"Elysia!" Alice was screaming my name, trying to reach me before it''s toote, but the mes that surrounded my body prevented her. Meanwhile, I was still screaming in agony as darkness consumed my heart.


    To be toyed with in such a way shattered me. Just a moment ago, I thought I could finally be reunited with my parents. But instead, even after his death, Teivel deceived me once more with his monstrous experiment.


    I wasn''t in control of my emotions and I needed something to take it out on. Looking up, my view was filled with the beast that used to be my parents. A part of me didn''t want to do it, thinking that somewhere in there, maybe part of them still existed within the monster.


    However, I could still barely bring myself to look at them, much less the idea of calling them my parents.


    ''No, they must be suffering. I need to kill it.'' Getting a better grip on reality, my mes, which were running rampant, started to die down. Taking in a few deep breaths, I remember what Shaman taught me to keep myself in check.


    ''Long, deep breaths … stop thinking of what you''ve lost, focus on what it is you still have.'' It was an altered version of what Shaman taught me, but this mindset allowed me to calm down and start to think rationally.


    ''They were dead a long time ago. It may have been them once upon a time, but what I saw wasn''t them. I have Shaman, ra and Silver. I don''t need to cling onto the past anymore.'' My mes progressively got less intense until I finally had them under control. The only thing that still betrayed my emotions was my re, which was locked onto the creature.


    Slowly getting up from the ground, Alice cautiously floated around me to see if I was okay. Ipletely ignored her, as my current priority was getting rid of this amalgamation of suffering souls.


    Walking towards the creature, I concentrated the mes into my fists. At first, my mes appeared blood red, but my rage, sadness and disgust brought on a transformation, turning them pitch ck.


    "Oh no." Alice''s panicked voice was quickly followed with a tug on my hair, trying to stop me. However, I ignored it and kept moving closer until I was close enough to the creature.


    Pulling my arm back for a punch, I concentrated everything I had into my fist. I intended topletely erase this creature''s existence in one blow.


    The creature itself sat there, oblivious to what was going on and only stared at me with the dozen eyes it had. The arms reached out as if trying to pull me in so it could eat me with one of its many mouths.


    There was no mind behind this thing, it was an empty shell that could only eat whatever got close. It made me question why I even bothered to get all emotional in the first ce. I should have known something was off, but everything felt so real.


    ''Maybe I should shut off my emotions.'' The thought shed through my head right as I was ready to punch.


    Propelling my arm forward, my ck-med fist went straight for the creature''s core. Hitting the centre of its body,the creature was hurled against the cobblestone wall behind it, the force alone leaving a massive hole through its centre and even denting the cave wall. .


    My ck mes quickly engulfed the creature, but the mes didn''t turn it to ash right away.


    Screams came from all of its mouths, releasing a deafening shriek, making it very clear how badly it was suffering.


    It frantically waved its arms, trying to find something to grab, but there was nothing. ck gunk spewed out of the hole as the creature visibly began to shrivel up.


    Slowly, the creature turned from its usual red fleshy look to the white colour of ash as limb by limb started crumbling into dust.


    I watched as it kept with its struggle to live as its body slowly disintegrated into nothingness. A part of me felt hollow, like I had lost a part of myself. Maybe it was the part of me that wished I didn''t kill this creature, but I wasn''t going to give that another thought.


    "Elysia?" Alice floated from behind me slowly while calling out my name in a worried tone.


    "What?" I wasn''t in the mood, so I spoke in a cold tone and red at Alice.


    "Are you okay now? I think we should get out of here." Alice suggested leaving, but I wanted to wait until the creature was fully dead. I couldn''t live with myself if somehow a small piece of this thing got to live on.


    "Yes, I am. Wait until this thing is dead before we leave." Still speaking harshly, I locked my eyes back on the creature and saw that half of it was already burned away.


    "Alright." Alice didn''t try to argue or push me, but instead she backed away, looking dejected.


    *


    <Few minutester>


    Thest of the creature finally turned to ash, as I could no longer sense my me anywhere.


    Turning around, I saw Alice waiting for me patiently, but instead of her usually energetic attitude, she stayed quiet.


    ''I need some time to mentally recover.'' I felt exhausted already and I still had that deep, hollow feeling. I thought it would go away once I killed the creature, but it still gued my heart.


    I headed back up with Alice following behind me. It looked like she had something to say but couldn''t find the words. Personally, I could care less right now and hoped that she wouldn''t bother me at the moment.


    Reaching the top of the stairs, I was greeted by Malinda at the entrance. She took one look at my face, bowed and kept her silence. I appreciated that and continued to walk towards my room.


    *


    mming the door open, Yumi jumped out of fear from the sudden noise but quickly calmed down after seeing me. However, just like Alice and Malinda, she was quick to realise that I wasn''t in the best of moods.


    Paired with Alice gesturing something to her, it seemed the message got across.


    Approaching the bed, I let myself fall onto the sheets and sank into the bed. I felt my entire body rx and all the pent up stress slowly disappear. I shut my eyes and in no time at all fell asleep right then and there.


    ***


    <8 monthster, a peek into the future>


    What used to be an underground city was now reduced toplete rubble. In the centre, there was a noticeable tower, not of brick and stone, but of burned bodies.


    Sitting on top of the tower of dead kitsune was a blood covered Elysia in her usual ck and red dress. There was no longer a living soul in sight except for herself and a floating vampire who was currently snacking on the blood from the pile of bodies.


    "About time you enacted your n." Alice pouted, as she had been waiting for this moment for ages. She hadn''t been out of this underground city once and was already eager to finally see the rest of the world.


    "If it weren''t for that stupid cryptic vault, then we would have left months ago, but now that it''s open, we can finally leave." I agreed with Alice that it''s about time, but I wasn''t leaving this ce until everything was thoroughly explored.


    "Yeah, yeah so much for that cheating system you have. It feels like it''s more useless than helpful." Alice rolled her eyes, frustrated, but there wasn''t much that could be done.


    The system may be powerful, but itpletely relies on information it already knows, so when encountering something unknown, it can rarely provide any assistance.


    "It could have been worse." I shrugged it off. At any rate, Alice was at my mercy, so it didn''t matter what her opinion on this matter was.


    "Tsk, anyway, what about Yumi and the maids?" Unable to pursue this matter further once I shrugged off her words, Alice quickly changed the topic.


    "I n to let them go once we are out of here, but I don''t know if ina will ept them." There really wasn''t a n for them, so I prayed that the demon castle was willing to take on a few extra maids.


    "At least it''s something."


    "If worsees to worse, they can probably reintegrate back into a human city somewhere." It wasn''t ideal, especially with the rising tensions with the Pope.


    "I guess… Also what do you n to do with all these bodies? You are not going to extract all their blood, right?" Alice looked up to me, wondering what I was possibly going to do.


    Licking my fingers clean of the blood, I thought about what Alice said for a moment. I could suck all of the blood out of these thousands of bodies, but I didn''t have time.


    "Heh, burn them all down, of course."