Chapter 464: Burn, Burn, Burn

Third-person POV

Jella was burning alive, and Electra watched it happen with a look of pure satisfaction on her face, even enjoying the loud screaming from Jella as she burned. There was no visible fire, no flames dancing around her body, but somehow that only made the entire thing more horrifying. The fire was inside her, buried under her skin and flesh, crawling through her veins and organs like a living creature feeding on her from the inside out.

Jella dropped to her knees in the grass, both hands clawing desperately at her own throat and chest as if she could somehow rip the burning out of herself. Her screams echoed through the palace grounds so loudly that even the guards far away looked disturbed, but none of them dared to interfere.

"Please!" Jella screamed hoarsely, tears pouring uncontrollably down her face. "Please make it stop!"

Her voice sounded broken already, strained from screaming so hard, but Electra did not look moved in the slightest. If anything, the begging only made the smile on her face grow wider. She stood there calmly with her arms folded, watching Jella roll across the grass while her body trembled violently from pain. Every few seconds, Jella would let out another ear-piercing scream that sounded less and less human each time.

The burning inside her only grew worse.

Dark veins slowly started appearing beneath her skin, spreading across her arms and neck like rot. Jella clawed at herself hard enough to leave bloody scratches, but it changed nothing. The fire inside her continued to spread mercilessly, cooking her alive beneath her flesh while leaving her conscious enough to feel every second of it.

Penelope had moved several feet away at this point, unable to stand too close to the horrifying scene. One hand remained tightly pressed over her nose as the disgusting smell of burning flesh slowly filled the air around them, and even without visible flames, the scent alone was enough to make her stomach twist. She looked pale now, clearly regretting following Electra here in the first place.

"Electra," Penelope said uneasily, her voice quieter than usual, "can't you just snap her neck or something? Wouldn't that be easier than… this?"

Electra slowly turned her head toward her, looking genuinely amused by the suggestion. "Why," she asked calmly, "would I give her such a painless death?"

Penelope had no response to that. She simply swallowed hard and looked away again toward Jella, who was now screaming so loudly her voice was beginning to crack apart completely. The queen's skin had started changing visibly now. Dark patches spread slowly across her arms and face while parts of her flesh looked like they were melting under the heat. Her lips trembled violently as she cried and begged, her body jerking uncontrollably against the ground.

"Please!" Jella sobbed. "Electra, please!"

Electra did not blink or move. She only watched.

The louder Jella screamed, the more Electra intensified the burning under her skin. It became obvious almost immediately whenever she did it because Jella's body would arch violently before another horrifying scream tore from her throat. Her fingernails dug into the dirt beneath her while tears and saliva mixed together down her face.

"AHHHHHHH!"

The scream sounded raw enough to tear her throat apart.

Her face was beginning to darken badly now, the skin around her cheeks and jaw slowly peeling and splitting apart from the unbearable heat inside her body. She no longer even looked fully human. Her eyes were bloodshot from screaming and crying, and every breath she took sounded strained and painful.

Still, Electra looked pleased.

The expression on her face was almost disturbingly calm as she watched Jella suffer. There was no hesitation in her eyes, no guilt, no pity. It was as though she genuinely believed this woman deserved every second of agony she was feeling.

Jella suddenly rolled onto her side and coughed violently before screaming again. This time, however, her begging stopped, and hatred replaced it instead.

"I curse you!" she shrieked through broken cries. "Do you hear me, you monster?! I curse you!"

Electra let out a dark laugh at that. Even now, while burning alive, Jella still had the audacity to threaten her.

"You're going to suffer for this!" Jella screamed hysterically while her body shook violently. "You'll never know peace! Never!"

Her voice cracked badly halfway through the sentence because her throat itself was beginning to burn now. Every word sounded wetter and more broken than before.

"I'll hunt you even in death!" she screamed again. "I'll haunt you for the rest of your miserable life!"

Electra laughed harder this time, the sound almost manic in the quiet palace grounds. Penelope visibly shivered hearing it. There was something deeply unsettling about the look on Electra's face right now. She looked way too thrilled by the suffering in front of her.

"You really are annoying," Electra muttered finally.

Then she snapped her fingers, and the second she did, visible flames erupted across Jella's body.

The scream that tore out of Jella's mouth afterward was so loud and horrific that Penelope physically flinched. Bright fire swallowed Jella instantly, climbing across her dress, her hair, and her skin until her entire body was engulfed in flames.

"AHHHHHHHH!"

Jella stumbled wildly to her feet while screaming at the top of her lungs. She slapped desperately at the flames consuming her body, but it was useless. The fire spread too quickly, too violently. Her hair burned first, curling and blackening before disappearing entirely beneath the flames.

The smell became unbearable.

Burned flesh, burned hair, and smoke.

Penelope gagged softly and turned her face away for a second, but even then she could still hear the screaming. Jella ran blindly across the grass while burning alive, her arms flailing desperately as if she could somehow outrun the fire eating through her body.

Electra watched the entire thing with a pleased smile on her face.

There was something unhinged about the satisfaction in her expression now. The fire reflected brightly in her eyes while she calmly observed Jella trying desperately to survive something impossible.

Jella's screams slowly became weaker.

At first they were loud enough to shake the air around them, but little by little they turned into broken cries and choking sounds instead. Her body staggered violently before finally collapsing hard on the grass.

Still, the fire continued burning her. Her body twitched weakly a few more times while the flames consumed what remained of her. Then finally, the screaming stopped altogether, silence followed, and the only sound left was the crackling of fire.

Electra stared quietly at the burning body for several long moments before finally lifting her hand slightly and ceasing the flames completely. The fire vanished instantly, leaving only smoke rising from the charred corpse on the ground.

Jella's body was burned beyond recognition now. Her face no longer even looked human. Her skin had blackened completely and cracked apart from the heat until she resembled nothing more than a ruined corpse lying in the grass, and the smell of death hung heavily in the air around them.

Penelope remained disturbingly quiet now, staring at the body while trying to process everything she had just witnessed.

Electra slowly stepped closer to the corpse. For a while, she simply stood there staring down at what remained of Jella without saying a word. The pleased smile from earlier slowly faded from her face, replaced by something quieter, something harder to understand.

Then suddenly Penelope noticed something unexpected. Her brows furrowed slightly as she stared at Electra more carefully.

"Why are you crying?" she asked softly.

Electra froze slightly, and confusion crossed her face almost immediately. Slowly, she lifted her fingers toward her cheek, and the moment her fingertips touched the wetness there, she paused.

Tears.

Actual tears.

For several long seconds, Electra simply stared down at the tears on her fingers like she could not understand them herself. Then finally, she looked back up again and shrugged casually despite the wetness still running down her face.

"Perhaps," she said calmly, "it's tears of joy."