Get stronger? I'll show that bastard....
A circle was set upon the ground along with a twenty-two point star. All drawn with blood, the runes that composed the lines glowed faintly in the darkness. Sitting in the middle was a young blonde girl, her finger on an open page.
"Tarnished by the taint of lust,
Stunted by the mud of sloth,
Ensnared by the chains of envy,
Blinded by the haze of anger...
Corrupted by the grip of pride,
Entranced by the glitter of greed.
Slowed by the weight of gluttony.
I look to myself for the answer.
Choice becomes decision
when the will shows the way.
Crucible, reveal my choice.
Magic, light my way."
She felt like she was diving deeper and deeper, vertigo trapping her. It was getting harder and harder to breathe as if she were breathing in a thick fog. Her vision frayed around the edges, and everything slowly faded to black.
----
She felt like a wet cat. Groggy, she felt her blue dress cling to her wetly. Dizziness rattled her head, but the cold was even more overpowering. The cold in her head made her discomfort worse. So she pulled her body closer to the warmth she felt and was helped along by someone's hand on her arm.
She opened her eyes...and met familiar green ones.
"You fell in..." Lyco said, worry lining her face, "when we pulled you out, you weren't breathing." Her eyes were puffy and red, her hands gripping her arm tight.
Things slowly came back to her, the memories she saw. She opened her mouth to speak, only to cough some more. The other girl drew her hand through her blonde hair, the casual motion driving away her resolve to speak.
Despite one of Lyco's annoying friends whistling in the background, she allowed herself the comfort of lying on her best friend's lap. It made the memories she remembered far less painful. She could tell her everything she saw another time...
6. Illusion
"You have something of mine. Give it back." She leveled her spear at the woman sitting on her golden throne. The woman smiled at her with full lips, her long blonde hair partially hiding her face. The candles in the stone-masoned room flickered.
"Aren't you a treasure hunter?" the white-eyed blonde replied with an amused lilt, "Surely you must know what finders keepers is?" Her body leaned forward and her voice lowered. "Besides..."
Her eyes widened when the woman vanished. Her body stiffened in shock when an arm draped itself around her shoulder, a curvy body hugging her tightly from behind. Hot breath tickled her ear sensually. "What makes you think you can take it from me?"
Indignation filled her, and she spun around, spear swinging - only to strike nothing. How the? She turned her head back to the throne, where the woman was sitting once again.
"Looking a bit red there? Seems like little Alice doesn't like people in her personal space?"
She couldn't help but narrow her eyes as the woman goaded her into anger. And anger was what she was going to see. Summoning the rage her enemy carelessly incited, she swung her hand in a quick arc and ignited the air with a bolt of flame.
Vindication put a smile on her face as she watched the woman burn; she may not have been a hero, but this woman, with the shard she held, would've crushed them all.
And then she heard the laughter. And then her voice...right behind her.
"Naive little Alice. Did you really think it would be that easy?"
7. Death
They exchanged blows, spear versus blade. Fire and lightning magic crackled through the air, only to impact walls of hard granite. Her blonde opponent was dirtied but in good health, the worst of her wounds being a nasty burn on the right side of her face.
She, on the other hand, was bruised, burned, and shocked. Complaints of fatigue rang out through every limb of her body. Even as she was forced towards the wall, every blow threatening to jar the spear out of her grasp, she knew that she was outclassed in every aspect, her spear the only thing making up the dif-
Clang.
She fell to the floor. And the woman pulled her arm back and lunged her blade forward. And she could only close her eyes, unable to meet her death and her failure head-on. The wet grinding of metal on bone filled her ears, and blood spattered onto her face. Death was surprisingly painless...
And then she heard a choking sound. With trepidation, she opened her eyes. Her would-be killer was on the ground, clutching her throat in desperation. Blood dripped from the fatal wound.
She lifted her gaze upwards and saw that familiar black dress and familiar black blade. "Ly-"
Something was wrong. That odd feeling, like what she felt from the sapphire and the other pieces she found, suddenly appeared, but it wasn't coming from her fallen foe. Her savior turned around and suddenly collapsed onto her lap, blood flowing out of her chest.
Green eyes looked up to meet her blue. And then Lyco spoke strained yet casually, "When you meet a person you will never see again..."
She knew the words to this saying - knew it like how she knew tears were in her eyes. "Lycoris line the path...." The question was asked, "Why'd you save me?"
"I think you know the answer."
She did. That same familiar feeling from the sapphire. That same familiar feeling from the other shards. "...You're me, aren't you?"
That elicited a pained smile. "Correct."
"But...why? You could've cast me aside all those months ago."
"I'm the forgetful one. Not you, silly," the girl joked. Painful coughs followed. Her voice turned into a whisper, "I already told you. I was being selfish." Her words from that day rang through her head.
"I should've been stron-" Fingers pressed onto her lips, quieting her.
The girl chuckled quietly as she closed her eyes. "Don't cry. I like to think that I'm coming home." Light suddenly engulfed her and Lyco. Resonance was once again occurring.
"Don't you dar-"
"Goodbye, Alice. May your road... always be bright." Lyco smiled for the last time. Everything was engulfed by light, and she could no longer see her. When it faded, she was the only one there. She could feel the wetness leave her eyes, and a crushing pain she had not felt for a long time. This pain was the worst of all.
She started this journey for Lyco: to help save her tavern and then to become strong - strong enough to crush anyone who threatened harm to them.
Everything. Everything just became meaningless.
---
"Poooor me."
Blue eyes suddenly shot to the corpse, a figure of brilliant colors now standing over it. A blade jumped into the spirit's hands. "Now I have to get a new body." A set of grinning teeth appeared on the whirling mass's face, "Yours will do."
She curled her hands around the hilt of Lyco's black blade, the wood strangely familiar in her grasp. Using the wall as support, she lifted herself up and brought the blade between her and her enemy.
She would fight to the bitter end.
For Lyco.
8. Despair
"And now, it's time for you to relinquish your body to me," the ghostly figure said, her footsteps echoing closer and closer. Her lyrical voice tainted with malice.
She could no longer move. Her spear had disintegrated back into light a while ago. And Lyco's obsidian blade laid shattered beside her. Static still crackled from the thunderbolt she had just endured, causing her limbs to twitch ever so often.
She had failed. And doomed everyone in the process.
"It would be a shame to harm my new body," the figure said, the entity's fingers lifting her chin up. She could barely muster the energy to glare, and the figure laughed as its eyes glowed white.
"So...die for me, Alice. Succumb to your nightmares." The woman's hand closed her eyes.
Something flared within her as the magic stuck. And this burning in her chest was all she could feel before everything went black.
---
White. Everything was white...as though the very air was illuminated with this brightness. There was only herself and this endless abyss. This world of white was strangely peaceful...and yet there was something off - a malice, a taint, a gnawing that grew in her head as she continued walking without direction.
She couldn't even see her hands or her hair...as though everything was covered in white fog. Panic grew in her heart as the memories came slowly back. She knew this place. She had spent years in here - in this world of timeless white.
The memories came back in flashes. Of her feeble attempts to stay sane in a world where the senses were dead. She couldn't sleep - could only think, and it was the thinking that started to drive her mad. Time didn't exist here, and time would ensure that she wouldn't survive this place intact. Her lips moved in the phrase that damned her here, though she knew no sound would come.
"Magic, light my way."
She had been arrogant to cast that particular spell in the first place - a spell that risked everything for the sake of power. And now she would die here only to have a creature wear her body like a second skin. Her body shivered with a cold that she knew didn't exist.
She had been through all this before, but her experience just made everything all the more worse. She could now feel the encroaching madness like tiny pieces of her mind slowly falling away. And she knew it would claim her no matter how hard she resisted. And when it did, she might as well be dead.
Her knees buckled from under her. Her head bowed in defeat. Yet her hands reached upwards in defiance, longing for someone to take her by the hand and pull her out of the hell she created.
9. Strength
Something suddenly burned in her chest, an ache that she thought had gone away. Yet it was not the same. This one filled her with warmth instead of cold. It kept the emptiness away, and it was a feeling that she wanted to last forever. She closed her eyes and heard an impossible whisper.
"I christen you Alice...And I will always have a place here for you."
That warm sensation redoubled in her chest - and she opened her eyes once more, gazing upon the white void that stretched out beyond - this void where none of the senses existed. She placed her hand over her chest, feeling the burning heat permeate through the numbness. And she understood.
She understood that this time was different. She had learned, in her year without memory, what the Crucible sought from her - her unworthy selfish self. She now had the key.
A warm smile lit her lips as the floor of the white void shattered, and she fell into the darkness.
"Thank you Lyco."
----
Her back welcomed the feeling of cold hard granite. Pain shot through her body like a revitalizing shock to her system, limbs twitching but not nearly as bad as before. She took a deep breath but then coughed painfully from the stinging hot air. Fingers suddenly propped her chin up.
"Still awake?" the woman said, pulling out a blade. "Pity. Guess I have to do this the old fashioned way then." She swung forward, but the blade wouldn't meet her throat. A metallic twang echoed as delicate threads of brilliant blue knocked the blade aside.
She could hear her opponent backpedaling, dancing away from the threads trying to ensnare her and tear her spirit to pieces. Despite the complaints of her body, she slowly stood and then lifted her hand.
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