In the dimness of Hamstagg road, Orb swayed around like a dancer, shattering the skullcaps of human carcasses emerging from the rubbles and steam vents. Snarling teeth and creeping limbs rushed toward Alicia out of her hunger, but their decaying flesh was no match for Alicia's strength and ease. She did not feel nauseous when seeing the rotten flesh. She felt nothing but pique and wrath.

Oftentimes, she felled building bars and poles to clamp down on the walking dead. Then, Arcane plasma seared their faces with a fury that fueled her every move. She kept firing at one of the fallen undead until the beam pierced the ground, and the unleash remained despite the corpse not. Blood tainted her face and round glasses.

The deed was done. Alicia sat weakly on the dusty road and took a quiet breath. But her respite was short-lived as she heard a loud snickering atop the building. A mage appeared and descended, approaching her. The source of the snicker. Agosh Grendi, the renowned masked necromancer of the Demon Continent, strolled towards her while chortling.

"Alicia, Alicia, Alicia," sneered the necromancer, "Will you, will you be my bride, Alicia? Let us rule the world together!"

"You!" Alicia stood back up, her resolve strengthened by her anger. "I won't forget what you did. Don't you dare move, necromancer!"

"What a waste, what a waste! You might prefer if I treat you as a corpse slave!"

Agosh summoned a sickle-blade from his staff and flew towards Alicia at lightning speed, but she repulsed the blade with Orb's force field. The Arcane Dome was absorbed into a singular point and then enlarged into a giant globe before she launched it towards his belly. Agosh was dragged a few metres away from her, but Alicia heard no complaints but screams of laughter, increasingly disturbing.

The ground exploded and Plaxenin-3499 emerged, as per Agosh's request. He commanded the monster to spit out corrosive maggots at the lass. Alicia stood more shrewd this time, running in zigzag, flawlessly avoiding any exposure to the larvae. With Orb's help, she aimed the building's façade to hoard Agosh, who turned out to be more careless than expected. The devil's laughter was no longer in the air.

However, if she thought she could sit back down, she was gravely mistaken. A magic shot hit the girl from behind, causing her to stumble. Alicia turned her head. The masked wizards stood before her, with their pointed wands ready to hurl another fire. But not all of their masks were intact. She found her relatives—whom she called Spencer, Doyle, Uncle John, and Aunt Aimee—donning their shattered masks.

"Crimsonmane bastard," Spencer scoffed, "dinnae think you're going to be of any use. Leave the orb with us, and we shall give you a quiet death."

She doubted now. She still felt unable to kill those related by blood, though it was the complete opposite for the four Crimsonmane wizards. But if her own life was at stake, she also had no other choice.

"Stop calling me a bastard," Alicia warned them.

"But you are a bastard," Spencer replied.

"I'm not a bastard!"

"All pure-blood Crimsonmane descendants perform magic. But you cannot without the orb. What else if your mother didnae open her fanny for another knob, a fancy knob of a magic-less peasant?"

"Stop insulting my mother!"

"Your family is a disgrace! Bastard!"

"Silence!"

Alicia dashed and discharged the dark wizards, who just stood there one by one like chess pawns. When it was the turn for the Crimsonmane mages, they hid among their black-shrouded fellowmen and ambushed her when the chance arose. Alicia managed to shoot Spencer's wand out of his hand, but she was not fast enough to attack the others. The other relatives strangled Alicia's limbs as Spencer threw his punches at her stomach and face without mercy!

Alicia had to realign with Orb, although the raw jab bombardments on her face were relentless, which made it easier for her to suffocate than to focus. Her legs were able to grab the fallen Orb and suddenly, she screamed while making an enormous explosion of Arcane energy! The four malicious ones were thrown away and passed out on the spot.

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As if knowing there would be another event waiting for her, Alicia re-formed her Arcane protective dome. Sure enough, the throng of insects numbering in the thousands swarmed the sacred force field, stinging the Arcane's defence, aching Alicia as a result. Then, amidst the humming black fog, the gas-masked mage of insects dashed and stormed onto the protective dome.

The pain from the magic bugs did not bother Alicia as much as it did back then. She must take a deep breath while figuring out her next plan. Once again, the divine curse fell upon her; a pair of hands came from the middle of nowhere and strangled her neck! Alicia and Orb were pulled into the broken, empty space.

Both hands threw Alicia. An Eastern rite sorcerer named Merlin was before her, along with his three bodyguards and the magic monks. The mirror dimension, the spectacled lady assumed. Evident when she saw the sheer fractured scene of the insect mage enraged by her sudden disappearance.

Merlin possessed a different magical aura from her other foes. Alicia, still supine she was, moved backwards with both hands in fear.

Merlin's hand reached out to her. "Come with us, we can help you."

"No. Away, away from me!"

The sky above Alicia and Merlin was consumed by darkness, black shades smothering the realm until nothing was visible. Merlin's words echoed eerily, "We need you, Alicia. Save us!"

As Alicia floated through the void, a familiar pair of eyes appeared before her. The same eyes she had seen in her dreams, each one a mesmerising swirl of purple and white. They stared at each other, waiting for the other to make a move. Alicia united her thoughts with Orb and made ready for another tiring battle.

Suddenly, the eyes glared with a blinding light, causing Alicia to stumble in the darkness. She tried to clear her vision, but her eyes were useless. Eventually, her sight returned, but her relief was short-lived as she felt a sharp pang in her chest. She looked down. A dagger was sticking out of her. A gift from a fang-masked shinobi before her.

"You should have come with us, but you prefer this kind of destiny, don’t you?" voiced the raucous sound coming from behind the fanged mask.

Merlin was still there. Everyone was there, looking down on Alicia puking on blood. The one who claimed to be the First Grand Magus clenched his fists as he stretched them forward, then turned the world upside down—his Reality Bending.

Alicia did not believe the world was truly upside down, apart from herself tilting due to her blood loss yet her internal organs were drowning in blood. Or perhaps she ought to suspend her disbelief this time, so she would not die a curious' death?

Both bore truth. Merlin indeed commanded the streets and buildings upturned. The helpless Alicia instead fell into the glittering sky through the tunnel of clouds.

The upended sky was a bottomless abyss. The longer she went through, the more gripping it got. The deeper she travelled, the darker her surroundings. Alicia passed the sparse star sprinkles until she found nothing but Khaos' eyes, re-emerged from nothing. The Primordial Opposition's left pupil widened, canines protruding from its infinite sides to welcome the approaching Alicia.

The infinite teeth tore her body into nothing but tatters of flesh and bone!

Alicia jolted awake from her sleep.

She bolted upright, drenched in cold sweat. Her heart pounded like a drum and her breath was hitched, trying to make sense of what madness drove such an experience. A terrifying dream indeed, shown by her loose t-shirt was already wet on the collar. The was no way she had a delirious exercise in the middle of the night!

One could not tell what was in her thought, to just wear loose clothes and underwear instead of pyjamas when sleeping as usual. Even the thick blanket was only a second layer of bedsheets to her, albeit the dry summer night air in Eidyn metropolitan should have made her frozen. But what could she expect? It had been two days since the recent incident that happened to her family. In her shaken state, the thought of peace slumber was a mirage. Her whole body was torrid even when cooled by the twilight.

A sharp knock on the door jolted her out of her thoughts. A masculine voice followed the banging. "Oi, Alicia! Ye awright? Dinnae tell me there's a new evil witch next to your bed. I’m barging in noo!"

"What? No, no, no!" Alicia yelled. "I'm alright, don't you dare break my bedroom door! I'm still wearing my underwear—"

There was a pause between them. Alicia covered her mouth, then slapped herself.

"What did ye say? What are ye still wearing?"

"F-forget it, Gilmore! Anyway, stay away from the door. I'll be out in a minute."

"Uh, okay. Nadine is cooking breakfast. Come 'ere immediately if ye dinnae wantae miss yer scran."

After the sound of Gilmore's footsteps drifted away, a little peace came to Alicia at last. Realising she saw nothing but blurry images, she put on her glasses. Orb was still nearby; they did not forget to exchange greetings, which now had become a tradition between them. A scorching light had already invaded the gaps in the brown curtains. The time was seven, and there was nothing more exciting outside than the sound of the city, muffled by the soundproofing of her room. Thankfully, beyond the nightmare just now, the Silent Divine still blessed her with a proper morning.

"Ellie’s Wrath, what has happened to me lately?" muttered the girl before finally getting out of bed. She saw her reflection in the bathroom mirror. A languid face with a red mane that was not as graceful as a stallion. Instead, it was a tangled lion's hair.

"You look like a mess," she told herself in another realm.

She did look like a mess. []