The surrounding air is a crystalizing chill in a mountain forest freshly blanketed in snow. The trees are bare or frozen from occasional piles of snow, which glitters in brilliant colors against the dim sunlight. With the blanket of snow being a few feet thick it has fluffed out in smooth curves to match the rolling hills of the mountains. The soft noise of the wet crunch underneath a man's boot as he briskly walks through the crystal perfection from yesterday's snow storm. His sheer presence had become a horrible disturbance with the sounds of his awkward footsteps echoing from the trees and the occasional grunt from his struggle. He looked to be carrying a few things on him, the most notable being a silken sack thrown up onto his back. It was a bland sandy color with a thin layer of ice covering the bottom of it as if he had it sitting in the snow for a while. In one hand he also was carrying a shovel, which only made his trip through the thick snow harder. He takes a moment to pause for breath, the mist of it escaping from beneath a frosted beard. He spins his head around looking at the immediate surroundings, the silent trees looming over him like judgmental guardians of the forest. A small sign of paranoid desperation appears in his facial expression, with which he gathers himself and presses onwards. It isn't long before he trips on a hidden rock to fall face-first into the soft blanket surrounding him. His voice picks up as he swears, a noise that seems to resonate from all around the place but not at all like an echo. It was as if it existed everywhere and yet wasn't in that area at all. As sudden, as it came it dies out in a spot of static noise and canceling all together as he gets up. He wipes the snow off to reveal shadows on his face that don't belong as the sun is hidden in clouds. It appears to flicker without any given pattern until he shakes his head, clearing it away. He speaks words to himself of an unknown origin and spins on his heel to glance behind. Nothing of interest was seen of course as the only objects nearby were trees that seemed to close in the more he looked at them.

Nervously he turns back around to continue onward, repeating this process for several hours of travel. The sun eventually sets with the moon's arrival to finally break light onto the snow with a signal of the clouds departure. After climbing a steep hill he stops at its crown to look over his path over this time, the slipping sunset to cast shadows in his direction of a distant town. Most of the shadows of the buildings don't reach the cliff he stands on, except for one that is. The shadow of a newly built Town Hall sat squire in the middle of town and reached into the sky with a clock tower. The man knew the history of this town and would normally never go near it, however, there had been recent events over the years that had brought his attention to this small colony town on Ibon.

The man made one last check over his path as if he had been followed the entire time before he was convinced and turned back on his way. He tugged the sack in an attempt to make the sack on his back more comfortable. He had been searching for a solution over the course of a little more than half a decade and finally found his temporary solution. To him, this has always been a problem over the course of his life. As the homeland of the man had people that always changed, not by the mental attitude of social norms no instead they were physical forms and mental stability. The man was always like this too, except he didn't want to be. The man stops moving forward as a cough interrupts him, his body multiplying in the space it resides and his cough shaking various trees nearby. As sudden, as it happens it snaps back into an eternal reminder to the man that his current body is failing and he doesn't have too much time left with it.

After another hour he reaches the edge of a thicket of trees. He takes a moment looking for some sort of marker he had made prior before moving on again. The trees above didn't feel threatening anymore, now standing guard over him from any intruders that might have followed his steps. His step had more confidence to cause him to hustle down the path to a cabin thick into the woods. It was an abandoned cabin that he was using as a temporary residence for this special occasion that had been carefully planned for. He waddled to the top of the steps, kicking snow off his pants, and opened the door to a bunch of items thrown about the cabin. To him, these items were his solutions, an end to an arc of his life to begin another century of one. Around the room, various pictures and memoirs could be seen. Clothing, memorabilia, articles and what looked vaguely like Petri dishes red in color. He waddles over the table to place the sack on top of it, opening to look inside after his trek up the mountain forest. The objects inside clattered into the moonlight to reveal bones he had dug up the night before from a grave outside the nearby town. Looking around again at the objects in the room he was reminded of the girl the bones belonged to. She had long bright violet hair that shimmered in various reds to accompany it, with eyes bright with joy matching her hair's vibrancy. Her smile had such brilliance to it despite that in each picture there was never anyone else there with her. There were some pictures he had found that involved a brown haired girl accompanying her but those didn't matter to him or his cause. His target had no previous family to tie her belongings down which proved only difficult when it came to finding them. Greedily he rubbed his fingers and went about collecting the items and placing them in a small order of semi-organization. It wasn't necessary for what he was doing but it gave it a little more thoughtful purpose. As he did so he spoke again in a language lost to the ages to mark the beginning of what seemed to be a ritual. Items he picked up cause the space around it to drain slowly of all color. One by one they were placed around the sack to illuminate the space and cause spots of de-colorized space in the cabin. He slows his movement a little but picks up the pace of his words while he pulls the skeletal head out of the bag and places it where the sack had once been. Taking the petri dish he connects a line from all of the objects towards the skull, the light, and color escaping through the path to illuminate the central object. Quicker the words get as he finishes up his process and starts to step back.

Around him the cabin had been fully drained of color and had begun to melt, revealing a backdrop of a swirling void deriving of static colors shifting about in all directions. Along with the objects on the table, the melted physical world that used to be the cabin had been absorbed into the skull, which was now floating illuminated in the empty space. The man stops speaking and steps back for all the color to drain off of him as well. An orb of light escapes the back of the man's skull as it too melts away to the skull as part of his, it's, ritual. The object shines brighter as a form begins to take shape around it. Starting from the ground it formed feet and worked it's way up to the face and hair. It was the silhouette of a female now standing before the glowing orb that had come out of the man's skull. Slowly color filled in as what looks to be her uniform also formed, as one of the pictures had shown her anyway. Her hair flowed out with its ever-changing vibrancy to lay at her waist. Her eyes open up to reveal pure white, blinking once before a sad, pained expression seized her face.

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"...-ve you..." A sentence just finishing escapes her lips following a stream of watercolor tears. She blinks once. Twice. Frantically she looks around at the emptiness of the void surrounding her. "Megumi? Where...?" Her hands grasp up to her chest as if something had been there only to create a painful, puzzling look.

"Welcome human to my domain." The orb in front of her speaks in a language she understands, causing her to finally take notice of it. "I humbly apologize for bringing you out of the dimension a soul resides in, but I'm afraid I pulled you into my chaotic world with a few requests."

"So I'm dead is it?" A moment of silence seems to signal that she's trying to comprehend that information before she glares up at the orb. "I'd like to know who my humble guest is first."

"Ah... Yes. I truly am sorry for forgetting my manners." It's voice rumbles at various distances, which causes the girl to look around panicked. "I am a manifestation of Chaos, a Demon of it as you Humans would call me. I prefer our ancient name though, Kraeka. For now, you can call me Sir, if you please."

"A.. chaos... one of the thirteen right before me..." She got a little defensive in front of him only to shake doubts out of her head to regain her composure. "Ok. Sir. If the stories are true then I presume I'm dead and currently sitting within your own personal realm." She narrows her eyes hotly at him. "What are these requests you had of me. Sir."

"I simply wish to ask permission to inhabit a form that resembles yours and memories of the time you were alive with a proposition."

The being stated it so matter-of-factly that she was stunned briefly.

"Inhabit my for-" Her face darkens in red briefly. "That's really creepy you know. Why would you need my form?"

"Escape... from me." If he could look depressed he certainly floated in such a way. "I-I don't want to be who I am... or what I am to be precise. So I looked for a host."

The girl thinks about this for a long moment.

"O..K... What was your proposition?"

"I want to give you a second chance. I want to give your body back to yourself, just that I reside and share in your new experiences."

She looks sad as memories seem to be coming back to her. Before long a smile through with an intense brilliance to contest the dark void around them.

"So would I have control of myself?"

"Yes... or at least nine parts." He pauses to think of how to explain it to her as she grew puzzled and suspicious. "What I mean is you have control of your body and thoughts and mostly your emotions, but I share a chunk of those movements. I can hear your thoughts and speak to you or speak through you, maybe move you if I willed hard enough."

The girl sits on the ground in the form of hard concentration. As the time passes within this world swirls here in there. The silence surrounding them was heavy enough to almost make a noise of its own.

"Well... I'm already dead. The pain in my chest is reminding me of that at least. Past that I don't see a problem here, other than the surprise of my being alive, so I accept." She pops back up from the floor with an enthusiastic smile across her face.

"Thank you, Human. I am eternally grateful to you." The chaos being cause the girl to look puzzled.

"Why.. are you thanking me? I should be thanking you! Repeatedly! After all, I can live again in the world I had grown to love so much."

At those words, the color had returned to her eyes to flash a shifting violet. Her sclera pulsed dark colors as the orb absorbed itself into the back of her head, becoming one with the body. Its thoughts are heard in her head soon after.

"I am thanking you, Miss, because you are giving me an escape. I want to live with humans and forget that I am Kraeka."

As the voice entered her mind the surrounding void dimension seemed to shrink, or moreover look like it was being absorbed into the girls entire being. It cracked, crumpled, wrapped itself around her and dissolved as if touched by acid. It occasionally dripped from her and taps the ground with a sizzle. Each droplet showed a small image of a cabin in various different lights.

"All I want is to feel human, and by you accepting my contract you allow me to continue doing so without fear of rampaging hysteria."

A loud scratch can be heard as the void streams into her until, suddenly, it snaps back. They were back in the cabin during midday, the sunlight casting beams of light to cut the cabin shadows. Her clothing resembled what she wore before her death, mechanic overalls and a loose shirt with a splotch of blood from a previous wound she had seemed to receive. She looked around in bewilderment at the decaying state of the cabin.

"What would your name be by the way?"

She stared outside the cabin. What was once a silent winter forest had now sprung into abundant greens. Birds could be heard chirping from outside, bringing a calming noise into the now empty cabin.

"Maya. Maya Nephim. I'm... not sure what to call you either. Would my last name work for you?"

She opened up the door to be greeted by crisp wind blowing the smell of honeysuckle growing on vines in the distance.

"Nephim... That's a nice name. Reminds me of some clans of Fire Kraeka."

Maya stretches her hands outward with a grunt. Suddenly she laughs as an emotion swells through to Nephim as anxious anger. It brings a concern to him for a brief moment.

"Well, Nephim. I'm afraid I have a visit I need to make. I'd like to know how my lovely is doing while I was away."

The being shudders at the grudge Maya's spirit had grown. Memories were rushing forward of a brown-haired girl right in eyesight who looked flustered and out of breath. Pain stabbed at the chest through the memory and the knowledge of a crossbow bolt piercing her before to bring about her untimely end. The being in Maya threw back a mischievous emotion into her heart.

"Well, Maya. Nothing wrong with a little bit of chaos."

Walking out of the forest Maya noticed a town in the distance. You could hear the wind pick up speed and the rumble of thunder, signaling rain isn't too far away. Maya grins and takes a step forward.

"You know, Nephim, thunderstorms are really rare in these parts."