept just for him.—its edge lined with ancient runes that pulsed as it neared his body.
"I didn't want to cut you," she whispered, her tone eerily gentle now, as if apologizing for a minor inconvenience, "but your blood is necessary for the ritual."
Without waiting for permission, she pressed the blade to his upper arm, and a shallow slice opened, red seeping through his skin. Arinay winced, but couldn't resist. Valtheria calmly collected the blood in a small crystal vial.
Then, in a disturbing act of twisted affection, she leaned in and gently pressed her tongue to the wound, licking the blood away with slow, deliberate strokes. "There… all better," she murmured with a dreamy smile, her lips stained crimson. "See, I still care. I'll always care."
She raised the glowing rings, its runes flaring violently now. "But it's fine now. I've found the perfect way to change fate. The future will be rewritten, Arinay. And the price… will be those ten thieves Who had the audacity to take what belonged to me from the start. I'll erase them from your world, from your soul… until the only person you remember… the only one you love… is me."
Dark light enveloped the room. The air turned heavy as a dome of violet energy surged above them. Valtheria lifted her hand, with the same orb which used to make the barriers releasing a new magic illusion—one that hovered like a cruel mirror above the crumbling celebration hall.
"Behold…" she murmured with twisted satisfaction. "Mirrorael—Sight Beyond the Veil. Let them watch each other break."
The illusion roared to life. Elystraea and Chronastra appeared within the magical window—tightly chained, their spirit forms restrained by golden runes that were suppressing and nullifying their magic."No!" Chronastra roared, her fangs bared in fury as her body writhed against the shackles. "Valtheria, you coward! You think this will make him love you?!"
Elystraea, ever the calm within the storm, trembled with grief. Her voice cracked. "Arinay… my love… don't give in. Please, don't die…"
Their words reached him like daggers.A soft, haunting smile bloomed on Valtheria's lips—serene, almost childlike—twisted by the madness of love tainted with obsession.She cradled the glowing rings in her hands like it was the answer to every prayer she'd ever whispered into the void. Her gaze flickered downward as if calculating the cost, then lifted with cold certainty.
"Among those ten wives of yours," she began, her voice now eerily calm, "two—those damned spirits—will be the foundation. Their life essence will fuel the core of the ritual, anchoring the spell to your soul. That's what it takes to awaken the ring's full power." Her eyes narrowed, bitterness and jealousy seething beneath her calm mask. "Elystraea and Chronastra… so beautiful, so powerful. Always clinging to you. Always hovering like they belonged by your side. But not anymore."
She stepped back, holding the crystal vial of Arinay's blood in one hand, the glowing rings in the other. Her voice grew colder with each word.
"The remaining eight… each one possesses a soul of a different kind—celestial, demonic, elemental, divine… so rare, so perfect. Each soul will be sacrificed—burned into the spell as offerings to the ancient scripts buried in these rings." Her eyes sparkled with madness now, as if the very act of destruction brought her twisted joy.
"And at the end of it all," she whispered, raising the vial of blood high as if making a toast to destiny, "your blood—the strongest in all the cosmos—will be used to inscribe the final spell. A binding script written in divinity and vengeance. It will rewrite your fate… and erase them forever. Only I will remain."
Arinay stepped forward, his legs shaking under the spiritual strain. But before he could act, the spell circle beneath his feet flashed blood-red.
Conjured spears of jagged obsidian—cursed and humming with death—manifested around the bound queens. Arinay's wives screamed as they felt the malicious energy closing in.
One queen whimpered, her voice faint. "My King… forgive me. I failed you…"
Another, bruised and bloody, looked toward him with dimming eyes. "We'll find each other again… even if the stars fall apart."
The spears rained down.
Blood spilled. Cries echoed.
And Arinay… could only watch watching her wives die one by one.
"NOOOO!!!" Chronastra's voice cracked, eyes wide with horror.
"VALTHERIA, YOU MONSTER!!" Elystraea sobbed, her body trembling uncontrollably. "YOU'LL PAY FOR THIS!!"
The spell took no mercy. Their screams faded one by one.
Arinay dropped to his knees, the world collapsing around him.
He couldn't breathe.
He couldn't move.
His mind drifted—not forward, but back, to a time untouched by betrayal.
A quiet garden in Mytheria, filled with the scent of eternal blossoms.
Laughter rang through the golden air. Arinay sat on soft grass, surrounded by his wives, his queens, his joy.
Elystraea rested her head on his shoulder, eyes closed in peace. Chronastra playfully tugged at his cloak. The others lounged nearby, basking in warmth and love.
"Let's see how long it takes for our children to ascend to Mytheria," one of them teased with a wink. "I bet they'll be stronger than all of us."
Arinay had chuckled, brushing hair from her face. "I only want them to live in peace… not the war I've endured."
Elystraea leaned up and kissed his cheek. "You've always carried too much alone. Let us carry it with you… always."
He had smiled then. A real smile.
A smile now lost.
The memory broke as pain surged through his chest.
Something cracked inside him—not just his soul, but his very heart.
Arinay stood, eyes burning with desperate defiance. Without hesitation, he clenched his hand into a spear and drove it into his own chest.
A sickening crunch.
Blood poured out as he fell forward, staggering onto his knees. His heart—imbued with divine mana—ruptured like a collapsing star.
The energy wave threw Valtheria back, her face contorting in horror.
"No… no, no, NO!!" she shrieked. "I didn't knew you will go this far. NOOO!! You'd rather die than accept me?! Even now?! After everything?!"
She snapped.
With a maddened scream, Valtheria activated her second artifact—an ancient spell circle etched with vengeance. It shimmered with a corrupted celestial glyph, forming a second volley of spears.
The remaining queens—those still clinging to life—looked up one last time.
Their eyes met Arinay's.
Tears streamed down his cheeks.
Their last smiles were bittersweet.
And then they were gone.
Impaled.
Silenced.
Their blood spilled across the marble floor, flowing like a crimson river toward Arinay's body.
He collapsed, unable to hold on.
Valtheria ran to him, cradling his limp form, crying uncontrollably. "Why… why wouldn't you choose me…? I would've given you everything…"
Behind her, her subordinates began the teleportation ritual. The palace cracked under the weight of broken magic. The grand hall—once full of laughter and music—was now a tomb.
Valtheria held his face gently, whispering, "I'll never let go of you… even in death. Yes! lets die together, my love"
And then—light.
A massive teleportation array engulfed her and her forces. In a flash of violet flame, they vanished.
Silence returned.
Ashes fell like snow.Arinay's heart began drawing in every last drop of mana from his body, preparing to unleash a devastating explosion
Arinay's hand twitched.
His voice, barely audible, escaped trembling lips.
"…I'm nothing…"
The weight of failure pressed down on him.
"I couldn't save them…"
"I couldn't save… her…"
His eyes drifted upward to the shattered ceiling, to the skies of Mytheria—once beautiful, now torn.
"If I sleep now… maybe… it'll all fade away…"
His eyes began to close.
But then—warmth.
A faint glow, pulsing at his finger.
The Ring of Rebirth.
A gentle light expanded from the band, casting a holy shimmer across the bloodstained hall. Its power seeped into his veins, clearing the fog in his mind.
A deep voice—ancient and resolute—spoke within.
"Requirements met. Eight ancestral bloodlines acknowledged."
"O King of Cosmos… your fall is not your end. The future awaits your return. The cosmos needs you.
"Choose the fallen. Choose the moment of rebirth.Number of uses remaining: 16."
Without hesitation, Arinay's eyes snapped open, a faint golden light flickering within them.
"…Sixteen…"
His breath hitched, blood dripping from his lips, yet he raised a trembling hand toward the silent sky.
"Sixteen lives… I can return to the cycle."
He stared at the shattered hall, at the stillness that had replaced their laughter.
"Then I'll begin with them…"
Groaning, he forced himself upright, every bone screaming in agony.
"I won't just bring them back… I'll give them a new beginning."
The ring pulsed—warm, alive.
His gaze steadied. Broken, bleeding… but blazing.
"…and I'll tear down everything that dared to take that beginning away."
Far beyond Mytheria, across realms unseen, the stars shivered.
From death, there will rise not an end—but a rebirth.And the cosmos will tremble, never to be the same again.
To be continued...