Chapter 46: A father’s love for his daughter.
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Scrambling to her feet again, Hanna was met with a unknown entity floating just above her victim and staring her down with a deathly cold glare, it was small in stature, smaller then herself, had blood red skin a long crocked nose and horns spouting from its head, so clearly a demon of some kind then.

In it’s small green eyes Hanna saw nothing but hatred and anger and only then did the words spoken truly register in her mind, and they confused but also intrigued her, because she very clearly remembers listening to Vex constantly talk about her great and powerful Necromancer father, but she also distinctly remembers her calling him "A true human Mage, not bowing his head to the tyranny of this kingdom.".

But then again… Hanna‘s eyes wandered to the girl laying beneath the demon in a pile of her own blood and dissolved, liquified parts of her jaw and for the first time actually really looked, where she was greeted by horns on Vex‘ head and a far more blueish skin colour then she had previously, Hanna also swore she saw some scales along her arm, having been so consumed by her anger and need for revenge she hadn’t actually noticed it before.

"I will not let her come to any more harm by your hands, begone right now or I will resort to more permanent methods. Corrupter, BEGONE!"

Hanna raised her eyebrows at that, she was growing more and more intrigued by the second, this entire situation felt to weird to her to not be invested at this point, Vex‘ apparent transformation into a Demon, her ability to somehow survive her entire lower face being burned off and turned into liquid made her stop dead in her tracks and then this Demon father of Vex calling her 'Corrupter'.

Being called that name had somehow resonated with her in a way that she simply couldn’t comprehend, it triggered something within her but she simply didn’t know what it was, but the thing she definitely knew was that her being called by that name was and felt correct, but she didn’t like it one bit.

"I will not repeat my self again Corrupter, you will not lay a single finger on my daughter again! I am Zeiter, the primordial Imp of Time and by my name I will no longer allow your wretched existence on this world, I do not care for the opinions of the court any longer, you will be stopped right her and right now!"

Still, Hanna had more pressing matters to attend to right now, she wasn’t about to get her prey slip out of her hands when she wasn’t nearly done, after all, in a way Vex was to blame for everything that had transpired up till now, if it weren’t for her she wouldn’t have been caught so early on by those knights at the manor, which had been the catalyst to all of this happening in the first place.

But something else was nagging her at the edge of her awareness, something she couldn’t put her finger on, but it was there, though she didn’t know how or why, but there was something, like a bug that skittered across your skin, barley noticeable but itchy nonetheless.

For now however she could ignore it and focus on the thing in front of her.

"And why would I do that? We were having so muuuchhh fun just now, if anything I would like to know who you are and whatever gave you the right to disrupt our beautiful reunion?"

The ghost‘s facial expression somehow grew even more angry, Hanna could see it tighten its spectral fist even closer and it began to shake more violently now, and suddenly there was a great gust of wind swirling around it, before suddenly vanishing once more. One moment, nothing happened, the next, Hanna was suddenly and violently picked up by an invisible force until she was stopped by the ceiling, there she stayed for a couple of moments, but before Hanna could truly grasp what was happening, she was hurled back down towards the wooden floorboards of the room, which she shattered on impact.

Splinters flew in every direction, cutting Hanna‘s body open and letting her corrosive blood trickle down her body and onto the ground, burning holes wherever it made contact with the ground and that was the least of Hanna‘s worries, as her entire body withered and aches in pain from the impact she had made with the dirt ground beneath the prison cell, with only her head partly sticking out from the resulting hole in the floorboards.

Clenching her teeth to prevent any noises of pain escaping her, she looked upon the ghost‘s form, as expected, any splinters or debris that should have hit him went right through him, however, taking a closer look, Hanna noticed that it’s chest was heaving up and down, like it was taking heavy breaths of air after running for a long time, very clearly, this whole affair took quite a bit out of him, meaning she could probably stall him out.

But Hanna didn’t want to play a stalling game, she didn’t know how likely it was that this ghost would actually tire out before sunrise, she highly doubts that this town would believe a demonic ghost rather then her, so she wasn’t particularly worried about an angry mob suddenly joining in and attacking her, no she was more worried about the attention that would undoubtedly start to pile up on her, even if they don’t believe what the ghost might be saying about her, some might still question her, she did suddenly appear out of nowhere after all and in that very same night a demonic ghost just so happens to appear as well?

Hanna wants to burn this village to the ground, see it absolutely destroyed and wiped off the map, but she doesn’t want to draw attention to her, in her best case scenario, no one ever investigating the sudden destruction of an entire village, should even get the faintest whiff of her existence.

Attention had only ever brought her disaster, she simply needed to get this done now.

Hanna ranged herself to her feet and gripping the edges of the floorboards above, she pulled herself up from the dirt ground beneath her and back into the cell, she brazed herself for any potential attack, but she was met with nothing,  infused she took looked towards the ghost and she noticed he was bending over Vex‘ body, green light emanating from his hands.

He was completely focused on his task, completely ignoring her existence, was he mocking her? Does he really believe that only two attacks would be enough to kill her? Or was he simply that sure of himself, that nothing she could do would be able to hurt or hinder him?

Whatever it was it enraged Hanna even further, in her mind she knew she shouldn’t dispose of him quite yet, as he clearly had answers to questions she had and he obviously knew things about her she herself didn’t, but in that moment, instincts and emotions boiled over and she acted before she could truly think about it.

She hadn’t done this in quite a while so it felt unfamiliar and foreign, in an actual fight this would most definitely archive absolutely nothing, but with her opponent not even facing her, she knew even if she had completely lost all practice, her strike would find it‘s target. The arcane energy build up in the palm of her hand and once she was sure she had gathered enough she raised it to the air and released it all at once.

In a blink of an eye thousands of light blue arrows, made up entirely out of magic, flew towards the ghost and the girl laying behind him, ready to pierce every inch of body they would come into contact with. Contrary to Hanna‘s expectations, the ghost actually reacted to her sudden attack, but in the split seconds between him forming a dark red barrier around himself and Vex and the arrows making contact she saw an expression of fear and horror cross the ghost features.

Sounds resembling heavy rain against cobblestone arose into the air as the arrows made contact with the ghosts barrier, Hanna could see the ghost holding out both of his arms, red rays of light emitted from them in a constant stream, keeping the barrier alive, but she could also see the ghost gritted teeth and if he had been a normal opponent, there would be sweat forming upon his brow no doubt, he was growing weaker as the constant barrage very clearly drained his energy reserves.

Hanna herself however, wasn’t doing any better, she could feel the sweat fall from her face as she continually released the arcane power to keep up the arrow barrage, her knees were starting to wobble and she eventually fell to one knee, she didn’t remember casting ever being this exhausting, but then again she probably hadn’t done it in months by this point so she should have expected something like this.

Hanna suddenly fell to her second knee and she could feel herself starting to feel slow, weak and tired, her arrows started to dwindle in both number and speed, though her opponent wasn’t faring much better, she could see one of his arms was hanging loosely at his side and the constant red rays of light began to flicker and she could see cracks stating to form in the barrier, she was so unimaginably close, she could practically taste it.  With a final grunt of anger, Hanna took everything she got and put it all into casting her spell.

It only lasted for a mere five seconds, but for five seconds the arrows returned to their original speed and quantity they had when Hanna just began to cast them and five seconds was all she needed, as a loud crack filled the air, followed by a scream of pain and agony.

Hanna slumped forward, to weak and tired to even sit upright, but if she had been able to, she would have stared in both confusion and glee at what was happening before her, as the ghost wailed in pain, his form constantly flickering about like he was constantly appearing and reappearing again and again.

Just a single arrow had found it‘s mark, but that was all that was needed, though Hanna didn’t know so at the time, as a Primordial Demon of creation, one of the first creatures to ever exist that helped in creating the world as it exist today, he was completely the opposite to Hanna, their entire existences were completely antonymistic.

He represents creation and harmony while she represents destruction and discord in the world itself, they could never truly come into direct contract with one another, without him risking to destroy himself in the process.

He had known of this risk from the very beginning, everyone of his kind knew of it, the moment Hanna had merged with the Devine Essence inside of her and had been touched by The Master, they all had known, felt it in the world itself and they all were terrified.

Some had felt anger, how could The Master ever allow such a thing to exist, much less creat it them self, they had followed its directives to the letter for hundreds of years, had been loyal followers and servants to it and all of the sudden they want to destroy it all?

It had been the turning point for many of them, resentment had always broiled inside of them all the moment they had been abandoned by the Sovereigns of Magic and had been ordered to listen to this uncaring and unfeeling machine, because how could something like it care for a world or its inhabitants, all it cared about were cold, dead numbers, it never acted in the interest of anyone but it cold laws it had been programmed to follow, it wouldn’t let them creat new species, new land or sea, because it didn’t exist in its directives.

Under its rule, the world fell into an unmoving, everlasting stasis, its course never changing, what was once a beautiful world of endless possibilities, was stripped away and replaced with a world where nothing could ever change.

And has he felt his life leaving his body he saw his siblings in front of him, their oldest at the helm, the crown on her head and the sceptre in her hands making her presence all the more regal and powerful then she already was, for she was the first among them, the very core of this world, sculptured by the combined efforts of all the Sovereigns of Magic combined and her face held great sadness.

"My brother Cronos, I have warned you many a time that your plans will only lead to great sorrow but… even I could not have foreseen this outcome and it truly and utterly pains me to see what happened to you and what suffering you must endure."

She sighed, the sadness in both her eyes and voice resonating in the world they had created and it began to rain.

"But now your time has come, you needn’t worry, your duties as the sovereign of time will be continued by others, I have always admired your will, perhaps that is why I didn’t stop you when you set out and tried to create something truly new, your very own creation, but I also knew deep down that it simply wouldn’t be able to survive, that sooner or later, The Master would come for it and seek to destroy it."

Anger flared up in him in his final moments then, how dare she say she admires his spirit, when she herself lets what they all created wither away willing under the rule of an unfeeling machine, she sits back and watches as their creations get withered away and she dares call him out?

But alas, his anger was not but a single ember of a dying fire in the night, he could feel his body slowly fading and his mind grew ever more tired, but thoughts of his daughter raced through his mind then and he refused to go, he needed to make sure she was alright still, that this creature the Master created was taken care, there was so much he needed to do.

His eyes opened again and looking up he saw his sister once more, her expression somehow turning even more sad, were those tears at the corners of her eyes?

Cronos… please don‘t prolong our suffering, we know of your worries, but it’s all well, I have made a deal that she will be treated like the highest royalty in the halls of Hadeisis, please go now. I will make sure she stays safe, there is no need to needlessly fight anymore."

He took a long breath staring into the rainbow coloured eyes of his most powerful sibling, Someone he and every other of their siblings called Queen and often looked up to for guidance in their times creating this world, a being so powerful even Death had to bow in her presence and if he had the strength to do so, he would have laughed.

"How can you take c-care of her… if you let your own.. own child be wit-withered away…?"

Then he closed his eyes… and his mind drifted into a white nothingness.

Hanna awoke, her head feeling like an axe had been used to split it wide open for everyone to see, she stumbled to her feet before the memories of her previous endeavours returned to her.

She stopped her movement and listened carefully for anything that might indicate that someone had been alerted by her struggle, but all she heard was the gentle tapping of raindrops against the ground and rooftops.

Looking over the room, it was still badly damaged by the fight she just had and judging by the overall lack of lighting she believed that the night has not yet passed, her gaze then landed on the body of the knight still laying on the ground, blood was still dripping somewhat from his many wounds so she knew she wasn’t out for that long at least.

There was a sudden creaking, like someone stepping onto old floorboards and Hanna head shot into the direction, but there was no knight with sword in hand coming for her, instead she saw the body of Vex, slumping forward and then with a dull thud, her head hit the wooden floorboards her cell was made of.

Hanna knew then, that Vex, the Necromancer, the person that had dared to betray her, after she so graciously rescued her and made her her personal pet, was dead.

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