Chapter 348: Emptiness

Seraphina’s POV

The crowd was impossible.

Bodies pressed against me from every direction, a wall of heat and noise that made it hard to breathe, but I didn’t stop moving. I couldn’t. My legs were shaking, and every step sent a sharp sting through my back where Irina had stabbed the sigil, but I kept pushing forward anyway.

I had to see her.

Electra.

My whole body ached like I’d been split in two. The wound on my back hadn’t stopped bleeding, the blood felt warm as it slid down my skin, soaking through the back of my shirt, but the pain wasn’t the worst part. It was the hollowness inside me, the strange, heavy emptiness that grew stronger the closer I got to the palace gates.

I didn’t understand it, but I knew it was connected to her.

Irina’s voice cut through the noise behind me. “Seraphina, slow down!”

I barely turned. “I can’t.” My voice sounded breathless and rough. “She’s out there.”

Irina, Penelope, and Roxana were trying to keep up. I could hear them panting, bumping into people as we forced our way through the crowd. The square was overflowing with civilians, guards, and even foreigners all trying to get a glimpse of the public execution.

The words made my stomach twist just thinking about them.

I shoved past a man blocking the path, ignoring the look he gave me. The light that had burst out of me when Irina stabbed the sigil still surrounded me faintly. It was dimmer now but still visible, like a ghostly aura, and people moved out of the way when they saw it. Maybe they thought I was cursed. Maybe they were right.

All I knew was that it was helping me move faster, and that was all that mattered.

Every few steps, my knees threatened to give out. The dizziness was worse now, and my vision blurred at the edges, but each time I thought I was about to fall, I felt something pull me upright again, something invisible, like a thread tugging me forward.

It wasn’t mine. It was hers.

“Seraphina!” Penelope called from behind, her voice cracking. “You’re bleeding too much! Stop for a second!”

I didn’t answer. I couldn’t. The moment I did, I’d lose momentum, and I didn’t know if I’d be able to start again. My lungs were burning, my chest tight, but my feet kept moving.

Then I heard it.

The crowd’s roar changed, shifting from noise and chatter to sharp, collective gasps.

Something had happened.

The light around me flickered violently in response.

I pushed harder, ignoring the pain. My arms trembled as I tried to squeeze through the last few lines of people standing in front of the palace. Some of them moved aside when they saw the blood on my back, others stepped back when the light from my body pulsed brighter.

Finally, after what felt like forever, I broke through the last row and stumbled into the open space in front of the platform, and then I saw her.

Electra stood on the raised wooden stage, tall and still, her long hair glowing faintly gold under the sunlight. The air around her shimmered with heat, and the soldiers who had surrounded her before were now nowhere near her.

I froze.

For a second, I thought I was seeing something else entirely. That wasn’t the same Electra I knew.

Her posture, her aura, even her silence, it all felt different. Colder.

The connection between us pulsed, sharp and sudden, and I had to clutch my side from how hard it hit me. The emptiness I’d been feeling spread deeper, seeping into my bones. It was like standing too close to a fire and feeling it pull the air from your lungs.

Irina reached my side, breathless. “Oh my god,” she whispered, her eyes wide as she stared at Electra. “What… what’s happening to her?”

I didn’t answer. I couldn’t.

Electra was still facing the woman on the balcony, Jella. Even from here, I could see Jella’s pale face, the way she was shouting something I couldn’t hear over the noise, and Electra… she didn’t look afraid.

She didn’t even look angry.

She looked empty, the same way I felt.

“Is it just me,” Roxana said, her voice shaky, “or does Electra feel very different right now?”

Her words barely reached me. My mind was spinning too fast.

Different wasn’t the right word, it was deeper than that.

Electra didn’t just feel different, she was different. The energy coming from her wasn’t the same soft warmth I’d felt before. It was wild, heavy, and old. The air around her flickered with light, and I could swear for a moment I saw faint shapes, wings, glowing behind her, and that’s when I realized what the voice in my head earlier had meant.

“Stab the sigil to stop her.”

It hadn’t been my imagination, it had been her grandfather’s voice. The Phoenix Deity.

I could barely stay on my feet, but I forced my voice to rise above the noise.

“Electra!”

The name tore out of me, raw and desperate. My throat burned, and the pain from my back made my words tremble, but I didn’t care. I just needed her to hear me and to see me.

For a moment, she didn’t even flinch. She just stood there, staring at Jella like she couldn’t see anything else.

“Electra!” Irina shouted from beside me. “It’s us!”

Still nothing. Penelope and Roxana joined in, yelling her name again and again, their voices mixing with the terrified cries of the crowd, but Electra didn’t move. She didn’t even blink. It was as if the name meant nothing to her.

My chest tightened, and I didn’t know what else to do.

Then it hit me. The sigil.

I gritted my teeth and reached behind me, my fingers trembling as they found the place on my back where Irina had stabbed earlier. The skin was slick with blood, still hot and pulsing, and I pressed down hard.

The pain was instant.

It burned through me, spreading from my back to my chest, my arms, and my throat. I could barely breathe, but I didn’t stop. I pressed harder, tears springing to my eyes from the agony.

“Come on…” I whispered. “Please, look at me.”

The light inside me flared again, bright and wild, and for a second, I thought I might pass out, and that’s when she turned.

Electra’s head moved slowly, her eyes shifting away from Jella and locking onto me. Her gaze met mine, and for a moment, the entire world seemed to go still.

She didn’t look angry, but she didn’t look relieved either. Just… confused.

The silence between us was deafening. My throat felt dry, and all I could do was stand there, trembling and bleeding, praying that she would remember me.

Then, she tilted her head slightly, her expression unreadable. Her golden eyes blinked once before her lips parted.

“What are you?” she asked softly.

Her voice wasn’t the same, it was calm but distant, stripped of the warmth I’d always known.

Something inside me cracked at that moment. I wanted to cry, to scream, to shake her until she remembered who she was, but I couldn’t. I just stood there, staring back at her, realizing that whatever part of Electra I had once known… was gone.

At least for now, and I had a feeling I had something to do with it.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep