Step! Step! Step!

  These footsteps are the reason for my happiness to disappear. Just as I was about to open the door I heard these footsteps behind me, ones that seem to belong to high heels rather than boots or any other type of footwear. However just I hear these footsteps the whole place feels like it has collapsed from the sheer pressure emitted from whatever is behind me. I look towards my hands, they are not shaking but my heart is beating slightly faster, my breathing is normal though so I should be able to calm down in the next moments. I slowly turn around to see, to understand the thing that is behind me, but I do so while tightly grabbing the Paladin White Sword in my right hand. I have to be ready to intercept it if the case arises, at the very least I have to be prepared for combat. The moment my blue eyes are able to see what is behind me, it makes me wonder if I’m staring at something that belongs to the other world, the death realm in this case.

  No, that thing is death incarnated itself. As if death has gained a physical body.

  However, to my surprise it has a feminine look to it, everything about it screams female and yet, it’s not making things easier for the eye. Its entire body is coloured in a grey colour, one that is rather soft and light, comparable to the skin of a vampire for example as they have an extremely pale colour. Its entire outfit on the other hand is coloured in black, just like the reaper, the one that enforces death upon us, mortals. That thing is for the smallish side, or I should say the average height of a woman? That thing is around 162 centimetres tall, with a slender body, one that is extremely fit. There are almost no muscle definitions on its exposed body parts, no, it’s smooth, seriously, everything about it is smooth. The proportions of its body are for the slightly above average, they are “nice” but nothing that will make you stare at it for too long.

  Its face is half covered by a helmet, I cannot see its eyes and above because of it, however the rest of its face matches the rest of the body. It’s feminine looking, soft even and with lips that are a little too voluptuous, ones that are coloured in black thanks to the lipstick, at least that’s what it seems as the lips are also for the shiny side. Its hair, if it has any, it’s covered by a veil, one that descends down the back and ends only at around the back of the tights. Once it reaches the half of the upper body, said veil “breaks” in half, getting thinner and thinner until the end, however at the end it rounds up rather than being pointy. The vail starts with a black colour to it, getting transparent as it descends down the body, being almost fully transparent right at the end.

  The upper body is covered by a simple top although it does seem to be extremely high quality. It does not have any sleeves, exposing the shoulders and of course the arms. That would’ve been the case if it wasn’t for pieces of armour on the shoulders, ones that go beyond the shoulders themselves, but just by a few centimetres. It has gloves or are they gauntlets? They are so thin or are the hands that are that small creating said confusion? Don’t get me wrong, it fits extremely well in those slender hands but I really can’t say if they are gloves from how thin they seem or gauntlets thanks to the armour they seem to have.

  The legs are basically exposed, however there are simple pants that cover the very least up to the middle of its tights. Around the waist there is something akin to a belt, it goes all around the waist however at both the front and the back, there is a piece of fabric that descends down until a few centimetres past the knees. This piece of fabric covers just half of the legs in terms of width and towards the end it gets thinner, not to a point that it seems like a spike but nonetheless it’s enough to notice. As I mentioned before this thing is using high heels, ones that are for the simple side, not much I can say about them really. I also mentioned that the entire outfit is black, and while that has not changed, there are a few golden details here and there, but you do have to look for them as otherwise you will miss them. To be honest, if this thing didn’t seem like death itself, I would say that I’m staring at a true beauty, shame it might want to enforce its laws into me, in other words, it wants to kill me.

  “Welcome visitor.”

  Once again, I, for some reason, I’m surprised to hear its voice. It’s a female voice, one that seems for the young side, but cold, extremely cold sounding. Even with that coldness it was soft and pleasant to hear. Huh, who would’ve guessed that death was a woman? Wait, death has a gender? Why am I thinking about this now!?

  “I was informed that there was an intruder here, but it seems there was a miscommunication between us.”

  I won’t say that I’m not interested in what she’s saying, after all I might be the “intruder” that she’s referring to, however they were the ones that got me in here in the first place, so they might be talking about someone else. I do need to ask though, what does she mean by that?

  “What do you mean by that? You also seem to know me...”

  There, I asked her. I do say this because the way she said it sounded that, she knows me. After all, I can’t be an intruder if I was “invited” here. They were waiting for me, right from the beginning, in that sense I can’t be said intruder… No, it does not make any sense, even if they are waiting for me, the moment that I got here without permission, it makes me an intruder. Argh, I’m making things far more confusing than it needs to be.

  “You’re the Hero. It’s just that, you weren’t meant to be here. Someone interfered, making you come here instead of what we had in mind.”

  Well, I’ve got a couple of things with this. The first one confirms what I said before, she knows who I am which means, taking this last area to the side, the living room, the bedroom, the mystic library, I was “guided” there on purpose, it had a meaning, a reason, although I can’t say why or what for. The second one is that, there really is an intruder in this place, one that as she said, made me come here instead of whatever they were planning. Now, another question arises, what is this place for? Combine this question with all of the other’s ones and you have a bunch of questions left to be answered that I probably won’t have an answer for them.

  “Well, since you know who I am and I don’t know who you are, you can always introduce yourself, if you don’t mind that is. About that intruder, what did you do to him?”

  I’ve to know who she is, I might as well be talking to the owner of this place. To be honest, I wouldn’t doubt it, however, if she’s just like all the Crystal monsters here, then the owner is more of a monster than I could ever expect. This thing in front of me is no joke.

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  “My sister is taking care of the intruder, don’t worry about her, she will get removed from here.”

  How the hell am I not supposed to be worried about her? I really don’t know many people that could even come close to 0.01% of this thing strength, how in tarnation am I not supposed to be worried? And she has a sister!? This situation couldn’t get any worse, I can confidently take this one out but two of them? Possible but not easy at all.

  “I’m The Void Empress Twin Scythe - Miranda.”

  The Void Empress? That’s the first that I’ve heard this title, but she might as well be referring to her owner, or empress in this case. Miranda, eh? It actually is a beautiful name and it does fit her quite well, but her title easily tells me that she's not death incarnated, close to it, but not it. I really don’t know if I should be happy or anything like that, but moving on, enough of this yapping.

  “That’s the first time that I’ve heard that title. Was it given by your Empress?”

  A dumb question of course, but I still had to ask it. I need to get as much information from her as I can. Depending on what she tells me I might as well just take care of her right now before her sister comes in to help out. I believe if I use my trusty sword, longsword to be precise, I can defeat her with a single strike. I will need to use one of my strongest moves to pull that off though.

  “Yes, I was created by her and from there giving this name and title. Once you enter that door you will meet her shortly, save your questions for her instead of me.”

  And that shut me down in an instant. Damn, I didn’t know that getting rejected hurt this much! What she said though more than piqued my interest. She just confirmed that, once I go past that door, I will eventually meet her Empress, the owner of this whole place, the one that I was tasked to “deal” with. But now I wonder, if the intruder is being taken care of, why is she here?

  “You’ve said that the intruder is being removed by your sister, which means she cannot interfere anymore. What brings you here then? Since everything will go as “planned”, why bother coming here?”

  She raises her right hand towards me and at the same time she starts to levitate. She gains a few centimetres from the ground, nothing out of this world but noticeable as she’s now my height thanks to it. Her magic levels also shoot through the damn sky as she does this while an aura surrounds her entire body, one that matches the colour of her outfit, completely black resembling the abyss itself, with a few soft shades of golden, ones that give a slight shine to the dark aura.

  “I’ve come here to see you.”

  Nothing more, nothing else. It does make me blush a bit as this pretty girl came all the way here to see me. Tee-hee ?>w
  “I’m flattered that you came all the way here to see me, however even with Black Magic you don’t have a chance against me.”

  Not so much for my surprise she backs off and from the smile that she flashed for brief moments I can say that, she’s satisfied with my answer. Let me tell you something quick, that smile was actually beautiful, her silklike lips were extended to the sides and upwards by just a bit, creating a gentle smile on her face, at the same time, she also tilted her head to the left by just a bit and even lifted up her chin by another bit, showing of even more just how satisfied she is. Huh, she’s quite expressive even if I, all of us in this case, cannot see her eyes.

  Now, I have mentioned Black Magic because that’s what I’m sensing from her. With Magic Sense skill I can sense magic all around me as I’ve said several other times before, this is why I can sense her magic aura. With Magical Eyes skill I can see that aura, that’s why I can tell what colours the aura has. However, in terms of what element said aura is mainly composed of, with these two skills I will never be able to tell what they are. When a magic aura surrounds a human being for example, while the colour will vary a bit from individual to individual the elements present there will be what elements said individual has most affinity to or enough affinity to be present in said aura. I was able to tell what element was present there thanks to the skill Elemental Sense. Just like Magic Sense, instead of sensing magic in this case I’m able to sense what element is present in said magic. If it was Pyro, Fire in other words, then that’s what I would sense, but in her case, it is Darkness or Black Magic as many calls it. Darkness itself is an element extremely rare to be present in humans but on monsters, not so much. Because of this, the information on the element itself is scarce and not much is known. The church for example, has the tendency to hunt down those who have said element. They say that they are descendants of monsters and therefore they need to be taken care of. Yes, while I’m thankful for the Paladin White Sword, I’m more than aware of the atrocities they have committed over the years, decades and even centuries.

  “You really are the Hero… I know that, not only my empress told me that I couldn’t win against you, I can also sense the difference between us. I have no chance.”

  She sure has a smirk on her face as she says this. Is this pride? Is it for her to be able to notice this or is it for her Empress that was right on what she told her? Either way, it seems I won’t have to worry about her attacking me out of nowhere. I also don’t see this conversation going any further so I will get moving, although I think it’s better to transmit that thought to her.

  “Well then, I will assume that we are friendly, for now. I will be leaving then.”

  The moment I said that I turned around and faced the door. She didn’t comment anything but she nodded in agreement, so will take that as a “I agree”. I walk up to the door and just as I touch the knob, a cold voice is heard behind me for one last time.

  “Goodbye Hero, may we meet again in the future.”

  Since I have my back to her, I cannot tell you if she did any expression as she said this, as she coldly said her goodbyes to me. To be honest, there’s a part of me that wants to get to know her. Why is she here? How was she created? Does she have free will? I have several questions to ask her, and if this was another situation I might’ve just stayed here for longer, trying to understand her situation. The other part of me does not want to see her ever again, she’s a monster, pure and simple. From her aura alone I would rank her at the same level as the Crystal Whale, at SSS rank. I more than believe that she alone could bring down an entire nation. When I say this, I also mean that, they don’t even have a chance to retaliate, that’s how much of a monstrosity she is, a horror ready to be unleashed into the real world.

  Door noises!

  I carefully open the door, but before doing anything I turned around and to my massive, and I mean massive surprise, one that surpasses all of my previous surprises, Miranda was waving at me. She had her left hand behind her while her right hand raised just at head level, waving at me. What the hell is this scenario!? Do you want me to fall for her? For the one that “wants to be death” itself? What!? Whatever, just calm down!

  Sigh… alright, let’s open the door then.

  ……..

  ……

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