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Julius readjusted his grip on the gaunt young woman in his arms.

The events of the last few minutes had thrown whatever expectations he had regarding the selection through the window, literally.

The Royal Selection had only just begun, and somehow, not only had relationships between the candidates and the Sage Council deteriorated, but they already sustained an attack against the Royal Candidates mere moments after the selection had officially begun.

Already a candidate was risking his life in the struggle.

That wasn't to say that Julius expected Arthur to lose his life, if his shrugging off Reinhard's attack was anything to go by, he reckoned it would take someone much stronger than the infamous bowel hunter to finish him off.

But that thought had only been the beginning of his worries.

He didn't like to boast, but it was irrefutable that Julius was one of the strongest knights the kingdom had to offer, his title of 'The Greatest Knight' was not handed out frivolously.

He strived to improve himself every day, either by refining his swordsmanship, strengthening his connection to his buds, or better acquainting himself with the troubles plaguing Lugunica.

It was no surprise that he was familiar with the name Elsa Granhiert, in recent years she had become a household name by her preferred method of murder, disembowelment. Not much was known about the mysterious assassin, she seemed to pick targets at random, with no clear link between any of her targets, the knights unfortunate enough to be in her path never had a chance to relay any meaningful information about her, only a vague description and what became her modus operandi ever making it back into the kingdom's hands.

Just as quickly as she struck, she disappeared, never lingering, or drawing outward attention to herself, which is exactly what was currently bothering him.

Interrupting the Royal Selection, killing numerous royal guards, seemingly all to kill a small girl went completely against everything the assassin had ever done before.

Elsa wasn't suicidal, while she might have been a powerful fighter, barging into a building that held the majority of the kingdom's knights, including the Sword Saint himself, was tantamount to a death sentence.

What could possibly have caused her to deviate so significantly from her usual behavior?

The only rational answer is that it had something to do with the girl he was cradling in his arms.

A weight had settled in his stomach, one that he wasn't content to ignore any longer.

Tiles cracked under his feet as he streaked across the rooftops of the third district, every stride somehow seemingly longer than the last.

The air around him burned as he flared his mana, the world around him becoming imbued with the lingering stench of ozone.

For once, he was glad that Reinhard was such a walking anomaly, it made following his trail much easier than it would have been.

It also helped that Elsa wasn't exactly being subtle, creating panic as she desperately tried to escape from the titan that was chasing her.

It simply made his job easier.

With no more than a thought, Excalibur manifested itself from its ethereal sheath, its weight settling comfortably into his hand, even as its form remained hidden under numerous layers of compressed air.

Screams echoed throughout the streets as Elsa grabbed a woman, throwing her between herself and the rapidly approaching Sword Saint, before hurriedly fleeing towards an alleyway directly adjacent to the roof Arthur now stood on.

Without another thought, his feet left the stone tiles of the building as every muscle in his body tensed in preparation for his next strike.

Raising the golden blade of Excalibur behind him as he fell, he smashed into the ground directly before his prey, his mana-heightened senses allowing him to watch as shock spread across the assassin's face, before her purple eyes locked onto the hidden blade that seemed to part the very air itself as it streaked towards her neck.

Heartbeats passed as time itself seemed to slow; the Sword of Promised Victory inching ever closer to its target.

A sickening crunch was the only warning he received before his blade was deflected off course, biting deep into Elsa's shoulder but falling short of the clean execution he had been aiming for.

Elsa backpedaled an instant later, wrenching herself free from the sword that was buried in her shoulder, and retreating into the street behind her, a quick glance to her rear confirmed the inevitable as the glowing figure of Reinhard stood only a few feet behind her, his figure standing between Elsa and the fleeing civilians, ready to burst forwards at a moment's notice.

"Mother warned me this would occur." Elsa groaned her right-hand hovering over the mangled remains of her left arm, having dislocated it in her attempt to save her life.

"This 'mother' seems wiser than you are then." Arthur spat; his eyes filled with burning hatred.

"I agree," Reinhard spoke, settling into a relaxed stance, "Surely you didn't think attacking the capital of Lugunica would go over well?"

"Attack is such a harsh word; all I did was rough up a sewer dweller."

"You murdered two knights," Arthur responded, "Two families will never be able to see their loved one again, does that thought truly evoke nothing from you!?"

"How to put this in a way you'd understand," Elsa began, snaking her functioning arm into the folds of her dress, pulling out a bundle of red gems that glowed an angry red, "I suppose you could say I could do this all day."

With a whip of her hand, the gems sped through the air as it flared abruptly, their destination not being either of the two knights but instead random buildings on the other side of the street.

For a moment, the world was bathed in red, the air condensed and even the act of breathing became difficult, his skin burned, and he could only imagine what those around him felt, lacking the inane amount of magic he could call upon to protect himself.

The crystals must have been some type of magic, as they exploded with a vigor that would have even shocked him during the Holy Grail War, flames poured forth as they impacted the buildings, eagerly licking at any wooden surface they could, before jumping to any flammable surface, faster than any ordinarily flame ever would.

Yet the crackle of the spreading flames was easily drown out as the hundreds of spectators that had merely been enjoying a peaceful day out in the bustling street moments earlier started to yell and attempt to flee, willing to do anything to escape the flames, even if it meant sacrificing another to do so.

A poor man caught next to the blast was the first to go, his skin burning black before starting to flake off in ashy dust, another quickly followed when they were pushed by another as they attempted to flee, the flames consuming her blouse before quickly igniting her hair, her screams persisting for only a moment long before being snuffed out.

How many more would follow?

"Reinhard," Arthur spoke his voice nearly drowned out by all the noise yet his eyes never leaving the target in front of him, "I'll take it from here, but I need you to rescue those you can from the fire and try to stop its spread."

The slight hesitation before Reinhard answered was the only indication of his thoughts on the matter.

"All right… but you merely need to call my name and I will be at your side, I'll hear it."

Without another word, Reinhard tore directly through the sea of flames as if it wasn't there, leaving Elsa and Arthur standing in the eye of the inferno.

"See," Elsa spoke, an all-knowing tone in her voice, "this is what I hate about heroes, they're always so predictable."

He couldn't trust himself to respond, his blood burning hotter than the flames around him, yet he was more than aware he couldn't lose himself to anger, too much had already been lost, he couldn't afford to lose his rationality as well.

Like lightning, he shot forward his mana leaving a distinguishable trail behind him, extinguishing the flames in his path as he shot toward Elsa, the irises of his eyes locked onto his opponent, unwilling to even chance looking away for a moment.

Elsa too didn't waste another moment, already bounding to the side as he tore towards her, flexing her body to try and avoid Arthur's decapitation strike, attempting to use every degree of motion her body possessed.

It was all for naught, as his speed was far beyond anything that could remotely be considered human, Elsa had not yet even begun to move her body before he was on top of her, every muscle in his body taut in anticipation of his strike.

Time seemed to slow to slow the next few seconds to an extent he could never remember before, as he watched with satisfaction as Elsa's playful grin disappeared, her eyes sparkling in confusion as they finally refocused on his figure as shock split her face, one of her hands reaching for a lifeline, anything to stop the inevitability that threatened to cage her.

With a roar, Excalibur tore toward its victim, splitting the very air in its path as it homed in on its target.

Yet Elsa was a survivor, while she was dwarfed by his sheer strength, she had made a career of hunting those stronger than herself. A glint of steel appeared in her hand as she forced her Kukuri between herself and the mystical blade swinging towards her.

Sparks flew as the two collided, her dagger meeting Excalibur only a few inches from its handguard, her arms buckling for but a second before the Kukuri shattered into a cloud of sharpened metal.

No lump of simple metal could hope to withstand even fleeting contact with Excalibur for long, a direct strike against the divine blade spelled an immediate death.

His strike hadn't lost even a hint of momentum for the half-hearted attempt and a block, but it had given Elsa the opportunity to slightly deflect it off of it's intended course, leaving the Sword of Promised Victory to burrow deep into her shoulder blade instead of cleanly decapitating her as he originally intended.

He wasn't a fan of the overt brutality he planned on committing, but he couldn't allow another second to be wasted.

Tearing herself from the blade, an act that caused her no small amount of damage, she manifested another blade from the confines of her dress, one that stood in contrast to the ebony blade that had shattered moments earlier, it was white, with a texture that seemed as if it had been carved from a bone itself, while also sporting a much thicker design.

"My my," she drawled, dragging her free hand through the deep gash on her body before bringing it to her mouth, tenderly licking the blood from her fingers, "That would have killed me had I been an instant slower."

The blade in her hand flashed as she ripped it through the air, its blade doing what Excalibur had failed to do, as the body of a young woman fell to the ground, her head coming to a rest a few feet from the rest of her body.

In the chaos she had made the mistake of straying too close to the ebony-haired assassin, he had made the mistake of allowing it to happen.

"It's a shame you weren't faster."

With a scream, he threw himself forward, yet a glint of red stopped him in his tracks before he was thrown backward as an inferno manifested itself on top of him while blanketing Elsa in smoke.

A series of explosions once again pierced his ears, as he became aware of more buildings that were rapidly engulfed in the newly manifested flames.

Faintly he could feel the fabric of his suit gradually succumbing to the fire, possessing none of the innate resistance he himself did.

With a flair of his mana, the winds coating Excalibur exploded outwards with a roar, evenly spreading around him in a circular pattern rather than being confined to a singular direction as he typically used it.

The influx of wind extinguished the flames in a small area around him, saving his blackening suit, but most importantly it cleared the smog that had obscured Elsa.

To his surprise, she hadn't attempted to flee, but that thought was quickly replaced when he realized a new addition she held in her hands, one that she quickly whipped at him.

The headless corpse thundered towards him with a speed she could have never hoped to achieve in life.

Instinctually his hands left Excalibur, leaving it to disappear into the wind, with a grunt he caught the body of the corpse, his glaze flickering to it's still bleeding wound before his body screamed at him to pay attention.

Elsa was mere inches from him, her pure white blade raised above her head, and for a moment he swore he could still see the blade effortlessly slicing through the body he held in his arms.

In his anger, he half considered not even dodging, content to let his mana-reinforced body take the blow before offering a decisive counter, yet something screamed at him not to allow the blade near his skin.

Lashing out with his left arm, he beat Elsa's arm upwards, forcing the blow to miss him by mere millimeters, the thick blade managing to only slice through a few locks of his golden hair, which quickly scattered in the wind before serving as kindling for the rampaging fire, their once golden hue quickly becoming an ashen black as the fire consumed them.

With a quick twist of his body, Elsa was sent careening into an adjacent building, fire licking at the cavity in the building her body left and mangling one of the ornate dress shoes that Reinhard had procured for him.

Quickly, he let the body he held fall to the ground, sparing it only a fleeting glance before he gave chase, summoning Excalibur to his hands once again.

He couldn't help the dead, but he'd be damned if he didn't help the living.

Flames licked at his uniform as he ran, the building around him groaning as its members slowly succumbed to the blaze.

The inferno around him had long since flooded the hallways with smoke, making the few hallways that weren't impassable due to flames, unnavigable due to the dense smog.

Its choking grip likely already caused anyone still inside the building to pass out, a horrifying experience that made up their last experience in this world.

He wasn't content to allow it.

The smoke and fire directly weren't his problem, his numerous Divine Protections allowed him to navigate the blaze with relative ease, yet he was more than aware of the metaphorical clock that hung just out of view, slowly ticking down to the point where even with all his abilities, there would be nothing more he could do.

There existed no Divine Protection that could bring the dead back to life.

At least, not that he knew of, not that he wanted to know.

An invisible tether seemed to manifest as he reaffirmed his goal, his body snapping to follow it, deftly moving his body to both maximize his speed, and navigate the rapidly deteriorating conditions of the building he was in.

The instant that the stones Elsa had thrown hand splintered, a shockwave tore through the air, shattering glass, and throwing any loose objects. In the very next, flames rooted themselves in the wooden supports of buildings and completely engulfed any nearby buildings primarily made of wood.

From there, it was only a matter of time till the hellfire spread, magnifying its destruction, and putting the lives of hundreds more in question. Putting the life of his liege at risk while he was forced to fight Elsa alone.

It was…. Unacceptable to him, what point was there too being Arthur's knight if he was absent when he was needed most? Yet at the same time, after the duel he had against Arthur, part of him wanted to believe that he wasn't alone anymore, it didn't take a genius to figure out his liege had secrets, mystery eventually extruded from him after all, yet something was telling Reinhard that he was trustworthy, and that was enough.

The worry might never truly fade, but perhaps that was simply a sign that he was taking the first step into accepting something new, regardless of his past thoughts.

The building gave another sudden shudder as he finally rounded the final corner, a ravaged child's room coming into view, flames slowly encroaching on it from the window and doorway.

One of his Divine Protections pinged as he billowed into the room, the invisible tether that he had been following screaming at him that someone was in the room.

Yet no person was in sight, various toys were scattered haphazardly across the floor, the small bed was unoccupied, and the room lacked any other entrances.

Guided by Divine intuition, Reinhard lowered himself to the floor, ignoring the flames that began to lick at his boots as he did so.

As soon as he lowered his head under the bed, a small figure came into view, her arms covering his eyes as she cowered under the bed, unmoving apart from the labored rise and fall of her chest.

Deftly, yet with extreme care, he grabbed the girl, making sure to keep her away from the flames that were rapidly using the room as kindling, cradling her in his arms as he stood before glancing around the room.

The hallway he had come from had only gotten worse, smoke and flames covering the hall from head to toe, retracing his steps would be a death sentence for the girl in his arms.

As he glanced at the window, flames nearly covering the entirety of it, the building gave another shudder one that seemed to have no intention of stopping as loose flaming debris started to rain from above him.

His Divine Protection indicated the girl in his arms was the only living person left in this building.

Without another hesitation, he threw himself out the flaming window, positioning his body to ensure the safety of his precious cargo, the instant they cleared the flames, the air below his feet became as solid as stone as he pushed off it, bounding high in the air as the two of them escaped the inferno.

The girl in his arms began to stir as they reached the apex of his jump, but his eyes were trained on the inferno they had just left, where he could faintly see a white figure with golden hair throw a figure into a building. Various flaming debris cascaded through the air as the figure crashed through the building.

Peeling himself from the fight below him, he refocused on his landing zone, preparing his legs to absorb the impact.

With an almighty boom, his feet touched earth once more, displacing loose dirt and gravel.

In the span of only tens of seconds, he had crossed over a thousand feet, landing far from the inferno they were just in, the streets around him swarming with fleeing civilians.

Bright red eyes greeted him when he gazed at his cargo, the young girl staring at him unblinkingly.

Mustering his best smile, he tried his best to alleviate the fear he could feel coursing into him through his Divine Protection of Empathy.

Removing her from his arms, he sat her on the street, allowing her to stand on her own before speaking in a soft voice, "Everything is going to be fine now, but I'm afraid I'm needed elsewhere, could you do something for me?"

The girl stared at him for a moment before her eyes sparkled, slowly nodding at his question.

"Just a little way down the road there's a garrison post," Reinhard spoke, pointing in its direction, can I trust you to make your way there."

The girl offered another nod at his question, giving him the resolve to slowly stand before offering a final smile, yet before he turned away completely the blond-haired girl finally spoke for the first time.

"When the fire first spread, I heard screaming from the houses near the fountain, are you going to save them, like you did with me?"

"I will now," he responded, turning from the girl, "Thank you for the information." Once again with a mighty push, he leaped through the air, this time aiming further down the row of buildings Elsa had caught ablaze, leaving the young girl standing alongside the street. Her crimson eyes now sporting a maddening glee as she dipped into an alleyway, the garrison down the road entirely forgotten.

The truth could be a dangerous thing.

The instant he had followed Elsa into the burning confines of the building he knew he had made an immense mistake.

Despite all the trickery Elsa had showcased during their bout in the streets, he had held the advantage, the magically produced flames couldn't hope to achieve more than superficial damage to him, and her blade, while strange, would be destroyed the instant it met his own.

But that was moot to the assassin, she never had any intention of fighting him, while he might have been trying to fight her, she was attempting to flee.

Inside the twisting and decaying buildings, she no longer needed to fight, just to run.

Now it was a game of cat and mouse, with the assassin throwing herself through buildings with a grace he could never hope to match.

The buildings fell apart as they cascaded through them, leaving shrapnel and wooden supports to land around them. Yet at the same time, Elsa hindered his progress more, throwing any objects she could get her hands on at him, and throwing obstacles into his path.

The environment had already severely hindered his speed, and her actions only exacerbated the issue.

His salvation came when they came to dead end, finally forcing the woman to turn on her heel and offering a desperate strike.

Checkmate.

It took little effort for him to beat the blade away with his own, sending the dagger careening out of her hand, embedding itself in a wall not too far away.

For the first time since their fight began, he allowed himself the luxury of speech.

"Surely you must admit your loss, if I don't defeat you the flames surely will."

It was more than she deserved, but he felt compelled to ask for her surrender, even if he already knew she wouldn't accept it.

Elsa's only response was a glare, her eyes maddeningly scanning the room around them, grasping for something to save her.

Excalibur's razor-sharp tip was being thrust toward her before something flashed through her eyes, a strange mix of fear and relief blending into a single expression on her face.

A new gem found its way into her hands from the contours of her dress, yet he continued his strike undeterred, while his clothes wouldn't survive the inferno it would create, he would, even the building collapsing, a near certainty given the sheer power the gem's seemed to extrude, he was certain he'd walk away without any permanent injuries.

Yet instead of the dazzling red the last few gems had been, this was a deep aquamarine, it's shining visage promising a different type of hell.

His blade was mere hairs away from Elsa as the gem cracked on the wooden floor between them, in an instant any momentum he had was suddenly and violently reversed as the wooden structure around him strained and failed.

Enough water to fill a large pond spewed forth from the cracked gem, the obscene pressure such an event created flinging him back down the hallway being washed away by the tidal wave Elsa had unleashed.

Yet it wasn't as if she was fairing much better and he could only speculate being forced to unleash it in a space like that was not part of her original plan. While he was violently shot down the hall, being a slave to the overwhelming current the water produced, she didn't have the luxury of space.

For a moment as he was swept away, he could see her body contorting against the wall, as the raging tempest attempted to force itself through the already structurally compromised walls. Luckily enough for Elsa, it must not have lasted for long as just as he began to attempt to fight the current in earnest, reinforcing his body with even more mana than usual, it seemed to lose momentum before slowly depositing him tens of feet down the hall.

Water weighed his clothes, and his boots served as miniature pools for his feet, but he forced himself to barrel down the hallway back towards Elsa even faster then he had previously.

The wall had indeed caved, leaving the water to spill into the adjacent street where it ran randomly into the greater district, and if the groans from the building were any indication it wouldn't be long before the rest of the structure joined it.

Yet the wound he inflicted on the assassin earlier continued to serve as a boon, leaving blood to color the water, giving him a path to follow through the ruins, yet that boon too same to a quick and sudden end not long after he followed the trail of blood through another building that was only just starting to serve as kindling for the inferno, and as he jumped through a conspicuously broken window the blood trail came to an abrupt stop, the assassin, nor his tracking method anywhere in sight down either end of the run-down alleyway he found himself in.

That was not to say that he was alone in the alleyway, however, as almost directly next to where he landed stood two young children.

One of them sported hair nearly as blond as his own, with a pair of crimson eyes that almost immediately reminded him of Felt, her clothes were lightly singed suggesting she had been caught in the blaze. The other was wearing an oversized, tattered coat that was nearly as large as its owner, the only distinctive features he could see were the girl's light brown hair and eyes.

Confirming the assassin wasn't around them, he stopped for just a moment, fixing the children with a stern glare, "It's not safe here! This is only going to spread," pointing down the alley he continued "Keep running down the alley and turn left on the street, the fire hasn't spread that way yet, but you need to hurry!"

He bounded down the alley in the opposite direction the second he finished his statement, figuring by the children's reactions the assassin hadn't passed by them.

With guilt burrowing its way in his chest as he left the two girls, he forced himself to focus on finding the black-haired assassin, convincing himself that the kids would be fine and that neutralizing Elsa was imperative to ensure the safety of citizens of the capital, those two children included.

Hours had passed before the blaze was finally quelled; its destructive glee had managed to turn a sizeable portion of the third district into ashes.

Black soot littered the stone roads, and the charred remains of the once bustling stores and taverns littered the path.

His own uniform hadn't been spared either, his white jacket was now a muted grey and lightly seared along his back, and his pants and boots faired the worst as he had run through the various flaming buildings, no doubt having permanent scorch marks on them now.

It was definitely the most unkept he had ever been seen in public.

Yet he couldn't have cared less for the plethora of stares his fellow knights were giving him as he passed, their eyes lingering on him until he passed.

The entirety of his attention focused on the figure that stood unmoving at the center of the plaza, the white suit that Reinhard had procured from him almost charred beyond recognition, yet at the same time water dripped from the few fibers of uncharred fabric that remained.

The two of them looked more like poor wayfarers than a King's Candidate and his knight.

With worry in his eyes, he stopped next to Arthur, giving him a quick look over before speaking.

"Are you all right?"

It was an innocent question, one that anyone would ask given the circumstances, yet Arthur grimaced as he spoke.

"No… no I don't think I am." Arthur eventually responded with a weariness in his voice Reinhard had never heard before. "I… have failed… completely and utterly."

The melancholic statement floated over the ruined plaza, seeming to settle on the various debris.

He didn't respond, he didn't know how to respond, the weight that Arthur was displaying was both unknown to him yet all too familiar, he'd never stood on this side of the looking glass, but it wasn't his reflection that greeted him this time.

"Elsa escaped, I let her escape." Arthur continued, his gaze trapped on the destruction before them, "I was chasing her in one moment, and in the next, she just… vanished."

"But all this destruction will remain, the suffering will remain, and for what exactly? What an awful joke."

"I for one think your actions were rather heroic, Elsa's mere presence put people at risk." Reinhard carefully responded, unused to this new cynical side of Arthur.

"Heroic?" Arthur scoffed, turning his piercing gaze to Reinhard, "There's more to being a hero than protecting people physically, a hero protects people's hearts, and minds. Something I've completely failed at."

"You're not the only one who failed today," Reinhard offered, "Despite being the strongest person in the world, and having dozens of Divine Protections granted to me by the world itself, there were still those I couldn't save."

It was a sobering fact that became nearly immediately apparent as he dived into flaming buildings, while he might have been able to save everyone in the first few buildings he entered, after only clearly a few buildings, some had succumbed, either to the inferno itself or the deadly smoke it created.

He passed numerous bodies as he sprinted through the buildings, and who knew how many more he had missed, His Divine Protection of Tracking had a very short range, and critically it only worked on the living.

Even now, the proof of his failure was manifesting as a group of knights across the street unearthed a limp body from the rubble of a building not too far away, its pale visage quickly being covered by a white blanket.

Arthur looked like he wanted to interject, but there was another statement Reinhard felt he had to address.

"And who said you had to be a hero?" Reinhard questioned, his gaze trying to extract the information from Arthur's very soul. "The burden of being a 'Hero' is immense, eyes follow you wherever you go, each one of them expecting that should a problem ever arise, you will be able to solve it without a hint of hardship, it…" He trailed off, unsure how to put his feelings into words.

"It forces you to try and become something you're not." Arthur suddenly began, picking up from where Reinhard left off, "Everyone expects you to be able to hold the world itself on your shoulders, even though you can barely stand by yourself, it's a thankless job where you are more remembered from what you couldn't do, rather than what you did."

Arthur stole the words directly from his mouth, and while part of him expected Arthur to understand, his words still caused a dull pain to erupt in his chest.

"I'm well aware of the burden of being a hero, it's one I've lived with for a long time," Arthur stated, "One that I'm beginning to suspect you've harbored for a long time as well."

Reinhard offered a small nod, not quite certain what the discovery meant for the relationship that the two of them shared, but he did know one thing, he didn't want it to go back to what it was before.

"Well," he awkwardly began, uncertain and unsure of his next action, his hand slowly raising, "If nothing else, I suppose us 'heroes' better stick together."

For a moment, Arthur merely stared at him, before slowly turning his gaze to his outstretched hand.

"I suppose so."

As Arthur took his outstretched hand, it felt for but a moment that the weight he had become so accustomed to disappeared.

Far beyond the city walls, two small figures stalked through the forest in silence, the only proof of their presence being the soft crunch of the leaves below their feet, yet those sounds were nearly completely drowned out by the low murmur of the forest around them.

Yet the silence didn't last much longer as one of the figures, a small child with golden hair, started to snicker, the soft noise starting to steadily grow into a full laughing fit, the abrupt noise shattering the tranquility around them and causing whatever wildlife remained in the vicinity to dash away in panic.

At the sound the brown-haired child behind her froze, her eyes darting to the blond as her skin seemed to bubble, elongating, and expanding, slowly transforming the girl into a young adult, retaining both her blond hair and crimson eyes.

With but a touch, her own body started to do the same, transforming from a small child to an adult woman, yet this time her hair slowly morphed from a light brown to a dark black, and her once brown eyes were now a piercing shade of violet.

A hand touched her shoulder, causing her to wince unconsciously, bracing her body for the pain she knew was coming, yet instead, she was greeted with a sight that was infinitely worse as the menacing smile of the blond came into view, her words a low whisper in the wind.

"Mother is proud, my daughter, those meatbags don't suspect a thing."