A/N: continuation of the first half of chapter 37: Jealousy is Deadly.
"You don't have to wait any longer" she smiled widely at him, holding on tightly to his hands.
"Cause I will fight with you" , Lisa gazes down on the duke of hynassy who looks like heaven sent him a huge blessing that his eyes felt a sting.
"Yo-you.."
"Isn't that what you want?" Lisa stood up from her seat going back to the altar under the cherry blossom tree.
"Lisa.." She turn around to her man still in shock.
"Don't tell me you're afraid?" She chuckled.
"No!—of course not!" Jungkook went near and gave her a heartfelt embrace. "It's just that.. I didn't expect you to answer me that quick".
"Lisa is this reality? Are you.. really mine now? for real?" "Tell me this isn't a beautiful dream", He hugged her tighter.
"This isn't a dream baby, this is real" She finally hugged him back with no more restriction in her heart.
He rested his head sideways facing the altar where both of them are standing under the cherry blossom pouring them her beautiful petals next to the end trail of the river of promise.
River of Promise...
"Do you remember how your parents promised each other on this river?" He asked her, Lisa pulled back enough to see his face.
"What do you mean?"
"You told me they promised themselves on this exact river right? Although they did it on the central capital.. this is still the river of promise"
"It's not something you can do if you're not true to your feelings Jungkook," she warned "It is not an ordinary promise..."
"It's a vow..."
He look back at her, "A vow? Like marriage vow?"
"Similar but Marriage vows are like praying to Vita, it's the most sacred vows that's why they need priest for blessings.."
"Then what is it?"
"It's a vow of magic... a dual end sword that if one breaks the promise both will experience the same pain as if being struck by a sword.. they said sometimes people who betrays the vows actually died in pain.."
"So it's not something you can do just because you felt like doing it."
Jungkook followed her walk towards the end rail of the river with his eyes, "Are you saying my feelings for you wasn't real?"
Lisa paused to meet his gaze, "You know that's not what I'm trying to say.." "I'm just saying that it's too fast to promise yourself to me.."
Jungkook hugged her from behind, just allowing the spring breeze of tranquility wipe away their uneasiness. "I'm willing to die with you Lisa.. isn't that enough to tell you I'm serious and willing to take that vow?"
"You're that desperate to take that vow?"
"Yes.." he answered straightforwardly "I'm desperate to have you all to myself so those vile shit will leave you alone"
Lisa chuckled lightly, "You want to take it just because you're jealous".
"Aish! It's only right!" He pouted cutely.
"Aigoo what a big baby!" She turn to face him and smack his lips, but the man didn't stop there as they succumbed to their own clouds and adrift their love deep into the depths of the river.
"Alright.. i'll give you what you want", his eyes beamed as the rays of sunlight catches the glimpse of his bright sapphire eyes.
Lisa took both of his hands as the a brightest red of magical circle appeared below them. "You have to repeat it after me.."
"I am Lalisa Van Sanerio, promising my heart and soul to Jungkook Van Hynassy as of this day until we pray for our vows to the name of Vita"
"I am Jungkook Van Hynassy, promising my whole heart and soul to Lalisa Van Sanerio as of this day until we pray for our vows to the name of Vita"
She intertwined all of their fingers sealed and tight as their eyes closed shut, foreheads glued together.
"We shall not betray each other, deceive each other, or this vow shall breaks the chains of promise by one of us as our hearts stuck with a thousand needles of magic..."
"And we shall never be together again.."
"Your Grace.." he was awoken with a blurry sight, his heart in so much pain as if a thousand needle are stuck inside killing him slowly.
"You are nobody to me..."
He just wish he never woken up from that dream, he wanted to go back and reset everything that they have.
"You deserve to die in my hands.."
"Li-Lisa...", his eyes cried another waterfall looking up at the ceiling of his room.
After what happened two days ago Lisa disappeared, but they knew she's in Elgonia. Even though she is nowhere to be found, the whole world is in heavy rain, a sign that she's been wandering around the whole world, alone and broken.
They've been on search, even people on earth was worried for her. She's supposed to have another runway this week but since no one can find her, Yoongi told them she was sick and was in their ancestral house to cover it up.
"Your Grace..." Butler Shu caught his attention once again.
"What is it?" Jungkook sat up from his bed abruptly, wiped his tears to look at his butler Shu.
"It's about Lady Chaeyong..." Butler Shu paused.
"Lady Trian... is awake Your Grace"
"Oh Thank you Vita," He relieved, "Call the Earl of Kyris immediately", he ordered.
"The Earl didn't left her chamber even after he told you he'll go home Your Grace" "He's the one who told me that the lady is awake"
"Thank you, I'll shall join them as soon as I can", He said.
When the last lightning struck the whole place, Chaeyoung run as fast as she can to get a hold of Lisa but instead of rescuing her best friend. She was struck by the strong lightning along with her.
And all hell break loose, Lisa were screaming and blaming herself when she saw Chaeyoung, lying on the ground unconscious after being struck by her own lightning. They saw the regret on her face that she couldn't grasp the reality of killing the only person who stayed for her, her own right arm.
She thought she killed Chaeyoung— almost if it weren't for the King being there. There's no chance of surviving that strong impact, and before Jungkook get a hold of her, she retreated and vanish without a clue where she will go.
He look up at the window, "Any news about the flooding?"
"Abelia is in cooperation with all of the Kingdoms to help them rescue the citizen near the sea and river.. but unfortunately the Marquis of Sanerio wasn't able to help since he is the leader of the secret group in search for Her Grace"
"I understand, now that the duchess of sanerio isn't around we have to give the marquis a helping hand just like how they did for us when we got back here.."
"Very well Your Grace, I will coordinate with butler Kira for this" Butler Shu bow his head and vanished into the thin vast going to the Land of Sanerio, where the most casualties were recorded.
"Lisa... where are you baby", He said watching the rain falls heavily from above.
He went towards his bathroom and prepare himself for a long day, a long day to find the one who inflicted pain in his heart.
He will find her no matter what.
"Your Grace,"
"Chae, don't move.. your body needs to recover", Jungkook halted her from curtseying as soon as he entered the room.
"Love just lay down... please," Jimin begged, assisting her to lay down her scarred back, he is more than thankfully that it was just a scar and she avoided being burnt to death or being ripped apart.
Or else this mochi man, who looks like a zombie right now, with those huge bags underneath his eyes. He couldn't sleep a wink, knowing that the girl he loves has a chance of never waking up.
He cried a bucket, praying for the gods to save her. He wasn't ready to live without her. He couldn't thank the heaven enough for this miracle and now she's awake.
"Thank you so much Jungkook, for letting me stay here" She said weakly.
"It's the least I can do for you, thank you for waking up", He smiled at her.
"Where—Where's Lisa?" Both Jimin and Jungkook look at each other, and Chaeyoung wasn't dumb not to notice their silence as something wrong happened.
"What? What's wrong? Where's Lisa" Chaeyoung asked worriedly. "Please tell she's okay!!"
"Chae please calm down!" Jimin held her in his cage.
"It wasn't her fault! I-I wanted to save her! I-it wasn't her fault!" "Please! Tell me she wasn't dead!"
"Chae she's alive!" Jimin said painfully, "She's alive so please calm down".
"She's.. alive?" A relief heaved on her chest.
"Yes but.... we couldn't find her" Jungkook said, "She's blaming herself for what she did to you and left"
Chaeyoung's eyes started to tear. "It's my choice... I-I shouldn't have"
"Don't worry chae, we will do everything to find her.." "I'm sure everything will be okay once again" Jungkook left the couple behind, as he find his own words unsure.
Will everything really be okay? If this rain continues people will think Lisa is conquered by evil. If that happens everyone will go against them, the whole elgonia against Iremia.
The said protector of this land, now their own destruction.
"It's all because of me.." he uttered lightly staring at the gray sky pouring its rain. He closed his eyes for a brief second to calm his painful heart.
But as soon as he opened his eyes, the gray sky turn into a clear sky, as the horizon were nothing but a blue sky and cloud below him. It felt warm that eases his heart.
"Sid, my son"
A familiar voice called him from behind as he turn and saw a woman with a long white hair, wearing a white shear of fabric clasped into the gems of iremia on her chest, and that he knew she was none other than,
The Goddess of Elgonia, Herself.
"Your Holiness, I'm sorry for my rudeness to stare at your grace", He instantly knelt on the clouds that serves as their floor.
"Everything that had happened wasn't your fault.." The goddess spoke, "The evil used all of you to ruin yourself.."
"Was it because I fell in love with her?" His eyes shed a tear. "Is it really a sin to fall in love with her just because both of us are Iremia?"
"Is the heaven punishing us for that?" He waited for an answer but Vita stayed silence, until.
"Heavens words shall never be known by a mortal soul, I cannot answer that" Vita answered him, Jungkook scoffed.
"I am truly being punished isn't it?"
"You are fated to meet her..." "That's all I can say" She said.
"What do you mean Your Holiness?" The Goddess smiled at him, but instead of answering his question, she said.
"I shall ask you a question, Sid"
"Anything, Goddess" He smiled.
"Do you wish to turn the time?" His eyes grew staring at the Goddess, as if finding his own answer.
"Wha—" he gulped "Wha-What if I turn back time?"
"Then everything that had happened shall repeat itself,"
"Then if I go to the future? Will I know what will happen next? Can I go back to the present?"
"You can never go back to this present," "Nor able to remedy the evil deeds" "You will simply skip the time without a memory of your present today"
"So it means.. if I turn the time I can never guarantee that I can be with her nor foresee our future?"
"Indeed.. Chronos is the most sensitive power of all" "the moment you turn the clock not only your destiny, but also everyone's destiny will change drastically"
"Then if I continue this present timeline.."
"Everything will be as it is, dreary, in pain... uncontrolled" "Easy to say... it could lead to your own death..." "Iremia will fall, and evil will conquer this land"
Jungkook laughed lightly to himself, is the goddess telling him to pick one and suffer a consequence? Is she tell him that it will be his choice if this universe will be in prosper or in hell?
Then what is the point of being asked?! If all of the choices he got has no guarantee, a vague road to cross, an uncertainty of his own timeline.
"Then..."
"I will stay...." He answered.
"Is that what you really want?" The goddess asked him.
"I have no other choice Your Holiness," He smiled at her, "I have to keep moving forwards, even on the bitterness of this life I have to be strong.." "The future is uncertain just like a rounded ball, no one can foresee what will happen next.."
"But as long as you are here with us, I knew there is one thing that is certain..."
"Hope,"
The Goddess smiled so widely satisfied with his answer. "Very well then I shall grant your wish".
The smile on the Goddess face never left as her arms swift into the air and the whole place turn into a swirling gust of wind as his body felt light, Vita spoke.
"Athi is where your heart felt at home..."
He tried to stay awake fighting his consciousness alive drifting back to sleep but before darkness filled his sight he heard the goddess spoke for the last time.
"Make haste before the tree of meadow takes her soul"
- - -
" I did this... I did this.. I killed her"
"I killed her..."
Her whole body trembles as she was soaked in her own rain, feeling nothing but coldness and pain.
"I— It's all because of me..." Her eyes shed an unending tears, as the whole garden of Eleanor froze in ice in a split second.
Her amethyst eyes that was once covered in luminous white now went back to original state, she can at least control her evil within her the moment she saw the only person who stayed beside her unconscious after she accidentally struck her with lightning that was supposed to be directed towards her.
Chaeyoung was her strength, her laughter when everyone left her! But she killed her own! Just like how she abandoned Salia until curse consumes her and turn her evilness into a demon.
It's all because of her, that everything that is happening right now is because she wasn't strong enough to fight her own emotion. She trained so hard for this but she's not capable of handling the most powerful magic.
She wasn't good enough to be named the Sword of Abelia.
"Isn't that why you left?" She look at the name of her father carved into the walls of names of every generations of Iremia.
"Is that why you sacrificed yourself to the Goddess, Father? Because you're afraid to be eaten by your own power?" She asked as if she was talking to her own father.
"I know it very much now!" She shouted "I know how painful it is father! I-I promised to protect our land but I destroyed it father! I-I am a disgrace!"
She held her suffocated chest, lacking oxygen as the painful sob blending in with the heavy rain.
"I killed Ch-Chaeyoung.." She started messing her hair, shouting and stumbling on her feet as she landed on the floor.
"I killed my own arms... my precious arms father" "The one that should be on my sides, but I took their life away... because I'm not strong"
"I—"
Her eyes notice the tree of meadow on the far side of the garden of Eleanor, the sacred tree that most of Iremia's vessel being prayed for it's safe departure to heaven.
But it is also a tree of death, that one can cast a spell to sacrifice oneself into the light, painless unlike the execution of sucking out ones magic and turn your body into dust.
"That's right..." She smiled painfully.
"This world is better off without me... my brother is enough", "I shouldn't have been born... I'm nothing but a mistake",
She crawled into the melting icy ground turning into a wet mud grass, crawling on her knees towards the tree of meadow. If she sacrifice herself now, the rain will stop, people can go back to their own works, everything will go back as it is...
As if she never existed from the start,
As she stood from the wet grass underneath the huge tree she look up to the glowing leaves of the tree of meadow, "I understand you quite well now father, I shouldn't push myself to live in this world... I'm not needed, I'm nothing but a monster..."
She created a magic circle to lighten up the tree, preparing herself to be sacrificed into the light.
"I-I'm a monster....." she walks slowly.
"It's all because of me..." Her eyes shed for the last time walking slowly towards the light of Iremia.
She thinks of herself as a nuisance, a destruction instead of a protector, a curse, a murderer, an adulteress who spread her wings to someone who doesn't love her, and took easily let go of her innocence.
Her life is rough, everyone around her dies because of her. And so for the last time of her life, her lips curved into a painful smile and wish upon the light,
"I wish tranquility to the whole elgonia, I wish blessing and prosperity to my dearest Abelia..."
She lift her arm as she tried to touch the light, preparing herself to be sacrificed, and silently die without everyone knowing it.
She closed her eyes moving closer and closer into the light.
Until she opened her eyes with her arms still lifted but her waist caged into a tight arms pulling her farther away from the tree of meadow,
She didn't remember being there.
"Noo! Baby! No! Don't!" Her ears finally recovered, and familiarized with the voice sobbing, that his arms is trembling from the fear of losing his most important person.
"Don't leave me a-alone! Please!! Chaebal! Chaebal!!" He shouted so loud that the visible drop of rain that was on paused on the thin air for a long time finally dropped and the sound of rain continues.
Her shaking arms dropped down now that she realized what just happened, that. She witnessed how the time paused for him to save her.
He used his time? For me?
She felt a bit at ease under his cage that the sky turned bright all of the sudden after a long days of heavy rain. The first ray of the sun pour it's light directly at them as he continues to sob loudly, telling her how sorry he was for doing this to her, that she misunderstood every bit of what happened, and that Chaeyoung is alive and recovering.
She was listening diligently on his apology, but even if she misunderstood everything, how can she live a life that she almost killed everyone? How can she still continue as the daughter of Goddess after being forsaken by heavens? as her soul was now tainted with evil.
It was still her fault, if only she can control her own emotion, Chaeyoung wouldn't have experienced a life and death situation. She should have let them explain, rather than being conquered by her jealousy and demon.
And so she made a decision, and started praying for the Goddess of Elgonia, staring at the light she emitted on the tree of meadow in secret.
"Vita, if you can hear me from there above..."
"I pray for you to remove this feelings that I have...
"So I can fight evilness in full sanity, and not in half....."
"I beg of you to set me free..."
"If heaven cannot open the gates for me willingly".