Bloody tears streamed down Kara’s face, as the sharp edges of the crystalline orbs occupying her eye sockets dug into her flesh. A hysterical scream rang in her ears and it took a moment for Kara to understand that it was her own.

Visions continued to play in Kara’s mind, uncaring of her suffering. Black feathers and eyes. White feathers and mouths. The birth of a star. Untold atrocities committed by the people under its light. The death of a star.

As the visions continued, the pain in her sockets intensified as the open wounds came into contact with the salt. The large crystals began to break down, turning into small granules that wriggled themselves into every tiny crevice. The pain was unbearable.

A hand came to rest on the side of her head and Kara froze.

Her actual vision was overcome with blackness, but in her kneeling position she could just make out the tips of black wings hovering beside her.

She knew that she should not, but her body moved against her wishes.

Kara turned and beheld.

An ever shifting mass of black wings and eyes. A head like a blooming flower encircling a tiny white flame. A single wheel of white metal encircling its midsection, giving the entire being a vaguely hourglass shape.

A pressure began to grow behind Kara’s ruined eyes. Sadly she could do nothing, as her eyelids began to crystallize, the pain so great, Kara could feel nothing else.

Kara saw the abomination caress her face with what could only be described as a hand. The limb was made from countless wings folded in on themselves, with eyes instead of joints and feathers instead of fingers.

Despite the utter agony she was feeling, Kara broke out in goosebumps as the grotesque limb caressed her face.

Slowly, white feathers began to sprout between the black wings, as mouths grew on any open surface along its body. The pressure inside Kara's head grew more intense.

The mouths began to speak. Different languages Kara had never heard, some sounding so grotesque that she wished she could shove a spike into her eardrums, others sounding so soothing that she almost didn't register the pain.

“Aww you poor thing. You need to close your eyes! Can you do that for me?”

The abomination cooed at her, causing Kara to try and close her eyes. The action caused the edges of the sharp salt crystals to once again dig into the underside of her eyelids.

Kara began to whimper as the pain threatened to overwhelm her.

“Not those eyes, little one. The ones you use to see!”

Real tears began to mix with the blood streaming down Kara's face. She didnt know what the fucking thing was talking about. She wasn't even supposed to be here. She was just supposed to entertain that terrifying black haired woman. Maybe share a bed with her.

Not whatever this was!

A second one of the grotesque limbs touched the other side of Kara’s face. The feather tips of the “hands” wiped the mix of tears and blood from her cheeks.

“It's going to be okay! You need to close your eyes, little warrior. The ones you use to see me. The ones you use to see the real world.”

‘WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU MEAN?!’ Kara screamed inside her mind, yet all that came from between her lips was a choked sob as the pain continued.

“Look! Like this!”

The thing raised one of its disgusting limbs and held it in front of Kara’s face. Nausea began to build in her stomach. Two hands holding her face and now another one in front of her.

Kara retched as an eye in the palm of the things hand blinked open.

“Like this.”

Bile began to rise up her throat as Kara's attention was on the slitted eye in the beings palm. With every shred of willpower, Kara tried to close her eyes without moving her physical form.

If doing whatever this thing wanted was going to help her never see it again, she would follow its instruction.

For a few agonizing moments nothing happened, until Kara suddenly found herself in utter darkness. It would have almost been calming, were it not for the feeling of the things hands on her face.

Now that her mind was no longer occupied by the maddening form of the monstrosity, physical sensations came to the forefront of Kara’s mind. The countless small wounds in her eye sockets, the tiny crystals of salt touching exposed flesh and the fact that her eyes were missing.

The pain caused Kara to throw up.

The stench of vomit mixed with the scent of fresh blood.

With her vision gone, other sensations came into focus. Kara heard her blood rushing through her ears and the thundering of her heart. She tasted bile on her tongue mixing with salty tears.

Kara broke out into sobs as the being spoke to her again.

“Sooner or later that would have happened on its own. Either through me or another being with a soul that was stronger than the norm.”

Kara shuddered as she heard the voice with her right ear, directly where the things hand rested.

“You would have looked into a dragon's eyes and your soul would have burnt to nothing before you even realized. Maybe you would have looked into the eyes of a surprisingly strong mortal and you would have just perished.”

Kara grit her teeth. Anger began building in her chest. This thing was acting like this was her fault! As if she should have known better.

“Hold still for a moment, this might hurt.”

She flinched as the beings hands moved. One grabbed her chin forcefully, while the other ghosted across her face. With gentle touches the hand prodded at her eyelids, causing Kara to suck in a pained breath.

She felt the fingers ghost across her face and wipe away tears, snot and blood. Kara was unsure why this would hurt, but she braced nonetheless. And she was glad she did, because moments later Kara felt her eyelids being pried open as the being forced its fingers into the empty sockets.

Kara wanted to flinch, move back or even just clench her eyes shut, but her face was held still in the things vice-like grip.

She began to wail through clenched teeth as Kara felt the thing scoop out crystals of salt from her sockets. The sharp edges dug further into her open flesh as soft fingertips scraped against the inside of her skull. It felt like having sand in spots where it shouldn't be, only a thousand times worse.

Once again, Kara threw up, though this time she had to force it through clenched teeth, as the being held her chin.

After a few agonizing moments the fingers were removed from her sockets with a disgusting squelch that caused kara to heave. She felt violated. Nothing except her eyes should ever be inside her sockets. Not salt and especially not fingers.

The iron grip on her head loosened and kara doubled over, expelling the rest of her stomach content. Immediately she began coughing, expelling everything that had been inside her. Had her bladder been full she would have most definitely wet herself.

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Finally Kara let herself slump to the ground. The soft carpet felt heavenly right now and she wanted nothing more than to let unconsciousness claim her. Sadly, it wasn't meant to be, as a warm hand came to rest on her back.

A soothing warmth spread from the point of contact through her torso, traveling up until it reached her head. For some reason Kara had the distinct feeling that the warmth was orange. A few moments later Kara felt the distinct tingling of healing magic as it settled across her head.

By the slight itching in her skull she had likely sustained some sort of brain injury, even if she couldn't remember when or how. The soothing feeling spread across her whole head, until it arrived at her eyes. Immediately her sockets began to itch as the countless small wounds closed, the agonizing feeling of salted wounds slowly receding.

A few moments later, the warmth had run its course. Her wounds were gone, but still Kara refused to rise.

Even though her body felt better than it had ever before, her eyes were missing. The fact only now really setting in. She was blind.

Tears began to leak from her empty sockets as the sobs came back. She was a fighter. A warrior! How was she supposed to continue? She had no talent for the applications of mana, no way to replace her sight with magical detection. She had joined the Circle of Ascension because they had methods to advance through purely physical means.

Before she could sink further into panicked thoughts, the being spoke to her again.

“Well then. I was hoping for a less painful introduction, but to think no-one ever taught you how to close your eyes. Disappointing really, you should talk to your family about it.”

Kara froze. The audacity! Not only was this thing responsible for what happened just now, it was talking as if this entire situation was just some unfortunate mistake. As if someone had just spilled a mug on her pants or something. Through clenched teeth Kara responded.

“I'm an orphan, there is no family to talk to.”

The hand that had been brushing along her upper back froze, before continuing.

“Oh well. I don't have any family left as well, guess that makes two of us.”

Kara clenched her teeth, rage building in her chest. Her shoulders began to tremble.

“Now! To finally introduce myself. I am S̷͈͈̺̝̤̭͕̤̓̂͂̌͆̀̉̀͜ͅͅa̷̢̛̛͙̯͉͍͉̣̰̦̦͍̪̮̘͇̯͈̤̯̽͑̋͋̔͐͛̃͑̂̀̓̋͐̓̏́̅͊̏m̸̻̤̲̹̟̟̗͕̙̣̮̞͉̥̱̠͎͖͈̪͙̠̾̐́̌̀̆̓̍̽͂̊̽͒͆̌̽̅̽͠͝͠ͅã̶̲̥̘́̍̊́̽̔̌̈́̑͗́͌͂̌̉͜͝͝͝ẹ̵̡̮̙̦̔̋̏̈̔̍́͊̓̏͊̚̕͝ͅl̶̢̡̫̠͖͙̣͉̫̺̫̱̈́̓͑̆͐̿̒͒́̔̅̎̈́̈́̐̕͜͝͝͝!”

As the being spoke its name, she felt as if someone hit her mind with a sledgehammer. The power of the name, enough to press her deeper into the ground.

Her mind began to whirr as possible explanations presented themselves.

There were legends of beings that had names so powerful that just hearing them could kill you. Names so powerful that just knowing them could open an entirely new branch of magic.

Kara began to tremble as her rage rapidly morphed into fear. Her slow animal brain finally caught on to the fact that she was sitting in front of some mythical being. On shaky arms, she forced herself upright until she was kneeling properly. The feeling of losing her eyes alone was disorienting enough, but now she was aware that she was in front of a being of legend.

Was this why Lady Lucifer had called for her? Was she just a cleric of this being? Kara did not know, but she had no interest in finding out. She had signed up for a war, not for whatever this was. The beings' strange multifaceted voice spoke again.

“I called you here to offer you a pact.”

A weight crashed onto Kara’s shoulders as the being spoke. Where the weight of its name would have brought her to her knees had she been standing, the weight of that one sentence caused her head to slam into the carpet.

Desperately she tried to raise her head, but the weight continued to press downwards and with it, came the attention of something else. Kara couldn't describe it, but something was waiting for her to answer and it was not the feathered abomination.

“I called you because you have something that many others don't. You have the ability to see.”

Kara tried to respond, to refuse the pact that was being offered to her, but the weight on her shoulders was preventing her.

“But that's just it. You can see but you can't act. Your soul is far too fragile for the power it holds. Your fleshly body is well crafted and cared for, but at the end of the day, it will never be more than flesh and blood. There is barely any mana inside you. It would be a miracle for you to progress much further apart from your natural growth.”

Inside her mind, Kara screamed her rejection, yet the words held some truth to them. She knew that she lacked talent when it came to mana cultivation. Her physical prowess had stalled years ago. The only progress came in tiny increments that she had to almost destroy her body for. She had broken through to tier 1 through hard work, but that was it. She knew it, which was why she couldn't reject the offer. The weight on her shoulders wouldn't let her.

“But I can teach you so many things! I can teach you to see. I can teach you to act like you were always meant to. I can teach you how to reforge that pathetic shell of mundane flesh into an indestructible weapon.”

Kara gathered all the strength she could muster. Slowly she moved her hands beneath her torso and began to push against the force keeping her down.

She had read the stories. Demons, Angels, Spirits and Fey. They all offered whatever you really wanted. But it never went well. The deal was always rigged.

“I can give you eyes that will never fail, no matter how long you stare into the sun.”

Kara froze for a moment, the offer incredibly tempting. Moments later she resumed her push. Her arms strained and trembled as she fought against the weight on her shoulders. The rejection was at the tip of her tongue, but she couldn't force it out.

“The power I can gift you will be enough. I can show you sights you would have never dreamt of. Everything you could have ever wanted at the tips of your fingers, no matter what it might be. Men, women, wealth, power or fame.”

The voice paused for a moment, a questioning hum echoing out.

“No, it's revenge isn't it?”

Kara's arms gave out as she crashed to the floor.

"Ahh a kindred spirit then! I was on the path of revenge once. I know how you must feel."

Kara wanted to deny, to refuse. These stories never went well. The one that struck the deal always suffered. But the weight on her shoulders would not let her lie.

Deep down she knew. She knew that she was better than these idiots that got taken advantage of.

But she was better than them. She knew that she wouldn't be taken advantage of, because she has read the stories. She knew that she was destined for greatness.

Between clenched teeth, Kara forced out a strained "I accept!"