Original Stories Fan Fiction ❯ Shattered Illusions ❯ Execution of a Knight ( Chapter 30 )

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Shattered Illusions

Chapter 30: Execution of a Knight

By: Melissa Norvell

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Estella walked down the long trail of red carpet into the royal court, past the other Black Knights and towards King Carlyse and Queen Hepesta, who were seated on their high-backed thrones. The King was regal with long, straight black hair that was pulled into a high ponytail and piercing blue eyes adorned with crow's feet at their corners and a black mustache. Even though he was centuries old, it never visibly showed. His queen was radiant and beautiful with skin of caramel and snow white hair that was pulled back into a high ponytail. Her eyes were cat-like and purple in coloration and she wore a cotton candy colored lipstick that made her lips stick out from their dark surrounding flesh. She wore a royal purple dress with layers of frills that cascaded onto the ground.

In front of them stood Prince Yale, wearing the same Victorian garb he had always worn with a cape trailing far behind him.

Another vampire was at his side, dressed in a blue, old English, double-breasted coat with twin rows of buttons and white pants with a red sash around his waist. He had mint-green hair that stuck out into three spikes on each side of his head, curving upwards and dark green, cat-like eyes. He was built with a perfect male form and had skin the color of ivory. "And now, his highness, Prince Yale Axis Greenchapel, Second Crowned Prince of Ramada, will induct Estella Nu into the Order of the Black Knights," he announced clearly as Hide and Hizaki watched from their respected places, on either side of the King and Queen.

Estella walked up towards the royals and stopped before the prince, kneeling as she kissed his hand.

"My Prince, I am ready to serve you," she said with diligence as she looked into the male's eyes.

"Then let the ceremony begin!" Yale commanded as a sword was presented to him, bearing his family crest. He took the sword and held it into the air, the blade glistened in the sunlight. “In the name of the vampuric country of Ramada, I Prince Yale Axis Greenchapel, bestow upon you the title of knight. You are able to serve my court and pledge your loyalty to me."

"Yes, my prince," the would be knight agreed as the sword was laid over either shoulder, then a large screen above them turned on and lit up as Copernicus' image bled through, seated at a desk as his blue eyes scanned through the crowd. He was dressed in his official, royal dress; a blue coat with a white cravat, gloves and white frills that tumbled from the sleeves and a red sash that was strewn diagonally across his right shoulder.

"Good evening, ladies and gentlemen," he started off with his announcement, "I apologize for the intrusion but I cannot physically be present for the formation ceremony of the Black Knights, so I will be overseeing the event through this feed."

Hepesta turned to him with a smile on her face. Even if her son was not physically there, she was happy to see that he had made the effort. "Ah, Copernicus, it's good to see you here."

"The pleasure is all mine, Queen Hepesta."

"Well, it wouldn't be proper if the very founder of the group wasn't here, would it?" Carlysle mentioned.

"Of course, King Carlysle."

"Why can't you be here?" Yale was curious as to what was keeping him. Obviously, he had shown up on screen in royal dress. Why not attend the ceremony in person?

"I'm writing a treaty with the country of Ikura. I have an allotted timeline, so it's critical that we gain alliance with them as soon as possible. You know how it is, Prince Yale." Such things could not be interrupted, as alliances were top priority over the induction of new knights into his group. This was merely his way of balancing both events.

Yale bowed, "yes, of course."

"So, this is our new leader of the Black Knights?" Copernicus gazed down at the purple-haired woman.

Estella bowed, "I am Estella Nu, the leader of the Black Knights. It's a pleasure to meet such a brilliant man." She had heard a great deal about the intimidating man referred to as Copernicus Wittenburg. He was every bit as daunting as people had claimed him to be, even on the big screen. She could only imagine how he would be if they were standing face-to-face.

The brunette arched an eyebrow, "a female knight? Interesting."

"She was put through the harsh tests that you designed and came out at the top of her division," the queen informed her son of Estella exceptional talent. "We then placed her through the second round of tests and she continued to excel at the top. She truly is the best there is."

"I trust your judgment," Copernicus replied.

"You're too kind," the queen smiled.

"I know that I will serve you well."

Estella opened her eyes and scared up as a scanned was being run over her nude form. She touched her chest with her fingertips running them over herself before she felt a button sticking out of her left breast. Her eyes widened in horror and panic shot through her body. 'What? What the hell is this?' Her thoughts were running a mile a minute as she sat up in a hurry, purple locks falling over her full breasts. 'What did he do to my body?'

"It's a good question, isn't it? I have made it possible to achieve your goal," Hide explained as he casually took a sip of blood from his wine glass. "With this button, you control your destiny and that of those around you. A powerful weapon is concealed within your body. It will be all you need to defeat Copernicus. Give yourself a couple of days to heal then you can take it for a test run on whoever you'd like to get the feel of it. It will be the best experience of your life. You'll be unstoppable." Now that his creation had been successful, Hide was sure to win the battle, or at least have a significant edge. Come what may, Copernicus was going to have a fight on his hands. Things were about to get interesting.

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Tsubomi laid on the vampire's bed on her back, the feeling of the soft material caressed her body as her chest heaved and she was covered in a thin layer of sweat. Her eyes sparkled with lust as she took ragged breaths. Beside of her, Copernicus laid, panting and glistening against the lighting of the room. His long, wavy hair lay haphazardly around him.

"Are you alright?" His words cut through her daze.

"I don't even know. My head is spinning and my body is trembling." Not to mention her new sensations made her body ache. Even if she had to subjugate herself to such acts, she couldn't deny they brought her a sense of pleasure. Strong arms wrapped around her, holding her close to his body.

"I'm happy to finally have pleased you," the vampire had found it a feat in its own to even get the girl into bed with him, much less partake in sexual acts. This was his greatest conquest...as well as his greatest level of trust earned.

"Copernicus," Tsubomi's voice was small, holding an underlying sorrow to it. She wished that she could allow him to do more but that would hinder her secret. It would force her to bear everything to him, and she wasn't about to do that just yet.

"Whatever you're holding in, it certainly seems to be eating you alive," he could tell by the tone of her voice and the wear on her body. Tsubomi had a lot of underlying worry about various things but the vampire couldn't grasp her cryptic mindset. One day, he would earn her trust enough so that she would be able to tell him everything about herself. Copernicus was worried about her, more than she knew.

Burying her head into his chest as she cuddled close to him, Tsubomi closed her eyes as her fingers flexed on his bare back, "just hold me."

Bringing her close, the vampire fulfilled her wish as half-lidded eyes laid sights on the beautiful being in his arms. "Don't worry, Tsubomi. I love you."

Opening her eyes, she averted them as she rested the side of her head on his chest. "How deep does love run? Can it go beyond deception?"

"You worry a lot. Why do you doubt my feelings for you? I told you that I would accept any secrets you have, just as you would accept mine," his thoughtful and passionate speech only made the guilt well up within her form. Tsubomi's stomach churned.

"What I've kept from you all this time is really big and it will affect our relationship. In fact, it will completely change everything," Tsubomi's voice took on a dark edge or sorrow as she looked down, bangs shading her eyes as thin, pink lips twisted into a frown.

Copernicus frowned as he felt an inward prang. "I haven't been completely honest with you, myself. In fact, I've been lying to you about a lot of things."

It seemed they both had secrets to hide.

Tsubomi's face jolted up, her eyes wide with shock. "You...have?"

It had never occurred to her that he might not have been telling her the whole truth. Tsubomi had always thought that he was the one being truthful and she was continuing the harbor her secrets.

The vampire nodded, a solemn look reflected in his eyes. "Sorry...I can't tell you what they are now."

"I thought you were being completely honest with me," much to her dismay, she had trusted the vampire with everything that she had, and he had been lying to her. What was he lying about? What was true and what was false?

"Not really, I do love you. That's not a lie," he could never speak that phrase in falsehood, not after everything that had happened, both between he and Virgil and the and the girl.

"Whatever you're hiding, I know you have reasons," she had to continue to believe that Copernicus was a reasonable person with a level head. If not for his current situation he would have no need to keep things to himself or rely an alias.

Blue eyes narrowed, "I am not who you think I am."

The girl cracked a small, bitter smile and closed her eyes. "Oh boy, doesn't that make two of us?"

"I've always wanted to know who exactly you were. I mean, I know everything about you, even though I love you, I want to know what makes you smile and laugh," the girl was a mystery to him. Tsubomi had always given him leeway to know more, then shoved him back and kept him at a distance. It was both a frustrating, yet fascinating experience and something that kept him drawn to her.

"You make me smile and laugh," Tsubomi opened her eyes, leveling her master with a small smile.

"You know what I mean."

"I don't really know who you are, either." Therefore, they had a mutual sense of mystery.

His smile slowly morphed into a frown. "I hope you're not disappointed."

Her pitch dropped into one of sorrow. "Yeah...same here."

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Hide gazed into the eyes of the Black Knight, staring at her with a look of apathy and void. "You fully are aware that this is a do or die mission, correct?"

"Yes," there was no screwing up this time.

"This special weapon is designed to deliver direct blows to your enemies. They should suffer an immense amount of damage. If they live, it would be a miracle." It would truly be their last stage performance in this devilish play. With a weapon like this, Estella could not go wrong. Now, he would entrust that she would use it properly.

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Millie lay across Yale's lap as they gazed across the field of dancing flowers. They waved in all of their multi-colored glory as a cool, sweet breeze brushed against their forms, toying with the silken strands of their hair and rustling their clothing. In the distance, a small pond shimmered like broken glass in the sunlight. The vampire's tongue ran across his fingers, lapping up the remnants of blood that stained his skin.

"Sorry, I just lost it that day. It just...really freaked me out," Millie said, cutting through the silence.

"It's fine. You're only a human. You're not like me."

"What did you kill before you came here?"

"There were some enemy forced dangerously close to my hideout. So, I decided to take care of them before they could report it back to Hide," he had to stay hidden, and he wasn't about to let anyone else get away with letting his location slip. It was kill or be killed, and he had been through too much to simply allow himself to die.

"What happened to Estella Nu?"

"It's uncertain..." he trailed as he glanced down at the girl's bewildered expression.

Millie arched an eyebrow. "Do you think she's alive?"

"Vampires, at the most, are five to ten times stronger than humans, so I imagine she would be," Yale's expression then took a turn for the grave side of his emotions. There was no way that Estella could be dead. If she died, he would be shocked. More than anyone, he knew the potential of the Black Knights.

"That means she'll be coming back after you," Millie was worried now.

"Yes, it will take a while for her to heal, however. These last two days have been so peaceful. We should enjoy it. With the upcoming events, we'll see few days of peace." Something big was about to happen. That he was certain of. Soon, Hide would try and initiate the Time of Ending, and if he was successful, they were in for a war far bigger than either of them could comprehend.

Millie smiled a little, trying to combat her mounting worry over the situation. "You're right. It's beautiful here. The pond and the field of flowers that wave so peacefully in the breeze, it almost makes you wonder how war exists."

"War exists because of human spite, power and violence. A man's emotions are his own self-destruction." It was what Yale had witnessed throughout the ages of his existence, with each passing of war. To him, war wasn't about who had won, it was about who was left alive.

"I hate wars. Besides, no one's right if everyone's wrong," and to Millie, war in general was wrong. It cost lives and property damage. It hurt people and gave them horrible mental disorders and disfigurements. It was good for nothing at all.

"A war is a simple clash of goals. There is no good and evil, because the concept of good and evil is also an opinion."

Millie cocked her head in confusion at his cryptic phrase. "Hm? What do you mean?"

Yale gazed down at her. "Think about it. Whoever opposes you is the enemy, but if you are opposing them you are their enemy. You're both enemies and heroes in your own aspects and idealisms." Everyone was the same in war to him. Through your eyes you are your own hero and through their eyes, they are their own hero.

Everyone was equal.

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Pulling out her whip, Estella gripped the weapon tightly and wore a look of vexation and scorn. It was all his fault that things had to be this way. All his fault that she had been transformed into this abomination. "Now, Copernicus will pay with this new weapon. I am unstoppable." There would be no way that she would lose now. She was the ultimate weapon, and now that she had been amplified and reconditioned, Estella would reign supreme. There would be no stopping her now. 'Though I wonder what exactly Hide did to me. He's a strange man, and he builds many great weapons of war, but he's also designed many of our military's greatest weapons of torture.' That very thought brought a smirk to her face. There was nothing more fulfilling than watching someone else suffer as she delivered their just punishment. Nothing better than the cutting of flesh, the crystalline tears that fell and the futile cries for help from her victim. It gave her a sense of power greater than anything she had ever felt. It was almost a sexual satisfaction in a way, because her feelings were so intense. 'I have a feeling that this is truly my last mission. If I fail again with this new weapon. However, I am confident that I can win.'

Estella began to walk through a dense patch of trees, making her way towards her unsuspecting prey. Sunlight shone through an opening between a couple of trees, and as she entered the light, purple eyes caught glimpse of the massive field of flowers with the shimmering pond. Her eyes widened. "What? It can't be! It's them, and they are in plain sight."

A wicked smile bled onto her face. "Now is my chance! Cutting Slash!" She thrusted her whip forward and thrust it at the two. The dark lash of energy tore through the flowers, scattering blossoms into the air as Yale grabbed Millie and barely managed to jump out of the way.

The girl screamed as he landed in the tree branch and watched the energy drag across the ground. Millie clung to him in fear as he held her tightly against his body. "Are you okay, Millie?"

Taking her head from his chest as a few stray leaves became tangled in her hair, she nodded. "I almost had a heart attack but I'm okay now." Seriously, that scared the shit out of her.

Estella jumped up with a burst of speed and brought her whip down again, executing another attack. Yale clutched the girl again and shot out of the tree. Millie screamed again, clinging to him as Estella jumped from branch to branch.

"Oh no you don't!" The Black Knight called out as she lifted her arm, causing the end of the whip to change directions into an upward motion. It latched into his slim waist, cutting into him as it wrapped around his form. Shock registered on his face before he was propelled into the ground. In a desperate attempt to cling to the girl in his arms, Yale tried to wrap his arms tighter around her but to no avail; she was released and fell from his hands.

"Millie!" Yale shouted in horror as he watched her body fall through the air.

"This is payback for slamming me into that rock, you royal bastard!" Estella called out as she swung the prince around on her whip.

Snapping his fingers, Yale summoned a harsh gale that sliced through her whip. After being released, his body flew through the air before he back flipped off of the tree trunk. With all of his might, he used the trunk as a surface to propel himself from as he lurched forward and drew back his fist in an attempt to punch her. However, he changed positions quickly and delivered a forceful spin kick that caused her to stumble awkwardly back as purple hair followed the movement of her recoiled face.

Estella held the side of her face as sharp pain registered. She glared at him with livid vexation, then lunged forward as he extended his fingers from his balled hand and moved them slightly as several pieces of neon blue energy materialized and shot towards her, slicing furiously into her body as she continued to run. Blood surfaced on her skin, streaming from her.

Shock registered on Yale's face. Why wasn't she affected by that attack? "She's a lot faster and stronger than last time."

As soon as he made that deduction, a sharp blow was delivered to his face that sent his body flying backwards.

"I'll get you back into my custody yet!" That was a promise. "You will not get away from me, Prince Yale Axis-" Her words were cut short as a gunshot rang through their air. A clump of purple hair sailed by the vampire's face in several strands as it was blasted off. Purple eyes glanced back to see Millie, pointing her gun at her.

"Millie!" Yale was shocked that she had attacked the Black Knight as well. What was she thinking? This fight was more complicated than she could handle.

"Stupid girl," Estella hissed.

"I won't let you hurt him! Die!" Millie shouted in anger as she fired another shot.

Estella dodged it with ease and ran towards her. "You little fool!"

"No!" Yale yelled as the ground shot up in front of the vampire, hitting her in the chest as her body was propelled skyward. She yelled and rolled off of the mount of contorted dirt.

"Huh?" Millie blinked as the vampire shot in front of her.

"Stay out of this. It's my fault." The last thing Yale wanted was for her to be involved anymore than she already was.

Estella pulled herself off of the ground and chuckled slightly. "I can't fail this..." She ran a hand through her hair and began to cackle hysterically. "Hide will kill me!" She pulled herself to her feet, a wild look in her eyes. "I'll kill you both!"

Ripping open the top of her shirt, she pressed the button on her chest and cackled.

Then, the sound of a grotesque ripping sounded through her ears and a searing pain registered in her mind. Shock ran across everyone's faces.

"What's...happening to me...?" Estella asked painfully as blood gurgled out of her mouth. Large, robotic spider legs burst forth from her body. Only then, did she realize what was going on. "You...you traitor!"

"Oh my god!" Millie's soul illuminated terror as she saw the spider form out of the vampire's body, covered in guts, blood and viscera. The look of it made her stomach lurch and flip inside of her body. The girl held her stomach. 'I feel sick again.'

One of the massive legs shot towards them and Yale cried for her to look out as they both dodged the blood covered appendage.

"Let's get out of here!" Millie called out as the two of them took off running.

Tears of blood ran down the vampire's face. 'I wanted nothing more than to be a proper knight to my king...Where did it take this turn? When I joined the Black Knights, I was so happy to finally get recognition. My whole life, I had always been looked down upon for being a female. I was told that I would never be as ruthless or good in combat as a man and somehow, still, I managed to prove the world wrong when I served under the king and prince. I wanted to capture Prince Yale and extract his information to overthrow the monarchy and take over myself. I wanted to show them that a woman could rule over a nation single-handedly, and could be every bit as good as anyone from King Carlyse's family. I would do anything to achieve this, even if it meant washing my entire body in blood. I even used Hide and Hizaki, forming an alliance with them as they secretly plotted to murder the royal family and pinning the blame on the original members of the Black Knights. Once everyone had been out of the way, then Prince Yale would be left wide-open for an attack and easily slain, but I had other plans...I would capture and torture him, extracting all of the information I would be several steps ahead of Hide and Hizaki and kill them before they could get to the throne. It's too late now...Hide had probably found out...My goal...resulted in failure and now...I shall die in regret.'

Millie glanced behind her; the vampire was far behind, gazing at Estella's body from a safe distance away. It was twisted and mangled as the robotic legs stuck out of it, trying to gain proper ground like a new born foal, wobbling and unstable.

"Is she...dead?" Millie wondered aloud.

"What in the hell happened?" Yale had never seen anything like this before.

"I saw something like this before," but Millie had.

"Yes, they are the same robotic appendages that came from Hizaki's umbrella...so...it truly was you, Hide." It all made sense now. Everything connected with frightening logic.

"How did he get those things inside of her body?" The girl was disgusted to even know that sort of feat was possible. The limbs were three times the size of the woman's body. To fit them inside of her was a wild concept.

"It was, no doubt, an experiment performed by Hie himself." That had to be it. If it wasn't then he was interested himself.

"Experiment? She was experimented on?" So, Hide was some type of mad scientist? That made him all the scarier in her mind.

"You have no idea what the mind of that man is capable of. Going through him by force won't work. To attack him, we'd have to attack him directly; otherwise, we'd have to deal with his inventions," Yale's expression hardened. As long as they tried to do this the tactful way, they would forever be faced with these types of opponents. It was essential that they infiltrate his base as soon as they were able to.

"We should go back and tell Tsubomi-kun and Copernicus that she's dead." At least that was some good news.

Yale nodded, "yes of course, but now that Estella Nu is dead, who else will be after us? I can only sense that things will get worse from here. Truly, we are falling deeper and deeper into darkness and we won't have much defense if Hide decides to hit us directly now. I can only hope that Copernicus has a plan or else, we'll all die."

...To Be Continued