- Light -

Living so long with the memories that she wanted to forget the most were still vivid in her mind, she thought that she was already used to the pain. Whenever his name, his voice, his face appeared in her mind, oh how she wished to be able to freeze her own heart, so that it won't ache whenever they appear.

Under the bright and clear night sky, in the middle of the quiet forest, he smiled gently towards her. It was a smile mixed with bitterness and gentleness.

He held her cheeks and wiped the tear that fell from her right red eye. He looked regretful. He looked regretful that he couldn't spend more time with them. He was sad that he couldn't grow old with her and die together with her because of old age.

Her beautiful red eyes looked at him. The bitter smile only added the pain to her heart.

The father of the twins regretted what the deeds he had done. He was fully- aware what happened that night was his retribution. What made him sad was because of his sins that should be repaid sooner or later, his wife was going to be alone. He couldn't see his two adorable children growing up.

Few shadows walked towards them. One of them was holding a scythe. Every single step that he took, the closer he was to death. From those pleasing red eyes, he could see his own reflection.

How miserable.

The separation was unavoidable.

When he was close enough, that man who has his own miseries and sad memories raised his scythe. A drop of tear fell from his eyes as he knew that.

"Helen."

That soft voice called her name.

"Look at me."

She shook her head as she couldn't hold her tears.

"Look at me."

He repeated, holding her cheeks and made sure that she was looking straight to his eyes even though she wanted to shake her head.

"I'm sorry."

He apologized for leaving early.

"I love you."

The scythe was swung and his head fell from his body.

His head fell faster to the ground before she could say a word.

And now, at that quiet night, he left to a place that she could never be able to reach.

She had never cried that hard for her whole life. And in that quiet forest, her voice sounded louder than it should be.

It was too quiet. She can't hear those three words anymore, forever.

"I love you" were the words that he often said to her. He always said it anywhere and anytime without hesitation. And whenever he said those words, she always felt embarrassed. She always found him shameless. Unexpectedly when this day came, he would say those three words again to bid farewell.

The man who wielded the scythe looked at her. There was a trace of pity on his eyes as he watched her begging someone dead to be alive. He understood that feeling when this woman's husband murdered his best friend and even mocked him.

But he always thought that this world was filled with selfish people. He himself was not an exception. He turned around, leaving the poor woman alone crying and screaming.

Maybe one day he will also receive this day. He was not a good person either. Maybe one day he will have to die before his beloved ones, maybe one day those who he had offended or tormented will come for his head.

As he walked away, far from the woman, he still could hear her cry.

These years when he lost his friend, he thought that he will only be able to move from his past and be very satisfied if he killed the one who made him felt lonely. But now that he had murdered him, he wasn't happy at all.

He was aware that there were no "pure evil" in this world. And perhaps inside his heart, he regretted what he has done. But if he didn't avenge his best friend, who would? Would his best friend blame him for not being loyal if he knew that he couldn't even avenge him? Would he be able to rest in peace knowing that his friend was afraid to take revenge for him?

He had avenged his friend, but though he had avenged him, he couldn't see him around. Not even his shadow appear to thank him.

Instead, what he heard was the cry of the woman who lost her love.

'Am I doing the right thing?'

≪ ◦ ❖ ◦ ≫

"How to win this game, you say...?"

Celeste repeated her words. She raised her head and looked at the blue sky made from shinsu. She let out a heavy sigh.

She looked much more relaxed which confused Helen. Celeste closed her eyes and spoke, "The game is already over."

Helen really wanted to ask, what made this girl looked so peaceful? Where was that terrified and worried expression? How did she become so calm all of the sudden? She was still there, standing in front of her as her sworn enemy.

But it was a moment later when she felt pain on her throat that she understood what was going on.

Her throat and her palm, they felt that they have been burned by something. She fell on the ground because of the pain and held her throat. Her palm that was in great pain was holding and clenching on the grass.

"You... is that poison...?"

Her voice became hoarse. She looked at Celeste.

Now, the young girl who she thought as innocent and naive before had this cruel and cold smirk at her face. That smirk on her face looked like she was laughing at her pain.

"Well, how does it feel?" She asked. "I've put a lot of effort on this Nightmare Black Butterflies. I hope that you enjoy them."

"You...!"

Her Nightmare Black Butterflies was the new kind of butterflies she was trying to develop. However, as hard as it was to cultivate two types of butterflies in the same time, she could only make one and spent a lot of energy for it. Her Nightmare Black Butterfly only worked to those who had been through a painful experience or torment where the effect could be various.

If her victim was once pushed to the sea and nearly drowned, then the effect of this butterfly would be the feeling of suffocation and drowned.

If her victim was once abused, then the effect would be the pain all over his body as if he was being hit.

If her victim was a man who regretted all his sins, then those sins would be displayed on his mind again and again until he lost his sanity completely.

It was a cruel method. But from her "friend" who taught her how cruel world could be, she knew that she had to be crueler to survive.

'In order to survive and protect everything and everyone around me, I have abandoned the young and naive me.'

She abandoned who she was to walk forward in this path filled with thorns.

Her feet may have been wounded by each thorn, by each obstacle, by each moment of harsh reality, but she thought that she won't regret a thing, though she sometimes looked back to her past where she was dancing on flower petals, living in a life where she was protected by her brother and everyone else, where she won't have to worry about anything.

But it was too late to return.

"Now, if you are willing to cooperate and tell me who you are to the twins, I might just give you a quicker and painless death," Celeste said with a serious expression. "Don't try anything stupid if you are aware of your own situation."

Helen looked at her. Honestly, she wouldn't expect to lose like this, poisoned by her opponent and felt this kind of sensation once more.

"I love you."

Those words repeated in her mind. The voice that never disappeared, no matter how many times she tried to forget.

She laughed.

"Haha...."

She laughed in the midst of pain and everything.

"I fought for my beloved family, only to lose them again and again. I fought for my own survival, only to lose my own life like any others."

With a rather exhausted smile, the woman who laughed at her destiny and her life asked to herself,

"Since I was destined to lose everything from the beginning, why did I try that hard? Why did I hope a lot? Why did Gods even bestow me with... everything just to be taken away? Until now... whenever I'm faced with death... it's always your voice that I heard......"

He was a ghost who never left her alone.

"... fine," she said. "You defeat me, though in a way that I didn't expect. But a deal is a deal. I'll tell you about what you want."

"Go ahead," Celeste said as she kept her sword back in her Storage Bracelet.

Helen smiled for several moments, closing her eyes slowly as she spoke,

"... I am her mother."

.

.

.

.

.

.

"...... You are... THEIR MOTHER?!"

"Yep."

A realization suddenly hit Celeste. If the woman before her was truly their mother, then doesn't that mean she killed her friends' mother? She even poisoned her with this cruel butterfly!

"Regret in killing me now?" Helen asked with a joking tone as if she wasn't upset with her death.

Celeste could feel that her blood was boiling.

"Why won't you tell me that you are their mother?!"

"Why? Because I'm not their mother! I'm simply a data of their sworn enemy! Every time I see the daughters who I gave up my life for, my mind kept telling me to kill them. Kill them, eliminate them, destroy them. But how am I supposed to kill the children who I died for?!"

Celeste was stunned. She couldn't argue with Helen's words. She could see how she was angry to appear like this, as a sworn enemy.

She hated the fact that she was forced to hate the children who she loved dearly.

She was afraid that she will cause more harm to her daughters if she remained alive as a sworn enemy. And she was fully aware that her daughters won't have a chance to win against her. Not because she was strong and experienced, but because they won't be able to raise their weapons towards her.

She was their mother, at the end.

And it would have been better for her to die on the hand of strangers rather than letting her daughters to regret their decision and the past.

"Therefore I ask for someone else to kill me, to prevent this misfortune and serious sin of killing their own mother happening to those two. This is not your fault, but my request."

Celeste clenched her fists.

'But who will now shoulder the crime of betraying their friends?'

This woman was just thinking for herself. She didn't consider her who was the twins' friends. Otherwise, why would Helen ask her to kill her knowing that it might just create conflict among them?

'Then again, she's just a sworn enemy. A sworn enemy, fake.'

She believed that Estelle would be able to understand it, but she doubted Estrella could. After all, as childish as she was, she was very similar with Charlotte that they got along pretty well. The two of them used their hearts to act rather than relying on their heads. For this reason, Khun would sometimes call the two of them "brainless idiots" whenever the two of them pissed him off purposely.

Will Estrella hate her?

The fact that the death of a mere data could create unwanted problems between her and her friends made her angry.

"... what do you want to say to me? Certainly you don't act so talkative just to tell me that you wish to die on my hands."

"Well, I just want to die anyway," Helen casually answered while looking at her hand with tired gaze. "Sick of living. My parents gave me this name so that I could shine forever as the 'light'. But even the brightest light will one day go dim. Exhausted, death and everything. I'm tired, really.

The people from my tribe, those who shared the same eyes and ability with me, whenever they saw me, they just shook their heads. Do you know why? It's because my life is worse than death. I live as though I have lost my soul... though it's actually because I lost my heart."

Her smile was very bitter. For a person wishing to die, finding herself still breathing even simply as a data was too painful.

The Hidden Floor was truly a miraculous place, for it could generate a data accurately, regardless of appearance and personality. Just by looking at Estrella's and Estelle's memories, they could summon her. They summoned her and kept telling her to murder, murder, murder her own children. Fight them.

She hated the feeling that she was being controlled.

"Those children must have lived a good life without me around... seeing that they have a loyal friend like you."

Celeste held her breath.

Those genuine words... how would she react if she knew that they had just sent one of her daughters to fight against White and nearly died in the process? She couldn't bring herself to tell this woman the truth, not when she had just poisoned her and she was ready to die for her children.

It would hurt her a lot to know that her daughters had to go through hell again and again as long as they climbed the tower.

Or maybe, she had known, seeing those tired gaze of one who once climbed the tower.

Helen looked at her palm. The effect of this butterfly was amazing. It reminded her the last moment of her death as her fingers slowly turned to ashes.

"Helen."

She closed her eyes.

'Are you blaming me? For not taking them well? For not raising our children well? I'm going to be ashes again... and I still can't get you off my head.'

'Why is that? Why is that your death wounded me deeply? Why is that I'm so obsessed with you? That all little and small actions reminded me of you. You, the man who I loved so deeply, the ghost that has always been haunting me...... where are you actually?'

"Tsisana once said that the older you get, the more you love to reminisce the past. I understand it now."

'Tsisana?'

As death was coming closer to pick her up, she could only close her eyes and reminisce the past. The past where she was drowned in her feelings, the loss of her husband that made her forget that she still had children who she should take care of.

Whenever the people from the Red Echo Eyes saw her, they would always shook their heads, thinking how poor and unfortunate the children were. Their mother was no longer a human, but a person who had lost her soul and her heart.

Even her mind was too tired to think.

Both Estelle and Estrella were close to each other since they were young. Perhaps it was because of they were twins and shared a special bond.

Yet with that bond, as well as their silly and adorable behavior.....

'All emotions would fade as the time passes. Perhaps... I'm no longer that drowned... within the sadness.'

... their childish actions were slowly healing her. At least, she could smile again and shed tears again.

'At the morning, I prepared breakfast and woke them up. At the afternoon, I taught and played with them. At night, I sang lullaby and read them bed time stories.'

It was just a simple life but every single day was spent with chaos and liveliness.

But death didn't seem to be happy to see them living happily. The day when Anan was murdered and sacrificed her own life was the day that a monster returned to the village and destroyed and massacred everyone and everything.

That monster was just like the wildfire that was burning everything down. He killed every single person in front of him and behaved wildly like a madman. His Red Echo Eyes were filled with deep hatred and madness towards the village where he was born in and destroyed that place with his own hands.

And that day, Helen was faced with two choices. It was either she fights or she runs away.

The monster wanted to annihilate the whole tribe. He wanted to kill every single person who had the same eyes with him. He didn't even spare children. In the term of strength, she would definitely lose. But running away wasn't a good choice either. Even the fastest person in the tribe couldn't escape from his eyes and ended up dying miserably by having both of his legs broken.

So, that night, she made a decision to sacrifice herself.

'If he could die for these children, why couldn't I die as well?'

She looked at her two children, at her two life- saviors. That night, she felt something like deja vu. How her children were looking at her, how they were begging her to stay behind with them was the same with how she silently begged him to stay with her. And how she was wiping the tears from their eyes, rest assuring them and telling them to run away, making up an obvious lie that she will be back was just like how he comforted her and telling her to survive without him.

The history happened again, only, this time, with her as the one who will be the sinful person who abandons her beloved ones.

"I love you."

'It has been awhile since I said these three words to someone.'

Estelle had always been smarter than Estrella. She understood her mother's meaning very well. Her mother trusted her with her twin sister which meant that she wanted the two of them to survive and that she had to take care of her younger twin sister just like how she took care of them. She would be leaving to that unreachable place.

Was it because of her respect towards her mother? Or was it because she was too afraid to do anything else? Estrella was struggling to follow her mother but she was different. Was it a sin to turn around and let her mother fight to death and run away? So many feelings and thoughts, at the end her mind was blank.

She smiled and held her mother's cheeks.

"We love you as well, mother."

And that was the last thing she said to her mother.

That night Helen decided to sacrifice herself. For the sake of her village and her children, she forsaken her own life.

Yet right at that last moment, she felt that she had lived up her parents' wish. At the last moment, the "light" was shining so brightly, brighter than it could ever be in the past.

Running as far as she could while dragging her twin sister, Estelle finally reached somewhere quieter with Estrella. Running through the forest without turning back, both of their feet were wounded and bleeding.

But they didn't stop running even for a second, just like the tears within their eyes.

And as if the sky was mourning for the incident tonight, mourning for hundred people dying and mourning for the abandoned survivors, it rained heavily.

The wildfire that burned everything and everyone in that village dimmed. The twins were drenched from head until toe. Every step and every breath they took felt very heavy. Was it their tears that made their cheeks wet or the rainwater?

Estrella raised her right hand and punched her own twin sister. After that, she pulled her collar.

"ARE YOU MAD?!" She shouted. "SO WHAT IF WE DIE THERE? AT THE VERY LEAST, WE WON'T HAVE TO LEAVE MOM LIKE THAT!"

Their minds were filled with grief. At this moment when sadness and anger became one, who could possibly calm down and talk things rationally?

Estelle held Estrella's wrist tightly and shouted back,

"CAN'T YOU SEE WITH YOUR EYES THAT IT'S A BATTLE WE CAN'T WIN? RATHER THAN DYING TOGETHER, WE SHOULD SURVIVE! WE SHOULD SURVIVE SO THAT WE COULD AVENGE MOTHER-!"