ᴍʏ ʜᴇᴀʀᴛʟᴇꜱꜱ ᴘʀɪɴᴄᴇ | ᴢᴇʟᴅʀɪꜱ x ʀᴇᴀᴅᴇʀ | ᴜɴᴅᴇʀ ᴇᴅɪᴛɪɴɢ

ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ꜰᴏʀᴛʏ ᴛᴡᴏ

"Father—"

"Prince Meliodas, is this where you have been sneaking off to instead of attending your meetings with the Ten Commandments?" my father asks with a steely voice. "You have neglected your duties simply because you have befriended a Goddess?"

"You will not hurt her," I say quietly before my best friend can answer him and the grassy ground beneath us begins to tremble. "I will not let you lay a single finger on Elizabeth, old man."

"Is that so?" he snarls, ebony eyes bursting with anger.

"(Y/n) wait," Meliodas cuts in as he grabs my hand. "Don't—"

"I will not allow you to throw away your future," my father growls out as he raises his sword in my direction, the infamous sword rumoured to have killed as many as the Demon King's own weapon has. "You will not destroy everything that we have been building together all these years."

Meliodas begs, "(Y/n) please—"

"Teleport Blaze," I murmur and my best friend's outraged screams are the last thing I hear from him before he and his lover disappear. 

I duck just in time as my father slashes his sword in the area where my head was a second ago. Sucking in a sharp breath, I dart to his side and elbow him in the stomach, sending him flying backwards into one of the trees.

"(Y/n), you cannot do this!" my father cries out as he staggers to his feet. "Both you and the Prince are declaring war against the Demon race, against the Demon King!"

"That was the plan, yes," I admit and my hearts are crushed when I see a horrified expression replace my father's dark scowl.

"Please," he begs desperately. "Bright star, do not do this."

"I have no other choice," I state as I slowly draw out my dagger, the same dagger my father gave me as a present years ago. "My best friend has fallen in love with a Goddess and there is no one in this unforgiving realm who will accept this kind of love. I myself have fallen in love with the other realm, with the Humans, with all of the other races, and this is something the Demon King will never accept."

"(Y/n)—"

"I cannot live in a world where I will be forever lost," I choke and then brace myself in a fighting position. "Because if I do, how will I ever find peace?"

"Your mother and I can help you with that," the man who raised me insists. "We can try and work this out—"

"Not while the Demon King is still alive," I interrupt. "As long as that selfish bastard lives, none of us are free."

"(Y/n)!" my father cries out as I dash towards him, my dagger ready in my hand.

He quickly leaps into the air and lands right behind me, leaving me completely vulnerable. Before he can do anything, my black magic erupts from the ground and blocks him. Using that to distract him, I pierce through the wall with my dagger and feel it enter my father's chest on the other side, digging deep into one of his hearts.

As the wall comes crashing down, I am shocked to see that my father is not doing anything, just standing there with a sombre expression on his face. 

"Oh bright star," he says and then chokes out blood.

"What—" I mutter but my father abruptly falls onto his back and the dagger slips out of my reach. 

"Hey," he says quietly as I clamber over him and hold onto the dagger again.

"No," I whimper as I finally realise what is going on. "No, no, no, no, no."

"Look at me," he says firmly and reaches out to touch my cheek. "Look at me, bright star."

"How is this possible? This shouldn't be possible," I babble helplessly, still holding onto the dagger. "This can't be—"

"I only have one heart because my real parents destroyed my other six hearts when I was a little boy," my father explains, stroking my cheek. "They thought it would make me stronger, make me more aware of how painful and delicate life is. And it did. It made me more careful, especially when I was on the battlefield."

Only one heart. One heart under that chest. A heart that now has my dagger in it.

"Daddy," I whimper as tears rush down my cheeks and onto his fingers. "Daddy, I'm so sorry—"

"You have to pull it out, bright star," he says weakly, his cold hand falling onto my own that is clenching onto the dagger. 

"No," I immediately say. "No, if I do that, it will kill you—"

"(Y/n) of the Dark Shadows," my father says softly, "go make that peaceful world you always wanted."

And with that, his fingers clamp down on my own and then yank out the dagger from his chest. As his empty hand falls onto the green grass and the dagger is left in my bloody hands, silence fills the night air.

"Daddy?" I whisper, tossing the dagger to the side. "Daddy, hey."

With quivering hands, I pull him up with my hands on his back and place his head on my chest, right over my seven scared hearts.

"Daddy," I speak up again, my voice sounding too loud to my ears. "Daddy, wake up. You can wake up now."

But there is no response.

Unable to no longer hold it in, I toss my head back and scream out all of my pain and anger, my magic spreading everywhere it can go. 

This is so much worse than what happened to Gaia, this is something more terrifying. My magic, every single drop of it, is leaving my body and trying to grab onto anything living it can find. It destroys the ground around me, engulfs all of nature, and shoots up towards the starry skies. 

My name is (Y/n) of the Dark Shadows.

And I just destroyed the peace that was given to me the day I was born.