As Efrideet looked at the view in the basin, that shone from Telamons eyes, something in the corner of Telamons eye caught her attention, the little prince candidate was moving his lips mouthing words again.
Her breathing went rampant and her heart seemed to still as she felt her entire body go into shock.
'I wouldn't do that if I were you Efrideet,' the words were soundless but they echoed loudly in her head, as looked on in near horror her every vein bulged and her eyes shrank in response.
The condescending look on his boy's face drove her mad, and she could feel those glowing silver eyes peeking on her through the basin she used.
The basin was hers, she found it by herself, it belonged to her alone, yet he was using it against her.
She didn't even have the time to consider how it was possible as the reality was hitting her in the face.
She changed the nature of her attack and the target.
In doing so she made a mistake one that fate itself had warned her against.
She had hoped to use the manipulation technique against Lirian, due to his life level complete control would have been easy but fate itself had warned against such action.
When she looked at his fate string for the first time, she knew in an instant that it was special, it held a special kind of protection, one that she had seen on very few others, but it was far greater than she had ever seen before.
She knew that attacking such a fate string would come with dire consequences for her, it was pure instinct that told her so, it was just like how when one looked at lava they instinctively knew that they'd die if they jumped into it.
But fear had taken root in her, the child found out that she was working with Telamon if word got to the empress then all of their schemes together could get exposed and that would be a death warrant for the both of them.
She changed the attack, from an impulse manipulation to a fate string cutter, if he was a cultivator, she wouldn't dare try such a thing but he was still an ordinary mortal and sure enough, when the attack arrived it came down directly on his fate string.
She felt the fate strings around her twist violently, shirking off every ounce of her control, and if fate could experience rage, then that was exactly what she felt she was being subjected to.
The fate strings attached to her all snapped simultaneously and roared at her in fury.
'Snap,', 'Snap,', 'Snap,'
The sound of snapping strings echoed throughout the room, with every loud popping sound, Efrideet felt herself grow weaker, but she was completely powerless in the face of fate's fury.
Eventually, she slumped forward like a puppet with its strings cut off and smashed her head against the bowl, a diviner was special but their bodies were as weak as an ordinary person.
'Noooo,' she tried to cry but her voice failed her as black filth came pouring out of her mouth.
'I'm the master of fate your master' she cried internally as fate refused to respond to her touch ', you can't do this to me, I earned the right to bend you, you answer to me alone.'
She reached out her hands trying to grab onto fate once more in vain, it was futile and she sobbed as she lost the feeling of fates warm embrace.
Blood gushed out from her head and black filth oozed out of the markings on her body, she felt bile and blood flow up her throat and pour out of her mouth like a tap, but as she took one final look in the basin she smiled.
That bitch would feel the pain of losing a child all over again, the moment Lirian said her name she took him off the list of potential threats and labeled him as a real one.
It succeeded his string and been cut.
---
"... due to the long friendship between myself and the Jane family I have chosen to overlook this transgression, the misguided actions of a single person does not stand as a representation of an entire nation, after nu-…" Taliyah suddenly stopped as she heard something crash behind her.
She glanced back and saw Lirian stumble to the ground, the reporters all turned to see it too, 'What is he up to now this isn't part of the script,' she sighed, but then she felt his life force dissipate suddenly.
Taliyah's eyes shrunk, and her heart pumped furiously, as his life force took a sharp turn downwards, she could even make out small parts of his body flaking away, as if he was about to vanish from existence.
[Warn...]
That was all Lirian heard from the system before he felt his fate string snap, the natural tension that fate exerted on his body vanished.
He collapsed from his seat while clutching onto his chest, his eyes were dyed red as the blood vessels began to slowly pop, he'd overused Samsara's vision and now his fate string was cut.
He forced himself to use energy control as he tried to think of a solution, but he knew that he only had seconds before he died.
He forced the energy around him to hold his fate string in place and lock down his soul, but the strain it put on him was immense.
He forced himself to crawl up from the ground, and as he got to his knees he could only make out the flashing of cameras, as blood filled his mouth and died his teeth red, he tried to look around for his mother.
Hazy images were flashing before his eye, and he could feel hot blood pouring out of his ever orifice as he tried to crawl forward, "You... Bitch... Efrideet," he forced himself to mutter, there were tons of cameras and mics hopefully one of them would have picked up something.
Even in this dire situation, he made everything count, he wouldn't let a chance slip by, the system came to a conclusion on how to heal him immediately.
[Use an Ethereal Revival Embryo]
He didn't need it to tell him, he had dealt with something similar in the past and it was the only way to recover from a severed fate string that he knew of.
As much as he wanted to pull out the embryo right there and then, the presence of such an object was majestic, and every world within the star zone would detect it's presence, not to mention that with all the camera's present, the entire universe would find out about it.
He pulled himself forward with all the strength he could muster he needed to get out of here first, "Mom," he spoke but his voice had lost its power and he stumbled to the ground.
Taliyah had watched in horror as soon as she saw the blood, she rushed to him in a mad panic, it was flowing so violently and it died his face and clothes completely in golden-red blood.
"NO, NO, NOOOOO!" she was crying out in despair with shaking arms, his life force was almost completely gone, "Not my baby, no, no please noooooo!" she sobbed as she clutched onto his body.
She lost all her grace as an empress as she sobbed violently, but that was the furthest thought from her mind, as Lirian became a bag of overflowing blood.
She couldn't bring herself to accept what was happing right before her eyes, as his blood started to gush all over her golden dress she could only clutch onto him tightly, as she tried to convince herself that this was all a nightmare.
His eyes were completely blank and she could her him calling her in tiny whimpers but he wasn't reacting to her touch or voice at all.
She ignited her saints grace and poured a little sliver into him, she knew that the potency could damage his body beyond repair but it was her only hope to buy him time.
Lirian could feel the darkness closing on him in all directions, and in it, he was all alone, there was nothing as he felt the life force drain from his body, his eyes had gone dark and the whole world was a blank canvas, could it all have just been a dream he thought.
'Perhaps it is,' a voice echoed in the dark place, 'perhaps we are all just the passing dreams of others but that doesn't mean that everything we experience isn't real to us.'