CHAPTER 8

Grace was a frivolous assassin; a frustrated gamer, a gore lover, a true psychopath, a merciless and depressed young woman whose only objective was to entertain herself. Why go back to the goddamned awful reality? This place was remarkable! In here, no laws existed nor forced her to reprimand her anger, to repress her feelings and to be the lonely loser she was back in her horrendous world. Fuck you, society! Fuck you, bloodsucking parasites with nothing better to do! In this place, Grace was alive. She was a goddess, chasing after her prey, with only one chance for survival. In this place, Grace was truly free. She didn’t need to kill one of the stupid, weak and pathetic participants, even though most of them were already dead; she wanted, she desired to fight against Giselle for all eternity if possible. That was fun. What was the fun in killing some fragile little human and go home? That was ridiculous! Too easy! So she wanted to continue living here, to destroy everything, to fight Giselle, to fight the ghosts…and to fight that new thing she had just saw.

Mordoll left in a hurry, unable to feel Grace’s presence, focused on finding the other participants. And she saw him. She had seen him murdering, like a massacre-loving maniac, that brainless bitch with the cellphone. It was marvelous. She wanted to do the same; to feel the ecstasy of slashing someone to death; to feel truly alive. And that monster, that foul, blackened and ghastly creature, had just given her an idea. Fight Giselle? Forget about that slut! If she managed to beat her, she would just die and Grace would go home, and what for?! No. Nonsense. Now she wanted something else. Tired of fighting the weak and useless ghosts, she had found a more vicious creature to entertain herself. She had found a new objective; she had found the Shadow Killer Mordoll, the Harbinger of Chaos; the Deliverer of Death.

Speaking of the devil, he wandered in circles for the endless night. The truth was that the sky, as shattered as it looked, prevented one from knowing what time of the day it was. And nonetheless, it felt as if time itself had stopped.

Mordoll wanted to find the rest of the participants, two more, and challenge them. He didn’t know if their intentions were the same as his previous victims. The girl looked fine, with murderous eyes, sadistic intentions and all that jazz. But the old man?

After a while, he felt the presence of someone he knew very well: Giselle.

"I've finally found you." She said, walking normally, maybe cautiously towards the shadow standing near the alleyway, not too far from the factory which could be seen between two other small buildings and a highway surrounding it. The night seemed eerily silent, like the calm matter of the mystery revolving everything in this deserted homeland of nobody. Some mystic breeze got a hold of the scene when the girl was walking, holding the sheath of her katana inside of it, with her right hand. She felt the air caressing her beautiful golden hair while standing in the middle of the street, outside a video store and a café. The shadow turned around to look at her, smiling as viciously as usual, while the woman just stared at him as if it was nothing but a mere puppet of the evil standards of this horrible nightmare.

"I have been following you for a while now... and this time, you stand before me as if nothing ever happened...”.

"Giselle." Said the humanoid creature, licking the blood sliding through his sharpened claws. He smiled... he felt like home, near the woman of the utmost desires, the legendary survivor.

"I admire you, my dear." He spoke again; his voice sounded raspy, almost as if he was a reptile, a murderous predator wishing only for more and more massacre. The shadow in love with the carnage of the unknown. His voice was cynical, ironic enough to taint those submerged in arrogance or even ignorance, if it could be said that way.

"Why must we always argue about such pointless matters? Isn't it enough to let each other deal with the situation as we please, oh beautiful maiden of the Seed? ~" And he proceeded to lick the blood out of his finger-claws. His tongue was a strange luminous organ almost as black as his whole body, with tiny little red lines all around it.

Giselle needed no words to express her reaction, holding the sword in horizontal position, with both hands on each side, almost ready to unsheathe and pose an attack.

"You killed everybody.” She realized. “I am too late, again. I have failed.” She mumbled to herself.

"Alas! I have forsaken my nature one more time!" He mocked, spreading his arms, about to engage the girl in such a confrontation. "If I kill every single participant of this precious stupidity, I will finally be freed from the curse, angelwhore." 
"How dare you...?" The warrior replied, unsheathing the katana and holding it with both hands while tossing the case around. Her eyes, not only filled with remorse, were grounded by some deep hatred ready to explode at this tempting moment of distress. 
"Come!" He challenged, laughing, contracting both elbows to reach the essence of blood on his claws now near his chest. His knees were separated and flexed enough to stand still in this attack pose, ready to fight the nun look-alike female.

"Please end my misery, oh sweet angelwhore... Come and save me from my beloved throne...!" He teased, licking his luminic lips. "How does it make you feel? Being abandoned by your friends, by everybody else... Being trapped in this facade, horribly never ending poetry of death... Does it sadden you...Princess...?" 
A glance from her eyes, and the shadow felt startled. Something beautifully unique was shown at that moment when the blade shone for a few seconds, making the shadow feel threatened.

"You will pay with your life for these sins you have committed, Mordoll. I shall now end your whole existence for all eternity."

Nevertheless, the fight did not start.

Clapping, Grace approached to the scene from the left side of the shadow, right side of "Giselle". Her katana was resting on her back, sheathed. When she stopped, her clapping ended as well. 
“I'm sure that yakuza guy is feeling extremely lucky right now, wouldn't you agree?” She asked ironically, staring at both of them, especially at the girl more than the shadow-like creature standing in front of her. Grace's smile was deliciously flattered by her good-luck finding. 
“I've been looking for you. We got separated after you were "possessed" when the ghosts appeared. I wonder if this creature is related to them. Or are you the ones behind this game? Which actually... I like... even more”. And now, waiting for an answer, ready as well to bring forth her sword, Grace stood there, looking only and specifically at Mordoll.

No time for words. Shadow Killer Mordoll, the Deliverer of Death, had his veins pumping in excitement. He jumped forward, with clear intentions of slashing the girls with his bloody claws, but they both evaded him, jumping aside. Now, armed with their similar weapons, the female warriors clashed with the monster’s claws, releasing cuts, producing energy blasts and slashing from all sides possible. However, Mordoll was acting like a spiteful fly; no attack could touch him as he made his quick acrobatics to dodge every single one of them. Giselle was getting tired of it, and she was more worried about the other girl’s safety than beating Mordoll. She had battled against him a dozen of times before, unable to end his misery. What sort of possibility could that woman have against him? Grace, on the other hand, was having the fun of her life; fighting with all her might, smiling savagely, steering the sword from left to right, up and down, and acting like a berserk with only one thing in mind: killing. Mordoll felt this, and enjoyed himself.

“Marvelous!” He acknowledged. “I have been expecting someone like you my entire entrapment!”

“Entrapment?” Grace inquired.

“Yes, yes! My entrapment! I need no introduction to a blood-thirsty demon like you, young lady! Or do I?” He laughed hysterically.

“I couldn’t care less about your identity.” She replied. “All I want is to fight.”

“Stop, please…” Giselle interrupted. “This doesn’t concern you.”

“I’ll attend you once I’m done with this monster.” Grace couldn’t take her eyes off of Mordoll, to what he replied:

“Monster, she said. What an ironic adjective!”

They went at each other’s throats again, this time ignoring Giselle.

This could be Giselle’s chance of ending Mordoll’s life once and for all, considering he was focused on fighting his newly met similar, but she could not endanger her, as she was only yet another victim of the game’s madness. A victim of the shattered sky.

Mordoll crossed his claws and blocked a mandoble from Grace. Then she attempted to slash him downwards, meeting the same trick again. And this continued on until Mordoll decided to counter attack, proving her that he was fiercer and dangerous, attacking in an impressive velocity. Several small cuts and scratches became visible in Grace’s clothes and skin, until little droplets of blood stained the pavement. They separated for a short instance, smiling at each other, and this led to Giselle’s opportunity. As soon as they jumped away from each other, she stroke against Mordoll on his shoulder with a powerful slash. He barely got away, with a small cut as a result. And with no time to reconsider his situation, Grace also attacked with a transversal move, but Mordoll managed to dodge with a few jumps that distanced him from the two girls. He landed on a roof atop the video store.

“At last…” He said. “…I have found worthy opponents. Humans that will resist my enchantments…” But he saw something not too far from there that caught his attention.

“Why are you following me?” Giselle asked to Grace.

No answer came from her because there was a sudden interruption by a wild tremor that shook the entire city, causing some small compartments and stores to break a little. Unable to stand still, Giselle leaned down flexing both knees while the whole city's electricity went off. Lights were shattered to pieces, every single one of them. After noticing this inconvenient surprise, Giselle frowned and stood up, whilst feeling the only light left in the sky: the moon. 
By the time she realized the sudden happening, the tremor stopped and calm reigned again after a few moments of eternal suspense. And finally, she saw no sign of the murderer at all, nor did she felt his presence in the nearest surroundings. 

The other participant was probably in the same condition as she picked up her sheathe to put her katana in, letting a shimmering spasm to be seen during this. She did not take her righteous stare off Grace while doing it, probably trying to make her feel responsible for the shadow's quick escape. Seconds later, seconds filled with uncomfortable silence between the two ladies, Giselle turned around and walked away a little until Grace spoke.

"Wait."

Giselle stopped but did not turn back at all. Instead, she replied:

"... We will meet again... after I take care of that maverick." She told her and jumped forward to above the video store, high enough to vanish like a glimpse of a flashing light.  

“Damn…”

Why the hell would she go away if they both had the same objective?!

Remembering those days in which she felt ignored, no one would care about what she did; no one would even realize she was there. And just for one moment she felt important, for the woman said "we will meet again". 
She, smiling, hiding the powerless pain she could not even embrace, stood there while watching Giselle vanish as fast as she usually was. Accustomed to be left behind such as this, Grace kept her smile and felt intrigued. She enjoyed the moment, she fell down with the tremor, she realized the lights were gone... this was perfect for a ruined world. The abandoned city of her dreams, no society or government whatsoever to control everything and everyone... except for that suspicious and unknown screen putting up the warnings and the rest. 
Silent she remained, looking at the spot where the other girl had disappeared to follow traces of the black man. But just at that moment, where the mystery involving the city and the shadow strengthening their bond and linked them altogether with Giselle, Grace acquainted a big understanding of the situation, which led her to a possible conclusion about it: Mordoll had been a human before and now he considered himself something different. He had gone insane. And Giselle was starting to go down the same path, that’s why she had looked possessed before.

Standing right there in the middle of the street, enlightened by the smiling moon up above, the warrior felt lonely for the first time in years.

In any case, she needed to find Giselle again.