Overlooking a part of the city, a lone woman stood in satisfaction as she watched Crimson interact with the twins that the girl had been traveling with for a while. She knew that it was dangerous for her to be this close to the girl that she swore to herself she would protect, but with the way that the said girl was acting, she had no choice but to intervene lest she ended up being a victim to this city's resident anti-robbery system."How predictable that you'd get yourself entangled in this mess~"Arya chuckled to herself as she exerted her power on her own body. Not having a functioning heart had been a novel experience, but with almost two years passing ever since she let herself get stabbed by her former charge, it had become second nature to the former Prime to manually circulate the blood inside her body. It was honestly a blessing in disguise, with the practice enablin
Imagination: one of humanity's greatest weapons second only to reasoning and slightly lower against boredom. As one of the two major ingredients for innovation, the ability to visualize and effectively lie to yourself and to reality inside your head is one of the best things a person could ever have in the face of adversity and lack of stuff to do. When combined with boredom, imagination could supply enough stupid ideas that at least one of them would take root and evolve into a semi-decent one. Granted, even if a stupid idea already became somewhat viable, it was still no guarantee that it would inevitably work as soon as you put your all into it. It'll still be up to Lady Luck if it'll work flawlessly, or if you've just wasted a whole afternoon doing fuck all as it goes down in a hopefully hilarious fashion.That was simply the nature of experimentation."I already told you,
A loud bang echoed between us as the rifle discharged a shot as soon as I let go of it. Understandably, I was shocked as fuck as I stood frozen with my ears still ringing. In front of me, Lace looked... unsurprised as she sighed in resignation?Did this happen often even back then?"As I was about to say, don't let go of the trigger rune if you had it charged," the older woman shook her head as she relieved me of my weapon, the muzzle still smoking despite the lack of gunpowder. Curious, but I won't question it anymore. "How did you even not notice that? It was already primed and glowing even before you moved to give it back to me."My jaw remained agape as I felt my mind still rebooting itself from the shock of the explosive shot. Processing Lace's question at the speed of a dial-up connection, I smacked my lips together as my consciousness finall
Cowering against the big flaming bird in front of me-*SCREEECCHHH!!!!*Huh? Did this thing just-*SQUUUAAWWWKKK!!!*Oookay? Apparently, this thing has a lot of things it needed to talk to me about? And it's pretty much-*SCREECH!!!*Oh, joy... Would you just shut up for a sec? I'm not even done with my thoughts before you respond to me...*SQUAAWWKK*I rolled my eyes at the flaming bird's response. It was just common courtesy, y'know?The phoenix visibly shook its head at my thought. I guess it finally got the message?Okay, on top of somehow responding to my thoughts, how am I even understanding this thing? My ears were still working properly, rig
"O-Oh! O-Of course..."Regaining my composure as the phoenix-turned-woman grabbed my attention, I couldn't help but still admire the form she took for this to even happen."The form I took is simply what you wanted for me to take in the first place, Master; your subconscious deemed this." the phoenix glared at me, this time with an intensity of a woman scorned. "Don't delude yourself into thinking that I willingly wanted to look like this, nor did I even want to change my form at all."Ouch... "Sorry...""Don't be," the phoenix tutted as a ball of flame engulfed her hand in a split-second, revealing what looked to be a clipboard while a pen materialized in a burst of flame on her right hand. "You're not sorry at all. And stop addressing me as 'the phoenix' or 'that creature'. You're more creative than that."
"crimson...."I was dreaming... I knew I was dreaming... The lingering pain of burning flesh... and yet my skin never flaked from the phantom pains..."Crimson...."Instead, my body was engulfed by the sheer sense of overwhelming disappointment; of regret so immense that it threatened to make me spiral into collapse... And yet I didn't mind it.I was used to it, after all."Crimson!"Opening my eyes to the familiar visage of Lace trying to shake me awake, the only thing replaying in my mind was my conversation with Ica; my so-called power made manifest. She had wanted to burn me to a crisp, and yet she didn't. Rather, couldn't. She was a part of me, and I was a part of her, most likely. Our similar appearances were a dead giveaway in that regard. 
Time moves forward. That was the very essence of the world, right? Time and space were the two fundamentals laws of the universe. Movement would not be possible without time moving, nor is it possible without space existing. The two immutable constants of the world...It was always a daydream of mine to utterly break them for my own benefit."How much for this pot?""Two silvers, sir."Oh, how I wished for the ability to control time; to stop it, or even make it slow down in the littlest sense. Such a power was world-breaking, to the point that it was constantly portrayed as the ultimate ability. A literal World that one could access with but a simple thought.Hehe... Get it? it's the World?"What're you giggling about, Crimson?"Sigh
"E-Excuse me?"I was taken aback as what I could only describe as the ultimate soccer mom suddenly wedged herself in between myself and the kid I was trying to help. Beside me, Lace visibly scooted a bit to the side as I was left alone to deal with someone that was possibly an irate mother with a mean streak a mile wide.And wouldn't that be a surprise for someone that had to deal with shit like this for a good portion of her life..."You heard me!" the woman leaned closer to my face as she erupted with the intensity of a flowing volcano. "Keep you filthy peasant hands of my son!"I resisted the urge to roll my eyes at the woman that was now cradling her kid like he's the national treasure. Then again- Wait... Did I hear that right?"I'm sorry, ma- err... lady," I unconsciously winced at my