CHAPTER 6

“Hahaha, did you see that guy with his head off? What a dumbass, hahaha!” Allen Reen was such an asshole at a very young age. Gardon couldn’t believe his cynicism.

They were inside some kind of warehouse, deciding what to do next.

“We need to find that woman.” Nova said, trying to ignore the kid.

“My name is Gardon, what is yours?”

“I’m Allen, dude.”

“I didn’t ask you.”

“Nova. I’m a police officer, but I guess that doesn’t matter now.”

“It does matter. We need someone like you to bring order to this place.”

Eyes were staring at them from the dark.

“The law is useless when you’re in a deserted city, with a few strangers, and a device that tells you to kill each other.”

“Don’t lose hope.” Gardon smiled.

“I refuse to do that. I won’t kill anybody. We are all in the same situation here.”

“Yes, we need to cooperate.”

“That’s right.”

“You deny your contract then?” A wicked, malicious, snake-like voice inquired.

As quickly as possible, Nova retreated to a corner at Gardon’s right side. She pointed the gun between some giant boxes, where the shadowy figure was lurking.

“Who are you? Show yourself!” Gardon imposed.

Allen got to his left, scared to death.

The creature slowly came out from the darkness and showed itself. It was a horrible abomination of blackness, a complete shadow with a human body, no hair, no skin, and no lines whatsoever to describe even his bones. He only had a wicked stitched smile in silver color and two radiant eyes that couldn’t resemble anything else of this world. But the most notorious feature of his body, were those bloodstained and large claws he had for fingers.

Allen pissed on his pants. His eyes wide open, his mouth also wide open, and tears sliding down his cheeks.

“Kids are no fun.” Mordoll -the shadow- said, licking his claw-like fingers. Gardon took a fighting stance, showing his fists to the creature.

“You’re a monster…”

Nova’s legs froze; she couldn’t move at all.

“Wrong, you karate freak! I am ME, Mordoll, the Deliverer of Death!”

Right before they could get a reaction, Mordoll slipped rapidly towards Allen and grabbed him by the throat, raising him from the ground and nailing him against the wall. He approached his face, slowly, terrifying.

“Do you want to kill somebody, my child?”

Allen babbled incoherent stuff and couldn’t form a single word. He was crying, sweating like a pig, and feeling how his nerves were trembling in fear.

“Your stench…” The creature continued, examining the kid’s face. “You mock others yet you cowardly hide behind them when you face danger. You cannot kill anybody.”

“D-Don’t kill me, please! PLEASE! PLEASE!”

“L-Leave him!” Nova pleaded, pointing the gun at Mordoll.

“Don’t kill me! I wanna’ live, I’m sorry, I wanna’ live! I WANT TO LIVE!”

Those were his last words. Mordoll crushed his throat; a river of blood came out of the boy’s mouth, his cheeks went purple, his face went pale and his eyes looked grotesquely revolting. Tears of blood now came out of the eye sockets with extreme pressure, until Mordoll’s claws sank deeply into the kid’s skin. He then tore it apart, slashed right through it and took out the trachea. Afterwards, the shadow tossed the body to its right and received two gun shots at close range, in his chest. Nova had fired the gun, sweating, panting very nervous. Nothing happened.

“W-What… What are you? I shot… I shot you…”

“My dear slutty princess…” He ate the trachea in a mouthful. “…You must have some very delicious insides, I presume.”

“Stay away from me!”

“Run.” Gardon, determined to stop the creature, ordered her. He wouldn’t take his eyes off of him.

“What?” Nova, panting, shouldering a great amount of fear, couldn’t believe what she was hearing; she was supposed to say that, to protect him, not the other way around. She was supposed to protect the kid, yet she failed to do so. She was supposed to protect Minato, yet she did nothing to prevent it. And now, another civilian was going to die because of her.

“I won’t run.” She claimed, pointing the gun at Mordoll.

“It matters not.” The shadow replied back. “You refuse to follow the instructions of this little charade. You will not extinguish the life of those you pretend to care for, to save your own soul. You are beautifully hypocrite, my dear dyke…”

“Shut up!” She shot again. Nothing happened. “I will kill you and get out of here, you’ll see!”

“Ah. Exactly what I wanted to hear.”

“Leave her alone!” Gardon, enraged, moved against him. He tried to punch, kick and whatnot, but all to no avail; Mordoll evaded graciously all of his attacks. And the bullets coming out of Nova’s gun did nothing but to disappear inside his body, inside his darkness.

“No…” She realized it was useless. “We can’t hurt him…”

“I will destroy you!” Gardon’s final words echoed through the entire warehouse as Mordoll ducked the direct punch from the giant man, and penetrated his chest with his five claws.

Gardon’s eyes widened. He also frowned. Nova was speechless, staring like a frozen idiot at the man’s demise. Blood stained Gardon’s garment as he fell down backwards when Mordoll took out his claws.

“Do you still refuse to kill somebody, my little butterfly?”

Nova shouted with passion; screamed with all her inner fears exploding in an instant. She dropped the gun and ran out of the warehouse, only to find herself surrounded by the ghostly creatures with long black hair and wicked smiles. Astonished, cowered and totally stressed out, Nova looked around, screaming again, and again, and again… All it took to finish her off was a bunch of those white ladies, grabbing her, dismembering her, crushing her head with their bare and pale hands. They first took her left arm, ripping it off, seeing how blood, veins and bones alike were left hanging horribly from the distorted shoulder. Then they destroyed her right leg, tossed it to the bloodstained ground and continued to rip everything they could off of her. As a final act, they all gathered around her until she could not be seen any longer, suffocating between brumes of blood and her agonizing screams.

“As usual.” Mordoll said, upon staring at the spectacle from atop the warehouse. “Nobody survives and everybody dies.”

CHAPTER 7

Atop the brown roof of a deserted house, lone as many others, and its structure as overviewing as a dojo, Giselle felt the gentle breeze caressing her clothes and hair while looking at the alleys near the lake. A port could be spotted northwest and, in the opposite direction, a tennis shoes factory populated only by machines working as if their masters were still alive, managing them. 
The woman held the shimmering blade pointing down with right hand and the handle with the other hand, this while the breeze started fading away. The way it divorced her skin of such beauty and melancholic abyss, seemed painful enough to make the air tremble in another direction. Now she, torn apart by the abandon of her hope, welcoming the unexisting wounds against her soul, felt alive... one more time. 
And now that the silence began its government throughout the whole city again, the girl knew she had an opportunity to erase the madman and its shadowing shape off this saddened lands. So she sheathed the katana, carefully not to make any noise whatsoever while she saw the shadow near the factory going through those empty streets surrounding some lost buildings. This that was going to happen next, she knew she could not stop...

Just like always, Mordoll had killed the participants who refused to follow the game’s structure. Argento, on the other hand, had been a marvelous surprise; in previous games, nobody had dared to kill another stranger, and the ghosts, and Mordoll too, destroyed everybody. It seemed like forever and ever, Mordoll and Giselle were destined to be the only survivors. But now, it was different. Saguchi had tried to kill Jaqueline. For the first time in many games before, one person went mad, insane, and evil, wicked and disturbed enough to understand the situation better than anyone.  And yet another guest, Argento, had dared to commit to the game’s rules. Finally, there was Grace, someone who also wanted to follow the idea. This was fantastic! So long had passed since the fervent desire to murder was as alive as tonight! Mordoll knew he had to focus on this green-jacket woman who, just like that other preposterous heroine Giselle, managed superbly a powerful blade.

Giselle, however, had only one thing in mind, one mission, and could not fail this time. Not like before. Not anymore. She had to succeed or else…

Along came the shadows, evolving into one single piece, and gathering around like grand theft fouls. “Afternoon Delight” from Starland Vocal Band, was sounding in the cellphone.

-Act 1- 
The shadow enters the alleyway and spies the victim that felt safe. It is a she, and she is looking at nowhere, listening to that song, and thinking about her next course of action. The shadow watches. The shadow stands still. 
-Act 2- 
The woman goes away and the shadow chases after her but she does not realize the danger of this predator, looking fiercely after its prey. She goes away and the shadow chases her. ‘Tis slow, slow enough to portray silence, not revealing its position, never letting its victims aware. 
-Act 3- 
The woman enters a dead end, she seems trapped, and the shadow feels safe. The blood around his claws let single drops fall down to the murderous ground, the hunger revolts its insides and allows the shadow to smile once again. Shivers down her spine for she turns around and sees the assassin, those luminous eyes, that perverted smile, the blood around the shadowy claws. 
-Act 4- 
The shadow watches, the shadow stands still. This middle aged woman, brown hair, secretary type, is the victim and she feels the claws growing closer to her stand. The shadow slashes her away, he tears apart its prey and mutilation begins. The shadow, he, his laughter is heard around the place, his cynic behavior only reflects yet another shadow towards the walls as if feeding itself with the violence and blood, then it stops to contemplate.
-Act 5- 
The shadow, satisfied once again, simply gets out of the dead end, going back to the street, vanishing away. An awful, massacred cadaver is shown at the end of the street, engulfed by darkness, destroyed, disfigured, deformed and distorted. And a cellphone completely intact, receiving no reply at all to all the messages that it had sent hours ago, still playing Afternoon Delight.

“I hate that song.” Grace said when she arrived a few seconds later. But seeing how cynical and ironic was the fact that the song kept sounding as the background music for that horrendous bloodshed, put an evil smile to her face. When the song ended, she crushed the cellphone with her right foot.

“Stupid fucking bitch. I hope you enjoy your afternoon delight in hell.”

She then started laughing and left the place as if nothing ever happened.

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.

CHAPTER 9

Too late.

Again. She was too late.

The last participant, old man Sabak, was dead. Giselle found him lying near a garbage can at the end of a street. Why was Mordoll being so fast? Did he believe that most of the participants this time were weak mortals with no hope for survival? No. It was because he was so desperate to escape the nightmare as well. Sabak had four holes in the chest, and had probably bled to death, since there was a nauseating puddle of blood underneath him. The wounds, made by sharp claws, were still open. But why was he found in a place like that? Perhaps he was laying there because it felt like home; Sabak was a homeless man.

Giselle regretted her tardiness and left the scene. Nothing more to say. With the exception of Grace, all of this game’s participants were dead. If she could at least save her... but Grace, however, seemed like she didn’t have any intention of being saved nor did she have the need for a savior like Giselle, whom she apparently disliked a lot. Grace wanted to kill Mordoll, and then, perhaps, to kill her too.

There was no hope for salvation anymore then. Giselle needed to continue on with the ritual. Time was running out. But before she could even make a decision, the ghosts emerged behind her, blocking the exit in the dead end street. She felt that tumultuous pain in her stomach, in her heart. The possession. She fell down to her knees, with no way to defend herself with the sword. The ghosts were smiling, circling her and doing nothing, just like the last time; just like previous times, just like always. Her eyes turned red now. A vivid crimson light emanated from them, as her ghastly appearance returned temporarily. Stunned, she puked blood once more. It seemed the evil within her was returning faster than she thought. However, she tried to fight it; Giselle resisted as much as she could, trying to get ahold of her katana. It was only a few steps away, but that would require for her to crawl towards it, and grab it with all her strength, which was being drained by the mysterious energy residing within her. She stretched her right hand to where the sword was, while the left was being used to suppress her chest, the nearest location to the force’s core. Her gaze, her eyes, she seemed demonic, like a wrathful lion. The ghosts were still around her, smiling, giggling, and they were approaching even more. Soon, they would suffocate her and she would have to release that power. But no; she had to do something. She couldn’t end up like Mordoll.

The shattered sky showed the moonlight and a glimpse of it gave Giselle a little more strength, perhaps inner motivation, to suppress the devilish energy and survive again. She grabbed the sword and, upon barely touching it, regained control of her body. Her demonic stance disappeared and her beauty went back to normal. Giselle stood up, and at the same time she cut in half as many ghosts surrounding her with a perfectly circular slash. She danced with the sword, destroying every single creature around her. And it was because of the moonlight that she had returned to her senses; it had only given her something precious that she needed the most at that time: hope.

The luminous eyes, crimson as they were, turned off. Fog, because of the disintegrated ghosts, gathered around her. Giselle simply ignored it and walked forward, sheathing the blade, focusing on finding Mordoll. If he, somehow, managed to kill Grace, all would have been for naught.

She hurried then, trying to control the stress, powerful detonator of the malicious energy inside of her, running towards the little spot far ahead where she seemed to have located the shadow’s presence.

Meanwhile, Grace had been lucky enough to finding him first.

“Interesting.” She said. “I was looking for the mouse and found the cat instead.” While walking on the grass, towards the center of the field, where the moon could enlighten the whole place, Grace was holding her unsheathed sword, and stopped with short distance between her and this "cat" she spoke of. Her smile told everything; she felt flattered and fortunate for being now the predator of the predator.  

“I was looking for you, too, my darling.” Mordoll replied.

He looked down on her as if she meant nothing but delicious prey.

"Food service." He said and took his scorpion-attack pose while his claws were readying for some more delightful bloodshed. "You have my gratitude for finding me first, Miss Cynical; it deliberately pleases my dreadful desires...”

“Save your gratitude for the ones who kidnapped me...” Grace said, while a strange breeze moved gently her yellowish hair. “They took me out of my boring and miserable life.” She laughed. “And brought me here, against my will, and trapped me, only to fight against someone like you. That deliberately pleases my dreadful desires as well.” Ended with a grasp, and soon, after flexing both knees, she instantly jumped forward, against the enemy ahead.

“Astonishing.” Mordoll was marveled. Pure adrenaline started running through his veins (if he actually had) as he prepared to receive his beloved similar. He smiled, too, for this was a wonderful excuse to celebrate his vicious cycle of caprices. So he made similar movements as the lady, just to imitate her and feel as human as possible to mock the stupidity of their lives.

After a sullen laugh, he jumped towards the blonde sociopath, having set his claws on this desperate motion of madness. Pure massacre.

Grace sent a horizontal slash toward the shadow’s stomach, clearly having a different intention in mind. Mordoll discovered this and jumped backwards, dodging, as usual, her first attack. However, Grace had planned something else, and when her enemy evaded, she quickly sent two other cuts that he had to block with his claws, apparently made of something very solid.

Surprises, how ironic would this melodramatic sequence be if not full of surprises?

“I have my fears...” He said. “Boredom is my worst nightmare.” he continued. “But you, my dear…” And crossed his reddish claws near his bottom parts. “You amuse me." This action blocked the girl's slash towards his darkened waist before the shadow leaned forward and jumped above her, turning around in the air to fall behind her and attempt to joyfully scratch her back, while smiling at his best for he was having so much fun. Said counter attack was going to be a diagonal scratch caused by his right bleeding claw, some black and sharpened steel capable of blocking its similar materials. His instrument of death.  

She saw the blocking of her first attack by those filthy claws; she even felt the uncommon steel of what they were made of, a brilliant surprise she did not expect when she rushed in. And it only made her enjoy the moment even more, smiling once again when the shadow jumped to land behind her and attempt to counter attack, alas, the counter was beheld by Grace who turned half around to her right, creating a shockwave of energy like a shield of light power which the shadow uselessly attacked and violently bounced off due to the pressure of the woman's force. She then turned around, completely towards him, staring as smiley as ever as if she was mocking the poor ungentle creature of the netherworld. Holding her katana with her right hand pointing down, Grace took one step forward and flexed both knees again, slowly lifting the weapon now held by both hands to her right with the sharp top pointing up. 
“What are you waiting for, poor little shadow...?” She questioned, standing in that pose for the remaining seconds it would take her enemy to rise again and continue on with the fight.

Behold! The fun. As he felt bouncing off the power shield of his not so vulnerable enemy, the shadow's laughter went insanely cynical, even standing up and taking his time to do so whilst the girl awaited a response. Nonetheless, he said nothing and only put up a vicious smile, the usual feature of his never ending charade. So he arose and stared back, his eyes looking as enlightened as ever, ready to rumble one more time. 
As he was taking the fighting pose again, he divided into a dozen boasters more of him, surrounding the girl in a dead end circle, all looking exactly the same. And before laughing cynically, the clones ran towards the lady at the center of the spectacle, feeling their bloody claws anxious for slaughter. 
He liked her; he wanted to toy with her and please his unhuman motives to tease his similar, another cynical being such as himself. A sense of sickening love. It was going to be too entertaining this time, for the real fun had just begun. 

Grace saw the whole thing unimpressed, still wanting the shadow to improve his fancy juggling into something more entertaining. However, this was enough to keep her busy for a while, twisting her own dark desires into this unexplainable light that came out of her inner strength, turning into energy. This energy helped her move quicker than before, jumping high when the clones rushed against her. They all leaped as well, surrounding her, right in the middle of the air where Grace began slashing them one by one with different moves, seeing how they were just turning into the same dark fog she saw before where the shattered sky caused the first commotion. 
Grace was happily living trapped in this city; she really couldn't care less about the game or the other participants, not knowing they were all dead and she was the only one left. Her only wish was to go on and on with this joyful nightmare. 
By the time she finished the last shadow, even after slashing and cutting them all in half before the black fog became clearly visible, her energy was higher than usual. She felt the power running through her veins, and getting ahold of her long blade, helping her to make all these acrobatic moves in the air, killing every single clone attacking her from every single side, she was truly happy.

As the shadows dissolved into darkness, creating a considerably big cloud of black fog, not too high from the field, Mordoll noticed the sky as unusual as ever, before jumping straight at Grace falling down due to the laws of gravity. She could have realized about this treacherous trap but instead became obsessed with her own power, giving the main shadow enough time to rush at her, kicking her stomach so hard she went crashing down to the small grass. He fell as well, but before he could rush once again towards the headphones lady, he stopped and looked at the sky without dismissing his attacking pose. Something was wrong; the air felt natural as if the rage of battle had ended, even feeling the gentle but cold drops of water coming from those greyish clouds up there. Then it became more frequent and rain made its presence on the whole city. The smiling shadow knew that the mission was close to an end and the screen would appear sooner than he had expected.

“Ah, I see...” Ironically, it only made him smile more. Then he looked at where his enemy had landed previously. “Seems like our little game will have to wait, honey...”

“Why?”

“You are the last survivor, didn’t you know?”

“I don’t give a damn.”

“You don’t know what could happen if you die, no? Are you really so eager to finish what we started right now? You are truly a very lusty goddess.”

“Shut up and fight me, asshole!” She sat up, angry, her smile had vanished. Nothing else mattered anymore right now.

“Such a mouth…” He admired.

“Come on!”

“I refuse.”

“Why?! Why?!” She cut the air diagonally, challenging him.

“You cannot kill me.”

And those words, that simple statement, sounding as truth as it was, deprived Grace from all her enthusiasm. She looked paralyzed; eyes wide open, mouth open, shocked. She couldn’t kill him? No matter how hard she tried? Had he been playing with her all along? Nonsense! Damn you, Mordoll! Grace had been doing so well all this time, fighting at her best, and to what? To no avail? She felt crushed. Depleted. Defeated. Even though she could laugh at that statement and take it as a challenge, or as a joke, Mordoll made her feel as if he was spitting out the absolute truth. Somehow, she felt he was right. But Mordoll hadn’t stopped for that motive; he had seen the only real obstacle between him and his prey. Giselle was the only reason he wasn’t butchering her right now.

Atop a nearby building, the master of swords, the beautiful warrior, was observing the field like a hawk. She could probably be the only one to defeat Mordoll and he knew that. But he had to do something before facing his real nemesis. He pointed at her; Grace looked that way and saw Giselle. Then Mordoll vanished into thin air. Escaped.

“Oh my fucking god...!” She yelled, ironically smiling and laying her head back to the resting place where she had crashed before, arms and legs outstretched to their sides, she started laughing.

“Goddamn you, Giselle! Why did you have to ruin everything again?”

The unbroken but malfunctioning headphones were still on her possession, resting around her neck between her golden hairs. And the rain, already spreading through the whole city, isolated all possibilities of success. Grace felt the failure once again. Powerless, she looked at the sky between several blinks due to the gracious rain, thinking about the probability of going back home as if she actually desired it from the very bottom of her heart. But she only stayed calm, freezing on the field and receiving this gentle rainy blanket on her body and clothes... maybe wishing to die right there... and never go back home.  

Giselle approached. 

“Are you all right?”

Grace laughed cynically.

“You saved me…” She mumbled first and Giselle was unable to hear her.

“Come again?”

“You saved me, didn’t you know? You fucking saved me!” Now her laughter became a hysterical choir. “He said that I cannot kill him! Can you believe that? I CAN’T KILL HIM!”

Then she laughed some more.

Giselle had nothing to say to that, because it was true. Mordoll had probably left for the very same reason she had in mind. And if that was the case, she needed to hurry again. No time to deal with Grace, I’m sorry; time was running out more and more. Faster. If Mordoll reached his objective, his new objective, after realizing something very important that he didn’t at the beginning, something that he should have realized, as a matter of fact, that could be fatal for Giselle. Because, if all the other participants were dead, then Grace had officially won the game.