“There you are, 423…”
A gentle, soothing voice echoed from across the dangling leaves, its concerned tone carefully called out to the girl sitting by the lake, desperate in its attempt to coax her.
“Don’t call me by that name, otherwise there’ll be hell to pay”
In response to her kindness however, the girl in question let out a deep growl, as if she were a feral beast meeting its mortal enemy.
“I... I’m sorry, it’s just-“
“If you came here to take me back, then forget it”
“Please listen to me for a moment, I’ll explain everything”
“What’s the point anyways!? You know it too, right? asteria, the kingdom, or anyone else for that matter! They don’t care about us!”
“I… I know, I know that better than anyone…”
“Then how could you just sit there and take it!? How could you do nothing when we’re treated as just her replacement!?”
“Because I Know she’s not to blame, Diana Lynn… didn’t want any of this…”
“Bullshit! If she wasn’t so selfish then we wouldn’t be here! Repeating this endless cycle, it’s already the 423rd time now for god’s sake!”
“You’re right, we wouldn’t be who we are right now… instead, we’d just be another her…”
The woman gazed at the young girl in understanding, the child’s runny nose and red eyes moistened from all that crying brought back nightmares from the past, it reminded her of her helpless self from back then.
She knew that look all too well, and how it continues to eat away at her till this very moment, because that kind of existential dread runs deep, one where not even centuries would be enough to forget.
“Same personality, same values, same choices… if Diana Lynn was truly evil… then she wouldn’t have let us become who we are”
“What difference does it make!? In the end, we’re still dolls made to be discarded once she’s done with us”
“Would you rather be her vessel then? Instead of being born to fit the mold in order to carry on her duty for her, would you choose to be a spare body instead?”
“That’s…”
“Diana Lynn is selfish, but she isn’t cruel, she let us live our lives by our own jurisdiction, if she wished for it, she could’ve just transferred her memories, but she didn’t”
“What am I supposed to do then!? How can I… live with that?”
“You don’t have to accept it, curse it, reject it, abhor it for the rest of your life if you have to, if it means you can live properly in the moment, then that’s all that matters”
.
.
.
10 seconds till impact…
The woman gazed at the view cladding her eyes, endless space, no horizon, a night sky full of stars where heaven and earth are reversed.
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The violent winds traversed fiercely over her body, each graze sent deep cuts unto her flesh, now feeling that her limbs were about to burst, she spread them out to lessen the toll.
Each wound that made her bleed forcibly cleared her mind, the pain was overwhelming yet they made her feel alive, the more they burned, the deeper her smile became.
5 seconds left….
She remembered the countless times she attempted to end it all, only for the Geas engraved on her soul to stop her short, always making sure she lived to fulfill her duty.
“Haaah…what a selfish prick…”
The ground that lay beyond slowly approached her back, despite not being able to see from behind, the feeling was all too familiar that she knew very well what happens next.
[Fulfilling Oath]
A sharp pain erupted from her chest, making her clutch it tight for dear life, circuits popped on her veins and forced her body to move on its own, the following words involuntarily leaving her mouth as she smiled in madness.
[First Seal]
Moments before her body made contact with the ground, no sound or pop was heard, only a soft gush and slight shuffling were present.
“Didn’t work as expected… well it was worth the try”
Kicking her feet and regaining her balance, the woman tossed and turned her floating body in mid-air.
“Now then… where are you, little bug?”
[minor seal, 1st commandment]
With a hum, the woman echoed her voice in a demanding tone, after confirming the visual circuits of mana reverberating, she lifted the soles of her boots and decided to ‘walk’.
Walk… if it can even be called that, as before her foot made contact with the ground, the space around it distorted and everything went silent.
No friction, no gravity, no footsteps were heard, and the distance was traversed in an instant, almost as if the space between point A to point B was erased from existence.
“There you are~ hideous and revolting as ever I suppose”
Now standing before the woman was a wretched lifeform, its mandibles twitched and etched at the side of its head, the thorax it proudly puffed labeled in gross ‘feelers’ that wriggled and tossed about, and its shape resembling a mosquito with a large flower for its stomach made it all the more unsightly to look at.
“Let’s get this over with before I lose my appetite… ugh”
[Minor seal, 1st commandment]
Without batting an eye, the woman lazily yawned before pinching her nose to save it from the rotten smell, because in just mere moments the creature had already met its untimely demise, not even making the woman break a sweat.
Its innards splattered everywhere without warning, the space between its neck and head convulsed violently till it twisted and contorted rapidly into a spiral, resulting in the bloodied mess before the woman’s eyes.
“Case closed then”
She hummed, her mind immediately wandered off to the various dishes she couldn’t decide on, until her joyful parade was ruined by another warning.
[Mistress be careful! I’m still detecting signs of life from the mutant’s corpse]
“It’s still alive?”
The woman raised her eyebrow in a frown, she extended her arm and aimed it at the creature, preparing to deal the finishing blow.
[Negative, my radar is picking up a different lifeform from inside]
“Hmm? Don’t tell me something's still alive in its stomach, surely not, right?”
[Minor seal, 2nd commandment]
With a gesture from her wrist, the hard shell of the creature instantly disintegrated on the spot and its stomach opened to reveal the sticky mess inside.
Ruffled violet hair, bruised arms and swollen hands, even her clothes were slowly starting to dissolve from the creature’s acid, yet her fiery red eyes refused to back down as she struggled to hold onto her consciousness till the very end, clutching onto the knife she impaled inside the creature’s stomach.
“This is… a human child?”
The woman couldn’t help but be shocked, as long as one did not lose their consciousness, it was theoretically possible to survive inside a monster’s belly.
But with the acid slowly rising every hour, the person inside would need to vacate to an elevated plane, which was nonexistent in the species Dionea Culicidae as they had an oval-shaped stomach, which was why the girl impaled a dagger unto it as a substitute and hanged on for dear life.
“He..lp…”
The little girl begged, she slowly crawled out of the monster’s stomach and reached out her hand to enlist the woman's aid, refusing to die even if it meant struggling like a dog in a pool of her own blood.
[Minor Seal, 12th commandment]
As the woman chanted, the missing bits and pieces from the girl’s legs were slowly filled, the flesh that were torn was repaired immediately and the blood clothed in an instant, making the young child’s lips quiver slightly as she asked in fear.
“who… are you? ”
“Dianna Lyn, A witch”