A requiem not of surrender—but of defiance and flame.

A faint voice starts to get loud slowly.

Where were you when I was so miserable?

Did you know what I went through?

Her voice was calm, but every syllable hit like a blade.

Helen stood in a realm beyond time—blood still clinging to her hands, memories clawing behind her eyes. Her body ached not from battle, but from abandonment. From betrayal. And from the weight of a world that had used her, broken her, then cast her aside.

Before her floated the boy.

Or… was it even a boy?

He looked young—innocent, even. Who claim to be a god and he is Too smooth, too serene. Like he had never felt the sharp edge of grief in all his existence.

He laughed nervously.

“Haha… I—I can’t interfere with fate…”

Fate?

The word snapped like a rusted chain around her neck.

Helen scoffed, voice dripping with contempt.

“Fate you say? You think my misery was fate?”

The boy—or whatever force pulled his strings—seemed to shiver. He drifted back, his eyes flickering, uncertain. As though her rage itself disrupted the very laws he followed.

“See… I know you suffered. To compensate for that… I’m giving you an offer.”

The void around them pulsed. Glitch-like streaks of red thread spiraled around her limbs—wrapping her wrists, slithering across her throat like a binding curse. A voice echoed behind his own. Not his, but older, wiser, inhuman.

“This is your Requiem Protocol. Accept this path. Reclaim what you lost. Rewrite your tragedy.”

She didn’t speak.

Her eyes drifted to her hands—calloused, blood-stained, trembling.

Remembering her past that happened to her that made her the way that she didn't even wanted to become.A faint voice echoed in her mind,"Helen, My best friend.I will there for you always my dear-"

Without her realizing, her one hand got to raise above her head, crimson threads tangled between her fingers like puppet strings. Her other hand gripped the hilt of a sword—long, blackened, stained with blood not entirely her own.

Beneath her, a pool of blood spread endlessly, as though she floated in the very consequences of the life she left behind. Around her, thorn-covered vines twisted like a frame, like fate itself was coiling tighter around her story.

But she smiled.

Not with hope.

With resolve.

“You say this is compensation? I call it your guilt. But fine. I’ll play your game. I’ll accept your offer. But understand this—”

She pointed the sword downward, letting its tip pierce the surface of the blood pool with a slow, deliberate hiss.

“This time, I decide how the story ends.Not you-”

“And I swear—by the thorns that crown me, by the blood that birthed me, and by the song that bears my name—this world will remember me not as a villain or a fool…”

“But as their requiem.”

The storm raged on, the heavy rain drumming against the blood-soaked land.

A lone figure descended the staircase out a palace main entrance, her heels clicking sharply against the wet surface as each step echoing like a death toll.

A woman on her early twenty, moved with eerie grace, unfazed by the chaos around her. As rain poured heavily, soaking her black cloak.

The empire was a nightmare of screams filled with agony and death. Men, Women and children lay lifeless. The empire was not like an empire but a battlefield full of fighting blood and tears of screams, their cries fading into the endless downpour mixed with bloods.

The woman stone on the high stair looking down the chaos of war happening down with one hand clutched a gleaming sword, its edge slick with fresh blood. The blood slowly being washed away by the rain. As on her other hand, she held a severed head, gripping his head, its lifeless eyes staring into the abyss. blood dripping onto the stone floor where she stand, mingling with the rain painting the ground in crimson.

She lifted her gaze at the stormy sky, where dark clouds loomed, swallowing the bright sunlight. A cruel smirk played on her lips as she said without looking back,

"I knew you would come".

A faint voice cut through the storm.

"You need to stop this helen!!, why are you doing this ?What are you trying to do?"

A young woman around the same age as helen- soaked, breathless, and terrified. Her golden hair clung to her skin, her blue eyes brimming with desperation.

"You have done enough helen. Let stop this fight, leave the innocent people and children out of this!"

She pleaded to helen with her voice breaking.

Helen turned her head, looking the girl before her as her finger tightened around her sword, sending shiver down the girl's spinal. The girl's body trembled yet she stood firm, tears welled in her eyes, but she refused to let them fall.

Seeing this, A small smile curled on helen's face as she spoke.

"What if I say no? Gonna kill me?"

Helen mind voice, you are really great Ella, really great, the true Saint huh?are you really the true saint?ha.

Her smile twisted into a smirk as she continued in a mocking tone,

"Oh my dear Ella. Would begging me will change everything?"

In a sarcastic tone she ask to Ella,

"Should I call you brave or ignorant? Maybe-A fool?"

Ella's gaze darted around , taking in the horror- the innocent being slaughtered, the dying moaning for mercy. Even the children's cries were swallowed by the relentless slaying.

Her body shook as her hand clenched into a fists. She looked at helen whose eyes was devoid of emotions. Tears now fell freely mixing with the rain. With trembling voice, she said,

"Tell your people to stop killing the people. Please Helen, I beg you. It's still not too late to-"

As lightening spilt the sky with thunder roaring.

Helen interrupted with a scoff,

"Oh my my my! Look at you lowering that prideful head of yours Ella?"

In a mocking tone she said,

"Never thought the day would come you were you lower that prideful egoist head of yours. Funny isn't 'Ella'?"

She stepped closer, the severed head still dangling from her grip, her eyes filled with something unreadable-pity?, amusement?, or perhaps a hint of sorrow?, hater?

As she walked closer, she threw the severed head to Ella's leg which made Ella to take a quick step back in terror.

"But if you truly want to stop me."

She whispered, as she lean in, her breath warm against Ella's cold, rain-soaked skin.

"Raise you damn sword and fight me."

Ella froze on the word 'kill me' as it echoed in her mind, sending a cold shiver down her spine. Her breath hitched as she looked at helen with wide terrified eyes. As she was about to speak, helen interrupted with a scoff as she said,

"Oh come on Ella, don't give me that look. It makes me want to gouge your eyes out."

Helen said to Ella with a stern face.

With terrified, as her body shivered, Ella managed to whisper,

"But I-I can't. How can I-"

Again she was interrupted by Helen, with a scoff Helen said,

"Oh how can I? You?, oh Ella my dear 'Best Friend'."

A smirk curled on Helen's face making Ella feel her hair from back neck to stand up in fear.

Ella's breath hitched. Her hands trembled as she drew her sword, gripping it tightly. As Helen saw Ella's hand trembling around her sword, her own fingers tightened around her sword. She took a step forward to Ella and said with smile curled on her face,

"You are hesitating? Oh-" she scoffed.

"You have changed Helen. You were not like thi-" before she can finish her sentence Helen interrupted and said with a smile,

"I changed? Really? You think I changed? Maybe I did changed because of someone." She look at Ella which gave her a chill feel.

"I-" just as Ella was about to speak, Helen said," Just cut the crap and raise your sword to fight!"

Ella seeing Helen's eyes which filled with only determination for fight. Ella looked down her hand that holding her sword and looked back at helen and said,

"If this is what you want then ok I will fight you." she raised her sword As she said this, helen face curled with a sinister smile , as she also raise her own sword.

As soon as Ella raise upright her sword, Helen lunged forward in flash. Their swords clashed, sparks flying in the storm. Helen moved like a phantom, her strikes precise, relentless. Ella barely had time to block as each blow sent shockwaves through her arms.

Helen attacks were not just strong- they were merciless.