"Well that was disappointing. I was hoping the Curse Note would manifest but she's clearly been marked by something higher I suppose." Mistress said looking down into the shadow pool.
Inside was a young girl with pale brown hair, wearing a grey silk dress, with barefeet and no sign of life. She floated in a dark submerged void of endless blackness and despair, the inside of a shadow was grim. Her body neither went down or up, staying still, with no movement, no breath, no anything.
Her life having been snuffed out without mercy.
"Oh, the poor dear, I wish the accursed could be more than Spectres like me. She would have been a good pen pal, a bit poor I think, but quite amusing." Antoinette said on Mistress's head sadly," Oh well, atleast now I know she wasn't a Vessel. That does beg the question on why she had a Dead aura?"
"Of course she was not a Vessel. When you told me a Pariah answered that summons, I knew she was an Accursed. That's why she looked like a Vessel, and her Dead aura might have been from a near death experience. Besides,"Mistress looked at the Pariah standing alone and humphed." When last did a Pariah get absolved because their Vessel turned out to be lost?"
"Of course, Mistress. Very true." Antoinette pointed to the shadow pool," So will we be leaving that here or dumping it somewhere else? She could invoke a Wrath demon if we leave her soul alone."
"You're right. Although this has nothing to do with me, I suppose I'll deem myself the kindness of actually collecting this Accursed Soul. " Mistress looked at the Pariah," Bring out the body, then dispose of it after I have taken her soul. Preferably cremation, the demons around here are dabbling too much into our affairs to not be taking bodies, by my assumption. Understood Pariah?"
"Yes, Lady Reaper." The Pariah bowed its head in an act of submissive duty.
"You better, killing her without my charge was troublesome enough for punishment." Mistress looked down as Sarah's body floated back to the surface, laying on the solid ground," Although, killing such a thing would have been a waste of my energy, so that's why you're pardoned of punishment."
The Pariah just bowed its head lower, his eyes calm and unreadable like a murky pool. Mistress merely scrunched her nose in disgust at Sarah's body, knowing it was an Accursed who'd bumped into her was revolting.
Her eyes glowed black as she raised her gloved hand, it's black pigment starting to shine with an unfathomable dark blue like the depths of a forgotten night.
"Mistress, will we be pardoned for losing the other soul?" Antoinette asked suddenly.
"Demon knights are not our responsibility. We need not fear." Mistress said looking at Antoinette before turning back to Sarah's body.
Or where Sarah's body should have been, but the girl's corpse was gone.
Simply vanished in an instant.
How? What?
Barely had her eyes left it before the thing disappeared.
"How? Pariah," Mistress turned to the Pariah," Where is the body? Did you move it without my permission? You're daring enough for such impudence?"
"No, Lady Reaper. It was not I." The Pariah said looking around," The body vanished from my perception aswell. Yet I don't understand how myself, for I did not cancel my Effect and the body should still be part of my Execution. My Effect is gone now though, expunged, rendered void?"
"You have to be lying. No one below the Rank of a Death Viscount can do that, not even me. It must be part of the Cursed note or even ... a Cursed transcript." Mistress looked around," Antoinette do you sense the body? You must have marked it when I left you alone with her."
"I did Mark her, but my mark was just cancelled now. As far as Vessels go, only a 4th Graved should be able to remove my mark, even then I'd be able to stop it, atleast resist. But this was... I didn't even know it happened until she vanished. And I was looking upon her with my eyes!"
"Maybe this is part of the curse, a necromantic puppet?" Mistress raised her gloved hand and Antoinette vanished, becoming four long ghastly arms that coiled around her menacingly," Either way, I'll destroy it, and scrape what ever remains of the soul."
The Pariah opened his hand and a medium long obsidian black scythe with a bone blade appeared from his shadow. It radiated danger like the fang of a Black Mamba, looking at it struck an instinctive feeling of dread.
The Pariah held it with an easy and strong grip, his eyes looking around, feeling the presence of something gazing upon them all.
But where?
Whoosh! Crash!
A dumpster shot out from the back of the alley, flying towards them like a speeding car. The rancid stench barely clung to the projectile as it zoomed to them with the intention of murder.
The Pariah jumped up and bashed it away with the side of his scythe, hitting it as if it was a ball, not a ten ton metal box of trash and waste.
He narrowed his eyes, not seeing the culprit, before landing back down with grace.
Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!
Several pieces of scrap and trash flew towards them from all over the alley with deadly precision, but none of them panicked. Mistress snapped her fingers and Antoinette struck with the savagery of a hydra, smashing everything away before it reached the two of them.
The Pariah was holding out just as easily, his scythe flashed around him with lighting speed, it's movements close a to blur, everything coming his way was sliced or knocked away with contempt.
After several minutes of the trashy assault, it suddenly stopped and nothing else came to strike them. Silence returned to the alleyway like a shameless tramp, making them even more anxious and cautious. There eyes and ears were attentive to everything, yet for a full minute nothing came.
"I believe it fled Mistress." Antoinette said softly and her Companion lowered her hands, looking around before giving a sigh.
"Perhaps you are right, it might have been nothing but a distraction whilst it fled. We'll need to inform the Chancellor of a necromantic puppet loose in the city, so others are aware." Mistress folded her arms and gave a humph," To think, I was around such a thing, I feel soiled, as must you Antoinette."
"Yes Mistress." The ghostly hand appeared back on Mistress's head."I must be more prudent in my-"
"ERA Codex:{Ritual} Wailing Masses."
"Waaaaaaaaaaaaaah!"
"Ahh!" The Pariah and Mistress cried out as a horrid screeching echoed through the walls, ground and their very bodies.
Cacophonous screams and wails vibrated the ground and walls, crumbling and cracking stone, as if thousands were shouting in grief all within that alley.They both covered their ears, which bled from the noise bursting their eardrums like balloons.
Antoinette reacted the worst, since her true body wasn't tangibly manifest, she didn't hear the world but felt the vibrations through her hand, which was her main body manifestation. The Wailing resounded through her like razor blades, tearing through her without mercy, breaking her insides and crunching bones.
Her hand convulsed, fell off Mistress's head, then layed limp on the ground, twitching like a crushed roach with its legs up.
"Antoinette!" Mistress grabbed her Companion and put her on her waist, feeling a wave of relief as Antoinette turned into her grey belt. She wasn't fatally injured but she was unable to fight, so it was Mistress and the Pariah now.
The Wailing stopped abruptly, silence returning but this time filled with danger and looming hidden threats.
"ERA Codex: {Ritual} Pharoah's Preparation" The Pariah said and his scythe glowed a brilliant gold before he he threw it into the air.The scythe paused and froze for a second, before shooting down like a golden slash upon the deserving.
Vhoom! Strike!
"There." The Pariah pointed to a spot ahead of them, where his scythe was stuck in the ground," That's where it's hiding... but that is... the shadow pool?"
"I thought you said your 'Effect' had been cancelled, how is the pool still there?" Mistress asked her hands placed in a fighting stance. Her gloved hand glowed a deathly blue, her pitch black eyes filed with cold fury.
"I don't know. I believed the 'Effect' was gone when I felt my connection with the shadow pool and the girl disappear, but i think the Effect was still there, it's just... I don't know how, but I think, she stole it from me. It became her Effect."
"Besides how that is impossible for a mortal, the only way someone can take another's Effect is if they are equal to a Monarch or-"
"My Vessel." The Pariah finished just as something moved by the scythe's shadow.
The shadow of the scythe expanded as something arose from its unknowable depths, like a rising moon, the very light seemed to dull to make way for it. An ivory coloured hand shot out from the shadow, reaching out to snatch the air like a victim.
The shadow expunged it out finally, as if unwilling and unable to hold such a creature anymore.
There was a translucent grey woman before them, one of such deathly beauty and horrific detail that a mortal would quiver from just a glance alone.
The woman wore a satin dress of intricate threads, tattered and yet whole in their vestige, much like her hair with the same lustrous soulless grey as her dress. She had mismatched claw like hands, one hand had five long fingers whilst the other had four, ruining what could first be assumed as her near perfect symmetry.
Legs were nonexistent for this being as the lower half of the woman was nothing but her flowing tattered dress, giving a ghost like vibe of ruin and despair. Above her dark grey lips and pale nose was a veil made of silken knots and grey interlaced links like a headress, from which her eyes were hidden from the world and all it's pain. The wind seemed to curve towards her hair, making its tattered length sway, the hair emerged from her veil like a raving prisoner.
The woman had her head faced towards them, as she slowly reached down and grabbed the scythe before throwing it at Mistress with unimaginable force.
Whoosh!
"Ugh!" Mistress raised her gloved hand to block it, but was flung back towards the wall like an insignificant fly.
"ERA Codex: {Ail} Bubonic Investment" The Pariah grabbed two concealed daggers from his hip and charged, his blades oozed a foul black aura of disease and decay.
"Whoever you are, you'll pay for wearing her face!" The Pariah shouted as he jumped up and slashed down, carving the woman into three pieces.
Atleast he would have if she didn't grabbed his wrists and slam him into the ground like he weighed next to nothing. She did not do this once or twice but several times, without pity, pause or mercy.
Slam! Slam! Slam! Slam! Slam! Slam! Slam!
Just when it seemed she had stopped her violent attack, the woman grabbed him by the throat and rammed him into the wall of the building next to the them, causing a sizable crater.
Slam!
"Ugh!" The Pariah coughed up blood as he feebly tried to raise his hands, unfortunately for him the woman wasn't done.
"Waaaaaaaaaaaaaah!" She screamed point blank on his face, and like he was hit with a sonic blast his head was bashed deeper into the wall as the stone cracked.
Crack!
"Waaaaaaaaaaaaaah!" She screamed again and his blood vessels popped like tiny burst pipes.
She did three more screams until the wall crumbled like wet paper and the Pariah was a bleeding mess on a pile of rubble. His body was damaged within the scopes of keeping him alive but in agony.
Only one eye was still whole, his skin had been flayed off like a potato, whilst his clothes were bloody and his skull was cracked mostly exposed to the night.
"Die Demon!" Mistress shouted as she jumped up from the shadows.
"ERA Codex:{Execute} Hunting Hounds"The woman said in a soft and hypnotically numb voice.
The Pariah and Mistress's eyes went wide as they heard the woman use The ERA Codex, something a mortal and a necromantic puppet could not do. Only Wardens of Death had access to it, and only they could use it. There was no way this woman was a Reaper, which meant... She was...
"A Vessel." Mistress said weakly before The Effect fell upon her.