[center] [h1][color=purple]H[/color] [i]i l a r i a[/i][/h1] [img]https://i.imgur.com/a2OKaOc.png[/img] [color=purple]"___"[/color] [color=888888]— Hilaria[/color] [/center] How long had Hilaria been denied an honest emotional connection to another being? When she asked herself this, Hilaria figured it had to have been more than a couple of centuries. Hundreds of years aimlessly walking this Earth, existing merely because. A life where one's sole joy was in the delicacies that had yet to be experienced. There was no desire, no ambition. She longed not for a relationship nor any sort of wealth or material item beyond the currency required to consume yet more foods she had yet to try. Meaningless, just like she imagined everything and everyone else to be. Purpose was, after all, merely a means with which to set oneself up for devastation. People were flawed, terrible things. They killed one another over the silliest of trifles. They abandoned over the most insignificant slight. Not to mention how many mistakes they made. And as she finally started recalling more and more memories of her life, particularly with her sibling, she came to understand something: She was still very much a person, too. Hilaria arrived at the scene in the park moments too late. A thunder followed her less-than-subtle entrance as if some form of applause, while dust and earth were kicked up from her landing. She waited not for it to dissipate, instead making a beeline for the Cardinal with everything she had. It, unfortunately, was not enough. Hilaria was too far away to prevent Ishtar's murder and any sense of purpose she once had drained out of her body in an instant, the failure of her objective becoming the impetus behind her cease in movements. She then fell to a single knee. [i][color=#F65772]Wherefore did fate rejoin us, only to separate us anew? Be suffering amid solitude mine own portion?[/color][/i] Her hesitation to accept her own feelings on the matter directly resulted in a belated arrival, which led to this terrible outcome. Had she been but mere moments earlier, the assassin's blade would have never found its mark, and she would not be suffering as she was now. The happiness, that foreign, uncomfortable happiness that she had recently felt twisted and bent until it was nothing but a throbbing in her heart. She knew this to be sorrow, and what followed was always despair. [url=https://youtu.be/1zAMJXZnJoY?list=LLj4QCJwB73XqFslY_UI3bXA]But... something else came.[/url] As she silently lamented the loss of the last remaining connection she had, she glanced up. Up at the girl who had stolen that away from her, and to the others as well. The explosion of the device that Viper had detonated, as well as most of the screams and pleading of others had all but become white noise to her, as she suddenly began to feel warmer and warmer. No, not just warm... but hot. This burning feeling stretched all throughout her person until it was the only thing she felt. [i][color=#F65772]A[/color][color=#F25572]h[/color][color=#EF5473],[/color] [color=#E95174]o[/color][color=#E64F74]f[/color] [color=#E04D75]c[/color][color=#DD4B76]o[/color][color=#DA4A77]u[/color][color=#D74877]r[/color][color=#D34778]s[/color][color=#D04578]e[/color][color=#CD4479].[/color][color=#CA4379].[/color][color=#C7417A].[/color] [color=#C13E7B]I[/color][color=#BE3D7C]'[/color][color=#BB3C7C]m[/color] [color=#B5397D]a[/color] [color=#AE367E]h[/color][color=#AB347F]y[/color][color=#A8337F]p[/color][color=#A53280]o[/color][color=#A23081]c[/color][color=#9F2F81]r[/color][color=#9C2D82]i[/color][color=#992C82]t[/color][color=#962B83]e[/color] [color=#8F2884]a[/color][color=#8C2684]f[/color][color=#892585]t[/color][color=#862386]e[/color][color=#832286]r[/color] [color=#7D1F87]a[/color][color=#7A1E88]l[/color][color=#771C88]l[/color][color=#741B89].[/color][/i] The realization that she would soon succumb to another emotion she had abandoned long ago was only the last [i]rational[/i] thought she had. Rationality was not the only thing to be evicted, as both sorrow and despair were vacated too, leaving nothing left but an unbridled rage. The surge of hatred and anger was enough to spark a metamorphosis in Hilaria, as well as her armor. The blood on her suit was slowly absorbed, her dark-gray apparel becoming dyed a purple-black and an ominous haze beginning to seep out of it. Her own features began to mutate, the hair on her head then turning raven-black and her eyes an eery gold. As a full helmet began to appear, Hilaria went through one last physical change in the form of horns that grew from her head, her helmet forming around them as it encased her head in stained metal. The beast's helmet faced forward. There were many people in the area around her sister's corpse. They all had their motivations, their allegiances, and their excuses. It mattered not with whom any of them allied with, what any of them were doing there, or what they had tried to do. The fact of the matter was that they all, without exception, were foes to be slaughtered. The crimson tint to Hilaria's vision made her nearly indiscriminate, her befuddled mind only barely registering Viper as a prime target. And with that, there was little else to do, was there? [url=https://youtu.be/79NxCXrO1nU]"——___———________————[/url][url=https://youtu.be/Fw3RB7xnb80]—————[/url][url=https://youtu.be/79NxCXrO1nU]____———————"[/url] The bestial sound that erupted from behind her mask no longer resembled anything human, but anyone could tell what it meant. The cry was that of a foe to all. It betrayed the inability to compromise, the futility of diplomacy, and the inevitability of indiscriminate conflict. Her initial target, naturally, was Viper. The ground where Hilaria stood cracked further as her body lunged forward, compelled by her harmful instincts. Her scutum was no longer in her hands, her intentions of disemboweling and flaying whatever she set upon making it rather useless to her. Hilaria would not be satisfied with Viper's death. No, in her berserk state, Hilaria would rip her to pieces, tear out her teeth and nails, paint the streets with her blood, and drag out every last painful moment as long as she could. To that end, she would suffer no interference by others. She could only be satisfied if Viper's blood was on [i][b]her[/b][/i] hands. Her red-stained vision still benefited from her Third Eye, and so that meant Celia was far from hidden to her. So, she was an obstacle to be removed even if, to an extent, they shared the same goals. The beast hesitated not. In her empowered and enraged state, she continued forward and forcefully swung her shotgun-axe down upon the occupied Celia with more than enough force to cleave her in half.