Chapter 1: Pandora
In a society where the strong thrive and the weak are eaten. Erevos ruled with an iron fist. He oppressed his subjects mercilessly to prevent them from revolting. Under his rule, plundering, war, and murder became commonplace and a game for those in positions of authority. Even the surrounding lands were afraid to challenge him.
Only those who were in Erevos’s favor prospered. To please the lord, innocent people were sacrificed. Some were brutally killed for entertainment, while others were forced to become concubines.
Erevos carefully selects his favorites, often favoring those with remarkable traits. He himself has distinctive features, including a small dark mark on both of his eyelids, just below the brows. This mark is considered a sign of the blessed blood, a symbol of unmatched honor and total authority.
Khaos is one of Erevos’s concubines, and she is known for her striking red eyes and long black hair that reaches the ground. She was orphaned by the war that Erevos created between the commoners and the high society, who treated the commoners as slaves. Khaos works as a dancer, and she caught Erevos’s eye one night when she performed in front of him.
Khaos’s innocent face belied her striking personality. At first, Erevos didn’t take her hardheadedness seriously, but when she bit him one time, he realized that she was unlike any of his other concubines. She was like a live fire, ready to strike him at any time he got too close. Erevos finds her amusing at best and offensive at worst.
One evening, Khaos poisoned Erevos with the lip pigment that she had meticulously applied to her lower lip.
Khaos had been planning this for years. She knew that Erevos was a cruel and powerful man, and she was determined to stop him from hurting anyone else. She had found a way to extract the poison from a flower that only blooms in a land of death.
The land was stained with the blood and bodies of those who had died there for years, victims of his reign of terror. Erevos had been responsible for the deaths of countless people, and the land bore witness to his crimes.
She used the poison to create a lip pigment, a symbolic gesture of retribution for his crimes. The pigment was a deep, crimson red, the color of blood. It was a reminder of the pain and suffering he had caused.
That evening, Erevos invited Khaos to his chambers. He was feeling light-headed after drinking the wine she had served him, and his guard was down. Khaos had secretly applied lip pigment to her lips, making them look enticing. Erevos couldn’t resist her lips, and that was his first mistake.
Khaos endured the pain throughout the night, gritting her teeth. Her plan was finally working, as Erevos started to feel sick. He soon realized that he had been poisoned, and grabbed Khaos by the hair in anger. But before he could say anything, blood clogged his throat. The poison was so potent that he felt his body on fire. It was too late.
“Erevos, your reign of wickedness is now over! Nobody will be harmed by your cursed blood any longer; the end has come!”
Khaos trembled as she got out of bed, clutching her garments tightly to her body. Erevos struggled to hold back the blood that was dripping from his nose and mouth. The young lord slowly lowered his hand, staring in disbelief at the amount of blood that was still gushing out. As Erevos cackled maniacally, Khaos flinched and tried to back away.
Erevos staggered towards the balcony, his voice thick with rage. “My blood is not damned, you wretched woman!”
Erevos’s eyes gleamed with madness as he spread his arms wide and shouted in a loud voice. “My blood is blessed and will remain so! Those who do not acknowledge it as such will be doomed for all eternity, especially you, Khaos, my dear!”
The concubine backed away slowly, her hand clutching a dagger. She had concealed the dagger under the bed after many nights of pain. She had assembled it piece by piece, saving the blade for the last time she would endure his abuse.
Erevos would surely die in a matter of minutes, and she had to leave before the guards found out what had happened. But even though she wanted to run away and carry out her escape plan, she couldn’t take her eyes off the fearsome lord, who stood proudly even with blood all over his body.
Erevos coughed up blood as he spoke. “All of you cursed-bloods, I will return and hunt you all! Once more, my blessed blood shall prevail! Aaaahhh!”
As she thought about all the hardships she had endured, all the people she had met and lost, and how the once-peaceful land was now in chaos because of him, tears began to well up in her eyes. She shoved the dagger into him with all her might, feeling it pierce his flesh and the blood that followed. She could no longer feel his heartbeat through the handle.
Khaos stared at Erevos’s small marks on his eyelids as his body sagged and lost life. She saw his fading ebony eyes slowly closing, and her flaming red eyes glazed with tears. She stood there for a few minutes, resisting the urge to run away.
As soon as she let go of the dagger, the body slumped to the ground. Khaos could hear nothing but her own labored breathing and the blood dripping from her hands. She slowly backed away and rushed out of the palace, feeling as though her head was filled with water.
Despite the chaos, she managed to escape to her secret hiding place. She hid from the guards who were searching for her for days. She was known by two titles: Khaos, the culprit of killing the supreme king, and the hero who killed the reigning terror of the lands. She was a complex figure, both feared and revered. Some saw her as a murderer, while others saw her as a savior. But one thing was for sure: she was a force to be reckoned with.
It had been months since Khaos escaped to a distant land. She had heard that he had no heir, despite having many wives, so the throne would now pass to his distant relatives.
She had been feeling sick for a few weeks, but she had been ignoring the signs. She was in denial, and the thought of what she might be sick with was making her lose her mind. She tried to focus on other things, but she couldn’t stop thinking about it. She knew she needed to see a doctor, but she was afraid of what they might say.
As she struggled to start a new life in a foreign land, Khaos couldn’t help but think about Erevos’s final words. She cradled her expanding womb with fear as she considered what he had said. She prayed to all the gods she knew, asking them to protect her and her growing child.
With the new ruler in charge, peace once again reigned in the land. Khaos and her son were now living happily together after they had managed to flee the former lord’s tyranny.
Khaos watched her son as he played with the “toys” he had found. He seemed content, sitting with his back to her. When he stood up and ran towards her, she beckoned to him and wiped the dirt off his face and clothing. The mother had just finished preparing her son’s favorite meal, meat, for their supper. She always tried to keep their meals on a budget, but today was special. It was her son’s 6th birthday, so she had prepared him a special meal to celebrate.
When her son closed his maroon eyes, Khaos saw a tiny dark mark beneath both of his eyelids. She paused, remembering how Erevos had cursed her blood and vowed to return. She trembled in fear, but when her son asked, “Is something wrong, Mom?”, she forced a warm smile.
Khaos ignored the fact that her son’s toy was a live, disassembled insect, and that his eyes were devoid of any emotion. She knew that Erevos’s curse was starting to take effect, but she was determined to protect her son from his father’s curse.
Over the years, the blood of Erevos’s heirs had been diluted. Some of them still had his traits, not just in this timeline, but in all of the possible timelines that he existed in. To prevent chaos from reigning again, a group of people kept the peace by making sure that the curse was abated.
One of these is a girl named Haima, she had lost her mother to a war. The war was inevitable, and Haima’s mother was one of many casualties. Haima was devastated by her mother’s death, and she struggled to cope with the loss. However, when a group recruited her and told her that the war was done by one of Erevos’s heirs, she didn’t hesitate to take their hand in her quest for revenge.
She had been traveling to multiple realities for years, and she had gotten used to the amount of blood she had taken. But all of that would change when she met someone who would make her question everything she thought she knew.
