In the aftermath of the battle between the Sword Saint and Bowel Hunter, the slums had been left in a state of disarray. The remains of what used to be the loothouse stood in shambles. Pillars of rubble towered among the wreckage, and in the middle of that wreckage laid a blood-covered human shape.
Opening their eyes the dead body began to reanimate. As soon as they began to regain their consciousness their nose was invaded with the wretched stench of their own blood tickling their nostrils. They began to slowly wiggle their fingers on their right arm, the same arm that had previously been cut off from their body.
Hearing the commotion outside the dead body ... No, the Bowel Hunter realized her current predicament. Her lips upturned into a graceful blood-colored smile. She was alive. She reached out her newly formed fingers to find her weapons, but her efforts were fruitless. It seemed her equipment had not survived her battle with the Sword Saint. After getting a grasp of her immediate situation she considered her next move.
Attempt a surprise attack? No, Reinhard would surely notice. He was too strong and she knew it. The state of her body was a testament to that fact.
Maybe she could stay still and hope no one noticed that she was alive, and when no one is looking, kill off that annoying thief and take back the insignia. Maybe then she won't have to face 'Mama'. Her thoughts were interrupted as two voices reached her ears.
"What's your name? Your age?"
Peering out of the few cracks in her rocky prison, the charming assassin peered into a conversation between the Sword Saint and the slum rat.
It seemed that the Sword Saint had taken a strange interest in the thief, destroying any chance she had to finish the job and take back the insignia. Her hopes were dashed and she was left with no choice.
Escape. Maybe if she was fast enough in her escape she could take Meili and run away before they faced 'Mama'.
No. Mama would eventually find both of them. It was impossible to run from her influence. Running would only make everything worse.
As Elsa thought about Mama, memories of her painful past flashed into her mind. All the torture she endured all the experiments, all the cruelty, everything that she had suffered all under the pretense of some sick and twisted brand of 'love'.
Mama's twisted laugh was still fresh in her mind, her wicked smile as she tore off her limbs and reconstructed her body cell by cell over and over again. How she had toyed with her immortal body and fractured her mind over and over merely for fun. It sent chills down her spine just thinking about it.
But one particularly recent memory stood out from the rest, weighing down on her.
It was a normal day, if you could call it that. The harsh winds of Gusteko blew, leaving a barren landscape where not even the most persistent of life forms could hope to survive. The dark grey clouds blocked out the nurturing warmth of the sun, leaving the landscape victim to harsh climates, which culminated into the icy hellhole which was Gusteko.
In this perpetual winterland laid a desolate mansion, where Mama kept her favorite children. The mansion's mouth was so big it swallowed anyone who entered. The stone walls seemed to hold a supernatural stillness, as the high towers stood tall as the harsh ice and snow slammed into the mansion, it was much more proper to call it a fortress rather than a mansion.
The interior was even less inviting, the hallways were riddled with boobytraps and secret passageways. Some windows, illuminated by reflected firelight, seemed to observe you from up high. In this prison, Elsa was currently biding her time with anticipation. It wouldn't be long till Mama would come back.
She was currently out taking care of some business and as usual, she had left without telling her children.
Suddenly her senses went off, as she detected the small ripples in the air no doubt caused by Mama's wing beat. As she calmly exited her room she stepped into the hallway and found all of the other children had done the same, their echoing footsteps resounding throughout the hall as the crowd of prisoners gathered in the courtyard ready to greet their mother.
Following the group into the front of the mansion, Elsa stood in a straight line formation with her siblings.
Landing in the courtyard with a boom, a black dragon let out a thundering roar. The dragon flaunted its wings at the group. Opening its mouth to reveal rows of sharp teeth and a long, snaking red tongue, the black dragon narrowed its golden eyes, continuing to issue a choking, sharp laugh.
By her side, a brown-haired boy stood hunched over his form shivering, his green pupils were erratic, filled with nothing but hunger and fear. Nudging the boy to go inside the mansion, the dragon shifted its attention away from the small boy, turning its snout towards the line of people standing in the courtyard.
As it surveyed the line of people, its yellow eyes landed on Elsa, its mouth twisting into a toothy smile.
Seeing that smile...that nightmarish smile. Elsa began to quiver. She knew that smile quite well. That horrible, devilish smile could only mean one thing: Mama was going to have some fun. Recognizing the fear, and raw despair in Elsa's eyes, the dragon's eyes narrowed as a mischievous glint appeared in its pupils.
Opening its gaping maw, the dragon bellowed with devilish laughter, "Kuhahahahah, Elsa step forward and greet this lovely lady." Mama said, her voice booming across the courtyard, ordering Elsa to step forward.
Repressing her urge to run away, Elsa resigned herself to her inevitable fate and walked towards Mama so that she could receive her love.
Stepping forward Elsa was immediately snatched into the dragon's massive claws, its talons digging into her flash as Mama's grip tightened around her waist, crushing her bones, blood beginning to pool in her mouth as she choked on her red fluids.
All the while the massive dragon spread its bat-like wings, and took flight, leaving the bleak courtyard and trudging deeper into the Gustekan wasteland.
Soaring through the sky, the harsh weather was bearing down on the two as snow and hail slammed into them. The higher they went the less oxygen became available. Making it almost impossible for Elsa to breathe.
Once they had reached high enough, the dragon removed its handle on Elsa, dropping them down from the sky and towards the ground, turning the assassin into nothing but a bloody stain on the snow. Following suit, the dragon descended down, barreling towards the frozen surface at breakneck speeds, landing right next to the bloody pile of snow that was Elsa.
Shifting its form, the once menacing dragon became a golden-haired woman. Turning their attention to the pile of flesh that was Elsa, the woman grew a massive black arm which she used to hoist up the remains of what once was the bowel hunter. Her sharp nails dug into Elsa's throat, crushing her larynx and silencing her cries, as she squirmed in the grip of her black limbs.
"This lovely lady had to stand that green lunatic for far too long. Be a nice child and help Mama calm down." She intensified her grip, depriving Elsa of oxygen.
Despite being unable to breathe, she felt ecstasy. All thanks to Mama turning her into an absolute masochistic, constantly turned on by any injury. The blizzard whipped her skin with ice and snow, but she paid no mind to the pain from those. Her lips curved onto a smile as her face reddened.
Mama flicked her forehead, and she couldn't ignore the ice and snow hitting her skin at incredible speed. The once feeble pain became agonizing. It was as if every shard was a sharp knife cutting her skin. She wanted to scream, but no sound would leave her throat. Her mind almost went blank, until Mama tossed her body to the side like a ragdoll.
Falling onto the cold ground, Elsa squirmed around. She could finally breathe again, and she screamed. She screamed all the agony she was suffering. The ice she was writhing left an intense burning sensation that danced throughout her body. It was so cold it felt as if she was walking on burning spikes.
Delighted, Mama once more turned into a massive dragon with black scales. She touched Elsa with one of her claws and muttered:
"Mama wants some silence." In one instant, Elsa's body was transformed. She wanted to scream, to voice the agony she was suffering, but she had no mouth. She wanted to run from everything, from the sheer cold and Mama's influence, but she had no legs. She had been transformed into a human-sized slug.
The sleet raining upon her was now more painful than ever, as some of it penetrated the mucus she had as protection. The chilling fragments remained inside her now slimy body and she was unable to do anything. She was a defenseless victim of Mama's torture.
Eventually, she couldn't stand it anymore. So cold it burned. Her mind shut down, unable to withstand that contradiction anymore. Once she woke up, she was at home with Meili at her side.
"Meili?" She returned from the depths of her memory.
"I need to check on Meili." For how long had she spaced out? She was ready to throw the rubble aside and make her escape until Reinhard's words caught her attention.
"Miss Natsumi wanted to return your insignia. The one who paid for it to be stolen pretended to murder both of you."
"Natsumi? That must be that black-haired girl." Elsa thought. "But how did she…"
"Do not fret, the Bowel Hunter has already been dealt with." Hearing the Sword Saints words, Elsa ground her teeth, the pain of her loss pounding on the back of her mind. She experienced his strength first hand. If he found out she was alive, he would surely kill her for real. He had the skill for it.
She had no option but to run and hope he didn't follow.
Clearing away the rubble from around her the Bowel Hunter stood, Her once braided black hair blew in the brisk wind, her charming features grew into a snarl, as her ebony eyes, looked at the scene of her painful defeat one last time burning the image into her mind. The Sword Saint had not one but two unconscious girls on his shoulders: The black-haired girl that should be Natsumi and the slum rat. Moreover, the silver-haired girl that was her target was there too.
Turning their head the Sword Saint faced her, his blue eyes looking into hers one last time. But before he could take action she ran. She ran as fast as her legs could carry her, she needed to get away from the Sword Saint, away from her failure, away from 'Mama'. So she ran, she ran to Meili.
She jumped out of the building, now sure the Sword Saint would not follow. She darted between buildings at incredible speed, heading southeast. Elsa arrived at a particular shack in the southeastern part of the slums.
As she approached, the door flung open. Behind the door frame stood a short blue-haired girl. Her hair was tied into a triple braid, she wore a black one-piece dress, and her green eyes denoted worry for her companion.
"Elsa!?" She screamed upon seeing the state of Elsa's body.
"I'm back, Meili," Elsa said as she walked through the door and sat on a dusty couch. She had chosen an old shack in the slums for Meili to stay in while she did her job. Afterward, Meili would head to her own job not far away.
"Who did you fight to e~nd like this?" Meili inquired with her hands on her hips.
"The Sword Saint. He left me like this with a single strike. I haven't met someone so strong since that man with a blue kimono."
"The Sword Saint…? First the Blue~ Lightning and now him? You keep fighting the stronge~st, Elsa." Elsa looked at Meili with intrigue. Before Meili could explain herself, the assassin duo felt something was going wrong.
Their senses went off as they detected something at the edge of their perception. They sensed ripples in the air, ripples that shouldn't be here, ripples that signified the arrival of something or a particular someone.
Mama.
A loud thump was heard outside, and a golden-haired girl soon walked through the door. Her crimson eyes were turned into a scowl, and she was scantily clad in hot pants, leggings, and a top that barely covered her chest, all black in color. Her crimson eyes focused on Elsa.
"I noticed something going wrong. Did you do your job, Elsa?"
"The Sword Saint got in the way, Mama." She said as she looked at the ground. She dared not meet her gaze with Mama.
Her face twisting into a wicked smile, Mama's pale hand reached out and gently cupped Elsa's chin and lifted her face so their gazes could meet. Her crimson eyes staring into Elsa's.
"Look me in the eyes when you talk," Mama said under her breath, as her cold voice tickled Elsa's ear, sending a shiver down the assassin's spine.
"I…..Ma.."
"Spit it out," Mama said, unamused by Elsa's hesitance.
"I'm sorry," Elsa said under her breath, her voice cracking.
"Good, that wasn't so hard was it? Now then, since Mama is feeling generous right now." She dropped her hold in Elsa's chin. "I want you to answer me a question. Why did the Sword Saint get in the way?" Elsa was left stunned for a second, and then she proceeded to explain what she had done.
Messily retelling the story, Elsa explained how she had hired a local thief, named Felt to retrieve the insignia for her, and how her plans were thwarted by the Sword Saint, and the mysterious black-haired girl.
Upon finishing her explanation, Elsa took a deep breath and waited for Mama to say something. She had remained in silence for all of it.
"Who touched the insignia?" That wasn't what she had been expecting.
"The thief I talked about."
"How did she look?" Mama was surprisingly interested in her. Usually, the reports she had to do were nothing more than excuses to find a way to justify her "disciplinary actions".
"She had golden hair and red eyes…" Elsa came to a realization. "She looked a bit like you, Mama."
"Like… me…?" Mama's gaze seemed distant for a second. It was then that Elsa realized her mistake, as Mama's face turned into that of a lunatic.
"So she's the one who was missing... WHY DIDN'T YOU KILL HER!?" Elsa saw Meili falling to the ground in fear as Mama erupted in anger. Mama thrust her right hand inside her stomach, taking a dark book from the inside of her own body. Elsa took a step backward, scared of being Mama's target in her rage.
She opened the book and quickly examined the words written inside before closing it with a loud thump and throwing it to the side. There were no traces of her previous injury.
"THIS STUPID BOOK IS WRONG! WHY DID IT NOT WARN ME OF THIS!? I WOULD HAVE PERSONALLY CAME TO FINISH HER OFF!" Mama took notice of the assassin, gazing at her with sheer hate. Elsa took another step backward before she dashed towards her, grabbing her by the neck and strangling her against the wall.
And as soon as Mama started strangling her, she stopped. Her grip loosened and Elsa fell to the ground, her injury quickly closing and disappearing. Mama's seemed to have spaced out before she recovered and asked the assassin on the ground. Elsa could swear she heard a faint, angelic-like voice whispering to Mama right before she let go of her grip.
"What about the other girl? The one called Natsumi." Mama asked.
"The Sword Saint took her. The job was a secret, I-I don't know how she could have known about that." Elsa said with fear in her voice. Mama would surely punish her for either that girl knowing about her job or for failing to finish it. Or both.
"It doesn't matter. Now~" She turned back and walked to the door, giving the assassin sisters a faint hope before she slammed the door shut. Turning towards the two sisters, Mama let out a sadistic smile.
"Now, Mama needs to teach some 'discipline' to her children."
Elsa stood in place accepting her fate. There was no point in running from Mama, she would find her and make everything worse. She ground her teeth as Mama approached her. She grabbed her chin and forced Elsa to look at her straight in the eyes.
"What could Mama try this time…?" She pondered. Elsa opened her mouth, but no words came out. Her throat felt dry, extremely dry. But, even if she could find the will to talk, what would she say? It wouldn't change anything. Begging would only make everything worse.
Mama smiled as she let go of her grip on Elsa. She swung her right arm backward before piercing Elsa's stomach with it. Elsa let out a moan as Mama toyed with her insides. She punctured her stomach, a fine trail of blood coming from Elsa's mouth. Afterward, her bowels were rearranged. Her punctured stomach, kidneys, bowels… It all turned into a single blob of pulsing meat.
Taking her hand out of Elsa's insides, Mama threw her old organs straight at Meili. Elsa coughed more blood and her lips turned into a slight smile, so small it was almost imperceptible.
"Good job, Meili. Separate your mind, don't react, be a perfect child like I taught you." Elsa thought after observing Meili's smiling face after having Elsa's organs thrown at her face, splashing her face full of blood.
"A simple meatbag has no need to eat. Or see." Mama's right hand turned into a massive claw with black scales, and she slowly brought it in front of Elsa's face. Her pupils shrink as the dark talons threatened to gouge her eyes out. Mama's free hand grabbed the top of her head, holding it in place.
Then, something changed inside Elsa. She felt pain from having her insides played with and removed. But, suddenly, that disappeared. The pain became dull. She recognized this as one of Mama's little tricks: She was going to make the suffering way worse.
An instant before the agony intensified, Mama thrust her claw forwards and gouged Elsa's eyes out. Elsa let out a shrieking scream as her world turned to darkness. Capella retaliated by slamming her head onto the wooden floor, splinters penetrating her skin and some in her eye sockets.
Mama turned Elsa back, now lying with her back to the ground, and straddled her. She briefly touched Elsa's forehead and her senses diminished. She could no longer hear, smell or even taste the blood in her mouth. She could only… feel. And hell was all she felt.
In her shock, she felt a different sensation. Cold pierced her skin as Mama dragged her talons across both of her arms, leaving a fine trail of blood behind. Despite her talons being nothing more than sharp fingernails, they left a burning sensation behind.
"Tell me, do you love Mama?" She said as she put her dragon claws on Elsa's shoulders. Elsa couldn't even hear her question, and she was too shocked to reply anyways. Her throat had gone hoarse from all her cries and her breathing was rough as if she just finished running a marathon.
"No answer?" She lowered her talons, now right below her shoulders. She made her grip stronger, the tip of her nails digging deep into her skin.
"Mama will need to force it out of you." She began to tighten her crushing grip, the force of her claws crushing Elsa's bones, sending waves of pain coursing through her body overloading her brain, making her seize up. The fragments of bone began to pierce through Elsa's skin.
As Elsa continued her hopeless struggle, Mama's talons continued to tear through her body, eventually reaching her tender muscles. With a crunchy snap, they tore through her ligaments and tore her flesh apart. Tearing her muscles clean off from the bone, leaving nothing but a bloodied stump of where her arms used to be. Tossing aside the mangled arms, Mama got to work on the rest of Elsa's body.
Moving towards her dangling legs, Mama performed the same procedure on them. Tearing them clean apart, leaving nothing to spare. She had left the once graceful and charming assassin nothing but a bleeding stump, left to rot in her own misery and pain.
Elsa's mind was almost broken. She had no energy left to voice her suffering, she could only suffer in silence. But Mama wasn't done yet.
"Mama thinks this should teach you not to fail any job." Her voice changed to a wrathful tone. "But you left her alive. That disgusting creature. Mama can't overlook that."
Mama stomped on Elsa's stomach and regenerated organs, making her seize up and cough more blood. Mama took a deep breath before unleashing a roaring inferno on Elsa's body. She attempted to scream as she tried to squirm around, but upon opening her mouth her lungs were filled with fire. Mama retired her foot from her, just to kick the burning limbless body to Meili's side.
The impact left the assassin without breath, and she slid to the ground in silence, where she remained as she burned to death, twitching every so often. Her lungs had been burned, and she couldn't speak.
"Meili, my beloved children, do you know what your next job involves?" She asked as she approached the mabeast user.
"No, Mama," Meili replied in a robotic tone, her eyes hazy.
"Good girl." Mama patted her head. Meili gave no reaction. "Forget about the orders I left in your luggage back at the inn." The left side of her stomach opened up, revealing a white envelope. With her free hand, she handed it over to Meili.
"Some troubles arose, so here are your new orders. Don't fail me like Elsa." Mama walked to the door, not giving a second look to neither of her children. Having left the building, black wings sprouted from her back and she took flight.
Meili remained in silence for a minute, until she was sure Mama had truly left. She quickly examined the inside of the envelope, engraving Mama's new orders in her mind before throwing to the fire that was consuming Elsa's body. Then, she started crying.
"I'm sorry Elsa…" Meili swept the tears off her eyes, but they kept flowing. "I did like you taught me but… I don't want to see you like this…"
"It's all my fault, isn't it? When will we be free?"
As the blue moon shone in the night sky, Meili sat and waited, for the blazes to reduce Elsa's body to cinders, and for the assassin to once again return from her own ashes. Waiting for her next mission.
Alright, so this is the first interlude we'll do. They focus on the POV of other characters during certain events. Thanks Bob for the beta reading work, and the next chapter will also be an interlude, this time focusing on Felt. We're thankful for all the reviews, so please leave more!