[img]https://i.imgur.com/GJY9ytS.jpg[/img] There was the sound of steel cutting flesh. A scream of pure agony after. Distorted sound that seemed to come from a world away, a blur of colors that was once Victorie's manor. Her vision slipped through the veil, as the old familiar feeling of cold death washed over her like a blanket. She'd disappear from this world, again. --- [color=8882be]"So you've died again."[/color] A hovering skull with reflective diamonds for eyes would hang over the princess's shoulder. His name is Piry, and he is a denizen of the Deathsphere. The princess sat on the stairs of a great mausoleum. The girl is the only bright color among this lifeless world of dull greys and the deepest blacks. It is a world between worlds, the eternal home of the abyss and void. Where gods, mortals, creatures of all shapes and sizes are inevitably drawn to as entropy claims each and everyone. Riku is more melancholic than depressed. Upset at herself for getting killed so easily, wondering why she took such risky actions when she very well knew the consequences. [color=8882be]"Is it finally time? Will you embrace us, chosen one? You will never fear death again, my dear."[/color] Piry would tempt her like a snake. "Embrace this wonderful power you have. Become our chosen. Our sav-" [color=ed145b]"I'm not doing that. Ever."[/color] Riku would refuse, and give the floating skull a stern look. [color=8882be]"Hehhehe. Okay Miss Reaper."[/color] He'd laugh. It was more like his teeth would chatter and shiver. He noted the scythe she held against her chest, standing tall above her. [color=8882be]"You'd need some of our power to continue. You won't make it on your own out there. The void can give you strength. Dark matter that cannot be beat."[/color] The princess is silent, seriously now more than other times considering his offer. Piry noticed her interest, and would gesture her down the large steps floating in the desolated wasteland. A single dead tree. A sycamore, sprouting up from the cobblestone. On one of it's limp and twisted branches, a bright shining apple hung. It's appearance is hard to look away from. [color=ed145b]"I don't like your illusions, Piry."[/color] Riku scoffed, finding it tasteless. [color=8882be]"Just a bite of the apple to return to the world of the living. Can't you see how chosen you are with this incredible gift? Your mother was so kind to you." [/color] The princess felt a strong urge to cut Piry apart, but she knew he'd just come back once again. Nothing dies here. [color=8882be]"The world of the living beckons for you. The first voidwalker, our princess. Go again and seize your destiny."[/color] Piry would say, with a chuckle once again. It is hard to tell if he is ever serious about anything he says. After concluding her moment of brooding, the girl would step up. She'd stride past the annoying skull and approach the pale tree, observing it a moment before plucking the apple from it's branch. She'd pause and take a deep breath, and look up to the endless gray sky. Though on closer inspection, it is no sky. It is a mass of undead bodies. Squirming and gnawing at one another in a giant throng of ghostly human shapes. They are groaning with pain, fear and hunger. The unwanted and forgotten undead, lost of identity and purpose. They cling and draw onto Riku, wanting her to be their vessel and their savior, their avatar for all their angry envy of the living flesh world. She rejected them with the bite of her apple. --- Back in Victorie's mansion, the princess's body shook with a strange energy. It was something the tower had never felt before. This black and purple glow radiated from Riku's corpse, which would convulse and shake with it's shocks running through it's body before laying still once again. There is then a gasp of air, like a first breath when one has nearly drowned. Life has returned to Riku, and she gasped and clutched herself, panting and clutching her pained wound. She slowly came back to her senses, blinking several times and feeling out with her limbs like they had been in a deep sleep. She'd cough and sputter, her wound still aching her. The deathsphere never fully healed her, it always wanted her to come back. With great effort, she'd slowly come to sit on her bottom, leaning against a pillar. The world is a stew of colors that are slowly taking shape. Again the princess has rejoined the world of the living, and cheated death.