"Can't it be some other way?" Her tone cold as she felt her body already at the verge of unleashing hell on the person a few feet away from her. "Callista, I'm a fair being and I don't think that it'll be fair if I choose to spare Karlshhein and torment his kin. He'll simply ask for unravel."
"And if you do not extinguish his flame then I don't mind doing it all over again. Break him through purgatory till he no longer has his dignity, his purpose and worth nonexistent. To exist with no function. Thus I want you to make the choice, be it me or you to make the decision."
The hall fell silent, the person she had come to fear now lacked the threatening smirk that he once wore. "I'll do it my way. I don't care whether my secret will be-"
Her throat pierced with something blunt, something with digits that dug and squirmed down her gullet before completely ripping her throat off. Her eyes in complete disbelief as she fell onto the floor, Jarren's hand with a chunk of her flesh.
"Come on, you should know that fighting me is pointless or did Karlshhein not make it clear enough for you?" And with that her vision went dark.
"I'm assuming that you tried to fight him." Suspended in the dark void, there was only other being present. Karlshhein however his form wasn't humane at all. A being that had multiple heads, it's eyes crystalline that bled gold and where his end and start were out of her vision.
Pain flared through her skull from what she saw, as she began to shed tears that weren't hers. "I just can't let him keep on going with his rampage like that! Someone has to stop him!" Her eagerness was only met with a disappointed sigh from Karlshhein. "Little one, there is no defeating a being like the Pale-"
*Whoosh*
Before he could finish his words her vision shifted back to the hall. The sunlight peering through the glass ceiling, the warm air now felt cold as Jarren crouched above her. "Awh! I've always loved attachments. Made it more fun to see how far I can stretch them before they break."
Her eyes cold, wishing Jarren to be more than just dead. To experience fate worse than death. "Come on darling. Why do you think you're here. To prevent what happened to Karlshhein to happen to this world or happen to those around you."
Rejecting his hand, she rose to her feet ready to walk out however her body was out of her control. "I do appreciate that fire that you have but I've already chosen someone else to have it so I'll have to make you feel something else. How about apathy or disinterest?"
"Karlshhein, keep her alive for what I'm about to do." His motions quick as he grabbed her hand however before she could react, a new sensation of pain coursed through her arm. Bent in a way that she hadn't thought was possible, he kept on going.
Jabbing it inside her rib, her face wore a look of shock and resentment.
*Crunch*
Cracking her kneecap, she bent to which her eyes were met with his fingers that gouged her eyes and with a harsh rip pulled her head out of her neck. She was sent back to Karlshhein who wished her strength. "He won't stop till you are the pawn that he wishes you to be. Offer resilience for it to be broken and shattered."
Once more she was thrust back to the real world where Jarren had his hands rested behind his back. Quick to form a glyph, she threw it at Jarren who reciprocated it back to her at the speed of sound forming a gaping hole in her skull.
*Thud*
Thus the back and forth began. The glyph she had learnt used against her used to siphon her own soul. Her crystals would defect or used to kill her and physical interactions were the most brutal. "Come on you to do better than this." He chuckled, his leg pressing hard on her skull as she bled profusely.
Her arms torn off and with a finally step let her brain matter scatter all over. "It will be over soon. Merely bend the knee little one." Karlshhein advised however she fought back, her humanity kicking in by default and that was exactly what he wanted.
On her feet, she formed a crystalline sword that he dodged with ease before she was met with a taste of her own, a sword synthesised of shadow that pierced through her chest and mercilessly dragged it upwards splitting her torso in two.
Back to physical, both her hands were caught, her wrists bent and thrusted into her throat before an upward sythe kick followed burrowing her bones into her skull. Changing it once more to her newly taught glyph, she tried casting her dome shower attack only for the ground that she stood on turned into the night sky.
Suspended in the threads of cosmos, her body was decompressed, her lungs siphoned of any air and like a pimple her entire body burst. The process went in till she had lost count. But still she would fight back and he would continue.
Switching it to pyro, be it flay, incinerate or decimate her to atoms. He had a field day with her body while she bore the short end of the stick. Experimenting with her body, he came to learn the limits that he could push her before she snapped.
"I... I can't keep on going..." Karlshhein mused, his figure that once glowed like the sun had now dimmed to a moonlight's lumen. In the grand scheme of his game, Jarren knew that it was a matter of time before she gave in to his demand. "I'm sure that you can. You're a being that can shatter this plane with a mere breathe remember."
His words at the time now cane back to bite him. The sole reason as to why he was struggling so much to revive Callista was because of the restriction of the necklace Jarren had placed that would take a piece of his power and lace it into Callista. The more she struggled, the faster h would come to pass and she didn't know this thinking that it was Jarren was the one behind it all.
Another failed physical attack, it ended with his hand in her rib cage, clutching onto her sternum and ripping it out with his serpentine smile a send off to the abyss where Karlshhein would bring her back. His patience was eternal, hers was still bound to the linear of time.
"I'm afraid that this might be the end of me." His proud and haughty tone had now shrivelled into a faint whisper. Before she could voice out her cries, a punch to the face greeted her followed with a sythe to her skull resulting with an unorthodox lobotomy.
A joke that played in his mind as he went on with his spree. The time for a goodbye or a short farewell absent as he never once gave her a second to breathe. Brought back once more, this time his attacks didn't land on her body as she remained silent, glancing at her hands that were clean in contrast to the floor that was covered with guts, blood and organs.
She looked at Jarren who merely had his hands folded behind his back, his smile ever present. "Poor Karlshhein, only give weeks of bonding and now he's gone." His tone satirical as he barely held a laugh. She didn't lash out like she usually would. By now she died so many times that she had grown used to the pain.
*Thud*
Falling to her knees, she finally realized just what kind of game she was playing. She let out a sigh of disbelief as his figure approached her before crouching to be on the same level as her. "So do you understand just what I am. It's a shame that I can't delve into existencial unravel but I'll save that for later."
She felt his hand press on her cheek, a warmth that her brain refused to embrace. "So, have you understood to be my pawn in my game?" His tone light and casual as if asking for something mundane. Still, no response came which satisfied him. "Well it was this or mind control and well it wouldn't be as fun with the latter."
*Snap*
A snap of his fingers was all it took to clean the putrid Knighthood hall. Still in her trance, she was met with a kiss on her forehead. "Chuu~" And with that, he took his leave out of the hall as for Callista, she remained rooted in her position. In her mind, she was in the void that she had grown way too familiar with.
But this time, there was no Karlshhein to advise or comfort him. Only a deafening silence and a grim realization of what her new life had become. Reduced to nothing more than a pawn on a game however in the darkness of it all, she looked on the bright side. 'At least you're free Karlshhein.'
She gave a heavy sigh as she realized that she had now taken his position. Sure the remaining knowledge about the glyph was now at her fingertips but what did it mean. Recalling the friends she had brushed aside, it felt like a blur that she wished to forget as she rose to her feet.
This time the air around her felt calmer not with class or elegance but signifying something more or maybe something less. It felt as if she was mourning for someone. Herself or Karlshhein only she knew in her mind as she came to terms with what she would face.
Playing the games and theatrics of a horror for what, a spark that would wear off like a joke spoke too soon in his mind.
[{Don't worry, you won't have to bear the burden of living for long but I can't guarantee that you'll meet Karlshhein.}]
A message that her eyes played off without much thought as she made her way back to her room. The silence that lingered around like an unwanted guest.
*Two days later*
All kinds of notice were all over the school noting about the upcoming tournament in a week time. Jarren went on with his games while Callista had managed to mask her grief however those around her could tell that something was off. The silence that lingered around her was more than loud, it was suffocating.
As for her rank, she had long lost her interest in it. Sure her glyph was now on equal terms with his but at this point, it was a luxury that she could afford.