It had been nearly a month since the castle that was known to the demi-dragoness and her master as Helheim had come to be back in their possession. Since then, she had spent her days helping to restore the damage that had been caused in their reclamation of the keep and any living inhabitants such as guards whom didn't foolishly turn against Grim's kind offer. Those whom were had chances as each one had been killed slowly, then forced to watch as the maid sucked the blood dry from each and every one of them like some kind of insatiable vampire. However, this maid was no vampire at all. Her lacrima that pumped her unholy blood through her veins was empowered by the blood itself. A slayer at heart... no pun intended. Things were like this for almost a week before the guards were sorted out in new recruited guards, however even then the weak ones had to be sifted out from the bunch. Sanguine couldn't have someone turning on her master so easily or just to keep themselves alive. She took her time with each one in minor things from helping with restorations to simple cleaning tasks until she could help sort out the ones that either she alone got to or that Grim had not taken care of on her own. It wasn't too much to say that she was against it at all, as she chose this herself... but part of her wanted them to be that way... She had just wanted to kill something or someone and it was almost eating at her. Still, she wanted to quell it, keep it under wraps until she had the time to bring it forward and use it to fuel her own slowly growing sociopath type needs. Even then, Sanguine knew she was still young and her impulses could only be controlled so much. There had to be a way to fix it, or at least something to help her even in the future should she get out of line and be so blinded by it that she be unable to keep herself from acting on her impulses rather than the cold, calculated maid that her master deserved to have by her side; the kind of maid Sanguine truly desired to be for her.
An idea came to mind, something she knew would need help from Grim to get to perfecting. On a day some time from the repairs being finished and the castle cleaned to perfection, the maid sat in her masters chambers when she presented this very issue with the woman. With no need to hide anything from Grim, she laid out everything and then followed it up with her ideas, asking for inputs or suggestions. It was then that Grim suggested something; a collar. While that sounded rather odd, she believed Grim had a reason for it, and as such she heard out her suggestion and coming to discuss it with the reaper, she came to the conclusion that she was right and just like that, a collar with a partial chain attached was braced to her neck. At the snap of Grims' fingers, she formed the rest of the chain and gave a teasing tug at it to show that the chain was durable and real at that, then just as quick as the chain came, the chain went. Leaving only part of the chain hanging left, it was meant to remind her that no matter how hard she fought, if this chain were to yank, she was to stop. Punishments were nothing to laugh at or scoff over when it came to Grim, so when her word was said to be absolute, you took it seriously and never asked again... or at least to her it was like that. She watched Grim punish many of others, and she chose to follow by demonstration. She was present for many of the punishments on the off chance she had accidentally killed one of the guards, or just plainly wanted to give him an agonizing death. It wasn't to say that Sanguine didn't always enjoy it either. There was still that shred of humanity that didn't want to see someone hurt... but it was always overshadowed by the flashbacks of everyone in her life that always tried to keep people from her, trying to exclude her from others. That kind of fuel was always too much for her to want to embrace that feeling, but instead she tried to think to when she first got this lacrima that had become her lifeline. The side of her that wanted to go down the path of evil... it was right. It felt.. tantalizing to do the things that she wanted to do and had already done... She didn't want to go back now. She had a taste of the pie and now? Now she wanted the whole thing.
Now was a test to push this maid to her fullest extent. She was to walk through the portals located in the darkest depths of their castle and face things beyond them that could break beings, break their mental fortitude into pieces and leave them as nothing but lifeless husks that even controlling by command would be a fruitless task. Each of these three tasks would take her four years to complete, but to the current realm would only seem to be only four days. By the end of it, should she have completed them, she would return a different person; a new person. She would be lying to say she wasn't nervous about this, but even she was sure that at one point Grim may have been if she had done these tasks as well, or even some similar rendition of these. But perhaps Grim's fanaticism with the woman she thought so dearly of had done things differently than Grim was doing. If that were the case, it would make more sense to the hybrid teen. With one last, long kiss to the lips of her master, the white haired girl stepped through the first portal.
As she stepped out of the portal gate, she seemed to have stepped through ushered doors that shut behind her. The stain glass windows and the pews had given away that her first task was inside that of a church. At the end stood a silhouette basking in the glow of a single spotlight, praying. Flowing locks of red hair streamed down her backside and suddenly she came to stand. Turning about was a woman whom looked strikingly similar to herself, but grown up. Was this simply a trick? The nun before her wore a smile and ushered her to join for a prayer. She was at a loss for words, but Sanguine smiled and agreed, joining her mirror self for a prayer. The prayer seemed to settle on for hours, neither one budging from their spot but continually siting the same scripture under their breath over and over. Suddenly, the maid opened her eyes and stopped speaking. Her head turned to see there was no nun knelt by her side, but rather now a looming presence. The maid stood to her feet and turned around to see a lone priest aiming a loaded gun down the lane at her. Quick to think, her eyes examined the gun, the distance, the time. She was outmatched by far and without question. Then, the thought popped into her head... A smirk lit her face as she only reached up with one hand and then bit into her left index finger. Returning the favor, she aimed her hand down back at the priest, her arm stretched out and pointing like a child playing cops and robbers. The shine of the light over the maid created a glare than prevented Sanguine from seeing the males eyes, but she was staring him down intently and waiting for the moment before she and he both fired. A bullet from the gun and a small drop of blood from her finger tip had fired down the lane. The maid took the shot straight to her chest while he simply moved to the side. Then with the blink of an eye... it reset. She aimed down the way, and they were stalled, but instead he fired before she did. Being hit again, it continued over.. and over.. and over. Each time the pain stinging her chest, her head, leg, arm. Finally, the thought occurred to her that she was doing this wrong. The idea was solid now. As they aimed once more, both fired, only this time their bullets collided. In an instant reaction, Sanguine took to the skies with wings bursting from her back and biting into her other finger, fired another shot right between the eyes. The priest dropped to the floor as did Sanguine from her descent. It was then the doors opened to the church... task one was complete.
She exited the portal into the basement again, but this time Grim was gone. Perhaps she had gone to take care of her own things. One could not simply wait almost 2 weeks without anything to do. She was ready without a break as the second portal opened. Running through it, the maid had nearly fallen to her death had she not remembered her wings were still free. The land below was scattered into islands. Angelic being flew all about the skies in monstrous forms and began to encircle the demi-dragoness. Black claws and scales began to shred her skin and nails, disintegrating it into nothing. Her eyes became slitted and glowing a fierce yellow while a smirk lit the slayers face. A FIGHT!? No! This wasn't a fight... it was a massacre! An aerial battle and one that she'd never thought of having to do at any point in her life. Her body could hardly contain her excitement to shed blood and fight, but she didn't have to make the first move. The angelic creatures shot themselves at her and her first move had been to take in then fire out a Bellow obliterating the masses coming at her. In a burst of a flap of her wings, Sanguine shot herself at the enemies and armed with only her claws, she began to swipe and slash, cutting into and slashing through enemies like a knife through butter. Not letting a single thing go to waste, the maid began to take in air, sucking up blood from every nearby enemy and then swallowing it, which began to make the runic symbols on her wings glow briefly before the yellow colored iris' turned to a blood red. One angelic being shoved a trident into her chest and attempted to push its way through, but found it impossible. With a sickly looking grin, the draconic claw of the maid had grabbed hold of it and held it in place, pulling it from her chest before pushing back the weapon and letting a snap of her fingers before an explosion engulfed the being. Its body dropped from the sky, falling to the depths of this world and leaving Sanguine to glare at the remaining few. Looking to one another, they nodded and then emitted a bright light, blinding her briefly before having revealed they fused into one sole being. Its 3 heads and two bastard swords swung adamantly, but the maid simply glared with the same killing intent she had before. The angel took its turn to dash toward the half demon, to which she responded with only swiftly landing a gut punch into them. A droplet of blood had landed on the maids cheek and the angel looked over, seeing the color of the blood was black and suddenly they screamed out in pain as a muffled, wet sounding explosion had erupted, bursting through the back of their body. Their back had looked like the end result of someone blasting a shotgun shell or a small bomb into their body, which had been exactly what she planned with it. Her hand reached to their back and blood began to form into what looked like something close to a fruit and she pushed the body away, beginning to munch away at it until she'd consumed it all. As soon as their body reached a certain distance, it exploded in a light that shot the maid back through the portal and onto the floor of the keep.
It took her a moment to pick herself up off of the floor. As much as she wanted to jump back into the next test, her body was growing numb. Could she even push to this next one? The doubts began to build, but her mind pushed them aside. 8 years of time for her had gone by, fighting these somehow basically quick fights, but it felt as though these were beginning to catch up with her as her adrenaline dropped. This wasn't going to happen. She was doing this for Grim and she would make sure to not only to give her life for her, but to make sure to kill EVERYTHING that got in her way before they could even ruin the maids uniform. With a burst of speed, she shot herself through the final portal where she stopped short of a single figure. This figure was blank, just a moving silhouette with no real form. It was rather creepy, but it smirked and in the blink of an eye, it vanished. A sudden, immediate, and persistent pain began to pound in Sanguines head. It dropped her to her knees, screaming in more pain than she had ever felt. It felt as though something was ripping at her own brain, quickly pricking various parts of her body with jolts of pain. The constant pain began to rob her of her feeling of even being able to feel pain. Her voice died out only part way into the whole ordeal, trying to keep itself from burning out entirely it left her mute for some time. Dealing with this pain was worse than anything she could ever feel, but over time the pain quelled slowly. She was unsure if the maid was becoming used to it or she was simply becoming numb to everything slowly. Her eyes began to grow heavy, feeling itself being so over stressed that it may shut itself off if she hadn't been able to make it stop. Unable to even move, she felt paralyzed in a near fetal position until her eyes finally had shut. Did.. this mean she failed?
A gasp of air left as she shot up from her bed and her covers pushed away from her. She looked around while panting for air in the dark room until she looked down to herself. Her body was matured in.. every way. Her nightgown looked like it could hardly contain her chest, her thighs much more svelte but thicker than before. Her hands reached down to her neck, feeling her collar and chain where she simply smiled lightly and sighed with relief. Looking over, Grim laid by her side in this bed, still fast asleep. Maybe.. she did pass. If she was in this situation in this current moment.. she had to of. She was accepted fully by Grim, and the thought alone had made her smile, laying back down in the bed before she cuddled herself up against the reaper and closed her eyes, happily drifting back into a sleep she had no recollection of even entering. She was home and for the first time ever... it felt like a home.
2603/2000 words
An idea came to mind, something she knew would need help from Grim to get to perfecting. On a day some time from the repairs being finished and the castle cleaned to perfection, the maid sat in her masters chambers when she presented this very issue with the woman. With no need to hide anything from Grim, she laid out everything and then followed it up with her ideas, asking for inputs or suggestions. It was then that Grim suggested something; a collar. While that sounded rather odd, she believed Grim had a reason for it, and as such she heard out her suggestion and coming to discuss it with the reaper, she came to the conclusion that she was right and just like that, a collar with a partial chain attached was braced to her neck. At the snap of Grims' fingers, she formed the rest of the chain and gave a teasing tug at it to show that the chain was durable and real at that, then just as quick as the chain came, the chain went. Leaving only part of the chain hanging left, it was meant to remind her that no matter how hard she fought, if this chain were to yank, she was to stop. Punishments were nothing to laugh at or scoff over when it came to Grim, so when her word was said to be absolute, you took it seriously and never asked again... or at least to her it was like that. She watched Grim punish many of others, and she chose to follow by demonstration. She was present for many of the punishments on the off chance she had accidentally killed one of the guards, or just plainly wanted to give him an agonizing death. It wasn't to say that Sanguine didn't always enjoy it either. There was still that shred of humanity that didn't want to see someone hurt... but it was always overshadowed by the flashbacks of everyone in her life that always tried to keep people from her, trying to exclude her from others. That kind of fuel was always too much for her to want to embrace that feeling, but instead she tried to think to when she first got this lacrima that had become her lifeline. The side of her that wanted to go down the path of evil... it was right. It felt.. tantalizing to do the things that she wanted to do and had already done... She didn't want to go back now. She had a taste of the pie and now? Now she wanted the whole thing.
Now was a test to push this maid to her fullest extent. She was to walk through the portals located in the darkest depths of their castle and face things beyond them that could break beings, break their mental fortitude into pieces and leave them as nothing but lifeless husks that even controlling by command would be a fruitless task. Each of these three tasks would take her four years to complete, but to the current realm would only seem to be only four days. By the end of it, should she have completed them, she would return a different person; a new person. She would be lying to say she wasn't nervous about this, but even she was sure that at one point Grim may have been if she had done these tasks as well, or even some similar rendition of these. But perhaps Grim's fanaticism with the woman she thought so dearly of had done things differently than Grim was doing. If that were the case, it would make more sense to the hybrid teen. With one last, long kiss to the lips of her master, the white haired girl stepped through the first portal.
As she stepped out of the portal gate, she seemed to have stepped through ushered doors that shut behind her. The stain glass windows and the pews had given away that her first task was inside that of a church. At the end stood a silhouette basking in the glow of a single spotlight, praying. Flowing locks of red hair streamed down her backside and suddenly she came to stand. Turning about was a woman whom looked strikingly similar to herself, but grown up. Was this simply a trick? The nun before her wore a smile and ushered her to join for a prayer. She was at a loss for words, but Sanguine smiled and agreed, joining her mirror self for a prayer. The prayer seemed to settle on for hours, neither one budging from their spot but continually siting the same scripture under their breath over and over. Suddenly, the maid opened her eyes and stopped speaking. Her head turned to see there was no nun knelt by her side, but rather now a looming presence. The maid stood to her feet and turned around to see a lone priest aiming a loaded gun down the lane at her. Quick to think, her eyes examined the gun, the distance, the time. She was outmatched by far and without question. Then, the thought popped into her head... A smirk lit her face as she only reached up with one hand and then bit into her left index finger. Returning the favor, she aimed her hand down back at the priest, her arm stretched out and pointing like a child playing cops and robbers. The shine of the light over the maid created a glare than prevented Sanguine from seeing the males eyes, but she was staring him down intently and waiting for the moment before she and he both fired. A bullet from the gun and a small drop of blood from her finger tip had fired down the lane. The maid took the shot straight to her chest while he simply moved to the side. Then with the blink of an eye... it reset. She aimed down the way, and they were stalled, but instead he fired before she did. Being hit again, it continued over.. and over.. and over. Each time the pain stinging her chest, her head, leg, arm. Finally, the thought occurred to her that she was doing this wrong. The idea was solid now. As they aimed once more, both fired, only this time their bullets collided. In an instant reaction, Sanguine took to the skies with wings bursting from her back and biting into her other finger, fired another shot right between the eyes. The priest dropped to the floor as did Sanguine from her descent. It was then the doors opened to the church... task one was complete.
She exited the portal into the basement again, but this time Grim was gone. Perhaps she had gone to take care of her own things. One could not simply wait almost 2 weeks without anything to do. She was ready without a break as the second portal opened. Running through it, the maid had nearly fallen to her death had she not remembered her wings were still free. The land below was scattered into islands. Angelic being flew all about the skies in monstrous forms and began to encircle the demi-dragoness. Black claws and scales began to shred her skin and nails, disintegrating it into nothing. Her eyes became slitted and glowing a fierce yellow while a smirk lit the slayers face. A FIGHT!? No! This wasn't a fight... it was a massacre! An aerial battle and one that she'd never thought of having to do at any point in her life. Her body could hardly contain her excitement to shed blood and fight, but she didn't have to make the first move. The angelic creatures shot themselves at her and her first move had been to take in then fire out a Bellow obliterating the masses coming at her. In a burst of a flap of her wings, Sanguine shot herself at the enemies and armed with only her claws, she began to swipe and slash, cutting into and slashing through enemies like a knife through butter. Not letting a single thing go to waste, the maid began to take in air, sucking up blood from every nearby enemy and then swallowing it, which began to make the runic symbols on her wings glow briefly before the yellow colored iris' turned to a blood red. One angelic being shoved a trident into her chest and attempted to push its way through, but found it impossible. With a sickly looking grin, the draconic claw of the maid had grabbed hold of it and held it in place, pulling it from her chest before pushing back the weapon and letting a snap of her fingers before an explosion engulfed the being. Its body dropped from the sky, falling to the depths of this world and leaving Sanguine to glare at the remaining few. Looking to one another, they nodded and then emitted a bright light, blinding her briefly before having revealed they fused into one sole being. Its 3 heads and two bastard swords swung adamantly, but the maid simply glared with the same killing intent she had before. The angel took its turn to dash toward the half demon, to which she responded with only swiftly landing a gut punch into them. A droplet of blood had landed on the maids cheek and the angel looked over, seeing the color of the blood was black and suddenly they screamed out in pain as a muffled, wet sounding explosion had erupted, bursting through the back of their body. Their back had looked like the end result of someone blasting a shotgun shell or a small bomb into their body, which had been exactly what she planned with it. Her hand reached to their back and blood began to form into what looked like something close to a fruit and she pushed the body away, beginning to munch away at it until she'd consumed it all. As soon as their body reached a certain distance, it exploded in a light that shot the maid back through the portal and onto the floor of the keep.
It took her a moment to pick herself up off of the floor. As much as she wanted to jump back into the next test, her body was growing numb. Could she even push to this next one? The doubts began to build, but her mind pushed them aside. 8 years of time for her had gone by, fighting these somehow basically quick fights, but it felt as though these were beginning to catch up with her as her adrenaline dropped. This wasn't going to happen. She was doing this for Grim and she would make sure to not only to give her life for her, but to make sure to kill EVERYTHING that got in her way before they could even ruin the maids uniform. With a burst of speed, she shot herself through the final portal where she stopped short of a single figure. This figure was blank, just a moving silhouette with no real form. It was rather creepy, but it smirked and in the blink of an eye, it vanished. A sudden, immediate, and persistent pain began to pound in Sanguines head. It dropped her to her knees, screaming in more pain than she had ever felt. It felt as though something was ripping at her own brain, quickly pricking various parts of her body with jolts of pain. The constant pain began to rob her of her feeling of even being able to feel pain. Her voice died out only part way into the whole ordeal, trying to keep itself from burning out entirely it left her mute for some time. Dealing with this pain was worse than anything she could ever feel, but over time the pain quelled slowly. She was unsure if the maid was becoming used to it or she was simply becoming numb to everything slowly. Her eyes began to grow heavy, feeling itself being so over stressed that it may shut itself off if she hadn't been able to make it stop. Unable to even move, she felt paralyzed in a near fetal position until her eyes finally had shut. Did.. this mean she failed?
A gasp of air left as she shot up from her bed and her covers pushed away from her. She looked around while panting for air in the dark room until she looked down to herself. Her body was matured in.. every way. Her nightgown looked like it could hardly contain her chest, her thighs much more svelte but thicker than before. Her hands reached down to her neck, feeling her collar and chain where she simply smiled lightly and sighed with relief. Looking over, Grim laid by her side in this bed, still fast asleep. Maybe.. she did pass. If she was in this situation in this current moment.. she had to of. She was accepted fully by Grim, and the thought alone had made her smile, laying back down in the bed before she cuddled herself up against the reaper and closed her eyes, happily drifting back into a sleep she had no recollection of even entering. She was home and for the first time ever... it felt like a home.
2603/2000 words
