Lord Shadow

PANDEMONIUM

It is the morning of the next day.

It is a bright morning unlike any other. What people said about storms must be true. That after the storm, then it will be beautiful.

The skies are clear, and the clouds are rare. On trees and the Gardens of Pandemonium, birds chirped delightfully like they were singing a song

On the streets of the Center Region, the Capital of Pandemonium and the seat of power of the Central government, kids went out of their homes playing in the streets and the forest with some hunters and some patrolmen watching over them with their Divine Sense

Lost Boys creep up in the valleys, seeking information and selling them to the highest bidder. Flowers bloom and birds fly in the sky.

It is good. It is a good day. But the better it is, the stronger the premonition in Azief heart.

It was always like that.

He always got the most worse news at the most beautiful day.

Thinking about it, this kind of thing had happened a lot in his life.

When he wanted to send a love letter to Sofia when he was in high school, the day was just like today.

It was beautiful. Students were playing around in the football field and everything seems perfect and ideal for a love confession.

It was the same day he got to know that Sofia had already got a boyfriend. Then he remembers when he almost died. Snow alla round but it was sbeuatfuil,. All around him whiteness covered him and a beautiful woman beside him as he breathed his last.

Both of those things happened in a good day.

Azief has already sent Sasha on a quest to find out Loki true intention and now as he walks through the courtyards of his Palace, he is walking toward Sina infirmary.

As he slowly walks toward the Infirmary, he could see the amount of people going in and out of the infirmary has decreased. Most of the soldiers have healed.

And of course Azief will send them to avenge their injured soldiers. It is incredible that because of the large scale attack by the Dark Syndicate, only ten people die

And those people would be avenged. Pandemonium would not be Pandemonium if they let go such act unpunished.

It is thanks to the Three Great Generals of Pandemonium that the casualty is that little.

Azief is thinking of sending them to hunt Dark Syndicate later after they got proper rest and are healed.

For now, there is another matter that begs his attention.

This is why he prefers the solitude of training in caves or secluded places rather than surfacing and emerging and had to deal with all of this stuff.

HBis heart could not clam down. There is always oen crisis after another. Being in training while it is not quite fun, it could be calming at times.

For Azief it has always been like that. When he is training alone, in the solitude of his own loneliness, it was like he was in a cave without clocks.

When that times comes and that moment arrived, Azief knows that he could not lie. When he is in his own thoughts and in his own cave he himself is the most severe judge of himself. You can’t lie to yourself when you are in that moment.

There were many times when he was cultivating that he finally knows who he is and what he wants or what he wants to do.

because in that moment, no matter what, you couldn’t lie to yourself. If you do, you would never progress.

But that’s the thing that people most afraid of. Not the lies people told them but the truth that even yourself could not acknowledge.

He slowly approached the infirmary. In the distance he could hear the bustle.

He saw Sina in an almost empty infirmary. Sina saw him and smiles. There is a hint of maliciousness in that smile.

Azief premonition is getting stronger and stronger.

Sian gestures to her Acolytes to empty the room.

Since there is not that many patients in the infirmary and most of them are not severe injury patients moving them to other places is easy to do.

Azief enter the room and the Acolytes exited the room in a hurry.

‘Yo’ Sina said casually

Azief chuckles

‘Now, that is an odd way to greet me in the morning’

‘Good Mor’ she then said

‘What?’

‘That is how the young kids greet these days’

Azief nearly laughed

‘Young kids?’

‘Yeah, I treated a young kid from the alley. Probably one of the Lost Boys and he told me the kids created their own way of greeting’

Azief shakes his head and said

‘Glad to see you hanging out with people with the same mental age as you.’

Sina only laughed

‘Was that meant as an insult?’

Azief nodded

Take the anger away, and the great Death Monarch is not that good of an insulter after all’

And she laughed

Azief ignores her and sit down on one of the chairs and then he looked around.

Sina notices this but she feigned like she did not see it. Instead she took out a pot and pour down tea leaves inside the pot as she slowly started the pot and the aroma of tea could be smelled inside the entire room.

‘Tea?’ She asked.

Azief after finished surveying the infirmary and not seeing what he is looking for frowned.

Azief nodded but it is clear his mind is preoccupied about other things. Sina notices that and she smiles.

She put down two cups, one for her and one for Azief. She slowly pours the tea from the pot while looking at Azief face that is clearly slightly anxious.

‘It seems you did not come to this infirmary to see me after all. I am slightly hurt’ Sina said in a teasing tone, as she chuckles.

‘After all, I did heal all of your soldiers. No wonder the outside world called you heartless’ And she chuckles

Azief hearing this only smiles bitterly.

Sina is just teasing him now.

‘Where is Katarina and Sofia?’ He asked.

‘Are they healed?’

Sina nodded as she sits down on her chair. But it doesn’t seem like she is going to tell him where they are

‘Then, where are they?’

Sina lean back on her chair and sighed.

‘Hmm’ she said.

‘Why did you come?’ She asks.

Azief look at Sina and then he looks at the ceiling, hesitating to say it but then he remembers. He should not lie to himself.

He woke up and the first thing he thought about is the infirmary. There is a reason of course why his first thought is the infirmary. Because those two are there.

The talk he had with Sina…. make him realizes he had become what he used to be.

Indecisive. It is that trait that always made him frustrated with himself. And he lost a lot of things because of that trait

He wanted to talk with Sina.

But he also wanted to talk with Sofia and Katarina. Because he knows deep in his heart, that he needs to make a decision.

If he makes his decision, he would hurt one of them. But by not making a decision, he would always be hurting both of them

Whether that decision is right or wrong, time would tell and his heart would tell.

He doesn’t know what he is going to feel later. But he knows he could not keep going like this, hurting both of them as time passes.

If there is someone that should be hurt, it should be him and not them.

Sina take a sip of the tea and then she smiles proudly.

Then she said

‘It seems you have been thinking a lot since our last talk. I guess you have figured out something’ Azief nodded and took a sip of the tea.

‘Good tea’ he said

Sina nodded

Then she asked

‘Did you make your decision?’ Azief try to think of a way of how to reply to that question and then he knows what he is going to do.

He nodded.

‘I did.’

Sina stopped sipping her tea and took a glance at Azief. She smiles and then resume sipping her tea and then she said

‘Was it the decision that would hurt them or is it a decision that would only hurt one of them? Or is it a decision that would hurt them less?’

Azief take another sip and his heart become calm. Not because he knows whether his decision was right or wrong.

It is simply calm because he already made his decision.

Whether it is right or wrong, one day, his heart would surely tell him.

Then he replies to Sina question with this.

‘I don’t know whether it is decision that would hurt or not hurt them. All I know, that this decision is an honest one’

‘Being honest to one own heart…. there is nothing more to ask in loving people’ Sina said and she sighed.

She looks at her infirmary, looking at it empty state and a smile is on her face. Then she looks at Azief.

‘You truly would not regret?’ She asks

Azief scoffed and he said

‘How should I know? I didn’t even make the choice yet. But one thing I know is this. I know I would never regret meeting them both….and even loving them. At least, I think I could guarantee that’

Sina chuckles

‘Why? You don’t believe me?’ Azief ask.

‘No…. I just think it is quite romantic of you to think of it like that’

Azief just smile bitterly.

‘You are not the only one that made a decision’

‘Hmm? What do you mean?’ Azief ask

‘That night, the talk that we had, Katarina and Sofia, they both heard it’ Azief listening to what Sina said almost spurted the tea out of his mouth in shock

‘What do you mean?’

‘They heard it and they too make their own decision. Today, you make your decision. But they made their decision yesterday.’

Azief gulped

And he felt his heart beating faster than he intended it to be.

For the first time in many years, he felt a kind of fear that he never felt before. He felt the fear of death.

He felt the fear of pain. He felt the fear of regret. But this is not that kind of fear. What he felt now is the fear of losing something. The fear of losing something important in his life.

That is what he felt right now and that fear almost choked him dead.

‘Tell me. What did they decide?’

Sina smiles.

‘Oh, they are not making it easy for you that is for sure. They want for you to choose. They know how hard it would be for you and how hard it is for them. The problem isn’t the solution. The problem was always the fact that you never wanted to see the problem’

Azief just sighed at this and then he took a second to calm himself down and then he asks

‘Where are they right now?’

This is the third time he asked that same question. But this time his voice tone is cold and one could hear a trace of anxiousness.

Sina is calm and then she smiles bitterly

‘They are waiting for you’ Sina look at Azief and could see how conflicted he is feeling

‘Soph is waiting for you at the Peach tree where you promised her that it will be you and her against the world. She said you will know where that place is’ Sina smiles a bit thinking of it.

It was such a long time ago and she herself has memories of that time. It is not fond memories but still.

Then she said

‘Katarina is in Spain. She is on the site of the Mountain of Everlasting Love. Both of them are waiting for you. Now….it is time to choose’

Azief listening to Sina closes his eyes put down his tea cup. He already knows what he needs to do.

Azief without a word got up from his seat and with a swish of his robe he disappeared from the room and only gust of wind blows over in the infirmary as some paper charts and some crystal incense was blown over and fall down to the floor.

Sina took another sip of the tea and she shakes her head

I hope you chose Sofia. But the matters of the heart have always been unpredictable. I don’t know who you will choose…. but I hope that choice would make you happy.

She said that as she put down her tea cup and went outside the room to take a deep breath of the fresh air outside.

She takes a good long deep breath and then she exhales it.

She looks at the sky and she wonder….why does the weather is like this?

After all, unfortunately, today is a good day with clear skies and kids running around the forest laughing and enjoying themselves.

It is truly a good day.

It is too good of a day

***

The first chapter of mass release. This is the end guys. The new chapter will be in a few minutes

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