The song lasted for minutes and Zora drank atleast 5 cups of tea during the whole performance.

It was evident on Natsuki's face how surprised she is that Zora was still sitting up on her seat when she already drank the amount of poison that could immediately kill a full grown tiger.

'What a monster. How can she withstand to even sit up straight after drinking it?'

Natsuki warily made eye contact with Jacob believing that he will know what to do but he returned her gaze with the same expression on her eyes.

Just pure confusion.

'This is quite the predicament that even Sir Jacob himself is troubled. The night is already at its peak and any more waiting would only surely make this Clyborne bitch suspicious.'

Natsuki, already at her patience's end was about to take things on her own hand to deal with Zora when she noticed something.

Jacob seems to have noticed it too when Zora's eyes began twitching.

Zora seems to be a bit stable on the outside but her expression shows a slight change. Her eyes were out of focus, her breathing was ragged and her face was flushed.

A chilling smile crept on Natsuki's face and to hide her satisfaction she can't help but hide her smile behind a fan she used for what could be the first and final performance Zora Clyborne will see.

"Jacob, do tell if my memory serves me right but... tea wasn't supposed to make you drunk, right?"

Zora eyed the masked woman whose eyes was looking down on her. She seemed to be satisfied with something.

She looked at her reflection on the ceramic cup and immediately saw what it is that could be wrong with her.

She was sure that drinking tea wasn't supposed to make her look like a drunken mess or made her feel like she wants to vomit till her stomach turned upside down.

And, tea precisely wasn't supposed
to—

"Keugh!"

— make her vomit blood.

Her eyes shooked uncontrollably, the pounding in her head getting louder and louder. The gut wrenching feeling of wanting to vomit rose inside her throat and blood came out again.

And this time, things were a bit more clearer.

'Shit.'

Zora grits her teeth, feeling faint and her whole body shook both in anger and weakness.

'Shit!'

Her muddled crimson eyes found it's way to Jacob who she saw stood up slowly and unsheathed his sword that was hanging on his hips all this time. The cold blade's tip found it's way to her throat and the agonizing truth was now even more clearer.

"Zora, forgive me. And if you must, hate me and curse me all you want."

It was too painfully clear that her heart was teared to pieces and the remaining emotions, the hope that she kept inside her heart was diminished in mere seconds. The cure that she had been chasing all these years, the one and only thing that kept her going. The dream to live normally, to serve the empire without the fear of going insane and to assume her position as the Head of the Clyborne Family without her own family fearing her. All of it shattered to pieces and smashed till not even sand was left.

What use is it to hope?

What did she even hoped for?

Hope?

What was it in the first place?

Was hope really that great?

'Ah... of course. How could I even forget?'

Zora's lips slowly curved into a smile and  she sure as hell looked like someone who already lost her mind but for some odd reason, she felt calm like no other.

The disgusting feeling of wanting to vomit blood and pass out was gone.

' 'Hope' wasn't meant for murderers like me in the first place.'

The truth that her only friend betrayed her and sided with a traitor of the empire was too much for Zora to bear and it was much more painful than the poison she is currently enduring with all her might.

"HAHAHAHA! WHAT A FUCKING JOKE! HAHAHA!"

Zora's body was shaking from laughing, her whole being vibrating as she force a loud laughter that resonated inside the room. It was not something a sane person will do while being cornered.

And Jacob can't do anything but look at his friend go completely mad while she marches to her own death.

The longer that the poison stays inside her body, the more painful it will get and it was only natural to go mad from the pain but seeing it happen to the person he admired most firsthand was beyond painful.

Jacob knows that she was already at her breaking point and what he did only pushed her further but there are things that must be done.

And he knows killing Zora Clyborne was the right thing to do. It was what the Emperor wanted and he is only executing his superior's orders.

Personal feelings in the midst of this war won't amount to anything.

That is why, letting go of these feelings of admiration was what Jacob decided to do.

He would later on convince himself that it was the right thing to do.

But for now, he will watch over Zora as she struggles for the last time till finally she will lose herself, and lose her life at the same time.

"Jacob..."

His dead eyes, void of any emotion met with Zora's desperate gaze.

"Zora..."

Zora smiled at him before her knees buckle and gave up. Her body slammed on the floor, her breathing becoming weaker and weaker.

"Haaa...haa...ack!"

Zora lying on the floor was still trying to struggle and fight but her body couldn't move anymore. She felt numb all over.

Blood was also coming out of her eyes, and it looked like she ran out of tears and in it's place was red blood gushing out of her eyes.

Her golden hair was dyed red— soaking on the pool of blood that she vomited herself but Zora couldn't even care less anymore.

Her consciousness was faint and she was slipping away but just then the tempting feeling of her power welling up inside her was too much to not pay attention to.

It was gratifying, as if everything around her was painted a beautiful crimson and all she has to do was to reach out and unlock the cell that she imprisoned her true self into.

Zora was also losing her vision but the crimson colored place was still there. She can still see it, she can feel it.

Deeper.

Deeper and deeper.

Deeper and deeper and deeper.

She finally reaches out for the key and unlocked the prison cell where she saw another her.

The 'her' that she tried so hard to keep hidden.

The 'her' that celebrates her choice of finally choosing 'freedom'.

'My, my, how weary you look. How terrible for things to turn out this way. You who only wanted a chance at living normally was betrayed by both your lover and your dearest friend.'

'Her' voice was soothing. It was as if her voice was a beautiful melody that can melt even the coldest of hearts and burn even the thickest of ice.

'What are you waiting for? Set me free, Zora.'

'Freedom'

Yes, she need to set herself free from the painful past, the chains that binds her to her duty, and the people she thought was true to her.

'She' was her only salvation.

      Zora's body was still on the floor. No movements were seen for the last 30 seconds after she lost her consciousness and her breathing stopped.

Jacob and Natsuki sighs in relief.

Both of them thought that there would be need for assassins to aid them to subdue the General but the poison was enough to kill her, making their job easier for them.

Natsuki was proud of her work in poisons and the like but seeing how effective it is made her feel more pride in her work.

Her mind was already filled of thoughts about being sung about as the beautiful mistress that poisoned the monster General that lead the Emperor's coup d'etat to the sure path of victory.

"Well, it seems like our job here is over, don't you think so... General Jacob?"

Jacob looked over his shoulder and saw Natsuki's satisfied smile that made his skin crawl.

"Natsuki, clean this mess up and bury her body properly. I have to report what happened here to the Emperor immediately and..."

He took one last glance at Zora's lifeless body before turning his back and gripping the hilt of his sword on his hips tightly.

"...make sure that all evidence of the General being here is cleaned up properly. I don't have to remind you what the Clyborne Family is capable of once they got wind of this, do I?"

Natsuki nodded.

She knows how powerful the Clyborne Family is. How can she not?

When her family was one of the victims of their tyranny.

"Understood. I know how important this mission is to you, and it must've been hard for you to truly decide what the right thing is but General. I believe in you and have full confidence that what you did was for the sake of the new world that the Emperor has promised us."

Jacob heaved a heavy sigh, and his steps till he reach the door was slow because of how heavy his legs felt.

He was about to slide open the door but he stopped on his tracks when he felt something ominous.

It was threatening and the bloodlust was so strong that his hand that was reaching out for the door trembled slightly.

"Auugh..!"

He immediately turned around when he heard Natsuki's voice, and what he saw made his heart drop. The room suddenly felt like it was freezing, and it felt like air was being squeezed out making it difficult for him to breath.

"J-jacob... G-general..."

Natsuki's voice was faint and the skin on her hand that was reaching out to him, asking for help was wrinkled like a piece of paper.

Blood was sucked out of her body and her mask fell, revealing her bulging eyes. She looked like a corpse with the life squeezed right out of her, and she was hanging in the air— Her arms, chest, stomach and legs impaled with her heart out hanging at the tip of what looked like huge  sharp thorns of blood coming out of the ground and it rised till it almost reached the roof.

And behind these thorns was a monster.

Her body swayed from left to right as she slowly approach the frightened man who was already sitting on the floor and seeing his reaction only made the monster seeth with more bloodlust. His fear of 'her' was exquisitely delicious that it was too irresistible not to also take a bite of him.

Zora rose up from the grave as a mindless monster with one of her eye covered with blood in the shape of a flower, and Jacob who was witness to this madness is now sure more than ever that her title in the battlefield wasn't meaningless.

The legends that he would hear from her own soldiers.

It was all true.

'Hell flower'

The flower that paints the battlefield crimson wherever she goes.