When they came to get her from her cell, Tristessa barely had time to see the faces of the two Imperial soldiers before they covered her eyes with a black blindfold. She heard the sound of chains on the ceiling and then near her arms. She was partially freed, allowing her to lower her arms and allow the blood to flow back to her numb and cramped hands, but she wasn't free to any other kind of movement.

"Walk, prisoner."

She received a strong shove that almost made her fall face first onto the floor. Without saying anything, she obeyed and walked straight ahead.

She didn't know where she was. Whether it was a prison, a castle cell, or a dungeon. Nothing could be heard except the echo of the three's footsteps. When she had to turn around, the soldiers guided her with the harsh treatment they gave prisoners in that unfamiliar place.

At one point, she heard the sound of a metal door opening a few feet in front of her, and a gust of fresh air hit her face. Outside air, with that musty, wooded nature smell typical of End-World, and… something else.

Something she couldn't recognize or even think about at the time, given that, likewise, the door closed behind her, and a few steps later, the soldiers stopped her.

"On your knees."

It wasn't an invitation, but rather a warning that she was about to receive a blow behind her legs that made her fall as requested. Her knees burned and sent unpleasant, electric shocks through her as she felt the hard contact of the stone floor. Then one of the soldiers took her hands and did something with the chains that restrained them.

They removed the blindfold, allowing Tristessa to see again, her vision cleared of the absolute darkness. She immediately saw the chains surrounding her wrists had been tied to other chains welded to a small metal base on the floor.

Looking up, she saw a sort of courtyard in front of her, bordered by walls. Beyond them, taller structures of black stone and metal fences with sharp tops, which suggested they were the different sectors of a castle. Energy crystals were embedded in the walls, in equally spaced openings, emanating a faint white light that contrasted perfectly with the dusk that covered the sky of Entrana. A sky purified of the corruption of the Evil Dream, which had not fallen upon the city thanks to the Evil-Warding Pillar.

Soldiers watched over the courtyard from the four entrances; two at each cardinal point, the arch with the large metal door being the southern entrance to that courtyard. Every architectural element was made of smooth, polished black stone with steel reinforcements. The dampness of the last rain soaked into the interstices of the bricks was evident, and a new gust of nocturnal wind swept across the space, bringing with it that particular smell…

The smell of burning flesh. Of Death, brought from who knows where. That negative stimulus opened Tristessa's eyes, her perspective, and the realization of where she was.

"…what?!" And it wasn't until her eyes focused on a metal platform in the center of the space that Tristessa realized this was an execution yard. "NO!"

The Mercer-Archeos were at the top of those gallows, lined up and kneeling. In the presence of a phantom audience, composed only of the entrance guards and none other than Aurelia Eramisaptor.

"Now that you're here, Stranger, we can begin."

Standing at the edge of the platform, next to the family, Aurelia had been waiting for Tristessa to join them. Now she held her glaive in her right hand, the weapon with which she would administer her justice.

"J-Jin…!" the girl sobbed, tears accumulating in the surface of her eyes. She had thought she was prepared to watch them die and bear the guilt. She couldn't have been more wrong about that. "Lucahn!"

"Waaa! Daddy, mommy!" The little boy was the very embodiment of hopelessness, crying nonstop, knowing he was going to die and that there was nothing he could do to stop it. "W-Will we go where Gaal went?! To our Family Halls?!"

"Yes, son…!"

The hunter cried, staring at Lucahn as if he were the most precious thing in the world and that he would inevitably lose him. He couldn't console him, couldn't say goodbye. He couldn't tell him how sorry he was for not giving him a better life than this one, condemned by the sins of his eldest daughter.

A father doesn't deserve to see his son die. One of the worst fates a human being can suffer… But no matter how much he cried an ocean, or how much he begged for the salvation of a child who had nothing to do with the Massacre of the Endless Night, he wouldn't find mercy. Not from that black-haired woman with a soul filled with cold [Grace] and surrounded by an unbreakable cloak of the most upright and inviolable justice.

And Tiara…

"Tristessa!" The chestnut-haired woman shouted her name so that all the few presents could hear. Aurelia Eramisaptor allowed her outburst, knowing it wouldn't change anything. "Your plan didn't go as planned! Or maybe it did?! Was the Coven all a farce?! Was Daiana going to kill us or was it all a lie to bring us to this place?! Tell me, Stranger!"

With her hands tied, Tiara screamed in fury. It seemed that now that the moment of Death had arrived, she couldn't completely submit to her fate.

Who could? When the time of Death comes, it's the moment in which one reveals oneself as one truly is, without masks, all facades shattered. And Tiara showed that her frustration, in the crossroads between surviving in a world that didn't want her family alive, was going to be the last memory that everyone present would carry with them for the rest of their days... With the exception of Tristessa.

"I can answer for that, Madam Archeos." To the surprise of both Tristessa and Tiara, Aurelia spoke and bent down to pull something from a sack-like bag at her feet. "I hope there are no hard feelings for killing this inhuman monster."

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The She-Dragoon held in her left hand the severed head of none other than Daiana Mercer-Archeos. It was impossible not to recognize her, with her lack of hair and face saturated with insanity despite her upturned eyes and open mouth, stained with blood at the corners as if she had vomited a large amount before dying.

"A little less than an hour ago, your daughter appeared with her entourage of lunatics at the south gate. She was looking for you three... My soldiers were no match for the beasts of the Evil Dream and the Coven."

Aurelia approached Tiara and showed her daughter's head, so close that their noses almost touched. She couldn't believe it, her eyes wide open and her brain short-circuiting. Mute with astonishment, with the surprise she hadn't expected and that Aurelia had kept to herself until Tristessa appeared in that courtyard.

"Once they decimated my southern squad, they massacred the refugees and burned their corpses. That's what we're smelling right now... The bodies of men, women, and children, reduced to charred remains," the irate woman hissed, so livid that even Tiara was trembling in fear. "No one survived; it was an indiscriminate and systematic slaughter that I couldn't prevent. By the time I reached the south gate and confronted your daughter, it was too late... Another tragedy brought on by your damned family!"

With disgust and legendary anger etched on her face, she turned her back on Tiara and threw her head in Tristessa's direction, bouncing off the ground and spinning wildly until it went into the shadows of the courtyard that the thaumaturgic light couldn't eliminate.

But Tristessa imagined her there, laughing at her, at her failure to try to save them all. A laughter in the darkness, rejoicing… A laughter that was inside her head, but so real and madness-inducing that she knew it would haunt her even in her mind palace, like a phantom of doom.

"Again…? Am I really going to repeat the cycle over, and over, and over, and over again…?" she wondered, muttering softly, drowned in despair. "It's impossible… I-I can't do anything right… I can't save anyone!"

That last bit was heard by Aurelia, who, despite being extremely furious, indulged herself with a sarcastic smile.

"We agree on that, lass. What made you think bringing them to Entrana would save them from Death? Exile was mercy when the entire city was calling for their heads. I was very explicit when I warned them that I would kill them if they ever showed their faces here again… And I am a woman of my word."

When the She-Dragoon gripped her weapon with both hands, both the Mercer-Archeos and Tristessa knew this was the final moment.

"I will send all three of you to the Abyss at the same time. At least then you can find your way to your Family's Halls together," the ruler of End-World declared, looking at each of the three: the hunter who only had tearful eyes for his son; the sobbing child, his face reddened and covered in tears and snot; and the pregnant woman, who had also broken down in tears, but tears of misfortune, cursing the fate that had condemned them to that life without a future.

To her and the small being growing in her womb, also condemned...

"STOP!"

From the west entrance and passing between the two surprised guards, a man appeared in the courtyard. No... He was not a human, but a member of the elven race, who suffered so much at the hands of the Shadow Queen. A blood elf, the remnants of his species, eternally seeking revenge for his annihilated brothers and sisters.

Crimson hair blown by the wind laden with the smell of burnt corpses, blue eyes radiating deep fear, and tightly gripping a cane with a power crystal embedded in its end.

"Who are you?! How the hell did you get through...?!" exclaimed one of the soldiers, putting a hand to the hilt of his sword, while his companion went straight to grab the elf's right shoulder.

"Don't move a muscle, pointy ears…"

But before the soldier could even touch him, the crystal on his cane was already emitting a dim white light. The sign of a spell being cast.

"Sycoma."

A collapsing non-elemental glyph, and the two soldiers were thrown backward by an invisible force. They crashed back against the wall and fell to the ground, unconscious.

The light from the Twin Moons and the illumination of the courtyard made Tristessa completely certain that the spellcaster was the blood elf who made her heart beat with warm emotions.

"Severus!" she shouted, her voice tinged with something called hope, one of the origins of weakness and at the same time strength in every human being.

"…"

The elf didn't even pay attention to her. Logically, he wasn't interested in a unfamiliar person like her: his entire being was focused on the Mercer-Archeos and on the one who was about to kill them.

"Don't abandon your posts!" Aurelia ordered as soon as the other soldiers drew their swords and were about to rush toward the elf. They all stopped in their tracks, even the soldiers guarding Tristessa, and the violet-eyed woman addressed this unwanted guest. "You have no business here, Malak Drakan. If you surrender, I promise I'll lock you in the dungeons for one month, for trespassing in the Lord's Castle and attacking my men."

"You can lock me up for the rest of my days, kill me if you want, but let them go," he begged, so frightened by the dire fate of his only friends in that world that even his thirst for revenge for his annihilated species was eclipsed. The fear of losing what he loved, once again. "Why?! Jin, Tiara, why did you come back?!"

The lack of understanding. The lack of information, or worse, incomplete information. Rumors passed by word of mouth about the return and arrest of the Mercer-Archeos, that was what had mobilized Severus. Unaware that Tristessa was the culprit, the mastermind behind their return in a plan that blew up in her face.

Aurelia knew that, and for a brief moment, her gaze shifted to that of the girl with her hands chained. Without any particular intention, given that only Tristessa had a connection to Severus through nonexistent pasts… Now, the two were perfect "strangers", and that hurt her soul.

Was there anything that night that didn't hurt her soul? In her chest, where her Baptism in Ruins emanated the supernatural frostbite that heralded the Dullahan's imminent arrival? Or in her heart, knowing that she was about to see loved ones die, before it was her turn?

"You are a fool, elf." The She-Dragoon's voice pulled Tristessa from her train of thought, addressing Severus. "My sentence was given before your arrival. They are already dead; you only delayed the inevitable by a few seconds."

Suddenly, Tristessa felt the atmosphere around her charged with energy. It was the same sensation of magical power gathering in the air, just like all those times she witnessed Severus performing complex thaumaturgy. But that wasn't magic... Aurelia's body captured all that astral energy and converted it into physical strength, speed, and endurance. Taking her to a level higher than that of an ordinary human.

Giving her the inhuman strength necessary to perform extraordinary...and deadly feats.

"Find peace in the timeless void."

A feat like severing the heads of the three Mercer-Archeos with a single horizontal slash. Not pausing at the natural resistance of muscle and bone against the blade of her glaive. A single, clean, and fleeting cut, killing all three just as she had promised.

Their heads rolled, and their bodies collapsed. Then, silence. The night welcomed the spill of fresh blood, dripping from the edge of the judge and executioner's glaive, and flowing rapidly until it reached the edge of the platform.

Flowing without stopping, like Tristessa's tears.

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