Crystal was from the Asura Clan, one of the most powerful clans in the Kingdom of Asterion. Their influence and strength rivaled even the royal family itself. For generations, they'd maintained a careful balance, serving the crown while remaining independent enough to be respected rather than merely obeyed.
Noah had been the second prince. Not the heir. Not the favorite. Just another royal son with ambition and no clear path to power.
Until he'd noticed Crystal.
He'd used her. Used her family connections, her clan's power, her influence among the nobility. He'd played the role of loving husband perfectly while maneuvering behind the scenes, consolidating power, making alliances, eliminating rivals.
He'd become king through her support, rising from second prince to crowned ruler in less than five years.
And then he'd systematically destroyed the Asura Clan.
Not all at once. That would have been too obvious, too likely to trigger retaliation. No, Noah was patient and thorough. He eliminated them piece by piece. An elder dying of "natural causes" here. A promising young clan member killed in a "training accident" there. Assassination dressed as misfortune, repeated until the clan's power base crumbled.
Crystal hadn't known. Or rather, she'd refused to see what was happening right in front of her. Love made people blind, made them ignore warning signs that should have been obvious.
By the time she'd found out the truth, it was already too late.
The poison was already in her system. She'd been consuming it in small doses for months, served in her meals by servants she'd trusted. Servants who'd been bought or threatened by Noah.
The poison was designed to weaken her cultivation gradually, making her think she was simply overworked or stressed. By the time symptoms became obvious, the damage was irreversible. Her meridians were corrupted, her internal energy destabilizing. Even if she'd tried to purge the poison, she would have died in the attempt.
She'd confronted Noah when she'd finally pieced it all together. He'd admitted everything with a smile, the same smile he'd worn earlier when standing over her corpse. There'd been no remorse, no guilt. Just satisfaction at a plan well executed.
That had been the beginning of her final flight. Her attempt to survive, to escape, to perhaps find a way to warn others about what he truly was.
It had ended in the ruined mansion, surrounded by an army, killed by the man she'd once loved.
She'd been ended up alone and betrayed.
Ironic, wasn't it? The Queen of Asterion, conqueror of kingdoms, master of the Serpent's Gaze, brought down not by superior force but by simple human treachery. By love misplaced and trust given too freely.
Crystal sighed, the sound absorbed by the strange atmosphere of this crimson realm.
She looked around again at the endless ocean of red, at the massive moon hanging overhead, at the absolute nothingness stretching in every direction.
Maybe this was her hell. Her karma finally catching up after all the blood she'd spilled in Noah's name, all the kingdoms she'd conquered, all the people she'd killed. Maybe this emptiness was exactly what she deserved.
Or maybe it was her prison. A place to contain something dangerous, something that couldn't be allowed to exist in the normal world anymore. A cell with no walls, just infinite space where she could exist without affecting anything or anyone ever again.
She didn't know which interpretation was correct.
She wasn't sure it mattered.
Crystal drew her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them. The position was defensive, vulnerable in a way she'd never allowed herself to be in life. But here, in this place where she was utterly alone, there seemed no point in maintaining the cold, calculating mask she'd worn for so long.
The red moon continued to stare down at her, unchanging and eternal.
The crimson sea continued to stretch in all directions, featureless and endless.
And Crystal sat there, surrounded by nothing, with only her memories for company.
Time passed, though she had no way to measure it. The moon didn't move. The sea didn't change. She could have been sitting there for minutes or centuries. In a place like this, duration seemed meaningless.
Eventually, a thought occurred to her. A question that cut through the numbness settling over her mind.
Was this death?
If so, it was nothing like what the monks and priests had described. No judgment. No reincarnation. No heaven or hell in any traditional sense. Just… this. An empty realm where consciousness persisted without purpose or end.
Was she supposed to do something here? Was there some trial to overcome, some test to pass? Or was she simply meant to exist in this state forever, aware but unable to act, present but completely alone?
She didn't know.
The red moon offered no answers. The crimson sea remained silent. The void above provided no guidance.
Crystal rested her chin on her knees and closed her eyes, though it made no difference. The red light from the moon penetrated her eyelids, making the darkness behind them glow with the same crimson hue that surrounded her.
Her memories continued to surface, unbidden now. Moments she'd forgotten or suppressed. Her first kill, the way the blood had felt warm on her hands. Her first conquest, the surrender of a fortress that had held for three hundred years. The moment she'd realized Noah didn't love her, that flash of understanding followed immediately by desperate denial.
All of it played through her mind like a performance she was forced to watch, every detail preserved with perfect clarity.
This was her existence now, she realized. Memories and solitude. The past repeating endlessly while the present offered nothing but empty space.
She opened her eyes again and stared out at the horizon, where the red sea met the black void of the sky.
"Is this all there is?" she asked aloud, her voice sounding strange in the absolute silence.
No answer came.
She hadn't expected one.
Crystal settled into a more comfortable position, accepting that she might be here for a very long time. Perhaps forever. The thought should have terrified her, but instead, she felt only a distant numbness.
She'd died alone and betrayed. Now she existed alone and forgotten.
Maybe that was justice after all.
The red moon continued its eternal vigil, and Crystal sat beneath it, surrounded by an ocean of crimson and an eternity of nothing.