Salome wore her usual feigned smile:

"There is a certain lie everyone is told at least once, even a succubus like myself… forgiveness."

Vale stared at the succubus wearing a dead man's half-bloodied clothes, holes cut out of the back for her wings and tail. He remained silent, intent on not speaking until the succubus had finished saying what needed to be said.

Not that he didn't want to give his input, but if Vale's was right…

The thing Salome needed most in the world was somebody to listen to her.

To know her authentic self and the terrible story of her life, the pages are filled with tears, blood, and sorrow. Salome needed someone to open and read her story — without a secondary motive.

Salome continued:

"Hate lies beneath that cold lie… Nobody ever truly forgives; they only forget. And my memory is much too good…"

Salome closed her eyes for a moment and chuckled.

"To answer how old I am, I'm 246. 238 years I've been on the front lines fighting the Scourge… You can imagine an eight-year-old fighting against monsters like that wouldn't last very long. But, of course, I'm here now…"

She opened her eyes and cast a look off into the distance.

"I survived..."

Bitterness seeped into every word she spoke.

"For better or worse, I survived…"

She gave another wry snicker.

"Because of the terrible situation in which I grew up, when I developed my Aspect, it was of the second-highest order. After I grew my power, I was named queen a bit later, when I turned 22. Such a thing was unprecedented! While 22 is young for humans, it's like toddlers for succubi…"

Salome looked up and smiled… a damnable smile.

"But my selection and coronation were also because there wasn't even much of us left… I was simply the only one strong enough to lead. After all, strength is the prerequisite for leadership, not intellect."

She's lips turned down.

"Succubi are all women and can only reproduce within a human man's dream… which is not as easy as just falling asleep next to them. I won't get into the specifics, but our race had a terrible declining birthrate and an even higher percentage being slaughtered by the Scourge every day."

Salome paused for a moment to adjust her position, and her sad eyes drifted to Vale.

"Still… with my power, everyone believed one day we could push back the scourge and win. I didn't have many expectations myself, until one day a man named Hope appeared at my doorstep…"

Salome paused for a moment, lost in the past… But she eventually found the will to continue.

"A gallant knight thrust out by his kingdom, who instead of living out the rest of his life in peace allowed by his prestige, subjected himself to endless nights on the battlefield. He'd heard tales of my strength and, regardless of how my race was seen by the world, offered to fight by my side."

She smiled again.

"It was once I saw Hope's strength that the thought of potential victory wasn't just held by my people, but also me…"

The fake smile faded.

"But, of course, I wouldn't be here if we won… But I can't say we didn't have a chance at one point. Or at least, that I didn't think we did."

Salome's expression stayed firm, but her eyes exuded sorrow, and she held her hand closed.

"That… that… thing out there. She was young, only sixteen, but I still hold her responsible…"

She clenched her fist tighter, nails digging into her skin.

"My queendom was part of a commonwealth, which was a united federation of nonhumans who were dedicated to fighting the Scourge. Many of us hated each other, but we needed to band together because of the proximity of our lands to one another and the most blighted portion of the world being our neighbor."

Salome paused to unclench her fist and take a breath.

"The Crystal Owl Tribe, although low in number, was strong."

Then she added with vitriol:

"At the same time, they were weak. They joined the commonwealth so that the combined army would defend their home… committing very few of their own to the war effort."

"And, one day, their princess, who knew next to nothing of the Scourge, decided to escape her paradise to get a glimpse of hell. Like most idiots… she got lost, and a search party was sent for her — for appearances at least. Nobody actually cared, not even the owls themselves."

Resentment built and welled in the succubus with each word.

"Except Hope. Hope disappeared one night to look for her and never returned, but the Ice Witch was found with his sword in her hands and his golden helmet on her head."

Salome's quills whizzed.

"Not once did she say what happened to Hope. Not once did she show any care. In anger, I demanded the Crystal Owl Tribe at least make up for Hope's loss by way of joining the fight in earnest…"

Her weapons were threatened to come alive.

"When they declined… I decided to visit them myself."

A serpentine grin slithered onto her face.

"While the Crystal Owl Tribe was strong… I alone was stronger."

Her eyes filled with passion and purpose.

"I donned my armor and marched into their home and stormed their palace. I subdued the guards and made my way to their royal dining hall. I didn't have an actual plan until I came upon a disgusting scene…"

Her lips split into a toothy grin.

"With a smile on my face, I interrupted a dinner party they were having — chicken and steak on their plate while my warriors ate seeds of grain…"

Salome's smile all of a sudden dropped, but she soon forced it back.

"At first… I had no intention to kill anyone. I just wanted to force the girl to reveal what happened to Hope to know if the man was truly dead. Yet, for some godforsaken reason… the girl just wouldn't talk. But her eyes showed she had something to tell."

Salome looked down the hallway.

"In anger at her silence. I killed them. One by one. Her family, I mean."

Sadness in her proud eyes.

"I started with her brother, ripping off his wings before plucking his fingers off, then his spine. Still, the girl refused to speak. The king tried to attack me, so I ripped out his heart and took his head. Still, she refused to speak. The queen decided to cry, so I ripped out her eyes. Then she wailed, so her lungs followed."

"Even still… she remained silent on Hope."

Salome's wrath flared.

"Even with tears in her eyes and pleading for me to stop. Not once did she even deny having witnessed his death. She could have at least done that!"

Salome clenched her fist and gritted her teeth.

"This further convinced me she knew something. Possibly something she shouldn't have known. Or maybe something she felt guilty for. But it was also apparent that if she wasn't talking now — this delicate princess who before didn't know the color of blood or sound of a lie — it was clear her silence would continue..."

Then, with another long breath, she calmed down.

"So, I decided to get her out of my sight…"

A whimper.

"But, of course, I guess I pushed my luck because that was the day she awoke her Aspect. Quite the pitiful late bloomer, but quite the bloomer she was."

A snicker.

"I was so caught off guard by nearly being frozen to death by a Newformed. That I halted my attack, and at that moment, reinforcements arrived."

A pitiful sneer.

"Left with no other option, I retreated… But perhaps that was the biggest mistake I made, because in no time, the Ice Witch earned her Title. Freezing Scourge bastard after Scourge bastard, rising through the path of ascension in a matter of years."

With a doleful look, she added:

"Not to mention the succubi were kicked out of the commonwealth and labeled as hostiles to kill on sight. Because of my actions, my people were hunted and killed, but not once did they blame me. Even though it was clearly my fault… something that everyone knew but me."

Salome stared deeply into Vale's eyes. Perhaps thinking her own to appear resolute…

They were not.

"I still blamed the Ice Witch."

She grinned again.

"So… I kept hunting her down."

A forced grin.

"I showed up on every battlefield she did. I showed up every other night when she slept. Countless men and women had to be sacrificed just in the name of keeping her alive and away from me."

A dishonest grin.

"But eventually, enough became enough for everyone else, and they marched on my citadel and, without even letting us surrender… They decided to kill all of my people, even employing the Scourge."

A betraying grin.

"Of course… I should have died too. In fact, I was intent on dying that day. But I lived. For some reason, a reason I'm still looking for, I kept fighting…"

Salome paused for an odd amount of time, a glossy look in her eyes which had nearly lost its pink aura, now looking like a normal human's, almost. Her irises were purple…

"That's when I decided to try and right my wrongs and to spend the rest of my days fighting the Scourge — I finally recognized it was my fault. That I had pushed the Ice Witch to do what she'd done…"

"I hopped around from place to place, but despite my past and new nickname, Queen of Ruin… people saw my desperate struggle to die and mistook it for heroism and decided to follow me. I even took in some disciples and raised a wild orphan… he was an angry critter, I tell you."

Salome let out a pained laugh.

"As for those who followed me… They were those who'd lost everything to the Scourge and wanted to fight. Race didn't matter, nor did Class. We were just a group who wished revenge on the Scourge… and I was the suicidal maniac of a leader…"

Another pained laugh.

"Eventually, we were even able to retake my lost citadel from the Scourge…"

A pitiful laugh.

"But of course, there was a nasty bird who didn't take kindly to my return."

Salome grit her teeth and barely held herself back from screaming:

"I had already lost all I held once, and she was intent on repeating that history — she had to take it all again. And with the power she'd accumulated over the years, I could do nothing to stop her…"

Her voice grew strained.

"Once again, she slaughtered my people mercilessly, and, as you heard her, she and her people pushed me to the brink of death — not before I slaughtered her people as well. But, in any case, I only survived due to my special armor, but they thought I had perished…"

A quiet, regretful sigh escaped from her lips.

"After that, I spent the next 180 years regretting every decision I ever made. I spent 180 years hiding in the shadows, fighting the Scourge alone and growing to hate them even more. I also spent 180 years blaming one person for every mishap in my life…"

Salome looked at Vale with a pained expression.

"Blame me if you want, for how Ximena turned out. She had a justifiable reason to hate me. I was young, rash, and ignorant of the world. I wanted answers, and I didn't care how I got them. I tortured a naive princess and turned her into a warmongerer."

Salome's voice broke momentarily.

"A-a warmongerer who came back for me with a vengeance."

Salome had a single tear in the corner of her eye but a determined expression:

"It's all my fault. I won't deny I was the catalyst for everything."

She paused for a moment, then continued:

"As I said, forgiveness is a lie… a lie even when the subject is oneself."

Salome looked up.

"So, I'll never forgive myself…"

Then she looked back down and out the pathway.

"But neither will I forgive her…"

Salome paused and let the single tear trail down her cheek as she clenched her fist.

Vale looked back at her with a stern look.

'Does she expect me to feel bad for her?'

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