Alice's fingers flew across the keys of her beloved piano, producing a compelling tune that lingered in the air. The music both soothed and tormented her; sadness overcame her as the music filled the air. Tears welled up in her eyes, but she kept playing, determined to see the song through until the very end.
The tears traced a silent path down her cheeks, reflecting the melancholy within her soul. There was a profound emptiness in her gaze, a vacancy where once there had been brightness. Yet, any feelings remained hidden, obscured by the weight of her emotions.
The piano's keys, delicate under her touch, bore the weight of her emotions as she wove a nocturne of longing and loss. She had never been interested in playing an instrument before, but now, even though it was her first time, an inexplicable force guided her hands.
A hooded old woman shuffled into the room and saw Alice hunched over a grand piano, her shoulders trembling with silent sobs. A redhead woman followed closely behind and raised an inquisitive eyebrow.
"Is she crying?" the hooded middle-aged woman asked.
"Do you know why, Lady Sains?" the red-head woman asked.
"She cries because she’s in pain," an albino woman said as she crossed to Alice. She gently caressed Alice's damp cheeks with warm fingers, tracing away tears with tender strokes. The albino woman leaned forward and planted a soft kiss on Alice's forehead that seemed to enter her. Finally, Alice stopped playing the somber melody.
“Margarita, hey!” the redhead, Joanne, called. When the albino woman released Alice, she continued playing, the melody was now a mournful tune, a requiem of sorts.
"Lady Sains, Joanne, she's in pain, emotional pain," Margarita sighed.
"We need to distract her attention, don't you think?" Joanne smirked.
"Alice," Margarita whispered in her ear, "there's a commotion outside."
Alice stopped playing. She rushed to the window, her eyes widening in surprise with every step. Peering out over the void, she scanned for any sign of danger.
"The Volucryses are approaching," Joanne reached Alice from behind and put both hands on her shoulders. Without hesitation, Alice leaped out of the window, armed with a bluish blade scythe she made appeared out of thin air.
Alice jumped out of a window in the now-floating Palace of Jäävarasto about 15,000ft from the ground. She freefalled, her clothing fluttered in the icy breeze, and the cold bit at her cheeks. The Volucryses, colossal parrot-like birds with graphite beaks that gathered around the lower levels of the Palace, swooped down towards her, their wings cutting through the air like blades.
The birds encircled Alice before she could react, one of the younger birds pecked at her back sending her into a disorienting spiral. More followed, pecking at her and sending her hurtling upwards. Yet, Alice bid her time, waiting for the right time to strike back.
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With precision, she swung her scythe, slicing through two of the creatures, causing some other birds to collide with the corpses and crash against the floating palace.
Alice kept slicing them. However, one of the Volucryses pecked at her abdomen, making her throw up both her last meal and blood. Then another bird hit her from the back sending her flying down even faster.
A few seconds later, strong arms embraced her, and everything around them slowed to a sepia-toned crawl.
Damon carried her in his arms, and as they descended, they were the only figures unaffected by the altered flow of time. And a few feet before they touched the ground, Alice's gaze locked onto Steve.
Alice turned her head and stared at Damon who jumped towards some incoming Volucryses. Then, an unexpected burst of blinding white light erupted out of nowhere, incinerating eight of the bird-like creatures. Damon fell to the ground.
Arashi and Lowe appeared on the scene from the opposite side of the road Steve and the other waited, the latter held the Luminescence in his right hand. Lowe couldn't help but think that Damon had narrowly escaped being incinerated.
“Alice!” Steve hurried to her side. Her cheeks were damped with tears, and the chill in the air was beginning to affect her. He hugged her gently, kissing her on the forehead, but her demeanor remained devoid of emotion.
Arashi, ever the vigilant one, reached out to touch Alice's forehead, sensing the drop in her temperature. “She will start suffering from hypothermia.” Steve reluctantly released her, and she swiftly retreated, retrieving her bluish blade scythe from the snow. Steve tried to reach her again, but she pointed her weapon at him.
Alice screamed and bolted across the snow-dusted landscape. The others followed close behind, but she was too fast for them. She grabbed handfuls of lightberries from her pocket and hurled them over her shoulder as she ran. On impact, the berries exploded into bright flashes of light, temporarily blinding her pursuers and allowing Alice to escape.
Lightning flashed and boomed overhead. A dark shadow moved through the sky like a cloud. Thunder crashed, shaking the earth. The yellow eyes of an enormous, winged reptile, twice the size of a Wock, blazed through the sky as it descended from on high with earth-shaking force. Its massive wings sent debris flying as it thrashed its thorned tail. This creature had the body of a snake running in three pairs of bird-like limbs with six claws on each foot, multicolored feathers coated its body and the head of a dragon filled with teeth as long as daggers.
“Dammit!” Hatta yelled in fear. “It's a Wockjeibaa, run!” He urged everyone Steve shouted for Alice to flee as well, but she defied his pleas.
As she approached the beast, she extended her left hand. The Wockjeibaa stared at her.
“Kneel,” she commanded, and the great creature obeyed lowering its house-sized head. She hopped onto its neck, and they ascended, leaving chaos in its wake. The dragon's powerful wings shook buildings and toppled some of them down to their foundations as shards of glass rained down like deadly hail. Flames engulfed each structure it passed, leaving the Commercial District ablaze. Steve and the others chased after Alice as she glided above the city.
"Amahraspand!" Alice let out a bloodcurdling scream and the heavens responded: six colossal humanoid statues towering over 100 feet tall in long robes emerged from amidst a now-raging blizzard. Their dark hair touched halfway down their backs. Ravens' wings of jet-black feathers expanded from their shoulders. Their eyes were as void as the night sky, and their presence was like an unfathomable force that made Steve and everyone else's insides quiver with terror.
Alice pointed her scythe menacingly at her father and commanded "Kill them all!" The statues began to march forward with every step cracking and shaking the ground beneath them. Alice flew away.