1 Beginning And The Upcoming Final

"Tell me, do you like the feeling of the sins crawling on your back?"

Zane blinked in surprise. Who said that? He turned and looked around. He mostly expected it to be a voice of one of his past lives but to his surprise he saw a little girl with blond hair looking up at him, dressed in a royal blue dress that definitely wasn't cheap.

The girl was giving him a smile, her blond hair natural and a little pale, reaching to her mid-back and waving in the wind. She cocked her head and smiled wider, showing a cute and childish smile.

"Are you talking to me?" Zane asked the girl, pointing at himself. The girl let out a giggle.

"Why of course I am. Who else am I talking to who can understand sin here?"

Zane frowned more. He always had a blank or down expression on his face. But this time it was because he was worried. This girl clearly was smarter than her age looked to be.

"How old are you kid?"

The girl cocked her head and licked her lips like she saw something tasty.

"Ignoring my question, ehh? Well, I'm 5 years old. Now, are ya gonna answer me?"

Once again Zane wondered if he was hallucinating. The girl let out a sigh, annoyance in her eyes, but still a cheerful expression on her face.

"Are ya perhaps thinking I ain't real? Well, I clearly am." The girl pouted, her cheeks looking like chipmunks when they stuffed them full of nuts. Zane wanted to pinch them, so he did. The girl made a fake tantrum but finished it with a giggle, no annoyance left in her eyes. Despite her weirdness, the girl was easy to please.

"Well, to answer your question before, I don't like my sins. I ignore them, no matter what, since I have no way of ever getting rid of them."

"Burn in the void."

Zane flinched at the eerie response the girl provided. He looked and the girl just closed her eyes and gave him a smile. Well, one eye. The girl had her right eye closed since she first met him. Zane wondered why.

"Do you mean Hell? I've already been there and tried that."

The girl took a step back and twirled around before looking back, opening her right eye. Her right eye was different from her left eye, which was a mix of silver and blue kinda in the shape of a flower and admitting a glow of light from it. The white of her right eye was black, like a void of nothing but dark, and her irises was grey with red veins or tendrils running through it and her pupil was a dark raspberry or red color, becoming black in the middle. It gave Zane chills like never before. And that was something. Zane had been reborn and seen things that no one should really see for a long time and got used to them. But this girl's right eye..scared him.

"I'm talking about real death, or if you like, one of the few voids or spaces that make up the death process."

Zane let out a sigh. He probably agreed with her but he had a feeling that he would not be able to go to the place she was talking about.

"So, who are you?"

The girl cocked her head again and turned around. She cocked her head a lot. This time she made no effort to hide her right eye. Zane wondered if she purposely hid her right eye until she mentioned the void.

"I'm Nella Palladina Cera. Nice to meet you. I guess you can say that I'm the tutorial person of this place...or world. Nice to meet ya... um, Devin? You look like a Devin."

"My name is Zane Myle Crain. Myle is spelled M-Y-L-E and said miles."

"Oh, I'm sorry. Tis just that Devin was a rough lookin depressed dirty bandit asshole who I knew a quite well a while back."

Zane frowned. She was purposely trying to egg him on...or not. Now that he takes a closer look, she had no look of malice or tease in her eyes. She was hard to read and definitely weird but Zane had a pretty good idea that he could read that much out of her at least.

"Well, I'm still just a ghost right now. My body is over there, in the process of being made."

Zane pointed at a younger version of himself lying on the ground, down in silver and gold armor and a purple cape that matched his purple eyes. His black hair was also well kept...or at least better than his hair now. He also didn't have any facial hair which he somehow felt thankful for. He never felt thankful for that before in the past so why now?

Nella regarded the empty vessel with a snort, sounding like a cat. She let out a small laugh before turning her attention back to me.

"The cute look on that body is going to be ruined with a face that doesn't smile. You should try smiling, even if it is fake."

"Like yours?" Zane asked, raising an eyebrow, not caring if he was being rude or insensitive. Nella flashed him a toothy smile, most of her teeth were sharp and her canines looked like a wolf's. Zane wondered if she was a demon.

"My smile isn't fake. I just have it on since people want it that way. And now I just like it this way. You could say it is my permanent expression. I also feel happy most of the time so it isn't all just a mask."

Zane came to the conclusion that she was a demon. She definitely wasn't normal and was wise, or at least knowledgeable for her looks. Her teeth weren't normal and her fingernails resembled claws. And then her eyes. Neither eye looks normal. Her right eye was definitely not normal but her left eye wasn't either. It resembled a flower or the sun in a children's drawing and glowed.

"I feel like I'm supposed to go off a script right now but who cares? I sure don't. And so I'm go-"

Nella broke off as she bit her tongue. That must have hurt with her sharp teeth. Yet Zane showed no sign of sympathy...or so he thought. He actually felt worried for once? How long since that had happened? He lost count but knew it was a while ago.

Nella looked up, one hand covering her mouth and tears in her eyes. She suddenly looked a lot more like her looks.

"I-I'll be taking ya home now kid. Might as well get the story go'in."

Nella walked over to Zane's empty vessel, or body, and picked it up, and flung him over her shoulders with no effort. Zane felt himself be sucked into the vessel. The last thing he saw before he went in was Nella walking effortlessly towards a large castle in the distance, towering above the dark pine-looking forest they were in.

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Zane walked down the hallway and climbed up the stairs before stopping. He felt like he was forgetting something important. No matter though. He was almost done. He wouldn't have to find and apologize to Nella.

Another pause. He had been pausing a lot lately. And as much as he tried to convince himself otherwise, he knew the reason why.

Am I even worthy of calling her that anymore? Zane pondered. He knew that Nella said to call her Nella from now on and nothing would change that...which was a strange thing for her to say now that Zane thought back on it. Did she know all along what he was going to do? No, he doubted that she could predict the future. She was strong, yes, but not omniscient. She isn't an oracle or a God. Just a princess.

Once again his mind tugged on him. The words princess struck something within him yet he could not remember what it was. Why was he trying to remember that Nella was a princess? It definitely had to do with whatever he was forgetting. If not then what else?

Shaking his head, he walked up to the big gold and silver doors that lead to the Golden Hall, Nella's favorite hangout place. He dared not to destroy it, since he still had precious memories of her and that place. Yet he was going to erase all of it.

With a sigh, Zane moved forward.

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When Zane came to, he was in his new body. He was in a royal-looking bedroom, or guest room at least. After knocking on the door an attendant went in and greeted him. It was a pretty woman wearing black armor. She seemed like a warrior. Why she was guarding and escorting him was a mystery to Zane. He then thought that she was probably guarding him if anything. The King and Queen, or whoever runs this place must not trust him.

"Dang Terilla, making me escort this newcomer you dragged in."

Zane paused at this. He knew the guard probably said it at a very low level, but Zane's ears are sharp. He had countless years of experience in combat and at listening. Yet he decided to act like she said nothing. It didn't really concern him. It did, however, perk his interest.

So it was someone named Terilla who asked, or more of gave orders to this person to escort me. Zane wondered if Terilla was Nella. She did "drag" him in after all. But it was likely that Nella also just dropped him off at a friend's place or some random person's place. After all, the guard was definitely human despite what he was going to assume was natural red hair. And Nella was probably a demon.

Zane followed her through a massive silver and light blue door, which was definitely weird, and into a throne room. The difference between this and other throne rooms he had been in countless times is the blue and gold theme and the golden hue the room was in.

The king and queen were big and somewhat oldish, mainly the king, and friendly. They had golden hair and light blue eyes, though the queen was slightly more silver, close to that of Nella's.

Zane told the usual story, having no memory of anything and someone rescuing him. He purposely left out who it was that saved him. He still thought that Nella was probably a demon.

Halfway through the story of their kingdom, Zane felt a shiver. He spun around only to be instantly tackled. Whoever this was just moved too fast for Zane to see, let alone react properly. He fell to the ground feeling strong but tiny hands pinning him down and a...blue light on his face?

"HELLO THERE ZANEY! Didja miss me for the whole four days ya were unconscious?"

It was Nella. She was barefoot and pinning me down like a wolf or tiger. Over her right eye was a white, gold, and light blue eyepatch. A light blue scarf, or should I say cloth, was around her neck like a scarf.

She was smiling a wide and happy smile, showing off her pointy teeth. A blue liquid which was probably her saliva started to sneak through her teeth, which seemed impossible since they closed together so perfectly that Zane could tell nothing could escape her bite without taking some heavy damage.

"Daughter! Your muzzle!"

"Oh Right!"

Nella whipped her head around and back again and a black dog muzzle with holes on the side but not in the front landed almost perfectly on her mouth. She quickly readjusted and in the very next moment, her saliva dropped down. The next second Zane heard the sound of acid. The hissing sound it made gave it away. It took him a moment before he realized that Nella's saliva is acidic and the muzzle was not only to hide her teeth but her acidic saliva as well.

That did not change the fact that Nella was wearing a muzzle. A dog muzzle too. But Zane's train of thought was interrupted when he saw that a red cat-like glowing pupil was bleeding through Nella's eyepatch. Though it was better than her without the eyepatch, her eye was still creepy and giving Zane chills.

With a clicking sound, Nella carefully trotted off Zane on all fours, making it look natural, before climbing back to two and in a flash grabbing her father's hand and wrist, hugging it.

"Let me introduce my daughter, though you met already. This is Princess Terilla Nella Palladina Cera. She is five years old and turning six this month."

Five years old? Zane looked at Nella doubtfully. Her? She doesn't act like a five-year-old. Then again, how she acted now and in some brief times when he first met her she really did seem like a little kid.

"That's right kiddo! I'm five years old! Deal with it."

Zane ignored her pointing finger and her childish "I'm so cool stance" and continued to ponder her age some more. If anything he would take seven or eight but five? It just doesn't sit right with him. Especially with her words. Maybe she is some reincarnation? Yeah, Zane decided, that must be it.

"Ya being rude and thinkin something bad again, aren't ya?"

Zane jumped back, startled, only to find that he couldn't. Nella appeared right in front of him while he was thinking. No warning, no noise, just there, and she grabbed his hands too so when he jumped back from reflex he didn't budge. Her grip strength and strength in general are amazing for something her size.

Despite wearing a muzzle, Zane could tell she was pouting. She let go of Zane's hands and started walking around aimlessly. After watching her for a bit, her parents cleared their throat and turned towards Zane.

"Despite her looks and behavior, Nella is actually five years old and human...at best. She knows a lot and can figure people out but she lacks common sense and common knowledge, such as why she can say long words but never had a cookie before and why she pounced on you." Her father explained. Zane believed him. This meant that Nella probably isn't a reincarnation since she would know proper behavior and what a cookie is.

Zane looked back at the princess and saw her looking around, a steady hissing sound coming from her muzzle as she drooled, a hungry look in her eyes. It wasn't a hungry look like she found something new to play with but an actual hungry look this time.

"Go back and enjoy your breakfast Nella dear." The queen told Nella, giving her a smile.

"YAY! Okay, Mommy!" Nella jumped up in the air before turning to look at me.

"I'll come back for ya so don't ya try anythin funny! Got it, kid?"

Zane let out a groan but nodded. Kid? He thought as Nella bounded away through large silver and light blue doors similar to the ones Zane walked through to get here.

Isn't she the kid? I definitely know this body is older than her.

"Strange one, isn't she? Yet nonetheless, she is our daughter and a very cute one at that."

Despite not smiling, Zane felt some joy seeing the father and mother smile. They are king and queen of this country or empire and they have to keep their image to keep balance. Yet they still love their child, Nella, despite her weird appearance. Even if the world knows about her they would rather keep their daughter than keep their image. Now that, he thought, that is something he rarely sees.