“Nothing much. You just need to die for me, little Demon”
An eerie Silence devours the place. Though before long, the clock of life begins turning again.
Sara continues: “I have to thank you for choosing a place not many people frequent,” she puts a hand to her face “Now, I can finally take you down. In a one-on-one, in a fight that will go down in history! Come at… me.”
She says while… suppressing a smile on her face?
“Our battle will be legendary– pfft”
The receptionist bursts out laughing “I can´t, your face, this is just too funny,” she holds her stomach.
Vienessa looks genuinely confused, understandably so. Sara wipes a tear from her eye “Oh man, I couldn´t pull through. I always wondered how it´d feel saying those cheesy lines, but in the end I just couldn´t keep it together”
With some final giggles she manages to get a grip on herself “Sorry, I didn´t really mean any of that, I´m not here to harm you. It´s just that all this pretending really got to me, you know? Especially that overly polite talking. It sounds elegant I guess, but keeping it up the entire time is honestly exhausting… I had to let off some steam, you surely understand don´t you?”
“Quit it, who the hell are you and what do you want?” Vienessa demands as she appraises Sara
[Higher Administrator detected]
[Requesting Access]
[Access denied]
“Wha–
Vienessa tumbles to the ground as if an invisible gale just hit her
“Ah, that´s right. I was really surprised when I saw you had |Absolute Appraisal| too. It was really useful back in the days. Sorry, I´ll have to block you out for now. But that’s beside the point”
Sara snaps her fingers to which a huge shockwave engulfs everything, freezing time itself for everyone but her and Vienessa
“Ugh–!” Vienessa tries to block the gust with her arms, she has to give everything to not be sent flying against the force
Through a small gap between her arms, she sees Sara being wrapped in a cocoon of pure darkness until only a pulsating silhouette remains. The Silhouette changes form, it sprouts wings and horns, and as the transformation finishes the cocoon vanishes
“Ah, it´s been so long. Feels so good without disguise”
In place of Sara, a picturesque woman appears:
Silky flowing hair and feathered wings like that of a fallen angel, both features black like the edges of the galaxy and darker than the void. Her red eyes stand out like the bloodmoon on a lightless night sky, especially her left pupil which is shaped like an ancient inscribed rune of infinite power. Her horns appear so majestic that one might think they were artificially crafted, a crown designated to its rightful owner. Her body was sculptured with the aim of perfection, or so it would seem, a godly hull no mortal could even fathom to attain. Yet her gorgeous skin evinces the unmissable scars of battle, marks that clearly proof her current might was something that didn´t just fall into her lap.
Vienessa just managed to stand up, but she falls to the floor again from the overpowering Aura. Her knees gave out just looking at the being before her. This presence may rival, or even overshadow that of her father. Sara, she´s… a Demon too
“So, what do you think?” ´Sara´ asks happily as she stretches. Vienessa doesn´t answer but instead retreats backward. “Oh, right, I´m sorry, that was careless of me.”
Suddenly, the intense aura becomes much more bearable. Then, the Demon snaps her fingers again. Dark matter in which a universe is sealed comes into existence out of thin air and launches at Vienessa:
The girl is caught in a blink. She shouts and struggles, though to no avail: “L-Let me go!”
The dark splits into two: One part holds Vienessa captive, the other takes the form of two chairs and a small, round table. ´Sara´ pulls one of the chairs back to sit down in and leans on her elbows. Then, with a downward motion of her finger, she compels the darkness to seat Vienessa in the other chair. The girl, unable to move, grits her teeth.
“Now now, don´t look at me like that. I already told you that killing you wasn´t my goal, right? Oh and don´t worry, I´m not going to hurt you either,” ´Sara´ says “You know, earlier today when you just waltzed into the Center Guild? Yeah, I almost lost my marbles. I thought you were long dead for sure, what a miracle you´re not! For now, I´m just here to talk, so please don´t be that much on edge”
Vienessa makes out a hint of excitement in the Demon´s mesmerizing, hypnotizing voice. A voice as beautiful as a Siren´s song. It makes Vienessa believe that ´Sara´ speaks the truth, she wants to believe it. But the girl manages to snap out of it and reaches the right decision to not trust her so easily. Instead, she snarls right into her face
“What a stubborn girl you are,” ´Sara´ sighs “Here, I´ll even release you. Just don´t run away, okay?” She says as the dark unwraps from Vienessa´s body, freeing her from all bindings. “Now, will you listen to–
Vienessa runs as fast as she can
Activating all her |Skills| that possibly could give her a boost in speed, she makes it around the corner almost instantly
Or at least that´s what she´d hoped
Right before the turn, she hears another sigh from the Demon behind. The soft sound seems so close that it startles the girl, as if whispered right into her ear.
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Her leg is caught.
Before knowing what happened, she finds herself dangling upside down in the air, a scary face right in hers.
“Fine, let´s have it your way then,” ´Sara´ crosses her arms and turns her head away like a Tsundere, creating a large gap between her overwhelming image and behavior. “Look, I promise I´ll let you go later. You just have to talk with me for a bit…”
´Sara´ trails off seeing the incredibly hostile look on the girl´s face. “Fine, I´ll let you hang there for a bit, just tell me when you´re ready,” the Demon eventually says before sitting on one of the chairs again and leaning backward “I´ll just take a small break then. I know I´ve said that already, but it´s really draining to pretend all day every day. I wasn´t in my true form for ages now, can you believe that? Well, more like months, but still, I deserve some slack too! Don´t you think so as well?”
No, the girl evidently doesn´t think so as well: ´Help´ would be closer to describing how she feels
--
It´s been almost an hour now. Vienessa has tried everything to free herself from the bindings: Clawing, biting, tearing. At one point she even managed to rip halfway through the dark matter. But as soon as she got all excited for a chance to escape, the black grew back together in a fraction of a second. The next thing Vienessa heard was ´Sara´s´ laughing
“Your face!” is what she said, rolling on the floor.
Well, she´s right to some degree. It´s not every day you see an expression change from surprised to hopeful to shocked to desperate and finally to annoyed over the span of seconds.
But now, the anger from being played around with faded, and nothing´s left but fear. Then, after nothing happened for a while, the fear faded too and what lasted was boredom.
The girl looks at Sara who´s playing her third round of chess against the dark matter on a board and with pieces she just created at some point. The dark matter seems to be losing, Vienessa could swear she just saw it frown over its last move which turned out a blunder. Sara in turn shows a confident smile on her face.
“Fine…” Vienessa mumbles through gritted teeth
“What was that?” Sara looks up from her game
“I said fine, I´ll talk,” the girl repeats and turns her head away, but somehow Sara is right in front of her, where she averted her gaze to.
Vienessa jerks back and quickly looks at the empty seat where she could swear the Demon was sitting just now
“You mean it? You´re ready to talk?” ´Sara´ asks and pulls the girl´s eyes to her again
“…Yes”
“And you won´t try to run? Like the last 6 times?”
“…”
“Fine, I´ll let you down now. So don´t move, okay?”
The dark matter carefully lowers Vienessa back to the ground. ´Sara´ is ready for the girl to make a break for it at any moment now, but Vienessa remains sitting there.
“Oh?” The Demon now expectantly looks down at the girl, waiting for her to say something
“Tsk,” Vienessa clicks her tongue “So? What do you want from me?”
Upon hearing that, ´Sara´s´ lips turn upward as if it´s the happiest moment in her life: “So you´re finally ready to talk! Then come over here, let´s make ourselves comfortable. I´ve prepared some snacks in the time you were brooding,” she gestures the girl to the table.
Vienessa reluctantly gets on her feet and follows. She hesitates a little before sitting down in the pitch-black chair. Nobody can blame her though, looking at it closely, it feels like she could just fall through the illusion of a seating and right into the pits of endless hell. But then again, she doesn´t really have a choice here.
She squints her eyes and sits down. To her surprise, it´s very comfortable. It feels as if she just sat down on a warm cloud. No amount of cushioning could replicate such a pleasant sensation, she´s sure of that. And because Vienessa expected the worst, she appreciates the good outcome much more than she initially would have. It makes her impression of the Demon almost go up. Almost.
Her eyes fall on the table where she sees a bowl filled with a bunch of thin and round yellow things that she assumes are the snacks ´Sara´ talked about
“Caught your eye?” ´Sara´ notices the girl looking “They´re potato chips. Please, take some. They´re safe to eat. Here, see?” she says and puts a few chips into her mouth, crunching down on them. Vienessa takes a single lsice and inspects it in her hand, then sniffs it. She sees ´Sara´ prompting her to eat it already, so the girl finally bites down
The flavor immediately spread in her mouth. For a split second, her eyes seem to sparkle. It´s good. So she immediately takes another.
“It´s good, right?” ´Sara´ smiles “Sweet Chilli Flavor. They´re my favorites from back home,” she says and watches the girl eat for a little while.
“So, my name´s Aria,” the Demon finally gives her true name. The girl looks up at her, still suspicious, though not as much as she was in the beginning. It somehow… feels like it got easier to approach her. And the dark matter doesn´t seem so bad either now, or maybe she just got used to it. Vienessa looks at the dark and sees the dark smiling back at her, or something like that anyways.
“Say, does the name ´Azzath´ ring a bell?” Aria pulls the girl out of her daydream. Vienessa raises a brow, then slowly shakes her head. “Hmm, thought as much. Well, you were still a baby, no wonder you don´t remember your father´s name.”
“It´s not that I don´t remember, I just never got to hear it,” Vienessa corrects
“Oh? So how much do you know?”
“I know he´s the |Demon Lord|, and I also know he insulted and abandoned me”
Aria notices that Vienessa got slightly emotional during that last sentence. She observes her for a bit before continuing. “So? What´s your plan? Kick his ass?”
“You fucking bet”
“Didn´t even miss a beat,” Sara laughs
“So what?” Vienessa hisses “You´re gonna stop me?”
“Who, me? Hell no. Quite the opposite, I think your ambitions are quite wonderful.”
Vienessa didn´t quite expect that response.
“You see, you´re not the only one. The |Demon Lord´s| been a thorn in my eye for ages,” Aria says and stands up from her chair which dissipates into thin air shortly after. Vienessa, following Aria´s actions, stands up as well.
“Well, I´m glad to announce I can let you go much sooner than expected then”
“What do you mean? That´s it? You´re really satisfied with just that?”
“Satisfied? I´m ecstatic, my little Princess”
“Don´t call me that”
“Oh? Sorry sorry, didn´t think this much would ruin your mood,” Aria taunts, not the slightest bit apologetic. “Well then, I just want you to know that I´m not your enemy then, and I hope you´ll come to trust me one day. Here, a little something as a token of my support. Only for you”
Aria´s left eye begins glowing, the rune inside changes form as a part of the black aura flows into Vienessa:
[ W̷̖̣̐̒̃́0̸̛̫́ͅJ̶̠̾̅s̴̞̋Z̶̡͉͐͌X̸̣͎̣̍͑N̸̞͍͗̐̂͜ͅz̵̮̦̥̄̉͛à̸͇̹̒̎̒ͅW̷̺̖̭̟̆̚5̴̢̗̜͂̽ͅņ̵̖͍̜͋͛̑͘Í̴̘̯͠G̷̘̅̓9̵͙͔͉̑̌͜m̸̖̤̙͔͒I̶̘̠͗̑̄͛H̴̬͌̈́R̵͉̈́͊o̵̧̲͍̬͂̀̑Z̵̞͕͆̀͗ͅS̶̖͐͘B̵̧̕E̴̤̻̟̾̀Z̶͕̹̓W̴̙̘̰͝͝1̷̨͔̠͍̆͒v̷̖͚͈̿͛̍ḃ̶̕ͅḯ̴̟̹̞̞B̴͕̮͉̌Ị̶͊̕͝Ỳ̴̘̰̩̩̎̃̒X̷̺̤̍͛J̷̤̈̌̒w̸̙͉͑͝e̸̩̘̜̺̒͛̎͘V̸͈̼͂0̸̭̊͐= ]
[Title: Shackled has been enforced]
“Ah and before I forget, don´t show your back to anyone who looks... let´s say important. They´ll find out you´re Demon Royalty. Believe me, you don´t want that. Well then, see you around, Vienessa. How did this triangle guy take his leave again? Ah yes: Remember!RealityIsAnIllusionTheUniverseIsAHologramBuyGoldByeeeee!”
“W-what? Wait–
But Aria already disappeared without a trace, and the world around has already begun to move again again. Just like that, as if nothing ever happened.
Vienessa looks at her outstretched hand that´s task should´ve been to grab for Aria. She notices it´s trembling. Slowly taking her arm back, she leans against the stone wall of a random house. Her breathing is slightly ragged, uncontrolled. She tries to calm it down while sliding into a sitting position
“I couldn´t read her. I couldn´t read her at all...” she hugs her knees. “Dangerous. Unpredictable people are… dangerous.”
You know, for once I agree with the her, they are.