Die

After spending all morning in bed with Cera, I decided right now was the best time to tell her to come with me and find the witch's eyes I needed. At first, I was going to go without her, but I can't be apart from her anymore. My entire body and mind cannot function without her. As Cera was about to get out of bed, I stopped her by grabbing her body from behind and placing my hands around her stomach. I pressed my left cheek on her back, her smell rousing my mind with lustful thoughts and almost making me forget that I was trying to convince her to come with me.

"Cera… I need to go find a witch with beautiful eyes, and I was wondering if…" At that moment, Cera's Alm exploded and it filled the house with a terrorizing air. She didn't turn around, but the way the atmosphere felt scared me. I hugged her even tighter and mustered up the courage to finish asking her.

"I need you to come help me find them and bring them home. I need you to be with me because I can't go without you." Little by little, her power was dwindling as I spoke.

"You can think of it as a vacation, we just need to find her and take out her eyes then come home. So it might take a while, and I can't go by myself because being away from you for that long would kill me. So… please… can you prepare a vacation for us? One where we'll be able to enjoy each other's company while we're looking for the witch." I didn't realize I had raised my voice and was almost yelling while hugging her tightly until she gently tapped my hand.

"When do you want to leave?" She began brushing my arm with her hand and warm tingles spurt along my arm and into the rest of my body. Out of excitement, I moved up slightly and kissed the back of her neck.

"Thank you. I was scared you were going to say no. I don't think I can handle being away from you for that long." I kept kissing her as I spoke, with relief coming from every part of my body.

"I'll take you wherever you want, just tell me where you want to go, and I'll take you there. I'll start arranging things today and we can leave tomorrow." I pulled her back to bed and spent another hour indulging myself with her lips before she left to prepare for our trip.

I laid on the bed wondering how I was supposed to know which witch was the one I was supposed to find. I told the demon inside me I'd find the most beautiful eyes for it, but what does that even mean? I got out of bed and went downstairs to find a few maids and Viv slouching over their chairs and on the table.

"What happened to you guys?" I asked nonchalantly as I sat down at the head of the table.

They looked up at me like it was my fault that they were like this, but I hadn't left our room until now.

"Good morning, my lady." Noire walked in with my breakfast in hand and set the table in front of me.

"Morning, Noire. Did you make them work extra hard or something? Why are they all like this?" I brought up the soup to my mouth and waited for her response.

"Nothing to worry about, they just worked all night to clean up the house." Oh, I didn't know the house was that dirty. Knowing Noire, she probably had them clean the yard or something.

When I finished eating, I thanked Noire for the food and went to get dressed. I needed to leave Celest a present before we left, and I decided that taking out one of the thorns on her side would be a good present. While Cera was busy preparing for our trip and arranging the logistics, I cloaked myself in icy mist before sneaking out of the house and headed toward the castle. I had an idea of where she usually was, so I made my way to the castle. However, whether lucky or unlucky for her, I sensed her presence from a nearby estate that had the smell of blood oozing out, only to find her standing in the yard without going inside.

"Hey, you okay?" Looking at her back made me feel guilty for coming to kill someone that was already hurting this bad.

"Did you come to finish the job?" She asked without turning around and releasing her power.

"I don't know what you're talking about, but I was heading to the castle before I sensed your presence here." This might be a rough fight.

"Is that so? Why were you going to the castle?" Two small blades popped out of each hand and she seemed ready to fight.

"Well… I was heading there to kill you, but since I sensed your presence here, I made my way here instead." She slowly turned around and looked at me with tears in her eyes.

"So you weren't the one who killed my family, but you're an enemy nonetheless. I promise to hand your head over to Celest once I kill you. Last time she got in the way, but this time, you won't be able to get away." I stood still, waiting for her to finish talking and to begin attacking.

I wasn't quite sure why, but I felt at ease, even going up against someone as strong as her. Since the fight yesterday, I've felt different. I stretched out my arms in the air and yawned. Provoking her to attack me.

She appeared in front of me with her dagger and I lightly stepped to the side to dodge and grabbed her arm. She rotated her body when I grabbed her and kicked me in the stomach, sending me flying back into the gate. I used my ice to create a halfway ramp and slid on it to hang on it before kicking off from the ice ramp and blasting directly into her, punching through her right arm and disintegrating it with my ice as I flew by.

"I finally got your arm. Last time, I only scraped it." Blood waterfalled from the same shoulder I snagged my scythe into the last time we fought during the tournament.

She picked up her arm and threw it at me at tremendous speed, jumping on me and stabbing me on the shoulder. When I realized it, was too late to react, I put my hand on her stomach and created a fiery ice flower on my palm and tried to blow up her intestines before she let go off her dagger. A huge explosion occurred between her and the house, blowing the top half of the building away and leaving medium sized hole in her abdomen.

The sound of blood hitting the ground reached my ears before she fell over and looked at me with relief in her eyes.

"I'm glad it was you who killed me." Her blood stained smiled made me feel bad for killing her.

"I'm sorry for stabbing your shoulder, but this is what a fight to the death is like. To be able to hurt a prodigy like yourself makes me feel a little better about dying." She continued while coughing out blood.

"I know it was your wife who killed my entire family. I saw her this morning talking with Celest about it, but I'm glad it was you who killed me. I can't stand that cavalier attitude she has or her insouciant, hollow eyes-" I smashed her face into the ground with my hand and used all my strength to blow up her head, making a massive, shattered ice indentation on the ground that spiked up toward the sky.

"Die, bitch."