The faint scent of scorching wood hung in the air, intoxicating all that smelled it with the familiar and intoxicating stench of death, destruction, and demolition.
Red gazed at this scene with dull eyes, devoid of life and color.
'It's happening again.'
Fearful screams and terror-filled shouts of agony filled the atmosphere, only to be overshadowed by the loud clamors of steel, release of magical spells, and destructive abilities, constructing and deconstructing the enchanted forest into a cacophony of death and suffering. A faint hope was in the air, invisible to all, but accepted by none.
Deep inside, everybody knew that they didn't stand a chance, and they never will.
SHE was just too powerful.
Pure white strands of luscious hair of pure magical luster fluttered in the air, carried by the evening wind.
A mangled body fell by her feet.
It was Lin, or was it Rin? She didn't know. She couldn't tell. Everybody, after all, unfamiliar to her. All except for one.
Her body was charred like charcoal, her body smelt of burnt rotten wood: her eyes, too, were devoid of all. In a different way than her.
A desperate shout came from somewhere, and then an explosion. Red looked up, following it, and felt no emotion whatsoever at the sight of her master, Bryne Bravefeather, as well as all of his servants. From the beginning the man only thought of himself, prioritizing all that was his being without regard and care for everybody else's. Which Red envied greatly.
'I wish I was selfish enough to know what I want without anybody telling me to,' she would always tell herself.
Other than the will she had inherited, there really was nothing else that she wanted to achieve. Until recently.
In the past few weeks, another desire—much stronger than all of her measly needs—had resurfaced inside of her, pushing away all that stood in its way. She had skipped meals, sacrificed sleep, and held back even her own feelings just to see him for a second longer. Though each one felt like an eternity and some more, it was never enough. She wanted more, desired more, and aimed for it above all.
A beautiful and malicious figure, not there the moment before, stood in her presence, glancing at her shadow.
"So that is what you have chosen, O Shadow of the World."
She spoke to her in a loving and hateful voice, entering her ear and out the other. No, not her, something within her. Something older and more profound than any other; the sole being that embraced the world in all its entirety without discrimination or favoritism.
"What do you want?," Red said, her small voice echoing amidst the screams and cries that filled the air. There was a dark fire inside of her, protecting a much more furious one.
The beautiful figure perked up.
"Hmm…? Ah! I wasn't talking to you, little child. But very well, your friend here seems to be playing the long game. So I guess some trivial conversation to pass the time wouldn't be such a bad thing."
Her voice, her tone, her pitch, and her attitude held absolute magnanimity and unyielding evil, carrying both with upon her slender shoulders with casual ease and tempered ambivalence. She sounded… familiar, for some reason. Red was sure that she hadn't met the beautiful woman before, but her soul felt otherwise. For some reason, a part of her insisted that she knew the beautiful woman, somehow, somewhere, sometime before all this chaos started.
A cry resounded.
"Die, bitch!"
Steel parted the air as it cut the wind; a hateful aiming for the beautiful woman. It crashed with something, and the blade crumbled to nothing, its shattered pieces glistening like shiny glitter. A translucent dome—barely visible—surrounded the two and pushed out the rude attacker in the blink of an eye.
The man—an adventurer in service of House Bravefeather—arced in the air as ahis bones shattered audibly in the wind. Dark blood flowed freely from his eyes.
The beautiful woman stretched out her hand, smiling. She looked the fairest of them all as an expectant look came about her milky-white face. Red didn't know what to do.
She spun on her heels, walking away from the beautiful woman without regret. She felt no fear, no tension, and no despair as she did so anymore than the usual.
"What are YOU doing?" Her voice was full of disbelief, astounded as she regarded Red's sudden decision.
"Getting what I want." Red didn't even look back as she pushed off the ground, destroying the woman's barrier with ease.
The faint shattering of glass could be heard echoing in the enchanted forest of Karan.
"Not so fast!" The beautiful woman's ambivalent voice resounded, carrying neither hate nor affection.
"…?!"
Red came to a dead stop as the very forest itself seemed to move in accordance to the woman's will, stretching for her and capturing her like a spider to its prey. Before she could realize what was happening, she was already bound. Thorny vines—grievous briars—held her arms, sinking deep into her skin and drawing blood while the soil below gripped her legs and feet, as if it wanted to swallow them both.
The woman clicked her tongue.
"No, no, no. You're a timid girl: alone and adorable, with a light tinge of anxious belief. This isn't like you. This isn't like your Story. Why are you doing this? You're not supposed to do this. I need to break you. I need to fix you. Until the world returns to its rightful state once again."
The woman muttered lunatic nonsense, spewing endless nothings over and over again. She seemed to be… enthralled, caught by something beyond herself. Like a predator watching its prey, waiting for the right moment to strike, salivating on its future meal. The woman seemed to be caught by something above the Sky Beyond.
Red watched this all unfold, finally taking notice of the wild distortion in her surroundings, as if the world was being shaped into the woman's desire, in accordance to her orders. She felt like a book being unraveled, pages flying here and there, as her Story was read over and over again.
In a flash, she knew what was happening.
'It's just like Wolf said.'
The Witch of Envy claims another Story as her own.