The castle was in chaos; maids, servants, and others were practically running through the castle hallways.
"Is it almost over?" one of the servants whispered to another.
"I don't know, but the screams of agony have not let up yet," replied the other servant.
These two servants were waiting just outside the door to the lying-in chamber, ready for any command.
The doors suddenly burst open, with the head maid practically screaming, "Get more towels now, the bleeding isn't stopping."
The two servants at the door began to scramble for the towels. Half of the reason they were moving so fast was because of the command, but the other half was because they were trying to get away from the pungent smell of copper.
Inside the room, about ten people were surrounding the bed, maids and doctors pressed frantically around the black horns protruding from the queen's abdomen.
"I have never seen something like this in my entire life. This is something supernatural," the doctor said nervously.
"Is her highness treatable?" the head maid, now back in the room, asked.
"I am terrified to inform you that if we don't deliver the baby soon, and begin treatment on Her Majesty's body, we will lose them both, mother and child alike," the doctor replied with a nervous tone.
Suddenly, there was a knock at the door.
"The towels are here!" the servant's voice rang through.
The door swung open, and the supporting maids rushed to the servants, leaving them dry with nothing but the clothes on their backs. Every hand moved at once, towels soaked red as they fought to deliver the child.
"Go inform His Majesty. Now," the head maid ordered to the two servants who had just got back from delivering the towels.
The two servants, in unison, nodded and dashed toward the King's quarters.
Roughly five minutes later, the servants arrived, and the knights standing guard at the door of the King's quarters became alert.
"Halt. This area is restricted. State your purpose," the knights roared.
"Yes, sir, we were ordered by the head maid to inform his majesty about the condition of the queen," the servant in front stated.
"Sir, her highness is in a very bad condition. We must hurry," the second servant added.
"Very well, we will inform his majesty of the situation," the knight replied.
The knight knocked on the door of the King's quarters.
*Knock. Knock. Knock.
"Come in, Nickel," the King's voice boomed from behind the door.
The knight, Nickel, opened the chamber door, kneeling on one knee as soon as he entered the room.
"Your highness, the queen is in critical condition," Nickel said earnestly.
"Stand, escort me to my wife; we must hurry," the king replied.
"Yes, my lord," Nickel replied.
Soon, the king, Nickel, and the two servants arrived at the room where the queen was giving birth. When they reached the door of the room, the screams of agony stopped, and the baby was born.
As the king entered the room, everybody froze for a moment to give a quick greeting and then got back to tending to the queen, as there was no time for delay.
"Her majesty is bleeding out at a rapid pace; the horns on this child have almost completely torn apart her abdominal wall," the doctor said anxiously.
The king, hearing this, froze, 'No... the omen... It's real,' his face paled.
The child was placed in the queen's arms as she grew weaker and weaker, and the towels darkened to crimson. The child was not crying, just looking, eyes devoid of emotion, like an endless void.
The king rushed to the queen's side as she was holding their baby and said, "Look, Alistair... our son, isn't he beautiful?"
"Yes, he very much is, Genevieve," the king, King Alistair, replied as he watched his wife's eyes lose their light, putting on a cheerful smile to ease his wife in her final moments.
"Onyx, that will be his name," Queen Genevieve said with her last breath.
The room fell completely silent, the only sound came from the doctor who dropped a blood-soaked cloth into a basin. King Alistair stood over his wife's lifeless body, staring not at his wife, but the "omen" child, Onyx.
Onyx did not cry, only looking back with those void-like golden eyes.
"Your Majesty, I... I did all I could, but the child's nature-" the doctor whispered as he was violently trembling.
"Enough," Alistair interrupted. His voice wasn't loud, but held the weight of a true king.
He turned to Nickel, his eyes dark. "Seal the wing. Not a single soul leaves this chamber alive."
"Yes, my King," Nickel replied as a cynical smile crept onto his face as he unsheathed his sword.
"This 'omen' child must be erased from history. I will tell the people that the queen and the young prince perished together in childbirth. If this gets out, the entire Auerlian Kingdom will be burned to the ground in the name of a holy pretext," Alistair states coldly.
Nickel moved without another word, slaying everyone in sight like a storm of violence.
"There is only one left," Nickel hissed, looking at Prince Onyx sitting on his lifeless mother.
He charged, stepping over the blood and bodies at his feet, lightning dancing around the blade as he shot forward.
That's his signature move... lightning affinity, a shadow in the corner observed, ruthless bastard.
The shadow flickered downward.
"Rick, stop," Alistair barked. "You have no choice; that child is a curse to this kingdom. Don't throw your life away for this useless child."
Rick hesitated for a fraction of a second. It was enough.
The blade came down, his golden eyes flared, and he could see the path of the blade.
But he couldn't move in time; the steel tore across his face, blinding him permanently.
"NO-," Rick screamed in anguish. He moved too late; in the same breath, he slipped out the short sword that he had tucked in the sleeve of his dark suit. Aura surging through it, he slashed.
Nickel's head fell before he even realized he had been cut.
Rick rushed over to Onyx, the prince writhed with pain, crying, but alive.
"Alistair," Rick said with a powerful tone, "You traded your own flesh and blood for the crown, you are no father... and you are no king."
He stepped onto the windowsill and opened the window.
"I will take care of this child as if he were my own. My resignation is effective immediately," Rick said calmly.
Using his aura, he jumped out of the window into the darkness of the night, vanishing as if he was never there in the first place.