- Original Tiline, Inside theWitchblade...
With a hard smack, a young, teenage girl was sent crashing to the ground.
She whined instinctively and dropped the sword in her hand, instantly covering her stomach.
"How many tis must I tell you, no whining. If you show weakness, your enemies will not hesitate to tornt you for it. You cannot let them get inside of your head, or else the battle will beco all the more dire."
The young girl lifted her head. Her porcelain skin was dotted with specks of dirt and dry blood. Her hair, soaked with her own sweat, annoyingly clung to her face and made it difficult to see.
"It’s... It’s too hard!" The girl complained. "What am I supposed to do when you kick full force in the stomach, o-or cut with your sword!"
"Well, for the forr, you take comfort in knowing that I didn’t stab you. As for the latter... take comfort in knowing that the artifact will heal you."
Her master smiled infuriatingly. Thea hated that smile.
It always did sothing strange to her. Made her feel weird little butterflies in her stomach and ward her face to an unfair degree.
Thea was convinced that sothing about her master’s smile was making her sick. Maybe it was another one of the powers that she had gotten from the artifact.
The woman walked over to her and dropped to one knee. She placed her sword down next to Thea’s and sat before her, cross-legged.
She said nothing, but simply stared at her with a small smile that didn’t even show her teeth.
Thea’s face beca even redder. "..W-What?"
"I am simply waiting to see if you wish to continue. You are still a child, and we can always stop here if it is too much for you."
Thea’s lips set into a thin line, her embarrassnt mounting.
She shuffled until she could sit like her master. "I’m not quitting... I just need to catch my breath, that’s all."
"Oh? My mistake then. I should have known that this little warrior princess wouldn’t give up so easily."
Thea looked away quickly, her lips poked out in a huff.
"T-That’s right... I’m going to be super strong, and I’m going to help my dad and my moms... a-and we’re going to be the strongest demon lords that Dola has ever seen!"
Thea flexed her small muscles and imdiately winced. It seed she was still sore.
The rich, cloying laughter of the red-haired woman in front of her made Thea look back.
She looked at her master and saw a smile that nearly stopped her heart.
"A blonde-haired, blue-eyed demon lord with cheeks made of roses and an unsteady swordhand? Why, I don’t believe I have heard anything more amusing."
"I-I’m going to get taller, you know!"
"Yes, how could I forget? You’ve already been growing like a weed since your ti here began."
Thea didn’t know what to make of her master sotis. Even when she was agreeing with her, sohow it still seed like she was making jokes at her expense.
The young girl folded her arms across her chest and assud a rather cocky air.
"Soday, I’m going to be powerful enough to beat you too, master."
At that, the woman gave her a genuine smile.
"I do not doubt it, little warrior. Unfortunately, you know we are not fated to cross swords in battle. When your training is satisfactory, that will be the end. Instead of concerning yourself with besting , concern yourself with carrying on my legacy. Just as I did for my master."
Thea couldn’t put into words why her master’s dismissal had bothered her so much. She thought that maybe she was just being overly sensitive.
Her master suddenly stood up once more, calling her sword to her hand with a simple thought.
"Are you ready to continue?"
Thea watched that outstretched hand for what felt like an eternity to her. Restless, she snatched her sword from the ground and lunged to her feet.
"I’m going to make sure that you’re the one who cries this ti, Master!"
-
"Master..?"
Thea trembled like a shaken leaf as her world seed to turn upside down.
She was there.
The armor she had co to know intimately was missing, but it was her. Sa red hair. Sa rainbow colored eyes.
But her body was... diseased. Corrupted.
Black goo oozed from her pores and open patches of skin. Those strange black crystals jutted from her once beautiful flesh and turned her into sothing far more sinister.
Thea looked into those eyes she had once adored and saw no sign of recognition.
There was no light. No warmth. There was nothing.
And Thea had no idea what she was supposed to say or even think. But her master, or what was left of her, did not have that sa issue.
"BRING THEM INTO THE HIVE!!"
The creatures sward out of the pools of inky liquid and ran after the dragons.
As her master raced toward her, Thea froze like a deer in headlights.
It wasn’t until she got a hard shove from behind that she was able to snap out of her fugue state.
K’ael had been the one to save his sister from being attacked.
He shoved her out of the way just as her master rushed at him like a berserker.
Her fist sailed into his jaw with a sickening crack.
K’ael flew like a kite with it’s strings cut. His body slamd into a tree nearly a half mile away.
He recovered quickly enough on his own and returned with his sword already drawn.
The sound of his chain rattling filled the air as his weapon sailed into the stomach of the feral woman.
"NOI!"
Thea’s anguished cry surprised K’ael and made him halt his advance.
"YOU... WILL JOIN USSSSS!!!"
Thea’s master roared to the heavens in agony.
A wave of black tar burst into the sky. Several more geysers sprang up across the forest. For a mont, the sky, the world, turned completely black.
In control of her senses, Thea called her sword back to her hand and joined Belloc in burning down the revenants co to challenge them.
Gritting her teeth, she rushed at her master with her hand outstretched and a suit of tal beginning to spread across her body.
"No... no, not again.."
While his older siblings were engaging the enemy, K’ael, for so reason, was frozen.
His pupils trembled as he stared up at the wall of black filling the sky.
It wasn’t long before the rest of his body began shaking along with him. He brought his hands up to his head and began speaking under his breath.
"N-No... It’s too dark... I can’t go back... I WILL NOT GO BACK!!!"
K’ael’s roar shook the earth and filled the sky with red.
Bashenga and Thea both turned to their brother as a sea of fire and lava burst out of his body.
In an instant, the forest was flooded with fla. The black tar was set ablaze, filling the creatures connected to it with imnse pain.
A deep, demonic roar shook the forest.
Barely shielding her eyes, Thea managed to catch sight of her younger, no longer small enough to be called ’little’.
At a staggering three hundred ters tall, K’aek appeared as a raging volcano co to life.
His twin colored eyes burned as brightly as miniature suns.
Hundreds upon hundreds of red circles that spanned no more than seventy yards appeared over his head.
With a wave of his hand, K’ael sent a shower of flaming teors crashing down into the earth.
"I SAID I WILL NOT GO BACKKKKKKK!!!!!!!"
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