chapter 3

There were two things that Samantha had in strides. Power and pride. To be talked down to like that, was humiliating. She wore her mask of the innocent girl well, but at that moment it seemed to crack.

Samantha's mind was a mess. She knew that Ymir didn't mean to be rude, it's just how she is. However, that didn't prevent fer anger. That knowledge was like a young child fighting against a dragon made of rage and humiliation.

"S-Sam, you know I didn't mean it like t-that..." Ymir put her shakey hands up in resignation. The sheer power within Samantha's gaze was enough to kill a weakling. However she was not a weakling, at least when compared to your average warror.

"I know." That was all Samantha said. She was too busy restraining her aura to listen to Ymir. If he didn't know she was here, than he definitely did now. She had to go. Even with her immense strength she was nothing compared to him.

With a sigh, Samantha retracted her aura with a little effort. She looked down to the still shaking Ymir with regret. "Sorry..." With that, Samantha turned and left through the front door. As she stepped out onto the once crowded streets, she was assaulted by a dreadful feeling. Only a few minutes ago the streets were packed, and now there was no in sight. 

The sun that was setting only minutes ago was already below the horizion. Its last embers of light were slowly losing out to the night.

Ignoring the panic settling within her heart Samantha crouched down. "height." With that word beautiful blue sparks of light appeared all around her. A breath later, she was gone. All that was left of her passage was the footprints pressed an inch into the cracked stone of the streets.

Almost 400 meters above the ground and continuing to rise, Samantha looked down at the bright city of the capital. Her vertical velocity slowly came to an end, and yet she did not fall. No instead she simply stood her, as if on a platform of solid air.

As she gazed at the city, she noticed that there were no lights for almost a hundred meters around where she had jumped. "He must have evacuated the area..." She showed a contemplative look. "Tch, as if I of all people would harm civilians."

"It wasn't for you." A voice came from behind her. It was deep, calm, and soothing, just as she remembered it. "Why are you here, little one."

Samantha sighed for what felt like the hundredth time today, and turned around to face the man. Despite his almost angelic voice the man was in one word, average. He hand medium length blond hair with green eyes, the most common combonation in the capital. His build was not skinny nor fat, not muscular nor lanky. He appeared to be someone who would simply fade into the background, just as he wanted.

"You're as mediocre as always." She ignored his question, instead choosing to stare with barely contained rage, yet no hatred. "Well that is the goal of this form of mine. It lets me go unbothered in the city." He smiled, yet even that was simply average. It wasn't bright nor dim. Yet Samantha was not fooled. She knew that this man, if one could call him that, was anything except average. "Let me ask again little one, why are you here." His smile faded, replaced by indifference.

Samantha knew it would be useless to tell him anything other than the truth. Asking the question was a gift from the man, for if he wished he could simply gaze into her mind. "Something was calling me here." She looked at him, her rage fading back into it's dormant state. Not gone, yet not at the forfront of her mind either.

Samantha swore that a look of understanding flashed across his face, yet when she blinked there was nothing but indifference. "When did the feeling start?" He asked solemnly. "Why?" She asked. "Just answer me little one." He said calmly, a hint of his overwhelming aura slipping out before disappearing without a trace. However that single moment of exposure to his aura caused Samantha to be wreathed in cold sweat. "About two months ago." She said hesitantly.

"I see." He nodded. "So it's beginning already huh?" He looked to the dark sky above them. Shaking his head, he looked into Samantha's eyes. "Then I am sorry little one. I am sorry that I must do this." He sighed, stepping onto the air in front of him and approaching Samantha.

"Speed" Samanth uttered a phrase as thousands apon thousands of little blue sparks appeared around the two. Pressing her foot against the platform of air that she'd created earlier, Samantha dashed away at an incomprehensible speed. Within a second she was 10 miles away, and yet it was still not enough.

Samantha showed a look of despair as she gazed at the man who was somehow in front of her. She had moved almost 20 miles be that point and yet there he was, standing as if he'd always been there. And then he was in front of her, no sound, no signal, he was just there. The air did not even move around them, it was as if he had simply been there the whole time.

"It is pointless to run, little one. This is how it must be." He said to her, looking into her eyes. For some odd reason, Samantha couldn't find the will to respond. She just stared into his eyes, which were filled with immense remorse. And so in that silence, Jhon, the creator of all things, the one who had built the empire, the one who had slaughtered her kin, pierced her heart with his hand. He did it with such speed and strength that there was not even a splatter of blood. 

"Im sorry, little one. Not even I can change the plans they have for you..." He sighed, slowly pulling his hand from her chest, coating it in her blue blood in the process. Samantha fell to her knees on the platform of air that they stood. 

Samantha couldn't comprehend his words, she was too busy trying to find a way out of this situation. Yet, there was no escape. Her foe was simply too much. Her wound was beyond what even she could heal. And so, she simply sat there quietly, as the Starin contained by her body dissipated.

"Yet that is the very reason why I must try." He said, kneeling down in front of Samantha. There eyes met once again, for the final time. He reached out, placing his hand coated with her own blood on her forhead. "Take this, little one." He lifted his hand, and drew a seal of blood on her forhead. It was in the shape of a butterfly, although a crude one. "This shall guide you. Trust in it as you would trust in yourself, for they are one in the same."

Jhon stood as if to leave, yet a spark of movement caught his attention. Samantha was still trying to escape, or so he thought. Yet, against all of his expectations. Rather than try desparately to save herself, Samantha simply looked at him. With all of her effort she raised a fist in front of her, and shakily rose her middle finger to Jhon. "F-Fuck you."

And with that, she fell back, slipping off of the platform which they stood and plumeting to the ground.