Birds of Prey Slowly Burn

Normally, when an immensely powerful presence appeared just outside of the nearest entrance to Las Noches’ inner desert, Rainier ran. It was the only sensible thing to do, he told himself time and time again. After all, what could he do against power like that? Power that dwarfed even the newly crowned Espada such as Evelynn Avana and even the surprising Robert, a Shinigami. It would get him killed.

Probably, anyway. Those were the thoughts that started to race through his head as he left the main rom that he and Anastasia shared almost exclusively. He worked through the halls at a brisk pace, spear in hand, until he saw the bright, fake sunlight of Las Noches’ interior. He stopped just shy of the light and glanced carefully around the corner.

He could hear a breeze the quiet tumble of sand as it fell. There was definitely someone there, someone that felt distantly familiar, but he couldn’t put his finger on it. He let his green eyes peer around the corner a bit longer as he continued to weigh the pros and cons of considering just what he was about to.

All things considered, he realized, he was lucky to be alive right now. But when he looked back on the danger he put himself in, he had only done it because Anastasia was there. Now he had an opportunity to take on a much, much more powerful opponent than anyone in his position should dare. Even if he couldn’t defeat them, what would it say if he charged in anyway? Would it say that he was stupid or, instead, that he had finally awoken? He wondered.

Another thought hit him just then: What if this presence isn’t even an opponent? Normally they didn’t appear in the middle of the castle like that and, if they did, they didn’t stand around. Over the years, Rainier had kept track of a number of infiltrators like that. This behavior was strange and the nagging sensation in the back of his mind proved even stranger.

He stepped around the corner and walked forward into the light. He heard the grains of sand crunch against the dark, tiled floor as stone gave way to dunes.

When his eyes finally adjusted, he hardly believed them.

“Rania?” He spoke louder than he intended and, if she hadn’t noticed him already, she had now.

Rainier, like everyone else in the castle, heard the news: She had been killed by a Shinigami infiltrator somewhere here in these sands. Her body had been found only shortly before it disintegrated and joined the rest of the desert as just another handful of ash. Now, here she stood and—despite the immense Shinigami spiritual pressure that radiated from her every pore—hardly looked different at all. It was like someone had pried away her shell and showed the world was really there, underneath.

All of this from occasionally passing each other by before Rainier become a Privaron. They had never even formally met and, as she grew in power, what he learned was only second hand information. He had just counted her lost, just like everyone else did.

“Since when do Arrancar come back from the dead?” Rainier asked, still taken aback. “But, then, you’re not an Arrancar anymore, are you?”

*****

550 Words/11 GP
Total GP: 11 GP

For as far as Rania was concerned, this place was dead to her. It was a destination she had long left behind with the dying of her fragment. A hand instinctively reached for her right eye, but there was no longer any porcelain white left to cover it. When she shed the Hollow in her, she had left behind any ties to this wretched place with it too. That’s what she thought. That’s what she wanted to believe but Rania wasn’t so stupid to truly think that.

Perhaps she simply wanted to think that with her death, she’d been forgotten here. It was entirely a feasible possibility, that she was a nobody, that nobody would remember her, and yet on the other side, it was entirely an impossibility. There still remained a thread that connected Rania to Erasmus and even though Las Noches was quiet now, there was something in the air that screamed out to her. Now that she was here, now that she was back, it was something that didn’t want to let her go. Rania could feel it without being told.

A small but heavy sigh escaped her lips. She shook her head in some disappointment toward herself. “Rookie mistake.” The minutes gone by since Rania arrived in Las Noches were still in the single digits and yet she’d already been sniffed out. Rania had forgotten to go into Suppression but this was a gaffe quickly remedied by concealing her Reiatsu signature from the rest of the palace. Letting one Hollow discover her presence was still within the margin of error. She wasn’t too worried, not when the ultimate endgame goal was on a far grander scale.

Rania still had her back turned when the oncoming Hollow found her. Of course she had noticed him. She noticed him from the moment he began moving. She turned to face the Arrancar, but just slightly so that only one eye was visible. A brow was raised in slight surprise. He knew her name.

Oho, well, what did we have here? It seemed that Rania’s Arrancar legacy had not yet been forgotten and perhaps she wasn’t the nobody she used to think she was. But if the rumours were really true, Erasmus—no, Obsession would have made sure her name was known throughout all of the Hollow realm. Rania imagined that he had reacted in the same way when she had fallen into Maya’s hands but hundreds, perhaps thousands upon thousands of times worse.

This man was evidence of that theory.

She began to speak. “And…”—'who the fuck are you?' was how Rania would have responded as an Arrancar but today, she was here a Shinigami so the reply was much more polite—“...you are?”

Finally, Rania turned around fully, boldly putting her Shihakusho on display. “Not quite the Arrancar I was looking for, no,” she continued, evading his question. The answer was obvious on its own. Rania didn’t need to confirm it for him. “Or rather, the person I’m looking for is no longer Arrancar actually. Your King, Obsession’s the name. Do you know if he’s around today? I’d like to pay a visit.” There was a glint in her eye as she spoke. Rania circled the Arrancar leisurely with a lopsided grin. He was no threat to her and there was no harm in entertaining his presence for the moment.

“Rude not to introduce yourself first, don’t you think?” There was no rush. This Las Noches was a new Las Noches. Rania should learn about it while she still could. After all, she had no desire to dive headlong into the point of no return just yet.
- - - - -
Word count: 610
GP: 12

Total: 1520 / 30

Surprise colored Rainier’s face when she reacted to the name. How did she even remember it, he wondered? If she really had been purified by a Shinigami, the fact that she still looked so much like her old self, or that she even recognized the name “Rania”, spoke volumes. Rainier shuddered to consider the possibilities. A terrifying new weapon held by the Shinigami, perhaps? Or some great, cosmic fluke? He doubted that she’d answer.

It got stranger when Rania mentioned the King, when she admitted that she knew of his transformation. It was that very event that had ultimately propelled Rainier out of Tres Cifras and into the Soul Society, to Earth, and now to stand right here in front of her. This couldn’t all be a coincidence—it really had to be her.

Of course, she didn’t know him. Why would she?

“Privaron Espada 108,” he answered while she walked a circle around him. She was enjoying this, something he didn’t recall about the Rania he knew. Even though she looked familiar, and had the same name, she had changed as a person. There was a new kind of confidence here that, clearly, she was still getting used to. “Rainier is my name.”

Even when she walked behind him, Rainier didn’t take his eye off of her. Just what he could feel of her power—little more than the wispy edges—told him that she absolutely towered over him. Try as he might right now, he could never approach the summit she stood at. He approached her anyway, knowing that there was likely no good that could come of her visit. It was more than being his job—it was what he lived for.

With the way she was acting, he realized that it might end up being what he died for. He expected a swell of regret to follow, but it never came.

“And what do you want with the King, anyway?” Rainier asked rhetorically, the sarcasm thick in his voice. “It certainly doesn’t seem like a conjugal visit—that, or the King really has terrible taste.”

Part of him expected to die for those smart-mouthed words, but another part of him expected to die anyway. So why not get a few shots in while he could? He smiled back at Rania, just as ready to rip her apart as she seemed ready to play with him like some kind of doll in her hands. It all seemed so eerie compared to the Rania he had heard about. She bled her intent to kill out of every pore, and it made it clear what was on her mind when she arrived here.

Just to push his luck a bit farther, he laughed quietly at her and shook his head, “You’re going to lose, you realize. I don’t need to know much about him to know that. The way he is now? When he sees you like you are, when he smells that Shinigami on you? You’ve come here to kill him, but you’re the one who’s going to end up dead.”

Actually, Rainier wasn’t sure about that at all. If anything, the new King seemed so weak that he’d take his clearly uninterested woman back into his arms just because he didn’t have anything left to choose from. He was pathetic like that, enough to make his blood boil. But when someone showed up, when it seemed obvious they wanted to kill your King, a decent soldier simply didn’t throw him under the bus.

“Call your ride, get out of this castle, and don’t look back,” he told her. “If you do that, you might not end up a stain in the throne room.”

*****

616 Words/12 GP
Total GP: 23 GP

There was always some sort of deranged satisfaction that Rania derived from seeing the cogs turn in someone else’s mind. She observed as the Arrancar went through the motions, from surprise to questioning to possible denial to the outlandish. Though it was well within the realm of normal for Rania, she had forgotten that a soul reborn wasn’t meant to remember the life before it. For Rania’s part, it was notoriously known for being the exact opposite: she remembered everything but not everyone needed to know that. Just a select few and a need-to-know basis. Soon, Erasmus would be one of those select few. This unfortunate Hollow fell more under the ‘need-to-know’ basis category so she’d let him keep guessing. It would be no fun to just tell him, after all.

Then, a gasp. “Oh my, Privaron Espada 108?” Rania clasped her hands together in feigned delight, mocking Rainier over his introduction. “Well, we have more in common than I thought! A former Espada? Oh my gosh, maybe we should form an after school club of former Espada. It’d be totally fun. We could have sleepovers and paint our nails and talk about boys!” Of course, her doggedly serious expression betrayed the pretentiously excited tone with which she spoke.

Finally, Rania stopped circling Rainier, standing just a few feet away from him as she nonchalantly stretched. His words were probably meant as an insult or at the very least a trigger to spark her anger. It was a ruse, an elementary ruse, but a ruse nonetheless meant to get her talking simply based off emotion. Rania, however, didn’t fall for it and instead simply replied, “What I want with the King is none of your business.”

That was all she said. He could keep guessing but that’s all they’d ever be: conjectures, baseless without further proof to back them up. But there was one particular aspect about all this that was finding her wick ever shortening: this Arrancar liked to hear himself talk. That was going to stop now.

Wordlessly, Rania simply pointed a single finger at him. From it quickly emitted a bright light, compact but devastatingly swirling with energy and power. She shot off a single Hado at Rainier but instead of a Shinigami’s Hado, it felt more… concussive. In fact, to the Arrancar, it probably looked more like a Bala than an actual Bala did. She was heralding back to her ‘roots,’ the only Bala master back in her day, with her death making that number go from one to zero. For one moment, though, Las Noches' Bala master could return. 

It fired just slightly from his cheek, as close as the Hado could get without actually grazing him. Even one touch would have probably been enough to kill him, that’s how little of a threat Rainier was to her but Rania didn’t come here to rack up collateral damage. She purposely missed. This was simply a warning sign.

“Those were some very kind words from you, Rainier.” Her eyes narrowed into a mocking smile. “But perhaps, you should take your own advice.” She didn’t even need to use flash step to get behind him. Rania was simply that fast in comparison as she disappeared from his eyes. Quietly, she then whispered into his ear, “Call your ride. Get out of this castle. Rania Odette is supposed to be a dead name around here, Arrancar.”

The next time, though, she wouldn’t miss.
- - - - -
Word count: 575
GP: 11

Total: 2095 / 41

She’s not going to play these games, Rainier realized. He tried not to let the frustration show on his face when she refused to turn this into a conversation. After all, the longer she stood here the greater the chance that someone powerful enough to stop her would show up and help him out. That, too, improved his chances for survival. He thought about his choice very carefully before he made it and, despite that, still came up short.

It was enough to frustrate anyone, or so he thought.

When she turned the entire situation in a mockery with her sarcastic routine, Rainier let his scowl show in full force. He never dignified her words or gestures with a response. He just watched her gesticulate as she flaunted her blatant superiority in his face. In this moment, he wondered if she really was an Arrancar deep down—some sort of deception made more sense than Rania somehow having become a Shinigami.

Things only got worse when he loosed a spell with nothing but the flick of her wrist. The concussive ball of spiritual energy—shockingly similar to a Bala but decidedly unique—boomed past Rainier’s left ear. A moment later he felt a warm trickle of blood as it dripped down onto the white jacket that covered his shoulders. He visible grimaced and stumbled to the side as a wave of vertigo nearly knocked him over. The whole world spun and it was a wonder that he stayed on his feet without stabbing his spear into the dirt.

Theory became reality for Rainier in that moment. He realized that Rania really, truly could obliterate him without the slightest bit of effort on her part. This wasn’t just a man facing down a superior opponent, this was a man facing down a titan with naught but a bag of rocks at his disposal. He could helplessly fling the stones at her until he turned blue in the face and none of it would matter.

By the time the world stopped twirling around Rainier and a sense of stability returned to his legs, Rania had started to talk again. He barely caught her words about taking his own advice before she silently vanished from place, her own natural speed far more than Rainier could hope to match, and then the saccharine sound of her voice in his good ear.

At first, he didn’t move or respond at all. One or two precious seconds made all of the difference in how steady on his feet he felt. She had also presented him with an enticing offer: Walk away from the clear mistake he made when he approached her, live, or risk his life in defying someone who clearly towered over him.

Black and white—no room for interpretation was left. The man that had yet to charge into Soul Society with Anastasia would have taken the deal, Rainier realized. Then, after a moment’s further thought, corrected himself: That man would never have done what he did in the first place.

There was no shame in walking away right now.

“Rania Odette is a dead name, you say?” He asked her without even so much as twisting his head around to look. “Let me help you with that!”

Rainier’s whole body spun as he bared his teeth and roared, half in pain and half in anger at being so thoroughly embarrassed. He snapped forward first, pivoted around on a single foot, and then swung his spear in a wide arc. The bladed tip whistled through the air and aimed straight for her throat, enough to rip it clean out.

Maybe she really would have let him live, maybe not. All Rainier knew was that he would rather be added to the sand than run away when he had already committed.

*****

636 Words/12 GP
Total GP: 36 GP

The enjoyment was fleeting; gone before she even knew it was here. She didn’t like it, this, what she was doing. It felt like an act. It was an act. This wasn’t Rania.

Slightly forlorn eyes watched Rainier as he reacted to her façade—and that’s exactly what this whole thing was: it was a façade. Rania could say this with confidence because irrefutably, she knew that in her heart this wasn’t how she wanted to be. Long ago, lording this sort of power over another might have made her happy but now, it just felt wrong. It felt dirty and with certainty, as if she were acting like a stranger within her own skin. Maybe a lifetime ago, this was what she would have wanted, but that lifetime had already passed.

Now that Rania had tried it, tasted that sort of overzealous arrogance, she began to wonder why she wanted it in the first place. She even felt a little sorrow within herself but there was no regret, simply a reminder on her soul that Rania now knew it felt wrong. For what she had imparted upon the Arrancar, however, he deserved every bit of what he was getting. Sure, Rainier was reacting as he was programmed. She was a foreigner in this land. It was, just as well, what she deserved but he should have known when to walk away.

Rania frowned slightly, tilting her head to the side. A small sigh escaped her lips. They never learned, did they? Once, she was like this too but what of herself now? 

Yes, a dead name, Rania repeated in her mind. I’m not here anymore… right?

Troubled thoughts began to formulate in her mind. A brow creased and her face grimaced, not in pain, but in reflection. His attack was slow enough that all Rania had to do was simply take a step back. The blade of his spear stopped just short of her throat and calmly, Rania placed a hand on the weapon. She forcefully lowered it away from herself. The anger in his eyes clearly told a story, one of a beast cornered and embarrassed that was now lashing out. It was such a familiar pattern of behavior and for that, she smiled a little.

“I was once like that too but today, I’m not here to kill you.” Her voice was soft but deliberate. She turned away to face Las Noches. “Things aren’t quite as pretty on either side, Rainier. Goodbye.”

In a flash, Rania was gone before his eyes. She had finally entered into the capital when the memories all came rushing back. Her body was reacting to feeling like this was home. It was a place that felt so familiar and yet Rania knew that everything about it had changed. This was evidenced by the ruins she walked by, the ones comprised of old Espada towers and for a moment, she wondered which set of ruins used to hers.

The path she now walked was one that she tread a few times before. Twice was to visit Tova or whom she believed to be Tova anyway. Now was to confront the new King of Las Noches, Obsession. Rania stopped just short of the golden double doors that led inside to the throne room.

“A dead name,” she repeated once more to herself, a whisper that disappeared on the wind. I wasn’t here anymore… or am I? I’m not here but I am here. I didn’t belong to Las Noches anymore but that didn’t mean I wasn’t here.

I am here. Everywhere. Rania Odette. I am.

With trepidation in her heart, she finally pushed open those doors. “Erasmus,” was the only thing Rania said, her voice ringing clearly as day.

So I was, I am.

Wasn’t I?
- - - - -
Word count: 632
GP: 12

Total: 2727 / 53

The stone cold edges of the thrones sharp angular arms cut ridges into the king's fingers, a grave shadow looming over his brow as he lowered his head against the rebounding light of the moon. A deep finely etched frown had found his features, an expression that encroached further into his face and snaked it's way through his body until he could feel it coiling around his heart. Had it always been there? He wasn't sure. For the longest time he had had no heart to feel and the one he had now, born over a year ago, was still a foreign organ to him. Flying through his mind were several existential questions; could he love without a heart? What then had he felt for her? How was it different now? All questions that were asked far too late to matter any longer. She was gone and no amount of soul searching would bring her back, he had accepted that fact. Why then were these feelings surfacing if he knew that the familiar sensation of her reiatsu couldn't be real?

As if given command the shadows of the throne room parted to make way for the slender figure of a woman with long black hair and bright blue eyes. The sight of her ghost should have been a comfort to him. It wasn't. Staring at it for a moment the king willed it to tell him that he was being stupid, that there could only be one. It did so, speaking bluntly and explaining it to him, with a hint of playful sarcasm, so that he understood. He still didn't feel any better and the figure returned to darkness, perhaps predicting what was to come as the first crimson petals of anger, born of frustration, bloomed within Obsession's chest. 

Testily he broke everything down into their core facts. She was dead. By now a normal soul. But she was here. A powerful shinigami. The frown in his lip quivered and became a scowl, a black smog smothered his mind and chilled his heart. Whatever it was that was coming his way it couldn't be Rania, to grow so strong in a mere year in Shinigami society was impossible, even if she remembered her past lives she wouldn't have the resources nor the power to return to Las Noches. 

Every scrap of justification Erasmus produced fed the black rage rising like bile in his throat and new questions began to emerge. Who was it? Why were they here? What did they want? Why were they torturing him? Were they seeking vengeance for Shura or Mirabelle? 

Like a shadow elongates beneath the setting sun Erasmus rose smoothly from his throne, bright green eyes glinting with determined menace in the moonlight. Whoever it was they had made a mistake. It didn't matter why they were here. He would find out what they wanted and why they sought to hurt him. He would deny them their vengeance. And then he would make them suffer.

Each thump of his boots against the stone steps to the throne mimicked the beating of his heart as it hammered out the fury of Obsession, his long dark overcoat nipped at his heels as he strode purposefully towards the throne room doors, knowing that she was in the hallway beyond it. He could feel her clearly now, every intricate design exactly as he remembered, save for the smug self-righteousness that every shinigami harbored within them. Now all he could think about was how many people he'd have to go through until he found the source of this trick. Was she here of her own volition or was this some kind of plan employed by the Gotei as a whole? What did they hope to achieve? Weaken the King for a follow up offensive or was it an infiltration attempt?

With his calculations running at the back of his mind Erasmus forced himself to calm down, slow intake of breath and then a slow exhale until his heart stopped trying to crack open his ribs and he was able to transform the grimace into an unwitting yet concerned expression of confusion. He was ready to turn the tables on the bitch who thought she could manipulate him by pretending to be Rania, then he'd beat her bloody with his own fists.

Half way across the floor of the throne room the doors opened and through the gap Erasmus saw her. He heard her speak his name. And everything fell apart. Stopping dead in his tracks Erasmus' fabricated expression became genuine as the sight of her sent sharp needles into his heart. Why? Why was he letting her do this to him? He had expected it! Some combination of seeing a Rania that wasn't just an illusion created by his mind and hearing a voice that he thought he'd never hear again had thrown all of his plans into disarray. Mouth dry and agape, eyes wide and tired. He couldn't allow it! It was an imposter! Rania was dead!

"Who are you?" He spat involuntarily, voice cracking before he could finish his sentence.

[Words: 852][GP: 17][Total GP: 17]

The action was brief enough, opening the door, precise and also not out of the ordinary. Yet in that moment, the memories flashed before her eyes. The feelings she thought were gone—no, they were gone, Rania had to tell herself—couldn’t be stopped when they creeped out of graves long ago buried and forgotten. She could feel it in the way Erasmus’ heart had unraveled too. The feelings they were now feeling weren’t supposed to be there anymore and yet the body shuddered as distance closed between two beings who were once so close.

The air escaped from Rania. It wasn’t too late to turn back now. Not too late to still escape with your life. No, she snarled to herself. This sort of cowardice was what was going to let him break you if it continued. Then the change of emotion within Erasmus sparked a change within her too. She could feel anger, his frustration, and Rania too mirrored those same emotions. She too was angry. She too was frustrated that it had come to this, that he couldn’t let go.

A resolve was solidified within her heart but it didn’t come without the price of fear. Danger screamed at her like a continuous flood drowning her but the doors were now fully open. They were wide open now and nothing but space and shadows separated Rania from Erasmus.

True, a particular sort of twisted vengeance had brought her here but it all sat under the same umbrella of closure. If she didn’t tie up this loose end somehow, Rania would never be satisfied with herself. The price was high, the consequence dangerous, but the scar that bore upon her soul would remain deepened otherwise.

Arms fell to her sides as Rania stood under the precipice of death. She remained silent, allowing him to observe and perceive. Her eyes fell toward the floor. Blue eyes darkened. She even felt a modicum of sympathy for the way his anger had built up only to be broken by her voice saying his name. The visage of Erasmus did the same to her. She had come here believing herself to be replete with hatred toward him. She wanted to believe that her will was unshakeable, that the heart was strong enough to weather the storm but hatred could never be born without love. It was a two-edged sword, two sides of the same coin, like light and dark. There was never one without the other.

Because she felt it too, the longing to fall back into what they were. Would have been easier that way but a child’s play walkover was not something that was ever going to be afforded to them. Instead, they would have to take the long road.

“You’re right,” she answered the indignation within his heart. Her voice was sharp. It cut the air cleanly and rode audibly to Erasmus’ ears. “Your Rania is dead so I’m whatever that piece of hatred is in your heart.” There was no point in convincing him otherwise. One believed what he wanted to believe, especially when this far gone.

“But…” Rania was courageous enough to take one step forward. “I’m not the only one who’s changed. Isn’t that right… Obsession?” Bit by bit, the wall was being broken down, brick slowly crumbling toward the ground. Her hands balled into angry fists, breath wavering with the onset of anger.

“So how dare you accuse of being someone else when you’re someone different too? I’m not the Rania you used to know and neither are you the Erasmus I once knew.”

Her body shook, overcome with emotion. Is this what you really wanted?

Love is not always enough.
- - - - -
Word count: 616
GP: 12

Total: 3343 / 65

Instantly he tried to scold himself for crumbling so easily but it was too late, the damage had been done and he was falling down into a pile of rubble and she too stood there and fell with him. The look on her face mirrored his own and plunged white hot coals of loathing into the pit of his stomach, born of shame for letting a forgery of Rania force him to feel such intimate emotions. Every touch. Every word. She was calling the memories from the deepest most precious recesses of his mind and his hatred for her grew. Like gilded halls of dead importance desecrated by an outsider. And she knew. She knew.

Her response confused him and that confusion turned into more broiling wrath as each word passed through a filter in Erasmus' mind that translated her sentences into lies without taking the time to think or even pretend that she might be genuine. Despite his question she still thought that she could fool him, that if she just kept up the act he'd eventually come around. He wanted to. Only the gods could know how willing Erasmus would be to move both heaven and hell if it meant that he could have Rania back and return to what they were, but it was as the imposter had said. Erasmus had changed since Rania's death and he was no longer so quick to be defeated when it came to matters of the heart. He could see the truth plain as day and no amount of seduction could sway him otherwise. So when the infiltrator took a step towards him Erasmus held strong, his uncertainty warping beneath his enmity.

And he allowed it.

Usually careful to keep his emotions in check Erasmus consciously threw himself into the void of his own temper, not with an explosive outburst of fury, but a silent wave of violent serenity. Calm hostile eyes and polite smile all but betraying the storm within his soul as he studied this fake Rania for the first time with an air of clarity, the silence behind her last word stretching on and on.

She was largely the same. Eyes, hair, nose, mouth, even the shape of her jaw. He knew it all so well, his eyes almost tender as they absorbed her. Every caress of the eye followed hand in hand by a new memory that he plucked from her mind of her time in Rukongai and the Seireitei, names and faces flying into the whirlwind of revulsion hiding behind a stiff mask of politeness. Hazuki. Sayuri Minamoto. Even a few names that Erasmus recognized. Tokiyo Fujikagi. Shun Minamoto. It wouldn't be until much later that Erasmus would sort through the blurred pictures attached to each of these names and deduce the truth, but at present he was pulling names that he was all too familiar with. Like Takua. And those memories, or at least the snippets that he saw, were crystal clear. 

He felt the intimacy.
Became aware of the trust.
Identified the lies.
Knew the impossibilities.
Yet his resentment grew.

He stopped searching and would never admit to himself that it was because he was afraid of what he would find, now he was back in the shadowed hall of the King with a woman trying her best to be the love Erasmus had always wanted. Doing everything in her power to break him all over again. 

"You misunderstand." He told her in a tightly clipped tone.

Rising to her challenge Erasmus stepped forward as well, purposefully invading the woman's personal space as he pushed his face to within inches of her own, so close that his words flew along her neck in warm gusts. 

"I do not know you, and you have never known me." Barely a whisper. Cruel cold eyes traced the faint ridges of her neck and climbed the curvature of her cheeks. "And how could you?" He asked as his eyes slid up the bridge of her nose. "You aren't Rania after all." 

Then he found her eyes and stared deep into pupils that he knew he shouldn't recognize, searching for some evidence to disprove her claim.

"You're wearing the wrong face."

Since his ascension Erasmus had little need for sleep, always thinking, always planning. He knew what he wanted and how he was going to get it. Over time though his plots began to unravel within his own mind, his motivations became hazy, until eventually the lines disappeared and the colors all bled into one another and Erasmus allowed himself to become something that he had vowed never to be.

Lost.

"Now, I know your game, so I'm going to ask you one more time and this time I expect a straight answer." Obsession went on, voice rising to a more conversational tone as he drew away and allowed his guest some much needed time to prepare herself. "If you're not Rania then,"

"Who Are You?"

[Words: 827][GP: 16][Total GP: 33]

The disconnect was painfully unbearable. They weren't on the same page, much less the same dimension even, parallel planes perhaps. It was so obvious, so apparent, thickened to the point that one could cut it with a knife but Rania would been have this way too. Anyone would have if someone you presumed dead suddenly waltzed back into your life. The moment brought back memories of the look on Shun’s face when she first appeared in Rukongai. That look, however, was preceded only by Rania’s own surprise. Imagine the shock when her eyes first opened to realize that she still existed, was still breathing, and still living by all accounts. Once she crossed over into those doors and into the abyss, Rania had expected it to be the final end.

So what happened, what did you do, what did you say, how did you react when someone like that comes back? She looked the same, shared the same memories as the deceased and yet, there was something off about her. There was something different in the way she acted. She felt different but blanketed familiarity got in the way of coolly distinguishing the differences. In his mind, it was hard to separate the two and sometimes, even in her mind too.

Rania didn’t need to look at Erasmus to feel his own hatred toward her. There was a sense of betrayal but also confusion, even a little bit of delusion. As the anger swelled within, a piece of Erasmus was still searching for his Rania. She felt it in her mind as he dug through the memories. All of the recent ones proved she was someone else but if he dug far enough, the King would find that the old memories still remained. Would he dare venture back to that time? To the time when Rania, battered and tortured, finally found her way back into his arms from the human world. Was he reckless enough to pry into the memory of finding Rania and Xiaobei cuddled on the floor together, sleeping next to one another?

Did Erasmus dare have the audacity to look at the once-perfect, now cracked portrait of his envisioned perfect family?

It's not like before. I didn't want to go back.

She breathed in deeply as Obsession quickly closed the gap between the two of them. He was standing so close to her now but Rania didn’t back away. Instead, she raised her head so that blue eyes stared directly into green. A part of her wanted to smile at the words. She was wearing the wrong face, he said. Maybe she was. Rania brought a hand over her right eye, to the place where the fragment used to exist, and covered it, still looking Erasmus in the eye.

“The wrong face, eh…” she quietly repeated, a hint of contemplation hidden in her tone. “Is this the answer that you’re looking for then? That I am a Shinigami and I’ve come to kill you. Does that satisfy you? Does it stroke your ego to know that you could kill me instead? Does it anger you that I’d have to audacity to even think that I could kill you?”

This time, Rania’s eyes narrowed, fury washing over her own countenance. The hand dropped back to her side, anger seething from her very essence. She didn’t answer to him anymore. He didn’t even know her anymore. They were strangers now. Erasmus didn’t know who she was, so how could he possibly be ‘know her game’?

“I only said that I wasn’t your Rania anymore. Do you really want to know my name?”

Her mind began steeling herself for the imminent clash. She always knew it would inevitably come to blows but things were progressing far faster than imagined.

“My name is…”

This is a rite of passage, she told herself, trying to convince the shaken nerves. I deserve better.

The words were as clear as clarity itself. She did not stutter in her speech and she knew it would upset him. No longer was Rania someone who owed anything to Erasmus. She could be selfish, couldn’t she? Closure was for herself. The chapter had already finished writing itself. Now the page wanted to be able to turn.

You’ve changed so much and so have I.

Love changes as time passes.

“Rania Odette.”
- - - - -
Word count: 723
GP: 14

Total: 4066 / 79

A cloying smog congealed the air as Obsessions' anger began to overflow through his reiatsu as if it's sole purpose in life was to choke the life from everything living. While it's master seethed in silence the invisible writhing mass coiled long fingers around the pillars that lined the throne room, the only safety being inside the bubble that was Rania's own power. It could not -or would not- penetrate that space. She had mocked his suspicions but that wasn't why his jaw had clenched in his efforts to keep himself from biting words back, it was how she had said them that had further stoked the flame. She was so much like Rania that it was starting to physically hurt him; a sickening lurch in his stomach and a heavy ache in his heart both dancing over his memories with spiked boots and souring the sweetness that they once held. From now until the end of time this woman would be tied to his memories of Rania, forever soiling the precious things he cherished.

Every detail had been meticulously carved into her character right down to the subtle inconsequential gestures, like touching the mask that had never existed. Even that, such a small thing, had the power to make Obsessions head swim with red and the imperceptible fog grew thicker, heavier, roaring a deafeningly mute bellow of emotion.

He was looking at her when she threatened him with her name, green eyes wide and unblinking as they clashed with the blue. At his sides his quivering arms ended in tight fists. The corner of his lip twitched. He hung on every word like a coiled snake waiting for a movement that felt threatening. Ready to fight back. Constrict around her. Spit venom. Choke. Bite. Kill.

Then she said it. Rania Odette. And the world cowered in fear for just a moment, still as the grave and just as silent as the pair of eyes fixed upon her intensified. The moon of Hueco Mundo peered through the gargantuan open wall behind the throne, eagerly anticipating the next development with a crescent grin of cruelty that reflected the nature of the world it watched over.

Obsession blinked.

"Very well, Rania Odette." The name was hissed viciously, it's taste had become rot and death on his tongue and he wanted it out of his mouth as soon as possible. Whoever it was wearing Rania's skin and using Rania's voice she had come looking for a fight and Erasmus wasn't going to give it to her on her terms. Everything in that moment, the fear of the nearby servants as they gibbered in their corners and the mountain of loathing that enforced the will of Obsessions power, the tension in the air. It was all bottled up and stirred into a mixture of a foul and evil design. Flashes of thought and memory were flung across the chasm between Broken soul and Shinigami. Brief sensations of pleasure in the face of rending shrieks. Gushing crimson. The begging; for the pain to stop. For the reason why. For mercy. For death. What he had done to Kionchi was cruel. What he had forced Mirabelle to suffer through was monstrous. What he had inflicted upon Shura had been black and vile.

Somewhere in those snippets of the past there was a promise. A single solitary vow for what the future would hold for the woman that had dared to walk into the hall of the King wearing that face. Indescribable things. Sins of the soul itself. Sins that pushed a sickeningly polite and eager smile across the face of Obsession as he slowly extended an inviting and open palm into the gap between their two bodies lacing it with pain, voice chillingly calm as he spoke horrible pleasantries.

"It's so nice to meet you. Forgive me, I wasn't expecting company today so tell me; what was it you planned to do once you reached this point? Surely it wasn't just to drop by and say hello while you were in the area. No, you'll be staying I think, at least until my hospitality runs out. I insist."

Whether she chose to shake his hand or not was of little importance, his fingers closed into a firm grip and the doors to the throne room swung shut with a slow ominous rumble.

[Words: 726][GP: 14][Total GP: 47]

The image of him in front of her broke. It fractured and spun in circles like a dizzying spell. He twisted and turned in ways that an image shouldn’t have. Sound started to become garbled as it was received and suddenly, lightheadedness plagued her body. It wasn’t the pressure in the air deepened from Obsession’s manifested anger and neither was it her own ire. It was the clawing feeling from the depths of her stomach, sickening, contorted, that wrenching feeling of fear finally substantiating itself.

This was really it. This was happening. She could no longer turn away, past the point of no return but fear was not malicious and neither was it kind. Fear was cautioned and it was also weakness. Fear was born from that which you could not know. Fear was also irrational and fear… it could be powerful too, propelling one forward from whatever was chasing you.

In this matter, fear steadied Rania like a wave of cold water splashed against her face. She became more aware of her surroundings, could feel the weight of Obsession’s anger bearing down on her. It was a heavy burden but a burden that she had to carry. A wicked smile sprawled across his face. In the moments of silence in-between, his thoughts shrieked venom and vile. All of Erasmus was painted red, exactly the way he wanted to paint her too, wanted to line the entire throne room in her blood.

And so the doors closed behind her. The rumbling reverberated in her ears like a dull crashing thunder and she felt his fingers snake around her own. He pressed firmly down on her hand in a semblance of a handshake. There was a reason Erasmus wanted to keep her here, to keep her close. Rania wasn’t stupid and she had to remember that bloodthirst she felt was projected from his thoughts so what about her own?

By this point, Rania had steeled her mind as much and as best she could. The guard she had put up in the form of Suppression was finally dropped and the eclipse was finally broken. The wispy edges of her Reiatsu became visibly more apparent as if a sun were being revealed under Las Noches’ perpetual moonlight. Any doubt in her expression had now been removed. Her lips pursed into a thin line and Rania did in fact return Obsession’s handshake. It was firmly reciprocated and in doing so, she also twisted his wrist around enough to wrangle herself out of his stranglehold. There was a reason he wanted to keep her close and she was going to find out why and it was going to hurt. 

“Tell me, Erasmus… what’s the point in waiting for someone who won’t come back?” She whispered the words, emotionless but steady. No anger. No vengeance, simply monotony. Then, the pride and power that defined Shinigami. One might have faulted Rania for using it so early but this was the least she could for the King of Las Noches. Any later would have been outrageously insulting.

“Bankai.” The word was spoken in such regular verse that it would have gone unnoticed had Rania not unsheathed her blade. There were no flashing lights, no gusts of wind, or any sort of grand symphony to indicate that Rania had indeed released. There simply was. Over time, one would realize the power emanating from her but the moments immediately after release passed by quickly enough. Her hand wrapped tightly around the hilt of her blade and she extended one finger forward, movements subtle but deft.

“Sho,” she then said, emphasizing the word: Hado, the very first one. Rania kept her actions compact, blade swinging forward but never making any contact. Instead, a barrage of concussive Hado—concussive much like the Bala in which she used to be so well versed—burst forth and toward Erasmus. She used the force with which it shot forward not only to push him back but also to knock herself back and toward the throne doors that had just closed, allowing for additional momentum on top of her own acceleration.

Whatever was going to happen next was going to hurt but Rania always knew that she would hurt; it was just a matter of how much she would hurt. Blood was inevitably going to stain these walls and much of it would be hers.

One by one, the lights go out. The last train has left the terminal and now rain pours down. The skies couldn’t be sadder with nowhere to go.
- - - - -
Word count: 758
GP: 15

Total: 4824 / 94

Crashing together with the sound of a coughing giant the doors were sealed and the pair were locked in, the servants having fled their positions in the shadows and scuttling through hidden doorways. Their King did not begrudge them their cowardice, they were servants, picked for their obedience and meekness rather than their combat ability and fearlessness.

Fear was something Erasmus knew intimately and admired both the feeling and the sight of it. To feel it was to be faced with a challenge, an obstacle to overcome, to know that everything up until that point had been endured through sheer will and survival. To see it was to know that your enemy was at a disadvantage and you held all the cards. In both instances it was a perfect example of evolution through conflict, without fear there cannot be bravery and without bravery there cannot be strength, one leads to the other in a magnificent sequence of power that countless Hollow had gone through time and time again. 

And so he saw fear upon the imposters face and felt the hairs of his neck stand on end in anticipation for the slaughter that was to come. Would this woman die fighting for her cause or would she turn tail and run? Judging from the extent of the power she was unleashing in the face of a fight those were the only outcomes Erasmus could predict unless he could find a way to subdue her, but he had to remind himself that things could change. As powerful as he was even the King of Las Noches had his weaknesses and, much to his dismay, they were many. Without knowing what tactics she would employ in combat Obsession had to be careful, one misstep could cost him dearly.

Then all at once the fear was masked with a grim facade of defiance and determination, but even as the smaller woman returned the threatening handshake Erasmus knew that it had not vanished. It wasn't that easy to banish the stench of fright.

A quick flick of her wrist and she wriggled free from his grasp. Calloused fingers hovered in the air, occupying the space where hers had once been before slowly lowering themselves to his side. He made no effort to re-establish his hold on her, there were stronger ways to restrain a person and it wouldn't do to reveal those tricks so soon into the party. And there was an awful lot of talking at this party and Erasmus angled his head slightly as he pondered her question; was she talking specifically about Rania or was it a generalization? 

It might even have been rhetorical since she left him little time to respond as she uttered a word that Erasmus hadn't heard in a long time.

"Bankai." The man muttered curiously, nodding his head along with the transformation, or lack thereof, with a pair of folded unimpressed arms. Were it not for the telltale release of power Erasmus may have called her on her bluff and been made to look a fool later on in the fight. It would matter little though, the increase she received from her Bankai was just the reaching hand of a wretch as she clawed for the pinnacle that was the strength of the King. Despite this the woman still persisted, stabbing a finger at him accusingly. Erasmus barely had enough time to register what she was doing before the spell had been cast and the kinetic blasts were buffeting his chest.

Shō was intended for tactical use to put some distance between you and your opponent but that didn't stop Erasmus from feeling every impact like a punch to the gut. Firing off in unison dozens of deep pops burst the air as the vibrations of his body counteracted the incoming assault. For every blast hitting him there was another one deflecting it but despite the mitigated damage Shō was doing it's job, Erasmus was forced to step backwards, holding his ground beneath some spells only to be pushed further by the others. Beneath the explosive booms that littered the throne room Erasmus growled a string of profanities that mirrored his dislike for Kido before he decided that too much ground had been given and a dazzling yellow light illuminated his adam's apple with a crimson glow. From his throat to his mouth the light traveled to his cheeks and burst through the white of his teeth as he belched up a magnificent pillar of golden power to devour the rest of the incoming kido spells. Under the barrage he hadn't had the room to aim his attack, but it had afforded him the freedom to dance to the side where the incoming projectiles couldn't reach him.

"Why do you assume I was waiting?!" He called over the roaring of his own cero, having finally found the answer to her question. A shadow crawled onto the throne, the same one that he had sought assurance from before the fake Rania had walked into the room. It crossed it's legs and leaned it's chin upon it's palm, bored jaded blue eyes staring coldly down at the woman who's appearance it mimicked. "Or were you hoping?!" His mouth worked by itself, throwing out words that were half-thought and intended to hurt.

Viciously Erasmus slashed at the air with a closed fist, a blade being drawn from the emptiness of space that was half as long as his body and as thick as his thigh. Though it shared all of the same characteristics of a zanpakuto it's edge was dull, the steel empty and lifeless as it refused to reflect the light of the cero. Where once there was a zanpakuto spirit, where the power of an Arrancar had once lay dormant, there was now nothing. Just a dead blade that slashed at the air, ripples of it's devastating power flying from the edge and soaring across the throne room, each one precisely focused on hacking a limb from the body of the woman that claimed to be Rania. 

[Words: 1010][GP: 20][Total GP: 67]

Slowly burn, burn everything. There was no love left to give or to take. Burn it all to the ground. When push came to shove, Rania would burn down the entire throne room, tear it all down with everything inside, herself included. In that sense, there was no other way out. 

So Erasmus, burn, slowly burn…

Impact hit her like a concrete wall. Rania was fast, just not fast enough yet. As the blur beneath her feet tried to escape the vibrating air, blood splattered everywhere. One step forward, one more drip of red and in its wake, destruction followed. Pillars crumbled into adjacent walls and the room shook violently as dust kicked up in the air. It became hard to see and yet even among the trembling images before her eyes, Rania could see them so clearly. She saw their own fear, fear that struck in the hearts of the servants still scrambling to escape. She could see their panicked faces hidden behind porcelain fragments, much like the one that used to be her own. Some were lucky enough to still be alive, some injured, and some dead. The room was filled with particles of energy that were neither Rania’s nor Erasmus’, simply Arrancar and pure Hollow alike disintegrating into their final end. They were no longer her kind and she no longer theirs. For that, there would be no mercy. Blood spilled from her mouth and silently, Rania spit on them with it. She wiped away the residual crimson and that was it.

Momentum carried her away and soon, she was circling the room in random spurts at a haphazard pace. Rania’s exact position was unpredictable and difficult to ascertain. Despite all the pain and through blood-soaked clothes, her voice was calm when she replied. “I wasn’t hoping for anything.” The words carried themselves with a monotonous clarity, almost deadpan. “But you searched for me, didn’t you? You turned into Obsession because of me, didn’t you?” Slowly but surely, Rania’s tone rose with every word spoken. “You hoped, didn’t you?! A part of you hoped that even if I wasn’t your Rania, that even if I was wearing the wrong face, that I’d come crawling back to you. You would have gladly accepted me if not to satisfy your miserable, worthless, and wretched excuse of a life hidden behind the title of a King!”

The vibrations of her words echoed off the walls before clashing in the middle to form a cataclysm of Rania’s voice filling the throne room all around. In one moment, it sounded as if the words came from behind, then in another, to the side but it was never still. She never stood still, leaving a messy train of her after-images melding into one another as she sped around.

Then without warning, Rania screamed, “Byakurai!” She wielded her blade forth, a ring of static quickly spinning around it forming from the hilt. As she swung the Zanpakuto forward, a beam of electricity shot toward Obsession. The violent clash of Cero and Hado exploded in mid-air and a thick smog quickly replaced where there once was a magnificent explosion.

“You weren’t enough to keep me around. You couldn’t give me a reason to stay!” Intimate details of her death were slowly being revealed. “Let me explain, Obsession, that when I died, when he killed me, I was asking to be killed! I was asking to die!” By now, Rania’s voice was a shrill shriek that filled the room. “And looking at what a sad, pathetic King you are now, I made the right choice.” A raucous laughter followed, one that was slightly maddening. “You couldn’t even give Takua enough of a reason to stay either. The only one who made this place any sort of bearable back then and now… now look at you! His departure was a great loss to Las Noches, wasn’t it?”

She could feel the veins in her neck popping out. Each time Rania thought her anger had reached its limit, the cap was simply breached to reveal another stratosphere of fury.

“No, I wasn’t hoping for anything. I came here simply to confirm what I had already presumed. You’re pathetic, Erasmus!” Where was the glory? Where was the pride? Where had the power gone? The almighty Las Noches died a long time ago, it seemed and sometimes, even lightning struck the same spot twice. “Hado sixty-one: Rai-ko-ho!” The throne room shook like a magnitude ten earthquake. The chandelier lights flickered violently on and off, creaked and rattled along with the vibrations in the air before crashing quickly to the ground. More and more pillars came crumbling down and within the darkness of it all, a flash of lightning illuminated from the palm of Rania’s hand. It vibrantly radiated, blazing in contrast to the dead steel disc. 

A spark that burst into flames; Erasmus may have been dead but Rania was not.

If she had to, she was going to tear it all down with everything inside. It was all going to burn to the ground. The throne room. Obsession. Las Noches. This was a life by which Rania was no longer bound. He was someone to which she owed nothing.

Blood red filled those blue eyes of hers, just like her Zanpakuto thirsting for the same crimson. Rania was not weak anymore and this battle was not going to break her.

Live, Rania, live. 
- - - - -
Word count: 904
GP: 18

Total: 5728 / 112

Standing in the middle of the audience floor Erasmus stood stock still as the entire throne room erupted into a blur of black hair and blue eyes, everywhere his pupils darted the imposter was there looking down at him, no doubt thinking that she was safe so long as she kept moving. It was true that Erasmus was slow, but he was determined not to make it his weakness. It took a lot of energy to continue such high speed movement, while Erasmus was able to conserve his stamina by enduring. The only other person he knew that could rival, perhaps beat, his ability to withstand assault was Desalmados and that man hadn't been seen for a long time. If this was how the fake Rania proposed to beat him she'd be in for a rude awakening.

When her voice emerged from the foggy crowd it was difficult to ascertain it's source, every word flew at him from a different location, impossible to track. So he didn't. There was no point. Instead he absorbed what she was telling him and grinned wickedly in the face of her ignorance. A spell was cast, Byakurai, and he knew from memory that it was another of the weaker Hado. Nowhere near enough to damage him. But it didn't come anywhere near him. Instead an incredible boom popped his eardrums and a strong gust of power blew the tail of his overcoat away from his legs. Standing at the edge of a cloud of smoke that was born from the coupling of kido and cero it was all he could do; stand and grin. Every single word she spoke was so cripplingly wrong that he nearly felt sorry for her, trying so hard to rattle him and failing miserably. Had she just assumed or was her information from a particular source. Perhaps Takua? If it was then not even Takua understood and was more the fool for it.
 
As his ears adjusted he could faintly make out the words that buried themselves beneath his flesh and fell right into the fire. Rania wanted to die? To escape him? Escape her home? Abandon everything?! He wouldn't believe it. Refused to! He would not have this creature slandering Rania's character! Testing the waters he slashed his sword at the dozens of fakes around him, the waves of power finding no purchase in flesh and cutting solid chunks from the stone work of the throne room. When a sentence struck him for behind that's where he swung his sword, if it was from the side he brought it around in an arc, if it was ahead of him he stabbed viciously at nothing. 

And just as before Erasmus barely had time to react before the spell was sung and the lightning struck.

A thousand crystals shattered against the marble floor and danced across the room as the chandeliers fell, a glittering crash competing with the explosion that came before it. As Erasmus' body was seized by the spasmodic currents of power coursing through his veins the earth quaked beneath his feet, the only thing keeping him standing was the electricity wreaking havoc in his muscles. Rubble flew up into the air with the impact of the spell and Erasmus roared his defiance beneath the sound of falling debris. Roaring that slowly transformed into mocking laughter as the spell ran it's course and died out.

"An improved attempt!" He called out, splotches of raw red skin scattered across his body. His clothes had been set afire and singed, falling away into piles of ash. "But you'll need even bigger guns than that! And better lies if you hope to fool me!" He spun on the spot, the sting of his crimson skin little more than an annoyance as he tried to keep his gaze fixed on any one Rania.

"Yes, I obtained this power because of Rania's death, but here's where you've gone wrong! When Takua told me of her fate I had a choice; defy the truth and look for her or accept it and protect the only thing I had left. I could accept the loss of Rania, but losing my child was something I was not willing to risk! I didn't search. I didn't hope! I turned around and devoured my own daughter so that she would forever be safe within me! Nobody could harm her!" He spun again, focusing on a different Rania, the same Rania, her ghost, or her imposter?

"I'll tell you what I told Takua! I don't give a flying fuck about you! About Las Noches! About being King! All I care about is the future of my daughter! I will destroy everything if that's what it takes to create a world where she can impose her will and remain unchallenged, undefeated, happy!" The rage of his soul contradicted the maddened circumference of his eyes and the horrible toothy grin on his face.

"But there's one thing you almost got right!" Screaming above the roaring of her flash step Erasmus jabbed the tip of his blade up at the blur that was his enemy. "I know that if Rania ever walks through those doors my resolve will waver, I will forget my goal and be doomed to fall back into the past. My child will not have the future she deserves! That is why you cannot be Rania!"

The crescendo of Obsession erupted in a monstrous force that toppled what remained of the pillars and crushed the rubble to dust. An infinite weight that was the single-minded vastness of Erasmus' fixation plunged down upon the world like a blunt guillotine. The slowest of the servants plummeted to the ground, their breathing ragged as they struggled to suck in oxygen, the weak and slow were killed outright. The King extended his power and seized Rania's limbs with a harsh onslaught of vibrations.  No matter how fast you are, no matter how strong, there's only so much weight you can carry before you come to a grinding halt. 

When at last Erasmus could lock his dilated pupils on a single Rania he belched up another beam of sinister gold, it's holy light a worrying oxymoron of the corruption that had decayed his mind.

[Words: 1039][GP: 20][Total GP: 87]

She didn’t come to Las Noches intending to ever ‘beat’ or even kill Obsession. Delusions of the mind should be left up to its rightful owner. He would hear only what he wanted to hear. In a sense, she’d already lost before any of this began. Before she ever set foot into the throne room, before she even breached the capital’s moonlit sky, Rania had already lost. He was never going to accept for who she was. To Erasmus, there was only ever one Rania and one Rania only and that person was long dead for him. The only thing that the Rania now could be to the King was wrong. Everything about her was wrong and there would never be any convincing in that airtight twisted and deranged mind of his.

She was simply tempting fate now and had continued to do so but the measure of her luck wouldn’t last forever. Erasmus slashed at the air, desperately trying to find flesh and blood among the swirling circle of doppelgangers. She could feel him getting closer with every swing. The reverberation of each blast made her flinch just slightly in movement. Rania jumped in her own skin. Every moment could have been her last. She tried not to think too hard about that, forced herself to think about something else.

His roaring laughter echoed raucously in her ears. She listened to what he had to say, but not too closely. She didn’t have to, after all. Rania had already gotten what she came for from this unholy reunion. The only thing left to do was survive. In fact, his fit of rage served almost as a calming effect for her. The more he spun out of control, the more in control she felt. Then, there was a still moment. Everything came to a halt and time seemingly froze. Her reflections spinning around the room flickered in this stillness and Rania stood dead center from across the room to him. To everything Erasmus just said, Rania had a simple reply, “Good,” she said with a sad smile and even sadder eyes. “Neither of us are who we once were anymore.”

To have the same dream as before would be a fallacy and a lie. The paths we are now walking, we’ve at least chosen to walk on our own… right? I can finally say that I’m walking on my own, on my own two feet. That which was exactly what she achieved here: reaffirmation of self.

Only one moment to breathe before the stillness quickly passed.

She braced herself, steeled her mind, and then expected the worst but all the preparation in the world couldn’t have lessened the oncoming blows. Each strike hurt like a piece of her soul was being stripped away, bit by bit. It was sadistic. Just when she finally reeled from the pain, another slice struck the same place exacerbating the existing wound just a little bit more. Her body was caught in a vacuum and she could no longer move of her own free will. Instead, Rania could only half-scream, half-groan from the onslaught. Red stained her uniform like the reddest she’d ever seen. Her body wanted to feel numb like she was going into shock but Erasmus wasn’t letting that happen. Instead, it was as if she was being repeatedly skinned and then pricked with a thousand needles among open flesh. Dante’s Inferno.

She was knocked back into an adjacent wall and the impact was forceful enough to breach a hole into the next room over. She choked on air filled with debris and dirt and dust and that made her hurt from the inside out. Pain from within met pain from the outside and the collision force was so unimaginable that Rania was surprised she was even still standing—or rather, kneeling in the wreckage. She no longer had the luxury for conversation. Every haggard breath was geared toward staying alive. It took all of her concentration to even remain conscious. Vision was blurry and red stained the whites of both eyes. Bile mixed with blood dribbled down the side of her mouth as she hacked up crimson plagued with bits of black goo.

Rania clenched down hard on her teeth, hand trembling in the air. Shakily, she extended an arm forward, didn’t even know where she was looking. Visuals were of no help so she honed in on his Reiatsu signature, that cacophonous aura of hatred toward her resonating loudly. Rania clenched her hand into a fist, blood seeping to the ground from that very hand. Black started to form around Obsession. The air around him began to swirl and soon even time and space started to distort. Through staccato breaths and sheer will, she forced herself to exert every last bit of spiritual energy she could muster. That same spiritual pressure manifested itself into black matter congealing into the physical form of a monstrous black coffin.

“Kurohitsugi," Rania plainly said. She found no strain in her voice. It was calm, almost normal to the point of eerie. The word lightly escaped her lips then followed quickly by the bloodcurdling symphony of everything crashing to the ground. She could fight no longer after this. 

So burn, burn, burn…
- - - - -
Word count: 876
GP: 17

Total: 6604 / 129