Hanna was breathing heavily, cuts were strewn across her entire body, her black blood freely oozing out of every single one, across from her a man was kneeling, his body similarly in bad shape and he was breathing just as hard as she was, pieces of his blade were strewn across the field, it had shattered early into the fight, but the man simply didn’t relent, slashing and stabbing even with his shattered blade.

Hanna‘s vision was starting to get wobbly and she fell to her knees as well, she knew if she hadn’t been that exhausted she would have easily crushed this man‘s skull, but in her fatigued state she could barley hold him off, and it was only because the blade shattered and he needed to get closer to her for him to actually hit her, that she also managed to drive her claws into his flesh.

The man was most definitely dead, if not from his wounds or blood loss, definitely from all the poison she had pumped into his body, she was truly astounded that the man survived this long against it in the first place, only after her third dosage did the man fall to his knees.

"Anger and adrenaline were truly capable of terrifying things when combined huh…" Hanna mused, before her eyes traveled to the man‘s side, where she could make out an empty vial, with a few golden droplets still holding on.

"Or perhaps… it was that…" Hanna murmured quietly, before she unsuccessfully tried to stand up, the attempt only earning her a bloody cough and increasing amounts of pain.

Hanna turned her head and saw the quite river behind her and for the first time in a long time she thought to herself: 'What the hell am I doing?'

It was a question she couldn’t answer, and trying to come up with an answer simply wasn’t in her current capabilities, sitting in the open field, covered from head to toe in her own blood, so she tried answering the question, using her previous answers.

1.Hunger.

But she now knew that the hunger she had possessed all that time ago hadn’t been her own hunger, rather it had been the hunger of that Demi-goddess who had used her body as a hiding place from the other gods.

2.Revenge

Revenge did motivate her to some extent yes, but it was nothing but an accident that Vex just so happened to be in the same village, it wasn’t on her actual mind until the moment she actually came face to face with her.

3….

That was it, was this all her live boiled down to? Entirely lead by things other then her own decisions? She gritted her teeth as she realised that yes, it’s true, not once had she actually made an decision on her own, and there was always someone else involved that influenced her, that pushed her in subtle directions.

Something or someone had always controlled her, not once had she been truly thinking about what she wanted.

But what did she want?

She thought back to what she had witnessed when she first awoke in that forest, three siblings, carefree and laughing, able to freely walk the earth, the memories of what she knows are her first true desire.

She remembers how she was absolutely filled with this unknown emotion, this overwhelming need to destroy these children’s life’s and everyone else’s that ever interacted with them, how she looked upon the sea of flowers that day and how disgusted she had felt, how she would like nothing more then to burn it all down, she remembers it all so clearly, but thinking back on it and replaying all those science in front of her mind eye, there was nothing, no emotions no need to destroy, Just… nothing, nothing at all.

She had expected to feel those very same things again, they had burned to brightly after all and she knew there was nothing there to influence her so why?! There those not the things she truly desired?!

So she went further back, how she killed and tortured that elderly elf, how she tortured and broke down Adeline until there was nothing left but an obedient lapdog that only craved her attention.

And there was a thump in her chest, but it was fleeting and nothing compared to what she had felt earlier, so she kept going, remembering more and more scenarios of pain and suffering, but it always stayed that little thump inside of her chest, it also caused a headache, that consistently grew in pain the more she tried to probe through her memories, eventually she focused on that space of emptiness inside her mind, the time between her waking up in that forest and meeting the three kids and her meeting with Death.

Her head exploded with pain.

Hanna balled her fists in frustration, anger and pain, but she kept going, trying to go deeper and deeper into her mind trying to figure out what happened. Her body was overwhelmed by the amount of pain she felt and she fell onto the floor, going almost limp, but she kept on pushing ignoring the pain, until eventually it popped and everything came rushing back.

She saw herself lost in an eternal void standing atop a single hill, with bodies all around her, she was covered in wounds and blood was oozing all around her, the smell of death the only thing occupying her nose, suddenly she heard a sentence coming from everywhere around her.

'You are a disgusting tumour upon everyone’s existence, you defy any and all natural orders I may creat, you are a corruption that seeks to distort and defile everything sacred and beautiful into a twisted mockery of what it once was, all for just a bit of entertainment.

I‘m the land you stand on, the air you breathe, the sounds you hear and the things you see. Everything that moves is mine andall that is still is mine. This world is mine. And so are you.'

A cold robotic voice, she remembers it and she remembers what follows soon after.

I‘m the land you stand on, the air you breathe, the sounds you hear and the things you see. Everything that moves is mine and all that is still is mine. This world is mine. And so are you. All of existence is there because I will it, there is nothing that I can’t make, everything do or make, I am the one who controls everything.'

Once the words had been uttered, she could see strings quickly descending from the void above, ensnaring herself that was standing atop the hill almost instantly, she could she the strings pull, push, tighten and loosen again and again, making herself standing atop the hill repeatedly punch her own face over and over again.

Was this the truth? Was she nothing more then a puppet on strings to whatever robotic entity spoke to her in this void?

Then, slowly but surely, she could see the strings attached to her other self pulled taught and they started to drag her into the fast blackness above, her other self seemed completely oblivious to what was happening, or at least not fighting back against whatever force was dragging her away, was This the moment she had lost all authority about her own existence?

"You are an outside variable, just like them… I ca-ca-c-a-can… I can use y-yyyyy-ou…"

Hanna blinked, that was the same robotic voice, but is sounded so wrong and Hanna was sure that it was not part of her memories, so what…

Before Hanna could actually truly register what she just heard, a rift opened up in the grass before her and dark, arm like appendages started to crawl out of it, lunging towards her, the real her, not her memory self who had already completely disappeared into the dark abyss above.

She tried to dodge backwards but she wasn’t fast enough, her badly beaten body incapable of performing the movements her panicked mind demanded of it, and they took her, first by the legs, then her arms and lastly covering her face, before dragging her towards the rift.

They felt warm against her skin and they were so incredibly wet, a purple liquid dropping off of them and onto the ground below and onto herself, a few drops came into her mouth and Hanna tried her best to not vomit at the horrid taste and smell of it. At first she tried to fight the many appendages dragging her, but her body was simply to weak to properly fight it all and then, suddenly, she was in free fall down the rift, all around her she could see the dark appendages as she fell, coming off from a horrible fleshy wall of darkness, with the purple liquid oozing from it‘s many, many pores.

Hanna was scared, she didn’t know what fresh nightmare awaited her, she wanted to scream, but her body was simply to weak and so she simply continued to fall deeper and deeper into the dark abyss below.

The rift above her slowly closing, before eventually sealing shut and disappearing, taking the last bit of light in this hellish nightmare with it, leaving her in total darkness.

—————————————————————————

Luisa squinted, unsure of whatever she just witnessed. A tuft of familiar looking blonde hair simply disappeared into the ground right in front of her, the hair reminded her of the one she followed all those years ago, the one she had spend the last couple of years to desperately find and bring back, but she never did manage that did she? 

But surely this must have been some kind of delusion or hallucination, surely this all just her mind playing tricks on her for being to long in this blasted sunlight, she surely didn’t just miss her opportunity to bring her back right? Surely she hadn’t spend this many resources and time trying to find her, only for her to slip right through her hands.

Surely she didn’t just miss the moment to finally find and be reunited with her long lost m…

"Lady Luisa is something the matter, you have this… distant look on your face."

Her internal musings were abruptly interrupted by the concerned voice of her follower behind her, shacking her head for a moment to refocus, Luisa steeled her resolve, obviously this was nothing but a quick delusion her mind played on her, it wasn’t the first and it most certainly won’t be the last, but that was fine, she could deal with it.

"You idiot, of course I‘m fine! The only weird thing is that there isn’t a monster around like that old fart told us, all I see is his dead brat over there."

Suddenly, the shadows beside her morphed into a gate and out of it stepped her second follower she unwillingly took with her on this trip, the problem with being the leader of an illegal magical sect, is that your own followers desperately try to proof themselves to you all the time and win your favour in the mean time, hoping she would teach them greater magical abilities.

This particular pair were both noble born children who were born far to late to be on the inheritance list of their respective families and were sidelined as a result, leading them to more desperate measures to gain the power they believed was rightfully theirs to have, it wasn’t an unfamiliar setup, Luisa believes at least 12 others in her sect were of a similar backgrounds, but these two were at least a little special in that they shared one special trait with Luisa herself: They despised the elves.

Luisa still didn’t really care what would happen to them, just like the rest of her entire sect, they were tools to use and nothing more, if one of them got damaged or lost along the way, she could always find more, it was rather ironic, considering the amount of importance the kingdom put on honour, honesty and law, how she never seemed to run out of fresh new people who wanted to learn forbidden magic for their own personal gain.

There was a soft thud and her other disciple grunted with effort, looking to her side, Luisa was greeted with an unwanted sight, the body of the old man on the ground.

"I thought I told you to get rid of it, what the hell are you doing brining it back?!" She angrily demanded, the shadows behind her rising to tower of her disciple, who desperately waved her hands around trying to explain the situation.

"I‘m very sorry Lady Luisa, but I couldn’t dump the body into the river like you wanted, it was already filled with corpses!"

"And you didn’t move them because?! It’s a river goddamnit, with one push and the things will drift off into the far distance, do I need to probe your brain again or something?!"

The disciples eyes widened in terror as she saw to small tentacle like shadows slither along the ground and towards her, instinctively she raised both hands to block her ears before explaining further.

"N-no I know that, but there was a boat approaching and I didn’t want to compromise the mission by being seen chucking corpses down the river!" Her voice rose in octaves the closer the tentacles got to her body, Luisa was sure the girl would have sprinted away in fear if she didn’t know it would have been a futile attempt at best, but much to the young women’s relief, Luisa dispelled the two tentacles upon hearing the information.

"Did you see who was on the boat?" Luisa simply asked, the disciple nodded her head, the fearful expression slowly disappearing.

"They all wore large coats around their body, so I couldn’t truly see them, however I saw one particular symbol on a banner they were carrying, it had the star of Justinus upon it, so I assume they are a religious delegation from one of churches, possibly to convert the inhabitants of the village or something."

Luisa contemplated, she obviously had not the biggest positive relationship with the many churches of the kingdom, especially those dogs who worshipped the God of Justice, but she also didn’t really feel like they were her enemies necessarily, her only true enemy is that accursed Feyanor, the god of Elves and all those who belonged to his race or worshiped him, for it was his prophecy that destroyed her life.

So at the end of the day, she had no real reason to attack this procession of priest, acolytes and monks, ignoring the fact that they most likely traveled with a group of knights as protection, they were ultimately no real threat to her plans here, however…

Turning around, she could see the immense hatred that flared up in the eyes of her other disciple, because he believed that it was the laws put in place by Justinus that robbed him of his, or what he at least believes to be his, rightful place at the top of his family.

And Luisa had promised him that he would get the opportunity to 'take revenge against those who robbed him of his place', or something along those lines, and truthfully it was this anger against Justinus that put the kid on her radar in the first place.

Obviously almost all of the churches were trying to stop her and her sect from existing, but those following Justinus had always been the most active in that particular pursuit, after the elven churches of course, who still wholeheartedly believed that any elf born with innate 'doomed magic' as they started to call it lately, was meant to be killed as soon as they were born.

So in all honesty, she personally had neither any particular reason to not attacking the procession, or attacking it, however not attacking it had certainly an impact on her following in her sect and as much as she only saw them as tools, she also needed those tools and the time to abandon them has yet to truly arrive, so in the end she caved.

Clapping her hands once, she turned to her two disciples, who had watched her in silent anticipation as to what they were going to do, she turned to the girl first.

"You go spy out the procession, I want to know everything from the number of people to the colour of their shoes!"

Then she turned to the boy, heated anticipation clearly visible in his eyes, burning like a hot flame of anger.

“You, go back to the base near the river, I want every single member here and ready to strike, let at least one of them go back to the main base and inform those who are there about the attack, if they don’t hear anything at sunrise the next day, they are to send an investigation squad. You both a half an hour, now GO!"

With a single quick nod from both, they melted into the long shadows of the forest and Luisa turned back around to watch the procession, who had stopped to talk with a group of people who seemed oddly familiar to her. Suddenly the man at the front of the group stopped talking and tensed up for a second, before drawing his sword and that was the moment Luisa recognised the man, there was simply no way for anyone who lived in the kingdom to not recognise that sword, that was her reason for being here in the first place, that was her target, the man she wanted to kill.

The Legendary Hero of the Demon War, the man that came from a different world to save the kingdom, 'The God Shattering Star' they called him.

The man that had saved the elven race from being overrun by the Demon kings armies, something Luisa had never forgiven him for.

Suddenly there was a large flash of golden light and Luisa had to look away to not blind herself, but when the light faded she could see her disciple laying on the floor, held down by ropes of gold, that emanated from somewhere within the procession.

Luisa, once she could see again, squinted, trying to see who had stopped one of her best scouts so easily.

And as the procession slowly parted they revealed a small figure dressed completely in dark green, holding a brilliant staff of dark wood from which the ropes of gold originated, the figure turned to the Hero, who had lowered his sword by this point, and he extended his hand to the unknown person, who took the hand in his own in acceptance before removing his hood that was obscuring his face.

Luisa could feel her breathing quicken has unimaginable hatred burst through her entire body, the shadows around her dancing in a ferocious and feral manner.

Standing there in the clearing, talking to the Legendary Hero, was the high priest of the elf’s, the man responsible for the entire way all elven churches are run, and the man who ruined Luisa‘s life, by proclaiming that all elves born with dark magic would be disposed off.

High Priest Kardinal Keros.