Chapter 433: The Forgotten Past - XXVII

[Music recommendation: Light of the Seven · Ramin Djawadi]

The first thing he saw was that there was no door anymore, as though it had been blasted away by a powerful fire attack. Then his eyes moved to what had once been their chamber. Their sanctuary now had an entire wall blown off, along with the ceiling, allowing water from the crimson sky to pour in and flood the room.

Gavriel felt his heart stop, and slowly, his feet began to move into the wreckage.

His eyes fell on the bed where he had left his Hera, but she was nowhere to be seen. Instead, all that remained was blood on the wet white sheets.

His gaze drifted downward to the floor, halting at the sight of a massive, fluffy form lying motionless nearby. His chest heaved as he recognised the severed head of the beast he knew all too well.

Finally, his wide, shocked eyes fell upon a grey-coloured figure kneeling on the floor, its face tilted upwards as though staring at something above. A faint red barrier glowed around its silhouette.

From afar, it looked like a sculpture. But when Gavriel’s eyes focused on its face, his heart dropped to his stomach.

His eyes trembled as he stared in silence.

Forcefully dragging his feet forward, he approached the sculpture before dropping to his knees in front of it.

It was then that he felt the faint energy emanating from it, an energy he knew in his heart belonged to...

"Hera..." he whispered.

It seemed as though she had simply turned to stone. Her eyes were closed, and a bittersweet smile rested on her lips, as if she had resigned herself to her fate.

Gavriel’s frame trembled as shock and denial fought for dominance within him. He tried to tell himself it was some cruel, twisted joke, refusing to accept that this charred shell could be his wife.

Belial, who had teleported there moments later, also froze in shock at the sight of the ruined chamber. His eyes locked onto his brother, who suddenly let out a low, hysterical laugh that sent a chill down his bones.

Unable to form a word, Belial’s gaze fell on the sculpture of a person glowing faintly with red light before he stumbled back in shock.

Right then, Gavriel abruptly stopped and whispered, "I must be going insane to think you’re her."

Right then, he closed his eyes and pressed his palm onto the wet floor. A dark shadow expanded outward like a rising tide, sweeping across the vast expanse of Tartarus as he searched for Hera’s lifeforce.

Within seconds, his bloodshot eyes snapped open in absolute terror.

He had scoured every corner of Tartarus, only to trace her faint energy back to the petrified figure kneeling before him.

Slowly, his eyes lowered to her form, then to her hand, where he noticed the shining ruby ring he recognised immediately. With trembling hands hovering over it before he finally touched the stone. It shone instantly with his own essence within it.

"No..." he whispered. "No... it can’t be you. Didn’t you say you’d wait for me? What’s this, then? Huh?"

Suddenly, he bellowed, "Answer me, Hera!"

Just then, a faint scent of roses brushed past his senses. He finally reached out to cup her cheeks, inviting the soft tendrils of her remaining energy to seep into him.

At the sensation, a lone tear slipped down his cheek as he whispered, "Hera."

Then Gavriel screamed in utter agony, "Hera!!!!"

His pained cry was so heartbreaking that Bellarios roared in the sky. His anguished voice finally reached the dragon.

"She made me do it!" Bellarios let out another earth-shattering roar before burning everything in his path, setting mansions, roads and forests ablaze.

That was all it took for Gavriel to confirm and wrap his arms around her as he wept tears of utter ruin for the very first time in his life.

All he could do was hold her charred form and whisper, "I should have never left... it’s my fault... what did you do... what did you do... why... why did you leave me... how am I supposed to live without you, my love..."

Belial watched the heartbreaking sight, unable to hold back his own tears. The pain was simply too overwhelming to endure.

Right then, the last remnant of energy keeping Hera’s form intact slowly faded, and she finally began to crumble into ashes, slipping from Gavriel’s arms like falling sand.

"No! No! Please, no!!" Gavriel panicked, trying to scoop her ashes into his arms, but they scattered across the wet floor.

Staring down at the remaining dust of his beloved mate, his shaky fingers picked up her ruby ring, and he let out a soul-shattering scream, "Hera!!!!"

At that moment, Gavriel’s powers burst out of him like a sea of smoke, engulfing his entire form. His body slowly rose from the ground as his eyes turned pitch black, his horns began to grow, and majestic, dark-feathered wings spread behind him.

In that single second, Gavriel stopped listening. He stopped seeing.

There was only one dark thought that overtook his grieving heart... if this world took his beloved wife away from him, he would tear this realm to pieces and destroy himself alongside it.

Death, destruction, and absolute calamity filled Gavriel’s mind.

Belial’s eyes widened in horror at his brother’s dark transformation. Taking a hasty step into the room, he yelled, "No, Gavriel! Control yourself!"

The moment Belial moved, Gavriel turned his pitch-black eyes toward his brother and unleashed a colossal beam of black-and-crimson energy at him. Right before the blast could vaporise Belial, someone tackled him out of the way. The beam tore through the palace walls, leaving a massive tunnel in its wake and revealing just how powerful the attack was.

Belial slammed onto the stone floor in shock, looking up to see Orin above him, gasping in pain.

Blood trickled from Orin’s mouth as he choked out, "Your... Highness..." before his eyes closed.

Belial’s gaze dropped, horror freezing his veins as he realised the entire right side of Orin’s body had been obliterated by the blast.

"By the Devil!" Belial gasped, scrambling back as he looked up into the crimson sky.

Gavriel had risen into the sky, emitting a pressure so crushing that every living creature in Tartarus fell to their knees. Red lightning rained down across the kingdom as Bellarios finally swooped beside him, transforming into an unimaginably massive and terrifying black dragon... unlike anything Belial had ever seen before.

Its head alone was the size of Rios Palace, and Belial could not even imagine its true power.

Because this was not just any beast... this was Gavriel’s beast... the Devil’s beast, and only one horrifying thought came to mind...

Was this the end of the world?

Right then, Gavriel extended his hands as red and black electric energy crackled in his palms and several mini vortexes swirled open in the sky. They began raining down spheres of crimson fire upon the land as Gavriel whispered without a trace of single emotion, "Go, Bellarios... destroy everything."

The massive black dragon let out a terrifying roar before beginning to raze everything in his path.

Death, destruction, and agonising screams echoed everywhere as Gavriel and Bellarios punished everyone in sight for having his beloved taken away from him.

The citizens who had once looked up to him, respected him, and praised him as a proud ruler were now fleeing from the madman in utter fear.

While chaos continued to consume the realm, a figure emitting a soft purple light materialised where Hera’s ashes lay scattered.

She twisted her fingers gracefully before an ancient urn appeared in her palms. With another flick of her wrist, the ashes submerged in the water slowly rose from the floor one by one, swirling around the vessel before drifting safely inside.

Once finished, the woman’s gaze dropped to a single rosebud beginning to sprout from the exact spot where the ashes had rested.

She then looked up at the fiery sky with deep pain in her blue eyes and whispered softly, "My Riel... let us meet again..."