The Elf Prince’s gaze went towards his father in search of any answer from him about what was going on. But he didn’t think that even the King knew this would happen. And his father couldn’t even speak because of the magic pressure on him. His father was the strongest of all the Wizards in the Kingdom, how did they manage to capture him? The only way to defeat his father would be to take him by surprise while he least expected it.

But then Ifan thought that he was clearly not expecting this treachery coming from his own brother. His uncle struck at night while he was sleeping because Eloden knew he had no chance against a fully awake and prepared King.

The look on his father’s face was a mixture of both pain and sadness as his gaze was directly on Ifan. He was struggling to stand up, to do anything. How helpless must he feel right now? Ifan only wanted to help him, to help all his family and protect them… but he couldn’t.

He saw his father struggling some more, he looked like he wanted to say something to his son, but the magical pressure that was on him was immense. Still, he managed to be able to open his mouth.

“Ifan-Ifanthien… I…” sweat was rolling down his father’s face as he clenched his teeth in pain. “I- I Am sor-“ the King tried to speak as a blade went through his throat, making him unable to finish what he was about to say.

For a moment, Ifan froze, and everyone went silent. All they could hear was the gurgling sound of the blood that was escaping his father’s mouth as he tried to breathe.

“FATHER!” Ifan screamed, completely shocked as he watched his father’s life slowly disappear from his golden eyes.

Eloden then pulled out his sword from his father’s neck and walked towards the Queen who was whimpering and mourning the recent loss of her lover. She let out a loud screech as his uncle plunged his blade in her heart, mixing her screams with Kolthen and Ilithya’s. She died almost instantly as her slender body fell limp on the floor, her blood growing around her as the seconds passed.

“NO! Mother!!!” Ifan yelled out as tears were now pouring from his eyes.

“Yes! That’s just perfect!” Orian excitedly laughed while keeping his eyes on Ifan’s tortured face. “Oh, how I wanted to see you like this! Do you enjoy the show? Because I sure do.” He giggled wickedly.

“YOU MONSTER!!! HOW COULD YOU DO THAT?” Ifan completely ignored Orian as he was glaring with pain and hatred towards his uncle.

But Orian didn’t appreciate being ignored and simply punched the Elf Prince on the face. Ifan felt a warm liquid starting to run down his nose. The guards were still holding his arms tightly and got him right back up so he could face Orian. His former best friend then punched him hard on his stomach, making Ifan cough bile as he let out an aching whimper.

“Don’t ignore me, you fucker.” Orian coldly told him.

Ifan was shaking heavily, but he didn’t feel the pain from his wounds at the moment. His mind was numb and he simply couldn’t believe that both his parents were… dead…

What was going on? How did it get to this? They had a good time earlier that night at the party, why would they do such a horrible thing? Ifan’s thoughts then went back to his traitorous uncle. Why did Eloden kill his brother? Why was he doing this?! He thought they were family! It was the only thing Ifan even believed in and now his uncle had betrayed them! This was simply insane. Ifan felt so hopeless. Why could he not fight back? What did he have to be so powerless! Tears flowed on his cheeks as he stared at the bodies of his parents.

He panned his eyes to his uncle as he was now calmly walking towards Athelan and Laeria. The Elf Prince didn’t have the time to say anything as Eloden stuck his sword into her back to then do the same to Athelan. As he looked at his little brother with a soft pained smile, his older brother’s body went limp, he held his Soulmate’s hand in his.

Ifan let out a loud agonizing scream as he watched yet another member of his family getting killed in front of him. He was panting heavily as he fell on his knees. The guards didn’t even try to keep him up this time, but still held his arms tightly.

The Elf Prince slowly lifted his gaze from the ground. He looked at his little siblings that were crying in each other’s arms, completely terrified. They were calling his name, but he couldn’t do anything…

As his mind was completely numb and his heart aching, he slowly realized that there was only Ilithya, Kolthen and himself left. His eyes widened in fear as he started to struggle to get away from the grip of the guards.

“No…” he started faintly.

But Eloden didn’t seem to care about him and slowly walked towards them, his blade dripping from his family’s blood.

“No! NO! PLEASE! NOT THEM! I BEG YOU!” Ifan cried out as he struggled to get away from the guards’ grip.

He was twisting and giving kicks. But the royal guards didn’t budge at all. Ifan bit the hand of one of the guards as he let go of him. Ifan tried to free himself from the other guards. He had to protect his little siblings at all costs! He didn’t care if anything happened to him, as long as they wouldn’t get hurt.

But the guard that Ifan had bitten immediately seized him again, stopping him from getting away. Orian, who watched the whole scene with a sadistic smile on his face, went to him and yet again hit him hard on the stomach, making Ifan fall on his knees as he coughed in pain.

The Elf Prince lifted his gaze as he saw Eloden was now in front of his little siblings. He first plunged his sword into Kolthen’s small body. It didn’t kill him right away. His little brother fell to the ground, heavy breathing escaping his mouth. Ifan saw the life from his silvery eyes fade away gradually.

Then, he stopped moving.

“Ahh…” Ifan panted in total shock.

He wanted to scream, he wanted to shout! But no words would come out of his mouth as the pain was too much to bear. He couldn’t stop the tears from running down his cheeks, sobbing uncontrollably as he leaned himself towards the floor. He didn’t want to look back up. He didn’t want to watch Eloden murder Ilithya.

But Orian thought otherwise as he yet again grabbed Ifan’s hair and pulled his head up. He glared at him with a disgusting satisfied look. The Elf Prince couldn’t recognize the one he once called his friend, he was a totally different person now. How could he have been so blind? He should have seen that Orian was faking all this time. He was always seeing through everyone’s little game of manipulation, but he had miserably failed to see Orian’s. He felt like such an idiot!

Ifan’s eyes then panned towards his little sister. As Eloden was about to slay her, Orian stopped him.

“Wait! Let me do it.” He said viciously.

Eloden stopped his motion just before it would pierce Ilithya’s heart and stared expressionless at Orian. “You are a very disturbed boy, Orian.” He calmly said, not seeming to be affected at all by what that monster just asked. “Go ahead. As long as Ifanthien is alive, I don’t care about his state of mind.” Eloden simply said.

Orian let go of Ifan’s hair and took out his rapier as he walked towards his frightened little sister.

“Hold his head up.” He ordered the guards. “I want him to look. I want to see the face he’ll make.” He added, a wicked smile on his face. “How I wanted to watch you suffer, my sweat Ifan. You can’t even imagine how much I had to retain myself from hitting you because you were royalty.” He whinged. “Now you are nothing. In fact, you always were nothing. You simply had a title.”

The guards hesitated a moment before grasping Ifanthien’s head so he could not look away as they exchanged worried looks. Perhaps, they were thinking that this was too much, even for them. But a quick glance from Orian immediately made them obey his order. They were terrified of him and Ifan understood why as he now saw the true Orian.

Ifan’s vision was blurred by the tears. He was still trying to struggle despite knowing he couldn’t escape the guards’ grasp. Eloden leaned against a pillar in the throne room, his arms crossed on his chest as he waited for Orian to do the deed.

He clutched Ilithya’s hair as she let out a small whimper. She tried to struggle, but she was too young and too weak for the man. Tears were flowing from her sweet lilac eyes as she sobbed, crying out to her brother.

“Fann! Fann!” she was crying. The Elf Prince’s heart was aching, he felt like something was crushing it in his chest. He hated seeing her like that. He didn’t want her to die. He had to save her! She was his last family still alive!

He struggled as well, trying to fight back from the hold of the guards. But he was too weak. He was too powerless. All he could do was cry out her name as tears were pouring from his sunset gaze, mixing on their way down with the blood that was coming out of his nose. He felt like the ground was trembling underneath him.

“NO! STOP! ILITHYA! PLEASE, I BEG YOU! DON’T DO THAT! PLEASE!!!” Ifan was desperate and complete terror was all over his face.

But that only made Orian more satisfied by his reaction. He was delighted as he lifted his little sister’s head, exposing her small neck. He then put his blade near her throat, leaning his face on hers, smiling wickedly as he kept his eyes on Ifan.

“Fann!” she whimpered out to his brother.

But Orian didn’t even let Ifan say any last words to his little sister. He slowly sliced her fragile neck, not leaving his gaze from him.

A gurgling sound escaped her tiny mouth and blood gushed out of both of it and her throat. Then, her body became soft as her lilac eyes lost all life.

Orian let out a satisfied sigh and threw her lifeless body at Ifan’s feet.

Ifan’s mind was blank as he stared in shock to where Orian just coldly murdered her. No words could come out of his mouth, no screams nor emotions. He was… petrified.

His gaze went slowly towards every one of his family that was laying on the ground dead. Then, he lowered them to her now inanimate beloved little sister.

They were dead. They were all… dead.

Everything went blurry around him. He was fixing his little sister’s corpse as the pool of her blood was now soaking his pants.

Time seemed to stop. All he could hear was his sporadic breathing as all his body was trembling heavily. His head was throbbing. But he felt no pain. He felt nothing. He didn’t know how to react.

He felt the grip from the guards letting go of his arms as they fell limp on his sides. The ground seemed to start shaking yet again under his body, but this time, the whole room trembled as well.

Suddenly, he heard some muffled screams all around him. A strong golden light appeared in his vision and blinded him. The screams only intensified, and the pillars of the throne room started to crack.

But he didn’t care. All his family was now dead. His uncle and friend betrayed him. The guards would not help him. He was alone. He was powerless. He only wanted to die with them. Why did he have to stay alive while all his family had to die right in front of him?

As he stared at the lifeless body of Ilithya, Ifan finally managed to let out a painful, agonizing, and loud wail. Everything around him quaked even more and muffled thud noises from debris fell around him. The screams were still here, but fainter as the throbbing in his head became everything he could hear now.

Ifan suddenly felt immense tiredness seize his entire body. The numbness made him weaker, and he couldn’t keep his eyes open any longer. The shaking and the golden light slowly stopped as he let his body fall on the blood-soaked floor. Although his vision was blurry and he had difficulties hearing because of the constant loud throbbing in his head, he saw silhouettes of people laying all around the room. Some were trying to get up, others seemed injured and couldn’t move.

Ifan faintly saw Orian holding himself up on a broken pillar as disbelief and utter shock were plastered on his face.

“What the fuck was that, Eloden?!” Orian shouted towards his treacherous uncle as the captain of the royal guard only got up himself.

Eloden stared at Ifan for a moment. “I… don’t know,” He began. “But this changes everything.” He added as he sounded irritated.

“What do you-“

Ifan didn’t hear the rest of what they were saying. He was exhausted and he couldn’t resist the tiredness any longer. Everything went completely dark as tears still flowed down his cheeks.