Hellbound With You

In the blink of an eye, the three witches materialized in a thick forest, in the mountainous area, far away from where there were humans. This was not a place where humans would traverse. In fact, people went out of their way to stay away from this place and left it well enough alone. Thus, Lilith was confident that they would be safe from detection.

However, Zeres did not even seem to notice that they were not in the city anymore. He was still huddled over in the same position as earlier, never letting go of Alicia. It mattered not to him where they were. All that mattered was in his arms, but the object of his focus was now unmoving and not breathing any longer.

Lilith could only stand there, looking at them heartbrokenly as she tried to steel herself. To at least stay strong on the surface. Because she knew that if Alicia could still talk, she would definitely tell her not to cry. 

After a long while, the vampires arrived one after the other.

Lilith wiped her tears with the back of her hand and looked at them. She did not know what she could do at this point. She did not even know what was going to happen now. All she knew was that there was nothing she could do but only to rely on these vampires and wait patiently.

The vampires stood a little farther off from the witches as Alexander faced Ezekiel. "Now what's next?" he asked. Impatience was evident in his voice. "Are we just going to stand around here and wait until Zeres comes to his senses?"

Zeke met Alex's gaze before replying, "Yes. That's all we can do for now."

Alex narrowed his eyes and his jaws clenched and unclenched alternately. "Oh, I don't believe you Zeke. Just spill it out damn it! This would be the perfect time for us to erase his memories before he wakes up from this! But you said there is no need, why? I want an answer now!" Alex's voice was controlled despite his frustration and anxiety.

Zeke leaned against the tree and closed his eyes. For a second, it seemed as if he was tired out from all the problems that had arisen. But in the next moment, he slid down and sat on the ground in a composed manner. "Give it a rest for a moment Alex…" he said as he rested his wrists on top of his knees and dropped his head down, the only hint of him showing that he was suddenly weary.

Everyone, including Alex was surprised at this very rare display of weakness. Zeke never needed any rest after the battles he had fought, aside from those times when Alex had beaten him into a pulp.

Zeke did not move after that. He simply stayed still and motionless as if he were sleeping. A few drops of water dripped down from his dishevelled dark hair.

With a long and helpless sigh, Alex slumped on the ground too, leaning against another tree nearby. He thought that perhaps, the amount of power Zeke used to force the demons back into that portal and then forcefully closing it seemed to take a toll on his vampire body. Realizing this made Alex sigh again. Recalling that the number of demons he had forced back into the underworld was insane. Alex was even more surprised because his power and the things he could do actually surpassed his expectations. The worse was that he was convinced Zeke could even do far worse than this.

However, having such a tremendous power was no joke. His power was a hundred times more powerful than what his vampire body could supposedly handle. Alex was never worried about him previously because he knew how strong Zeke was. But today, Alex now realized that the reason why Zeke would rather die than let his guard down was because once he did, there would be no turning back and it would be game over for him.

Alex glanced over to Zeke again before he threw his head back and stared up at the sky. For some reason, he felt like he had found the answer to why Alicia decided to sacrifice herself for Zeres. Alex had somehow felt that Zeres' love for Alicia was one sided and that was why he was so confused when Alicia suddenly rushed in to save him.

Sighing again, Alex pinched the skin between his brows and stared at his good as dead friend still not letting go of Alicia. And he remembered that back then, Alex had held Abi's dead body the entire night and never let her go until the next morning.

The cold mournful dawn came. None of them moved from their spot as the snow slowly fell on them, painting the ground into a pure white scenery.

And then the morning light came. The sun did not shine on them, but the snow had finally stopped falling.

Zeke finally lifted his head, and everyone gathered around Zeres and Alicia.

Lilith was already kneeling before her fellow witches. "Zeres…" she called out, swallowing her tears, "we must let Queen Alicia go now…" her voice broke at the end.

They knew Zeres somehow heard her because his grip on Alicia tightened. It was as if he never wanted to ever let her go.

Seeing this, Lilith teared up and gently touched Zeres' shoulders. "You know we must let her go now, Zeres. We must let her rest now…" she added and this time, Zeres lifted his grief-stricken face, and his eyes were filled with nothing but hostility as if he would kill anyone that would wrest Alicia from his arms.

Suddenly, Zeke stepped forward and looked down at him.

"She's dead Zeres." He said, voice cold and hard with a frosty expression on his face. His eyes were colder than any ancient glacier in existence. "She died for you."

There was a heavy silence and then suddenly, Zeres cried out, facing the sky. "Why!!!" he roared agonizingly, "why are you all doing this to me!!! Tell me!!! WHY??!!!"

He continued roaring out his anger and frustration, repeating the word 'why' until his voice was spent and could not shout out anymore. All who were present had to look away, unable to watch Zeres and his heart-rending suffering anymore. Although evading their eyes barely helped.

When Zeres' grip on Alicia finally loosened up, Zeke moved and gripped the hilt of the sword that had pierced and joined the two witches. The moment he pulled it off them, Lilith's eyes widened in shock.

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