I walk towards the stairs, Kyuubey following closely behind. I stop at the bottom briefly, swallow hard, and begin my ascent. I'm nearly at the top when Kyuubey calls out to me,

"Wait."

I stop in my tracks. He speaks again,

"You'll want to materialize your weapon first."

My weapon. Yes, I'll be fighting a monster in there. It had not yet occurred to me how I would be doing this, so it's a good thing he stopped me. "Okay, how do I do that?"

"Just picture it in your mind and focus your energy on forming it, like you did with your outfit the other night."

I have to picture it? I didn't know much about weaponry, but I do recall an antique crossbow that my father owned. An antique might not be the best choice here, so I decide to make it a bit more fantastical, more magical. I imagine a large crossbow with a stock made of white marble, and a bow made of light wood trimmed with silver. I might as well make it match my outfit. As I focus on the divine looking instrument, light gathers in my hand only to fade quickly, revealing just what I had pictured. It floats in front of me, and I reach out to grasp it with my arm. I expect to be pulled down by it's weight as it's quite large, but to my surprise it feels as if it weighs nothing at all. I suppose it really is magical.

I examine it carefully and find it unloaded. Crap, I forgot about the ammo. Where will I get it?

"It's magical, silly. It will create its own ammo."

Great, he's reading my mind again. Oh well, at least now I know. I finally ascend the last few steps, and the large, elaborately designed door swings open, knocking me back slightly. A strong wind pours out from inside, which seems to be completely dark. I walk through the doorway, only to encounter black, velvet curtains. No wonder it looked so dark. I nudge them gently, only for them to reel back in a highly cinematic fashion. I close my eyes and take a deep breath while I still can. When I open them, revealed is…

When I open my eyes, I find am surrounded by thick black bars. I examine the entire area immediately, and realize that I am in a cage. Seeing as how the bars curve up to a point at the top, I assume it must be a bird cage. A cage for a small, harmless bird, such as a canary. But in this case, that couldn't be further from the truth.

The creature first comes into my vision mere minutes after my entrance, though it had felt like an eternity. Had it just appeared, or had it been there the whole time? That doesn't matter, as it's here now, and I have to fight it. Alone.

It is an enormous, anachronic looking being vaguely resembling a real life hawk. Except this one appears to be made of some unnatural substance resembling earthly metal, thought I know it must be unearthly as it came from…here. It looks like it had been glued together by a child, as sharp, metallic plumes jet out from it's body in every direction. I approach it cautiously in an attempt to avoid being noticed.

It doesn't work, as before I know it a huge, sharp strip of metal is lodged into the ground several meters in front of me. Did it…fire this at me? I'm answered by another one hurdling towards me, this time locked dead on to my position, ready to pin my body to the ground. I'm prepared to die, but in a what I thought to be futile attempt to escape, I jumped, expecting to reach a height no higher than a a dozen centimeters or so, as usual.

To my shock, I find myself suspended a dozen or so meters in the air, the projectile penetrating the ground below me with a thundering sound. I don't know how I did it, and I expect to fall any moment, but that moments never comes. I look around me to find to huge, white wings flapping slowly and gracefully behind me.

Another sick joke. But I have to time scoff at it, for another metal spear is flying my way. I rely on gut instinct to navigate me away from it once again, and it works. I fly with surprising speed, given the size of the wings, to my right, and the spear flies through the bars into the grey nothingness beyond.

Okay. I think I've got this. I swallow once again and build up all the confidence I can muster, and swing the bow in front of me. I pull the trigger, and there is a quick flash, clearing to reveal a pearly white bolt. It ejects and flies at great speed towards my enemy. Mid-flight, several stocks jet out from the main one, and they leave behind a tail of golden light. The magical projectile makes contact with the enemy, only to be deflected by the bird like creatures steel-like armor.

Crap, I should've expected this. This is like those boss fights in video games, I have to find it's weak spot in order to actually hurt it.

Except this time, I've got no lives to spare.

After flying around aimlessly avoiding countless metal pillars, I begin to tire and lose hope. I wonder if it's even any use fighting anymore, consider what was going on in the real world must have been over. but then I remember all those sci-fi novels I've read, and recall how in different planes of space, time can pass by at different paces. There's still hope.

I've been grazed multiple times, but thanks to my healing ability I'm still in passable condition. At a loss for what to do, I fly directly at the witch. I search all over for something, anything that is unarmored. As I come to it's head, I realize that I never really looked at it before. It is the only smooth part of it's body, making it resemble a bald eagle somewhat. It then comes to my attention that it has no eyes, only holes in place of where they should be. Red light emanates from inside, giving the illusion of two glowing read eyes.

Jackpot. I jet up towards the top of the cage until I am level with it's head. It swipes at me with its deformed wings, but I fly backwards just in time. It stumbles, not surprising given how much it must way, and takes a few moments to get back on its feet. I take the opportunity to fire as many consecutive bolts at it as quickly as possible. I am at the holes in its head, and pull the trigger repeatedly as fast as my small fingers will allow. Each one of them hits dead on, and torrents of what looks like liquid mercury pour out from the sockets. That must be its blood, meaning I hit its heart, or its "core" or even its brain, if witches have such things.

And then I am blown back by a massive explosion. I flap my wings as rapidly as I can in an attempt to stop my backwards movement before I hit the wall. I manage to succeed, but only barely. When the light, smoke, and debris clear, I see a small black object land on the floor, with a tinny sound to accompany it. I land on the ground and run towards it, curious.

"A grief seed," speaks an all too unfamiliar voice.

Kyuubey is behind me. "A what?" I ask, for the second time today.

"Witches leave them behind when you defeat them. You need them to restore your depleted power and purify your soul gem.

Hesitantly, I pick the object up. Following Kyuubey's words, I take my soul gem from the pocket sewn on the breast of my gown. I notice that the pure white had indeed been dirtied a bit, with black specks flickering around inside of it. As I hold the so called "grief seed" next to it, the blackness is drawn out of it.

At that time, my soul had been physically cleansed, but it only marked the beginning of its complete descent into darkness.