Atop a belltower stood the stark red figure that Andrew saw on the other side of the street. Her name is Melissa Arfox and she's looking over the bell tower's ledge to bask in the entirety of the west-side of Mires.
She takes in the scenery and finds it breathtaking.
With the cold northern breeze flowing in every which way, it pulls the hood of her cloak off, letting her short red hair flow along the direction of the wind. However, unlike the gale that continues to change directions, Melissa's eyes were fixated to one point.
Her fixated stare was interrupted by a plain white wrapper that flies into her view and further into the sky. It was a wrapper from a sandwich she had eaten before climbing on top of the tower.
"Their sandwich was delicious, and the people here are quite kind too. Any normal person would love to find their place here." As Melissa drones to herself about Mires, she can't help but grip onto the fence of the tower and start cursing while her expression gradually twists with fury.
"But I know you're hiding in this city, you sadistic monster. I'll smoke you out and finally meet you again after chasing you through the ends of the world."
Melissa turns around to face the bell, its rim now etched with runes written in red chalk. The inside of the bell tower is also lined with those red runes, forming an almost spiralesque pattern.
The crimson witch takes out a small vial of blood and as she was about to remove the cork on it, she pockets it upon faintly sensing someone behind her.
Of course, Melissa looks behind to see who caught her in the act. Her eyes disinterestedly gazing at first but then gradually expanding in dread as the figure's large shadow casts itself over her.
The man that owned the shadow and the one struck fear in Melissa could see the witch's irises rattle in terror while her joints freeze in place out of anxiety. The man's piercing eyes show a thousand years behind them, maybe even more. Casually he's snapping his fingers, but it wasn't until a few seconds more pass that he said this,
"I'm talking to you, say something."
Melissa didn't catch what this man said before that, she was too caught up in her fear that she didn't realize till now that the man was snapping his fingers at her to get her attention.
"I- What? Why do you-" She stumbles in her words while backing away.
"Stop. You're about to hit the bell. You wouldn't want that would you?" The man speaks briefly as if to not waste his breath.
This man stood tall even when he's sitting on the ledge of the bell tower. His black suit absorbed the sunlight and highlighted the red tie he wears around his grey undershirt. His hair's white from age but there remains one red streak on the left side. His face, just like everything else, has age to it where his cheekbones are expressed and wrinkles present under his brow.
The witch stood still on command from what the man said. Melissa could feel the bell's cold air on her back even through her cloak, and she couldn't help but wince quietly in pain from it. What the man says is true, Melissa mustn't hit the bell, not yet.
"You've been here for three days. You set this bell tower up as a flamethrower on the second day. Why-"
"If you knew all that why didn't you stop me? Who are you and what do you want!?" Fear is quickly replaced with anger inside her.
The thought that somebody spied on her on day one did scare Melissa, but at the same time, it frustrated her. She felt played by this man- toyed with by giving her the time to set this all up and for all of it to fail as he reveals himself on the day of reckoning.
"Never interrupt me. Let me finish." Was all he said to the crimson witch. Calm as his words sounded it had a firm authority behind them.
"Why not the first day?" He asked the question while ignoring the witch's demands to know who he is, and what he's doing.
Confusion mixes with Melissa's anger as she has no idea what's going on now. What she does know is that she's furious with this strange man but, as her brows begin to furrow, Melissa attempts to compose herself and confront the stranger.
"If you know what this bell does, and what I'm planning to do with it, why are you asking me about specifics? Why don't you just stop me?"
The man doesn't answer, he just taps his shoes on the ground while waiting for Melissa to reply to his question with an actual answer. Melissa realizes that and fumes up, her face turning red.
"I-! I don't know, okay!? You're right I should've done this on the first day but why are you criticizing me!? Don't you live here!? Now answer me, why aren't you stopping me!?"
"Because it's not my job to," he replied to her question, finally. Then he stands up and proceeds to head straight to the bell tower's staircase, unchallenged.
Meanwhile, Melissa is too dumbfounded to stop him even though he hasn't answered all of her questions. She just has this thousand-yard stare to her while processing the altercation she just had. Then it finally clicked, he's leaving and she still has questions!
"WAIT! I'm not done with you!"
"Well, I'm done with you so have a good day," replied the unnamed person who's already at the bottom of the bell tower.
"I could fire this bell right now and you'd be burnt to a crisp!"
"As if it could," he snappily replied while walking out of 1 of the 5 bell tower doors. He treated this encounter like any other, which pissed off Melissa even further that it looks like she's about to blow a fuse.
Grinding her teeth, the witch does her best to forget that encounter and focus on finishing her preparations.
In reality, she did have a reason why she started preparing this ritual on the 2nd day. On the night she came to Mires the crimson witch tried to search the entire city, not for a place to stay like an inn, but to find a person with a great debt to her. Though Melissa quickly realized that it would take more than a day to look for that person, much less an entire night. She stayed in one of the inns and had breakfast in kiosks that would sell sandwiches and other food items. After a day of her searching nothing turned up, and with desperation and anger gradually building up inside her she thought to smoke that person out by turning the entire west-side city of Mires into a flaming inferno with the use of the bell tower that she found in her searching. The flames created from her runes wouldn't hurt anyone else except that person, to do that she needed a sample of them, like a vial of blood.
Of course, she was still hesitant. Even if her flames won't even burn a hair on a person's brow, she was still unsure about her methods. It's still an act of terror, one that will turn her into a full-blown criminal.
But she's willing to become one, so long as it meant she would achieve her goals. She smashes the vial of blood against the bell tower, splattering it with a spot of red. The blood then runs down the bell's body and upon touching the runes it flows into the red symbols.
Look for and burn the owner
'Suche et Brennen la proprietaire'
Taking the sledgehammer that she found lying in the corner of the tower, Melissa plans to strike the bell to force it to ring. A strong feeling of anguish holds her back momentarily, but gripping the handle with both hands she steels herself and swings the sledgehammer with all the strength in her arms.
The bell rings loudly and people were at first silently confused why it chimed so early. Then confusion quickly melts into panic as they see flames roaring out from the bell tower doors, bathing the entire plaza and streets in an orange inferno that quickly swallows the whole west-side. Melissa looks down on the sea of flames she created and the people screaming in terror, only to realize that the flames aren't actually hurting them.
Amidst the sea of flames, Melissa can tell someone's making their way up to where she is, but she also sensed that something did get hurt in the inferno she made. She grimaced, one painted with bloodlust.
Quickly she cast the sledgehammer aside, seeing no use for it. She then leaps off the bell tower and fire sputtered out of the soles of her boots letting her stride mid-air. As impressive as that was, it's nothing to her red-eyed glower.
A shout calling out to the witch cuts through the roaring inferno and a long red-haired woman leaps out of the flames giving chase to Melissa by jumping on top of the shale rooves of the city.
"For disrupting the peace and order of the city, you're goin' to have to answer to me. Now first of all, what's your name!" Erize kicks a piece of shale towards the witch.
In response, Melissa spun around and shatters the shale with a kick of her own. Looking even more crossed the witch leaps onto the roof to confront her pursuer.
"Can you mind your own business? I'm not happy with another person getting in my way" Melissa is scratching the back of her head while clicking her tongue.
"Another person? Who are ya talkin' about, witch?" Distress came over the anti-mage, fearing that a person had died by this witch's hands.
Erize unslings the two-handed sword she carries on her shoulder and took it out from its sheath that she puts back on her shoulder while the tall sword is propped next to her. Both Erize and Melissa are bathed in an orange afterglow as the inferno continues to rage on, spreading further out, as if its only limit were how far the bell's chime can be heard.
"I'm going to give ya the chance to surrender peacefully. Do that and ya might just leave with your life."
It's not that Erize is threatening Melissa. It's a matter of fact in this world that a witch can only be vile and malicious.
"Pretty big sword you got there, are you compensating for something?" Melissa said the first snappy thing she could think of to Erize, a woman who even in uniform and in armor has an obvious hourglass figure.
"H-, Huh? I'm a woman!" Erize declares, quite obviously, but not out of anger but because she wanted to simply correct Melissa.
"S-, So you are! I couldn't tell!" Melissa's sloppy attempt to save her witty comment.
Her reply doesn't stir anything in Erize, it might've instead given her doubt that Melissa is actually a malevolent witch.
"If that's your reply to my final attempt to reach out to ya, then maybe there's no talking things with ya. Dyrnwyn."
Erize evokes a name and her sword started to steam. And just like with Melissa's soles, flames crackled from the tip of the two-handed sword and fully enveloped it, giving the blade a sharp orange color. Moreover, with the blade turning a bright orange it reveals the white runes secretly inscribed across the wide fuller.
Burn by my command
'Brennen per ma befehl'
With her flaming sword, Erize razes the shale roof whilst she charges towards Melissa, carrying momentum in her strike shown by the flames of her sword growing larger.
Melissa however stands her ground and threw her red cloak at Erize, to which the anti-mage responds by saying it's such a waste to toss away such a good cloak as she slashes it. Erize was wide-eyed upon swinging at the cloak as it catches her sword. It wrapped around it while lapping up the flames, effectively snuffing out the power in her strike.
Melissa's boot then stomps down, pinning Dyrnwyn to the shale roof. The witch then reveals that she also has something strapped to her shoulder, a rifle that she grabs and aims at Erize, firing a point-blank shot to her shoulder after adjusting her aim.
She could've easily fired between the anti-mage's eyes but didn't.
Erize falls back and gives a pained glare at Melissa. It's a frightening contrast, Melissa with the propensity to stumble in her words is an expert in using a lever-action rifle.
The sharp clatter of the rifle's action from the cocking of its lever, the ejection of an empty and steaming bullet casing that falls to the shale, and the faint sound of a bullet entering the chamber are all sounds foreign to Erize as firearms are not yet fully introduced to Mires and its soldiers.
"Some broomstick ya got there, witch. I didn't know rifles could pierce plate armor." Erize snickers while standing back up. The experience is still causing her senses to ring, leaving her dazed. "So that's how it feels."
"Give yourself enough distance and my bullets will only leave dents if not no damage at all on your armor," A swift reply from Melissa. "And if you don't get that treated it'll get infected."
"So, you're tellin' me to run away? Not happenin'. Sorry."
The anti-mage smiles, not out of confidence but out of everything she's observed so far in Melissa. She makes a dead-sprint towards the witch, startling Melissa into leaping back to the roof behind her. She then aims at Erize's body and fires, only for the anti-mage to raise her forearm to take the hit instead. Just like Melissa said with a wide enough distance the damage is reduced -still it pierces through the armor and shallowly lodged itself into Erize's forearm.
"Are you insane?! What happened to the pain of getting shot!"
"I already got used to it, I thought the red-hair was a dead-giveaway of what I am -and hey, aren't ya one too? A Cerenian I mean!" Erize picks up the wrapped Dyrnwyn and with a huge grin on her face, she leaps towards Melissa.
Taking Dyrnwyn and holding it by its wrapped-up blade Erize swings it down on Melissa, forcing the witch to catch the two-handed sword's pummel with the stock and lever of her rifle. A loud snap is heard inside the action of the firearm, something in the inner-workings broke when the lever was hit.
"Scratch what I said earlier, you ARE insane! Don't your arm hurt ya friggin' ape!?" Melissa shouts at Erize's face while having a contest of strength of pushing the other back, surprisingly Melissa and Erize are at a stalemate.
"Ya are a Cerenian! Even your accent's startin' to show!" Erize suddenly grows stronger, overpowering Melissa and forcing her to retreat and gain distance between her and Erize.
The witch is well beyond crossed. Not only did she have to deal with some thousand-year-old evil screwing with her, now she has Erize acting all chummy with her like they're distant relatives.
"What's your problem?! Weren't you worried that I hurt someone before you got to me?!" Melissa bellowed out, aiming her rifle at Erize. It's nothing but a bluff at this point, she knows that the rifle's action is broken and she hasn't reloaded.
"I was, but it's hard to really see you hurting someone without it being self-defense," Erize replied with a beaming smile across her face.
"I shot you!" Melissa snappily retorted.
"Water under the bridge aye? 'Sides, if ya really were serious then, why'd ya change your aim? Ya had a clear shot at my head, but I saw you adjust your aim to hit my shoulder instead."
Melissa's stunned by Erize's keen senses. She can't help but grip her rifle uncomfortably tight. Holding it with too much pressure made her arms shudder.
"Same with the body too. I'm flattered that ya think I can predict where the shot is comin' from but I had time to guess! Since you were hesitatin'."
"Can you please, shut up. Your accent is annoying," Melissa says even though she shares the same accent as Erize although she's able to hide hers.
"Why're ya doing this? Revenge?" That was the final straw for Melissa. The crimson witch finally snapped and Erize felt the change in the atmosphere. It brings the anti-mage back into reality, the infernal scene she's standing in.
The streets of the west-side are still flooded with the strange fire that doesn't so much as tan a person.
'Why is she doing this?' The same question echoed deep within Erize, carrying more weight in her mind. Her firm grip on the wrapped blade of Dyrnwyn relaxed as she tries to make sense of Melissa.
Erize's thousand-yard stare didn't help her see a spear of fire barreling straight for her. It was too late for her to react as the spear hits the ground beneath her feet and explodes knocking her back a few rooves.
It was a real fire this time. Erize feels the scalding heat, it didn't help that she's wearing plate armor. However, the anti-mage leaps back up onto her feet like nothing happened. As soon did Erize get up so did another spear of fire barreled towards her, this time shooting pass the anti-mage and hitting the bell tower, causing it to ring and a literal second wave of flames causes the inferno's level to rise.
While watching the inferno grow, Erize catches a faint metallic odor with her keen nose.
Melissa has her broken rifle aimed at Erize, the lever hanged loosely and the tip of the barrel is heated to an orange and steaming condition. It doesn't explain the faded scent of burning blood.
"Those two were a warning shot. First is to let you know that these are REAL flames that can hurt you, the second is to tell you that the power of each shot is the same regardless of distance." The tone of Melissa's voice is cold, an overwhelming cold that burns.
"It looks like I crossed the line. Settle down will ya? I'm tryin' to-"
"I didn't come here to be lectured. Much less be understood -not like anyone would lend an ear to someone like me."
"I've been dealt an awful hand in life, someone like 'ya' wouldn't understand even if you tried. This is my final warning for you, stay where you are." As cold as her tone was, colder is her grimace to Erize. To swallow the bitter consequences of her next actions, Melissa sinks her heart into a cold sea of cynicism.
"Ya wouldn't know if ya tried. Forget what I said earlier." Erize took a step forward and smiled at Melissa. The anti-mage's eyes then suddenly widened upon feeling a familiar presence making their way to them, "Ya need to run! Ya can tell me about your situation after ya get away! Hurry before-!"
"So, you're telling me to run away? Can't happen, sorry." Melissa mockingly mimicked Erize. She then firmly holds her rifle with both arms and prepares a chant "I told you, didn't I? That was my final warning."
Verleihen autem fraction ec Luin, autem replique quod denique. Schlag mein feind
"Lend me even a fraction of Luin, a replica is fine. Strike my enemy."
Her third spear of fire shoots out not from inside the rifle but at the tip of the barrel as though Melissa had repurposed the broken firearm into a staff. The spear of fire is going straight for Erize.