She Belongs To The Devil

"Princess?" Adeline\'s eyes were filled with horror when she saw the sight that she had not been able to erase or suppress from her mind. She saw the person who would often haunt her in her dreams.

Rebekah already had a hole at the side of her stomach. Her hands were already starting to turn grey. And her face... it had immense hatred towards Adeline.

The memory was very fresh in Adeline\'s mind. The memory of the day she bathed in Rebekah\'s cold blood. Though she had already rationalized that kill as self-defense, the guilt that she had buried deep down in her mind came swirling out in the open.

A sinister smile appeared on Rebekah\'s face as she tightened her fist. "Die!" she screamed before slamming that fist right on Adeline\'s chest.

Adeline was thrown away with just a single punch and harshly landed on the ground.

Though Adeline had skillfully fought against Nigel just a while ago, she wasn\'t able to block the attack from Rebekah. For one, she was consumed with her guilt and she wasn\'t holding her ground properly. And second, Theodore had made sure that the strength of the illusion of Rebekah was comparable to the original one.

"Princess, are you okay?" one of the soldiers, who was nearby, came to Adeline\'s aid. He helped her sit properly.

Adeline was in pain and was breathing heavily. She got a direct hit that was too powerful and her battle armor could do nothing to stop that force. It was just made for the purpose of stopping metal arrows and swords, not fists of vampires.

Adeline nodded her head and replied, "Yes, I am alright. It just stings a little."

She saw Rebekah walking towards her very leisurely, with a deadly glare on her face. "You should worry about yourself. Run to the other side," she hastily warned that soldier and tried to get up.

That soldier followed the gaze of Adeline and saw that a scary-looking vampire was heading their way. "But it is my duty to protect you, Princess. I cannot just run away. I will distract her and you should take cover."

"No! You don\'t understand! I am her target. And she is too strong." Adeline raised her hand and tried to stop that soldier from doing anything stupid.

However, he was already running towards Rebekah to tackle her head-on and buy some time for Adeline.

But as expected, Rebekah crushed that soldier as if he was a mere ant. He came flying and landed right next to Adeline. He lay completely unmoving on the ground. The whites of his eyes were showing as though he was dead.

"He would have died for real if this was not an illusion," Adeline thought to herself as she tore off her gaze from that soldier and pushed herself up.

She clenched her fist and screamed, "Why?" She was a little angry at Theodore for doing this on the first day of her illusion training.

Adeline\'s eyes were filled with tears as she ran towards Rebekah. She didn\'t want to go through with it again – to kill Rebekah all over again. But she knew that this was a part of her training. She needed to get rid of her guilt and her empathy towards the enemy.

She had to, if she was to survive the war. And even more so if she was to lead her soldiers to victory.

"Arrghhhh!" Adeline screamed and aimed her punch on Rebekah\'s already wounded part of her stomach.

However, Rebekah was able to grab Adeline\'s wrist and throw her a few meters far. Adeline tumbled to the ground again, but instead of the surface, she realized that her landing was cushioned by the soldiers who were already down.

"I\'m going to finish what I couldn\'t do last time… You\'re going to die!" Rebekah screamed and came at Adeline while baring her fangs.

Adeline\'s heart was now filled with rage rather than pain. She was not going to let the vampires crush her soldiers like maggots.

She was now fired up. She instantly got up on her feet and shouted back, "Not today!"

Both the Princesses ran towards each other at the top of their speed.

And when they were in each other\'s range, Rebekah grabbed Adeline by her hair and jerked her to the side to bite her.

However, it was not just Rebekah who was grabbing her opponent, it was Adeline as well. Adeline was using her left hand to choke Rebekah. The grip was so tight that Rebekah was struggling to breathe.

Adeline then screamed while her eyes were on the verge of flooding, "Let me finish what I couldn\'t the last time. See you in hell."

Adeline made her fingers imitate the claws and using a great force, she dug her hand into Rebekah\'s chest.

Rebekah let out a gut-wrenching cry and attracted the attention of a few soldiers who were around them.

Adeline could feel Rebekah\'s heart. She hesitated for a millisecond, however, she forced herself to think that she was in a real war. And in a real war, she knew that even a moment of hesitation could decide between life and death.

So she let out a broken cry and pulled out Rebekah\'s heart with her bare hand.

Adeline had thought that she would be consumed by guilt all over again if she killed the illusion of Rebekah. But contrary to what she had thought, she felt relieved… as though she had accomplished something.

"Is it wrong to feel this way?" she couldn\'t help but question herself.

Nigel had also turned his head in time to witness his sister in action. His white and grey furs stood up upon seeing his innocent sister\'s this side.

"Adeline… she has become hard-skinned." He sighed in his mind and looked at Adeline with admiration, "I thought you were too young to be facing the war. But it looks like I was worried for no reason."

Unlike earlier, the illusion was working a little too well. Adeline could feel the cold heart in her hand. She could see that her hand was soaked in blood. She could smell the metallic smell of blood, it was a little too strong to not notice.

She was already feeling lightheaded by the sight of the heart. And the smell made her want to empty her gut then and there.

"Theo!" Adeline screamed in her mind while holding her breath, "Did you have to go through all these details? I thought you said your illusion wasn\'t that good! This feels way too real!"

When she looked at the body of Rebekah, she could see the gruesome details that she had caused. There was a huge hole in Rebekah\'s heart. Blood was dripping down her body like a waterfall. Her body had already turned grey and looked ghastly.

"Here goes my sleep!" Adeline knew that this illusion was going to haunt her for the next couple of days.

Adeline pushed the body away from her and looked around her while breathing heavily. There were some eyes on her, some looked at her with admiration while the others looked at her with fear. Both kinds of looks were from her own soldiers.

She then heard a loud sound of a gong and in the very next moment, all the illusions cleared up.. The battleground swarmed with red eyes was now purged of those unsightly beings.