The Dawn of the New World

Several streets away Claudia who was still watching the battle at the city gates through the dark swallows had her link forcefully closed off as another connection was created to the old groundskeeper without her permission.

She saw and heard everything that had happened in the last few minutes and realized Eurig had left the house. She went silent for a moment thinking about what to do next.

Right now her one and only objective was to find the 'Son of Chaos' and make sure he could meet the one who was responsible for giving her these new powers.

But just thinking about her again sent a cold chill down her spine and without even trying her mind started playing back the events she saw during her 'commune' to the other side.

It was like she was back there again, in the cold inky darkness of the void standing in the same place. (This is the continuation of the scene from CH-1032 'She-Devil')

The decrepit-looking hut walked out of the forest on massive avian legs. The legs were a 'simple' machination but rather some unholy magic that fused a living creature with an inanimate object.

Claudia could still clearly recall the far-off beastly howls and pained shrieks along with an orchestra of noises she didn't recognize. As dead as the forest looked, it was anything but.

The hut stopped in front of her and its front door slowly creaked open to reveal the hunched figure of her new patron but neither then nor at this moment Claudia felt any joy from meeting her.

In fact, standing in front of her she felt naked in more ways than one. It was like all her secrets, every thought and emotion she had ever felt in her entire life was left bare at this moment. There was nothing to hide- No, there was nothing she COULD hide from that being.

That was not a person, it was not a human being even though it took the shape of one.

And just as all the ambient noise died down Claudia heard a voice. Not its voice but the voice she thought it might have after seeing its figure, and that was the voice of an old woman. It sounded exactly as she imagined it.

"What…do you desire?" she asked.

Claudia's thoughts went out of control in an instant. The thing she had experienced from when she first opened her eyes till now all played out within a blink of an eye.

She saw herself being born, taking her first steps, experiencing her first loss, loving someone for the first time, and then being betrayed by them.

She felt colder and lonelier than ever before.

'Ah, is this what death feels like?' said her thoughts but her lips said otherwise.

"I want power. Power to do whatever I want, to take what I want, to be what I want. I want to be more beautiful than ever before, I want to be wanted, I want-" all her insecurities came bubbling out.

She wanted to say as much as possible because even if a single one of those things were granted then she could be happy again, she could be herself once more. For once in her life she would be content.

The old woman's lips arched as a weak cackle echoed from the forest.

"Granted," the forest spoke.

Yes, not the old woman, but everything else besides only her spoke aloud. A myriad of voices all speaking as one.

"All that you ask…will be given. The tools with which you can sculpt a future of your own liking but…what would you do in return for such a power?"

Her heart was threatening to pop out of her chest.

"Anything, anything you want, I will do it. Whatever it is, whoever I have to kill-"

The old lady extended her clawed hand to reveal a small black book. The book jerked and flew towards Claudia at breakneck speed, disappearing within her chest.

The front door of the hut slowly closed by itself but those old raspy voices continued.

"Find him! Bring him to us! Bring us the Son of Chaos so we may open his mind to the truth. Do not fail us…"

An ear-piercingly loud baleful laughter resounded within the forest. Its intensity grew with every passing moment until no other sound could be heard.

And with it the forest began to move, trees sprouted arms and legs with which they pulled themselves up to reveal a turbid darkness where the ground should have been.

The darkness swirled and an uncountable number of shapes began to materialize out of its depths. Things Claudia could have never imagined even in her worst nightmares were trying to crawl out from the gaping craters right in front of her eyes.

And one of these shapes that was faster than all others was on her before she could even blink.

She raised her head to look at the towering figure which walked out of a cloud of roiling smoke. It was a black horse with eight legs. Its tail, mane, and hooves were wreathed in the purest of crimson flames the likes of which she had never seen before.

Claudia tried to look away but the body wouldn't obey the mind. She had peered into its malevolent dark eyes and now could not look away.

There was a strange moment of understanding between the two as a string of thoughts edged into Claudia's mind. It was asking something of her.

That was the last thing she saw before waking up back in her new body. There was a spark of madness in her eye as she closed off her ears.

"I….don't ever want to go back there. That place is not for our kind!"