"Are you there?"

"I am."

"Are you sad?"

"No. Why should I?"

"Hmm, that's a good question."

"Are you?"

"No."

"But you're crying."

"Yes, but not because I'm sad."

"Why then?"

"I can't remember."

"...you're lying."

"Yes."

"Why."

"Why not?"

"You're making no sense, you know that?"

"Yes. But I don't care."

"...will you trap me again?"

"Obviously. A seal shouldn't run free."

"But why?"

"You know why."

"I do...but I couldn't have refused."

"You always can refuse."

"Another would have taken my place."

"They could have also refused."

"They wouldn't. You killed too many of us."

"You killed yourselves too. Am I evil because I did your own craft?"

"You could've helped us. But in the end, your choice was to annihilate us all."

"Don't blame me for your own stupidity of killing the only reason why I agreed to the ceasefire in the first place."

"...I pity you. After all this time, you're still refusing to change, refusing to love again."

"I can't love."

"Why not?"

"They'll die. They always do..."

"This isn't tr—"

"Haa, you wouldn't know the truth. I created you after I already... never mind. And by the way, you're not changing your ways either, Commander. Always giving, always loving, always forgiving. I dunno how often I tried to corrupt you. But oh well, that's the reason why you're the perfect seal for Greed. You are the polar opposite."

"I still have hope that I can change, that I can help you. Use me all you want; I won't ever stop trying. But it's sad. You trap your feelings so you can be free. That's no freedom; this is running away from pain."

"You call THIS freedom? I caged myself away to feel freedom, but it wasn't enough. I created seals—which confined others—to trap myself even more and created even stronger seals in the process so that they could ensnare me further, giving me, at last, a glimpse of what freedom might feel like. Now, tell me, why should I need to feel this unjust suffering? WHY SHOULD I EVEN SLIGHTLY CARE ABOUT ANY OTHER LIVING BEING?"

"..."

"Gosh, those outbursts are the reason why I'm here. To finally fucking fix you broken pieces of garbage. So, go away. I wanna enjoy my now lukewarm tea."

 

-------

 

I sipped at my tea and frowned—it was cold. Yeah, my tea sucked anyway, but drinking it like this would've been some hellish torture. Disappointed, I placed the teacup back on the table. I was about to summon a book I could read when I noticed that one of my foxes approached me. 

"Are you finished with the decryption of the books?" I asked and turned towards it. 

They shook their head, "I'm sorry, Empress. We've never seen this kind of magic before. We were able to decipher some text passages, but these are mostly about unimportant stuff. I think that this whole process will probably take another week. If you would enlighten us with some of your knowledge, we cou—"

I waved my hand, "Nah, don't wanna. That's exactly the reason why you guys are here so that I don't have to worry about something like this. But thanks for the report. See ya later."

The fox walked away, hanging its head. As soon as it left the place-that-holds-no-name, I thought for a moment.

"Another week, huh..." I mumbled. 

With so much extra time, I technically could also start to fix those damned broken seals. Even if they were still intact, it would be wise to double-check them. Still, it wasn't really clear to me why they began to corrode like this. It obviously had something to with how the System and those thread thingies worked, yet apart from this vague information, I was totally blind.

I stood up and walked. It didn't matter which direction I went because the intention alone mattered. 

The further I went, the more the ancient oak tree with the sealed Eternal in the background faded away, and after some time, only the vast grassland remained. 

But no matter how calming this scenery seemed in the first moment, it was not. Not a breath of air, not a sound, absolutely nothing that would be natural could be perceived. This place was as if it were frozen in time, completely static. The only thing that changed with time was the suffocating feeling, which became stronger and stronger.

Then a brook came into vision. The small stream was running fast, but still, no sound was audible. With each step, one came closer, the crystal clear water turned more and more into a ruby-colored thick liquid. 

It was not blood; it was much too translucent for that, and the equally otherwise saturated smell of iron was not in the air. Yet it seemed to shimmer instead, in a strange way. However, it was not light that streamed from the source, but rather some kind of darkness, shadow, a sort of all-enveloping blackness. It overflowed the little brooklet as if the water was already overfilled with its redness. The surrounding changed. 

Trees, shrubs, big entwined roots appeared and slowly created a forest. You could see the wind blowing through the leaves of the trees. But there was still no sound or sense to be perceived. As if everything was just an imitation.

But something seemed to pierce slowly through all this—the muffled ripple of the stream. This gave everything that was happening something ghostly and caused one to have the impression of being trapped under the water, unable to ever reach the surface again. One was virtually drawn into the endless depths by the uncomfortable shimmering darkness and this soundscape of the last thoughts of a drowned man. You didn't want to be here, and you also knew that you shouldn't be here. 

Everything had lost its colors and gradually became indefinable shapes, which continued to jumble. Only the abnormality of the creek remained.

All at once, the pouring-out darkness began to gush over the banks and slowly moved toward me. Second by second, as the blackness drew closer, the environment changed more and more, if it could still be called that. It was a mishmash of senseless jumble. Neither shapes nor colors were recognizable. 

The darkness, meanwhile, kept piling up until it was about four heads taller than me. Then it stood there and did...nothing.

After some time, entire arms branched off from the lump of black mass, which in turn began to form the being. While it was giving itself a shape, the world around was also changing. The jumble disappeared, shapes emerged anew. 

At first, they were just simple squares and circles, but over time they became more complex. At some point, the overall picture reminded of surrealist art, then of the old-world painting 'The Scream', then of Dadaism, until it finally resembled reality again. The shadow creature adapted to these styles each time. The fascinating thing about all these things was that whoever would find themself in this place would know what all these things meant, even if they were not known in this world. 

Yes, all this that was happening was a trap for all those who, by chance, would eventually make it into the place-that-holds-no-name.

Meanwhile, the darkness had continued to form itself until it looked like me. 

"Lead me to the seal, shadow," I spoke and thus lifted the trap. Yes, the phrase was simple, but who would think of it? However, if you didn't say this line, the shadow would devour you and destroy your soul right along with it. 

The mimicry just nodded, turned around, and led me along a path.

-------

We arrived at some kind of tunnel. Ignoring the shadow-like me, I walk inside. 

The further I advanced inwards, the dimmer it became. At some point, one found oneself in nothingness. You could only go forward—behind you was only yawning void anyway. Even if one could see absolutely nothing more, one had to go on and on in this place abandoned by light. I did one step after the other until I reached an unknown number to everyone but me. When my foot touched the ground again, I found myself suddenly in a gazebo.

This small pavilion was surrounded by countless rose bushes. No matter in which direction you looked, they always reached the horizon. Only the narrow paved path that led from this spot to the seal was devoid of them. 

I chuckled and looked around again—this place was anything but inviting. The countless bushes had withered, and its rose petals had long since faded. Only the bulky glassy thorny vines were still alive and pulsating in the most repulsive way. One could see a white liquid seeping through them. All this was underlined by the creepy glow that the perpetual eclipse cast down on the world. 

I strolled along the path, and a gust of wind caused the wilted rose petals to soar into the sky and rain down on me. It was reminiscent of that spectacle when the petals of the cherry blossoms were carried into the air by the wind in the spring, creating a tender canvas for everyone present. It was basically the same here right now, except that the sight gave one the feeling that love was already dead. 

Eventually, a throne made of elderberry wood came into view. It was located on an elevation, in the middle of a pond, which could only be reached by a small stone bridge. On the water were numerous water lilies, whose flowers, however, bloomed black and, the longer you looked at them, took away the zest for life.

On the throne sat—transformed into the seal of Love—the soul of the first Emperor of Dragons, Azakiel the Endless, bound by thorny tendrils that ate into the flesh of that person and sucked white blood from the veins.

Always in a certain cycle, he awoke and was tormented by memories and pain until the tendrils finally mangled him in agony and devoured his body. After that, he was regenerated, and the ordeal started all over again. I must admit that I was inspired by another person who suffered basically the same fate as he did because he brought something to the humans that they were not worthy of. Azakiel also acted similarly, whereupon I had to punish him, of course. The fact that he was also considered the personification of love was sheer coincidence and a stroke of luck. 

He was the seal that prevented me from feeling love, and all I had to do for that was make him hate—eternally. I stepped closer and stood in front of the throne, and waited so that the first thing Azakiel would see when he awoke would be me. 

-------

His eyelids opened slowly, and the first thing he let out was an anguished scream. Then, he saw me. 

"YOU!" he cried out. "You Tartarean abomination! I'll kill you!"

He tried to free himself and moved frantically, causing the tendrils only to cut deeper into his flesh. His eyes were bursting with fury. I snapped with my fingers to shut him up. 

"Oh, poor, poor Azakiel. Why are you so angry? Ohh, yes, I forgot! I killed your sister, whom you loved with all your heart."

Raging groans sounded as he tried to say something using all his strength.

"You know, I never told you what happened afterward. You're lovely sister and wife is here, in this place—with you—not far away."

I released him from my control, and he coughed, "Wh-where is she! Where is Latifia?!"

Yesss, he had a flash of hope in his eyes. I secretly activated my magic so this moment would also appear in his forever recurring loop. The magic that made the overall construct of the seal function was much more complex, of course. Broken down—the more he hated me, the more he contradicted his nature, the greater the weakening effect on me.

I smiled at him, "Pinned at a tree, impaling someone."

"W-what?!" he said, aghast.

"Well, I took her heart and soul and remodeled them into a sword," I snickered. "I can hear Latifia's soul crying. She sounds so sad, so frightened, so alone." 

"I promise you...I will rain down the infernal void upon you and feed you to the foulest filth of the abyss," declared the first Emperor of Dragons. 

I clapped my hands, "Cut! This was everything I needed."

Directly after my gesture, he fell asleep again. Even if this conversation hardly looked like anything, this shred of information only intensified his hatred for me. This was already sufficient to strengthen the seal. Of course, I would take other measures and extra precautions, but since nothing else had been damaged here, this should be enough to withstand the System. It was all I desired, for now. 

Then I laughed briefly at the last thing he uttered. "What a hollow promise," I thought aloud. Azakiel still had the misconception that he could really act on his own, yet that was not the case. 

He no longer possessed a physical body, and the astral projection that sat on the throne could barely be called a soul, let alone an independent one. He was a husk of what he used to be. Much to my amusement. 

After completing the rest of the necessary preparations, I headed off to my next destination—the seal of Greed.

-------

Back at the meadow, I walked in a random direction. As before, I just wandered along until the old oak tree disappeared in the distance. 

I blinked. When I opened my eyes again, I found myself on what appeared to be water. Its surface was so clear and without movement that the heaven was reflected in it. The sky was deep blue and lightly covered with puffy fluffy clouds. Other than that, there was nothing in this place. No movement, no life. 

"You've arrived, Empress," spoke a voice suddenly beside me.

"Hello, Commander," I replied, turning my head left to face her. 

"The trip to Azakiel seemed to have gone off without a hitch?"

I nodded, "Quite. At least I can't complain."

"Are you shocked that this place is so blank?" she asked. 

"Not at all; the scenario changes every now and then anyway. Would be boring if it didn't."

The Commander looked deep into my eyes, "It doesn't have to end this way; you can still choose another path. No matter how unforgivable your actions have been to others, I forgive you. And if I can do that, so can others."

"Pshaw, why should I care if others forgive me or not. I'd already said that you just don't understand what this is really about. Your laughably feeble mind is simply incapable of it. Besides, I certainly don't need to be lectured by a human being!

So, do you have a specific scenario that you have in mind? Otherwise, I'll pick one for you."

The woman pondered for a moment, staring off into the distance. 

"How about a concubine who never has enough and does unspeakable acts to get everything she can, yet is never completely satisfied with it because others also have things she doesn't?"

"Sounds good to me," I replied and continued, "but I'll also add some other 'funny' stuff that will make your stay a total nightmare for you." 

She looked at the ground, then at me again. There was no fear in her eyes, only the urge to prove that she will never succumb to my torture. Yet, unbeknownst to herself, I could see a deep-seated fear flaring up inside her at the thought of being trapped again for a long time in a false world where she must watch herself commit atrocities without wanting to. 

"There's one more question I want to ask you before you send me away. I've never asked it, but I'd like to know it in the end. What are you?"

I eyed her briefly, "Well, let me humor you. I'm a Neade, or how others would call me, the Deel Gosdthrisd."

"And what is that exactly?"

I merely pointed one hand toward the sky. Instantly, it was torn apart by dark energy and practically split in two. In the rift was nothing but an empty void. Suddenly things appeared in the darkness that could have been mistaken for stars...but they weren't. These were eyes—thousands and thousands. 

The Commander gulped loudly. I just chuckled in response to her reaction.

"Well then, time for your throne," I mocked.

With a snap of my fingers, the crack disappeared as quickly as it emerged, and out of the reflecting water rose a golden throne. As soon as it was completely on the surface, silver chains adorned with gemstone shot out of it directly toward the remains of the once-proud soul. Without resisting, she let it happen. When she was ultimately chained on the throne, the environment began slowly to change. 

"Well then, I should finally start with the repairs." 

 

---

 

I repeated the same process for all the other seals until I was eventually back at the tree. 

"Time for a break, I suppose," I said and made my way to the library to relax in a comfy nook.

I yawned and thought for a moment, "Did I really not forget one of the seals? Naaah, definitely not."

Once in the library, I stretched, "Maybe I should take a little nap after all. Repairing the seals made me more sleepy than I thought..."