Chapter136: The Grandmother's Fingers and the Devastation of Love
The Source of Sorcery: The Grandmother's Shadow
That night, a thick, blackened mist choked the courtyard, swirling like a living curse. Diyari sat before the threshold of the room, feeling the air grow impossibly heavy—as if thousands of tons of lead were pressing against his ribs. This was not merely the weight of grief; it was the suffocating scent of an ancient, familiar sorcery. Inside the room, Rina paced with a frantic, unnatural rhythm, her silvery eyes glowing—not with the celestial light of an angel, but with a dark, alien malice.
In the depths of his mind, the image of his maternal grandmother flickered like a dying candle. She, who should have been the wellspring of mercy, sat in a distant darkness. With her withered, trembling fingers, she mixed blood with the mist to ruin her own grandson's life. She could not bear the brilliance of their love; she craved for Diyari to be cast into eternal solitude and for Rina to become his mortal enemy.
Diyari: (In a raspy voice, thick with agony) "Why, Grandmother? Why, mother of my mother? You, who once held me in your embrace—how can you weave these spells to turn Rina against me? How can those hands that once fed me now set my very soul on fire?"
A Lethal Dialogue Under the Spell's Grip
Rina threw the door open and stumbled out. Her hands were shaking, and her face was as pale as a corpse. The grandmother's curse had wound itself tightly around Rina's mind like a crown of thorns.
Rina: (Screaming through jagged tears) "Diyari! Get away from me! I feel a thousand needles piercing my brain whenever I look at your face! Why do you destroy me like this? Your grandmother is right... she speaks to me in my dreams, telling me you are a curse! She says you are the reason I lost everything! Stay back, before I carve the heart out of your chest with this blade!"
Diyari stepped toward her, his eyes brimming with tears, reaching out to grasp her hand. "Rina, do not listen! It isn't her voice—it's the magic! My grandmother wants to tear our home apart, to turn our love into ash. She cannot look upon my loyalty! Understand, the rest of my family is faithful, but she... she wants to put my heart to the dagger! Look into my eyes, Rina, not into the black fog she has built around you!"
Rina pushed him back with a terrifying strength. "No! She is your mother's mother! She knows you! She says you are a traitor! I gave everything for you, and now I can't even remember your name! Why is the world like this, Diyari? Why must a man be cursed by his own kin? Why do our hearts burn for those who wish to break us? I hate this life! I hate this one-sided loyalty!"
The Shattering and the Cry of Solitude
Diyari fell to his knees. His wounds from the previous night were still weeping blood, but the sting of his grandmother's betrayal was a thousand times more lethal. He cried out to the woman in the shadows: "Grandmother, hear me! You can wreck my home, you can turn Rina into my enemy, but you cannot sever the root of love bound to our souls! Curse this world if betrayal and sorcery are allowed to triumph!"
He stood up, despite his trembling limbs, and gripped his red sword. He knew his grandmother was tightening the spell, driving Rina toward a final, mad act.
Diyari: "Rina, if you wish to kill me, then do it. Let her curse conquer my body, but it will never conquer my heart. I am here, and I am not leaving. Let my soul burn, let my heart be torn to pieces—I will remain faithful. I am not like this world of lies and treason. I am your Diyari, even if you no longer know me."
Rina froze. A single black tear—the mark of the curse—slid down her silver eyes. She felt his pain, but the magic forbade her from embracing him. Diyari stood alone in the mist, a mountain facing a world of sorcery, staring at the room where his love remained a prisoner.
Written by: Dlin_myth