Part II: A Sound

Nothing can be changed at this moment.

All gates to the castle are already sealed. By me.

I was standing on the rampart with a sword in my hands when my slaves hammered the black iron bars into the heavy wooden doors. My castle should be my last sanctuary, yet it betrayed me, along with every living thing inside.

I tie my brown hair into a high ponytail. I must get ready to embrace their burning anger. The enraged footsteps are the sounds of death but death never petrifies me. For them, I am more frightening than death…

For that, while death only thirsts for lives, I divest more.

I have enough diamonds to build a palace shiner than sun;

If I melt my golds, I could gild every inch of my empire's land;

I have an army so loyal and bellicose that it would wipe out every living thing on my way.

And even the gods seemed to be more doted on me. Bards took inspirations from my beauty and legacy…Princess Infinancia…paramount like a goddess but dangerous like a demon...purest darkness…yet heavenly gorgeous.

But there is one thing I could not acquire. I destroyed what I can't have…and hence I will never be satisfied.

…and thus I must now be eliminated. The destroying of me will exchange people's fear for the mundane "peaceful life" they've been aspiring for.

The zealots, the mobs, they are coming for me. I can hear their furious pounding on my chamber's door. Their stupidity blocks their visions from realizing the deity they must face. Ordinary weapons will never infringe me as I will last longer than every single one of them. My vitality shall thrive…and seek for more brutal revenge.

The door will shatter in any second. Come for me, I shout with a grin on my face. Come to deprive my wealth and humiliate my dignity. I will seek my vengeance for that peasants will never destroy their god…

… "Leave now or never!" he shouts.

Ah. I am shocked, I must admit. I never expect to see another living thing…standing shoulder to shoulder by my side.

"You must leave now, your highness. A princess should not be the victim of the mobs' anger."

How funny. At this moment, he still refuses to abandon the proper royal courtesies.

"As your servant, it's my duty to die before my mistress."

You will. Painfully. I warn him. I thought phoenixes are smarter than this?

"But I vowed to serve you until my last brea..."

The door shatters into pieces. They are coming and I must fight back. Give me my sword! I command him. He reaches out his hand towards me-

-and the next thing I know is that I'm falling.

I am dazed as I staring at the wreckage of the window retreating back in my vision. Upon that broken window, his agonizing screams penetrate my ears like the seething iron. That sound pierces through layers of darkness…and reaches somewhere. Somewhere so deep that I can feel my heart throbs…

I get up from the soft grass I fall on and I want to run from the scream…the everlasting sound of my siren that tortures my soul.

But the scream suddenly stopped as the blood-curdling sound of blade separating wind echoes.