Marina had been to the slums a few times throughout her stay in Prehevil.
And while she didn't quite explore them, as much as she hovered around the edge…
But she at least knew it wasn't as bad as others made it out to be.
However, it was while walking, that she just had to shove her foot in her mouth.
"Termina is upon us!!!"
A deep voice yelled, the image of a man wearing a trench coat messily cleaving through the neck of a man searing deep inside her head.
Termina, that term again.
Marina hummed weakly to herself.
This wasn't a drill, but at least this part of her would find some use.
Self-hypnotism was prevalent in the Vatican, required for many rituals and spells. A proper mindset was just as important as a sacrifice or how much attention one wanted to bring to themselves.
Instantly, a cold feeling pressed against her back, stripping the panic responses from her body.
"We need to move, now!" She had cautioned Bella, grabbing her hand to pull them away from the situation…
Only for the woman to stare dumbstruck.
Marina tried searching for what she was so awed by, but failed to understand what was the point.
Was it really her first time seeing violence?
"Come on, Bella! We have to-"
"I see someone there," The mechanic mouthed, finally taking a step forward. "We have to help him. He's going to get hurt."
He's deadweight. If he can't see and get out of danger, that's his fault. "Why do you care?"
"Because he was just at the wrong place at the wrong time!"
Like a flip had been flipped, Bella rushed into the fray.
Just as she was about to reach the scene, Bella produced a wrench from a compartment on her waist. She brandished it with the awkwardness of a newborn fawn stretching its legs.
However, the rigidity of her stance said something else.
She wasn't afraid to use it if need be.
Abella would save the salary man, whether he even deserved it or not.
Marina stood stunned for a moment. The logic inside her mind unable to compute what led the woman to risking her life for someone she barely knew.
Was it attraction? A previously forgotten relationship that Marina just wasn't seeing?
She didn't know.
However, they would still need a mechanic trying to enter the main city of Prehevil…
Damn it, Bella, why did you have to be so useful, Marina grit her teeth.
Joining her companion, she was just barely able to find Bella get into a clash with the axe man.
The mechanic repelled a strike with the shaft of her tool, countering with a heavy backhand. Her attack finding no purchase, due to its shorter range.
"Woman, how dare you strike back!" The crazed lunatic bawked angrily, roaring his anger. The action causing his trench coat to spill open… Showcasing how he went commando underneath. "I'm going to show you…"
Something was wrong, and it wasn't just because her foe had shown himself to be a nudist- or that his right eye was actively trying to make an exodus. But because of the set of tools he was packing.
Not only was he wielding an axe, but his penis also seemed to have something attached onto it.
It evoked images of a lobster, or spider having gripped onto him like a demented snack, the thing having turned dark, and occasionally hissing…
Hissing?
"Bella, look out!" Marina warned, her words falling on deaf ears.
A wide swing created distance,as the axeman dodged. His member detaching as it plopped to the ground.
Shit!
She didn't have a weapon, she never expected to need one despite how often her life had been in danger.
Marina had been too lax, and that was her mistake… She wasn't going to get other people hurt because of it.
"Equivalent exchange, my mind, my sanity," she chanted, her voice layering over itself.
The world bent, the shape of reality conforming to the spell.
But, she hadn't finished.
Who was casting it?
The vortex closed, as the final words were uttered.
"Cleave…" A faint whisper, it cut through the air with a finality.
The phallic member writhed. Split down the middle, as it bled out.
It didn't have the chance to do anything, thankfully.
But who was it that helped her?
The pressure of the unused spell weighed on her mind. And with the woodsman coming back to strike, she had to help where she could.
Sighing, Marina continued her chanting. "In order to harm another, an equivalent exchange must be made. The toll for which, I shall pay in blood. Violent one, strike down mine foe, desecrate his corpse."
Once more, the spell took shape, forming clearly as a circle over the woodsman's arm.
Longer chants made the spell take less of a toll. Trying to shorten it like she had earlier would have ended the fight early, but left her just as crazed as the woodsman.
It was why a mage's greatest weapon was time to prepare, not the spells they knew.
"Scales of Vinushka's Son, Duality of Life and Death, Twin Meteors of Humility."
The circle spun, tightening over the woodsman's heart.
"Be the subject of my HURTING." The woodsman moved, like it knew where the spell would strike, offering up his arm instead of his life.
"Bella, now!"
A roar bellowed from the mechanic, her wrench raised high to strike down her enemy.
Plop!
No time was spared. The moment the arm fell away, Abella bludgeoned the woodsman's skull in.
In an instant, the woodsman stood still, axe moving to his face.
However, Bella didn't just stop at one.
Two, three, four.
His skull caved, eyeball popping out, as it scurried away on the floor.
"Stomp it out!" Marina yelled, running to step on it, but missing it entirely.
"Shit!" Failing entirely, she huffed, fists balling up as she stared back at the scene before her.
Two dead bodies, one bludgeoned to death-a bleeding hole where its left arm should have been, the other had its head chopped off.
Looking at both of the bodies, she felt her chest grow hot with rage. A constant heat that pervaded her emotions.
Calm down… Calm down!
Marina tamped on her emotions with an iron fist. However, it didn't stop the urges of the Violent One to take over. It just allowed her to choose the least severe option.
Her feet kicked at the corpse, ruining her pristine shoes, despite the effort she took in making them look perfect. She dirtied her socks… and her skirt, she would have to clean them out thoroughly… She looked like a mess, a disgusting mess.
Tough enough that she was born in a body like this, she just had to ruin that as well…
She hated everything about herself.
Gods above, if she could just rip it off and be done with it!
"Marina…"
"I hate it." She muttered, her stomps growing more erratic. "I hate it, I hate it, I hat-"
"Snap out of it!" Bella shook her, carrying the girl off her feet as the mechanic plopped her on the ground. "He's dead… He's… He's dead…"
It was hard for Abella to say it. She was the one to deal the final blow, after all.
Although, it seemed like the salary man… Tanaka (Was it?) was dealing with his own troubles.
"He- He-" The suit pointed at the corpses, sock and adrenaline coursing through his veins. Enough to just freeze.
"Yeah, he's dead." Marina had to repeat for him, sighing a deep breath. "But you're alive, and that's what matters the most."
"So… the guy on the tower wasn't kidding about the killing, huh?" Abella choked out, her fist clenched tightly.
"It's better to be on guard from this point on, honestly," Marina sighed, wiping away the sweat on her face.
"Right…" Bella finished, slumping against Marina as they took their first steps into Termina.
"I need a stiff drink…"
"Me too, Mar, me too."
{---}
Samarie had helped…
So why were they getting closer!
It frustrated her to no end.
Though, whether that was due to the hurting spell, or her own personal feelings, was harder to pinpoint.
Still, her point was that only she was allowed to touch Marina like that…
It felt wrong. Like she'd been wronged.
The sensation was one she had never felt before.
She tried her best… So why didn't she at least acknowledge her efforts…
Without her there, who knew what could have happened, had the penis not been destroyed before it did damage?
Maybe she was being too hard on herself again… Maybe she could simply talk to her?
No, she just couldn't.
Showing herself in front of her Marina like that? Wasn't it too shameful?
Sure, she knew she eventually had to show herself… But now?
It felt like spiders crawled under her skin, the thought sickening her…
Maybe…
Maybe she didn't have to actively show herself?
The idea struck her like a train.
It felt weird to her senses, if only because it made sense, but also sounded insane!
How?
How would she be in front of Marina without revealing herself?
An idea so antithetical to itself, that it wrapped back around to being genius…
Samarie started from the second story window, the woodsman's house serving as a perfect vantage point to watch over her beloved's sweat soaked form… If only the view wasn't shared by those conniving bitches…
For them, Samarie had other plans. But those could wait for later.
Now, she needed to find a way to hide her… self.
Searching, she found a closet in the house. Possibly owned by the wife of the crazed lunatic outside… But his wife was nowhere to be found all throughout the building.
That was in spite of there being two of every item in the house, it seemed like the woodsman was alone… Well, so far as she checked, anyway.
The basement had remained closed by chains. For good or bad, she wasn't going to touch that with a ten foot pole.
Inside the closet was women's clothing, a closet full of clothes she had never dreamed of owning.
Limited as her imagination had been, she still dreamed of owning something like this.
The images she had seen of others in the Vatican…
It made her weep in envy every time she peered into their minds.
Though, with the amount of options available to her, Samarie couldn't help but choose options that were relatively simple looking, if a bit revealing.
Was it to project confidence? Did it accurately hide her identity well enough for Marina not to notice?
It was only when she completed her outfit, with an oversized witch's hat, that her ensemble was complete. And her vision of who she wanted to be in front of Marina was realized.
A form fitting black dress, fashioned from a long strip of black fabric, little more than a long ribbon. However, it still covered all of her abnormalities, showing only what she wished to bear. And a set of platform boots that made her tower over most others, adding onto her already lanky frame.
Although…
Now that she was looking at it, Samarie couldn't help but be drawn to this version of herself that looked back from the mirror.
Everything that she once saw as an abnormality on her body… somehow amplified her beauty
Where previously, she thought her pale skin made her no different to a ghoul, here, it made her look like a cold beauty, untouched by the world, preserved in innocence
Her long malformed limbs. Once detractors, now evoked images only found in those magazines. Of women who were the height of the standard, who could boldly show it all to the world.
A confidence she could scarcely imitate only through wearing a different set of clothes.
She was like a gothic beauty of old, the archaic style complementing her features….
She was beautiful…
And her blessing agreed too, as oddly as that thought sounded.
A beam of light appeared from her navel, moving to cover her whole frame.
In an instant, it swallowed her outfit. Returning Samarie to the clothes she came in with.
But it didn't discourage her. Her thoughts never once thinking she could only express herself through what might as well have been a different person
Instead, it motivated Samarie to make her current outfit shine as bright as her disguise did. So that she wouldn't be so shy when Marina eventually found out.
'If I cannot do it for myself, then I shall do it all for you.." Samarie's heart skipped a beat, and yet, she looked proudly at herself.
Looking back through the glass planes of the window, she gaze upon Marina's form. Seeing not a goddess, or an ideal to strive for.
But instead, a person who needed to be set free, just as she had been, thanks to her.
"Thank you, Marina. I will cherish this lesson to the depths of my heart…"
Turning away, Samarie quietly left through the backdoor. Finding the enlightenment she needed to avoid the dark fate, she would have had in another life.
Insert hxh chimera ant arc ending
A/N: Samarie grows closer to turning into a magical girl. But will her romance turn into doom? Or will she save it from the trench of Prehevil? Find out next time, on Samarie's not so chaotic time.
Achievements Previously Unlocked:
Survive a direct encounter with Gro-Goroth - Gold Ticket
Meet with Rher and the God's servant, Per'kele- Gold Ticket
You became more Self Aware- Bronze Ticket
Achievements Unlocked:
Create A Secret Identity - Bronze Ticket
Rolls:
[Magical Girl Transformation]
|Trash Trait|
All transformations have that overly dramatic Magical Girl Transformation flair to them.
*Perfect trash rolls again.