Nytherael arrived ho. Their residence was a multi-level mansion that had been tailor designed by Sseraphis. Half of it built from ancient stone bricks, the other half reinforced with an incredibly strong glass.
The glass forged by dragon fla and scales was unbrakable and remarkable rare.
The two halves fused together seamlessly. Beautiful crystals had been added to it. They shimred with shifting colors depending on the ti of day, and the position of the sun. It looked like the kind of palace described in storybooks.
At the entrance, massive double doors carved from obsidian wood were embedded with silver sigils that recognized bloodlines. Only those permitted by the household could even touch them.
He pushed the large door open and stepped inside. He was stunned by the state of the interior.
Their high-quality chair set made from fine wood and silk he had crafted himself were broken and scattered everywhere.
The tables, lamps, and everything else in the room had been destroyed. And imnse dust filled the house, as no one had been there to clean the mansion.
The veil of hypocrisy was torn off when he set foot into his ho. Only to find it empty and broken.
He subconsciously wanted to fling the pieces of furniture on the floor into the air to vent his frustrations.
Nytherael took a breath. His heart nearly gave up and wanted to ascend to the heavens at the sight of his ho’s condition. After calming himself, he walked through the house, but the state of the other rooms only broke his spirit further.
"Yiwa, I understand you were in Qihera protecting . But... why does my ho look like this?"
Yiwa didn’t know where to begin. "After returning from the imperial beast court on the day you asked for the divorce, Master Sseraphis destroyed everything in the house out of anger," he said, going on to explain how Sseraphis had been cursing Nytherael while doing it.
"And Aeltharion... what did he say?"
"Nothing."
"Nothing?"
"Yes, Master. Aeltharion said nothing. He only watched Sseraphis destroy the house, and afterward, he dismissed all the household staff and paid them their final wages."
Fear gripped Nytherael’s heart. From the extent of the destruction, he had assud it was Aeltharion who had done it. It shocked him to learn that Sseraphis, the gentle and quiet one was the one who had destroyed everything in their ho.
"Sseraphis... that doesn’t sound like him at all."
"But Master, even the gentlest dog... no matter how calm will learn to bite when it’s pushed against the wall."
Nytherael understood that better than anyone. His first love, Ilyrien, had been like an angel. A beastman incapable of hurting anyone. But when it ca to the fact that Nytherael could not leave his partners to marry him, Ilyrien had trapped him in ice and abandoned him there before disappearing.
That had been a lesson for him. No matter how gentle a person is, when hurt, they can do anything.
"Master Sseraphis was deeply hurt by what happened. He couldn’t understand why his love for you wasn’t enough to make you forget Ilyrien. He cried a lot that night, calling your na," Yiwa said, his voice low, as if he could still see Sseraphis crying before him.
"I know I hurt him so much, Sse..."
"You have no idea, Master," Yiwa interrupted.
Even he had never seen Master Sseraphis in such pain before. It was the first ti he had seen the great serpent, Sseraphis Noxveil, cry as if his soul had been forcibly torn from his body. His cries echoed throughout the entire house.
Sseraphis took on his true form, transforming into a massive gray serpent with nine heads. His body filled the entire house, and his enormous form continued to destroy what remained of it.
That day, Yiwa and many nearby beastn witnessed sothing rarely seen; each of Sseraphis’s heads was wailing, and their cries seed to shake the world.
His five heads went out of control. They went mad with grief and lost control. The said heads were the ones that held his powers for curse weaving, shadow manipulation, pain amplification, and poisons.
They spiraled out of control and were unleashed upon the world.
The mont Sseraphis lost control, the world warped. His curse weaving spread first. Invisible threads seeped into the land like roots, latching onto living things.
Crops withered overnight from misfortune. Farrs found their harvests rotting in their hands, families falling ill without cause, and entire bloodlines suddenly plagued by endless bad luck. It was as though fate itself had been poisoned.
Then ca the shadows. They no longer obeyed the natural order. Under Sseraphis’ grief, darkness gained a will of its own.
Shadows stretched unnaturally long, swallowing light even at midday. In so places, they peeled away from their owners, slithering across the ground like living things. Those who stepped into them reported whispers.
The whispers were soft at first, then maddening. And of the beastn engulfed in the shadows, so never stepped out again.
His pain amplification was the cruelest of all. It did not wound the body. It magnified suffering where ever it went.
A small cut felt like a blade carving into bone. A grieving heart felt as though it were being torn apart endlessly.
Across cities and villages, people fell to their knees, clutching themselves, unable to understand why their pain had suddenly beco unbearable. Even warriors, hardened by battle begged for rcy from wounds that should have been nothing.
And lastly... the poison spread. It was not a simple venom, but a living corruption. Rivers darkened, their waters turning sluggish and foul.
Creatures that drank from them beca twisted, eyes clouded, bodies mutating, aggression overtaking reason. Forests began to rot from within, leaves blackening, and trunks splitting open. The sky itself dimd.
For three days and three nights, a gray haze covered the lands touched by his power. The air grew heavy, thick with sorrow and rage.
Beastn argued, fought, and turned on one another for no reason other than a suffocating and unnatural despair.
Yiwa shivered as he recalled that cursed day. His master wasn’t the only one affected by the mistake he made, infact, the beastworld paid a dear price for his stupidity.
"Master, you said earlier that you wish to nd the relationship between you and your husbands," Yiwa repeated Nytherael’s wish like a distant hazy dream that could never never be achieved.
"Yes, I won’t rest until I have fixed what I broke."
"Then...I suppose you wont be getting any rest at all," he muttered.
"What?"
"Ha!" Yiwa breathed out heavily. He retrieved a mory orb from his storage sachet and handed it to his master. "Here, take a look at how much the world has changed since last you were awake."
"What does the changes in the world have to do with ? I only care about fixing my relationship..."
"The changes are the consequences of your actions that day," Yiwa pointed out boldly. "And didn’t you just say that you intend to fix what you broke?"
Nytherael blinked. Without wasting any ti, he turned on the mory orb and watched the history of the beastworld after Sseraphis lost control.
The lands, rivers affected curse and poisons remain uninhabitable till date. Crops don’t grow, animals and beastn can’t survive on them. Shadows still run amok in the world with the governnt having a difficult ti managing the situation.
The beastn lost to the shadows were still missing and have never been found. And more and more beastn keep falling prey to shadow attacks.
The cities and villages that had been affected by the pain amplification were sealed off and uninhabitable because the energy still lingered there.
Any beastn who wondered into those areas was affected and would feel ache from wounds and old scars, the unbearable pain has reduced most beastn of every kind to insanity.
Nytherael watched the new beastworld through the mory orb and his headache returned. He had thought that the only ss he needed to clean up was his relationship with Aeltharion and Sseraphis, but it seems that his problems were bigger than a broken marriage.
"So, how do you intend to fix the nation?"
Nytherael stared at his servant, he had a desperate urge to rip his tongue out.
"I just woke up from being frozen for a year and a half. Can you comfort for a mont before you throw down an endless abyss?"
Yiwa flashed him an overly artificial smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes. "My clan like many other clans are on the brink of going extinct. So, forgive if I’m not as warm as i used to be," he said, dropping the kind and caring act he’d put up since Nytherael woke up.
"How two-faced," Nytherael argued.
"The lands that have now beco infertile and inhabitable cover most of the lands used for farming and cultivating natural essence from the earth that feeds eighty percent of the population. Now, they can’t be used."
Nytherael stilled at the assessnt. Having the truth pointed out to him and shoved so hard in his face made it hard to ignore. Seeing the ss triggered by his stupidity he felt even more undeserving of a second chance.
"Then why stay? Why protect and pray for my return?"
Yiwa exhaled, "Because..." his breath caught. "You are the only capable of doing sothing about it. Only you can find Sseraphis and have him undo his curses and cleanse the nation of his poison."
Nytherael felt guilty and miserable. So many lives were affected by his impulsive decision. "I didn’t an for any of this to happen. Im sorry, Yiwa."
"You said sorry master, but... did anything change?" Yiwa questioned.
No, nothing had changed. Not the irreversible curses and poisons Sseraphis had unleashed into the world nor the impossible living standards they’ve been forced to adapt to with no other way out.
"What will you have do?" Nytherael asked, unsure of the solution he could offer to nation to ease their burden.
His reputation was notorious for breaking things not fixing them. Putting the responsibility of fixing the broken nation on him was like asking a pig to fly.
"Fix it. All of it."
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