Maria stared at her uncle in disbelief. "You, what? You are lying, if that is Elaine then she is mine, I am the heiress!" Her words only caused her Uncle to sigh in deeper despair. "Do you even notice what you are saying? I spent the last ten years studying beasts, to find a way to revert the perversion the old queen created. And as you can see, I have finally been successful." He laid a hand on Lily's head, who only clung more tightly onto him. "That is why I wanted you to come alone. I tried to stop Sin before and failed, but with you as her master I finally have a chance." His gaze was so piercing that Maria had to look away. "Tell Sin to stand down, I promise you that nothing will happen to you. I will explain to the other families that you were just a poor and naive girl who got lured in by her lies, I am sure that is close to the truth as is."
The grip around her crowbar grew weaker as she slumped over. "Sin saved my life when I got taken away, she was there for me when you weren't." She muttered, with her uncle only shaking her head. "It is very regrettable what happened. I didn't think that another family would find out, or act this drastically. I assure you, their actions do not speak for all of us. Please Maria, if not for me, then for your mother."
Those words caused the whirl of doubt in her mind to go silent. Maria gripped onto the crowbar more tightly, staring back at her uncle with an expression that defied explanation. "What does mom have to do with this." Her voice was weak, a mere whisper.
"Your mother was meant to be Sin's master, She hid here close to me to not be found, she helped me in my research and when we could not find a way to sever the bond." He stopped, pain written across his face. "Then she, we thought that she could somehow become Sin's last, final master." The words of his skirted around death, but Maria understood immediately. Slowly she stepped forward, her body trembling with a rage of a kind she had never felt before. "You killed mom."
Sin hated this hero. She hated how her attacks kept missing, how her fires only scorched his clothes but did not incinerate him entirely. How he dodged her chained stakes, and most of all how he kept smiling throughout it all. Throughout their battle they had barely moved from the original spot in front of the main door. Every attempt of Captain victory to break through were thwarted by Sin, but she could never land a hit decisive enough to end it. Both of them had cuts and bruises, their clothing tattered and torn, their spirits unbroken. "You are the worst maggot I ever had to face." Sin hissed as she popped her arm back into place for the fourth time. "How dare you still stand!"
Her answer was another punch aimed at her face, one she was too slow to properly dodge. The force of it dislocated her jaw, though the indignation was worse than the physical pain. It was in that moment as her head was turned right that she saw the slumped down figure of James, who was still struggling to get up. All of her hatred focused on him, slowly she raised her arm. "Your life is an insult to my skill." Flames erupted from her hand, and for the first time Captain Victory looked in shock. At the last second he leaped between Sin and James, bearing the full force of her attack. Even he was trembling, his proud outfit burning to ashes and falling off of his body.
"The hell?" Sin stared at him in disbelief, once more flames began to surge across her arm. "Are you stupid?" Once more she let her flames surge forth, and again he staid in the path of the flames, bearing the inferno to shield his student. The second attack put him down on a knee, but he did not relent. Sin popped her jaw back into place, her anger fading, replaced with unbelievable glee. "You're really willing to die huh?" With a flick of her fingers she summoned several chains with sharpened stakes at the end, launching them towards James. Her attack caused Captain Victory to rise up , spreading his arms to catch every last one of them. They pierced his body but could not move further. With a wide grin Sin began to pull, but with all her might she could not move him away. "Is that insect worth your life? Incredible, you have all this strength, and yet you are so weak." The satisfaction was dripping from Sin's every word.
"The others, are coming soon." His voice was still full of determination, though it took his all to not have his voice tremble. "I just need to hold you back, for them to arrive." His words were answered with a maddened, shrill laughter. The last shreds of humanity fell off of Sin like old scales, her eyes were forced wide open, her fingers tingling with anticipation. "Your little friend there called himself unbreakable, and I took him out with one clean hit." She cracked her knuckles with a grin deranged enough to give the devil chills. "Let's see how many you need."
With a single step she closed the distance, tensing every muscle in her arm, and struck out. Her punch, aimed at the chest shattered the ribs upon contact. But he did not give in, he kept standing. Then she swung around, bringing her leg up and kicked into his side, shattering bone and organs alike, but he did not give in. Finally she clenched her hands together, rose them up and slammed them down upon his head, sending him down onto the ground with a bone-chilling crack. One last twitch ran through his limbs, then he would move no more.
Sin laughter drowned out James' screams, who struggled and writhed, trying to get up on his feet. "Captain, please get up, please, you can't lose, captain, captain!" Ever more despair filled his voice, tears streaming down his eyes. Sin walked over his corpse, every step causing another disgusting cracking sound. Her flames surged around her arm, for one final attack. "This is the fate of common filth that pretends to be nobility." She stretched out her hand, her sickening grin burning itself into James' mind. "With all of his strength, he was too weak to stomach the death of a single insect. He died because of you, and now you will die regardless." Sin stretched out her arm, her eyes glimmering with joy when her entire body froze. No muscle, no fibre could move, did not dare to consider obeying her. For a moment Sin was overcome with fear, for it had been too long, she had almost forgotten the feeling. The feeling of being under authority.
The strength of her body returned to her, as she was not the target. Without giving James a second look she darted into the manor, across the mangled corpses of the staff and dryads. Her master had awakened, and she needed her.
"You killed mom." Both her uncle and Lily stepped back, with the girl creating a web of threads around them, forming a protective cocoon. "Maria, calm down, that is not how it happened." A hint of worry spread through his voice. "I assure you that-" Maria struck out with her crowbar, but the net of threads stopped her. "Liar! You killed her, you told her lies, you manipulated her, you made up things until she just believed you, you took her from me, you're the enemy, it is your fault, your fault!" She struck out again, and again, and with every hit the web grew weaker as Lily began to shake and tremble.
"Elaine, stop it!" Maria cried out, though she could not see her, nor her uncle. All she could see was her mothers face, all she could feel was the void she had been carrying with her all this time. And the anger, the hatred she was feeling to the one she knew had caused all of it. She felt whole again, in power. Lily's body tensed up, and the web of strings fell to the ground as the girl just stood there, like a marionette who's strings were cut. Her uncle looked at her in terror. "How, can you use it, there's no way that nobody could've." His words were silenced as Maria's crowbar struck the side of his head.
Maria's world was made of red, she could not see her uncle's body as she beat the life out of him. Her ears were resounding with white noise and static, she could not hear his begging, his pleas, Lily's sobbing or the sound of breaking ribs. Her mind was a singular line, extending into infinity, repeating only a single phrase. "You killed mom." Over and over she struck down, even as her arms grew weak, as the pain continued to grow.
She could only stop when she was embraced and pulled back. "It is alright, my master." Sin's voice whispered into her ear, finally bringing her a rope, a lifeline out of despair. "He is already dead." Maria dropped her weapon, when her sight returned it was clouded by tears, her legs could no longer carry her. "He did it. He lied to my mom, he put things in her head, he did it, he killed her." Sin looked at her master with a puzzled look, though she relaxed a moment later. "Yes, he did, my master. He was a wicked and disgusting enemy, and you destroyed him all on your own. You have all the right to be proud, my master." She slowly let Maria down, who stared at the ground, her powers slowly fading back beyond the lock. With her authority fading, Lily began to back away from them in horror. "How could you do that, you, you killed him you-" Her high pitched voice was silenced by Sin, who closed the distance between them and grabbed her by a wrist. "Be quiet Elaine, this type of behaviour doesn't suit you. What on earth did they do to you anyways?"
Lily was thrashing and trying to wiggle herself out of Sin's grasp. "I don't know an Elaine, I am Lily, I am Lily, let me go you evil woman!" All her attempts were not enough to get Sin off of her. She laid a hand on her head, gripping it closely. "Just what on earth." Her eyes widened, in both shock and disgust. "How did they find out." She pushed Lily up against the wall and slit multiple cuts across her own fingers. As she started to bleed she forced the girls mouth open and pushed her fingers inside. For a few moments she thrashed even harder, gagging and looking up at her in horror. But as her blood began to run her tongue and down her throat she became earilly calm. She leaned into her Sin, running her tongue across her fingers, lapping up the blood. The colour began to drain from her body during this, her lively skin tone growing pale into a complete absence of colour, her veins turning from a dark blue to a pitch black, becoming more and more pronounced as her skin became thinner and thinner. Her hair began to lose it's golden shine as well, turning ashen grey along with her eyes. When the last little speck of the old Lily had faded away she looked up at Sin, who stepped away from her.
"Thank you, dear eldest sister." Even the girls voice had turned, losing much of the higher pitch. She got back up onto her feet, dusting off her clothes. "I can't believe the old geezer got me like that, and to think he'd put me in clothes like this." 'Lily' shook her head in disgust, and pinned her eyes upon Maria, a bright smile building across her lips. She ran over to her and pinched her skirt, lifting it slightly to courtsy, lowering her head. "My master, my dear master. Please forgive me for our first meeting to go like this, for you to see me in such unsightly an attire. I am Elaine, the third beast. From this day on I shall be your sword and your shield, none shall bring you harm, my beloved master." Maria had taken a little while to get onto her feet, now taken aback by the complete shift in personality. "I am uhm, glad to meet you." A light blush was forming across her face at the beast's advances, helplessly she looked over to Sin. Her first servant answered with a chuckle and swiped Elaine off of her feet, picking her up with a pat on the head. "Elaine has always taken her duty very seriously, my master. Do not be worried, you will get accustomed to her soon enough."
"How dare you, elder sister." Elaine was pouting, though she held onto Sin nonetheless. "I dare because you should give our master some time before you throw yourself at her. Our master is still young, you need to show more restraint." Maria could only look at the two, at a complete loss. Their touching reunion was interrupted by the faint sound of sirens in the distance. Maria and sin looked at each other, and bounded for the door.
As they ran out the door Maria could catch a single glimpse of James, and he of Maria. Time seemed to stand still as they stared at each other, only beginning to move again when James found the strength to speak, to ask a single question. "Why?"
He would not be given an answer, the two ran towards the van, with Sin pushing Elaine over onto Maria's lap as she revved up the engine. The pale lady stared at her with very obvious glee and leaned into her for support, more than happy at the circumstance.
They had slipped through just in time, fading from sight as police, guided by more heroes arrived at the scene, one that would shake the very foundation of their hopes, when they saw the devastation, and the broken corpse of Captain Victory, the icon that most, no, all of them, had looked up to.
