Looking around I figured quickly that even though everything looked so lax, these knights and grand commanders were always on guard. Always holding some form of weapon as well, none of them had anything as imposing as grand commander Ciaran’s moonlight blade. However, two people stood out to me the most, one sat playing chess on the marble steps of the citadel and the other knelt on the roof above with a glistening moonbow in her hand. The two of them seemed to be of feline appearance but that’s where the similarities ended.

I recognized one as Monarch, her two nicknames were more known to me ‘Frost Eyes’ and ‘Winter’s fox’. Monarch was the only kitsune to have the ability of Frost mane which is a type of winter Arcana not to be confused with ice mana or black frost. The other kitsune have arcana and mana, some more powerful than others such as Astyria’s muse arcana. Somehow that didn’t even compare to Frost Mane which if unleashed fully could cause a small snowfall for five days.

Somehow Monarch was also special in the sense that her body didn’t fully follow the conventional means of kitsunes. Her albino fur and crystal blue eyes were a defect in genetics which made her stand out quite a bit not to mention her ten tails. Monarch having ten tails was seen as an omen of danger for some odd reason, yet Amaterasu had ten tails to denote she was the first kitsune and their queen.

The other feline humanoid seemed to be of the cat sub-race. From the names exchanged the bronze-haired Artemi was named Nue who also seemed to be a grand commander the third ever to be exact. Taking my eye off Monarch I figured out quickly that Nue was the most dangerous whilst calm. For some reason like when I stared into the hollow abyss inside my sister’s eyes, I got a similar feeling from Nue but in the sense of a hot forge burning.

“We’ve got a lot of catching up to do.”

…

Rias pendragon

An unspecified time ago

Wasn’t long after I began to remember being Sif that many things in this underground moral room became apparent to me. Various things from that life were either left out in history because of oryan wiping me from the annuls or through me being cursed. One thing out of it all however was the first thing I remembered my eldritch appearance, the true face of the god of war. A face all eldritch remember. The actual appearance was similar in a way to the drawing in Rold’s notebook.

The eldritch appearance was a ten to twelve-winged black shadow-covered body with elongated elegant horns. On each wing, dozens of small eyes were placed without a clear placing pattern to them. The eyes seemed to cover my left arm also not having a clear pattern to them, all the eyes had one distinct feature the irises were tinged blood red. The female body itself though covered in shadow various features could be seen somewhat okay such as the eyes, nails, mouth and so on.

Thinking on this for far longer than I imagined even into my sleep, landed me in a place I had been familiar only in this life. The blank city of white, that mindscape except right now I was in a different area of it. Not being able to quite tell from everything being white I tried to look around only seeing shelves upon shelves of books. As everything was white, I couldn’t tell if things were real or fake not even being able to tell what material it was made out of. One thing was certain, the books around this room were real.

Holding my hand over one of many books I felt the rough texture of a particular hardcover spine with ridges indented into the shape of letters. The name of the book was ‘Sun Killer’. After I picked it up, something shifted behind like feet stepping over cold flooring whilst wearing a set of hard sole boots. The person however didn’t show any hostility. In doing so I didn’t spring on my step as I saw no point in it honestly. The person didn’t seem that surprised by my presence.

“Orin.” The emperor of Pthulminth looked towards me after shifting his hand across several novels and placed it on a shelf adjacent to me maybe fifteen to twenty feet away. His expression wasn’t one of relief but a brutal honesty of pleasant surprise, I could tell because of how familiar I was with his expressions. His sharp features became more pronounced with the movement of the artificial sun above, shining through a rather large ornate skylight. Orin stepped towards me making it rather apparent how much taller he was than me. After the experiments the small boy I knew from the outskirts of Tramon’s capital had grown into a near eight-foot-tall giant.

From five thousand years ago, he looked incredibly different to now. In those times he looked nothing special. Now he seemed to proudly wear his original appearance maybe even his eldritch appearance if he still knew how to force it out. His eldritch appearance was something I had only seen once like many eldritch, its name was seen more ‘The Black berserker’. His eldritch form was an eight-foot tall wolfman covered in rustic black spiked armour. This armour constantly leaked a scent of death that would make anyone who breathed it in begin to see hallucinations and visions that make them become mindless. Orin hated using it so through his own genius he created ‘nother eldritch form. ‘Black shuck’ this eldritch form is a fifteen-foot-tall thin-framed wolf covered in sharp fur with hollow white eyes.

Right now, though I was looking at his actual appearance of a sharp-featured older gentleman maybe in his mid-fifties. Hailing from northern Tramon he had many of the defining features of their less brutish brethren, such as the mid-part hair. Orin as of right now seemed to be shaven sporting a very short beard. It wasn’t patchy by any means. This beard style of his hid some of his sharp features like his jawline, thankfully the rest of his face was saved from the same fate. Not taking my eyes from him other than his greying dirty blonde hair, his auburn bronze eyes had a nice vibrant copper glint to them. After some time, he spoke up placing his book back on the colourless shelf.

“Art- Rias.” Orin corrected himself avoiding my eyes. Orin then seemed to bow his head slightly, his emotions really coming through the way he stood. This gave me the chance to try and make small talk and also take a look at what he was wearing. Orin currently wore a three-piece suit without the blazer making it more of a two-piece. Just like myself, Orin wore it mostly with black such as black trousers and a waistcoat, his shirt and shoes however were something like a mahogany crimson red. The Chelsea boot that he wore well took on more of the mahogany colour, unexpectedly the boot didn’t have a black sole but a brownish blood red.

Orin’s slim-fitting shirt took on a slightly more crimson colour with accents of mahogany red mainly in the buttons and cufflinks, the cufflinks felt more pronounced on the black fabric cuffs so did the buttons on the black collar. The fabrics seemed to be various types made only or gathered in Pthulminth such as the Giza cotton and woven cloth. The was carefully tucked into the thin-fitting trousers. His appearance wasn’t extravagant by any means compared to many leaders like the shogun of Nihon or the kings of Onrath. Orin didn’t seem out of place either simply because of his renown and the fear his title alone gives off.

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In my opinion, his simple but elegant choice of clothing matched his demeanour and aura. ‘I wonder if his daughter Morgan still dresses like her father?’ I thought watching Orin begin to sit on a chair out looking at the barren white world. Orin looked from me to then the chair opposite him, without saying a word I complied with that book I picked up earlier in hand. The world shifted becoming bright with colours overloading my senses for a moment. The white world changed as I sat opposite the man who I once fought against and fought beside.

“I want to ask what happened five thousand years ago for me to become your enemy. After our last interaction under the black-leaved apple tree… I was imprisoned inside Yggdrasil city. I don’t remember anything until a thousand years ago. What happened?” Orin seemed unsure of what happened to him as he asked.

“I began a conquest intending to kill you for attempting to send assassins to kill me. However, this then sparked conflict killing Hera, and all my allies leaving me alone to die at Mordid’s and Ludwig’s hands. If you were imprisoned at this time, then who was it?” I replied asking something of my own which I hoped he had the answer to. At first, Orin didn’t reply just rolling his sleeves up. Though his arms were covered in markings and tattoos mainly found in Tramon and Torosk. In areas where the skin was uneven and patching, I could tell it was produced through burns and torturing the flesh.

“Why would—someone who knew us well might have done this but assassins? That’s not like me I'd rather kill someone myself. Anyway, I should explain my side of the story. After I left you that day, I returned to Yggdrasil city to tell oryan to renounce my eldritch godhood. Before I could… I was imprisoned. I’ve slowly begun to remember my imprisonment under the great roots. I wasn’t alone as Redeemer was a prisoner with me. Even redeemer doesn’t remember those years.” Orin seemed sincere in his wording offering full-length explanations of what happened. I then recounted everything that happened when I began my conquest killing more than just kings even gods and eldritch gods.

The more I told of that life, the more Orin’s face changed to something akin to deep thinking trying to place parts together. Orin’s mind lingered on the moments when I explained to him of me killing eldritch gods and the deity killing beings such as the Valkyries under Oryan’s command. Orin replied to me that those Valkyries are mostly gone thanks to Kaine and her angels Valkyries who are now under their own law still following Sif well me. Six’s Valkyries that I killed as Artura weren’t just following orders from Oryan, but two other beings called the supreme being and Talon.

“From what I’ve been told this Talon has been stuck somewhere for quite some time, he may even be Talos in disguise, this supreme being however I have no idea who they are nor what they look like.” Though Orin doesn’t know what the supreme being is, he does know what the person's talon looks like from what the guards of his cell described them as anyway. They said that the figure was a being who wore rough clothing patched up with rough sewing, two things stood out more than others the talon-like gauntlet he wore on his left hand and the cracked glasses.

“Anyhow from the look of your face there is something you want to know, correct?” he implied tapping the book that I had picked up before now in full colour like the white world around. Whilst my focus was on the world that was coloured in a way that made it look like a watercolour painting, I nodded wanting to know something about the book like Orin was implying.

“It’s a fascinating read, from what I can tell you it's about a little girl who dreamed of a world she could escape to like a fantasy. This world essentially is her way of coping with the troubles that plague her even her family probably explains why she befriends a bunny and hat maker. Without spoiling I'll say the ending leaves a lot to be answered… why did you pick that one anyway?” I just shrugged at his question still taking in the world around me. I knew the book’s premise as Sifta once explained it to me, yet Orin did a better job of it. The book now showed another name something along the lines of ‘In Wonderland’.

Only knew that part because Alex bloody loved the book a lot more than Sifta did who only read it because she got bored one day. Moving back onto the topic I asked a question that I was constantly thinking how the hell was Orin in this place?

“To put it simply, this place was constructed by Rayenfur I believe. Somehow, finding myself in here when I was fighting the concept of creation, the creator at the time. I made a deal with the previous guardian of this place to protect it from foreign invaders, sometimes beings go unnoticed like that being that took your arm. Don’t worry he was dealt with appropriately.”

“Who was the previous guardian?” I asked my voice horse, rough and dry as if I had something stuck in my throat. Orin didn’t speak but rather he showed me, time itself wrapped around his fingers like he was manipulating it coming even with a little bit of fate mixed into it. A mannequin around six and a half feet tall stood beside us both, over time Orin formed its features. First, he started with clear sea blue eyes then moved down to the cheeks that became rosy. After so he constructed the pointed elven ears, after he constructed the elongated ears, two antler-like horns protruded from her forehead. After making sure the face was right, he moved on to the dyed dark tulip hair that flowed down towards the waist. After he did the hair, he moved on to constructing a female appearance that matched her height.

She was by no means skeletal or gangly thin, she was larger in muscle mass than any average elven knight or smith. After he constructed the body, he covered her in runic symbols and patterns even those not coming from our world. One rune stuck out to me however it was the primordial rune of the concept of protection and ward, I turned back to Orin who paid me no mind and then covered this very human-looking mannequin in clothes. After he also covered the body with distinct scarring and burns.

The clothes weren’t over the top like some would think for a being such as her. She didn’t dress like an elf or a Levithan. The clothes that were put on her were more of another time so to speak, the mannequin wore a slim-fitting greying t-shirt untucked from some ground worker trousers that were knotted over semi-knee-high boots that were slowly falling apart, after a moment of Orin being done with carving the figure, I looked towards it not recognising them one bit.

“She may look like an elf born from an elf father and leviathan mother, but she is someone more than that. Her name is Viviana Kaliryxian, technically you’ve already met, and you do meet on occasion-.” I tried to speak pausing Orin in his own speech, he only raised his hand halting my chance to speak up. He then continued “In the future, she will teach you things that no one else can, if you're curious I can also tell you what race she is a part of.” I nodded in response. Orin nodded in return clicking his fingers with a snap purple mote of fate and silver sparks of time sputtered out of the collision of flesh.

A thin piece of velvet green fabric twenty by twelve centimetres appeared in his palm. Not holding it for long he placed it on the table, the green fabric was embroidered with a monarch blue butterfly. This symbol of the monarch blue butterfly embroidered on a velvet green sheet was infamous for one singular sect of a twisted race of amalgamated creatures. Technically this race is just a sub-race of another.

“Is she a djinn or shaman then?” I asked recounting what I had learnt from Rold’s notebook which outlined the shamans and djinn coming from the seers who were created by the old god Vetra. This piece of fabric came from the djinn, according to Rold’s notebook the djinn used embroidered fabric as a sign of citizenship.

“Ah no. She isn't a djinn, shaman or elf. She is what they call a chimera think of them akin to elves and fairies just without the ability to talk to nature or wish to drink from the destructive djinn. The chimera sub-race have the ability to control time and influence it to their bidding, she like the shaman queen adonis is the true last descendant of their kind. I’d also consider her as one of the strongest beings in existence.” Orin paused making me look into his eyes not allowing me to look away.

“Listen to me Rias. Viviana may not sound like much from what you see and what I've told you but she’s so fucking strong that it ain’t even funny. I fear her power and now she’s taken an interest in you. Oh, looks like it's time.” Orin nodded upwards to his left as a doorway of light appeared. Clicking his fingers once again Orin and I were standing before the doorway of light, the orange heat of said light began to brighten as the doorway shifted to a different location, at first I thought I had awoken here. From the look on Orin’s face and the shifting of the portal, I must have been completely transported here.

Stepping before the doorway of light I turned back to Orin who handed me the fabric.

“Rias eventide that’s a nice name suits you better than Sif or Artura ever did. Rias when you remember your life as Sif in full I'll ask you then if you want to fulfil our promise to each other.” With a smile I agreed turning towards the portal I took a step closer only to stop when Orin spoke up again. “There is one other thing I need to ask.”

“…And what would that be?” I raised a brow looking back at Orin.

With a bemused look, he looked me in the eyes and inquired “From now on… the elder races, primordials even eldritch will treat you differently. Some will treat you as an enemy, some will consider you an ally, even some will call you friend but the thing I need to ask is what will you call yourself to those races? How will you refer to yourself in their presence what do you want them to call you?”

“I never really thought about it as I was always either called tyrant or God slayer even just whore by them all. If I had to pick something to be called… I-I’m not sure. Me and the devil no that seems too long and out of touch. Oh!” I exclaimed like a light bulb started to glow above me.

“Oh?”

“SunKiller.”