Well, after almost a month of putting this off, I finally got around to writing this thing. Do note that I have a few reasons why this was put off though.

...What? I like Phantom Brave!

But seriously, Phantom Brave was only recently. Before that, I had absolutely no inspiration to write this thing, well, until now. So without further wait, I present you all Chapter Three.

Disclaimer: See Chapter One.

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Chapter Three: Travel

Sadness.

What the hell is it doing inside me?

Why am I sad about all that has happened before?

Did the fall of Hector and his bastardly ambitions wound me to such an extent?

No, that isn't the case.

Then what is?

Is it the fact that I've lived most of my life following the so called "will" of the Gods, just to figure out at the last minute that I was being led astray?

No, that isn't it either.

Perhaps it is just the fact Hector decided to kill me. To him, I was just an expendable vassal. Did that not sit over with me?

If Hector was the cause of this suffering depression, then why did it affect me when Hector is dead? Did he unexplainedly survive his clash with Ein and his band?

No, that wouldn't happen either, since the Maze of Shadows is collapsing. Hector once told me the Maze of Shadows stays intact by his power, and therefore since it is collapsing he can't be alive.

But what about that thing he was wanting me to collect souls for? Seth, I think he called it? Did he not summon that...thing...after he killed me and that witch of scarlet?

I'm certain he did; Hector wasn't one to have access to such an awesome power and not use it. That much I did know. So I take it Hector really did fall then.

Well Ein, I have to hand it to you on this one. You weren't much of a fighter back in Asgard; as a matter of fact you detested such useless violence. But seeing as how you took down countless demons, Hector, Seth, Ledah, and even me, you've become quite powerful.

So now what? Do I press onwards to Riviera?

Flying through the chasms of the Heaven's Gate, I silently smacked my forehead.

What kind of question was that, Malice? What the hell are you thinking?

Of course I will head to Riviera. With so much sin I have commited before my first death, it would only be right if I start to work on fighting back and eventually conquering those inner demons of mine.

But will Ein and his group see me as a new person?

Or will they see me as the once selfless slaughtering bitch I used to be; the one who gave up her "future" to serve under the bastard Magus?

Only time will tell.

First thing's first though, time to get out of this place.

Bringing myself out of my throughts and back into reality, I slowed my flying down to a halt and landed on a rock, only suspended in the air by a chain that pierced straight through it. Without much throught, I then took a look around, getting whatever bearings I could to see if I could judge an exact location from the gate that seperates Asgard from Riviera.

Unfortunately, I could not. Shortly after stopping, I heard a violently loud crack from above me, and several small pieces of rock fell lightly onto my shoulder. Instinctively, I looked up, and to my bewilderment, almost came face to face with a ginourmous rock . Screaming suddenly out of surprise, I literally forced myself to shoot backwards a few feet, and through some miracle, I happened to land on another piece of rock just as the first rock was impaled by the falling piece of well...rock, taking it entirely out, and it even went as far as kept falling through several more rocks before coming to a stop.

I sighed, recovering from the shock, and let my guard down to catch a breath.

Big mistake.

Shortly after the rock fell onto the rock I was previously on, the chain that was suspending the rock that plummetted downwards fell down too, taking out several miles of stone, which in turn causing more of the Gate to get destroyed, and even after that, more of the Gate was collapsing.

What the hell is going on? I thought to myself.

Given the fact that a giant black chain was about to fall down on me, I dove to the side, which led into the path of an oncoming chunk of stone. Without much time to react, I dove forward, barely escaping that stone. Struggling against the now collapsing area, I managed to get my footing well enough to proceed to run through the area while dodging anything that fell into my path. However, the collapsation was never far behind; it was as if it was literally trying to kill me.

Dodging left and right, I continued to press on, despite anything that happened to plummet. However, I wasn't exactly counting on what managed to cross my path at one point in this perilous Gate.

" It would appear that Ein, Ledah, and I seemed to have forgotten a few demons during our passages through here..." I meekly said to myself, recalling when I passed through here.

With the collapsation on one side and demons on the other, I had a few options. Kill, or be killed, or be crushed. Not giving it much thought, I pulled Skadi out from behind my back ( Where else would I keep it?) and proceeded to dart forward these leftover hordes of demons, slashing left and right with my blue axe, cleaving a path for me to travel through.

It just wasn't enough. They seemed to be appearing to prevent my passage more swift than I could carve a pathway through. It appeared that I was struggling to keep myself from being overwhelmed by such odds, let alone move on.

Then it hit me.

What the hell am I doing trying to fight my way through this horde? Why don't I just fly, damnit?

Remembering I could fly, I then spun around a few times to make enough room to vault myself into the air.

However, that didn't quite work...

They kept flooding at me faster than I could make enough room to get out of here, which was bad. Suddenly, a huge stone landed right next to me, crushing some unaware demons in the process. Then it hit me once more; I had forgotten about Heaven's Gate collapsing.

How much more did I forget in the heat of battle?

For a brief second, I looked behind me to see exactly how much was left in destruction's wake. Apparently, not much, as suddenly rocks proceeded to crush demons as they plummetted downwards. At one point, even a large chain crushed countless demons, leaving enough of a pathway to proceed onward. Without any hesitation, I shot forward, jumped into the air, and took flight.

If there had ever been a moment where I was thinking the Gods were watching over me, it was then.

Looking down at the destruction that was happening, I saw hundreds upon hundreds of demons gettling flattened by debris, and thousands more remaining.

We didn't miss THAT many demons on our passages through here... I thought, futily trying to count the numbers of waves upon waves of demons. All this has to be new! But WHERE did they come from!

Thinking my troubles at the moment were over, I maintained my height and just kept myself aflight in one location, watching the demons getting flattened. I slightly chuckled to myself, then instantly stopped and pondered what the hell that was implying.

Why am I laughing at such a pitiful sight? Is it that amusing? Have I fallen so far as to laugh at someone else's demise, despite the fact that they're demons? What have I become?

Suddenly, something caught my eye to the very far left, and I flew backwards slightly, just barely evading some kind of fiery breath that could have stolen my life. I looked for the breath's origin, and unfortunately, I saw a batallion of wyrms, if that's what you want to call them, heading at me.

" Well, this sucks." I blatantly said aloud as I prepared myself for battle once more.

Suddenly, I shot forward at the wyrms, swinging Skadi violently. I soon connected with one wyrm, in which swinging Skadi at a blindingly fast speed, I managed to slice both of his wings off, and he slowly started to fall out of the sky. However, I had other plans for him.

Without hesitation or regard to what I was doing, I suddenly threw Skadi at another wyrm, then, while Skadi was flying at the wyrm, I flew down and grabbed the first wyrm by the tail, and swiftly spun him around a few times before throwing him at a third wyrm. That third wyrm was then knocked backwards into the second wyrm, and before either of them knew what was happening, I had already pulled Skadi out of the now impaled second wyrm and was creating "scale carvings" out of them. When I was done, I violently spun around, and brought the flat side of my Diviner into the third wyrm, who in turn connected with the second wyrm, sending them both flying into the horde of demons below, where they were smushed by continuing falling debris.

Without warning, I was then assaulted by three wyrms at once, each breathing their fiery breath at me. They had somehow learned to coordinate their attacks, so it became very difficult to dodge them. Up and down we all flew, until somehow one of them released a fiery stream of phosphate in my direction. Realizing this, I then flew as fast as I could out of the way of this breath, and before I had noticed anything else, a piercing cry of anguish erupted from behind me. Flying around in a semicircle to see what had happened, my eyes met with a stir-fried wyrm, who I'm assuming had been cooked by the previous wyrm's fiery breath.

At this point, I was about to laugh hysterically, as rarely did I see something as amusing as a wyrm getting fried by another wyrm. However, I prevented myself from letting my guard down and

proceeded back into combat.

Counting the remaining wyrms, it would appear that we were down to three: the two other wyrms who had just previously assaulted me, and the leader of the wyrms, a massive gold wyrm with occasional silver scales. From his mouth erupted an awesome and deadly stream of lightning, which could signify that this wyrm was not to be taken lightly.

With great haste, I shot straight at one of the remaining wyrms and drove Skadi straight through him, then pulled it out in such a way that it rocketed him down into the bottomless chasms amongst the Gate. Turning around swiftly, I swung Skadi in a violent horizontal arc, cleaving the other wyrm who just so happened to be conveniantly located right behind me in half. I then looked up at the last wyrm.

And damn, I was screwed over pretty hard.

Before I could do anything about it, I had been hit with one of its breaths, fired at such a velocity that when it connected with me, it shot me straight at the earth. I shot through the earth actually, and I almost had lost my life there, as the speed I kept falling at was almost far too fast for me to correct anything. However, due to some unknown instinct, I somehow brought myself back into control and landed on a small piece of land.

I glared up at the wyrm with much hatred at that point. And then I noticed it.

Unknown until that point, when the breath connected with me, I had somehow become magnetically charged with a very weird force; it was weird enough to screw around with the threads of my clothing for a bit, which was really bizarre.

Slowly raising Skadi at my side, I brought it up near my head and pointed it at the wyrm. " This time, you're dead!" I screamed at the wyrm. Suddenly, I shot straight at him with no wind resistance, yet I never moved Skadi from beside my head; it stayed there, pointing at the wyrm.

The wyrm, without hesitation, shot a series of bolts of lighting at me, but through unknown reasons, they didn't prevent me. I just somehow rocketed through them, each time gathering more power taken from the bolts. Shortly after, I then shot straight through the wyrm, and stopped myself behind him. Before he had any time to realize what pain he was in, I spun around at such a blazing speed and brought Skadi upon him, causing him to rocket into a large chunk of land.

Without letting up this relentless assault, I shot straight at him once more, but stopped right before hitting him, then swung Skadi at a crazy speed several times, each time hitting him with such power, causing him to drive further into the earth. After a few hits at such a high speed, Skadi had somehow travelled at such a speed where it caught on fire for a few seconds. Using this little time I was granted with a different element, I brought Skadi high into the air, then arched it vertically down, connecting with not only the wyrm, but the entire chunk of land it was stuck in, completely destroying the land and causing the wyrm to rocket down.

" Ice and Fire, fuse to become the weapon of destruction! Flare of Desolation!" Still charged with electricity and magnetism, with my weapon being on fire, and my natural affinity to ice, you could say that basically I had a tri-elemental attack.

Without any hesitation, I rocketed down at the wyrm at such a speed that I left a trail behind me for a few seconds. I then brought the burning Diviner up into the wyrm, causing him to rocket back upwards. Giving chase, I swung Skadi into him several times, each time creating a small explosion. After several explosions, I brought Skadi deeply into the wyrm, and brought him around a few times. With each passing second, I was channeling all sorts of destructive elements into this electric demon, until finally I flung him off of my axe at such a speed he rocketed far off into the distance. And yet, the pain did not stop there.

Due to a rather unnoticed Maze of Shadows until now, the wyrm suffered even more pain as it rocketed straight into the still collapsing dark castle. When it connected with it, it finally created a massive explosion of ice, completely destroying the wyrm, the Maze of Shadows, and basically the land it was on. With one final anguished cry, the wyrm ceased to exist.

Not waiting any longer, I landed next to the exit of the Gate and stayed still for a few seconds. Then suddenly, some kind of erupting sound caught my attention, causing me to turn around. Where the Maze of Shadows had been, there was now a large dark explosion. When it had finished, demons of all sorts began to pour out from that particular location.

What the hell? I thought to myself, This surely isn't good.

Keeping that in mind, I hastely passed through the Gate, and proceeded onto Rivierian soil.

I've got to find Ein and notify him of this!

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Well, there you have it. Hope I didn't make anyone angry with the wait, and as always, please read and review. I appreciate all of you who decided to put up with my lack of updates, and I am deeply thankful for that.