Mommy Villainess - 258 Pieces of a Broken Picture

Tilly was hugging her legs tight while her face nuzzled her knees when she heard the voice that was a little similar to hers. When she looked up, she was surprised to see a person who kind of resembled her. The only difference was the other woman’s hair was jet-black…

… and the other “her” had flaming black wings.

“I don’t want to hear that from someone who looks like me,” Tilly said in a cracked voice. Ever since she found herself in that hot desert with black sand, all she did was sit under a dead tree with dry leaves. The weather was always humid and yet, she didn’t dare to take off the black coat that came with the dress that she wore when she “woke up” in that place. She knew she was already gone because she never felt hunger or sleepiness. “If you pity me, you should also pity yourself.”

“Don’t be like that. It took me so long before I finally found you. Abyss isn’t a small place, you know?” the strange woman with black wings said, then she sat on the boulder in front of her. “My name is Soleil Rosenberg.”

She blinked in surprise. “Captain Denver said that I was Soleil Rosenberg in my past life.”

“I am you, you are me,” Soleil said between giggles. “It just so happened that we lived in different times. Do you want to hear my story?”

“No,” she said coldly, her purple eyes blazing with anger. “I want to return to my old life and have my revenge against the people who ruined my family.”

“Even if you get reborn in the same lifetime that you came from, you still won’t retrieve the memories of your life as Soleil Rosenberg since it was your punishment,” her other self said. “Moreover, even if you remember your previous life as Lady Prescott, you will still forget every single thing that you learned from your life as me. To be precise, all of your memories where you learned that you’re the Supreme will be erased. I believe that if that happens, the part of your memory where you found out who the enemies were will also be sealed.”

“That’s unfair,” she complained. “Why am I being punished anyway?”

“I can’t tell you that,” her other self said. “Moreover, I think it will be best for you not to remember your life as Soleil Rosenberg yet. It wasn’t just the punishment that sealed your memories, Lady Prescott. The Red Phoenix also locked them up.”

Her brows furrowed in confusion. “I don’t understand…”

“And it’s better if you don’t,” her other self said, then she changed the topic right away. “Don’t you think it will be useless if you get reincarnated right away?”

She was about to complain when she realized what her other self implied. And yes, the woman succeeded to take her mind off their previous topic. What a cunning lady Soleil Rosenberg was. “Then, what should I do if I don’t get reincarnated “right away?””

“The flow of time here is different than the one in the living world,” the other woman said. “Why don’t you try to be reborn into another world?”

“What?”

“Soleil Rosenberg is naïve and too kind,” the other woman said as if she wasn’t talking about her own self. “While Lady Prescott is a proud but oblivious noblewoman. We need to change, and we can’t achieve that if we stay in the same world again and again.”

“Is there another world aside from this world?”

“Yes, of course,” she said in a joyous voice. She even opened her arms wide. “Our world is just one of the many parallel universes out there, Lady Prescott. But I guess it will be hard for you to comprehend it since your world view is limited.”

“You talk as if you’ve been to the “parallel universes” that you’re talking about.”

“I have been there,” she said with a smile. “Well, in my dreams, at least. I’ve seen other worlds much different than what we have here.”

“Do you think that a detour will benefit me before I return to my real destination?”

“It’s really up to you,” her other self said with a shrug. “But if you ask me, I believe that it’s necessary for your growth. There’s a drawback though.”

She rolled her eyes when she heard that. “Is there more disadvantage aside from the fact that I will lose all my memories related to the fact that I was Soleil Rosenberg in the past?”

The other woman nodded and smiled sadly at her. “You’ll be alone. Only your soul can get reincarnated on your own will because you’re the Black Phoenix. That means Kiho and Winter can’t follow you.”

To be honest, she wanted a life where she could make it up to her husband and son.

But she knew it would be impossible if she got reincarnated as the same proud but naïve noblewoman. Her other self was right: she had to change and learn other useful things in the world that she was raving about.

“What should I do?” she asked determinedly. “What do I have to do to be reincarnated to the world you’re talking about? Can I even do that even if I’m already dead.”

“After you died, they tried to take your heart,” her other self said. “But your will burned your whole body and exhausted all the flame in you until the heart of the Red Phoenix turned into a cold stone. Nia Moonchester, that dumb wench, thought you were already useless. Thank god Miss Luna was smart enough to steal your body. Thanks to her, the heart safely came back into life. Isn’t the heart of the Red Phoenix amazing?”

“I could care less about that,” she said bluntly. “My flame nor the heart of the Red Phoenix neither helped me in this lifetime. Both were useless.”

“Because that was your punishment,” the other woman said. “The Red Phoenix will be sad if he heard you say that.”

“I don’t care. From now on, I will live for myself and stand on my own feet. I will never put my life on someone else’s hands again,” she said, then she stood up when a warm feeling started to envelop her chest. “Ah, I think I already know how to use my ability to reincarnate.”

“Really?” her other self, Soleil Rosenberg, asked in disbelief. “What do you think is the way for you to activate your ability to reincarnate?”

“Wrath,” Tilly said in a cold voice, her “body” temperature increasing as her anger rose up in her chest. “I have the strong will to live again and burn the Moonchesters to death.”

***

“MY LORD, the Young Master…”

“I know, Sentinel,” Wixx said without turning to his spirit guardian. He just sat on the floor while leaning against the stupid statue of his other form, the Red Phoenix. “I also felt it.” By that, he meant the explosion of the Black Flame. “Winter used the Black Flame and to make it powerful, he used his life force to fuel it.”

“Just like how you taught the Young Master, my lord.”

He glared at Sentinel (who sat beside him) but he couldn’t refute his remark.

It was true that he was the one who taught Winter how to use the Black Flame in a way that would kill Aku Moonchester.

“I taught Winter how to use his life force as a fuel for the Black Flame as a last resort,” he admitted remorsefully. “I honestly believed that my heart and his awakened Red Flame would be enough for Winter to drive away the Moon God from the Black Serpent’s body.”

“If the young master was forced to use the Black Flame, that only means their plan failed,” Sentinel said in his usual monotonous voice. “But in the end, the young master’s death served its purpose because he was able to bring Aku and Nia Moonchester with him.”

That was true.

After they felt the explosion of the Black Flame, they felt Winter’s life force vanish. It was followed by the disappearance of Aku and Nia Moonchester’s presence as well.

“Now that the emperor and his “heir” are dead, the empire will soon be thrown in chaos,” his spirit guardian said. “The Moon God will take advantage of this, won’t he?”

“Yes, he will definitely take over the empire now that the Moonchesters were gone,” he agreed while nodding his head. “It’s up to the Black Serpent now to stop his father.”

“Do you still believe that the Black Serpent is alive after the Moon God took over his body?”

“The Moon God can’t easily kill the Black Serpent’s soul,” he explained. “I hope he saw his own son explode in front of him even though he was supposed to be asleep.”

“My lord, that’s too cruel to say even if you hate the Black Serpent.”

“No, the Black Serpent has to wake up now,” he said firmly. “If the death of his son doesn’t affect him, then he’ll just prove to me once again that he’s really trash.” His jaw clenched when he remembered what he had to do to his poor little sister in that lifetime. “I had to burn Soleil’s body because he failed to protect my foolish little sister, you know?”

He still remembered the day Luna brought Soleil’s cold body to that secret prayer room.

His sister burned his heart when she died so it became a cold stone that Nia Moonchester thought it was already useless. How come that wench didn’t know that he was the Red Phoenix? Therefore, his heart would “heal” and become “alive” again even if his sister was already gone.

But he didn’t want the enemies to realize their mistake. And so, he burned Soleil’s body to ashes and asked Luna and her companion to put it in an urn. The only thing they could do back then was to wait for his heart to “revive.”

“My lord, please stop crying,” Sentinel said, then he put a hand on his shoulder. “You just did what you had to do to protect the Supreme.”

“Shut up. I’m not crying,” Wixx said even though his voice cracked. Even though he was a Beast God, he still wasn’t able to save his little sister and nephew. Maybe hiding his physical body was a wrong choice. “If I knew this would happen, I wouldn’t have made a deal with the stupid Sky God.”

***

“DON’T FIGHT, Kiho,” his father told him. “The Moonchesters are gone. I’m the only one who can rule this empire so you better keep on sleeping, son. Just a little bit more and Yumi would completely fix my original body…”

“Shut. Up,” Kiho said, each word was emphasized by the ungodly amount of rage in his chest. Even though he was locked up in the “cave” that was buried deep in his consciousness, he still could see his father standing in the middle of the ground where the mansion was supposed to be. But the Black Flame burned everything in the estate to ashes. Not even the bones of the people who were killed remained. But of course, the stench of blood and burnt flesh lingered in the cold air. “My son blew up in front of me, you bastard!”

Even though his father had taken control of his body, he was still conscious inside.

But most of the time, he couldn’t do anything to take back what was his. And whenever he would succeed, his mother would bite his soul and put him into slumber again.

Yet, a while ago, when Winter released the Black Flame inside him that he didn’t know he possessed, he was completely awakened. It was too late though. His son’s body blew up as soon as he released the Black Flame that instantly killed everyone in the estate.

Only “he” survived because his father was able to protect his body with his ice.

“Why are you so adamant on living, son?” Kyro, who was now having difficulty in breathing, asked in clenched teeth. “Your wife and son are already gone. Even your enemies are dead! You have no reason to be alive, do you?”

“You and mother are still alive,” he snarled at his father. “The two of you, along with the spirit guardian who betrayed Soleil… I’ll kill you all before I follow my wife and son to the afterlife!”

“Stop fighting back, Kiho!” Kyro yelled while using his soul to make him sleep. “I won’t give this body back to you!”

“Then, I’ll turn this body into something that you could no longer use,” Kiho said coldly, then he turned his anger to ice. Yes, he began to freeze his physical body. If he turned into an ice sculpture, then his father would have no choice but to leave it. Of course, it wasn’t easy to that. He spent all his time gathering all the Mana in his body without his father noticing. It just pained him that he only succeeded when his wife and son were already gone. “Father, see you in hell.”

***

“IT’S over,” the Sun God, now reduced to a ball of golden flame locked up in the darkest part of the Abyss, whispered to himself when he felt Kalel Nystrom’s life force disappear. After the Black Serpent managed to kick his father out of his body, he managed to kill a few people before his physical body got broken. After he froze it, it never went back to normal. “Unfortunately, the Moon God and Yumi are still alive.”

It was okay though, they already expected the two to remain the longest.

Moreover, the Moon God and the White Snake didn’t need to die in this lifetime. After all, he would use his “cards” to reset everything.

Of course, it wouldn’t be easy to do that. But Kalel Nystrom, right before he followed Soleil Rosenberg who was reborn as Lady Matilda ‘Tilly’ Prescott, had already laid the plan that he made with him and the Sky God. If it wasn’t for the Black Serpent, the Supreme wouldn’t even have the chance to lift the curse that the Spirit of the Great Fire Tree had bestowed upon her.

That Spirit really let his Guardian poison his roots.

“Rise, Black Phoenix,” the Sun God said. “It’s time to gobble up everything once again.”