It was a long and arduous trip through the shadowed forest of pines barefoot, or rather barely clothed, in the rain. Erza managed to pilfer from a nearby clothesline a heavily dampened bed sheet to wrap around her exposed form, but even that wasn't enough to hinder the on-setting chills traversing up and down her spine and through her quivering legs with each shaky step through the mud and the mire. As she tarried through the seemingly endless shadows of the forest, her mind continued pondering upon the mystery of her death. Somehow, someone was able to slip past her ever watchful servant Bartleby and creep their way into her secluded manor, past the lounging room and onward to her private study.....where the assailant practically gutted her with Aquilius. But still, think as much as she could of her grisly murder, the killer....still remained an enigma. Could it have been Bartleby? No.....Bartleby was too much of a coward to lift a sword, let alone one of his steely fingers to an aggressor. The killer could've already done away with him, then have been on their bloody way to ending Erza's life. But speaking of Bartleby......only he and his mistress knew the location of the manor in the forest, but.....there was also another who had such knowledge of the place and its surrounding terrain.... [i]Galard! So you bloody cheat, you thought you could take care of a few business assets, hmm? Eliminate the competition. Such I would expect from a sniveling coward the likes of you, too bloody superior to stain your own hands red! Well you rotten slag, I've returned, and for stealing away my soul, In repentance I shall have yours![/i]

Bitter was the black haired woman with crimson eyes, hellish embers flickering amidst the vengeful flames scathing Erza inside with a fearsome intensity. Oh yes....retribution would be hers. First, she would discover who it was whom Galard hired to commit such a dastardly deed. Then, with the very blade which snuffed out her life, she would quarter mercilessly the heartless bastard and scatter his pieces amidst Galard, before finally wrenching her hand deep into the sniveling merchant's vile chest and ripping out his atrocious heart.