A vast throne room.
...Streams of lava flowing through the cracks in its floor.
A line of about a dozen gargoyle monsters...
...A throne of darkness, lined with the skulls of defeated creatures.
And Her.
A dark gown spreading onto the ground like a waterfall, pale white arms resting on the throne’s armrests, her body leaning into the corner of the throne.
Absolute silence covered everywhere as she remained still.
Yet all at once...
There was a slight tremor, and she stirred from her rest, her eyes locking onto a corner of the throne room.
There was seemingly nothing there but a pillar that supported the ceiling, yet her nebula-like eyes narrowed at it, staring intently for about ten seconds before she sat up properly upon her throne.
Her fingers laced together, her jaw resting upon them.
"Quite a number of years might have passed, but still, I did not expect you to master its power so quickly, White... Or should I say, Umbrawyric King?"
Her melodic voice rang through the room and quietly, the blank corner of the throne room where she had been staring shook.
Then it revealed a being reclining against the pillar, a pitch-black book in one of his six hands, which he quietly closed as he rose to his feet.
"Master its power?"
White spoke, turning to her.
"That’s a long path to walk."
"Don’t fret..."
She replied, rising to her feet and quietly stepping down from the throne.
"I’ll teach you."
She walked toward him, crossing the entire throne room before coming to a stop before him, her eyes lowering to the dark grimoire in his hands before looking back up at White.
He remained quietly still for just a second before stretching the book toward her.
It had been what she had wanted all along.
Centuries upon centuries of waiting for one worthy enough to pass the challenge required to possess it, and finally he was here.
Finally, he had obtained it.
And the book was just a hand’s reach away.
Yet as her hand inched toward the book, hanging just six inches away, all at once she withdrew her hands, taking two steps backward.
For the first time, White saw some emotion in those nebula-red eyes.
It was caution...borne from distrust.
"You give it out too easily."
She claimed, turning to White, only to watch a smirk appear at the corner of his lips, confirming her suspicion.
He walked forward, stepping right past her, and at the moment they stood side by side, his voice echoed clearly into her ear, yet sounded like a whisper at the same time.
"I know what you really want... Nythera."
He claimed, and she froze.
Nythera
The name echoed again and again in her head.
A flash of memory she had buried deep within her unconsciousness resurfaced, and she snapped all at once, slashing her hands behind her.
VROOOOOOOOOOM!
Five massive lines appeared in space, remaining there as if they had always existed.
But they met with nothing.
White was already at her throne, crouching on the ground while studying one of the skulls decorating it in quiet interest.
"You shouldn’t know that name."
She said, her voice as calm as ever despite the dilating chaos in the space before her.
White turned slightly to the side before replying.
"I know more than that... a lot more."
"So what? Read a couple of books in the test about the past?"
She asked.
But then White rose up, one of the skulls in his hands.
"You have the Crimsio Umbrawyro. A feat that makes you worthy of the Crimsio Crown."
He began.
"But both the Crimsio Crown and the Crimsio Umbrawyrio are incomplete replicas of the Mallory Umbrawyrio."
He placed the skull back in its original position before grabbing another, the smallest skull of them all.
"Your wish is to obtain the Mallory Umbrawyrio by getting someone attuned to it, one with the Mallory Darkness, which is me, to help you pass through the Ancestral Gate and retrieve the book."
"Then, you kill me off, and with your possession of the Crimsio Grimoire, which, since it’s a replica, acts as a small key of influence, you hope it may allow the Mallory Umbrawyrio to choose you as its next Host."
White said, turning to her.
There was no change at all in her expression. Nevertheless, he continued.
"Combining the Mallory with the Crimsio. The power..."
"You would become a being called Nyxeliothra. A feminine figure of inconceivable devilish power."
"But there is a question. You’re already a powerful being as you are."
"Why would someone like you, who controls one of the most renowned races of darkness, still need more power?"
Her lips parted slightly to speak, but then she paused, noticing something.
The question.
It didn’t sound like a question, more like a rhetorical statement, and a flicker of disbelief crossed her eyes.
"Impossible. You can’t possibly know that."
Her voie grew louder, and quietly he turned slightly toward her.
"I know a lot more than that."
It was a sentence that she found anything but pleasant, and in the next moment, a powerful aura began brewing through the throne room as the entire place started to quiver intensely from the slow release of her power.
"You will die from knowing too much..."
The word ’die’ resonated through the room like an inevitable law, yet White quietly put down the skull, continuing,
"You know your name, ’Nythera’..."
He said, and she paused.
"It means ’a gift misplaced in a lesser world.’ Your father, I believe, would have interpreted it to mean, ’What the world didn’t deserve.’"
"Do not talk about my father!"
"It’s a pity, really, what you’ve become... after all that holding back he had done for your sake."
"Grrrrh!"
The sound of teeth grinding echoed throughout the throne room, the entire world slowly having its colors mysteriously shifted to blood red.
"But really..."
White said, his gaze lowering to the skull in his hand.
"...it’s a pity what we’ve all had to become."