*
Maybe it was the training she did earlier, or the words she saw on that envelope. She remembers everything that had happened before, she walks through the castle's halls, reminiscing on the times she felt something was off. The fact was that she likely experienced the same dream more often than not. Did having the dream meant that she learnt something useful? Was the state of her current life intricately tied to her previous life?
In the beginning, the past didn't matter at all. They were magical girls, their enemies are the Traces. The world didn't get any more complex than that. However now it was different. {Envy} was tied to her previous life, it was the reason she got Arin to cast that curse on her. It was the link that made her strong enough to defeat Eterna. So that was the answer. The ties between her current life, the corporation
She takes the next foot forward, placing the weight of resolve down to face the future, soft clicks echo rhythmically as her heel strikes the furbished decadent ground. Before she noticed, she was out of her pyjamas and in her magical girl combat dress, luscious dark crimson fabric flow into the air defying gravity. Her collar gently caresses her neck, snuggly fitting under her jaw. The flows and layers of her dress bounce weightlessly with each step, painting a bigger stature over her waist like an animal trying to intimidate predators.
Unlike last time, she was fully alert. The scent of blood, the faint out of place presence, she could tell everything that was going on before she even opened the door. After all, the memories behind this door was gradually becoming a part of her.
"I see, was it because I used {Envy}? When I wake up I can't remember anything, but when I return here, my previous experiences are assimilated." (Lastia)
They key to the lock guarding the past was always {Envy}, and even now it was only working partially. The past was the secret to strengthening {Envy}, a last ditch effort to find a countermeasure against the Primordial one. Without {Envy}, nothing would fall into place. She doubts even Arin could access this citadel of memories. If {Envy} was the key, then the locked treasure box was Lastia. Though they seemed to just be memories, they might hold more secrets than she thinks.
So much so that a memory wiping curse was used to hide them. Without the key, they would have been useless anyway. Enough doddling. She pushed through the door and raised her blade at the throne, the throne holding a corpse. Her great sword humms softly as vibrant red light is released out of the edge, building a storm of light that converges with her at the centre. The lights string into violent lace, slicing into the walls and shattering brittle furniture like vases and desks. The key to the secrets and nature of her curse was... {Envy}, her past has guarded against anyone trying to learn her past.
With a swing, a floating black sword rises out of the air. One that looks familiar, pitch black, spirals towards the tip like a miniature typhoon. An average sword that seemed to absorb light at every angle, bearing the pressure of the its existence into any living being that happened to gaze upon it.
"So it's you. That ogre... That new heavenly king, and also... A ***** king." (Lastia)
She didn't know what she said, the words formed on their own before she noticed. However recognition of this individual was surely formed from her own thoughts. Vinia, wielder of {Anxiety}. Yet she resided in Lastia's memories. The simplest answer to this and the circumstances that allowed it... Was that Vinia belonged in the past. She was a person that's tied to her past life just like Arin was.
"Oh foul de*** king of infinite violence, this is the day you will be felled here.
Sat on the crossroads of fate, mortal peril beyond two's destined demise chimes down the foreseen end. Even so, the child of hope will dance, the lark will yet sing. {Envy}. " (Lastia)
The longest chant she has done yet for magic, she felt an urgent pressure took hold of her, as if the individual in front of her had to be eliminated at all cost. A distinct feeling different from the usual Vinia that fought her in the past. Her sword shoots forth a single light from the tip, tearing through the invisible individual in front of her with ease. For once, her magic substantially damages the castle, splitting it in half. The walls slide towards the earth, falling into the earth's embrace from the top of a cliff. The astronomical amount of friction that arises releases a thundering noise as the bottom half of the castle resists the sliding and total collapse.
The unseen figure finally reveals itself, sword hanging above the ground, her stance was unsteady. Her face looked extremely similar to Vinia's, but there were minute differences here and there that gave off a different impression. Her magic was largely the same as {Anxiety}, but Lastia could tell, there was something odd about it that gave off the same feeling as {Envy}.
"{Wrath}. Contractual imposition - Frequency alter. " (Vinia?)
Black lines spread across the air like ripples, swallowing everything it comes into contact with. The world returns to a monochrome palette much like Eterna's Events.
"Assimilate - {Envy}." (Lastia)
Copy the frequency, integrate it, consume it. If it's not on the enemy's body, even Eterna's Oblivion Magia could get assimilated. Colour returns to the collapsing castle, debris falls from the ceiling as cracks stretched across large swathes like spider webs. The castle always felt empty, the world was still. This eery silence gives her a tacit and morbid understanding. Her dream takes place after old humanity's end, she was its last representative.
Colour is infused into the monochrome world, slicing through like countless thorns. The first cast of {Envy} was meant to detect and rebel against potential magic that altered fate, and it did crush fate.
"Impossible. I'm supposed to fell the next de*** king. As the last member of humanity, as the fated hero." (KeliuVinia)
We're the same kind of being... Both a de*** king and hero. Realistically when the de*** king descends and succeeds, humanity is wiped out. Naturally the last one left has to be the hero, the strongest member of the species that can withstand that annihilation. Heart and soul synchronised, wielding magic with all of her being, Lastia prepares a decisive attack. Her great sword practically explodes with dark red light that swallows the entire castle.
Conjuring enough magic to bore a hole into the earth, she... Wakes up.