"You have two choices. The first one is to allow me to kill you without resistance. I'll ensure your people are given a new chance. They'll reincarnate as mortals with clean slates. Their past will not haunt them."
The siren scoffed, his voice drenched in salt and sarcasm.
"And what of me? Will I be reborn into lullabies?"
"No. You will go to the depths of hell, or you can ask me to erase your soul from existence. I can do that."
For a moment, the siren said nothing. The waters flickered around him as if even the ocean trembled at the offer.
"And the other option?"
"You fight me. You die. But unlike your people, you will suffer eternally, bound to them. Every punishment they face in the next life, you will feel. It will be a cycle of torment, spinning forever. You will become their tether."
The siren let out a hollow chuckle.
"You forget something, boy. I'm at the Fourth Enlightenment. You're barely at the second."
"And yet I slaughtered your kin like foam off a wave. I'm the son of Lysameria, the true Nexus of Oceans. As long as you are in these waters, you will never defeat me. And you know you can't beat me. The island is destroyed."
"..."
"Your curse was to never leave this island. Sure, your sirens would but you can't. Now that I've destroyed it, you are severely injured too. That's why no one could kill you. Your life was tethered to the island."
The siren exhaled a long, worn breath.
"You don't understand. I've tried to die many times. The curse won't let me. My soul finds its way back to my body every time. I've drowned in pits of acid. I've let monsters feast on me. I've begged lesser gods to break me. But every time... I wake again screaming."
Vastarael said nothing. He let the pain land where it needed to. The siren stared at the cracked flooded ground for a long while. Then, slowly, he stood. His body moved not like that of a proud warrior or a king clinging to power but like a prisoner walking into the light for the first time in centuries. His knees cracked as he stepped forward and then, he knelt before Vastarael.
"You win. Let my people be free. Let them forget me. Let them live. And for me, grant me the one thing the curse denied me."
He raised his head, eyes filled not with tears but with hollow relief.
"Erase me."
There was no sound. Even the ocean itself seemed to hold its breath. And Vastarael nodded once.
"That was fast. But I understand."
Vastarael stepped forward. The siren's knees pressed to the wet rocks, his head bowed. Vastarael didn't speak immediately. Then slowly, he reached behind his back. The sapphire material of Calimostria whispered as it slid from its ethereal clasp.
"This is the greatest mercy anyone will ever give you. You made your mistakes five millennia ago. Time has passed. But time doesn't forget. It teaches and punishes. And sometimes, it forgives."
The siren lifted his gaze. He gave a solemn nod.
"Your sins are forgiven, Lyvinid."
The blade swung instantly.
The siren's head fell forward without resistance. His body crumpled like an old statue at the end of an era.
Calimostria dissolved into a cloud of glowing motes. Vastarael didn't watch the body. He had no need to. Instead, he kneeled, placing his hand gently over the siren's chest. A soft glow rose from beneath his palm and an orb. It was his soul. He held it in both hands, as though it were a wounded bird. Then, with eyes closed, he whispered words in the ancient Xinoraci tongue.
The orb pulsed.
With a sigh that echoed in the deepest trenches of the sea, the soul unraveled into glowing dust. No trace of it remained. There would be no reincarnation or afterlife.
He was erased from existence.
As the soul vanished, the dark fog that had wrapped the seafloor in sorrow and memory lifted all at once, peeling away like a curtain under sunrise. The world blinked into clarity. And then without warning, a beam of crimson light struck Vastarael square in the chest. He didn't flinch. He felt it cascade through him.
His vision filled with system notifications.
_____
[First Sacred Trial: COMPLETE.]
[Method: Resolution Without Combat.]
[Enlightenment Progression: +78%.]
[Enlightenment Tier Ascended: SECOND To THIRD.]
[Causality Gecisia One Casuality: Third Enlightenment Power Initiated.]
______
Vastarael blinked. There was no pain in the shift. He didn't even realize he had left the Second Enlightenment behind until he opened his eyes and felt the entire ocean bend around him. But something was off.
A deep male ancient voice spoke.
"You are the first Split to solve a Trial without lifting your blade."
Vastarael turned his head, scanning the ocean.
"Who are you?"
The voice chuckled lightly.
"That doesn't matter. What matters is that from this moment forward, I will be the one giving you and your companions the Sacred Trials."
"The Sentina Erideae, huh..."
"Yes. All ten of you. Including yourself."
Vastarael exhaled, already imagining what that meant.
"And this Enlightenment increase? Why was it granted so easily?"
"Easily? You just chose the harder path. If you had killed them all and slaughtered without question, you would have received 50%. That was what was expected. But mercy is an unexpected blade. By finding the peaceful resolution to a combat-based Trial, you've earned an extra 25%."
"And the last three percent?"
The voice paused but didn't reply to his question.
"The next Sacred Trial will involve all ten of you. The paths of the Sentina Erideae are now braided together."
The presence faded and Vastarael was left alone once more.
He looked around the fallen battlefield, where the chains of hatred had once bound the 13,000 sirens to an eternal curse. They had been victims of a ruler who finally accepted the weight of what he had done. Even though it took five millennia...
Vastarael raised a hand.
The water shimmered and from his Control Circle, 13,000 turquoise souls rose. They ascended like a living aurora through the sea, illuminating the world that had forgotten them. As he watched them fade into the upper tides, Vastarael pressed his hands together in a quiet prayer.
"May you find your way to the embrace of Naranq."
Five thousand years of pain was unknotted in that single line. He turned away. And that part of the sea, for the first time in five millennia, was finally still.
°°°°°°
{Hello! I just came to announce that I released a new book, Masquerade of Dreams: Shattered. The first ten chapters will be released today. Well, if you have the time to read it, might as well check it out. It will be released at the same time as this chapter so be sure to check it out!}