Dragon Raja

48 - The Promise I Made

Notes
This chapter contains mature/explicit content. Descriptions of blood, violence, and minor sexual tensions. Please read at your own discretion.

Did anyone catch the title of this chapter being identical to the second chapter save for one word? I wanted to convey the promise Y/N and Renata made to each other versus the single promise Renata made to Y/N herself and Zero finally remembering it.

I really wanted to capture just how disgusting and evil Herzog was in this chapter as well, so I hope I portrayed it well! If it made you uncomfortable, I'll say I did my job.

Also, I'm so sorry for the long wait :') I've been dealing with finding a new place to live and moving out but since I'm all settled now we can get right back into a (hopefully) regular updating schedule! 

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It hadn't taken too long to find the source of darkness that made its path clear to Y/N. She hitched a ride to the outskirts of Tokyo where all that remained by the seaside was debris and ruin from the recent storms.

She trudged through the thick sand littered with trash. As if following a string that tied itself around the object of her desire. A voice that called out to her among the ocean waves and the gray, foreboding sky. She couldn't remember the last time she had seen the sun.

You need to kill him, a voice snapped in her head. It was unlike the gentleness of her Gemini, no, this voice was twisted and repulsive. The entire essence of her desire—her hatred gnawing at her heart and turning it black.

Y/N's eyes burn golden and even in the dull, lifeless sky the fire in her gaze would catch the attention of anyone afar. There was a shudder in her breath and her tense shoulders shifted from side to side as she embarked on her quest for revenge.

Her previous anxiety all but faded into thoughts of darkness and impurities. When she had failed to take a human life before, she promised herself that this time—she'd make sure he was dead. The life of a human being meant nothing to her if the man she aimed to lay waste to was not human at all.

The sand reeked of iron and salt. As her shoes dug into the ground she left behind footprints only to be washed away by the shallow waters.

The first battle with Herzog had shifted something inside of Y/N. As everyone had been telling her, her spark of benevolence was gone. She could no longer afford to be weary or frightened at the sight of the man who tormented her dreams. Y/N trudged on, mournful, scowling with a growing sense of anger seething through her veins. Her eyes bore fiercely at the figure above her.

Perched high on top of a pile of rubble, the man in his pitch-black pointed mask stood menacingly. Even though his eyes were shielded from sight, Y/N knew his gaze was fixated on her with cruel mockery.

"So you've come at last," his voice echoed across the vast lifelessness of the shore, sending a chill down Y/N's spine. "I knew you'd find me—I've been waiting for you,"

Y/N clenched her jaw tight in fear that her voice would crack. The sound of his voice, ridiculing her, taunting her into giving into her fear of him—she knew she couldn't show any sign of unease. She would not cower down at the sight of him—nor at his baseless words.

"You've come to kill me," he stretched his arms out in a welcoming manner, as if offering himself to her on a silver platter. As if prepared to die. Yet he held the confidence as one would knowing that they'd win the outcome of a war.

Y/N summoned a pale, shimmering staff into her palms. The light dimmed as soon as the handle touched her skin. Her Gemini, eyes red with rage appeared at her side.