Hellbound With You (WN)

Realizing that the door of the room she was in was securely locked, Alicia forced herself to use every ounce of the remaining strength left in her and she successfully disappeared from within the room. She did not know how but she somehow managed to, maybe because of the healing magic Zeres had cast on her. However, she did not manage to make it far from the door of the room she was previously in.

She materialized just a few steps from the room where she was confined and she was already feeling so weak.

A curse escaped her lips when she had to hold onto the wall to balance herself.

Alicia had never known weakness before until she started losing her magic and energy as she had been lately. She had always been strong since she was young, even when she wasn't queen yet. She had never known what it felt to be utterly helpless and powerless. She had never known how it felt to be reduced to the point of relying to someone's healing powers to survive. She never thought it was nothing but unbearable.

Shaking her head to clear her mind, Alicia looked around. She had to find Zeres and she only had a limited time left to get to him. Where was he?

As she struggled to advance, she saw someone approaching. She was about to sigh in relief, thinking that it was Zeres but her eyes widened instead at the sight of the man approaching. It was that mad male witch named Philip.

Alicia's eyes narrowed as the man stood before her.

"Woman, just who are you?" he asked. One glance and Alicia could tell that the man had no more sanity left in him, just pure madness. She knew he was dangerous. He could attack her right now and she would not be able to do anything in her current weakened state.

Cautiously, Alicia gripped her dagger. Her gaze never leaving him, her body tensed up in preparation for any sudden moves from him.

"My king seemed to be in a very foul mood since you appeared. No, I wouldn't call it a foul mood… he seemed to be greatly… ardently troubled." Philip started to pace slowly in front of Alicia as he spoke with quiet but sinister voice, his eyes fully fastened on her as if he were trying to figure her out. "Was it you?" he halted, and his eyes flared dangerously at her, causing Alicia to immediately hear warning bells ringing inside her head. Her grip on her dagger tightened. "I believe it's you… there is no one else to blame here but you. You did something to my king, right? Woman? What did you do to him?"

When the man started to step closer to her in rage, Alicia could only stretch her hands out, one hand pointing her dagger towards him, the other gesturing for him to stop and not take another step closer.

Philip laughed. "How stupid. You think someone like you who's as good as a dead fish can fight me?" he sneered, mocking. "I'm asking you again, for the last time, woman. Who are you and what did you do to my king?"

Sensing that the man was here with the express intention of annihilating her, Alicia immediately replied. "Do you really not know who I am? Or are you just pretending not to recognize the queen of witches?" Alicia said. She had thought about hiding the truth, but she realized from the look in the mad witch's eyes that who she was did not actually matter. He was here because of that sole reason and that is to destroy the cause of Zeres' trouble.

Philip's obsession in trying to protect his king did not surprise Alicia as she knew of some witches who tended to be overly protective of their chosen ruler. Sometimes, there were witches that develops a dangerous obsession towards their ruler, to the point that they would do everything, even sacrificing their own lives for their ruler. Most of these kinds of witches ended up being toxic and dangerous subjects once they start to do unforgivable things, fully believing that their actions would make their ruler happy. This was why many queens in the past had to force themselves to kill subjects who turn out this way. Alicia could still remember the scene she witnessed when she was young, when the former queen had to kill her beloved subject with her own hands. It was one of the most painful thing she had seen.

They had to kill them because such a witch will eventually fall into madness, endangering more than themselves in the end. Almost all of them rebelled in the end once their queen tries to restrain them. And they would look for someone else whom they would redirect their obsession to. They would become one of the most dangerous enemy of their former ruler. That was why witch queens since the beginning of time had to deal with such witches. Because their obsession was considered a curse. If the witch crossed a certain line, there was no other way to deal with them but to kill them.

"Queen…" the mad witch echoed, rubbing his chin. He craned his head and then a hysteric laugh echoed. "You think you can fool me? How dare you even try speaking those words… you… weakling!" he roared.

His hand flew towards her face but his hit didn't reach her. Because Alicia had already taken the initiative to stab at his chest with her dagger. Gritting her teeth, Alicia fought for strength. She knew the dagger wound was not deep enough to kill him.

Suddenly, Alicia was slammed against the concrete wall. She slumped to the floor. Her arms and knees shaking as she tried in vain to get up.

But in the next moment, she was suspended in the air. The mad witch used his magic to immobilize her, stretching her arms wide.

Alicia's fingers trembled as if she were trying hard to resist the magic, but she refused to drop the dagger. Still laughing, the mad witch moved Alicia until she was brought before him. "Alright, it's time for me to end you, woman. I will annihilate anyone who dare try cause trouble to my king. I will kill everyone even if it's the quee – "

Before Philip could even finish his statement, Alicia's dagger flew speedily to be found embedded into his left eye. The mad witch screeched frantically like a banshee as he backed off, shocked and in pain from the sudden and unexpected attack. He had no idea that the magic he had used earlier was in actual fact useless when casted on the queen. A witch can never restrain a queen using such power unless she allows him to.

She was dropped hard on the floor as the suspension spell broke due to the make witch's distraction from his pain. However, her body was so weak she could hardly seem to register any feelings in her hands and feet anymore.

The mad witch refocused from his screaming fit and grabbed onto Alicia's hair with one of his hand as he had his other hand covering his injured eye, trying to heal it.

"I'll kill you!!" he roared and another crushing blow struck her. Alicia was thrown hard on the floor again, blood flowing from her broken lips and wounded head.

Her eyes peeked through her long messy ashen hair and despite her already hopeless situation, her eyes glowed intensely, the dark grey color suddenly seemingly pulsing with something silvery. The strange gleam moving like drifting clouds in her pupils – all which the mad witch failed to notice.