"How can things get even worse, Malitigax?" Zyo pressed her head against her desk and cried out.
"Just shut that trap and fill out the papers," he shouted, annoyed.
"I don't wanna! I don't wanna! I don't wanna!" She pouted at him before saying that a woman like her needed beauty in her life. All this paperwork contributed nothing to the beauty of life.
"Yeah, yeah. Go slack off in a corner somewhere. I don't care." He shooed her off while reading a document.
Zyo stormed out of the room in frustration.
"Write that! Write those! Write this! How about I just… AUGHH!"
She started venting her anger on trash cans and rocks in the streets. Kicking continuously at a pebble, she eventually came across a clothing store.
"Now this is more like it."
As she picked out clothes and compared them on the rack, she thought back to Zerstörer.
"That conspicuous brute who only acts in his own self-interest. I swear, when the day comes that I meet him again, I will kick him where it hurts!"
She sighed and held one of the garments against her torso to see how it looked.
"No one appreciates the work I put in. They just cause more and more trouble. Zyo, do this! Do that! And that Malitigax… ah yes… let's just cut off his sharp tongue. A woman does not need to hear that!" She proudly announced before heading into a stall.
She noticed the yellow on the dress and was reminded of the blonde woman she had met. That was the actual head professor of Nautilus, Devina. She had never met her before, but if she remembered correctly, Malitigax was once her student. He never went into full detail about his time at the royal academy, but she believed he once said something along the lines of having been expelled.
"Ah yes, that idiot got expelled for using other students as human test subjects for his life-threatening experiments. Apparently, that dumbass tried to extract loxes from the human body, so he kidnapped victims with different affiliations and experimented on them. Then that idiot got sentenced to be sent underground."
She reminisced about the day she found him beaten and bruised on the streets of the underground. He had been completely stripped of his clothes and was close to succumbing to the cold.
Zyo thought that if she brought him in, he could work for her as an assistant because of his background as a student at the royal academy. Back then, she had not yet taken control of the underground. It was only recently that she had managed to usurp power from the previous president. The underground was considered a place where crime was the norm. Everyone acted for survival, and no one trusted each other. Murder, rape, prostitution, drug abuse, assault, and every crime imaginable occurred daily in this overcrowded community.
There was only one opening to the underground, the Nahea Waterfall. Water from the ocean cascaded down into the city and surrounded it. It was also the only natural light source. Most underground residents relied on artificial lighting such as oils and burners. Some more fortunate individuals could harness Aeonic power and use the Aeon of Ember's abilities to illuminate dark areas.
Most people who lived in the underground city were criminals. Criminals with such vile and gruesome records that not even the Nautilan incarceration system would accept them. Instead of executing them, the government would throw them down the waterfall.
Zyo, on the other hand, was born in this city. She was raised by her adoptive mother after her parents' unpaid debts were settled with their bodies. Despite witnessing her parents being taken away by criminals and eventually murdered for organ harvesting, she did not hate these criminals. Her adoptive mother told her it was simply the human will to survive.
She did not truly believe that until she experienced it herself. Zyo removed her shirt, revealing a massive surgical scar on the left side of her abdomen.
The dress she had picked made her look like a princess. It was definitely stolen goods from Nautilus, she thought. But what were stolen goods in a city full of crime? She bought the dress and continued wandering through the streets.
Crying echoed from an alleyway as a man forced himself onto a little girl. Zyo's mouth widened as memories from her past flooded back.
Without thinking, she walked into the dark, narrow alley where the man was assaulting the girl.
The man looked up and saw a figure standing in the shadows, holding something. The silhouette was curvy and sharp, unmistakably feminine.
He licked his lips, thinking he had found another victim. He slammed the girl's head against the wall until she cried out in pain.
But when he looked again, he did not see the eyes of a helpless woman. Instead, he was met with the terrifying gaze of a demon. Red eyes the color of blood and pupils as dark as the void stared into his soul. He felt as though his soul was already being torn from his body.
He dug through his pockets desperately and, with shaking hands, pulled out a pocket knife. The girl slumped against the wall and closed her eyes.
"You do crime to survive, not to enjoy," she said, her words freezing him in place.
He suddenly felt warmth in his stomach. Slowly, he looked down to see the tip of a blade embedded inside him. Blood drenched his leather shirt and stained the metal. With a swift motion, the blade tore through his flesh and hooked into his organs, skewering them one by one.
Zyo stood silently, tossing the organs aside for stray dogs to eat. She swung her red scythe to fling off the blood before turning to look at the girl. The scythe was made entirely of loxes and bore the affiliation of Rejuvenation. Zyo took out the clothes she had purchased earlier and wrapped them around the girl's waist before carrying her to a nearby shelter.
If there was one thing Zyo wanted, it was to make this city a place people wanted to go to, not a place meant for punishment.
She had to accomplish this no matter what, for those who had suffered in this city and for those who would suffer in the future.