Chapter 209 - To Be A Mother.

Lu'um had finally discarded the final fragment of sympathy she once had for her mother. It had taken five long millenniums, but her patience had finally run its course. 

To an uninformed person, it may have seemed that the circ.u.mstances surrounding Reed had been the origin of this bloody struggle, but this had actually been the result of a slow and steady culmination of entire lifetimes of grudges and bitter disagreements. 

Even so, Lu'um had tried her hardest not to rock the boat all her life, given the already precarious situation they were all a part of. They did not have the luxury of internal conflict, not when they had an insurmountable enemy right outside their doorstep...

And more importantly, she understood that the royal family could not afford to make another major blunder. 

Citlai, though superficially harmonious, was actually nothing more than a fragile piece of glass. 

Her people had never truly recovered from the crushing defeat they had experienced against the Infestation and the betrayal of the one person they had put their faith in. 

In the end, none of it mattered to her anymore. Not a single bit of it. And who could blame her?

She was exhausted.

Of having to live in a shitty, gilded cage. Of the colossal weight on her shoulders — the heavy expectations and the never-ending judgment. Of the impossibly difficult duty that she had been burdened with. Of having to pretend as if they had never lost the war in the first place. 

And most importantly, she was exhausted from living under her mother's shadow as a puppet.

Lu'um charged into Shaali at full steam and hurled her onto the ground, and began plumming her without reservation. Every ruthless blow rocked the hallowed arena with a rage threatened to bring the entire place down, disturbing many in the audience. 

Some would have already stopped the match as it had devolved into a deathmatch, but none of them dared move an inch... not with Reed watching them. He was akin to a hawk, waiting for the slightest sign of movement as he calmly surveyed the audience. 

Reed had already prepared himself to fight all of them if need be. More than prepared...

If anything, Reed was itching for a reason to fight himself — he had not forgotten how he had been cornered and treated like a monstrosity. Even though Reed knew better than let that horrible experience affect his emotions right now, he couldn't help but want to repay them for the warm hospitality that they had offered him back them. 

The night sky above the Crucible of the Moon began to change imperceptibly as the stars that adorned it flickered like candles in the wind, and a dreadful aura permeated the area.

It was as if something had grasped the still-beating heart of the world and given it a  forceful squeeze, cutting off circulation to life itself. Some of the weaker, non-combatants in the audience abruptly fainted while the rest grimaced in visible agony. 

Down below, the fight had reached new heights of barbarity — fueled by her daughter's boldness, Shaali followed suit and dropped all pretense of civility and sophistication. Truth be told, she had no qualms about fighting like a fiend. She had just never been given a justifiable pretext to fight that way. 

But now, she had gotten what she wanted. Nothing was off-limits anymore; such was the nature of a fight to the death. 

So, Shaali spat out one of her broken teeth with all the force she could muster, and it flew like a bullet straight at... one of Lu'um's eyes. There was nothing Lu'um could do at point-blank range to avoid it, even with her god-like reflexes. 

The instant the tooth struck her left eye, she recoiled backward in pain and let out a wounded, bestial roar. Shaali did not miss the opening her attack had created and immediately followed up her counterassault with a fearsome headbutt, knocking Lu'um on her back. 

A gut-wrenching clap of thunder echoed across the bloody arena — the sound of broken bones — followed by rhythmic tremors generated by Shaali's blows as she pounded Lu'um into the very foundation of the arena. 

Tensions continued to escalate as Shaali's barrage continued. Even Ulbo, who had initially not displayed any indication of interfering, had sent Reed a telling message with his eyes. 

Ulbo's expression had also served as a kind of rallying cry to those who had been too afraid to act against Reed on their own. They stood up in silent protest and stared at Reed as they began to accept the genuine possibility that they would die tonight. 

Though their deep-seated — perhaps irreconcilable — grudge was a serious matter, everyone present knew that they could not afford to lose either of them.

They were simply too important to be lost; neither could be replaced, and both were needed to maintain the fragile equilibrium in Citlai. 

Reed was also on edge himself as he watched Shaali brutally wail on Lu'um, who appeared to be semi-conscious, without any hesitation. It took all his willpower to restrain the maddening urge to do something. Words could not express the chaotic flurry of emotions he felt as he watched the woman he loved get beaten to death... 

But he understood well enough that if he acted now, while Lu'um was down, he would forever be seen as a hypocrite by everyone in the audience and, more importantly...

Reed knew that if he meddled right now, Lu'um would never forgive him. Never. 

This was her fight, not his. And he had to respect that fact, much as he cared for her. Lu'um had to vanquish her demons on her own if she was to finally be free of them. Everything would amount to nothing if Reed helped her now. 

The only thing he could do was hold onto hope and believe in her. And if needed, hold back the entire audience by any means necessary, even if it meant dying to accomplish it...

Pervasive darkness — a shroud of black — had taken over Lu'um's senses. It was a numbing loss of awareness that resulted in a curious state of... detachment that was often a symptom of a near-death experience. 

Lu'um knew that she was dying, and if she were to survive, she would have to wake up very soon. After all, her mother was still trying to cave in her skull and repaint the area with her brains...

The damned bitch had even gotten one up on her  — Lu'um chastised herself for not thinking of the tooth trick. 

God-f.u.c.k.i.n.g-dammit! Why didn't I think of that first?! Arghh!! The only reason I haven't died yet is probably because that stupid c.u.n.t is focusing on mangling my face right now! 

To be fair, Lu'um had been trying to do the same thing before the tables had turned on her. It wasn't too surprising that they were both cut from the same cloth in terms of pettiness.

They were both of the same minds — it wasn't enough to merely kill their opponent; no, they wanted to completely and utterly destroy them in a way that would taint them forever.

Disfigurement, torture, dismemberment, shaming, and finally, ritual execution — Lu'um and Shaali would only be satisfied with the full course.  A masterful, comprehensive kill that was closer to a macabre work of art than a spiteful murder. 

Either way, she would not be doing any of that if she let herself slip away, so she gathered her strength and focused all her energy into a single thought: 

Wake. Up. 

There was still a wretched hag that needed to be put down. But not before Lu'um repaid the damned hag for the beating she had given her. With interest, of course...

Wake Up. Right. Now. 

And every second spent dawdling here was a moment of total anguish for Reed. She was certain that he was probably about to explode out of anxiety if he hadn't already. Hell, that frightened Lu'um more her than her more or even dying, to be honest...

Wake. Up. Wake. Up.  Wake. Up. Wake. Up. Wake. Up. Wake. Up.

There was still so much she wanted to do, see, and make amends for. She could not die yet. She was owed entire millenniums of unlived life that had been stolen due to the Great War.  Lu'um would sooner crawl out of Hell first before giving up on getting those years back, much less a little fight against an old crone like her damned mother. 

WAKE. UP. NOW. 

And as if to provoke Fate, Lu'um had forced herself back onto the side of the living through sheer determination alone — an inhuman d.e.s.i.r.e to persevere no matter the odds. Though her body was broken, her will was unbreakable. She would not succ.u.mb.

But contrary to what most people would have imagined, Lu'um did not open her eyes when she awoke. She continued to lay still as if she were already dead, allowing Shaali to continue her onslaught...

Dull pain coursed across Lu'um's face as she continued playing dead. Each blow was akin to a sledgehammer slamming into her skull, threatening to send her to the afterlife forever, but even so, she endured the pain without so much as uttering a single word. 

This... pain... i-is... nothing... c-compared...

It had to be absolutely perfect. She could not suspect anything, or else it would mean her death... 

To what... I... s-stand to... lose... if... I d-die...!

But if she succeeded, she would be given the opportunity she needed to deliver a decisive blow.

I WILL NOT FAIL!!!!!

The moment that Lu'um had been waiting for had finally arrived.

She opened her eyes and, without the slightest bit of hesitation, grabbed Shaali's incoming fist with her left hand, opened her mouth... 

And bit down on Shaali's hand with all her strength before she pulled away from her. 

A heart-wrenching screech filled the arena as Shaali subconsciously retreated out of reflex, clutching her right hand with an expression full of shock and anguish.  It was the first time for many  — Lu'um included — that they had ever heard Shaali voice a cry of pain. 

Lu'um did not savor the moment, though. She had to act now while she had the chance. 

She immediately spat out the three fingers that she had taken at her mother's face along with a massive amount of her own blood, effectively blinding Shaali for a single moment. 

The sheer boldness of the tactic had worked as planned. The speed and brutality of her counterattack had created the opening that Lu'um had been waiting for from the very start of the match. 

Removing the obsidian blades from play, thereby balancing the playing field. 

Destroying the sanctity of the duel, turning it into a deathmatch where anything was allowed. 

Letting herself get beaten close to the brink of death to drop her mother's guard. 

Her unexpected counterattack, leaving her open, if only for a single moment. 

As Lu'um lunged toward Shaali at breakneck speed, she took a deep breath and committed herself before she...  formed a knife-hand and stabbed her own c.h.e.s.t.

And without a second thought, she broke off one of her own ribs and pulled it out of her c.h.e.s.t with a single, flawless motion. 

All her life, she had waited for this very moment — the conclusion of their relationship. 

This was not the culmination of a predestined, cursed fate between the two of them, but rather it was its natural conclusion.

Shaali knew that this would end up happening the moment Lu'um had been born. And to some extent, Shaali knew that Lu'um understood it too when she had been born. 

It had been her eyes — even though she had just given birth to her, the way her newborn daughter had looked at her... told her that her own baby had recognized her as a threat. 

That, in itself, must have been the price for creating new life and not loving it the way she was supposed to. Everything was simply the result of her own actions from the first day.  Fate had nothing to do with this particular tragedy...

Time lagged until it reached a glacial crawl for Shaali. Though she could hardly see with all the blood in her eyes, she knew that her time had come. Her instincts screamed at her to move, to dodge, to act — to do something... anything, but... 

She just watched it all unfold with a... blank expression. 

Was this not what she had d.e.s.i.r.ed from the beginning? To train a replacement, no— a copy of herself that would do what she had been unable to all those years ago?

To not hesitate, even at the cost of her own humanity? To succeed, never to fail? To be... perfect? 

Though her daughter would never understand, it had cost Shaali  an unspeakable cost. To create the perfect warrior, she had been forced to give up her own daughter: her own humanity and the right ever to call herself a mother. 

She had been ruthless. Cold and antagonistic. Vicious in the methods she employed. Heavy-handed on the poor child since the first day, she had been able to stand on her own two feet. 

It had been the hardest task she had ever done. There were moments when Shaali had almost broke; almost wanted to stop and give her beloved daughter the love and tender care she deserved to have, but she knew that would not help her for what she was destined to face. 

Shaali knew that Lu'um would have to carry on her shoulders the fate of all things along with her other half. And that would require an indomitable spirit above all else, something that could not be created through ordinary means...

To develop such a thing, one needed to face many trials and challenges. They needed to struggle.  To learn how to endure and thrive in even the harshest conditions.

To learn how to detach themselves from their emotions and harden their hearts in preparation for the inevitable day that they would be forced to make difficult decisions that would affect the whole world and beyond. 

And that meant Shaali would have to be cruel to her daughter, if only to ensure she would not fail like her aunt or herself... 

To be truthful, yes, some of that cruelness stemmed from her own past failures — and she would burn in Hell for that — but had been primarily motivated for a single reason: to ensure that her precious daughter would not die.

That was all that mattered to Shaali.

Every day she felt as if the guilt would drown her alive. Pull her down into an inescapable hell for all eternity, but she could not allow herself to stop. Not until her work was done.

And now... 

As Lu'um charged toward Shaali, she hoarsely roared at the top of her lungs, "MOTHER!!!!" 

Everyone moved to prevent the tragedy that was about to unfold, shouting at Lu'um to stop. A chaotic storm of Anima swirled across the entire arena, but it — along with the audience — was stopped in their tracks by Reed, who had moved into action. 

He spoke an incomprehensible word and violated natural law, freezing everything except for the arena below. There was no going back anymore. 

Lu'um did not hesitate.

The ephemeral moment passed and... Lu'um thrust her rib into Shaali's c.h.e.s.t and pierced her heart. 

Her work was done...