Til Death Tears Me Apart Once Again [Discontinued]

VS: A Changed World

(A/N: S is the roman numeral for .5. Just in case you didn't know and thought 'wtf why is there Victoria's Secret in the title?')

Third Person's POV

When news of Empress Mystra Xandar Crawford's death spread, the entirety of Arraxus and its inhabitants were shaken to the very core. Literally and figuratively. Just mere hours after her death, the only continent of the World of Arraxus split into 6 separate pieces of land with oceans  between. The Empress' Divine Earth Magic Blessing was from the heavens, and when its wielder passed on without it being passed down, the very ground fell apart.

That wasn't the only change.

There were no longer any stars in the sky, the celestial light robbed from the night when all of House Celeste perished during the Demon Invasion. Angels could be heard weeping from their place in the Heavens at losing their only connection to the Mortal Realm, no longer able to intervene or help.

Most reacted to the reformed world with panic and despair.

"What are we going to do now?!"

"The world is ending!!"

Some with disbelief and denial.

"Impossible! The Demons were never this strong!"

"This cannot be happening!!"

Rarely any had hope.

"It will get better..."

"The King and the Pillars will do something..."

Just desperation.

"They must! Or else we are doomed...!"

"We must do something, or else..."

All while the Demons and the great evil that lurked underneath watched the chaos unravel with great mirth and delight.

"Finally!"

"Yes...all thanks to that human boy..."

"Our Prince..."

"With his help, we will be able to bring back our master soon..."

XX

The Pillars gathered, even the Elves -which surprised everyone- , as soon as possible, eager to get guidance and decide on what to do about this extremely uneasy situation. There was a lot of talking, of sharing, of discussing, some yelling, a few arguments and nothing of real substance. But what was to be expected? Their usual guides, those that wield Divining Light Magic are gone. The empty seat of House Celeste's Matron haunts them all as they talked, the weight pressing on them of losing an entire House to the Demons. 

No law or might can change that now.

At the end of a three-day long meeting, the Pillars came up with one solution.

To get a new Queen.

The candidate chosen to clean up the mess was Agathys Io Azeal, the lucky star of House Azeal that had foiled a scandal plot to bring down the Fire House.  A prodigy, absolute beauty and possessing an extremely high Affinity for Fire, she was an ideal candidate. She had a cold deposition and ruthless personality, but always did the right thing. A good head on her shoulders she had, one that knows what to do.

Also she is similar to the Empress is some ways, they even had the same purple eyes! It doesn't matter if Agathys had children of her own, if she was willing to become the Queen of Arraxus, they would let her be one. The Pillars -except the Elves who left at this point because it was so stupid and they already had a Queen- needed a leader like her to suppress the chaos!

And she agreed to.

The citizens of Arraxus agreed as well, because what other choice was there?

There was no resistance on the King's part, because he had no better ideas.

Prince Arius hated it, how dare that lowly woman try and replace his mother?

With no objections, Arraxus had a new Queen and Arraxus celebrated.

And so Prince Arius and Princess Camelia gained a new mother after six days of being without, and also two, older, twin brothers. However, they lost their happiness. After all, Queen Agathys was the reason Arius and Crawford became as spoilt and terrible as the players of (Til Death Do Us Part, I Will Always Love You) would know them to be. She was the villainess in the background, even killing off some Capture Targets using Camelia's hand. The reason the two Crawfords are as hated as they are by Arraxians are because Queen Agathys made them to be, so that her sons can smoothly ascend to royalty.

Of course, the Heroine foils this, but that's a story for another time.

With a woman as evil and ruthless as this taking reign, Arraxus turned its entire attention on vengeance and war. There was way more focus on demon hunting, almost all finances went to manufacturing weapons to kill them, finding new ways to kill them, and research on how they work. All Queen Agathys thought about was fighting back, some would argue that she was too focused on offense and neglected defence. What would happen if the same thing happened again?

"Offence is the best defence," she would say. "Look what good cowarding has done to us."

Relief funds were all from the fallen House Celeste's coffers, they had no need for it anymore after all. Everyone was so whisked by the new rules and changes that no one really paid attention to that, or even realise that the King that had fallen ill. Many assumed he was missing most of the time due to grief.

Who could have thought then that King Levin would never be seen again until 12 years later, when the game plot kicks off? By then, Agathia was a Queen in name but actually the matriarch of Arrax, and her younger son, Reyer, was well on the road to becoming the Emperor.

(A/N: Just in case it got confusing, the World's name is Arraxus. Collectively, all human country/regions are Arrax and the people are called Arraxians. The Elven country/region is Aeson, which mostly stay out of Arrax matters, not interacting with humans unless absolutely necessary.)

But the King wasn't the only one that disappeared from public view, the Princess and the Prince did too.

Arius Crawford, along with Dan Azeal, set off on an adventure with the goal of finding powerful Demon Hunters to teach them the ways of Demon Slaying. There was no objection on the Queen's part, if the boy died from his own foolishness, all the better. She would miss her nephew though, a guillable and loyal person was always good to have.

As for Camelia...

The black hair she now possessed, something attributed to Demonic Corruption, has further convinced everyone that she was cursed and the Princess was sent away to the Cleansing Springs. It was only 8 days after Queen Agathys came into power, a day after the Prince left and 4 days after the King became ill.

Hopefully, Agathys thinks, that she will never return.

XX

At the end of the thirteenth day of Queen Agathys' rule, the casket housing the Empress' body became empty.

(A/N: The moment when a .5 chapter is longer than actual chapters haha.

Woooo plot stuff and foreshadowing! Story's finally kicking off! 

Is the plot moving too slowly? Is the changes too dramatic?

Anyway...thank you for reading as always! Ciao! 

-X)