The first thing Nymera Vaelis tasted was blood.
Sharp, metallic, and heavy on her tongue — it dragged her back from the endless black into a world of agony.
Her eyes flew open.
Above her, the sky churned — a canvas of black clouds smeared with violent firelight. The air reeked of ash and iron. Screams shredded the horizon, high and low, human and not. The battlefield around her sprawled into chaos: twisted banners, broken steel, bodies strewn like discarded dolls.
Every nerve ending in her body screamed. Her velvet gown, once royal and immaculate, clung to her in sodden, tattered strips. Her bare feet slid in the muck — not mud, she realized — blood. An ocean of it.
Nymera coughed, gagging as she pushed herself onto trembling hands and knees.
Where am I?
Flashes of memory burned through her skull — but they weren't hers.
She saw:
A grand hall with walls of glass and gold.
A heavy, jeweled crown lowering onto her head.
Goblets of poisoned wine raised in secret toasts.
Flames devouring a once-mighty city.
A silver sword slipping from her own blood-slicked fingers.
Nymera Vaelis.
The Duchess of the Fallen Court.
The villainess who would one day destroy the world.
Her heart thudded painfully against her ribs.
No, she thought, a chill slicing through her spine. No, this isn't my life. This isn't my story!
Then — it spoke.
A voice, mechanical yet eerily intimate, whispered through her skull.
> [NyxCore System Activated.]
[User: Nymera Vaelis confirmed.]
[Directive: Save or Doom this World. Fate Points now tracking.]
Nymera froze.
A... system?
Was this some cruel magic? A hallucination before death?
> [Current Fate Points: Neutral (0).]
[Warning: Critical Divergence Detected.]
[Primary Mission: Choose Your Path.]
The battlefield seemed to pulse around her in response.
Fires gnawed at the remains of siege towers.
Somewhere, men screamed for their gods — and got no answer.
Nymera swallowed hard, wiping blood from her mouth with the back of her hand. Her mind raced.
She knew this world.
She knew this moment.
The history books would one day call this The Shattering of Realms — the day the villainess, Nymera Vaelis, slaughtered the "Hero of Light" and seized dominion over the surviving kingdoms.
And yet, here she was, breathing, bleeding, choosing.
Choosing.
In the distance, a figure staggered across the ruins — gleaming armor dulled by blood and soot, his golden hair matted and filthy. A silver sword dangled from his fingertips.
The Hero.
Lucien Draegaris.
The man she was destined — required — to kill.
Nymera's hand trembled as she rose to her feet.
A cold choice weighed in her chest like a blade:
Kill him now, fulfill the script written in blood.
Save him, betray her fate, and unleash the unknown.
"Option?" she rasped aloud.
The NyxCore System answered immediately.
> [Option 1: Kill Lucien Draegaris. Outcome: Secured dominion, increased Dark Fate Points, accelerated downfall.]
[Option 2: Save Lucien Draegaris. Outcome: Unknown divergence. System instability risk.]
Nymera almost laughed.
What kind of system admitted it didn't know what would happen?
She looked down at her hands. Pale. Bloodied. Empty of weapons.
Around her, destiny screamed — urging her to complete the cycle.
But her soul, battered and alien in this stolen body, whispered something else:
What if you refuse?
She clenched her fists until her nails bit into her palms.
She had been made into a villain before she had even drawn a breath in this world.
Judged by a script she didn't write.
Condemned by a fate she didn't choose.
A slow, bitter smile tugged at Nymera's lips.
"If I'm damned either way," she whispered, voice rough with defiance,
"then I choose my own damnation."
Decision burned through her veins like wildfire.
She would not be the villain they demanded.
She would be something else. Something new. Something terrifying.
Nymera staggered forward, boots slipping in the blood-soaked earth.
The Hero — Lucien — looked up as she approached. His eyes, once bright with certainty, were clouded with pain and confusion. He raised his sword half-heartedly, as if expecting her to end him.
Instead, Nymera reached out and gripped the blade with her bare hand.
The sharp metal bit into her skin. Blood welled between her fingers — her offering, her rebellion.
Lucien stared at her in stunned silence.
"Live," Nymera said, her voice cutting through the smoke and ruin. "Live... and remember that I spared you."
The NyxCore System chimed again, almost frantic.
> [Fate Points Updated: +50.]
[Title Earned: The One Who Defies Destiny.]
[Warning: Major Divergence Triggered. Future events unstable.]
Nymera barely heard it.
She tore the sword from Lucien's unresisting grip and flung it into the mud.
Around them, the world shifted — an invisible quake deep in the bones of the earth, like reality itself protesting her choice.
Fine.
Let it scream.
Nymera Vaelis would rewrite the ending of this broken story — even if it shattered the world itself.
Above, unseen by mortal eyes, the black clouds split, and the stars bled crimson.