Page 12 of Echoes of Eternity

The night stretched on with the echoes of his fury reverberating through the house. The servants were scarce, their whimpers could be heard through the thinwalls. He showed no mercy as he continued to ransack my belongings, each broken item a testament to his relentless search for further evidence of my betrayal because a simple pendant wasn’t enough to hang me with.

I felt like a marionette trapped in a cruel performance, my strings pulled by forces beyond my control. His wrath seemed to have no bounds, and I was left to endure the consequences of his fury.

I had no pleas for mercy, not when I was half dead, kept on a lifeline solely through my yearning for Noboru and his gentle touches.

As the night dragged on, the destruction of my home—and of my spirit—was total. My possessions were reduced to debris, scattered, and crushed underfoot. The house had become a battleground, a testament to the violence that had consumed it.

I felt a numbing cold seep into me, a void where emotions once resided. His anger and the wreckage of my life were so overwhelming that I was left in a state of detached despair.

“Do you think you are entitled to mercy?” he sneered, his fury causing spittle to fly from his mouth. His words barely registered in my foggy, numb consciousness. The pain and destruction had rendered me almost impervious to his threats, leaving me adrift in a sea of emotional numbness.

When I offered no response after more venom thrown my way, he grabbed my hair, dragging me across the floor. The bite of pain at my scalp threatenedto bring me back to reality, making me grimace. But I pushed the pain away, the way I always did, suffering in silence.

“If I find out any of you were in on this, you will all be destroyed with her,” he growled to the servants outside their door as he tossed me onto the bedding in his room without sliding the door shut.

His harsh hands tore at my clothing, leaving trails of welts along his makeshift claws as he forced me onto my knees, pushing the back of my neck against the floor.

“You are worth nothing but the quick reprieve you give my cock,” he growled behind my ear while I began to dissociate. “Your worthless womb bears me no children…”

His voice faded into the background, growing distant and muffled as my mind wandered back to a different place, a distant memory of the forest and the overlook. In my recollection, the stars were vivid, hanging high in the velvety night sky. They sparkled with an almost ethereal quality, their light shimmering like tiny promises whispered in the darkness, as if they were guardians of my most intimate secrets.

The serenity of that night had filled me with false hope as wings as red as blood wrapped themselves around me from behind blocking the cool, gentle breeze of the forest. The rustle of leaves added to the serenity of the moment with words left unspoken. The overlook, where I had stood on the edge of everything, seemed a world away from the destruction and pain of my current reality.

In that tranquil space, I had felt a fleeting senseof peace and hope, a whisper of something greater that offered a brief escape from the tumult of my life. The stars had felt like silent witnesses, their twinkling light offering solace and understanding in a way that words never could. As I mentally revisited that moment, where Noboru’s armor pressed against my back, the memory became a soothing balm to the raw wounds inflicted by the harshness of the present.

When dawn finally arrived, it brought no relief. The damage was done, my husband’s actions had left me not only physically battered but emotionally and spiritually decimated. I was left to face the wreckage of my existence, with the haunting knowledge that my selfishness led to this.

An empty sensation settled in my chest, vast and gaping like a profound void. The nightmare of my life seemed to have reached a new and devastating climax, and I was left to confront the harsh reality alone without a warrior of the heavens by my side.

6

THE BEGINNING AND THE END

NOBORU

Dragon’s fireengulfed the village as the people ran for their lives. Their screams of horror echoed into the night, a cacophony of voices that floated toward the heavens as they cried out for a savior. Smoke billowed across the sky, casting a shadow over the sun’s majestic glow. But the harmony of the heavens was shattered by a darkness that even the gods could not ignore.

“Please, save us! Someone save us!” the villagers cried out. Mothers clutched their children while the men tried to put out the growing flames with water. The mortals moved with quickened pace as the sky darkenedas if the cosmos itself recoiled from the impending calamity.

The dragon, an ancient terror of the deep in this region, descended upon the mortal realm with a vengeance, disturbed from his slumber.

In its wake, a trail of destruction unfurled—trees ignited in towering infernos, rivers boiled and churned, and the very fabric of the land seemed to writhe in agony.

The villagers, caught in the grip of this otherworldly terror, could only look on in helpless despair as their once safe haven was torn asunder. The dragon’s wrath was a manifestation of nature’s most unforgiving aspects, a reminder of the delicate balance between the gods and the mortals, and the consequences of disturbing forces far beyond human comprehension.

This day, recorded in the tapestry of fate, was supposed to be a calm interlude in the grand symphony of existence.

As the vision manifested itself in my mind, I emerged from the celestial portal, my presence a formidable blend of divine majesty and formidable power as I left Sumeru behind. As one of the guardian units of the Eight Legions, I had been patrolling the cosmic realms when the distress call from the mortal plane pierced through the veil of reality. The summoning was a magnetic pull, one that transcended time and space.

With each rumbling step, I observed the scene before me. The cries of the suffering, the anguish of the dying,and the relentless destruction reached me with a gravity that could not be ignored.

“A Karura!” one of the mortals shouted.

“Please! Save us from the Dragon!” Their desperate plea resonated with the very essence of my being but it was the familiar tug that brought me forth.

I scanned the chaos forher, my own rage unfolding when nothing but destruction, bloodshed, and flames greeted me.

Memories of her tears, her eyes widening in fear at the first sight of me wove itself into the forefront of my mind, wavering and dissipating with the heat of the flames.

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