76 Nothing Happens

Gazing around, they glimpsed a world of ash and fire, smoke rising from the great streams of molten elements which divided the landscape.

Stranded. Alone.

The only notable break to the monotony being a single door, through which could be seen a blue sky and bustling roads but, despite trying to move towards this seemingly familiar setting, it kept getting further away, before vanishing over the horizon.

- - -

Kasdeya opened her eyes and unfurled her body. She couldn't tell whether or not she was still in the same installation as before but, somehow, the room she was in felt more 'upper-class', though she had no inclination to why she was here, nor why she felt as such. Completely standing up, she discovered herself on a bed, wearing what seemed to be a long, plain white shirt stretching to her knees, in a decently furnished room which connected to what seemed to be a bathing area. All of her injuries were healed, and there appeared to be no immediate threats. But even with all these observations, there was an important question that needed to be answered.

"Where're the handcuffs?" She had no idea why she was able to explore her new surroundings so freely. "Actually, even before the cuffs, why aren't I dead?"

Kasdeya inspected every corner of her new abode, waiting to see a magical trap, or some technological system to constrain her. Yet, no matter how much she searched, there was nothing, unless of course the flimsy lock on the door, which could only be utilised from inside the room making it pointless for what she was expecting anyway, counted as security. Of course, there was always the possibility that she simply couldn't find whatever security measure was in place, but whatever.

"From what I last remember, I lost to the glowy yellow light guy, which should mean he finished me off. So then by logical reasoning… is this the afterlife!?"

Suddenly becoming much more interested in the walls, she pressed her nose against them, trying to spot some telltale sign that she was right. Gently caressing the cold material with her hand as her tail raised up above her head, tapping it lightly.

"Hmm… this wall appears to be made out of wall…"

"By the gods, have some modesty lady!"

Kasdeya spun around to confront the one who snuck up on her… detailed… inspection of the wall, her mood instantly worsened. After all, the fact that other people could intrude on her alone time, clearly meant this wasn't any decent afterlife.

Without even thinking about it, Kasdeya's body moved towards the ground, her pose enabling her to either instantly dash forward, shredding whatever threat there was with her natural weapons, or rapidly shift her centre of mass to either side if the need came to evade a sudden attack. Though she did admit to herself that the grey-haired, frail-looking woman standing in the doorway didn't appear to pose much of a threat.

"My, don't you look positively feral, I must say that you were much cuter while recovering." The woman spoke without even sparing a glance in Kasdeya's direction, moving into the room and slightly tidying up the mess the devil had made before entering the bathing room, the following sounds indicating that water had started flowing.

Kasdeya had no response to the utter dismissal of her presence, though she was quite averse to being referred to as 'cute'. Standing back up, her vigilance lowered slightly, but not entirely. Waiting a few seconds, she then spent a second scratching a fire rune on the floor, before stalking towards the entrance to the bathing room while trailing a clawed toe in her wake, extending the potential path of the fire in the case she needed it.

"Move out of the way, let an old woman pass."

Lithely dodging the sudden appearance of the stranger, she watched her walk out of the bathing room, then continue to the door of the main room, with no sign that there was any intention of attacking.

"Oh, before I forget, someone will be here to escort you to the boss soon. Try not to rip off his head, hmm?" and with that final line, she closed the door on her way out and was gone.

"What was that?" Kasdeya murmured, staring at the once again shut door. "She seems to have… drawn me a… what was it called again? No matter. But the question remains, why?"

Peeking her head out of the main door, she double-checked to see that no one was there, and after deciding that nothing suspicious was going to happen outside of the room, she utilised the flimsy lock on the door and then moved to stare at the water.

After staring at the water for another 10 minutes, and not coming to any conclusions, she decided to just go for it. Completely forgetting to de-clothe herself first, she leapt straight into the water.