CHAPTER 168: A Child's Vision of His Development into a Tyrant
CHAPTER 168: A Child's Vision of His Development into a Tyrant
A tension thick enough to suffocate Selene's lungs caused the air around her to crackle with an invisible power. As the faintest remnants of Kael's warning still hung in the air, something new appeared, even though she had only just begun to realise the enormity of what had just happened: the heavenly entity's desire for her life, the constant burden of the duty on her shoulders. It was a vision unexpected, abrupt, and severe.
She tried to calm her pounding heart by closing her eyes, but the image came like a lightning strike.
She was no longer standing in the clearing under the waning heavenly light as the world around her became hazy. Rather, she found herself in a huge, barren wasteland, where the soil was broken and shattered and the sky was always shadowed by the Eclipse's shadow. As if the earth itself had been damaged by an unending conflict, the air was heavy with the stink of rot and death. When she realised she wasn't alone, her heartbeat accelerated. She recognised the towering, uncompromising figure there all too well.
Her kid.
However, the youngster had changed from the naive infant she had cradled in her arms. Standing in the middle of the debris, this child, this young lady, now a woman of unfathomable strength, had eyes that glowed with the Eclipse's evil power. Dark tendrils of power curled about her, twisting the very air with an oppressive weight as her hands sparked with raw, unfettered force. Her once innocent features had been twisted into a scowl of venom and disdain as she grew older and more hardened.
The infant had changed from being a symbol of hope to one of doom.
Selene felt a sinking sensation in her stomach. She had not anticipated this future. She didn't want her kid to live this kind of life. The kid triumphed in the vision, her might so immense that it twisted reality itself to suit her will. She commanded armies, creatures of bone and shadow, who bowed down before her in awe.
The girl lifted her hand in a quick move, and with the power of her command, a mountain fell to rubble in front of Selene's eyes. The icy and vicious child's laughter reverberated in the ensuing quiet.
"Mother, do you see now?" The child's voice was a soothing but icy murmur that seemed to echo through Selene's bones. "The future is me. No one will oppose me when I bring the planet to its knees.
The more the vision developed, the more Selene's breath caught. Her own flesh and blood, the infant, wandered amid the rubble, her eyes emotionless and icy. She reigned with an iron grip, her will unquestioned, her authority absolute. It was fear, not love, that made her demand allegiance. Those who disobeyed her were quickly eliminated, their lives abruptly ended.
The emptiness in the child's eyes, however, was what most surprised Selene. This power brought neither happiness nor fulfilment. The infant seemed to be hollow on the inside, completely engulfed by the eclipse's blackness. She had lost all of her purity and the brightness that had once been a part of her.
"Mother, is this what you wanted for me?" Even though Selene was just a spectre in this nightmare, the child's eyes locked upon her and her voice went poisonous. "Did you anticipate that I wouldn't be this? Did you think that your principles and love would save me from my destiny?
The image changed once again, shattering Selene's heart. This time, she saw the kid standing in front of a huge, shadowy, black throne a throne made of bone. The youngster climbed up to it and sat down, her strength crackling like a storm. As soon as she did, lightning blazed across the skies and the sky above split apart.
However, Selene was aware of what would happen even before the following instant came.
She lifted her hand, her face etched with betrayal as her kid turned against her. Suddenly the sky itself was bleeding, the cries of the heavenly beings resonating as they were ripped from the sky. The kid, now fully aware of her power, was the one who had destroyed the cosmos along with the heavenly order. Both the light and the dark worlds were affected by the split she created.
The kid said, "You will always fail me, Mother," and her voice had changed from the naive tone of the baby she had been holding. It was aloof, chilly, and unconcerned with Selene's suffering. "Because of your lack of comprehension. I will never be what you want me to be; I am the darkness.
Selene was shaken to her very core by the image that ripped through her. She made an effort to scream, to grab the infant, to mend what had been damaged, but the blackness surrounded her and choked her every breath. The image broke just as Selene felt herself being engulfed, and she was flung back into the clearing, her pulse thumping in her chest as she gasped for oxygen.
The world was quiet.
The future's echoes rang in her ears as her vision flashed before her eyes. The kid was doomed to be destroyed her child. However, how is it possible? How could she allow her kid to become a part of the exact darkness she had fought for so long?
No, it couldn't end like this. Selene didn't think it was true. To protect her kid from the corruption that already threatened to devour her, she needed to figure out how to alter this future.
But how?
She raised her head, focussing on the moon hanging low in the sky towards the horizon. A continual reminder of the vows she had made and broken was the heavenly energy that had marked her. She felt it constricting around her neck like an unspoken demand.
There must have been another route. She refused to let this occur.
But as she moved forward, a voice pierced the quiet, slicing like a dagger through her determination.
"Selene," Kael said, her voice barely audible over the wind. Her heart swelled with hope as she turned to face him. Now that he was finally here, maybe they could work out a solution. "Something needs to be seen."
He sounded strained, as if he were carrying an invisible load. He raised his hand before she could say anything further, and a fresh image appeared in front of her.
However, it wasn't the kid this time.
It was Kael, his eyes glimmering with an odd light, his body writhing in darkness. His face was contorted, as if something had seized control of him and changed him into someone he was not.
With her pulse pounding, Selene said, "No." "No, Kael."
However, the Kael in the vision had a gloomy grin and, when he spoke, it wasn't his own.
"Selene, it's too late. I have already been taken by the darkness.
Then the image was gone in a second.