1 Chance

'How dare he think he can harm me?'

His build was small and wry, arms and legs thinner than hers. Magenta hair fell just above his eyes, in a thick, messy curtain that covered his forehead. To top it all off, a black suit and tie.

Most notably, his eyes were the same color magenta, but pupils slit horizontally, similar to those of a goat.

But what really angered her was his demeanor. The magenta brat acted as if he were strong. As if he had no fear of her.

"Do you not know me?" she snarled. This woman in particular was rather young, in her early twenties, but she carried herself with immense pride. In fact, many feared her, despite her unfortunate occulos. She, unlike the magenta occulos, bore gray eyes, and had a similarly colored gray bobbed hairstyle.

He lunged forward, knife in hand. With ease, the young woman dodged his attack. She had been ambushed with much more dangerous weapons and powers, but few people could keep up with her, thanks to her years of training with aer, his knife was nothing compared to-

His knife slashed the side of her torso. She was shocked. How did he manage to move that fast?

Quickly, she healed her wound as she dodged away from the mysterious man. His occulos suggested he was a red tier, but she didn't consider the fact that he could also be violet tier. She had underestimated him. It was time to take things much more seriously.

It would be easy for her to run away from the situation, which would guarantee her safety. By comparison, her aer capacity and build had suggested she could outrun him without a problem. But there was no way Lilith Mauwa would back down from a fight. Especially from someone who radiated such a…

He twirled his knife, his eyes squinting as if he were smiling underneath his mask.

Such a cocky aura.

"Alright, Magenta, you better start praying to Dextro that he'll let you rest," Lilith growled, pulling a bar off a nearby ladder, attached to the brick wall behind her.

Magenta's eyes furrowed, and he readied himself into a more defensive position.

Lilith dashed towards him, beating the Magenta down with her metal bar. He kept his head down, arms covering his head. Unexpectedly, he was now focused on defending himself rather than attacking like earlier.

"What's wrong, kid? Why aren't you fighting back!" Relentlessly, she began to beat down on him with a barrage of strong hits and attacks. The Magenta clearly felt the pain of every blow, his body swaying from side to side with every hit. Where did all that unbridled confidence go? Did he have a thing for being senselessly beat by strong women?

"You come at me with a knife, and now you do nothing?! You sure have some guts, kid!" Lilith kneed him in his stomach. Hard. The Magenta haired attacker had kneeled over and vomited.

"Who do you think you are?!"

Again. And again. She continued to beat down on him. At first glance, this would be a one sided beat down in an undisclosed alleyway. No one would know that she was the one who was attacked. If anyone came by now, she'd definitely be seen as the perpetrator.

A sharp pain seared through her thigh. He had finally fought back, penetrating the knife almost completely through her thigh.

"Crap-"

He pulled the knife out, causing even more pain. An animalistic scream erupted from her, a sound she had never heard or made in her entire life. She had never felt this much pain before.

"Fuck... why does it hurt so much?" Lilith placed her hand over the wound, but to little result. Her aer gauge was almost completely drained after putting all of her energy in the earlier one-sided beat down.

The Magenta plunged at her with another attack, barely scratching the skin beneath her chin. If she had reacted any later, she surely would have died right there and then.

Only now did it register in her head. 'Someone is trying to kill me.'

'Someone wants me dead.'

"I might die.'

If only she hadn't been so cocky. If she didn't have such an idiotic nature, she would have turned her heel at the beginning of their fight and ran away safely. She would have judged her opponent fairly, and thought about his powers before engaging in a fight. Without knowing his duscor, she engaged in a one-sided beating. How could she?

She fell onto the ground, incapable to carry herself with all the sudden pain and fear.

"Please don't..."

Desperation finally kicked in.

"If you want revenge, you've already done enough. You've stabbed me with my aer defenses down..." she sobbed.

The Magenta continued to walk toward her, rather menacingly.

"I didn't do anything wrong..."

His grip tightened around the handle of his knife.

"Okay, maybe I did something wrong! But is it really enough to warrant me this kind of execution?" Lilith cried, crawling backwards.

He stomped on her injured thigh, reinforcing his strength with aer. She cried out with another animalistic shriek.

"Please! Please please please please please! Not like this Not like-urrgh!"

A piercing pain hit her back. And another. And another. Her body recoiled with every wound, every scream getting quieter and quieter. Lilith had finally gone limp, the life gone from her gray eyes. This was the end for her.

A light flooded her sight, a warm feeling embracing her body. The pain from the confrontation was all suddenly gone. She felt as if she were floating in a warm liquid, as if pain had never existed. Is this what the afterlife was?

'Can I finally rest?'

"Ha! No!"

'N...No???!!!'

"Oh, you can hear me. Hi!"

Lilith's body suddenly felt unimaginable pain and pressure, almost as if she had been buried alive under tons of molten hot lava. The light fled from her sight, leaving her in darkness.

'Okay what is happening-'

"You're a sinner, kiddo!" The voice laughed gleefully. It was a female voice, one so overpowering it made Lilith want to cover herself and hide. Everything about this place was intrusive, and filled her very core with fear.

'Sinner? I'm a sinner?! But I haven't done anything wrong!'

"Tell that to the kid that just stabbed you 63 times. Wait-woah! SIXTY THREE?! That's a mighty big number. What~ A~ Grudge~!"

'I've never seen that guy in my entire life! I've never met a magenta, nonetheless anyone with goat eyes!'

"Hmm... Okay. Cool. I don't know how to respond to that. Because that useless piece of trivia doesn't actually do anything in this case. Anyways!"

'What?! Who are you? And why are you such an asshole?'

"Do you not know me?!"

'You're mocking me.'

"Of course I am!" The voice suddenly flared up, in a haughty way, "I'm Sinistra!"

If Lilith's heart was still beating, it would have stopped right then and there. It probably would have burst right out of her chest in an act of self-suicide, to save her from whatever misfortune followed next. Unfortunately, there was no escaping. She had no physical way of leaving the grip of the Dark Goddess.

'There's no way I did anything so abhorrent! You can't be Sinistra!'

"But I am?"

'No, you're not!'

"Uh. Yes. I am."

'No! No you aren't!'

"Are we going to spent the rest of an eternity with you screaming on about how I'm not who I claim I am?"

'Yes! Because I refuse to believe I did anything to warrant me meeting the god awful Dark Goddess! No offense.'

"None taken, darling. But how do you explain the phenomena that's happening to you right this second?"

'Hidden camera prank?'

"You humans are so adorably stupid. I love it."

'That's rude.'

"And true! Let's skip the whole wacky banter we have lined up, time is a ticking and you don't have any power over it."

'Time? Am I not dead?'

The voice suddenly perked up. "Oh honey, you are! Your rag doll body is broken down and dried like a raisin, but this is where our new little host comes in. I'm sending you on an errand!"

'Host? Errand?'

"Do you not get it? I'm reviving you!"

'A… a second chance at life?'

Sinistra fell silent for a second.

'Hello? I'm still under immense amounts of pain, can you talk a little bit faster please?'

Sinistra burst out into laughter, her hysterics shaking Lilith to her very core. Lilith felt a little annoyed, as if she were being ridiculed for something she had no way of knowing about. If she had a physical body, she'd be grinding her teeth and flailing her body around in a tantrum in response to this embarrassment.

"No, Lilith, not a second chance at life. Another chance at… redemption? Forgiveness?"

Lilith tried to respond, but her voice was no longer… coming out. Her being shook with annoyance and rage. Sinistra guffawed at the sight, warranting even more rage. Lilith's senses began to dissipate, until her being was no longer with Sinistra.

...

"Good luck, my oldest friend."