You poor fool. Why delude yourself?

Alice took care of the house. She cleaned the upper floor before moving to the second floor. She got rid of the dust and burned the rest of the garbage that was placed on a box she bought.

You...have you forgotten your oaths? Have you forgotten about the promise you made that day? Tell me, you did forget! For what? For the sake of mistakes you have made yourself? Don’t be foolish! We need to reach the Greater World. We need to find that world!

“For what purpose,” she shouted suddenly.  Alice held her head again and gritted her teeth. She sat cross-legged on the wooden floor and absorbed power to sustain her hunger.

“I need to get a hold of myself!” she stated. She ran to her room and gathered power again. After that she returned back on the first floor where she played with the fire on her fingers.

Something dark and scary. Something that stretches within infinity of time. A two-headed wolf, a walker of bleak, and three-fingers. Demonic skin made of blackened woodstone. He wears the mask of the old. Hunting down those who had flayed his skin. He is a gravewalker, and he always finds his only prey. He walks the dread and punishes those who had called themselves  as saviors. One of the many. But yet only one. Created by the efforts of a foolish witch. You promised! You made an oath to reach the gates of the Greater world! You promised.

The image of a Knight pulled from the legs being torn by mangled and wrinkled hands. She saw a throne made of silver being burned. A man who wore a cloak and a crow sat on his shoulders. He carried a staff that flew like spears. He walks like the shadows and haunts like a ghost.

“Please,” said Alice. “I just need to watch her pass peacefully. That’s fine right? We have so much time ahead of us. Why not try to feel this peace?”

You think you can run away? A monster playing house? Did you tell him that? When you wrapped his limbs in chains? When you turned him into a devourer that broke the lands, and killed Oasis City’s inhabitants? Did  you think of him as you ram your sword in his heart, thinking that you were the righteous one?  Please, do not lie to me! Do not lie to your heart’s desire!

“But I do feel this pain!”

You do. How long are you going to pretend that you are not used to it? To pretend that you would be fine to watch a loved become wrinkled, and die? You do not have much time here. You should know this. Your thoughts betray you. You know this!”

Alice couldn’t lie to herself. The power of the Burned Maiden was getting stronger. Without any life to support. The Burned Woman would only grow strong as minutes passed. Every deity ends up somewhere and that place was called the Greater World where people like her might be able to place themselves in an eternal slumber. She must reach the Greater World! She must escape him before she is thrown again into such a tiresome loop of fighting.

Alice paced around the world before turning her eyes to the door. She saw a woman standing on the doorway with a cheery mood around her. She bowed the moment she met eyes with Alice.

“Hold on. Stop and calm yourself, Burnt Woman. Alice Dame was it? Still, I really am always impressed by your ability to find him. Here to ruin another life eh?”

“You...Why are you?”

“I said stop. Do not try to channel power. You made me able to find you because of it. Do you really want to be hunted down here? When Miss Vie is around?”

“Vie? You? Did you try anything?”

“Silly question,” said her. “I am not you. Miss Nia is happily enjoying her studies. I am glad that this is her fate. Still, to think you’d play mother. Then again you were always a good mother to those who you cared for.”

“Why are you here?”

“I just want to know why you almost want to break the continent in half. Oh, you know that he’s here.”

“Alcina!” she said with gritted teeth. “Do you think that I won’t rip you in half here?”

“Of course not!” she shook her head, deliberately looking at Alice with a grin. “When did you not try to kill me? Ah, but are you sure about that?”

“You...you were the one who allowed them to find me. Are you here for that same purpose? Again?”

“No,” she said. “I’m here to look at the monster playing pretend. Besides, if  you want to then I can always tag you. Made him realize that the one he is hunting is in this errant world. You did well, honestly. Fooling him that he became a hunter for the Gods.”

“You yanked his chain.”

“And you did not have a part of it? Don’t be so pretentious to think that you did not make a monster of him. For now, let us talk shall we?”

“I have nothing to say to you.”

“Of course, I know.”

“I am going to rip you apart.”

“Do you really want to attract him here? Because you’d be making another if you act up now. Oh, go ahead, call the Deadman here and now.”

“You know him. Deadman.”

“Poor Mister. Really, why didn’t you let him go in that time? You cut him down when you left for the new worlds with your family. But you failed to realize that at that moment he was a revenant.  Really, I am rather surprised that Mister Nolan can have so many fragments...right now there are only two remaining. I am surprised again that you didn’t immediately ruin him. Or was it because he has a tug on the creation itself? Ah, is it because of the Deadman?”

“What do you want from me, Alcina?”

“To talk,” she said with open arms. “I always wanted to talk to  the person that murdered my dear father and mother.”