The Death of Worlds

-- Viewer Discretion Advised --

The sky broke into pieces. In the beginning, the world was simply a whirlwind of dust and that was what it was bound to return to.

Ciel looked at the sky, overcoming the sear of her neck as her bones had long rusted. The stars swirled green and lightning struck. The resentment that filled her heart was nearly gone, and with it, a wisp of a smile appeared on her face; something no one had seen for centuries.

She had seen the passing of civilizations; watched cities rise and fall; all while hidden behind a cloak, she'd been there as the passage of time moved on.

The aura that had previously brought children to tears upon coming into her vicinity had fallen to purity and nothingness, and while she'd reached great achievements, the cost was the loss of her mind. As her logic slowly eroded, so did others' perceptions of her existence; her presence was faint as a ghost.

Opening her dust-encased lips, Ciel yelled at the deteriorating sky as though it was a shell opening to the gods outside.

"If there's someone out there," she shouted, "some fucking God, why don't you come down here and fight me."

She let out a laugh. Some life that hadn't appeared in her eyes since the day she became immortal shined once more.

"Bring me back to the day this all started," she said, "I won't disappoint."

The winds, as though they reacted to her call, twisted and turned up into a vicious whirlpool. She stood in the eye of the storm, keeping her eyes focused upwards. Her face, once covered in a healthy glow, was disfigured to the point of unrecognizability. She didn't care.

In the distance, the earth she once stood on began to crumble into a pit of nothingness below it; tearing itself apart in a fit of self-destruction. Ciel didn't show it any attention though, continuing to yell at the gods above.

Thunder resounded. The sky fell faster, and as Ciel looked up, all she could see was the ever-expanding universe. With a final cry, she sobbed.

There was no god. There was no one to save her from what she had created.

Her hair rose around her, its original bright silver color occasionally showing up between the now red strands. Tears stained her face, but nonetheless, her smile remained.

Lightning came down again, a blue flash of electric current; except this time it hit its mark. Ciel felt the shock run through her bones; her tendons ripped apart until she was nothing but a pile of dust. This time was really the end.

She was dead.

The whirlwind came to a standstill, freezing mid-air. Cries resounded through the land where Ciel once stood. All of the dead and the lost saved by her, whose resentment she'd carried to her very end, mourned her death. As their souls rose from the depths of the decaying earth, they gathered above Ciel's body.

A hum met with the air, pushing the dead woman's clothes towards the broken sky.

"Begin again."

The souls whispered.

"We thank you."

The sky convulsed, suddenly rushing towards the clothes, sucking anything and everything towards them. And with that, the world fell silent.

The caw of a bird let the noise begin once more.

And with that, Ciel's third life began.

------

"In the beginning, there was a swordsman," a woman spoke, "but he wasn't just any swordsman. This swordsman held the power of magic.

Every day this swordsman would wake up to check that no monsters had broken into his kingdom, but on one of these checks, what he found wasn't a monster, but a woman.

The woman cried out, 'Help me, Dearest Swordsman, for a beast is chasing me.'

The swordsman went before the woman, intending to save her from such a horrid monster, but as everything went dark, the swordsman realized he'd been lied to.

The woman had eaten him.

With a slash of his sword, he made it out from the beast's stomach.

And it dawned on him, swordsmen weren't the only ones with magic, beasts were too."

Ciel listened to the voice she'd nearly forgotten. The comforting voice of her mother felt like a lullaby in the dark world she'd awoken into.

When she'd first woken up, Ciel had thought she had made it into the afterlife, but soon enough, she realized she hadn't made it there yet. She first had to watch as her life flashed before her eyes. This was her first memory.

And then the next began.

A young girl stood alone waiting by a gravel road. Her long silver hair stuck to her pale face as raindrops poured over her. This, paired with her black dress, made for a dreary sight.

"Young Miss, why are you out here all alone?" a man asked behind her.

"I'm waiting for my mother," the girl replied. She spoke as though it was completely natural for him to be there, not questioning his sudden appearance in the slightest.

"And where is your mother?"

The girl turned to face the man.

"Why Sir, I don't know."

"Do you know who your mother is?"

The girl shook her head. Her face showed that even the girl herself didn't know why she didn't know the answer.

"No, Sir, but I should still wait for her."

The man before her didn't look particularly kind, but he also didn't feel menacing. His wrinkled face and pulled-back white hair matched well with his black suit and white gloves. And for some reason, the girl felt it was okay to trust him.

"You've been waiting for days," he said.

The man knelt down next to her.

"Young Lady, why don't you come with me. You've been standing next to my Master's castle for so long."

The girl took a step back and the man sighed.

"Of course, housing isn't free, you'll become the apprentice to our cook and cook for us."

The girl paused for a moment. At the mention of cooking, her stomach growled and her face paled. If she went with the man, she'd have food and shelter and still be close enough to see if her mother had returned.

On the other hand, if she refused she may starve to death before the woman whose face had already become blurry in her mind reappeared. But the scariest of all was that she was nearly out of water.

In the end, she agreed.

As Ciel watched the girl's conversation with the man, she had a vague impression of him in her mind. While her memories of him weren't the clearest, she knew that he had most likely taken her in back then because his own young master's mother had disappeared as well. For this, he'd pitied her.

Ciel's memories continued to flash before her. She watched as she learned to cook and gradually became accustomed to her new life. Every morning and every night she'd stand by the gravel road in wait for her mother. She fell into a routine.

That is, until he came, and changed her life forever.

"Oh so you're the new cook's apprentice," a man said. The girl looked up from the dough she was kneading and was met with a large face. The man's short blonde hair was patted down with grease and a putrid smell came off of him. His stomach bulged from his dress shirt and his face, stained with grease, nearly frightened the girl to fall from her stool. Seeing the girl's fearful eyes, the man smiled and left the kitchen.

In the days that followed the man would come every week or so. He never said anything to the girl, simply watching her work. But every time she felt his eyes glaze over her, the girl couldn't help the fear that overtook her.

Soon enough he was visiting twice a week, then three times, all until he was there every day. The girl kept silent every time he came, but there was a secret she could only keep to herself.

She could feel the man's killing intent.

But there was nothing she could do. Butler Hei had given her one piece of information after he'd come to visit that day.

That man was the Master.

One day he'd come in to watch her as she'd been chopping carrots. The smell of alcohol drifted off of him as he reached toward her. She jumped from her stool and ran to a counter. Neither her teacher nor Butler Hei were there to restrain him, so she could only run.

The putrid smell he'd always carried grew stronger with the alcohol. The man's eyes grew unfocused, but he was still larger than her. He'd managed to corner her. As his hand reached for her throat, she realized what the smell was.

The scent of death.

The fear that encapsulated her froze her to the spot, but she could feel that she'd soon meet death herself if she didn't act now. Tightening her grip on the knife she held to cut carrots, she closed her eyes and stabbed forwards.

The man fell onto her, but with the adrenaline rushing through her she pushed him off and made for the door. There was no mistaking it; the man was dead.

It was the first time she'd killed.

The girl escaped from the castle on foot; her mother had never come for her and the girl had long given up hope, so she kept running until her feet bled.

There was a small town not too many miles away and this time, a mechanic took her in.

She spent her days in bliss. The man taught her circuitry and mathematics, and soon enough she was building her own robots.

The man only had one rule: Don't enter the basement.

The girl had listened, only staying on the first floor and focusing on her machinery. She would take orders from other townsmen and when she was free, she'd work on whatever project she liked. The mechanic was quite fond of her so he allowed her to use whatever tools as long as she completed a part of the orders placed to the shop.

But as the mechanic was one of the richer people in town, he was the one robbers and bandits would typically target. And even though the girl had killed before, she couldn't bring herself to face them.

The only issue was, the only hiding place in her home was the basement.

The mechanic usually left the basement unlocked, but that didn't mean that there wasn't a lock on the door, so she locked it. Letting out a breath of relief, the girl closed her eyes as she let herself calm down. Then, she descended the stairs.

The room was too dark to see, but the girl didn't mind. She simply sat on the floor and stared forwards. As her eyes adjusted though, something came into sight.

In the center of the room was a cage. The bars were rusted, and she could vaguely make out splatters of red. But what shocked her wasn't what she'd found on the outside.

The woman who she'd awaited every day for three years of her life knelt in the cage. Scars covered her arms and face, and her silver hair sprawled over the ground.

Realizing it was her mother, the girl ran towards the cage, grabbing onto the bars to find an opening. But in her shock, the woman's fear-stricken face had escaped her.

"Run," the woman whispered. But it was too late.

He was behind her.

In her first life, Ciel had died by her father's hands.