In a land covered in frost, snow started to lightly drift from the clouds and layer the ground with a clear, pure white.
As a single snowflake floated down onto the Earth, it lay on the roof of a wooden but comfy house full of warmth.
The door flung open as a purple-haired girl woke up with a bright smile. Her face had soft reddish cheeks from the cold, and didn't look much younger than a blooming adolescent.
She wore a fur coat and long leather pants to cover herself, but it didn't stop her from dressing up, as on her head was a beret.
Hanging on the side of her waist was a sharp rapier crafted with simple steel, and on her back was a moderate-sized bag. The girl moved along with a skip as the covered sun gave some warmth to her village.
Heading into the bakery, the smell of butter and bread tickled her nose, and before her, a middle-aged man named Bair greeted her with a heartfelt smile.
"Sinthea! Good morning, out for another hunt? Here I'll get you some bread. Using a blade isn't as efficient as a classic hunter rifle, you know." He muttered as he brought a small basket of bread onto the counter.
"That's what you always nag me about, instead of wishing for my safety." She remarked as she pulled out rubies to pay.
Bair shook his hand, "Take it, on the house, plus feeding you until you grow stronger, is my way of keeping you safe...Now Happy Hunting Kiddo!"
Sinthea, faced with his kindness, bowed and saluted the man, "I'll make you proud, Дедушка (Dedushka)."
A tick mark fumed onto the man's forehead, "Get out before I start hitting you with stale bread!"
The Hunter soon ran away with her basket of bread to escape her consequences and out the door. As Sinthea escaped, Bair looked at her fading figure with fond eyes and sighed heavily.
He didn't want this peace to end after all, he lifted his prosthetic leg and whispered to himself, "F*ck the Honkai damn, Чёрт." After venting his curses, he got back to work.
Passing through the familiar streets of her village, she greeted her waking neighbors.
"Sinthea, Sinthea, Sintheia."
"Can you show us your skills?"
Two children, both covered in the same fur coats, approached the girl with curiosity and bright, innocent eyes.
One was a little girl with snowy hair named Olga. She looked cold but had the energy of a "Little Boy" to speak on and on.
The other was Andei with blackish coal; although he looked gloomy, he was but a curious child.
She started patting their little heads to calm their abundance of energy.
"Sorry, my sweet bumpkins, I can't right now, but when I am done, I can show use my sword skills, I promise!"
Though Olga grumbled, and Andei was saddened by her words, they held up their pinkies towards her.
"Promise?" They both said at the same time, although Sinthea was weirded out by how perfectly they synced up, she knelt and latched her pinky onto theirs.
"I promise! If I don't, then I guess I'll be stuck in the underworld." Her words were a jest, but the child knew otherwise.
"Can I take my pinkie promise back? I don't want you getting hurt because of me!" Andei lamented
"Yeah, I don't want you going to hell either," Olga added.
Sintheia started waving her hands frantically, "I was joking! I am not going to hell, I swear on it...Here, take some bread, my treat." She handed out two pieces of warm bread into their little hands.
"Thank you!" Andei said
"Hmm, thanks...Good bread!" While Olga munched on her bread.
Seeing their content faces, she stood up with a grin, "I'll see you two later, and Andei, keep an eye on Olga, she doesn't do anything stupid."
"Okay, Сестрёнка." Andei nodded
"Hey! I am not that bad." Olga whined, and before she could start nagging at Sinthea, she was already gone.
Arriving at the trail of the forest, the young girl bit into the flesh of her bread. The taste of wheat and butter lingered in her mouth. She savored every bit as if this were her last meal.
Finished with her breakfast, Sinthea dusted her hands and entered the snowy forest. Numerous trees covered the skyline with snow laced onto their leaves.
The forest was connected to the Ural Mountains and was near the Siberian Plains. Since her village was mostly isolated, they had to be self-reliant on themselves for farming, hunting, crafting, and mining.
Sinthea unloosed the rapier from her belt and pulled it out from its sheath. With a cloth from her pocket, she started wiping the blade clean till it reflected the vintage of her face.
Finishing her blade, she grabbed one of the last bread she had saved and wrapped it with a napkin.
Her footsteps were quiet as she entered the forest and leaving a trail of steep footprints. After a few minutes of scouting out the place and finding the perfect spot to hide, Sinthea placed the napkin onto the ground along with some dried fish from her rations.
She discreetly moved, hiding behind a bush. Her breath quieted till a still point, her body locked itself into the quiet cold of the forest, and her eyes darkened, locking onto that singular spot.
Time moved quietly, and even with the frosting biting into her skin, it didn't deter her from the hunt, so she waited, waited, and waited until the sounds of snow drifting and tree branches snapping.
The creature had brown fur wrapped around it, large, fluffy eyes, and a body quite larger than most humans...It was a brown bear. Seeing her prey didn't excite any emotions in her; it was just an animal that she had to kill have a better life than it.
Her body stood completely and waited until the bear was entirely focused on its meal. Though she could have used a bear trap, facing it with just her blade brought her a sense of joy and pride in this monotonous life.
Before she could unleash her blade work, her ears suddenly picked up the sound of humming...It was so foreign and alien, but the closest sound she could think of was a helicopter.
The bear suddenly roared as a beam of purple light shot through the bear and entincely pierced through its flesh. A gaping hole was marked on its chest, dying with a single breath.
Her breath caught itself from choking and she spotted the thing. It was small, white, and floating in the air. It had small wings, and its body seemed to constantly let out cubes of bluish decay. Even though it had a halo on top of its head, it was no Angel.
Faced with such a creature, the only thought she had was...'I can't let that thing near my Village!' Although the odds may be stacked against her, she had to do something, so she picked up a rock and threw it at a tree.
The 'Angel' reacted as it suddenly moved its head and fired in the direction of the sound. Taking advantage of its blindside, she dashed towards the Beast and tackled it to the ground. Her blade flashed silver as she stabbed into its white flesh.
Purple blood started to pour out as she kept piercing into its carbon flesh. It screeched as its body was being massacred by a human, and after the blade went through its head, the light it emitted faded into death, and its body decayed into dust
The girl's breath turned heavy, her body pale from the fear, and her forehead covered in sweat. One mistake and her life could have been gone and turned into a pile of flesh just like that bear.
She couldn't take the bear corpse because she had to warn her village. If more of those White Beasts came, then everything she knew and loved would be nothing more than mere rubble.
Her body blurred as she moved as quickly as possible, and seeing the familiar trail into her village, her speed quickened.
The sight of the wooden gate in pristine condition brought relief to her mind, but that feeling stopped as her eyes suddenly locked onto the shimmering horizon, and her heart sank to the deepest of the Abyss.
A massive, overwhelming purpleish light seemed to engulf the mountain range till that radience soon engulfed the sun with its horror. She felt her body being flung away as a shockwave hit the land.
Her body cracked under the pressure, her bones broken into mere fragments, and she saw the purpleish light devour everything like a surging beast.
She felt the heat of that bomb surge into her body as it violated her entire being with its pulsing death. She heard the screams of her village as it burned under the radiation. She felt the searing pain of a mark of a circle made out of chained thorny roses onto her back.
She had felt her flesh melting, regenerating, melting, regenerating, it kept on going over, and over until she lay in her own pool of blood, pus, bodily fluids, and tears.
She had seen with her very own eyes the corpses of her charred friends, the smell oozing scent of burnt flesh, heard the groans of everyone slowly dying, tasted the vile of bloody vomit reeling from her mouth, and felt her very being slowly being deconstructed.
Why! Why! Why! Why!
Those were the words that she had repeated in her mind.
She, She, She, She...She had lost everything, and soon she closed her eyes till agony would be the only thing she had left.
...
Sinthea opened her eyes onto a flaming hellscape. The warehouse that served as a base was now gone because of a simple blonde Magician, but she wouldn't let her guard down because of one of her strongest attacks.
Every time she had to reenact her Suffering, she had to live through the Agony that she had gone through. It was a memory before she knew the truth of the World. It was filled with Calamites known as the Honkai, and the one who had set a blaze onto her village was Schicksal.
The organization that fired a Honkai Fission Missile onto the Siberian Planes to kill the Second Herrscher. She didn't care if her village and its people were used as a noble sacrifice...All she wanted to do was to make everyone suffer as she had.
She didn't care if this was right or wrong; she didn't care if the world was unfair. Sinthea just wanted to watch it burn, just like how she was set ablaze, just like how they burned into nothing but ash.
Just like how her small village was nothing but a speck of dust in the large scheme of things. A stepping stone so that Humanity could live one more day at the cause of her home.
Nothing would stop her, not even one young man dressed as a Magician, but those thoughts were cut as something tightened around her neck.
It was a rope that bound tightly from behind until it started choking her. The weakness of her Stigma Ability was that she had to see her target to cause Suffering, but she could offset it by inflicting it onto herself.
Azure flames started to burst out from her body and reduced everything around her to a cinder. After clearing out her surroundings, Sinthea focused her eyes on the ground to spot her target, but alas, she saw fire.
A sudden roar of a gunshot echoed into her ears, and she felt the pain of a bullet blasting her right calf off, but the pain dulled as her flesh regenerated into a new leg.
Several shots started coming out, but her senses were good enough to dodge them with minor injuries. She was starting to figure out his strategy; he was intently avoiding her line of sight and attempting to wear her down, but in a war of attrition, she had the high ground.
Sinthea was quite impressed that this Magician survived the force of a 'nuclear explosion,' but she was quite livid that her forces were single-handedly wiped out and burned into a pile of flesh...That single action made this personal.
Although this move would alert the Authorities and Police...She cut out that though when she exploded into a nuke, they already knew that there was a situation here.
So instead of wasting time, she had to clear out the entire area and weed out the Magician from his hiding spot.
Within the center of her body, a pseudo black hole started to form and suck everything within its grasp until there was nothing left. A reenactment of when she suffered an attack from the Sovereign of Anti-Entropy, Welt Yang.
A false singularity started to form, creating a sphere that seemed to devour everything within the vicinity. The air, land, and space seemed to be sucked into the collapsing hole. Moments passed as the suction seemed to stop.
A massive crater formed after her attack was finished. Sinthea slowly floated down to the ground with heavy breaths, and all she saw was nothing but shattered rocks and dirt. Still, she didn't let her guard down; she had a feeling that the man was alive.
Willing her mind a black rapier crafted from her blood, bone, flesh, and suffering was summoned into her hand. A clear veil formed around her head till its length was down to her waist, with bloody hand prints pressed onto its design, and lastly, a dark crown shaped itself onto her head.
She was going all out.
Her worries weren't unfounded, as she felt the sensation of her limbs starting to rust and stiffen. She felt her thoughts start to slow.
'Attack....Where.'
Even as her thoughts started to dim, she made a judgment and a gamble. With a flick of her wrist, she used telepathy to force her rapier to stab herself in her chest. Since it was made by herself, she could control it in all sorts of ways.
With the use of pain, she felt her limbs and mind start to flow normally again. Seeing the apparent weakness of that annoying ability, she made sure to keep her rapier floating around her body just in case.
'This Magician fights like a coward, but it's effective. He can petrify me, but it can be offset by stimulation. It must have a range, but I can't find him.'
Her train of thought ceased as she took the grip of her floating rapier and blocked from above. She felt her leg crack and arms turn numb from the sheer force of his strike. Her eyes glanced at the weapon that could do so, but it was only a combat knife covered in Five Warm Rings of Light.
She was shocked by this course of action, 'Wouldn't it be in his best interest to hide and keep shooting out potshots unless...He thinks I am that much of a weakling!'
Her eyes moved as she tried to use the Suffering of her being stabbed in the heart, a kick covered in those rings of light, knocked her away. Although faced with the pain of her body being flung across the sharp ground, she regained her posture.
She focused on the Magician's body, but a sudden punch to her head made her lose focus.
With each attempt of her Stigama Ability, Sinthea was flung around like a soccer ball, and after the fifth time, she had to switch her plans.
Gaining some distance, she held out her rapier in a silent, firm pose as its blade lined up against her face, and with the will of her mind, several blackish rapiers started to float around her vicinity. Tens of thousands of blades formed under her command and shot from the skies.
A downpour of rapiers started to descend onto the Magician. His body danced around the storm of blades, and his knife cleaved through the onslaught as a silent but whimsical dance.
Seizing the opportunity, Sinthea aimed her blade in a perfect and symmetrical form. Her arms straight to the point, hands holding the grip tightly, elbow locked in place, and feet adhering to the ground.
With a single step of her foot, a cloud of dust exploded from her speed as she rushed forward with a singular strike toward the Magician.
The point of the blade shone a grim light as it shot toward the Magician's heart among the rain of blades, and its tip was about to pierce into the man's flesh, but instead of the sound of meat being ripped apart, there was only the echo of steel clashing.
Her eyes glanced as a golden aura suddenly covered the Magician's body. It tightly wrapped around his figure like a flowing river with random, illusory numbers synced to its beat.
The blades raining onto both of them felt like raindrops for him, and the rapier about to pierce into his heart was only a prickle.
It was Shin (心) or his modified version of it. It decreases all DMG Taken by 51% and converts the remaining 49% DMG into Imaginary Numbers, thus nullifying it. A defense technique that was suited to the Unique properties of Honkai Energy (Imaginary Energy).
The dual-layer barrier of Shin (心) was named Imaginary Blasphemy because turning Reality into the Imaginary was the highest form of Blasphemy towards the Universe.
Seeing her failed attempt, Sinthea unleashed a barrage of sword skills as fast as she could with her army of blades, but alas, all of her attacks were turned into a string of Imaginary Numbers.
Before she could go any further, she felt the sensation of a cold metal barrel on the temple of her head and...
*BANG*
She let out a screeching wail as the pain of her brain being blown out caused her nerves to overload. Both of her hands tried to cover the gaping hole in her forehead, but it didn't stop the feeling of a nail piercing into her head.
Her body and Stigma were on Overtime to heal the damage to her head and mind. Tears started to flow from her eyes as she heard the sounds of footsteps inching closer and closer. She backed away desperately to get away from this Monster.
She glanced upward at the Magician as he was suddenly in front of her kneeling figure. Her eyes trembled at the Magician's blank azure eyes; she tried to say something, but all that came out was incoherent nonsense.
Her hand grabbed onto a nearby rock, but she stopped as the Magician's face started to shift and change...Instead of the average-looking man, it was a familiar young-looking man with green eyes and cyan pupils.
It was Otto Apocalypse, the Overseer of Schicksal, and the same man who commanded the firing of the missile at the Second Herrscher, the one that turned her village into a mere footnote in History. The man who took everything from her and the same one who would take her life, just like how he took her home.
She could only stand still with a broken and twisted expression. The only single feeling she felt was Despair. Despair that the Schicksal Overseer would finish the job of ending her life like he did to her village.
The pommel of a staff covered in crimson bandages soon slammed into her head, and that skull of hers turned into a pile of strawberry-covered confetti.
She, She, She, She...She had lost everything, and soon Despair would be the only thing she had left.
A/N: Did you know every action has a consequence?