I felt the cold breeze lightly grazed on my skin. It was the middle of the night yet I have a clear and precise vision of our surroundings, thanks to the light emitted by the moon and some lamps hanging on the wall.
"It's just happened that I've found this place earlier..."
I'd watched him walked at the side of the rows of flowers, the door we went out earlier led us to this place, the garden of the castle. I'd remembered me and my mother were used to be here every day, watching butterflies flew from flower to flower. Sometimes, I brought a storybook and let her read it to me with my head laid on her lap.
Even though few years had already passed since my mother's death, the rows of colorful flowers here haven't changed at all, the bench where she often sat was still there nice and clean, and the cliff where we watched the sun being swallowed by the sea was still terrifying as always.
"Mother..."
I held back my tears as Prince Louis glanced at me. I supposed, he heard me muttered. He just shrugged his shoulder pretending he heard nothing. I'd walked to the cliff and grasped on the fence, watching the reflection of the moon on the sea.
"Did you know... there were originally seven moons in the past?" he exclaimed as he looked up to the moon. I haven't noticed that he was right behind me.
"Seven moons?"
"In the past, there were seven moons created by the gods to lighten up the sky at night. However, six of them were eaten by the sea-serpent dragon, Bakunawa, as revenged on the humans who killed his lover" He waved his hands like a snake, posing to devour the moon.
"So even the monsters also fell in love..." I muttered.
"Even if you are a monster, it doesn't mean that you couldn't have something dear to you, no?"
"I haven't seen any monster before, how could I tell—" I was interrupted by a loud noise came from the castle, it sounded like something exploded. My eyes turned on the place where I heard the explosion and witnessed a huge fire rose in the caste.
"Enemy attack!" a loud noise I heard everywhere, not just one but a couple of times.
"Father!" I pulled my dress up, hurriedly run back to the ball, Prince Louis grasped the hilt of his sword firmly and followed me.
"Princess Victoria, it's too dangerous!" I didn't mind what he said instead I continued dashing back to the hall where the kings and the guests are. I felt the end of my dress was shredded as I ran through the column of roses and felt something pricked on my legs but I have no time to check it.
As I opened the door, I felt a strange thing. I can't see anything, there was no light inside the hall. Suddenly, the darkness from the hall came out through the door and attempted to swallow me.
"Princess Victoria!"
The last sight I saw was Prince Louis running while his hand reached towards me before it whirled and turned into darkness.
What was it? I felt like my breath cut short, I couldn't even fill my whole lungs with air, and then some bubbles appeared out of nowhere. I felt my body was floating horizontally, which gave me a sight of the large ball of light above me.
Right before my eyes, bubbles were dancing as the pressure forced them upward, am I in the deep ocean? 'caused its looks like I am. For a moment I felt the current of the water ran on my body.
I saw the bubbles and the light from the ocean, and I felt the ocean's current, but how could I describe it.
Do I feel cold?... No, rather than the comforting coldness of the water, I felt really warm. I felt my life was in every bubble surrounding me, and it was slowly taking away from me, as though the large ball of light was pulling it.
I will die...
I reached my hands trying to catch the bubbles but every time I grasped them, they were shattered into smaller bubbles.
"Somebody, please help me..."
✽
Louis Lux Mennet|
Right before my eyes, I witnessed princess Victoria devoured by the darkness. I tried to reach her but my hands were just passing through the darkness as though I was trying to grasped water.
"Princess Victoria do you hear me?!"
I have a bad feeling about this, I've never seen this thing before. Is it an attack from the other kingdom? I doubt that there's no way a normal human can control such things as darkness.
"A normal human?" something came to my mind.
"As expected from the prince, you're pretty knowledgeable" a deep voice rose out of nowhere, and a certain person wore a black tattered robe came out from the hall. "Yes, this was the power you people declined, it's sorcery"
My eyes widened as I heard the word 'Sorcery'. It's impossible 'cause I heard that there was no occurrence of magic born in the past generation.
I pulled my sword out of its scabbard, blade faced towards him. He does not look armed. In fact, he was full of openings. I took a deep breath and prevented a single air came out from my body which made my blood run faster.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you, prince"
I repositioned my foot back and pushed the ground, which made the gap between us closer. The moment that I got close enough to him, I raised my sword above me, aim at his defenseless body, and brought it down towards him.
"Impossible..." I muttered.
The sword along with my body just passed through him as if I slashed an air. What was this feeling? I felt my chest was burning.
"Guh!"
For some reason, I'd vomited blood that made me realize that I was struck by a blade on my chest.
"I told you... hit me once, and you got it twice" he said with a snide grin on his face.
How? he doesn't have a knife or a sword, so how did he wound me?...
"I heard you were quite knowledgeable, Prince... was it because you always wandered around?... or was it because of your curiosity... then let me tell you one thing that might help you... not only the magic born can use sorcery"
"What do you mean?" I wiped off the blood on my lips and stood up.
"Who knows..."
Then again I held my sword and faced the blade to him. I swung it to him but this time, the blade didn't pass through him however it was blocked by another blade that made a loud clang noise.
"I'm too invincible for you... why don't you fight her instead..."
I felt my blood drained on my face as I saw the one who blocked my attack.
"Princess Victoria..."