Chapter 197 Untitled Chapter

Chapter 197 Untitled Chapter
Lilith pov

It was all because of one man.

Because of one man's greed, my parents died.

Because of one man's ambition, the late Alpha died.

Because of one man's madness, countless people suffered. Because of one man's decision to gather monsters around him, to nurture them, to command them, entire lives had been destroyed before they were ever given a chance to bloom.

Lora, her tribe, her family. So many packs. The children who lost their families. The mothers who buried their sons. The fathers who buried their daughters.

It was all because Samuel existed but as I stared at him, trembling before me, something became painfully clear.

What if Samuel had never existed? What if he had been born kind? What if there had been another version of him? A better version. A version that never became a monster. Would the world have been different? Would there be no suffering? Would there be no innocent people crying somewhere?

No.

There would still be someone. Someone greedy. Someone cruel. Someone who killed because they could. This was a world where the strong preyed on the weak simply because they possessed the power to do so. Samuel wasn't the disease.

He was merely one symptom.

Killing him wouldn't end it. Killing him wouldn't stop the bloodshed. Killing him wouldn't stop another monster from rising tomorrow. Killing him wouldn't stop innocent people from suffering.

So...

My lips parted.

"I wish they die."

A curse.

The instant those words left my mouth, the world froze.

BOOM!

Lightning split the heavens apart, and the sky shook violently as though the universe itself had heard my wish, as though fate had accepted it, as though the curse had carved itself into existence.

For a moment—

Silence.

Even the battlefield seemed to stop. Even the screams. Even the fighting. Everything paused and standing there beneath the storm, golden power surging through every vein in my body.

My curse wasn't a command that people could never kill.

No.

That was impossible. People would always make choices but my curse was something else, something deeper, something written into the foundations of the world itself.

War. Mass slaughter. The slaughter of innocents. The creation of monsters like Samuel. Those who willingly sought such paths, those who desired suffering, those who sought to destroy lives for greed, power or pleasure.

They would die.

The moment they chose that path.

They would die and there would be peace.

I suddenly understood everything—my fate, my purpose, the reason the Moon Goddess had called me different, the reason she had called my soul pure.

The Moon Goddess had been right. No one could change fate because fate wasn't a person. It wasn't a god. It wasn't something that could be fought.

Fate was a force that must take its course.

Everything that had happened to me—the pain, the betrayals, the losses, the suffering, every single step had led here.

To this moment. To this curse.

That was why she couldn't interfere. That was why she couldn't save me. Because this...this had always been my fate, to make this curse, to stop further unnecessary bloodshed, oppression and sacrifice my soul doing it.

A weak, broken smile spread across my lips as my golden eyes settled on Samuel.

He was trembling and I laughed, a breathless sound, soft and tired.

At the end of the day... my life had never been mine to keep. I was never meant to have a happy ending.

Yet...

As I looked at the terror written across Samuel's face, at the way his eyes shook as though he were staring at something beyond his understanding, my smile widened.

That was okay.

As long as I took him with me.

It was worth it.

Samuel's face went even paler. The madness was gone. The smugness was gone. The amusement was gone. Gone was the man who laughed while others suffered. Gone was the king who commanded armies. What remained was a man staring at his own grave.

I took a step forward.

"You asked me how to feel emotions."

Samuel immediately dragged himself backwards.

"No..."

Another step.

"You wanted to know what real emotions felt like."

"No, no, no…."

His voice cracked.

The battle behind us had already resumed. The scent of blood filled the air. The screams returned, yet Samuel heard none of it. His entire world had become me.

"No... no..stop."

I smiled.

"For someone to feel emotions, they first need to feel pain." I continued walking while he continued retreating like prey, like a terrified animal. "The pain of losing something precious."

"Get away from me!" His voice rose into a shriek. "I am the king of all packs! I am—"

He never finished.

I vanished.

Samuel's eyes widened, and suddenly I was there, right in front of him, leaning down, golden hair drifting around my face, golden eyes staring directly into his soul.

It was cold, empty and ancient.

Not a woman looking at a man. Not even a predator looking at prey. It was an immortal looking at an insect.

When I spoke, something else seemed to move beneath my voice, something old, something divine, something that didn't belong to me.

"The thing you cherish most..." I tilted my head. “Is your own life, isn't it?”

Samuel froze.

“So I will teach you." My hand moved. "So you can understand what they all felt." His eyes widened.

"What real fear is."

His mouth opened.

Then—

RIPPP!

A scream tore through the battlefield as I ripped his arm off cleanly, like tearing a branch from a tree.

For a second Samuel didn't react, didn't blink, didn't breathe. His eyes simply stared, stared at the arm in my hand, stared at the blood pouring from his shoulder. He stared at the impossible reality before him.

Then his gaze slowly lowered to the empty space where his arm should have been.

And—

"AAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!"

His scream ripped through the battlefield, raw, animalistic and terrified. He clutched the ruined stump, blood pouring through his fingers.

I simply watched with no laughter, no joy or sympathy.

Drevena laughed when she killed. The old me would have tried to understand people, tried to save them, tried to forgive.

Now...

I felt nothing. I watched him scream, watched him cry, watched him break and calmly said,

"You feel pain? Pain is an emotion" My golden eyes met his. "Isn't that what you wanted?"

He shook violently.

"This isn't even close to what you made others feel." I took another step. "Let me help you feel more."

His eyes widened.

"No—"

I grabbed his leg and yanked.

CRACK!

Blood exploded across the ground. Samuel's body jerked violently. For a second he simply stared, then realization hit.

"My leg..."

His voice trembled.

"My leg..."

Then he screamed, a horrifying scream, one that seemed to tear his throat apart.

"My leg! MY LEG!!"

His body convulsed. Blood covered the earth. His severed limb lay discarded beside him and still, my expression never changed.

Around us, everyone watched. The surviving rogues tried desperately to reach their king, but they couldn't.

Verya, Abraham, the warriors. They had surrounded them completely, killing them one after another.

I could hear Silas and Claude. Could hear them screaming Lucien's name. Begging him to wake up. Begging him to breathe but I didn't look.

I didn't turn.

My eyes remained fixed on Samuel. I reached down, grabbing his jaw.

"Do you feel it now?" My voice was quiet, terrifyingly quiet. "Do you understand pain?"

Tears streamed down his face. Blood covered his body. The king of rogues, the man who once laughed while slaughtering others, was crying, begging, screaming for help.

"Save me!"

His voice broke.

"Save me! Save your king! Save your lord—"

RIPPPP!

His other arm came off.

Samuel choked. Blood sprayed from his mouth. His scream became a wet gasp but I didn't stop.

I reached for his remaining leg, and as he collapsed completely onto his back, twitching helplessly against the blood-soaked ground, and without hesitation, his final leg came off, the sound of flesh tearing echoing across the battlefield. For a second there was silence.

Then—

"AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!"

Samuel's scream exploded through the air. It wasn't the scream of a king or the scream of a warrior. It was the scream of a man feeling agony down to his very soul.

His body twisted violently across the blood-soaked ground, blood pouring from the places where his limbs had once been as tears streamed uncontrollably down his face. He screamed and screamed and screamed, yet I only tilted my head, watching him expressionlessly and empty, as though I was observing something far away.

Slowly, I crouched down until I was eye level with him. My hand rose.

One touch was all it would take. One touch and everything would end. One touch and Samuel… Verek would cease to exist.

But then—

"Li...Li...lith..."

The broken whisper drifted through the battlefield.

My hand froze. For a moment I didn't move or breathe. Then I heard it again.

"My...ch-child..."

The voice cracked, weak and shaking, not audible in anyway but I heard what he was trying to say.

"My poor baby..."

Something inside me shattered. Slowly, I turned my head and saw him.

My father.

He was crawling toward me with no arms, no legs, only determination. His body dragged itself across the dirt inch by inch. His face scraped against the ground. Sand clung to his skin. Blood stained everything beneath him. Yet he kept moving, kept crawling, kept reaching toward me, toward his daughter.

A bitter laugh escaped my lips, the sound nearly breaking halfway through. I lowered my head for a moment before looking back at Samuel. He was still screaming, still begging, still crying about the pain. My eyes remained empty and I smiled, a small smile that was cold and final.

"No."

Samuel froze. I slowly withdrew my hand.

"No, Samuel." His eyes widened. "You don't deserve death."

The sky rumbled and thunder growled above us.

"A quick death is mercy," I said calmly. "And mercy is something you never granted anyone else."

Lightning flashed across the heavens.

"You will live."

Samuel's face went white.

"You will wake up every day wishing for death. You will remember every life you destroyed. You will remember every scream. You will remember every child who cried for their parents. And every breath you take will become a punishment."

Thunder boomed repeatedly as the heavens answered, as though fate itself had accepted my words and another curse had been written into existence.

Samuel's eyes nearly bulged from their sockets.

"No."

His voice trembled.

"No!"

"Your true punishment is life."

"NO!"

His scream became hysterical.

"This isn't how it ends! This isn't possible! I am the king! I am Samuel…. I am Verek! The Rogue King! NO! I CAN'T END LIKE THIS!"

I stared at him for a moment before turning away because he no longer mattered.

Slowly, I walked toward my father, toward the broken shell of the man I had spent years waiting for, the man who promised he would come back, the man who never did.

A golden tear slipped down my cheek.

My father was still crawling, still calling my name, still trying to reach me.

"Lilith..."

My chest hurt more than when the dagger entered my heart, more than when my soul began disappearing. I hurried forward and dropped to my knees beside him. Then carefully, so carefully, I gathered him into my arms.

The moment my touch reached him, he stiffened and then instantly relaxed, as though he knew, as though he had recognized me without needing eyes, without needing words, without needing anything.

His broken lips parted.

"Lilith..."

A weak smile formed on my face as I pressed my forehead against his.

"Yes, Father. Your daughter is here. Lilith is here."

Another tear slipped down my cheek.

His lips trembled and a sad, relieved smile appeared. His vacant eyes stared toward me before he leaned closer, as close as he could, and I heard him—not through words, not through sound, but through my soul.

“My daughter suffered. My poor daughter suffered.”

I closed my eyes. The war continued around us. The screams, the fighting, the blood—everything faded away. There was only him. Only us.

Again his thoughts reached me, broken, weak, and filled with regret.

“I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I promised I would come back.”

His thoughts trembled.

“I even bought it. The bracelet., the beautiful bracelet you wanted for your birthday. A sob rose in my throat and I held him tighter. “I carried it through the war. I wanted to give it to you myself. I wanted to see you smile.”

Another golden tear slipped free.

“But I couldn't. I'm sorry I wasn't there. I'm sorry I couldn't protect you. I'm sorry for everything.”

His thoughts grew weaker.

“Will you forgive me?”

His voice cracked.

“Will you forgive your incompetent father?”

My hands trembled. For a long moment I couldn't answer. Then finally, I smiled. A small smile. A painful one and opened my eyes.

"I forgive you, father."

His body shook.

"You must be tired." I brushed the dirt from his face. "Do you want to sleep? Mother is asleep. She's waiting for you."

My voice softened as I leaned my forehead against his again.

"Should I help you rest?"

For a moment he simply stared. Then a peaceful smile appeared, the most peaceful smile I had ever seen, and he nodded.

“Please, Lilith.”

His thoughts were barely audible now.

“Your father is tired, very tired. Please let me rest.”

The tears finally came. Golden tears streamed endlessly down my face. I nodded, unable to speak and unable to stop crying.

Slowly, I placed my hand over his chest and kept my forehead pressed against his.

"I love you."

My voice broke.

"You can rest now. Go be with Mother." Another tear slid down my cheek. "I hope you find each other again."

A faint smile appeared on his lips before widening into something soft, warm, and loving. It was the same smile from my childhood, the same smile I had spent years trying to remember.

A tear slipped from the corner of his eye.

And then—

The golden power answered, not violently, not painfully. Gently…so gently as it drew his life away like guiding someone into sleep, like carrying someone home.

His body slowly relaxed in my arms. The tension disappeared, the pain disappeared, the suffering disappeared, and for the first time in years, my father looked peaceful. His smile remained even as his breathing stopped, even as his body grew still, even as he slipped away.

His final thought reached me, soft, fading, and filled with nothing but love.

“I love you, my child.”

Then—

Silence.

My father went limp in my arms.

I closed my eyes and pulled him closer, wrapping both arms around him as tears slipped silently down my face. My father was finally resting.

After so many years, after so much suffering, after enduring horrors no one should ever endure, he had finally returned home—to Mother, to the woman he had loved all his life, to a home that would never be waiting for me.

My fingers tightened around him as another tear slid down my cheek. The war still raged around us. Screams echoed through the battl

efield. Steel clashed, wolves roared yet somehow it all felt so far away.

Then a broken voice shattered through the noise.

"Lucien..."

Silas.

His voice cracked.

"Lucien... he's dead. He's gone."