Sweet Dreams are Made of This

The capital of Fiore was exactly what she had expected it to be, though that did not disappoint her. The woman known as Thana was a fan of large crowds, bustling market places, and the chaos that came with being packed together like sardines with countless other faces. The more people there were, the larger her potential audience should she decide to stir some trouble.

For once, Aeron was nowhere to be seen. Perhaps the surly brunette had finally managed to escape her presence, but Thana highly doubted that. Try as she might, Aeron would never be able to truly run away because they were both two fragments out of the three that made Trinity. They would never be without one another, because they were all the same person… if with different memories and experiences.

At the moment, however, it was Thana steering the proverbial wheel of their body. She had long, wavy black hair that was swept to one side of her shoulders. Deep amber eyes watched the people and places around her keenly as she walked, a slight smirk of confidence on her face. A few people gave her a double take from time to time, but it was difficult to determine why she was catching their interest. It could be that they thought her attractive. One or two men did wave her way and she returned the gesture with a knowing wink.

It was entirely possible that people were starting to recognize her, though. She had been building quite the reputation for herself these days since arriving in Fiore. After a number of nefarious deeds in which she had made zero effort to conceal her identity, her name and likeness were certainly being passed around by law enforcers and legal mages that cared about such things. It was a bit exciting to think that she could be noticed by the wrong people and find a bit of unexpected excitement being thrust into her day.

In the meantime, however, she simply enjoyed meandering through the street and seeing what glimpses she could gather from the strangers around her. The amulet tucked around her neck whispered dirty secrets to her, slipping her mind brief but vivid images of many of the darkest truths these seemingly innocent civilians were bearing. Many of them had quite a number of juicy things hidden deep within their psychies, and having those secrets revealed to her was deliciously entertaining. Perhaps she could use some of the information to ruin a few peoples’ days… or their whole lives.

She wasn’t picky.

As she walked peacefully down the lane, she was wondering what sort of trouble she could get into later. Prying her nose into places it didn’t belong was certainly fun, but the average person didn’t have any secrets worthy of a scandal, so she was bound to get bored sooner or later. Thankfully, Crocus offered no end of people and places she could disturb, it was really just a matter of deciding how she wanted to draw attention to herself. There were a number of options and each seemed as ideal and entertaining as the last.

Thankfully, the solution would make itself for her. She turned and stopped in her tracks as the point of a spear kept her from continuing forward. Blocking her way were a couple Rune Knight soldiers, clad in their black uniforms with the teal stripes that marked them as members of a particular branch, thought Thana certainly didn’t care enough to recognize which. “By the authority of the Magic Council, we are placing you, Trinity, under arrest,” the man informed her sternly.

Thana turned to look and found herself surrounded by Knights on all sides. There were ten of them, their eyes all on her while they carefully came between herself and the crowds of people now staring and whispering among themselves. For her part, she didn’t seem too worried. If anything she looked a bit pleased as she returned her attention to the Knight that addressed her. “I see. And what, pray tell, are my crimes?” she asked him pleasantly, as though this were little more than a friendly conversation about the weather.

“You know the things you’ve done.”

“Oh absolutely, but I’d quite enjoy a recounting.”

“The destruction of property, both private and public, several counts of murder, attempted murder, suspected murder, kidnapping, sexual harrassment, rape, extortion, arson, theft… do I need to go on?”

She smirked. “My, that’s quite a rap sheet. You left out defamation, impersonating a state official, slander, forgery… but I hid those very well, so I don’t expect you to have known about them. Remind me: Slaughtering an officer of the peace is a rather highly detested level of murder, is it not?”

“It is.”

“Excellent.”

If these soldiers wanted to play, she was more than happy to oblige them. The men blanched as her body suddenly began to shift and change. Her skin turned grey and withered, her fingers elongating into horribly deformed claws. Her face became sunken and wrinkled like that of a hideous old woman. The once black, luscious hair on her head became thin, silvery and greasy. The grotesque nature of her Hag takeover nearly sent a couple of the Knights into an instant state of panic.

With a couple quick swipes, the Knights lay around her in pools of their own blood. They had great gashes in their flesh that caused them to scream in agony and horror as they desperately tried to keep their organs from spilling out of their bodies. The crowds of people began to shriek with terror, practically stampeding over one another in their haste to get away from the dangerous, disfigured monster.

As they died to varying degrees, Thana cackled with a deranged pleasure. “This is what the famed Rune Knights have to offer? What a joke. Clearly the Council must not think as much of me as I was led to believe. Perhaps I should just cause a little more mayhem until they send someone worth my while to try to stop me…”

If she sensed the Fairy Tail wizard up on the rooftops watching from above, she made no effort to say so. For now it seemed she was content with killing the Knights and reveling in the terrified cries of the civilians frantically trying to flee the area.

As everyone appeared to be doing their best to put as much distance as possible between themselves and the dark mage, one individual stepped forward to try and confront her. A slight surge of wind picked up, tickling her magical senses, until a man stepped out of a portal a mere few meters before her. He looked around at the devastation that she’d caused with a sad countenance, while she studied him with open curiosity. Even the people around them stopped running to stand and stare, watching from a distance.

The man turned his gaze to her and lifted his hands before him, palms pressed together like he was getting ready to pray the evil out of her. An amusing thought. What he had to say to her was even more entertaining, and not lacking in any sense of boldness. She was so captivated by this creature’s rather presumptuous approach that she didn’t interrupt him as he announced himself a Rising Star, making claims that sounded awfully life threatening.

But did he have the power to follow through on those threats, she wondered? The part of her that was largely morbid was eager to find out, and so when he unleashed his blast of twilight energy at her she made no move to avoid it. Truthfully at this range she couldn’t have moved quick enough to dodge it anyway. Like any sane psychopath, she instead opted to take the attack with little regard to her own life and health, so she might more adequately determine exactly how much of a threat this man posed.

The energy slammed into her body, forcing her to double over as agony coursed through her veins. For a moment her muscles seized from the intrusion, but she did not stumble from the attack nor was she pushed back. In fact, even as the remnants of his blast fizzled around her, she began to giggle. Her body relaxed and she clung her arms to herself not out of discomfort but as though he’d wracked her more with pleasure than pain.

“Mmm,” she hummed to herself as her giggling subsided. Thana looked up to him with a grin, a deadly passion burning in the sunken eyes of her Hag form. “My, you sure know how to butter a woman up,” the horrific specter informed him, her voice smooth as silk in comparison to the withered state of her body. Even as he looked on, he would see the damage he had dealt to her melting away in the form of the burns and scratches fading until they were almost completely healed.

“Twilight King, is it? Rather pretentious of you to go around introducing yourself by all these titles. I thought Rising Stars were supposed to be the poster children for upcoming heroes. Yet here you are, boasting your positions, threatening my life… Are you sure the Council put you in the right group? You sound more like a Coming Storm to me.”

She giggled again, the deranged sound of someone who clearly wasn’t all there in the head. “If the Council wanted people like me to go away, they wouldn’t reward us with us such fame and reputation. But if you really want to play with little ol’ me, I’m more than happy to see how you intend to back up that arrogance of yours.”

Without any other warning, Thana launched herself forward. Since he’d placed himself so close to her, she barely had to move in order to cross the distance between them. Rather than blast him with any kind of magical spell, she thought it would be fun to let her hands do the talking. The long, sharp nails of her Hag form reached out and slashed at him twice, once with each hand as she sought to find purchase across his chest and face.

He made no effort to move, but she did sense him cast a spell. When her claws raked across his body, it crumpled down to the ground a bit too easily. A quick glance told her there were nine such images of him surrounding her, now. “Oooooh…” the hideous hag said, her voice tilting with excitement. “I’m not usually the one on the receiving end of a gang bang, but I don’t mind a little role reversal.” If she was concerned about the fact that she was outnumbered, it didn’t show. If anything, it seemed as though she was quite happy with the turn of events.

His little speech elicited more crazed giggling from her. “You don’t have to lie to me, your majesty. Perhaps you’re fighting me because you feel you have to, but you’re quite enjoying it, just like you enjoy lording worthless monikers over the heads of those you believe yourself better than. It’s okay, I won’t judge you for admitting that you enjoy a little chaos and bloodshed...” As she spoke, she worked an unseen spell that altered the density of her skin in preparation for taking more incoming attacks. He’d find her much tougher to damage than before.

“Hm, but which one is the real you?” she asked out loud in an almost sing-song voice, like this was little more than a game of hide and seek. “Eenie, meenie, miney…” Seven of the beings closed in on her, and her withered lips split in a grin. Lifting her head to the sky, she let out an ear-shattering, blood curdling shriek. So strong was it that the glass in all the nearby buildings shattered from the power of the sonic vibrations. Any clone within one hundred meters of her, including Ghost himself, would be at risk from taking damage by it.

As the wail came to an end, a wave of purple and black necrotic energy pulsed from her body, reaching out around her in all directions for fifty meters. If any version of Ghost was caught in the sickening magical cloud, they would find themselves feeling drained of life as well as magical power. Thana glanced around again to see what had become of those that had rushed in to attack her, to see if any of them had survived or not. From how easily the first clone had wilted beneath her hands, she got the feeling these faux versions of the real thing did not have a whole lot of stamina.

Then again, maybe he’d pleasantly surprise her and turn out to be more of a challenge than she was giving him credit for.

Well, those hadn’t lasted long. Thana found herself more than a little disappointed. Slaughtering them all was delightful, of course, but the fun toys lasted longer before they broke beneath her touch. All around her, each of the clones slumped into lifelessness, unable to withstand the strength of her attack. Sad, really, because that wasn’t even one of her stronger spells.

The change in scenery drew her attention away from that, however. The world around her shifted, bringing her to a dusk lit landscape. There were foreign trees and animals the likes of which she’d never seen before, and she could feel a magical pressure threatening to seep into her body. Fortunately, her shielding spell protected her. While anyone else that he might have dragged into this Twilight Realm might have been paralyzed from fear, Thana merely looked around with interest, unplagued by the effects would normally hinder anyone else who did not belong to this world.

“Oh, this is quite pretty…” she told him, the haggard form of her disfigured persona soaking in the sights. “You know, if you were just wanting to get me alone to take me on a romantic date, all you had to do was ask.”

Thana scoffed a laugh at the speech from his disembodied voice. He was threatening her with imprisonment? “You sure think highly of yourself for a man that hasn’t done any real damage to me, yet,” The amused dark mage informed him. “Is this the extent of your power? It’s adorable, don’t get me wrong, but your ego is exceptionally inflated in comparison to your actual level of talent. I have to say, I expected more out of someone claiming your titles. I didn’t realize that Rising Star positions were given out like participation awards. The amount of pity people must have shown you over the years to make you think you’re more powerful than you actually are is just cruel.”

She giggled, thoroughly entertained by the notion. This poor, poor man… so convinced that he was untouchable, so confident he would be the victor because of all the lies he’d fed himself. Well, that certainly would all come crashing to a halt now that he was up against a real threat, and Thana was all too happy to burst his self-important bubble. She couldn’t see him, perhaps, but that was fine with her. Sooner or later, he would fall before her, and then she’d have her way with him however she saw fit.

Another pulse of black and purple energy shot out from her in all directions, once more attempting to drain life and power from anything not smart enough to get out of its way. However, unlike last time this pulse stretched out further than before because it was a completely different attack. Stretching past her in all directions for seventy-five meters, Ghost was well within its range. Not that she knew that, of course, but at this point she was just toying with him to see how well he’d actually hid. The attack itself took only a second to reach its maximum range, and was instantly followed by a second pulse of energy -- though this time, like the last, only extended out to fifty meters. “Ready or not,” she taunted him in her deranged sing song voice.

“Here I come.”

Thana thoroughly enjoyed playing with people. She didn’t have much of a concern about getting hurt herself because, frankly, that was half the fun for her. The crazed woman relished in pain, be it her own or someone else’s. Another person in pain was obviously more satisfactory to her but the sick truth was that she enjoyed getting kicked around a bit herself. It was arousing to her, to put it simply. There was an inexplicable sense of excitement she got from physical violence of any kind, so even when it was directed at her such actions did little but spur her further into more and more deranged acts.

However, that was not what was happening here.

As Ghost summoned his magical blade, Trinity sensed the shift of energy in the air and it helped her pinpoint his location. A wicked grin split her lips as she ran toward the spot where he appeared, sword in hand, seemingly with no regard for her own safety. Ghost swung his sword at her and she raised her arms to block it, fully expecting the attack to tear out a large chunk of her shields, if not bring them down entirely. Instead, the weapon carved down her hardened flesh without leaving so much as a scratch, and her magical shielding felt like it had barely been inconvenienced by the blow.

In fact, she hadn’t taken very much damage at all since this battle started, and what little she had received had been quickly healed by the nature of her own abilities. All at once it just kind of hit her: She was bored. And not just bored, she was a bit angry. How could someone with so much bluster, egoism, and self assurance be so wholly… disappointing? Thana was finding herself disgusted by him. She looked at her arms and the sheer lack of her blood pouring out of them. “Is this it?” she asked him, all tones of humor dropped from her voice. “This is… this is seriously all that you have to offer me?”

What an utter waste of her time and efforts. It was one thing if she knew going in that her prey was going to be an easy kill worth little more than taunting into a state of fear before eviscerating them. It was another for someone to talk her up like they were going to be a challenge and then fail completely to live up to such boasts. In an instant, any miniscule respect she might have had for him fell to zero. Without much warning, her arm snapped out to snatch him by the neck, quite literally stretching beyond its natural length to cross the few meters of distance between them. She bore her strength down in her fingers to slowly start crushing his windpipe.

“You bore me,” she informed him, flexing her hand even harder as she reeled in her arm slowly like a fishing rod dragging him closer toward her. “If you have nothing substantial to offer me over empty threats and unmerited boasts, then I think I’m done playing with you. Worthless toys belong in the dump.”

Reaching back with her free hand, she jammed her gnarled fingers into his chest, taking her time as she painstakingly wrapped the digits around his heart and ripped it out of his body. The quivering mass of muscle continued to beat furiously in her hand as his blood dripped down her arm and the life left his body. As Ghost died in her clutches, the weight of his body sagging against her, the twilight world washed away from around them. Since it was tied to Ghost and he was no longer alive, there was nothing to tether them there anymore.

She rematerialized in the middle of the same street in Crocus where she’d been before. All around her were citizens staring in horror at the destruction that had been wrought before Ghost had dragged her to his peculiar realm. Their terror only increased when she appeared before them once more with the lifeless body of their supposed hero in her hand. A few people screamed, but most could only just stand in paralized shock. Already there were so many dead Rune Knights around them, and now it seemed a known Rising Star had been murdered by the very villain he’d sought to apprehend.

Thana tossed Ghost’s body at a random civilian’s feet, who quickly jumped back out of the way. “That belongs to a guild somewhere. Be a dear and make sure it’s returned to them. Inform them that it’s against the law to litter this country with their trash.”

If this had ended in any other way, the psychopath might have been going on a murderous spree through the capital right now, high with blood lust. Unfortunately -- or fortunately, depending on whose perspective one was looking at this from -- the absolute disappointment that this entire fight had been, if one could call it that, had entirely drained her of her desire for a slaughter fest. Not interested in waiting around long enough for more authorities to show up, she wandered off toward the city, eating Ghost’s heart like a freshly plucked apple. People parted for her, of course, wanting to stay out of her way, but as soon as she was done with her rather lackluster snack she ducked into a corner to manipulate her appearance and change it to something less alarming.

By the time she was back on the streets, no one recognized her as the woman that had just slain about a dozen people in the middle of the streets of Crocus, and she was well on her way to the next city.