Scars To Memoirs

The Final Battle

They rushed to the throne room. Along the way they could see corpses, servants and guards alike, littered everywhere, and by the entrance, the personal guards of the Emperor lay dead.

MeiHua gritted her teeth, "Explain!" she pointed to the guard, "What is this?!"

"T-there was an i-intruder. H-he killed everyone on the way saying he-he was l-looking for s-something!" The guard stammered. "A-anyway I-I'm not going in there!"

"Could it be . . ." YueLian began. Could it be you? He opened those grandiose doors, revealing the bloody mess that was hiding behind. Inside the throne room held the corpses of a dozen royal soldiers, their hot blood staining the gold. A single man laid dead in the center of the throne room, his regal robes shredded to a mangled litter as a single sword pierced his scarlet flesh, his once furnished crown now adorned with a missing slot. The throne room held a man lazily sitting upon a royal relic, fanning himself with a gold lined fan decorated with a pink tassel, his eyes void of emotion.

Is that fan . . .?

"Ah, you're here," he perked up, smiling. His smile was once noble and pure, but now it held inklings of a practiced mask. "I've been waiting for you, YueLian and Rikai."

"Rolan!" Rikai yelled, his voice anguished. He truly didn't want to believe it either, but the man's face was unmistakably his. "Did you do this? Why would you kill thousands of innocents? How cruel can you be?!"

Rolan twitched, "I'm doing this for my beloved. I'm doing this to save her!" His face mangled up into a hideous expression, those once green eyes held the essence of blood and death.

But when his eyes laid on Princess MeiHua, he stopped, and a glorious smile emerged, "Is that you MeiHua?" He widened his arms for a hug, but when the opposing party backed away, he frowned. "Ah, it has been awhile since I last saw you Sweetie. You have grown up to be a memorable beauty just like your mother."

MeiHua staggered back, those once fearless eyes held a tint of confusion. "My mother?"

"Don't worry Sweetie, once I heal your mother with the Immortality Tablet, we can finally be a happy family again." He ran over to hold her hands, those eyes pleadingly wide.

"Stop spouting nonsense! My mother was caught and executed 28 years ago, and my father was banished." She wriggled out of his grasp and staggered away.

"But I came back! That night in the Spring, I saw her again! It was an illusion, but that helped me remember what my true mission was! Your mother was poisoned and left to rot in a cell, but I saved her. We hid out in a shack in the middle of a wasteland. I even planted a Bodhi Tree in your honor!" His eyes began diluting into a stark white, and his skin began yellowing. "We can be a happy family again!"

MeiHua hid behind YueLian and Rikai, her slender fingers trembling. She looked at her father. She had wanted a family so badly. She was always so envious of the other kids when they could go home into their parent's embrace. But she couldn't have that, she could only silently wish from afar.

"D-dad?"

"Rolan, stop this! You have contracted mind madness! We can help you! Give us the pellets and we can stop this once and for all!" Rikai yelled.

YueLian couldn't speak. He had once loved this man, but now he was inflicted with mind madness, his mind forever torn between his obsessions and reason. "Rolan . . ."

"I'm not Rolan." He walked over to the Emperor's corpse, a steel sword encrusted with 6 pellets still embedded in his heart. He grasped the stone hilt and with a swift motion, retracted the sword from his flesh, a fountain of blood spurting everywhere! He then retrieved the pellet that he had stolen from the Emperor's crown and placed it into a missing slot. The sword illuminated a golden light, its once placid blade emitting a scarlet smoke. "I'm DaliHua."