"If everything was assured, I'd never have been born. My would-be mother, the Queen Consort of Supreme King Barron, couldn't produce a daughter. So, my father went to another woman. After she gave birth to me, she would be found and assassinated, but I would keep her as the daughter of the King. I was to be raised alongside my brother as unstoppable, for our reign would soon engulf the whole of Barronia and herald a new age of royals for the people. An age of freedom. Then, one day, my brother died and I was banished from my family. If he could perish so easily despite the power he held, that also made me irrelevant."
Marie threw her first punch. King Barron barely dodged, her knuckles scraping his right cheek. Spotting his open palm soar toward her face, she instantly flipped thrice across the floor. Holding her fists in front of her eyes, she stared at the father who'd forgotten her.
Clad in his Royal robe, King Barron scoffed. "Do you think me so cruel that I'd forget about my daughter? I'm not the one who ordered your exile, girl!" he yelled.
"Don't act like some noble father now, old man! Even if it was the hag of a Queen who wanted me out, I didn't see you fighting for me! The daughter you wanted for so long… you just LET ME LEAVE!!"
As Marie cried with all her heart and soul, the King was taken aback. Closing his lips following a sudden gasp, his breath hitched and he shakily inhaled.
"I'm sorry." Barron offered his hand to her. "We don't have to do this, please. I can dethrone my wife, banish her to the catacombs of the Capital. That way, you can stand beside me… and become my princess again."
The boxer lowered her head. "Too little. Too late," she retorted.
The Supreme King's eyes widened. 'I don't understand. Her Fate is welling up again. Was she not using her Power earlier?'
Raising her open hand upon invoking her technique manifested a notebook into her palm. She carefully sighed, throwing her left hand above her to summon a pen between her two main fingers. Glaring over the edge of her journal, the Supreme King held his ground—until the moment came when her ink touched the paper. An unusual gust of wind unleashed from her soles, momentarily stripping the robe from his shoulders and sending it into the air above.
Lowering his hand as he battled through the storm, Barron's hazy vision reflected she who laid before him: scribbling in her notebook sat against the floor. Before he even knew it, the battle had already begun.
'Predestined Power: Author of Destiny.'
Marie, idle on the throne room floor, scribbled rapidly into the diary's paper. The endless words her conscience generated spelled out the information of her life—going from her full name to a full-bodied physical description.
After being banished from her home, the Castle, Marie sought to increase her strength by way of combat. When she eventually located the whereabouts of an underground fighting arena right under the police force's noses, she knew she'd hit the jackpot. For the next ten years, she would use her opponents to refine her physical strength and by extension, the Predestined Power she was marked with at birth.
The first step she took to achieve her victory would be the fulfillment of the many conditions set upon her Fated technique.
Moving her hand at breakneck speeds seconds away from tearing the paper, the ink slid all over the notebook until she finished with one big stroke. Aura enveloping the bulk of her arm, Marie looked up—brown eyes shining the shade of her soul.
Despite the severity of this family feud, he was reluctant to refrain from the fight. The King walked, blonde locks swaying in the winds his daughter released. Pointing his palm forward, numerous yellow chains burst, urging him to enchain the exiled girl.
The soaring chains faltered in mid-air, hovering in the space between Marie and King Barron. Her hand crumbled the paper she wrote on, and, now standing tall, threw it into the air above her. The inked words describing her frame fell from the paper as its torn remnants flew to the ground. With the grace of knowledge descending all around her, she held her pen high in the air and smiled, watching the tip glistening in the peeking sunlight.
Yet the dramatics were the least of her worries. Notwithstanding the pose she enacted, the way she stood was odd—abnormal. Then, it all made sense. The instant her eyes shot into his own, a thunderclap resounded within the Thorne room's confines. Unwavering; the King stared ahead, spotting the embers of her soul's raging flame burst from her chest and envelop the length of her whole.
Engulfed by Fate's impregnable flame, Marie smirked and beckoned her father forward. "Come. Let's fight… to the death ♥"
While King Barron was occupied with fighting his daughter, Nameless beheaded a royal knight with his bare hands. Using a tail to strip the cranium of its helmet, he examined his victim's dead eyes in tandem with admiring his reflection in the silver headpiece.
He turned to his comrade; disturbingly grinning with the bloody head in hand. "Don't you think I look so beautiful drenched in red?" asked the Mutilator.
Uriel glanced at him and then back at the vault towering over him. Seemingly impermeable each time he extended his hand, that of Fate's slapped it away. After, he looked up and started stepping away.
"Hah! Ten long years and the security system's the same, huh?" He shook his head. "Ahh, dad… you never change, do you?"
Nameless let the head splatter onto the floor, turning toward the mastermind with anticipating eyes once Uriel took an idle stance. Lids over bright white eyes, the Prince chanted under his breath—summoning the depths of his power in the form of snowy portals swirling all around him.
Angelic hands snowily glowing extended from the gateways, sinking their claws into the vault and easily tearing it from the hinges into the wall. Throwing it aside after lifting it, the portals vanished, leaving Uriel in the aftermath as the metal entrance loudly thudded behind him. Taking one step through the huge hole, he was met with the innards of the safe—not anything material like money or jewelry but just what he'd expected.
Protected by banished seals atop a metal table was another arm of Malum the Disastrous. Once Uriel lifted it into his hand, Nameless peeked over his superior's shoulder with a raised eyebrow.
"You're curious, aren't you? Out of everyone else, you seemed the most intrigued. Or rather, the most lost?" Uriel asked.
Nameless nodded. "The way you speak of this 'Malum' character, it sounds as though he is a demon. That should be impossible though, right?" he questioned.
Holding the arm, the Prince recalled the tale of the banished Disaster. "Malum Monstrum is a monster god with eight arms and just as many mouths and eyes. Ever since he came into our world, the number of murders, suicides, and unexplained abnormalities has increased tenfold. He's said to be thousands of years old, but there's no record of him ever existing throughout the history of our world. It's been theorized by all Fate-users alike that the infamous Disastrous Monster God instead comes from a world far beyond that of our own. He's the strongest Displacement."
"Displacement?"
Uriel turned to Nameless. "Meaning beings like him aren't supposed to exist in our world."
In the castle throne room directly above them, the Prince's younger sister and father duked it out to the extremes.
The back of her palm slammed against his open face, sending the King to stumble away. He regained composure, glaring straight at her. Yellow lightning circled him, and with widened eyes, she barely dodged a lightning bolt. White hair on edge, she glanced at the marking the bolt formed upon crashing into the floor behind her and then back at the Supreme King.
"You said you wanted to fight for real, didn't you? I'll let some of my true power loose, then. If you think you can handle it, of course—"
As the King finished speaking, his eyes quickly widened—yellow corneas reflecting the sight of her moving pen. In no time flat, she'd finished writing a sentence that burst into a light upon her placing the period.
"Eliminate Fate's Crown from the King and grant me some of its strength."
The speed at which she spoke was unparalleled; by the time he'd finished blinking, her words had already gone into effect. Fate's Crown lost the golden hue brightening itself, leaving King Barron to watch as an angelic halo burst into existence over Marie's head.
"Let's go, you good-for-nothing geezer," she taunted.
'Anything she writes on the air can become reality, huh? That might be a troublesome technique. Despite the loss of Fate's Crown supplying me with extra and stronger Fate, I can manage on my own. However, if she uses her pen again after we fight hand-to-hand, she might make herself invulnerable, thereby placing me into checkmate almost instantly. I will… steal that pen from her and tear the Power she was marked with from her soul. It will aid me greatly in supporting beloved Barronia.'
Throwing herself from the ground, Marie held an unimpressed face while speeding through the air—until the time arrived. Her knuckles eventually sunk into her forsaken father, leaving him with a shocked face as he launched into the King's throne.
Embers of Fate fleeing her fist, Marie hummed. As her father reappeared, she backflipped, inadvertently kicking him upside the chin while simultaneously retreating. The boxer landed carefully, watching the King carefully advance with a sway in his hips.
'No blood yet, huh? That's alright. I can do better than that,' she thought.
He struck her in the side and grabbed her by the collar, pulling her down into his leg so he could knee her in the face. Ignoring the blood spurting from her nose, she remained unimpressed. Grabbing his leg just as he was about to knee her again, he was spun around the air and thrown above her. Revealing her pen yet again, she scribbled on the air rapidly once more.
'There!'
He faded from the ceiling and warped to her back. Unfortunately, by the time he'd reappeared behind her, she was already gone. The indistinct whispering of her Powers originated not from the ground floor he was standing on, but the ceiling his copy was thrown into only seconds ago.
Standing up there, she finished writing and hid her pen following the period's inevitable placement, allowing the words to burst into the light once again.
"Stat Increase!"
His eyebrow raised. 'Stats? I don't understand. Is she drawing more power from the faux Crown she copied? Just how bottomless is her technique?!'
The King summoned a golden ball and chain, swinging it repeatedly in one hand before throwing it into the ceiling. Jumping from the ceiling, the ball flew past her. Falling to the floor, she grabbed his shoulder and kicked the King with one leg, sending him flying across the floor. She dashed after him—preparing to chop him right in the throat with an open palm risen to the air. Then, it happened.
An inanimate lightning bolt crashed through the roof and stripped her of one arm. Eyes wide, the crackling limb flew behind her and splattered onto the floor, gradually forming a puddle of crimson. Looking at her mutilated stub, she chuckled. Directing her gaze back to the King, he stood tall, heavily breathing after sustaining her attacks.
She smirked. "Despite your panting, I wasn't able to make you bleed. Even after all those hits, you were still able to mutilate me easily. Looks like I got more training to do, huh?"
The King nodded slowly. His arms gradually lowered and as he sharply inhaled, his once-closed eyes opened a second time to spot the form of his formidable daughter.
"My offer still stands. Your strength befits that of a crown, my daughter. If you come back to me—I will banish the Queen and step down as King. Let your rule as the Supreme with Fate's Crown atop your head and me as your true father. We can be like… a family," he said.
Even after being offered such a paradise, the uncaring stare plaguing her pupils didn't fade. Only when she heard her brother's voice did her head tilt with her hand moving to her ear.
"We're done over here. Prepare for extraction."
"Acknowledged." Marie looked back at her father. "Sorry, dad, but I'll become a princess my way. Thanks for the offer though. It's nice to know you still care."
A heavenly gateway opened behind her. Turning toward it, she took one step in and without looking back, was consumed by the light. Ending up on the other side, she walked into the bloody vault missing a door. However, the portal was still open behind her.
"Got what we needed?" she asked.
"Without a hitch," her brother answered, walking past her.
Her gaze followed his back. "Where are you going?"
He didn't answer. Instead, he was engulfed by the illumination and ended up on the opposite—the King's throne room. Widened eyes shaking violently, Barron gazed upon his deceased son's breathing body as Uriel leaned on the edge of the angelic portal.
"Y-you're…"
"In the flesh. Be sure to remember me, old man. I am the one destined to change Fate."
Trivia: Supreme King Barron's full name is Divine Barron. When he was born that fateful day in 1976, his parents knew from the beginning that their child was destined for wondrous things. So, they blessed their child with a name fit for that of the legendary Supreme King.