I Understand… Nothing

Gwen, guided by the masked man, promptly left the exquisitely decorated room. Although there was a giant gaping crack in the wall, it still didn't prevent one from admiring the room's beauty. The first thing she saw after finally escaping that cell was nothing, but a ruined mansion, countless cobwebs and dust piled on top of each other.

"Eek!" Gwen saw something crawl from the corner of her eye and her instinctive reaction was to scream out. This creepy crawler was nothing more than a small harmless spider that was minding his own business, spinning his web.

"Little miss, is there something wrong?" The masked man took this seriously as Gwen's safety was of his utmost priority. He was given the sacred task of taking her back from her captors so he spared no effort in doing so. This was the biggest job he had ever gotten ever since he was finally let out of training.

"This place is too dusty… and cold…" Gwen unintentionally said her words out loud but in the masked man's eyes, the lurking devious energy from the death artifact was still lingering around her, making her seem like a devil child, completely ominous.

'What's the little miss trying to say? Dusty and cold… she couldn't mean-' The masked man shifted through numerous thoughts and ideas that went to his head.

"If only there was a fire around here," Gwen, who was still naively speaking her mind, unintentionally made the masked man think of something devious. She rubbed her hands together to try and warm herself up.

'A two-year-old child wants to burn down everything in sight? Truly her father's daughter, a true Aria.'

"Little miss, I'll be on it. First, we need to secure your safety."

"Uh? Alright?" Gwen was planning on committing cruel acts in the first place, she just didn't know that she unknowingly made her debut as an arsonist.

The eerily dark hallways kept on going as the creepy feeling was still embedded in her bones. Gwen fully expected her possession to be in a safe cozy mansion, surrounded by the best luxuries that money could afford, unfortunately for her, it wasn't all sunshine and rainbows for Gwendolyn's childhood.

Gwendolyn's past was filled with numerous families vying for her hand, numerous plots and schemes to take her life, and multiple instances of kidnapping and attempted poisoning, it was surprising that Gwendolyn even had a shred of kindness left in her body after experiencing all that. She was always portrayed as a character that had everything yet there seemed to be something deeper behind it.

Gwen started to feel tired as her legs were getting numb, they had been walking for an extremely long time now, yet the hallways never seemed to end. The strangest part was that she kept seeing the same designs over and over again.

Gwen started to get a little unnerved, she tugged at the masked man's sleeves, "Where are we?"

"This… I'm sorry but it seems like we're stuck in an illusion. That death artifact took most of my mana so I can't break it. I hope the little miss could do something."

"Hah? Can't break it?" Gwen's eyes widened in fear and her heart started racing. "What do we do now?"

"Little miss, if you could-"

"I can't!"

'If you can't do it what makes you think I could?! I'm just a kid! I can't even sense mana at all!' Gwen was internally screaming inside, all her pains and anger all thrown into the void.

"Little miss, I'm sure you could feel those wisps of warmness all around you. That's mana-"

"There's nothing there!"

"It's never too late to try it out. Little miss, see here," The masked man conjured a small burning sphere of flame. It seemed to come out of the man's palm as its orange hue started to illuminate everything around it. "If you concentrate, there are slight fluctuations in this flame, which means it is made out of mana."

Gwen wanted to cry, as much as she wanted to 'feel' something, there just wasn't anything. Her promised latent talent wasn't there, as far as she was concerned, she was scammed. Feeling burdened by this sudden responsibility, she ran back to where they initially came from.

"Little miss!" The masked man immediately ran up to try and catch her when she immediately disappeared right after a few steps, disappearing into nothingness. "There's also this method…" The masked man took a few more steps, the same distance, and stride as Gwen, disappearing as well.

The masked man felt his body be unburdened as he returned back to reality, they escaped this small hurdle. He looked around and saw Gwen who was even more confused than he was.

"Little miss, you did it, you broke through the illusion. Now let's get out of here, I won't make the same mistake again."

The journey next wasn't eventful at all, other than stopping for a bit while the masked man conjured a magic circle on his palm to disperse the traps in front of them, Gwen only needed to follow his directions. The hallways finally met their ends as the branching paths finally showed them where the exit of this mansion was.

As they finally escaped their current situation, Gwen deeply breathed in the fresh air outside and was ecstatic about it. As she surveyed her surroundings, Gwen saw a tall middle-aged man with black hair and eyes, completely devoid of light as if every color couldn't escape its grasp. The sheer darkness that his eyes and hair had made the man extremely stunning, having an aura of pure tyranny, his single word seemed to dictate what the heavens and earth can and cannot be. This man's suit seemed to have been tailored in silver and red, showing off just how much wealth they have accumulated and the amount of blood that was spilled to attain it. This man was Nio Aria, and Gwendolyn Aria's father, cold and demanding father.

"No. 52, you're late," Nio's deep voice seemed to shake the masked man's heart as he immediately kneeled down, no, he prostrated himself before the man, he was begging for forgiveness for his tardiness.

"Not only did you take so long, but you also even lost a lot of your life force, did you not understand what the assignment was?"

"I-I had to act since I saw the little miss playing with a death artifact-"

"Fool! That came from me! She's completely immune to the darkness looming in this world. I gave it to her so that no one could touch her without having to suffer! Now, where is it?"

"T-That… it's back inside…"

Nio's eyes turned stone cold as he was about to order No. 52 back inside when the mansion suddenly combusted into flames. Countless screams inside roared out in pain as the sudden explosion caught everyone off guard. Nio was clearly confused about why this place suddenly turned into a bonfire.

Without hesitating the masked man spoke out aloud, "The little miss ordered me to burn it all away, her exact words were, 'if only there was a fire around here' I immediately acted on her subtle implications and followed her orders."

Nio looked at the still-burning mansion in front of him and back at Gwen.

'What did I do?'