[Annabelle's Pov]
The girl, drifted through the abandoned loading docks near the river. Her fixed smile felt a little looser now.
The bad person from the alley was gone but she was still alone.
She hummed a childish tune, skipping past rusted barrels and shattered concrete. Her eyes were bright, constantly scanning for someone who looked like they wanted to play.
That's when she saw him.
He was standing perfectly still in the middle of the yard, leaning against a luxury sedan.
The girl stopped humming and clapped her hands together.
"Hello!" she chirped, skipping closer. "Will you be my friend?"
Damien pushed off the car. He let the silence stretch, forcing her simple request to hang in the chilly evening air, where it curdled into rejection.
"I don't want friends." Damien said, his voice a low. "I want power and you are currently in the way of it."
The smile on the girl's face did what it always did when she was refused, it cracked.
"You're not going to be my friend?" she whispered, her voice wobbling dangerously.
"No."
Her consciousness shattered instantly. Her eyes emptied of childlike innocence, replaced by a hostile light. And her mana erupted.
"BAD! BAD! BAD! BAD PEOPLE SAY NO!"
Damien didn't flinch. He drew the katana in one clean motion.
As the first wave of light spears screamed towards him, Damien performed a simple movement. Mana flared from his body and channeled into the blade.
"Mana Enhancement: Edge."
The light spears struck the katana with a continuous CLANG. Damien was forced to deflect them, spinning the blade in a dazzling vortex. Sparks flew of vaporized light. He held his ground but the impact forces were immense, cracking the ground beneath his feet.
The girl screamed out of rage.
Damien blurred to close the distance but her defenses were instantaneous. A sudden, sharp cone of light spears erupted before him. Damien blocked the cone with a desperate cross-guard. He was sent skidding backward several yards and couldn't sustain this defense.
He started running, circling the girl at high speed. Light spears trailed his movement, carving concentric circles into the ground as he attempted to find a weakness.
The girl compressed her power. A single spear, thicker than the rest shot at him. Damien was able to block, but the force sent him crashing backward, slamming through a warehouse.
And before the dust settled, more ferocious wave of light spears tore into the wreckage where he fell.
Damien, emerging with a grim look of concentration, didn't waste time on defense. He focused his mana and the katana was a blur, deflecting the trajectories just enough to survive.
He surged forward again, refusing to be pinned. And he got close now, forcing her to abandon ranged tactics. Seeing the katana closing, the girl screamed and manifested two shimmering light swords in her hands. And she met him blade-to-blade.
Clash!
Damien parried a vertical slash and countered with a low cut that sliced the girl's forearm.
The girl screamed, pain breaking her concentration.
The light swords vanished. And she threw out a chaotic burst of light spears that forced Damien back.
She turned and started running. Damien blurred, closing the distance instantly. He reached her and delivered a brutal kick to her back.
The girl crashed violently into a stack of shipping containers.
Damien stepped closer, his breathing heavy. And he raised his blade for the kill but suddenly dazzling light erupted from above.
Hundreds of spears rained down, focused only on Damien's position. He roared, swinging the katana in a desperate arc. And explosion of dust erupted.
And when the devastating barrage cleared, Damien was heavily bleeding on his head blood sliding across his face.
The girl was now standing, her eyes wide with desperate strength. Above her, a blade of condensed light, the maximum expression of her ability.
Damien, though wounded, regained his composure instantly. He raised his katana.
Arc Seal : Mana Enhancement.
A black shimmer of compressed power erupted around his katana.
The giant blade descended with impossible speed.
Damien swung.
CLASH!
The attacks connected, resulting in an explosion of white light and a crushing force that tore through the entire dockyard, obliterating the containers and sending a wave of dust and debris hundreds of feet into the air.
And before the smoke could fully clear, Damien lunged, moving through the remnants of the blast with a final, killing intent. He drove the katana forward, piercing the girl through the abdomen just below the ribs.
She looked down at the sword pierced through her with teary eyes.
Damien pulled the sword out slowly. And she fell to her knees, then tried to crawl away on the dirt.
He stalked her, driving the blade down again and again. Her screams finally erupted, tearing.
"Stop!Please! Stop!" she begged, thrashing weakly.
Her eyes became vacant and her small body went still.
"All I ever wanted was... someone to play with..."
Damien stood over her body, silent.
Then footsteps came. From the shadows between the wrecked containers, two figures emerged.
The first was an old man dressed in a black suit, a gloved hand resting on a silver cane. The other was a mountain of a man, shirt torn from the sheer size of his frame.
The butler adjusted his glasses. "Are you okay, Master Damien?"
Damien exhaled slowly, sheathing his katana with a sharp click. "Yeah. I'm fine."
The brute grinned, cracking his knuckles. "Tch. Didn't think you'd need our help anyway."
The butler's gaze flicked briefly toward the girl's broken form. "A shame. She was... quite young."
Damien turned his back, eyes cold. "Age doesn't matter in this game."
He began walking toward the waiting car, the other two followed behind him.