Her legs felt weak, her body did not feel quite her own, her mind raced, and with each passing second a more and more sickly feeling invaded her. Not unlike that of the display before her, the sights and smells, the taste that carried, and the gross sense that the traces of it still lingered around her, Vyra felt deathly lethargic.

Never had she more been equally disgusted and hated herself than now.

It was the worst thing that could have happened, a pure example of her greatest fear manifesting itself right before her eyes. Worse even, she did not even know that she were at fault; she had no way to stop herself, no way to fight back. Only to disappear and return whilst the thing within her, the dark alternative that Alisa had made known to her two years prior.

The same entity that for the past two years Vyra had persistently looked over her shoulder, fearful of not if, but when she stood to return, how long she planned to remain, how long Vyra would be locked away in whatever abyss she departed to, and just how much worse would the world be when she came back. If at all.

The sight before her left little optimism towards anything, especially not towards any foolish ideals or hopes of being rid of it. A wish of a believer, if not the reality of a fool, Vyra took some solace in knowing that despite everything - her Magic, her lack of control with it, the ruthlessness and coldness that she had been told the other Vyra reveled in so much from Alisa – never had it come to a point of causing others to suffer. Even those men, for as cruel as their intentions were, Vyra trembled at the thought of what her Magic, her Disease Magic, had done to them. What it forced them to endure.

It was too much.

A few steps more, she found herself leaning against a wall, struggling to remain upright.

Another few steps and she was on her knees; the smells and tastes that stuck within her mind being far too much. Tears ran down her face as the contents of her stomach and nothingness at all poured from her mouth, a burning sensation running throughout her throat.

With reluctance, she picked herself up, but it all remained right within her mind, a sight that she feared she would not be able to escape. Regardless of how sick it made her feel.

[418/2000]

The Blue Pegasus Guild Hall was still a ways away unfortunately. Vyra, having been so sure of herself, so optimistic that she would have found some sort of lead or something to validate her curiosity, she had not envisioned that that search would have led her so far into Hargeon. If not for a more extensive touring of Hargeon at Alisa’s insistence, undoubtedly Vyra would have found herself wandering aimlessly about.

She may as well have been here, the feeling being no different. Everything wore upon her; the fatigue from earlier, the stress, the sight of the first kills from her Magic… Her first kills… Just to think that that was something she could say that she accomplished, by her hands, regardless of whom controlled them, it left her mortified. Combine that feeling with the exhaustion, her now-empty stomach, having lost track of the woman whom seemed to be her only lead to the group, Vyra just wanted to cry.

All she wanted at this point was to go home and curl up into her bed.

That was all there would be for the day left. She didn’t know the time, nor did she much care. What may have been going on didn’t interest her, nor did the idea of food or anything of the sort. All she wanted was to be home.

[641/2000]

Glancing around, only a short bit left to go, to which she could not help but let out a sigh of relief. The area was still a part of Hargeon that she knew very little of, but at least it gave her the feeling that home was just within reach. Maybe another fifteen minutes, dependent upon how busy the streets were.

To Vyra’s amazement, there seemed to be seldom few, if any people within the streets. One would be surprised to believe that what she was witnessing were actually among the main streets of Hargeon; it more resembling a ghost town than that of one of the major cities in Hargeon.

It was odd, certainly. Even leaving her a little bit uneasy, but what precaution she perhaps ought to have given instead were fixated upon the idea of simply returning home as quickly as able. That the streets were as empty as they were stood to be nothing more than a fortunate circumstance.

Barely midway through the first empty street did it dawn on her that it was not by accident.

The group in front first came into focus, fear immediately radiating throughout Vyra. Many of them, the same sort of thugs that she had run into earlier within the tavern, perhaps six or seven of them collectively, split into two groups that blocked out any reasonable chance of continuing that way. Especially not with how earlier had left her physically.

Hoping to turn around, there was no chance of that either; another group of thugs, arguably the same in total size, were behind her.

She was trapped.

Worse even, she had walked right into a trap.

“Seems a little lamb,” a rough, cold sounding voice quietly echoed through the street, sending a paralyzing chill down Vyra’s spine as she turned around towards one of the seemingly-empty buildings, finding a tall man, more elegantly dressed and having a menacing quality to him, casually walking towards her. “Or perhaps I should say goat, has lost their way,” a condescending chuckle escaped from his lips, with several from both of the groups entrapping her doing the same.

“A few of my boys never came home, said they were goin’ out looking for some goat bitch, I thought they were lying.” The man’s expression changed behind tinted sunglasses, his eyes piercing right through Vyra with his clenched-jaw only further accenting the look. “Ain’t been back yet. Know why that is, honey?”

[1049/2000]

She was paralyzed, the realization dawning upon her. It was not by accident that what had preceded earlier had occurred. The men at the tavern, their interest in Vyra, it had been deliberate. Stumbling upon her was rather just the prize at the end of their little scavenger hunt, however long that may have been going on for. Undoubtedly neither they, nor this man now standing before her, had any idea it would have ended in the manner that it did.

And it was reasonable to think that perhaps he did not even know what happened at the tavern.

She hoped not.

If there were one thing that she feared more than this present situation, it was that if these thugs had come to find out that she were responsible for the deaths of multiple of their comrades. Another step forward by the man caused that idea to run rampant through Vyra’s head as she took a step backwards in response. To her delight, or panic, the man stopped there, no longer moving forward but instead just focusing upon her, as though examining every feature of her figure.

“You know, looking at it, I can see what they mean.” His eyes, hidden behind tinted shades, panned to the respective groups of his henchmen that had blocked off Vyra. “Grab her,” he said calmly and coldly, without a single hint of doubt in his authority or demand.

Regretfully, Vyra had not considered the dozen or so men whom had blocked her path on either side. Her focus had been solely upon the intimidating man before her, and in an instant she realized how much of a mistake that had been. It wasn’t the sight of them that she first registered, but rather the feeling of hands, multiple hands, all tightly and violently grabbing upon her arms, waist, legs, all with the intention of binding her in place.

Through terrified eyes, she could see a one-off thug scurrying towards the apparent leader, Vyra hopeful for the shadow of a doubt chance that this may stand to be some sort of salvation.

“Boss, you sure ‘bout this? Ain’t she Blue Pegasus?”

A moment of hope shimmering within Vyra, a hopeful realization and a chance for everyone to walk away from this.

“You need to get out more. This girl right here, ain’t anything more than Blue Pegasus’ little stray goat.” The manner in how he described it, that struck her worse than anything she felt by the men who had taken hold of her; it wasn’t demeaning in intent, but rather spoken matter-of-factly, like commonly-felt sentiment. Was that how others within Hargeon felt? What about those within Blue Pegasus too? The idea terrified her, as did right now. Even within her own self-doubt could she ignore what was happening before her, what inevitably stood to.

[1521/2000]

Haunting visions of the past rekindled within her, a terrified younger version of herself standing before a faceless audience of evil thoughts and ill intentions. She was looking into a former her, one that she had sworn to escape, and then it happened.

Something within her snapped.

A cry echoed throughout the street, not one that any could hope to have understood. Not a cry of pain or fear, but of anguish. A scream that pierced the veil, leaving those who bound her paused if only for the briefest of moments before returning to their trophy.

Then their grips weakened, within seconds shifting from vice grips to barely able to so much as even hold on. Vyra could feel it too; the bodies that encased her, almost suffocatingly-close, releasing themselves from Vyra as gravity worked against them, strength drained from them, the life expunging out of their bodies with each passing second. She opened her eyes - the fear of what was next instinctually forcing her to keep them shut – revealing the carnage before her.

The bodies of those whom had sought to restrain her lay dead, their bodies contorted in all manners, limbs sprawled in all manners, some in desperate attempts to escape, some in efforts to stop Vyra. Regardless of justification, their fates were all the same. Agony was seared upon their faces, veins nearly protruding from the skin, a blackish color evident throughout.

They painted the foreground to the canvas of black death that Vyra had created, the lingering black cloud that surrounded her remaining all around her, as much shielding her as much containing her within.

A prisoner within the deadly confines of her Magic. That’s what Vyra had become.

From beyond the veil of the deathly cloud that filled the part of the street, the leader of the street watched in equal amounts disbelief and unbridled fury. He had been witness to an unbelievable display, the likes of which neither seemed that of a typical Blue Pegasus Mage, but rather that of monsters. More even, he had been only a few steps away from his own respective demise, the edge of the black cloud persisting barely a foot away from where he presently stood. Close enough to appreciate his own survival whilst close enough to still smell the scent of death that permeated through every bit of the air around him.

Others around him found themselves similarly encapsulated by the display before them. Less appreciative of their situation, but more in awe of the sheer destruction cast by Vyra, how quickly it had taken the lives of their friends, and that someone as innocent-looking as the Demi-Human may have been could bring forward such a deathly creation.

It left everyone paralyzed to some degree, Vyra being no exception. She simply watched on, the cloud surrounding her obscuring most of her vision. It did not hide what she wished it had; the bodies all around her. However she may have felt towards the men in the tavern, she could not hide from the fact that she had done this. Almost a dozen men around her, all of them dead. A dozen men, killed by Vyra.

Killed by her Magic.

And it was all her fault.

She wanted to die, the guilt overwhelmed her more than she could have ever imagined it. She looked forward, the idea of watching right into the deathly cloud still completely within her mind, her body unconsciously beginning to walk forward, hoping that it would be quick.

Suddenly something flew through the cloud, striking her right within the side of the head.

Vyra fell to the ground hard, the impact and force of the object thrown being something that she neither expected nor found herself able to counter against. As her body collapsed against the cobblestone ground, the cloud that encased her began to dissipate away, revealing the thug leader and the remaining goons of his, all of them holding various objects – metal pipes, large pieces of wood – all with the same intention, to strike at her in or out of the cloud.

“What the fuck are you?” The thug leader growled out, whatever cool and calm demeaner he once had entirely gone at this point. Fury was the only thing on his mind. Revenge. Making the Demi-Human suffer. At this point, this was all that mattered. Struggling to maintain any sort of consciousness, Vyra barely could lift her head to see the man removing the sunglasses, showing cruel eyes. “It doesn’t matter. Once I’m done with you, you’re going to wish you were dead,” he began towards her, Vyra shutting her eyes shut as tight as possible as she watched the man beginning to undo his belt.

[2307/2000]

Spells [1800/2000]

Name: Black Death
Rank: A
Mana Cost: 200
Requirements: Living Plague; Debuff (Offensive); Mana Burn (Offensive)
Type: Offensive
Element: Darkness
Range: 20 Meters
Cooldown: 4 Post
Duration: Instant
Effect: Vyra lets out an incoherent scream, causing a Magic Seal to form beneath her. Her skin will then begin to violently fume a deathly blackish-fog that forms around and outwards from her, covering the area around Vyra, encompassing an area of 8 meters just beyond her immediate person for as long as she sustains the spell. While thick in nature, the fog does not impede sight, but instead causes all those within it to suffer a feeling of lifelessness enter upon them, suffering A-Rank damage within the fog or otherwise upon entering it, as well as suffering an A-Rank debuff to their Constitution attribute for one post.

It was a display unlike anything that she could recall in recent memory. It was certainly a display; neither one that one could not reasonably look at and not be both impressed and intimidated by. There was power there, albeit untamed power that was without direction. Dangerous to have such a combination. More even, dangerous to all involved, just as here.

The lingering clouds covered much, but the corpses which lined the ground were impossible to not recognize, any doubt whatsoever washed away as the clouds faded entirely. The girl lay upon the ground, a small pool of blood built beside her. Motion provided enough reassurance she were still alive, but the trash of Hargeon undoubtedly would have other plans at this point.

At the end of the day, man was nothing more than a primitive animal.

And animals were meant to be put down.

He did not register her presence until he held the belt within one hand, his other hand upon his trousers. But by then it was far too late. A quick glance upon her and his face provided nothing, perhaps dismissiveness, perhaps feelings clouded by a driven hatred towards the injured girl. “What?” Brief, stern, uninterested. As she stood, unfazed, he growled, his bloodlust getting the better of him, “You deaf you stupid-looking whore? I said go!”

“Dance for me.”

“Hell you say?” Perhaps it was her tone. Maybe the language itself. But it was the first thing which seemed to pull his attention from his prey.

“I meant to them,” her eyes scanned them. A dozen maybe, perhaps more. It did not matter much. If anything, a bit more of a worthwhile performance when was said and done.

The man turned towards her, only to find himself stopping in his place, the faint outlining of the knife upon his throat. The outline filled itself in darkness, and the man felt his legs begin to go from beneath him. Through sheer will, fearful of the knife pressed against his throat, the faintest feeling of something, something human-like holding him upright. A groan escaped from his throat, the opposite of the bluster that once he carried.

Similar moans escaped through his band of followers, each in a similar position, a shadowy visage holding them upright whilst the knives licked their flesh, eagerly waiting for a greater taste.

The man’s face, whatever emotion he may have once carried upon his face become embroidered in fear. First the goat girl and her death Magic, and now this woman and whatever this sort of Magic was. “What…, what are you!?”

“That’s of no concern to the dead. Bleed them.”

The cacophony of blades slitting throats, the gurgling sounds of last breaths being uttered while life escapes the body filled the air. The faucet-like projections of blood gave the brief, but enjoyable sound of rain as the ground became littered in crimson. As quickly as they appeared, the shadows were gone, leaving only herself and the Demi-Human still remaining, if that were even true.

Approaching, the pooling of blood had seemed to cease. A welcoming sign.

Kneeling down, she could feel a pulse. Her hand ran through the girl’s hair, the light blue color being a horrible contrast against the crimson-stained strands that were now littered throughout. Gazing upon the remains of everything, her eyes shifted from the bodies that lay about, those by her hand and those by this girl, she said very little, what little she did say being softly spoken. “You’re fortunate to be alive.”

[2892/2000]

She woke with a throbbing pain radiating through her head. Everything had seemed to go blank earlier, Vyra confident that it was not thanks to her darker personality due only to the small pool of blood that she recalled seeing, the man moving towards her as everything seemed to get heavy, and something else.

A person? A rescuer?

Vyra was not sure. Her head felt like it was split open and the bandaging done did not seem to help much with trying alleviating it. Wait… Bandages!? The realization left Vyra stunned, her hand repeatedly going over the treated pieces of cloth over and over again, with each passing glance becoming a bit more confident that it was not something that was hastily done. It more resembled that of what Fiona, the Blue Pegasus healer, would have done. Professional, or at least, it seemed like it.

She had been so focused on the bandage that she did not notice the thing that was quite easily much more evident and obvious than a simple bandage. Not even the bed that she had awoken in, one that was neither as comfortable nor actually the bed that she had within the Blue Pegasus Guild Hall, but one that was apparently comfortable enough for her to get however long rest in. However long as the room that she found herself in gave zero indication of it.

It was a room that she was not quite sure what to make of. The walls had almost a greenish hue to them, the material looking like that of rough cobblestone, no shortage of imperfections within the masonry indicating that it was made hastily or at the bare minimum made without any sort of thought as to aesthetics. The lighting certainly gave that impression too; not only within the room but from what she could see beyond in the nearby hallway. Just enough light for one to see what was going on in front of them, nothing more.

Staring out into the darkness, the faintly-lit lights being the only thing breathing any sort of life into the room, Vyra could not help but swallow hard, wondering just where she had ended up.

[3255/2000]

Vyra winched very slightly as she got out of the bed, her body – fatigued and drained from everything in which had happened to her up to this point – not ready for her feet to make contact with the hard ground. It felt cold. Not just the floor, but everything about whatever this place was. There was a lifelessness to it, a feeling that was as far as how she may have felt within the Blue Pegasus Guild Hall as she could have imagined.

Everything about this made her feel uneasy, if not outright scared her. The day had been miserable enough, and the events of before – as much she had wished that she had been able to just believe them to be dreams or her imagination gone awry – she could not get over them. Perhaps that more than anything else left her struggling as much as she was.

An overwhelming feeling of guilt and self-hatred.

If left to her, there may have been a chance that Vyra simply remained there, wallowing within her own guilt. A voice broke her out of that, a hope that there may have been some way out of this. Some way back home where she desperately wanted to be now. She paused, hoping to hear something else again, hoping that it would be able to guide her through the labyrinth that inevitably lay before her otherwise.

And there it was.

Another voice. Faint, but something that Vyra could follow. Despite how gloomy and foreboding the area seemed at first, it turned out to actually be rather easy to maneuver through. But the aesthetic, or lack thereof, was hard to overlook. Especially after having lived within the Blue Pegasus Guild Hall, arguably one of the most architecturally impressive buildings throughout all of Hargeon, for the past two years. This place, it was hard to imagine that this could have been a home to anyone.

Vyra kept going, turning every so often, hoping to hear another voice, something to give her reason to believe she were going the right way. A couple of words, broken sentences picked up and carried over like echoes gave her confidence that she was not going the completely wrong way. After some time, they picked up, more words, some louder than others, but more complete. Sentences. Dialogue. Conversations had between others, becoming clearer and clearer as she walked.

With it too came more signs of life than whatever she had encountered before within this place. As she turned down another hallway, she stumbled upon a fuller light beaming towards the end of the hall; a literal light in the end of the tunnel. Conversations held among multiple people seemed to be speaking too as she further towards it.

[3711/2000]

Mindful though of what she had been through already, Vyra approached more cautious than she had been before; there was a level of safety to maneuvering in the relative unknown, but knowing others lay on the other side, she could not help but be fearful. In what felt like no time at all, she found herself pressed against the side of the door, her breathing picking up with anticipation, not sure whether to be terrified or excited, her legs feeling weak just waiting there.

As she took a deep breath, she turned and proceeded through the large doorway, half-expecting to encounter the thugs from earlier, but as soon as she saw the actual people within the room, she it felt like the fear immediately dissipated away. Standing within the large room, the brief look of the dimensions looking similar to that of some of the smaller lobbies within the Blue Pegasus Guild Hall, there stood multiple people. Many of them seemed gathered around a number of large papers upon a huge table.

Beneath the more aptly-lit lights, posters and other maps lined the walls, making the cobblestone aesthetic seem much less prevalent in parts. Further away towards the far corner of the room, poor lighting made it all but impossible to adequately see anything from her current position.

Taking a step inside, Vyra was not sure what to think the response to her would be, whether it positive or negative. Several individuals within the room seemed to turn their attention towards her, but none seemed to make a move or otherwise approach her. Multiple people turned their heads towards one woman in particular, a pale woman dressed in a deep blue outfit with long, flowing white hair. Her focus seemed devoted to whatever sort of paper she had in front of her, giving no sort of acknowledgement or interest towards Vyra.

It admittedly intrigued Vyra slightly, feeling as though she had seen the woman before, just before she had lost consciousness. Perhaps it was just her imagination playing a trick on her, making her want to imagine that that woman had saved her, but under the circumstances, Vyra was intimidated to approach. But perhaps it would have been the best chance to figure out where she was.

In actuality, it was a familiar face that seemed to tell Vyra all she needed to know. A gentle tap against her shoulder caused the Demi-Human to turn around, coming face to face again with the woman she had met earlier, the same redhead who had alluded to Vyra that she was a member of the underground group that she had been looking for. “Well, I can’t say that I had anticipated seeing you again after our last little chat, but as things would have it, looks like we’ve found each other.” The woman smiled as she caressed a hand against the bandage on Vyra’s head, “And it looks like just at the right time too.”

[4204/2000]