Her golden hair waved violently as, step by step, she ran from her pursuers. Her breath was short and staggered, her exhaustion making the pain she was feeling inside even more unbearable.
What was going on?
Why was everyone she knew coming after her, with blades drawn?
They attacked out of nowhere. No warning, or anything.
It was a surprise attack from the people she had grown to trust. Had Brittania not woken her up in her sleep, she would already be dead.
Britannia… where was she now? She was the only friend that had her back.
Questions raced in her head as she put one foot past the other, fighting the excruciating pain caused by the gash in her back. What did she do to be hunted down like an animal for this? Her magic wasn't suited for this. Making plants. How was this going to help? Fuck these bastards. She would cut them all down if she had to.
She stepped on one of her roots, using it as leverage to dodge the path an arrow was taking, and ducked behind a tree. Keep as much cover as you can.
And don't stop running.
You have always been blessed with limitless stamina. So use it.
She listened closely to her breath as footsteps raged closer. It seemed almost everyone was on to her. They were terrifying sounds, the crinkling and breaking of leaves and twigs as the men and women raced past them, making her shiver with dread. A hand suddenly grabbed her wrist from behind a tree. The person grasped at her mouth forcefully as she squirmed violently, smashing her wrist against the attacker's privates. A small suppressed squeal came from the man, but he didn't loosen his grip.
"Fuck! I'm just trying to help!" A strained whisper breathed into her ear. "Use that plant magic of yours to camouflage us!"
Vines wrapped around them and budded large bulky leaves.
They stood in the shade of the overgrowth, eyes peaking out into the forest
Quiet. Dead Quiet.
A soldier went near the place of hiding, and she got a good look into her eyes. Glazed over, it was fragmented into multiple colors and shapes forming what would be beautiful art. But she knew this person. They were supposed to have green irises.
Now that she was seeing it clearly, even their movements were odd as a whole. The group was synchronized to an unnatural degree, as if they shared one mind. But she knew they were still fully aware as individuals, as one maid was rocking her foot back and forth in habit as she searched. Null had seen the girl do this a million times before, and she is the only one who is doing it. Was it a partial control?
"Hey lady, use your plant magic right over there…" The man turned her head to an area beyond a thick line of trees.
"Make a vine that moves across the forest. Make it as distracting as possible."
A vine rose from a tree in the distance, coiling down like a snake and slithering rapidly across the ground, unsettling and shuffling all of the dead leaves in its wake. The thrashing lured the mob almost like a hoard of zombies, a sight both grotesque and oddly mesmerizing.
With everyone's attention diverted, the tall man slashed through the vines with one swing of his sword, and whisked her up through the treetops He held her arm as they jumped through the sea of vibrant red, yellow, and brown leaves forming around them. A scene almost romantic if not for the jolting of her dangling body as he passed from branch to branch and the constant strain of her powers to conceal them.
"Phew, damn. Your heavy. It's like you're made of gold."
The audacity.
"Hey, the fuck did you say, you little bastard?!" Null said in her most thuggish tone.
"Nothing. Just… you could stand to lose some weight. I'm not out of shape, I swear!" the man said through heavy breathing.
"Where are you even taking me?" Null said with the same spunk.
"We're getting the fuck outta here, that's where!"
"Wait, we need to go back for my friend, Britannia! She's still somewhere over there! It's not long before something bad could happen to her! I can't leave her there!"
"Uhhhhgh. No. We're not going back. I didn't have to rescue, you know. I just so happened to be here at the right place, at the right time. I'm not trying to have a bad time today, nope!" He said as he was hightailing it even faster like the coward he was.
"Then let me down, asshole!" Null shouted as she started hitting his arm with her free hand. "I can't abandon her like this!"
"No! It's suicide for a lady like you!- OWWW, you fucking BIT ME!!!" The distraction of Null's teeth made the man slip his grasp off the bark as he was catching it, sending both of them plummeting to the ground.
With a hard thud, the man was winded and Null stuck the landing.
"Ohhh~ this is what I get for trying to be a hero…" he groaned as he turned to his side.
"Hmph, serves you right!" Null said, nose higher than the sky. She walked away in the general direction of the mass, looking to gain insight into where her friend was.
The man, however, just sat there, contemplating the meaning of life.
Meanwhile, Lady El sat in her room, face to face with the captured Britannia.
"YOU BITCH!!! Why are you even doing this? You've been here with us for years! Has that book made you mad?!" There was a deep pain of betrayal in Britannia's voice, almost cracking out of sheer desperation.
"Quiet, Britannia. You couldn't possibly understand. I have seen the void, and have heard its wisdom. The God of Life is Null. When I receive her star, I will be closer to nothing. And nothing, I've learned, is the opposition of something. I strive towards it now, the power equal to that of gods. These books were originally made to counter the gods with complex magic, magic normally unobtainable by humans. This knowledge, the power beyond the finite, is the first wisdom of Nill. The Will of Something gives power to those fortunate enough to become gods, and the Unwill(Nill) of Nothing gives power to anyone who asks and gives up something for it to turn into nothing."
"Listen to yourself, old hag! You're going crazy! Don't you realize how insane you're sounding right now?!"
"Enough. You talk too much. The only reason why I'm keeping you here is to draw out Null. Otherwise, you would've joined my hoard of tesserae [pieces of the mosaic]. I know very well she can't just leave you here. She is too kind for that." Lady El said such nasty things with such a sweet smile. The contrast was sickening.
"Damn it! You're the one monologuing!"
Britannia cursed under her breath. Null, please just escape!
In the forest, Null was sliding passed the zombies with roots beneath her feet. Skating along the ground, she made her way to the manor. She had a feeling Britannia was there, almost as if she could sense her presence from within. Warm colors glided past as leaves slowly fell to the ground as she dashed, the gold of her hair glittering as it waved.
The hivemind was closing in on all sides, but she, with all her might, raised two large walls of trees to clear the path straight ahead. They rose high and became thorned with bristles that snagged and captured
There was no stopping her now. Her injuries would not break her. The hardest part was still yet to come.
From the sky, a shadow donned. One of the manor's top fighters was here. Blemy, a rapier master. She knew from experience this man was fast for her. She would have to restrain him.
Creating a shield of wood, she thrust it towards him with a swing. He dodged to the side, breaking Null's footing with a barrage of thrusts. She danced disgracefully, squealing as the blade made close calls to her stomach. Angry, Null sent shoots of bamboo straight up from the ground, quite literally growing through his feet. The man lunged towards her ravenously, thankfully to no avail. She would have smirked at the sight, if not for the guilt she felt for stabbing her co-worker in the feet.
"I'm so sorry! I'll be going now… I'll make it up to you somehow, I think..." She rubbed her hands together with a ratty smile before lifting off and leaving the man in the dust.
Busting through the doors of the manor, she saw Britannia tied up at the foot of the grand staircase, murmuring from behind her gag, streaking her face across the floor in a panicked attempt to remove it from her mouth. The hallway was empty. Too empty.
Not taking any chances, Null rose plates of wood from the ground, blocking all of the places that witch could be hiding.
"C'mon let's go, Britannia" Null said as she unraveled the gag.
"The Barriers won't stop her! Keep an eye out for her!" Britannia said as quickly as she could. Null saw her vision sliding as if the room itself had been cut in half. Then she realized that it was her. Like glass, she had been broken into pieces. Half of her head fell to the ground, while the other stared down at it with horror. Blood gushed from the openings, as she saw her limbs and half of her head scrambled on the floor like puzzle pieces.
This can't be real. This is just illusion magic, right? Right?
The second half of her head finally fell off her neck. The instant that half touched the ground, everything went black.
Ruby eyes.
A black skull.
A voice oddly familiar.
A silver scythe.
The sky was black, with red stars scattered like specks of blood on a canvas.
"Hi, sis. It seems you died without your [Glittergold Stacks]. That means you've had one-hundred years deducted. You're lucky I have nine of my fingers active. Otherwise, the price would've been much steeper."
"S-sis? I don't… are you saying you're my brother?! You, a weird skeleton-looking creep?"
"M-my, you sure know how to make your brother shed tears of depression! But yes! You may not know me, but I remember you. You, child, have inherited my sister's will. Be not afraid, my child, for I will always protect you. Just as you had protected me. Now go, and set our Little Miss Elly on the right path. She's lost sight of her original goal, making one of those damned books…" The hooded skeleton sighed.
"Y'know what, sis? Destroy her grimoire when you get back up there. All these kiddos think that a grimoire will do them well. I never does in the slightest. Oh, and here. a gift from your big brother! An old ability of yours called [Pillars of Light]. They are one of the ways you can gain your Glittergold Stacks. Remember, every stack is one life. And don't die without any stacks. If ya wanted to see me, you coulda just done so by less costly means."
"So you can give me another chance at life, and I can have more than one? Just what am I? Just who are you?"
The black reaper cleared his non-existent throat "Y'know, we don't have much time. Soon, Little Elly will fully extract the star from your body. You must never let this happen, under any circumstances. Off you go. Make love, not war!" Death turned Null around and pushed her to a door that appeared out of nowhere. Just before he launched her through the threshold, he spoke as if holding back a crying pain within the kindness of his voice.
"And remember, Big bro loves you!"