CHAPTER 119: WITHERING MEMORIES

Fleur could see them all, Sarah’s memories, scattered like crystalline shards in her mind.

The joyful ones, the bitter ones, and the cruelest of all. They flooded her consciousness in waves.

That kind of memory capacity would overwhelm anyone. Fleur could, if she wanted, overload Sarah’s brain with the memories of countless others—humans, vampires, even beasts—until it melted into nothing.

Or worse, she could trap her inside one terrible memory, forcing her to relive it forever, unable to escape.

But first, she had to find the woman’s brain.

More importantly, she needed to understand why.

Why had Sarah betrayed the family? Why had she sided with their enemies, slaughtered their branch kin, and taken their Vitalis Cores?

How had she managed to kill one of the Draemir’s main members?

Was she brainwashed?

No, Fleur would have known if she was.

Yet, nothing made sense. Every memory showed Sarah beside Ulrich—her father—loyal, devoted, ever supportive.

In battle, in negotiations, in business dealings, she had always been there, standing a step behind him like his shadow. He had never once hurt or humiliated her.

"Sarah, what do you wish for? I will give you anything you desire."

Fleur flinched. She recognized that voice instantly, it was the Matriarch of Corvane.

"I already have what I wished for, I don’t need anything."

The two women sat across from each other in a gazebo, porcelain cups resting on the table between them.

It was meant to be afternoon tea, yet the scene was bathed in the cold silver of moonlight instead.

"Revenge, then?" the Matriarch asked softly, tilting her head.

"For humanity’s cruelty? For burning your sisters and daughters alive because they were called witches?"

Sarah’s face remained composed, but her grip on the teacup tightened slightly.

"Oh? You don’t feel anything about that, huh. Because of Ulrich, perhaps? That man is... cruel, isn’t he?"

Sarah’s eyes widened in disbelief. "What do you mean by that? My husband would never do such things!"

She snapped, slamming her palm against the table. Her voice trembled with both anger and hurt.

The Matriarch’s smile did not fade. "You truly don’t know, do you?"

"There’s a faint smoke clouding your mind. If you don’t trust me, you can always ask someone else—your daughter, perhaps—to lift it. Then you’ll understand what it is."

Silence stretched between them. Sarah’s lips parted as if to speak, but no words came.

"Maybe Ulrich simply wanted a perfect companion," the Matriarch continued gently, almost pitying.

"A woman so obedient she’d become his shadow. One who would never question him, who would live and die for him because she has no other purpose."

Fleur froze. The realization struck her like a knife twisting in her gut.

She remembered that day when Sarah had come to her, voice trembling, eyes uncertain, asking if there was something inside her head. Something that repressed her emotions.

At the time, Fleur had been naive. She hadn’t thought to lie. She’d looked her mother in the eyes and said yes.

Sarah’s reaction hadn’t been shock or fear. Just a quiet, brittle smile, one that looked more like a wound than an expression.

"Do I... Do I... destroy my own family?"

The question hung in the air, heavy and suffocating. Fleur didn’t want to answer.

But the sound of screaming ripped her from the memory.

Fleur’s focus snapped back to the present. Through her veins, she could see the battlefield, David, and that pink-haired girl struggling to survive amidst the chaos.

That girl—whose name Fleur still didn’t know—was desperately trying to keep David from being dragged into the gaping maw of a plant-beast.

Her clones moved clumsily now, breaking formation, their rhythm shattered by panic. The girl’s fear and anguish bled into them, making them falter.

And Lucien’s severed head screamed for salvation, his voice raw and pitiful.

"Sarah! Save me! SAVE ME!"

"Damn it!" Fleur hissed.

Her veins exploded from the ground, darting across the battlefield like living blades. They wrapped around David’s limp body, yanking him back from the creature’s mouth just as it snapped shut.

She pulled him toward her, encasing him in a cocoon of pulsing veins, a living shield to keep him safe.

"Keep controlling the monsters, pink-haired girl!" she shouted. "I’m almost there!"

The girl’s breath hitched, her panic melting into focus. She wiped her tears and gave a sharp nod.

Then, her clones began to move again. This time more fluid, coordinated, and deadly. Her strikes grew cleaner, faster, as though she had finally cast away her fear.

Fleur allowed herself one small breath of relief, then turned her attention inward.

Because she had found it.

Buried deep beneath the roots and soil, entwined with the very essence of the garden’s domain, pulsed the core of her mother’s power/the seat of her consciousness.

Sarah’s brain.

And now Fleur had to face the truth.

Not as a daughter.

But as her executioner.

Fleur opened her eyes and found herself inside Sarah’s subconscious. Normally a mindscape would mirror the person’s memories and colors, but here there was only a vast, empty darkness.

In that void, Sarah stood before her.

"Sarah," Fleur said coldly. "It’s time you answer for your crimes. You betrayed House Draemir and you murdered children for experiments."

Sarah turned slowly. Even when she didn’t have psyche blood style, her subconscious was strong as Fleur expected she still could use her power down here and even control this place to some extent.

’Tch as expected, she has a strong sagacitas perimeter!’

"Hello, Fleur," Sarah replied. Her voice was flat, almost amused. "Do you intend to destroy me the way your father did?"

"My liege only wanted to protect you from a destructive path," Fleur said evenly.

She kept her tone professional; this was her work, and she meant to finish it without distraction.

"Protect me?" Sarah snapped, the patience in her voice breaking.

"He lied to me. He made me into someone I was not. He stole my rage, my right to take revenge! Now I cannot even avenge my sisters and daughters because the people are all dead."

"So you took revenge on us instead?" Fleur said with a bitter chuckle. "Enough talk. Let’s end this."

She rolled her sleeve up, exposing the pale web of veins under her skin. "I will shred your consciousness and leave your body as an empty husk."

Fleur moved first. Her veins shot out from her arms, gleaming like threads of crimson light as they snaked through the air toward Sarah.

Sarah’s face twisted in fury. "You think I’ll let you erase me that easily?!"

She screamed, and the void exploded into a storm of roses and thorns. The petals turned to blades, slashing through the air with the fury of her grief.

Fleur didn’t flinch. Her veins moved like serpents, weaving between the strikes, coiling around Sarah’s wrists, neck, and heart.

"You’re letting your emotions control you. No wonder My Liege wanted to seal you away."

"Shut up!" Sarah roared. "You know nothing of loss!"

The air cracked. Behind Sarah, shapes began to form, spectral images of her daughters and sisters burning in fire, their screams echoing across the void.

It was a nightmare given flesh, a desperate attempt to fight back with pain. The illusion tried to claw into Fleur’s mind, but she resisted easily; she’d seen worse within her own.

"You’re using memories as a shield," Fleur said, her tone clinical. "Predictable."

Her veins pulsed brighter. They penetrated Sarah’s temples, diving deep into her. The darkness began to collapse inward.

Sarah’s scream became a raw, guttural sound as her memories shattered into shards of light, breaking apart one by one.

Outside, the real world was chaos.

Lulu panted heavily, slashing through wave after wave of the plant monsters. Her clones flickered like afterimages, attacking from every direction, but the creatures kept regenerating.

The vines twisted together, merging into one colossal beast. It towered above her, its mouth blooming like a flower lined with teeth.

"Oh, come on!" Lulu cried, stumbling back.

Her daggers slashed through its arms, but they grew back instantly.

David was still unconscious inside the cocoon of Fleur’s veins, protected but vulnerable. Lulu clenched her teeth and charged again, throwing her last dagger straight into the monster’s eye.

It shrieked, shaking the entire garden. Vines lashed out, wrapping around her leg, pulling her off her feet.

"Fleur!" she screamed as she was dragged toward its gaping mouth.

Inside the mindscape, Fleur’s eyes snapped open. Sarah’s consciousness was unraveling before her—memories, hate, regret, all devoured by her veins.

"I told you," she said softly, her voice echoing in the collapsing dark. "This is over, Mother."

She called her one last time as a way to respect her one last time. After all, this was the life she was given.

Her veins pulsed one final time. Sarah’s body convulsed, then went still. Her mind cracked like glass, scattering into nothing.

"AARRRRGGHHH!!!!"

The entire garden maze shook violently together with the screams of pain of Sarah. Vines withered to ash, flowers rotted in seconds, and the sky itself began to fall apart.

Lulu fell to the ground as the monstrous plant collapsed, its body disintegrating into dust.

When the tremor stopped, silence followed.

Sarah stood motionless, her eyes empty, an elegant husk with no soul left inside.

Fleur opened her own eyes, her body trembling from exhaustion.

"It’s done," she whispered. "She’s gone."

In front of them, the giant golden tree was also withering, turning into decay, and finally died down as behind it was a door.