Royal Blood

XXX: What Could Have Been

Demon's Field was blanketed with snow inches deep, sparkling and untouched. It was exactly how its name sounded: a large open field, no buildings, no structures of any kind, just a battlefield. Dark observed the empty plain; Gregory was nowhere in sight.

“Are you sure this the right battlefield haunted with the souls of the fallen?” Mark asks, looking around.

“I'm certain,” Dark assured. “I've fought here many times.”

Nadia stepped forward, burying her hands in her cloak. “This is the place. Can't you feel the weight of the souls damned here for all of eternity?”

Anti gave her a concerned look. “Uh, no, 'cause we're not fucking weird.”

Nadia shrugged. “Must be a feline thing.”

“No, Captain Rose is correct,” Dark agreed. “You really can't feel it?”

“You can feel it 'cause your the demon of pain, and torture. That's not exactly my area of expertise. It's mischief.”

“That explains so much,” Caitlyn retorted sharply.

Seán knelt down and buried his hand in the snow. “Wait.” He paused. “Something isn't right here.”

“Well, this is a haunted battlefield,” Mark stated, as if no further explanation was needed.

“No… it's not that,” Seán looked up. “It's something else but…” He didn't get to finish his thought before collapsing completely.

“Seán!” Caitlyn rushed to his side. Something had rendered him unconscious. “What did this?” She asked the group.

Dark looked to sky. “Not what, who.”

“He's here.” Said Anti. Whether that was a warning or a simple fact, everyone but Dark wasn't conscious long enough to know. There were a series of thuds, and when Dark looked back he found Anti, Mark, Caitlyn, and Nadia lying unconscious in the snow the same as Seán, their respective relics lying beside them.

Dark placed his hands behind his back. “I see you've been practicing,” he announced, his echoing throughout the field. Suddenly, Gregory appeared just a few feet away from Dark in a storm of red smoke in all of his smug glory.

“Well, when the Devil's Heart receives a certain amount of souls, it rewards you, if you will, with a few abilities. Besides, you brought back up, that's hardly fair.” Gregory wore the Devil's Heart on his finger; it glowed vibrantly, casting a red light on the snow.

“What I brought are five of the eight relic wielders, and including you and and I, there are seven within this general vicinity.”

Gregory glances behind Dark. “And what of my daughter? Do you know of her whereabouts?”

Dark levels the blade of the scythe with Gregory's neck. His eyes blazed with a fury. “Adelaide is not, not ever has been, your daughter. Her whereabouts are none of your concern.”

Gregory shrugged as if this was but minor inconvenience. “That's quite alright. Once I kill you, I'll kill them—” he nods to the comatose group behind Dark. “—then I'll track down Adelaide and kill her.”

Dark growled. “Over my dead body.”

Gregory grinned sadistically. “That can certainly be arranged.” He lunged at Dark.

•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°

Everything was white, bright and blinding, and then she opened her eyes.

Adelaide found herself back in her own castle, in Vorena, in its garden. Everything was washed in a pink color, like a rose veil was being held in front of her eyes. There was a chorus of laughter from behind and Adelaide turned around to see who caused it.

Sitting on a blanket in the grass that surrounded the stone walkway were a little girl and a little boy. The little girl had long black hair, long enough to pile onto the blanket below her, with a dark red bow tied into it. She had a loud laugh that bounced off the castle's exterior and wide silver eyes that lit up when she laughed. The boy's hair was pale blond, almost white, and he had the same silver eyes as the girl. His demeanor, though, seemed to be the exact opposite of the little girl's; quiet and reserved.

“They're something, aren't they?” Adelaide jumped at the voice, looking around but seeing no one. But she recognized the voice instantly. A cold, distant voice that she has heard for almost twenty-one years. It was Gregory, but how?

“Who are they?” She asked.

“Why, your children, of course. Well, yours and Dark's.”

Adelaide shook her head. “I don't—that’s not—they’re not—”

“What, real? No, not yet.”

Her voice grew thick. “Why are you showing me this?” She asks.

“I'm just showing you what your life could be once the Devil's Heart is fully empowered.”

“But that would mean everybody in the world would be dead except for the demons.”

“And what a life that'd be.”

Adelaide draws her attention back to the children—her children. They were now kicking a ball around in the grass without a care in the world. “What are their names?”

“Princess Delphine and Prince Stephen,” he says.

Adelaide's face pales. “This isn't real, they aren't real.”

“But they can be, Adelaide,” Gregory says. His words were enticing, drawing her into a fantasy life, something that she wanted to have, but couldn't if it meant killing of the entire human race.

“No,” she says.

“No?” Gregory repeats.

“No. This is just a dream; it's just one possibility out of millions, you cannot know for sure that they—” she gestures towards Delphine and Stephen. “—will actually come to be.” Adelaide's courage grows. “Dark and the others will defeat you and they will ensure that the Devil's Heart will never fall into the wrong hands ever again.”

What was a dream quickly turned into nightmare. Delphine and Stephen disappeared and everything went black.

“Foolish little girl,” Gregory hissed. “You think they can kill me?”

“I don't think, I know. You are not as powerful as you'd like to believe you are, Gregory. Your reign will end today and we will be stronger because of it.”

“We?” He asks. “you have months to live, a year at most. Your friends won't find a cure before then, you know that.”

Adelaide stands taller. “Perhaps. But I will relish my death knowing that you are no more.” Adelaide could feel herself waking up. “Say hello to Eloise for me.”