[49] "Welcome back," Part 1

Rain flicked across the deepening red of the night sky, pouring down in a torrent. It licked against the blood-colored bat as it flapped its wings—twisting in the sound of bones snapping, then crunching and crumbling into a red mist. Crimson tendrils bloomed, sewing together in the air, building a physical form. Ashen white bones came first. Then tissue and organs were sown into existence. Followed by muscles and pale skin. From the chaos of magical apparition, long golden hair flapped in the midnight wind and a perfect face showed itself to the world as crimson eyes opened leisurely—irises black and thin.

Alicia Fraught stood atop a platform of blood, her dress no more. Instead, she fashioned black shorts which reached above her knees, blood-red chains dangling at either side of her hips. An armless dress-shirt of the same color covered her torso, silver buttons running down from below a red bowtie. For her limbs, she wore fingerless gloves and boots with hues reminiscent of dried, aged blood, both gleaming like dull iron.

"Do you require me to speak once again?" She asked, words soft and listless with a hand resting on her hip and the tilt of her head. Her crimson eyes narrowed disdainfully upon Bam's figure. "Remove your hand."

Claire watched this scene unfold with joyful amusement. Her lover's appearance hadn't changed much—it only looked as if her body had matured and she had acquired a change of clothes—even her overprotectiveness still remained. Yet, there was something different radiating from her. An undoubtable pressure; like a being who knew their superiority over those before them.

Bam raised an annoyed brow. She stared at the girl standing in the blood-colored sky, the moon bleeding as her backdrop. She scoffed. "Or what?"

Space crackled around Bam like lavender electricity. The girl raised her free hand. A ball of energy formed, twisting in a dark purple glow, compressing, forced together by gravity as the ground around them dented. It was a creation not of mana but of space.

The orb blinked forward. Passing through the air with no whistle. No resistance. No pressure against the wind. It moved through space as if it commanded it. Then it disappeared from existence.

An explosion of force resounded as Alicia caught the object at her right flank. The skin of her hand and fingers ripping apart into muscle, she gripped the orb and crushed it—shattering it into shards akin to glass which exploded into a sparkle of vibrating purple mana. Her arm blew off into blood splatter. Then the splatter of blood rewound back to her, reforming like tendrils in an instant to make the injury null.

"Ah. . ." Aliclia smiled—a fang resting on her lip—though her face bore no emotion. "Alright."

She slashed down. The world stopped. There was a pause. Then the scenery became divided by a thin red wall of blood, slicing between Claire and Bam, cutting through the girl's hand. As soon as it came, the wave disappeared.

Bam's lips flapped open. A thin line of red ran across her wrist. Then, blood sprayed as it severed from her body and her hand dropped. It took a moment for the situation to register within her mind. Then, she was screaming in pain, clutching her arm as blood pooled below her feet. The next moment, she was laughing. Chuckling with glee.

". . .just kidding, just kidding," Bam laughed, coming to a stop. Time rewound for the girl's injury. A new hand manifested from nothing. Then, the separated limb which once existed became no more. She sighed in annoyance. "Honestly, why do you all think I'm so weak? Do you somehow believe someone who wields an Elemental Seed will just roll over and be stepped on?"

A clink rang and Bam sighed once more in exaggeration; she was amused.

Alicia walked down as steps of red manifested before her footing, her boots clinking against them. She reached the ground, hands in the pockets of her shorts, blood-red chains dangling briefly in chime. A twinkle of snow fluttered and Claire appeared beside her—switching places with a drop of rain. In that space, no rain touched them.

"You didn't need my help. . ." The vampire murmured with a soft pout.

"No, I was going to escape just fine, but I felt you awakening," Claire replied, wiping her cheek with her gloved hand . No matter how stopped in time her body may be, she was still capable of teleporting. Certainly, she might not be able to fight Bam effectively if she couldn't counterattack, but losing still wouldn't be possible. She smiled, staring her girlfriend over from top to bottom, stopping her gaze at a familiar, yet grown face. "Welcome back, Alice. You look good."

"Mhmm mhmm." Alicia nodded twice, eyes warm. "You look good too."

Claire tilted her head. "But nothing about me changed?"

"You always look good," The vampire stressed.

The Ice Queen chuckled at the sweet words. Time had matched onwards since she first entered this world and met her lover. She had never expected her journey would take her this far. There were a lot of things she had never expected. Unaware of how quickly things changed, somehow, they had both reached a point where they no longer looked like teenagers. That time of their lives faded away. As the rain washed the world around them, leaving the two alone, their eyes naturally drifted to lock; entranced briefly into their own world.

"How touching, lovebirds." Bam cooed. "Now, you didn't forget about me, did you?"

Claire glanced at her in partial annoyance and Alicia glared.

"Won't you two just give me the boy?" Bam spoke, pointing at Lain Tross. At some point, he had passed out from his injuries, lying there as if lifeless. "Surely, you don't mean to fight needlessly? Do you truly believe your friend there can restrain Bell forever?"

Claire considered this for a moment. Behind her, Lara De. Frag still had the Sword Saint trapped in the expanse of her gaze. He could not move, stopped in time, stopped in the breath of a sword strike. However, the atmosphere around him rippled and twisted.

"Will he break free soon?" She asked.

"Well, he has power over space. But it's only over the very specific concept of spatial distance between objects. That's how he's able to ignore size, length, and distance when he attacks. That's why his actual heroic title is the Hero of Severance," Lara explained. Her breath and words were rushed but she was grinning as her eye shined. "Unlike Bam, his power isn't versatile enough in the direction of time to give him much resistance against my eye. But. . .he's also called the Sword Saint for a reason, so I don't think I can hold him still for long and I literally cannot do anything else but stand here while keeping him frozen in time."

In a normal situation, this was not how she would use her time-stop ability. It was meant to be used sporadically, and offensively. To catch a person frozen and off guard and strike in a moment's weakness. But the hero before her was simply too dangerous for anything else. Lara De. Frag frowned, staring at the twitching of the Sword Saint's hand. His lavender sword, crackling and rippling as if the world rejected it, was burned in her mind. It was a creation of space bent forcefully together by the will of mana. That was something he once never had and it was clear who helped him accomplish the feat.

"However. . ." Lara stressed, this time in undisguised annoyance and anger, both at being looked down upon, "The bastard's using this as an opportunity to advance his power. If I'm not wrong. . .he's been trying to learn how to cut space open between two specific locations. And, well, I kinda think he's using me."

At the girl's words, Bam Veronica smiled, placing a hand over her mouth in mocked shock. "Wow, when did you start using your brain? I thought all you could do was smash."

Lara rolled her eyes even though she couldn't see the girl. "Shut up."

The girl laughed as she returned her gaze to Claire and Alicia. Once again, she offered her ultimatum.

"You see, his eyes are useful to me," Bam explained as if she were talking to children, pointing her chin momentarily towards Lain. Perhaps, she might have been far, far older than the both of them, Claire couldn't tell. "So, won't you give him to me and call this whole mess done before I really hurt you both?"

'Hmm,' Claire pretended to think. She closed her eyes. Was she willing to simply hand over the cause of her friends near-death injury without consequences? The answer was no. She was not. At the very least, she wanted answers. She was not someone who simply stepped aside.

"I'll fight her."

"Hmm?"

Alicia grinned, her fangs showing. There was desire in her eyes. Excitement. "I want to fight her."

Claire was all smiles. "Of course you do."

"Sorry. . ." Alicia mumbled with wandering eyes. It was awkward, even for her, that her first instinct after awakening was to fight. Part of it was her natural personality, but something else was also calling to her to move. It was dignity.

"What are you apologizing for? Have at it," Claire replied, backing away. ". . .but you better save me some of that energy for some alone time later."

Alicia smiled, taking a step forward as her hands left the pockets of her shorts.

"Of course."

The environment rumbled. There was howling and wailing in the air as the fresh scent of blood drifted with the wind. The rain was overpowered and what was left of darkness became red as the moon shone crimson, bleeding as if crying tears of blood. The cobblestone ground which once existed disappeared, morphed into a land of red sundry sand. A desolate scape replaced what once was.

Alicia Fraught closed her eyes and the world became a familiar nothingness as her senses washed away in the river of time.

Though she could clearly see, there was nothing to see. Though she could clearly hear, there was nothing to hear. Though she could clearly smell, there was nothing to smell. And although she could feel, only the cold hugged her. Time seemed eternal within that space. Time seemed nonexistent as well. For day and night did not exist, she did not slumber. Instead, her mind ran with thoughts. . .and she remembered.

Memories drifted through her like an ocean wave. There was a battlefield. A battlefield which once covered this world where demons pitied themselves against the other races and died in droves. The drums of war beat in her memories and her heartbeat quickened alongside it, resounding in a familiar rhythm of battle. Somewhere out there in this world, she felt 7 familiar sins become alert as she unleashed her powers. Faces blurred through her mind and she glimpsed fragments of a time before her eternal darkness. She was confused. Utterly bewildered by the new memories and the new emotions. She hadn't been reborn, she had been forced to remember incomplete moments of a past life—and the world begged for her to seek out the rest for herself.

"<Eternal Bloody Night>." Her domain fully manifested into reality—shaped in the madness of the self harm which once saved her from insanity—Alicia opened her eyes as a spiked crown of her own blood tore from her skull and sat upon her head, flowing and twisting freely in perpetuity as the sheer weight of her significance descended.

She understood that she did not exist outside of Estea's system. She had no divinity and all of her might existed only in accordance with her status. As much power as this world gave onto her, it also chained her down to one single role. She was the apex predator of this world's power system. The title of Demon Lord was a hanging blade upon a throne—it alone granted her a significance which eclipsed anyone else. It was for that reason that she had a natural resistance to every power not divine; they knew who was above them.

"Alright," She spoke softly—cracking her knuckles together—her presence alone suppressing all other abilities in her vicinity. Yet, her living crown was an endless pain which only the thought of Claire could keep the torment at bay as the world pushed her forward as another chess piece. "Let's fight"

'What was a hero without a villain?' The sudden thought manifested into Claire's mind as she watched her lover take a step forward, staring at that slightly different back with lukewarm emotions. 'A nobody,' She surmised. Yet, in the same vein, a villain only existed to oppose a hero. They, too, were chained to their role. 'Was this what the god was attempting to warn me about?. . .will Alice be forced to change for the sake of a story?' Claire sighed, expressionless, realizing this was the beginning of irreversible turmoil in this world.

Space fractured around Bam. The girl brought her hands forward and ripped apart the atmosphere before forcing it to mold to her will and compress into a lavender staff.

"Welcome back," Bam answered Alicia's challenge, grinning and floating higher, "Demon Lord."

She disappeared from existence.

Then she was before Alicia, stepping leisurely through the air and swinging down.

"Oh how I've missed you dearly."

Her weapon clashed against a punching red gauntlet. The air exploded into a spray of blood and the fracture of vibrating space. The ground cracked beneath the vampire's feet from the impossible weight of the staff—gravity slamming down upon her. Crimson eyes locked against lavender eyes and, in them, Alicia recognized someone who had once bore witness to her past life.