“Schwarz! I’m so glad to see you again.” While I was casually sitting on the stairs of the throne, Schwarz walked inside, or rather was carried inside by two undead lifting him up from under his armpits. His feet were dragged across the floor emotionlessly, at least until his gaze fell onto the sword on my hip.

“Did you know he was kind of okay until he met you again?” Aska asked while the two undead threw Schwarz onto the ground and quickly turned around to make their way out of the room yet again.

“Cool. But do you know what’s better? Some pigs’ orgasms for around thirty minutes.” If he was uttering random facts, so could I.

“I see you aren’t very interested in his mental health.” Was that a hint of panic in his voice? Surely not … although I could see why.

“That’s a lie. I’m very invested in his health, so much so that I’m doing this for him.” Winking towards Schwarz, I reached towards my hip and flung the sword in his general direction. It slithered across the ground, transforming into a black snake in the process. Soon, it settled down right in front of Schwarz who kept his eyes glued onto it.

“Come on, this is your treasure. Take it.” Thankfully, he was already unbound at this stage so he could reach out to the snake easily. For a second or so, it looked like everything was fine until I let it bite into his hand.

Screaming a bit too loudly for my preferences, he waved his hand around, tried to get rid of the snake with all its might, but failed miserably.

Laughing madly, I kicked his chin and pushed him backwards until he laid on his back. Effortlessly, I retrieved my beloved snake again and straddled his belly.

“I’m sorry my dear, but you kind of have to die for me here. It’s nothing personal though.” I smiled brightly, not even bothering with the fact that I technically didn’t have to do that. But oh well, I’d rather kill my friends myself.

“Please …” Just like a fish ready to be eaten, I let the snake dangle over his mouth while forcing it open with my other hand. His eyes were still glued the shrinking snake as I let go of it and gave him the reunion he always wished for. Just like a worm, my weapon wiggled its way into his open mouth any beyond while I stood up from him slowly.

“You know you don’t have to murder him yourself?” Irminsul looked out of the window, purposefully ignoring the choking sounds Schwarz made.

“I wouldn’t want to skip out on that enjoyment, do I?” There was a big part within me which always enjoyed death, no matter who was dying in front of me. Even worse, a small part was even looking forwards to seeing the people I knew suffer, although it was a relatively minuscule part of me.

Walking back towards the throne, I quickly sat down on the cold stairs once more and watched Schwarz convulse and rip open his shirt as the snake moved further and further down until it settled in his stomach.

“Hey, Aska, can you do this with me as well after you have failed? I’m kind of curious how that feels to be honest.” I touched my belly as the snake got painfully visible in his stomach, pressing against Schwarz skin from the inside.

“I like your newfound craziness.” Honestly, that was only because I always got a little crazy when my soul was close to the breaking point. But sadly for him, I wasn’t anywhere close to that. My mind was racing, but otherwise calm. This time, nobody was lost for real, not even when the snake burst out of Schwarz’s stomach in a fountain of blood, only to go right back into his belly and bite into his dying flesh.

Strangely fascinated by the scene, I went towards it again, my eyes glued on the quiet massacre until I grabbed into Schwarz belly and retrieved my weapon. I swing it down at his neck, hitting his flesh right before the snake transformed into a proper sword again.

His bones didn’t pose much of a resistance to the incredibly sharp edge and thus, another handful of blood settled on the ground. A bit bummed out that it was this easy, I put my sword back into its seethe, grabbed his hair and presented Schwarz head to Aska.

“They are my friends, yes. But do I look overly attached to them? No, not really. Aska, you were always a step ahead of me, but since I understood what you wanted to do … well, you were honestly lacking. Admittedly, that Irminsul is somewhat on your side was surprising, but that wasn’t your doing, was it?” It all laid bare in front of my eyes … all his schemes, all his work … and what was to come was too predictable.

“What do you want to imply?” He looked at me rather sternly, still gauging the waters with me.

“I’m not a bad copy of you. I’m as good as you and know exactly how this will end. So why don’t we skip murdering the other three and come to the point?” As soon as I finished my question, I gazed towards the opening door through which two of the heroes were bought inside. Ellie and Louis were struggling against the undead orks, but had no chance at all against them as they were already chained.

In the end, they were bought onto their knees right next to me while I still awaited Aska’s answer.

“Lucinda, if there is any bit of the girl I liked left in you, please do something now!” Ellie begged and reached out to grab the hem of my black dress, all while I ignored her completely.

“Please! You saved my life once already … so please.” Louis looked at me with puppy eyes, just like he did back then as I saved him from his attempted suicide.

“I’m sorry.” The girl they knew wasn’t there anymore. It was a façade … never meant to last for more than necessary. “But there is nothing I could do. Irminsul could … but she isn’t going to.” And with that, I witnessed how their skin turned red within seconds, their hair fell off quickly and they ghasped for air violently. Their whole body was turning into some kind of fluid rather quickly, first was their skin, then their muscles and nerves.

They didn’t have to suffer long though as Aska probably had realised these two wouldn’t push me over the edge either and thus rather deposed of them quickly like a small child opening in presents.

“I really liked your intelligence, Ellie. Sometimes I thought you were the only sane one of us all … and Louis … I don’t know. You were pretty average.” All that was left of them were their eyeballs, swimming in the soup that had been their bodies all around me. Even their bones had been dissolved into this disgusting liquid sticking to my shoes. “But one thing is for sure. Even in your death you make it troublesome for me.”

I would never get these shoes clean again. Never.

“Was that really necessary?” I asked astonished and stepped out of the puddle of liquid while giggling a little, just to increase the craziness factor a little further.

“You could be faking everything.” Aska still wasn’t entirely sure about my emotions at this point. But that sadly true in both direction. He could fake every emotion as well, so much so that he actually managed to fake love for me the whole time … at least I presumed he did so.

“Right … so anyways, you know what I want and I know the same about you. Why don’t we strike a deal?” I proposed while the door opened once more with Sofie and Hannah walking inside curiously. None of these undead could touch Hannah, so they had to convince her to go here on her own, which wasn’t exactly hard to be honest. And yet, she was in danger, something I wanted to avoid.

“So you do want to spare Hannah and Sofie. Do you possibly fear something?” Aska asked, probably sure about his victory at this point already.

“No … I only want to make sure the only person I really care about is safe. I want you to promise that Luna will be safe from you, that Irminsul will raise her while you leave her alone.”  We both knew she was the only one really mattering to me. I was kind of sorry for Hannah and Sofie, but Luna was my everything, just like Lucy was Aska’s everything.

“… Lucy was perfect. In every regard. She was so innocent, so bright, so nice to everyone. I liked that about her … but disliked that she never understood my reasoning. I loved that she wasn’t like me, but that also stood in our way. Luna will be a child of me and you, coupled with a hint of Lucy’s power. Why would I ever want to give up on such a child?” I was at a loss of words. I was just … stunned. But I had a helping person who couldn’t say it better.

‘He needs to be getten rid of.’ For him, it wouldn’t really matter if Lucy and I were to become one. He would still be obsessed with us, maybe even more so than if it were just Lucy in this body.

‘The more he talks the less likely is Irminsul to put up with him.’ At least that was working out all fine and dandy. It was obvious these two would antagonise each other once I was gone, but that was easily changeable. Irminsul just had to know that her daughter was already awake.

“So how are you going to kill them? Hm?”

Once she had seen the remains of her friends, Sofie immediately attempted to turn around and dash towards the door, but a little bit of Hannah’s electricity put an hold to that as well.

“Do you need me to die as well, Lucinda?”

“Yup. He kind of needs to understand that my soul isn’t going to break that easily again.”

“I see.” She didn’t hesitate a single second. While I looked at her astonished, Hannah unseated her sword and stabbed into Sofie’s back.

Irminsul winced and looked away from the scene, but Aska’s and my eyes were basically glued to it.

Sofie struggled quite a bit, flowers grew out of the cracks in the concrete, but she couldn’t flee from the sword relentlessly stabbed into her back at all. In disbelief, she fell over while looking at me, the sword finally slipping out of her back and her body as lifeless as it could get.

“And now it’s just me, right?” Hannah asked while hiding her excitement of having murdered Sofie just then.

“So does it seem.” Aska wasn’t willing to part from his strategy, so it did seem Hannah would die regardless of what I did.

“Do you really want me to kill myself?” Hannah asked a bit too unbothered. She knew I had my reasons but she didn’t know them.

“Yes.” And yet, Hannah wasted no time, turned the sword around and pointed its tip at her heart. Without any remorse whatsoever, she rammed the sword into her own body right away. Her muscles tensed up, her face contorted in pain, but she never took her eyes off me. Smiling gently, I looked back the whole time, hopefully conveying that she did well till the very end. Without her, I wouldn’t have been at the point I was, that was for sure. She was important to me, and yet my heart was incredibly cold as Hannah collapsed onto the floor and bled out quickly.

I stared whistling to signal my boredom while Aska just stared at me. He had hoped for more, that was for sure … but I wouldn’t give him that and I also didn’t need to. There weren’t any painful feelings involved in their deaths because of a single fact Aska didn’t know yet.

Lucy was with me and with her, I could make right what’s wrong.