The Smiling Devil with the Coldest Eyes

Clouds were swiftly passing by as she starred blankly towards them, talking to herself. Her voice just barely beyond a whisper amidst the strong cold winds rushing against her face. Despite it she retained her usual vivid tone of energy overdose.

“What nerve! And I've just met him...Called out on a night like this, who does she think she is.. he could have been my future fiancee for all I know.. not even a phone number.. ”
“And these houses.. What's wrong with these people.. haven't they heard of skyscrapers..” she was saying while glimpsing at the elaborate combination of russian baroque mixed with gothic elements, an typical architectural construct beyond the freshly unveiled Iron Curtain. Her frustration for her unfortunate circumstances was as clear as the night air around her.

“Lady Luck, you're the worst wingman tonight..”, but she had a job to do, and a very serious one at that. She was well aware of it and her responsibilities. Being the only person available at this particular time was just an odd and unforeseen happening. She swallowed her childish disappointment and changed her attitude.

“Game face on”, she grinned, whilst whispering to herself. Then proceeded to dart through the cold winter clouds so fast that they dissolved just after her right black stiletto touched the roof of the tallest building for miles. In front of her a dark-silverish silhouette was standing at the edge. She casually walked in that direction starring at her own feet, watching the shadow of her 8 wings turn for a fraction of a second in a visibily thick smoke and vanish.

“Mhmm.. I doubt my lucky Loui Vuitton's will get through this night”.

As she walked towards the edge, the silhouette was beginning to take in the light, but not the moonlight, her slim curvy features were being called out by the silent fires that took hold of what she estimated was a whole district of the city. A beautiful mid 20's caucasian women with long ashsilver hair and violet eyes was starring blankly at the buildings turned to shambles. Her curves and perfection, an envy even the distinguishable beauty Victoria, never fully got over.

Taking in the cold air and changing her gaze from the silent silhouette towards the ravished city, her breath's hot steam stops midair and so does everything else entirely. In this world's motionless state, a voice similar to Victoria's arises.

“These eyes you are watching The Secret World from belong to my sister Victoria”, the slightly more mature voice pauses and continues sorrowfully “These are her last memories.. and the first recording of the smiling devil with the coldest eyes..”

As the world steps back into motion, the silent burning scenery reflected through Victoria's eyes changes back to the silver haired woman.

“Elizabeth, how much.. ?”

“Six” replied the woman.

Staring back at the rubble Victoria hid her astonishment. So much destruction could arise in less than 6 minutes? It wasn't just pure astonishment since she had seen worst, yet more of a slight discomfort in her stomach. Admittedly past encounters with such scenarios had been caused by an a clash of multiple entities, yet this time she had been briefed it was the actions of solely one.

“How do they expect us to catch up to it? This is the 6th confirmed occurrence where it has slipped through our fingers?”.

Elizabeth remained shrouded in silence. Victoria after taking carefully in the scenery continues.

“What are you so intent on? Let's just clean up and get lost. It clearly isn't here anymore.. The candles I left lid on in my apartment aren't going to blow themselves out”.

Embarrassedly realizing what she had just said and most off all to whom, Victoria wanted nothing more than to just get this done with and part with the most arrogant being she has ever encountered. They have met on other several occasions before, still she couldn't stand Elizabeth. It wasn't enough that she was a perfect beauty, but with the apparently unovercomable superiority in her abilities, she easily acquired the admiration of their fellow colleagues. Add to that the air of indistinguishable allmightyness, her attitude made Elizabeth for Victoria almost unbearable. But even despite it all she was a member of her guild, and a strong and reliable one at that. Elizabeth had shown in several occasions that she would lay her life on the line for her colleagues so Victoria simply couldn't drown out her respect and admiration for her.

Just as Victoria's hand started leaving trails of pale light amidst the air, Elizabeth finally answered.

“Souls”

To Victoria it hadn't occurred to scan the rubble for souls, and why would she, protocol doesn't demand it until after another few clean up steps. She took in a deep breath, closed her eyes and slowly reopened them. The red flames enveloping everything a few seconds ago were gone. Even the physical matter of which the former seen world was composed of changed it's shape, no, more likely it's opacity. What was once a sea of red flames was replaced by very small bundles of blue flames scattered out across the whole plane. Victoria carefully took in the new scenery and wanted to reply something about the total number of survivors, but just then she noticed. What seemed earlier as one of the slightly bigger blue lights, because of it's apparent proximity to her, was actually a distant big blue flame that appeared now to be dwarfing the other distant lights. Big being an understatement, considering the amount of light a normal human soul could cast. Her heart skipped a beat. How could she had missed it. Even the embarrassing amount of time it took for her to pick that up, she would have lied through her teeth if asked how long it had taken for her to notice this anomaly. Wanting to compensate for her lack of seriousness, she quickly closed and reopened her eyes. Then her gaze flew across the physical plane focusing on the direction that particular blue light was coming from. A skill even eagles would be envy of, if for that matter they could see through physical matter at all.

What her gaze found as she passed through the last building was a boy of around 10 years old. The boy was sitting down on the cold concrete, shrouded in the night's silence, but for his own gasps. Yet Victoria couldn't hear that far. His hands were tightly holding a piece of red cloth around the head of a silhouette gently laid on his lap. His tears were falling on the face of the woman he was holding. Victoria took in the scenery a few seconds, a scenario she was well acquainted with. She had a particular approach in shutting her emotions out, and it could be called a dreadful one at best.

“Fuck his stupidity! Can't he tell his mom's dead.. Kid, get your shit together and run for shelter. Fuckin' retard, probably thinks his mom's gonna wake up any second and tell him this was just a bad dream. ”

The boy raised his head at the sky and opened his mouth so wide Victoria knew what was coming. It wasn't what she expected. It was a scream, and admittedly one of desperation. Her personal passive transcriptional glyph surprisingly kicked in, she did not expect for the boy to be capable of putting words into his scream and particularly not these words:

“Show you're face you fuck!! I know you're still here”. The boy stood up, his hand grasping a broken metal pipe.

“What is he? Delusional?”, asked Victoria.

“Bait” replied Elizabeth, her cold voice not leaving any vapors amidst the cold air.

“For what? It's clearly gone.”

“Link”, followed Elizabeth.

“Why? I don't feel any presence at all.”

Despite her sight being focused on the screaming boy stumbling around hitting the empty air with his pipe, she could feel Elizabeth's cold glare on her. Victoria had no choice but to comply. She mechanically spoke out loud one of her least favorite phrases in a strange yet sweetly melodic sounding language whilst drawing symbols of pale light midair. The next second she wasn't as before appearing to stand next to the boy looking at him from close distance, now she was inside him, watching the world through his eyes. This had been one of the roughest soul links Victoria has ever attempted. The instant she found herself in the boy the pressure almost blew her back. It wasn't enough that Victoria had never encountered a soul this vast but the instability inside it took her an exhausting amount of focus to get herself synchronized. It was as if being plunged in a sphere of water where shifting currents pull and push from every direction.

“Talk about shock after seeing a beloved depart, but to make a human soul burn this intense.. ridiculous ” she said to herself, whilst noticing that at a certain point while she was focusing on getting accustomed to the boy's soul waves, he had stopped hitting the air and had become very still. They were now both starring at an empty desolated street. Something was clearly there, she couldn't see it, couldn't feel the ripples of it's soul, couldn't perceive it's presence at all through none of her abilities, yet the boy knew it was there, and thus so did she.. Victoria could feel it in every fiber of the boy's body because of the soul link. Every source of light flickered simultaneously, even the moonlight was distorted for a split second. A circle of wind was undoubtedly seable on the ground revolving counter clockwise, it was as if the air was pushed away to make room for space that appeared out of nowhere. Then it was there, standing in midair. It looked like nothing Victoria had ever encountered before. The body's structure was clearly that of a humanoid's even though it was roughly twice in size as the largest human alive. That was visible even through the almost completely bloodstained white cloak covering it. But the features that caught Victoria's sight even from the first glance were it's tail that was hovering almost touching the ground, it's hands that were disproportionately bigger than it's body, she couldn't focus enough to count but it certainly were more than 5 long fingers with dangerously long sharp tips and most of all it's head, which wasn't human at all. Bigger than all the rest of the proportions, in the shape of a lizard's head, covered in the darkest leather imaginable. Three similarly big yellow eyes with long slender blood-red pupils, that looked almost carved into the eye sockets, were staring at her with a murderous intent. It felt unbearable. Worst of all was it's grin, the dangerously sharpened teeth looked back so arrogantly at them as if knowing she was there. It was the smile of a predators satisfaction before a hopeless prey. She was completely lost before this overwhelming presence, panicked, her mind almost a void just barely able to superficially analyze the creature. It was an entity that she had never encountered before and even though she had overcome the unthinkable in previous battles, this time her survival instinct was overwhelmed by fear. Just in a blink of the boys eyes the entity was standing head to head with them, leaving out a roar so terrifying it broke her soul synchronization. The shock was so great it felt as if her head would explode but her soul link didn't break, she was still in the boy's body unable to get free, as if the overwhelming presence of the creature was pulling at her like a massive gravitational field. Her mind was now completely blank and she felt as if drowning in the boys vast soul capacity. Surprisingly enough the currents she was feeling right now haven't changed their intensity at all, but to the weakend and unsynchronized Victoria it felt as if her real body was being ripped to shreads. And then it happened. The boy having lost not one bit of his resolve tightened his hand on the metal pipe and just hits the creature dead in the starring middle eye. Of course that didn't generate an effect whatsoever on the exterior. If there was a Secret World Youtube channel and this were a video she would have laughed her ass off. But the absurdity of it all was like the breath of fresh air she needed in this underwater prison. That instant was all she needed, even the creature was left dumbfounded, his arrogant smirk turned into an annoyed grin. In that very short break she resynchronized with the boy's soul, took control of his body and leaped back using her own soul waves just narrowly escaping the clutch of the creature's deadly bite. Just as she touched the ground 10 meters behind them she saw the creature leap. Midair it was intercepted by what looked like a giant spear of ice.

“Elizabeth sure took her sweet time” was what she was thinking as she reverted back into her own
body.

Without even waiting for her to regain full control of her body and shift her soul resonance for battle, she summoned her wings. A leap and a few seconds straight dart was all it took for her to reach the newly formed battlefield. Victoria was always very proud of her flying ability and especially it's speed, a valued skill that was also highly regarded by her colleagues. Yet by the short time it took her to break the soul link and reach her target, the whole street was enveloped in chunks and spears of broken ice piercing everything from concrete to metal. Elizabeth's combat skills were clearly above hers, being able to conjure pure water from the surrounding atmosphere and meld it into her frozen arsenal. Her colleagues always said ice has a very resilient covalent tightness and without impurities that special ice is eight times tougher and possibly sharper than steel. Elizabeth also enhances that conjured ice through spells and is easily able to do all that and fire rounds in a split second. Despite all the destruction caused by Elizabeth when she gets serious the creature did not seem to have a single scratch on it, more so the one covered in blood and wounds was her, Elizabeth. She got to say a single word, as always, before the creature dived onto her. A word Victoria didn't know Elizabeth had in her vocabulary,

“Fuck”.

An explosion rose up from where Elizabeth was standing, split-second blinding, Victoria instinctively flew up. Glimpsing down, flames enveloped the space she previously occupied. Left dart, a gush of heat was felt touching her feet.

“Not quick enough” she painfully muttered.

Upwards, straight flight, full velocity, “Impossible..” she felt the presence matching her speed, no, catching up.

“Focus..” “..Luminee”, a surreal, yet entailing sound parted from her lips. Spheres of light were now playfully dancing around her easily keeping up with her speed. Five, the most she had ever conjured at once, above the clouds in the clear moonlight, an ideal medium for bending light to her will. Not even a second after she finished her binding a heat wave passed by.

“No..”, her body unscaved, but her 3 upper right wings and 1 sphere devoured by flames. Heart pumping insanely, panic was clutching at her chest. She didn't cast a single offensive spell, yet she wouldn't have any time to, nor would she have any way to advert or dodge the next attack.

“No!”, a flick of her 2 lowest wings, her body instantly rotated facing downwards, her leftover wings tensed upwards pointing at the unconcerned Moon. “Break! Reinforce!”, she yelled this time. Her former majestic wings turned instantly into a bundle of smoke, the darkest cloud in the sky was now enveloping her, abruptly halting her ascent into the heavens. A move she never attempted yet the only logical thing that came to her mind amidst the desperation. As the painful tension from the collision with the wall of smoke ran trough her body she split her mind into 3 pieces, each intent on a task. The first piece broke off the binding that altered the material density of the dark fume.

“Still softer than Eric's mattress, no wonder we broke up”, she was not at all surprised to retain her morbid humor, not even with her mind split in pieces, not even near moments away from parting from a life she had surprisingly grown quite fond of only recently.

The second slice of her mind bound the remaining spheres of light to her right hand's finger tips. Her last task consisted of drawing the wind glyph with her left hand and casting. The spell fired, a shock wave of cool air pushed her back, immediately followed by a gush of hot air. The creature instantly passed dissolving the remnant dark smoke and it's aura of heat scorching Victoria's stretched out left hand. She bit her lips, pain, fury and then satisfaction were written on her face.

“Expected, who else would be stupid enough to come to a full stop at this speed..”, the pieces of her mind were debating as they slid back to become one.

Her body turned midair whilst falling, her gaze intent on the creature that was now making a full arch to attack her. She whispered in a melodic yet firmly aggressive voice “Sagittae”. The spheres dashed out to become arrows. One missed, one scrapped, 2 landed a direct hit. A circus of light errupted, tangling around the creature. It wasn't enough to stop it, yet sufficed for slowing it down and Victoria had hoped for at least this much. She binded drak matter and conjured the remnant of her 8 wings again. This time with slightly more effort, yet having partially regenerated them. It was now or never. She forced herself and her mind split into four pieces. One established a link to the light binding the creature, another was conjuring and materializing light and a third one was using these spells to enforce the materialized chains on the creature. The final piece was preparing to cast the most dreadfully complicated spell she has ever attempted. Using her right hand's reinforced finger nails she cut the wrist on her maimed left hand. Her most cherished possession came out amidst the flowing blood. The relic bestowed upon her by the only other person from her bloodline, besides her youngest sister, that she had ever taken a liking to, or who she could say had ever tolerated her existence. The secret shared only by them, the last words and gift of the person she had held most dearly in the world, his legacy. The small spherical pendant gave out a weak timid glow while floating and pulling on the slim chain that was still attached somewhere inside Victoria's body. The blood rushing out was flowing in a pattern drawing up a more and more complex shape in the air. This degree of offensive magic was far beyond what any of her colleagues deemed the recognisance and sensory oriented Victoria capable of. Every time she had pushed her body, mind and soul to the limit practicing, she had imagined at the end of the day their reactions if ever witnessing this, particularly Daniel's:

"A bloodframed S degree catalyst from a being whose blood affinity is light, harmonizing and binding spectral opposite elements: darkness and light as a conductor for materializing soul waves and alchemically converting them into.. a work of art..".

And indeed it was a work of art, moreso internally than externally. As for Victoria who has always felt as if lacking her bloodline's superior affinity for logically and meticulously piecing together complex spells, as if assembling bits and gears to clockwork, her grit and dedication had led her to uncovering an unconventional way of learning at least one spell that makes use of her precious heirloom. The additional 3 slices of her mind stopped the task of restraining the creature's advance and with an excruciating effort and amount of willpower Victoria managed to reslice them into 6 pieces. The 4th unsliced piece, was left with the task of conducting the spell. And so Victoria submersed herself internally in complete silence, the world around her and immediate threat to her life dispersing completely. The unsliced piece of her mind started humming. It wasn't a language, it wasn't a spell, invocation, binding nor conjuring it was just simply humming, sounding beautifully calming and longing. The voices of the other slices of her mind started gradually responding to the calling, at first timedly, then more and more adding their voices to the song, some starting, other stopping, interluding, harmonizing, changing their pitch, their base, their tone and language but all so in a form that complemented eachother and, more importantly, the song. These other voices were spells and conjurings and bindings and as what appeared inside as an enticing acapella concert externally looked as if solid light was dissolving into white smoke, darkness was becoming translucent, matter was becoming distored and as if Victoria was holding in her left hand the pen used to dismantle and rewrite the rules of this world. And then it was gone. The converted energy left Victoria and darted straight at the creature who by then had stopped and was starring at the surreal display. It went fast and calmly towards it, yet when it got near the creature it erupted in a such a violent force that looked as if a river of light had enveloped everything around. The impact was blinding and the shock wave dispersed the surrounding clouds. Exhausted, she grinned at the vacant spot in the sky where the creature had been and with her broken wings she started slowly descending. Despite her body in pain, mind dazzled and an intense feeling of nausea brought by the loss in weight of her soul she had converted into energy, Victoria was smiling.

"This was way too close for comfort.. next time I'll definitely.. "

A scourge of heat ran across her whole body. Cracking sounds, followed by intense pain and the inability to move. The air had been distorted again and the next second she found herself wrapped in the creature's tail where 3 murderous intent eyes were starring at her. She almost fainted yet the next second she was hanging upside down, bones broken, unable to move, being help up by her right leg by the creature's tail. It was carefully inspecting her. It seemed to have found what it wanted. As he drew his sharp claws towards her a storm of light rained down on the creature, or at least that's how it seemed for the upside-down Victoria, who was miracolously unscaved by the arrows. The creature had let go of her and now she could see the arrows weren't light at all but were ice and the fact that she had been unscaved wasn't luck at all. Elizabeth flew by her, continuously firing as Victoria fell down.

"My best move.. my gamble shot.. dead on.." the creature repelled it head on.

Utterly defeated, without a shred of energy, paralyzed, she had been ripped out of sky. Victoria could only look helplessly as the solid ground was rushing up to embrace her. With the last drop of her strength she gave just one tiny flick of one of her left wings and turned midair. Just a heartbeat away from crashing on the cold concrete, she dispersed her wings. The thick black smoke always present when her invoked wings became once again one with the darkness, something that she thought at best as a nifty bedroom trick, wasn't enough to completely break her fall but sufficed for saving her life twice tonight, at least temporarily. Those were her subconscious thoughts expressed through:

“Lady Luck.. this doesn't make us even.. ”.

Laid down on her back, she felt completely broken, the only thing still left intact was her dark humor. As she made this reflection she almost broke out in something that had always been a small chuckle, whenever the realization surfaced about her peculiar sense of humor in inappropriate situations. This time though the only think that came out of her mouth was blood while her chest hurt like a “Motherfucker”, she did manage to let out.

Starring blankly at the battle in the sky above, she could only wonder how long it would take before the unavoidable. The back of her head felt warm and comfortable, she relished this small luxury even though she thought it probably came with the price of a broken skull. Then she shifted her gaze. Besides her was the little boy she had completely forgot about. Victoria was so worn out and hurt she failed to notice the boy had been beside her all along, holding her head on his lap, in his hands a red piece of cloth tightly held against her head. For the fallen angel Victoria this smiling boy, with the warmest green eyes, looked more of an angel then she'd ever been. The shock from the chain of realizations she had the following moments made her heart briefly stop.

“No.. he's holding me just like his mother..and I've said..” thought Victoria as she felt a surge of dread and hatred for herself the likes of which she never felt in a long while. She couldn't even look at his little face so she shifted her gaze downwards. Her heart felt as if ripping apart, the boy had a shard of ice in his left lower abdomen that looked as if tried to be pulled out but the effort abandoned midway, part of his left foot was crushed a trail of blood behind him was hinting that he had dragged himself to her. Seeing her gaze the boy said in a soft voice

“Don't cry Sis, it doesn't hurt..”.

Shocked and unable to take it in all at once, Victoria replied without even thinking

“I'm not your sister..”.

“I know” the boy replied, on his face the widest smile he could possibly manage, even though it was clear he was in terrible pain.

Her efforts on getting ready to embrace death had left Victoria without her emotional barrier on the battlefield. Now even the fall felt as nothing compared to how she was breaking apart inside.