The Crown and The Rose
Chapter 51: Lure Of The Darkness

Chapter 51: Lure Of The Darkness

The Crown

"Who are you?" My breath catches as I take in the thing before me. I have never seen something like this. It is all black smoke and beaming with dark energy, making my skin crawl.

"I am a fallen angel." The voice is raspy and there is no need to tell me the source of the voice. "I need your body, Lush."

Blood drains from my entire body and a chill crawls down my spine.

This is the worst kind of situation I could anticipate when I stepped out of Typhon’s place. I think the God of luck has something against me. Or else why would he always push me into something so dangerous? Last time the Abyliths and now fallen angels? You can’t be serious!

"And you don’t expect me to give it to you like this, do you?" I inch away from him. I don’t intend to fight with this creature. There is no guarantee that I will win, so, better that I run the hell away from here.

"Don’t try to run away, Holy Prince." The shadow inches forward to me, "Let me take your body. Become my vessel."

"Excuse me, sir." I edge toward the door some more, "Do you really expect me to give my body to you just like that?"

"No." I feel like it just shook its head, "I expect you to put up a fight but, Holy Prince, I am afraid it will be futile."

"And just for the record—" My eyes narrow, looking at my footing then dart back to him, "—I don’t intend to fight. I tend to run." Sweat trickles down my forehead and I bolt.

I particularly fly down the stairs, my heart hammering against my chest and my lungs burning for the need of oxygen. I have a tunnel vision. I see the black smoke outrun me and stand before the exit and me.

"And I hereby don’t plan to let you go, Holy Prince." It speaks, making an ice slide down my spine, "You have to either fight me or give up your body."

"And I do not think that you are in any place to tell me what to do." I lock every muscle in my body and clench my jaw. Seems like I have no other choice left but to fight it.

I flick my wrists and two light daggers appear in my hands. I take a fighting stance.

"This is more like it, Holy Prince." Why do I feel like it is smiling? I must be losing it, "I expect the Gods blessed to fight the Gods cursed."

I frown slightly, "Why did you get cursed?"

It pauses, "It does not concern the Holy Prince." It seems to be contemplating something—it is just a hunch, "But as the prince wishes to know why he is dying, I shall tell him."

"I think you have got this wrong," I near him by a few inches, "I am not the one who is dying. It’s you."

"We shall see about that, Holy Prince." It sounds so unnervingly confident that it is getting under my skin, "As for why I was cursed, I disobeyed a divine rule and bonded with a demon." I can feel a stab of something in my chest, "And Holy Prince... I am assuming that you were going to join me soon enough—if I don’t kill you, then that’s it."

He is not wrong... I am going to make the same mistake. I know it. I don’t know about bonding, but loving? Yes. Is it wrong? Yes. But do I care? Absolutely no.

"I am afraid that it will ever happen." My grip on my daggers is tight and my muscles flex as tension knots every single one of them.

The smoke lurks closer to me, just breathes away from me, "Oh Holy Prince." Its voice is low and taunting, "Do you deny that you feel nothing for the lord of the southern territory? What was his name again?"

"Vermilion." I instinctively answer.

"Right." It chuckles, making my stomach twist and flip, "Do you deny that you are a male but still, you feel something unspeakable toward the lord? That you are breaking all the divine rules by falling in love with him? That you are disgracing your Empire?" It snickers as my heart sinks to the pit of my stomach, "O’ Holy Prince, I pity you. So let me take over your body and let me set you free from all the pain."

My hands fall limply to my side. He is right... I am disgracing my Empire. "I-I..." I stammer.

"That’s right..." It pushes further, "Let me in, Holy Prince." It comes more closer to me.

My head snaps in a direction and I bolt, "Edward, now!" I command

"Yes, Your Highness!" And a giant wall of wood climbs out of the chest of earth, shielding me from the smoke. I bolt toward the exit.

"You foolish prince!" The voice bellows and the smoke slips free through the gasps at the wall, "You just had to make it more painful for yourself."

I fling one of my daggers to the approaching smoke ball. And to my shock, it just flies through the smoke bal, doing no damage to it when it should make both spiritual and physical damage. My heart sinks instantly as I see the smoke eating up the distance between us at a horrifyingly fast pace.

I throw a punch at it but the smoke takes no damage this time as well.

"This is futile, Holy Prince." The smoke lets out a horrifying laugh as it consumes me.

I throw out my fists and my remaining dagger to prevent it from getting what it wants. But it’s no use. Everything starts to turn dark and my limbs start to feel extremely heavy, I can’t breathe as if someone is choking me. I can feel the smoke entering through my mouth. A teardrop slips past the rim of my eye and everything goes black.