NOVEL WEB [10] Alicia Fraught
Claire steadily walked forward, her firm gaze remaining on the girl whose head was hung down.
The girl's slender arms were each hung up with chains as if she had been nailed to a cross, but her legs kneeled onto the floor, bound at the ankle towards the back. Her figure was overall petite, and her skin seemingly as clear as jade, there were two small lumps on her chest and a wave of golden-blonde hair spanned from her head to her back, small bits falling in front of her.
It wasn't until Claire had reached the girl that she noticed a single lock above her chest, it was pure white with a keyhole but seemed to be embedded within the girl's chest. Her azure eyes revealed a luster as new information flooded into her.
[God's Lock: An ancient relic used to seal both power and memories, used on beings deemed a threat to the world itself.]
"Is this your kink?"
[...]
There was a mummer and the girl seemed to shift in spot, the chains grumbled, and soon she was raising her lowered head to see.
There were two protruding fangs from the girl's teeth, but more strikingly, her eyes were the color of crimson red. . .just like her own. This was the first time Claire had met another 'human' aside from her mother who had the same colored irises as hers.
Momentarily, Claire was stunned as she stared into the girl's eyes. Unconsciously, her pure white receded to black and her azure eyes returned to red.
The two of them blinked towards the other.
One tilted her head and the other merely stared.
"Am I finally becoming crazy? Is this an illusion?" The bound girl asked, her voice resounding like an enchanting melody. It was soft.
Claire shook her head, "No, This isn't an illusion."
The eyes of the girl widened, glimmered, but soon dimmed down as she lowered her head back.
"If only you could help me..." The girl murmured.
"I could," Claire replied.
In fact, as soon as their eyes met, she had already held a plan in her head—a plan to release the girl. In fact, all she had to do was touch the chains and it could be completed as easily as breathing.
The girl's body shuddered, still downcast, another murmur escaped her lips, "Please help me from here."
It seemed she was truly desperate to escape from her confines to the point she chose to believe in a person she had just met.
"I'll assume you've already tried to escape?" Claire asked.
"I have. Many, many, times. But this chains restrict my powers. All my struggles were meaningless."
"How long have you been here?"
The girl's expression revealed uncertainty, "I do not know when I first appeared here. From the moment I opened my eyes, I existed in this space. My memories have become fragments. It's dark, there is no sun, and I can't tell the day from the night. It could have been weeks, it could have been years, I've long lost sense of the trickle of time."
Claire raised a brow. That was a strongly worded statement the girl made. A part of her softened ever so slightly.
'How long has she been locked here?' She asked.
[Right now? Five hundred and forty-five years? Give or take a few hundred years.] Igris Neihime replied.
"..."
Claire reached out her hands, "I'll help you, but follow me in return."
The tip of her finger touched the chains.
"<Glaze>."
The surrounding air chilled, and within a moment, layers of ice encroached upon the chains. A single blink and they had soon been frozen in place.
Cracks spread against their surface and in the next moment, the chains shattered into fragments of ice before disappearing.
All Claire had done was send them into her Glacial World, however, the eyes of the girl before her looked at her in reverence.
"How did you...?" The girl almost wanted to ask but something else caught her attention.
She suddenly rubbed her bare stomach as she stood up.
"I'm starving," She said, blinking her eyes.
She didn't know how long it had been since she last ate, she could no longer remember much aside from her name itself. At this point, the only reason she hadn't died of hunger was due to being a Vampire but the pangs of pain still existed.
"...do I look like I have food?" Claire replied in return.
Yet, the girl gulped. Her fangs seemed to glimmer and her eyes shined.
"You must taste good...I can smell it..." She sniffed the air twice, her expression taking on the look of faint intoxication. As if there was a delicacy right in front of her and she just had to reach out and devour it.
"..."
"Say...may I have a bit of your blood?" Alicia was already drooling slightly and, having wiped it away, she hurriedly asked.
"..."
[...]
Claire sighed...what had she gotten herself into? Hesitating slightly, she revealed her neck to the girl before her.
"Hurry up."
Her words fell on deaf ears and a figure had already jumped to her front. There was a tinge of pain as two, small, sharpened objects punctured into the base of her neck.
"Your blood is delicious!" A voice murmured in ecstasy.
For a moment, Claire felt powerless and a bit of dizziness as the girl continued to suck at her nape.
"Wait...what are these memories flooding in." The girl suddenly stopped enjoying her meal, her hands clutching her head as she staggered away, her fangs still dripping with a bit of blood.
Her wavering eyes stared at Claire in disbelief.
"Cars? Planes? Skyscrapers?...why do I know all of these? Why? Why? God? Why?Reincarnation...transmigration...reincarnation..."
Finally, her figure shuddered.
". . .who am I?"
Claire furrowed her brows, 'This person had been sent into this world too?'
Although skeptical, in the end, she decided that was highly likely. Igris Neihime had already talked about his collision with God to kidnap her and lock her here.
[You know I am still here right? My soul has bounded with this tower after all...]
Claire disregarded that voice.
She opened her lips, there was a thin smile at meeting someone similar to herself, her eyes revealed an azure light.
"Aren't you Alicia Fraught?" She said.
The eyes of the girl widened slightly.
"Yes." She nodded once, twice. "I am Alicia Fraught."
Claire stared over this naked girl before her, looking her over, up and down. Certainly, hers was a body created to resemble a goddess. Feeling some intrusive thoughts about to rise, she stamped them down.
"Do you really have no clothing?" Claire raised her brows in disbelief.
She had no qualms against a person that decided to be nude or stark naked, but she would rather not walk around and be associated with someone like that.
The girl licked her lips, looking a bit longingly at Claire's figure, but still replied, "Hold on a moment, let me check..."
She suddenly stopped between her sentence.
"Do you have something I can cut myself with?"
"..." Claire was speechless.
"Are you a masochist?"
Alicia shook her head, her golden hair shaking. "No? Yes? I don't know, but I have a storage I haven't checked yet...I need to slice my palm."
"..."
Claire felt she was surrounded by weird beings. First was a ball of snow whose size changed depending on how confident it was, and now there was a girl that wasn't even sure if she was a masochist or not. No matter which way she figured, she felt as if there was a certain smirking angel in heaven right now looking down on her troubles while sipping a heavenly wine.
Still, she crafted a small knife from ice and threw it towards the girl.
As the girl sliced her palm, she decided to ignore the momentary shudder of slight bliss she saw.
There was a crimson light and two flowing liquids of black and white escaped the girl's hands.
They squirmed and flowed through the air before latching onto the girl's figure.
The black became a tight dress, revealing her shoulders and armpits, reaching her thighs, and covering her arms while ending in black, leather-like, gloves.
The white on the other hand floated onto her face, covering a quarter of the right side and becoming a half broken, pure white, mask with a single ruby-like gem at its top. There was a single black slit for her right eye.
"Oh," Alicia grasped her hands into fists.
"I can feel a bit of my power returning."
Claire, on the other hand, stared at the girl's new status.
[Name: Alicia Fraught
Race: Ancient Vampire
Strength: A
Speed: A
Mana: A
Skills: Eyes of Death (U), Blood Magic (U), Ancient Healing Arts (U), Bat Transformation (U)
Overall: S-]
Claire raised a brow, 'Her stats have increased slightly from before, is it because I removed the chains?'