Killed Me? Now I Have Your Power - Chapter 344

Chapter 344: Chapter 344: Moon’s death
Chapter 344 – Moon’s death

The place was searing hot. But not only, it was achingly cold, too, with flickering darkness that clung to existence even in the presence of those white flames.

Above, the Sun and the Moon were hung, yet one could see cracks and fissures on both of them. Though for the golden Sun, the cracks glowed with white fire, slowly mending themselves together.

The Moon was not so fortunate.

In that space hidden between the waking world and a very distant place no mortal should ever sightsee — no matter how strong you were — the Sun Empress stood tall and steady, her golden robes ripped apart in many areas, frost and darkness hugging her body, desperate to not let go.

Exhaustion flickered inside her eyes, yet she bit the inside of her mouth and summoned again the power of the White Phoenix, making the Mythical Beast scowl in protest. Still, it acted and covered the body of her mistress, healing all her wounds as if they had never occurred.

Though, her exhaustion seemed to deepen.

Below her, at her barefoot feet, lay Sirius Moonborn, sprawling on the ground with grotesque burns, his chest devoid of a beating heart, bleeding furiously.

His blue moon-shaped pupils were dulled, his lips dry and cracked as if everything inside him had been burned away. His life soon about to follow the same fate.

The god of death was whispering to him, he thought, before discarding the possibility. The god of death was dead. His bloodline shattered into fragments.

Something worth laughing at, for even the one with a perfected death concept still managed to die.

So who was he to resist the pull of death? He laughed, then coughed deep golden blood identical to the Asterion, showing how linked they were.

‘Use me, master!’ A strong and desperate voice echoed through Sirius’s drained mind,

‘We can win if you accept me! It’s not too late! Swallow me, I will give you my power!’

The voice was harrowing to the ears, heavy and filled with a strange power. Yet it was not the voice of a god, but the voice of a special and unique beast he had found in a forbidden land marked by a god. Or maybe not a god, but a deep, terrifying monster that had no business existing.

And he took that beast and nurtured it.

It was a parasite. One with terrifying power. And yet…

‘Not me.’ Sirius whispered back, smiling at Shamsi, who was looking at him with cold eyes unfitting for a Sun, ‘I have lived enough, Rab. The next generation, friend. The next generation will give you the honor you deserve. A worthy host. Just not me.’

‘Master—!’

“You wanted it.” The parasite — Rab — had its voice cut off by Shamsi’s cold tone.

Sirius’s lips curled up into a thin smile, lips cracking and bleeding, feeling his body devoid of heart slowly turning cold. Not his own frosted cold, but the impartial cold of death.

“W-Wanted what?” he echoed, still smiling, deciding to meet the end with a smile carved on his face.

The Sun Empress’s eyes were getting colder yet blazing at the same time, thinking of the battle they had just waged. During the entire fight with Sirius, she had sensed something abnormal.

Sirius had not used a single time his concept. He only used his aspect, and even that was barely effective against her at full power.

And now he was smiling, his heart burned to ashes by her fire, showing clearly that since the beginning… he had never planned to get out of this battle alive.

But…

“Why?” She scowled, frustration and anger burning inside her like molten lava.

“Why choose death? And why did you use me for it, Sirius?”

At that moment, Sirius’s eyes blurred, the world around him dissolving slowly into haze. He no longer had the strength to open his mouth, let alone force words through it, yet somehow he found it, and spoke his last words, his face splitting into a happy smile,

“W-Why am I choosing death?” he echoed her question, then, with a low chuckle, accompanied by Rab’s scream rumbling through his mind, slowly becoming distant,

“Why should I choose to live?”

He said at last, before giving his final breath, his eyes losing the last flicker of life.

Yet unknown to all, at the edge of death, the illusion of the waking world parted away like a veil, allowing Sirius to see the world and everything as it truly was… the true essence of the world.

And there, he saw someone.

A young man, golden hair with moon-shaped pupils, and on his left ear a moon-shaped earring.

His eyes were ever amused, filled with boundless arrogance but deep with unfathomable hunger for strength and his rightful destiny.

Sirius’s smile deepened, then,

‘Rab… it’s him… it’s my—!’

His soul was snatched by The Tree.

He officially died.

Meanwhile, Shamsi stayed silent for a while, her mind replaying over and over the last words of Sirius.

Her fists were clenched tightly, her knuckles whitening with speckles of fire. Then she gritted her teeth until one could hear the creaking sound.

She raised her hand and snapped her fingers loudly, causing a sea of fire to burst into existence and wrap the whole body of Sirius, turning him into ashes.

She watched the golden ashes, then raised her head above to see the Moon cracking into billions of shattered pieces, accompanied by a forlorn wail.

Instantly, Shamsi seemed to hear an angry voice reverberating inside her skull. The voice of a god, of her god. The Celeste.

She ignored it, knowing well His influence at that moment was too low for Him to punish her.

Instead, she turned her head outside the hidden reality, her gaze traversing kilometers before settling on Silver City, her eyes fixed on Aurora and Kaden.

She fixed them intensely, then slowly her whole body and her heart began to beat with white fire, her eyes now twin rotating circles of swirling golden-white flame.

“Why choose to live?” She repeated Sirius’s words in disdain, her voice like a thunderclap, “Because you have something worth living for. Because you are not a coward who flees at hardship.”

She paused, then,

“And I have someone to protect. An empire to rebuild from ashes. I cannot die.”

At her words, reality burned away into smoldering substance as Shamsi Appolonia Asterion, the Sun Empress, took one flaming step that burned distance itself and appeared directly above Silver City.

The whole city melted instantly from her presence alone, leaving only Kaden and Aurora barely unscathed.

Her golden-white eyes rested on the crimson and starry eyes of Kaden and Aurora.

The duo was sweating buckets.

“Aurora…” Kaden scowled, cursing himself for going against this flaming monster for a woman.

Aurora smiled strainingly, “Yes… I know.”

They stood together, bodies covered in their own intents, helping them bear the fire of Shamsi.

Kaden’s own flame, the one inside his heart, was restless, as if eager and hungry for the fire the Sun Empress was emitting.

He could understand why.

But the Sun Empress certainly could not understand the sensation she was receiving from the Phoenix.

‘Me? No… half of me. But how?’ A strong feminine voice whispered inside her mind, looking at Kaden’s heart, seeing the flame.

How could he have a part of her fire when she was whole? The White Phoenix wondered. Yet at that thought something flickered inside her ancient mind.

A possibility. Something rare, but very possible. Yet she remained silent, deciding to observe.

Shamsi, meanwhile, was not thinking of that. Because the moment she stepped outside that hidden reality, she felt something.

She felt death. The death of her son, Solaris and also the death of her gigolo husband.

She stood there, looking blankly at the two beings below her, realizing hollowly that she felt nothing.

She felt nothing at the death of her own blood, the same way a human would feel nothing at the death of a pig. On the contrary, she was happy to see them dead, especially her husband.

She only regretted not being the one to kill him.

At that moment, she couldn’t help but wonder if all her feelings had been ashed away by her fire. But it was not the case, for she still felt love for her hidden child. And she still felt love for the father of that child.

…and she still felt love for her twin sister.

That realization made her fire burn hotter, and her focus sharpen even further, for she had an empire to rebuild and pass down to her son.

And her loved ones to reunite.

She looked at Aurora. “I see you have been freed,” she began, “Would you surrender if I told you that the one responsible for your current state is now dead?”

At her words, Aurora gave a thin smile,

“That would be good news, pleasing to the ears,” she said, standing closer to Kaden, “But I will have to decline this kind offer.”

Shamsi stared at her deeply, and Aurora felt her body getting hotter.

“You have caused so much damage to this empire, yet you are still not satisfied, Aurora of House Starborn?” Shamsi grated.

“I am Grandmaster,” Aurora growled, “but I only have two years left to live despite my young age. You think I will be satisfied with only this? Without forgetting the death of my parents for the same reason I am dying right now. Because of you, because of your greed, because you do not see us as anything else but tools for your twisted desires.”

Her starry eyes became frigid, “So no, dear aunt, I will not surrender. And this empire will need another ruler. One we shall choose!”

At her side, Kaden looked at the Sun Empress quietly, just in time to witness pale fire erupting all over her body.

Shamsi did not say anything else, for she was not one with many words. She had given her a chance. She had refused it.

Now…

“Allow me to send you to your parents, then.” She uttered emotionlessly.

Kaden smiled faintly, his own crimson-gold fire wrapping him completely,

“I will have to disagree on that one, Empress.” He took his stance, “I cannot afford to fail my words, you see? I hope you understand.”

Shamsi spared him a searing glance,

“Who are you?” she demanded, and the Sun appeared above her once again, dangerously close to the ground, burning like flame of heavens made for sinners.

There, Kaden grinned to mask his fear and apprehension, Aurora beside him shrouded by her own starry power.

“Me?” Kaden finally said. At that instant, his mind suddenly drifted towards his family still waiting for him.

A mad grin spread into his face now hidden by his fire.

“Prometheus, Empress. I am Prometheus. And I have come to take this fire of yours.”

The final battle had begun.

—End of Chapter 344—