Chapter 1572: Remembered

Aesa just stayed still for a few moments in that position. Another claw scraped across her face. Another set of teeth sank into her flesh. Then her husband drove his sword into her body once again. Yet none of it truly reached her anymore. She felt the pain, but her mind had turned toward the voice inside her head, and that voice now held her entire attention.

Krono was speaking to her again. Aesa had almost forgotten that she still carried a fragment of Krono’s soul within her. The Trial had clouded her emotions and mind, allowing her to remember only the things it wanted her to remember.

It had buried every thought that could have given her strength and brought forward only the memories that could deepen her guilt. It twisted her emotions until every decision she had made felt like a crime and every person she had failed to save became another reason to hate herself. Aesa realized that now.

"Get away from those figures attacking you," Krono said.

Aesa finally pushed herself away from the crowd and immediately spread her wings, rising into the air several meters above the ice.

She looked down at the people beneath her as they continued screaming at her. Their voices were filled with anger and hatred, their eyes fixed on her with the same accusations.

Aesa bit her lip. For now, she decided to listen to Krono. If she later decided that she deserved their punishment, she could always return and let them hurt her again.

But right now she needed to understand what was happening to her.

"Krono..." Aesa whispered. "I... I don’t know. I don’t know..."

"I cannot know everything inside your heart right now. I also cannot know everything you experienced in the past. I cannot see those memories anymore because I am only a fragment of a soul. But I know that you did your best, Aesa. It was not your fault."

Krono’s voice was calm, but Aesa also could hear concern in it. Genuine concern.

It touched her heart. Someone was worried about her. Someone was still thinking about what she was going through instead of judging her for what she had done.

Aesa felt her eyes grow heavy. Since entering this Trial, it felt like an impossibly long time had passed since anyone had shown concern for her.

She had spent so long surrounded by accusations and hatred that hearing someone speak to her with genuine kindness felt unfamiliar.

"I don’t know, Krono," Aesa said quietly. "Maybe I could have done things better."

She looked down again.

The people beneath her continued screaming. Their voices rose through the air with their faces in anger and sorrow. Their gazes followed her like they wanted her to remember every life she had taken.

"You were attacked by a cosmic being with unimaginable and unpredictable power. You may have forgotten it now, but you were wounded too. You tried to protect those people, but the being that attacked your kingdom was simply too powerful.

"There was no other way. You knew that at the time. That is why you killed them. It was the only thing you could do to end their suffering."

Something moved inside her mind. At first, it was only a fragment and a distant image.

Aesa remembered herself standing among the destruction, already wounded and exhausted, trying desperately to protect the people around her.

The memories came rushing back. She remembered what they had truly looked like, their pain, terror in their eyes. They begged for an end to their suffering. She remembered fighting to find another solution and realizing that she could not overpower the cosmic being responsible for their transformation.

She remembered the moment she made her decision.

She remembered why she did it.

The cloud that had covered her mind suddenly lifted. One memory connected to another. The confusion that had surrounded her thoughts disappeared until Aesa could finally see her past clearly again.

Her breathing slowed as the false doubt that had consumed her began to collapse.

She understood that Krono was right.

She had not killed them because she wanted them dead or an easy way out. She had killed them because she could not save them from what Zerathul had done. She had given them the only mercy she could offer when every other option had already disappeared.

The Trial had deliberately buried that reasoning, stripped away the memories that explained her actions and left only the result.

It showed her the people she had killed but hid the full circumstances that had forced her to make that choice. It had taken her grief and twisted it into guilt until she could no longer trust her own memories.

Now she could see through it. The realization filled her with anger.

Not toward the people below or toward herself anymore, but toward the Trial.

Aesa slowly opened her eyes. "I remember," she said.

Krono’s voice immediately carried a hint of relief. "That is... good."

Aesa looked down at the figures again. They still screamed at her. They still accused her. But their words no longer carried the same power over her mind.

Krono continued, "Then do what you need to do now. Do what you know you must do."

Aesa nodded.

She knew exactly what he meant.

Mercy.

The same mercy she had given them before.

Aesa closed her eyes and gathered her Magic. Cold energy spread through her body as the wounds across her flesh began to close. The cuts sealed themselves. The punctures left by her husband’s sword disappeared. The blood covering her body faded as her wounds healed one after another.

When she opened her eyes again, her expression had changed.

She no longer looked like someone waiting to be punished. Instead she looked like a Dragonborn who had finally remembered why she had made her choice.

Aesa slowly descended toward the icy ground again.

Her feet touched the ice.

The figures immediately turned toward her again. Their angry voices rose around her as they prepared to attack again.

Aesa stood quietly among them. She was ready to give them mercy once again.

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