"It's time,"

"Time? For what?" Lina asked in confusion.

The woman appeared. She smiled, but the malice in her gaze was stronger than ever. The woman dropped the sword in her right hand and offered it in friendship. Lina extended her arm to meet the symbol of good will. When their fingers were but an inch apart, Lina stopped. She quickly withdrew her arm. The smile on the woman's face faded instantly, replaced by a scowl. She picked the sword she had dropped back up. Then every element of the dream seemed to become real.

Lina stood on the side of a castle's battlements. It was evening and the setting sun in the west bled a red shade across the terrain. The woman quickly turned to her right, away from Lina.

"They're coming. . ." the woman told Lina with a voice composed of sorrow, disgust, and ecstasy.

"Who are coming?" Lina asked confused. Lina's gaze followed the woman's to a portcullis on the other side of the battlements. The sound of people running up the stairs in the portcullis's chamber set the woman into a battle stance.

A second later an entire squad of soldiers and a sorceress appeared on the battlements. They faced the woman in opposition. One soldier who wore higher quality equipment stepped forward.

"Give yourself in. If you do, your punishment might be lightened," the solder that might've been a captain said.

The woman spat on the ground. "You think I'm gonna buy that shit? I know that if I give myself in you'll behead me first chance you've got," then the woman's expression changed and she said semantically, "Maybe that wouldn't be so bad. . ."

"Then you leave us no choice," the captain commanded, "Attack!"

The soldiers charged forward. The woman did the same. The two forces met head on, the clash of steel ringing through the air. One soldier thrust his sword forward at the woman's chest, but she crossed the swords in her hands to create a catch that threw the soldier's weapon out of his hands. The woman quickly cut down the unarmed soldier while at the same time using her other sword to relieve one soldier of the burden of an arm.

"What's going on here?" Lina demanded, "Tell me what's going on!"

No one paid her any heed. The woman continued cutting the ranks of soldiers apart while only taking a few scratches herself. One soldier lunged and missed, a fatal mistake. Before the soldier could recover from his blunder, the woman hand plunged a sword straight through his back. She quickly removed the sword and decapitated another soldier all in one fluid movement. Two other soldiers fell quickly to the dual blades while accomplishing only to make minor cuts in the woman's clothes.

"For the honor of Lord Viroi!" the soldier captain yelled while charging forward. Apparently the only ones left were the captain and the sorceress. The two clashed for a moment while the sorceress began chanting.

"Am I even here?" Lina asked herself frustrated, "This all feels too real to be a dream."

The woman made a quick thrust at the captain, who defended himself with his shield. The sword made a deep scrape in the metal of the shield, but then the captain moved back suddenly. The woman was confused for a split-second as to why her opponent was backing off, and then she remember the sorceress. The woman took one step backwards in a frantic attempt to dodge the icicle lance that approached her. The projectile magic missed by a hair and shot on past to make contact with a bird off in the distance. The result was an explosion of ice shards, blood, and feathers.

Before the sorceress knew what was happening, the woman was standing directly behind her and had one hand across her breasts, restraining her; the other hand using a sword as a makeshift dagger positioned at the sorceress's throat.

"That would've been impressive had you been aiming for that bird," the woman taunted into her ear, then slit the sorceress's throat without further hesitation.

"You bitch!" the captain shouted between tears. The body of the sorceress fell limply from the woman's grasp and slouched to the floor of the battlements, a small puddle of blood forming around the neck. "Why did you have to come here and do all this?!"

"Ah, I see. She was your lover, wasn't she?" the woman said smirking; she now had regained possession of both swords and was slowly advancing on the final target.

The captain was infuriated. He charged forward to make a feign thrust. The woman dodged by instinct, but wasn't ready for the change-up. The captain's sword whipped around and slashed through the clothes, skin, and some of the muscle in the woman's left shoulder. The woman grimaced, but didn't show any other signs of pain. Apparently the wound hadn't been bad enough to prevent her from using that arm. She slashed with her right sword, and then thrust with the left. The captain blocked the first attack with his shield and took the second in his side. He gasped in pain and retreated a few steps.

"You want to know why I came here?" the woman asked while letting her opponent back off and while inspecting the blood dripping down her swords with a bizarre fascination.

The captain panted heavily and muttered "You whore. . ."

"I'm afraid that apparently King Viroi had become too much of a threat to my master. You should be happy, compared to how my master would have done it, I killed him very humanely," the woman smiled cruelly, her left eye staring sadistically. If that red silk scarf hadn't covered her right eye, the second eye doubtlessly would've shown the same unholy intent.

"You left his head at the step of his throne!" the captain yelled furiously.

"Like, I said," the woman explained, "compared to how my master would do it, that was very humane."

"And then. . ." the captain said between grimaces at the gouge in his side, ". . .you killed Rebecca! I'll send you straight to Hell where you belong!"

"Hmm, Rebecca, eh?" the woman said while stealing a glance away from the captain to the body of the sorceress, "That's a very pretty name. Too bad it doesn't matter any more, ne?"

"SHUT UP!" captain shouted as he charged. The made an attack out of pure rage, and it missed horribly, leaving his back wide open.

"Good-night," the woman wished him and she brought the sword in her right hand to slash apart his exposed back. Suddenly the cruel grin on the woman's face vanished and she dropped her weapons before it made contact. She gasped in pain and grabbed her head with her hands.

The captain obviously didn't understand the bizarre reaction, but he obviously didn't care either. He moved his sword in an underhand swing almost like a baseball bat. Out of his rage he carelessly wasn't paying attention and the sword hit the woman's face with the flat of the sword instead of the blade, but that was enough to crack the woman's jawbone and send her spiraling over the side of the battlements. As she fell, the woman managed to find a protruding brick in the side of the battlement walls. She grabbed it with her left hand and screamed in pain as the entire weight of her body was tested against the strength of her wounded left shoulder.

"It's over!" the captain shouted down at her from the top of the battlements.

"Wait!" Lina commanded him. She tried to punch him in the face to get his attention, but her hand moved right through him like a ghost through a wall.

The captain readied a bow and some arrows that were left out on the battlement floor. Lina stared in horror down at the woman who was hanging on for dear life and then at the soldier captain who was enraged beyond reason.

The woman had apparently taken a completely nonsensical turn of heart. Her right hand drew a dagger from her belt and reached it up to try and cut her other hand. Then a different voice spoke in Lina's mind, but it seemed to be addressing the woman; she must have been able to hear it too.

"I can't let you do that," the voice said nonchalantly.

The woman's hand wavered, and then she seemed to fight against some invisible force. She tried desperately to cut her left hand and make herself fall, but the unknown force restrained her arm. The woman burst out into tears.

"I can't take this anymore! Release me! Release me, dammit!" she screamed at the voice in her head.

"I'm afraid you're too valuable to be released yet," the voice replied.

"DIE!" the soldier captain screamed down at her with his bow ready. He loosed a single arrow, which pierced her left hand.

The woman screamed in pain and her grasp on the ledge loosened. She plummeted down quite a large distance and made contact with the ground. When her body hit the ground there was a sickening crunching noise that made it up to the battlements where Lina and the soldier stood. The woman's body began rolling down the steep slope of the ground where she landed.

Lina just stared blankly at the whole scene. The soldier walked over to the corpse of the sorceress whose name was apparently Rebecca. He sat, positioned her head in his lap, and wept.

"I'm sorry, Rebecca. I should've been more careful. That woman was the Shadow Phoenix, wasn't she? Don't worry, now the streaks of killing all over the continent will end. Even someone who seems to be able to seduce death like her couldn't have survived that. Just wait a moment, dear. I'll join you. . ." the soldier quickly drew a dagger from his belt and slit his wrists.

"What the hell are you doing?!" Lina screamed at him, "You think killing yourself will make her come back? You idiot!"

There was no indication that he heard her or that she even existed. He smiled sorrowfully and slouched forward. In a few moments, he stopped breathing.

Lina shook her head in shame. What came next? This was a dream, wasn't it? Or. . .was this a dream? Should she try to figure out what to do next? Lina sat down in a corner of the battlements that didn't have a body or streak of blood on it. She sat with nothing to do but stare in disgust at the gore around her. After a few minutes longer she heard a voice from behind her.

"Beautiful, isn't it?"

Lina spun around to see the woman that the captain had referred to as the Shadow Phoenix standing on top of the battlement wall behind her. She didn't have a scratch on her body from the battle she had just participated in, but she still hid her right eye with the lopsided scarf. The woman was fingering a lock of her short hair; it must have been a habit.

Lina spun back to look at the battle scene. It was gone, and everything was black. She looked back at the woman. Now the woman stood on an even level with Lina, any semblance of terrain was now blackness.

"What's the meaning of this?" Lina asked angrily, "These are dreams, right? What the hell did I do to you? Leave me out of whatever perverse murders you're associated with."

"These aren't just dreams," the woman replied, "They're memories as well. They're beautiful. They're sinful. I hate them. They feel so good."

The woman hugged herself with the last sentence much like a schoolgirl might hug herself when daydreaming about the guy she had a crush on.

"You sick--" Lina began while stepping backwards disgustedly.

The woman stepped forward quickly and grabbed Lina's wrists with her hands.

"Isn't it wonderful?" she asked with an incredibly happy shine in her eye, "Soon your Apocalypse will come! It will end! It will all end! You, the sinner, will reach salvation! Will you spend eternity with me?"

Lina threw the other woman's arms off of her wrists and backed away again, "What the hell is the matter with you? You speak contradictive gibberish! And how the hell did you survive that fall, anyway?"

"Well. . ." the woman replied while the happy gleam in her eye became much more sinister, "They all say I seduce death. I wonder if that's true. . ." The woman began fingering her lock of hair absent-mindedly again.

"Stay away from me!" Lina shouted, "End this dream! Leave me alone! I have nothing to do with you. I have no idea who you are and I've done nothing to you!"

The woman became angry. She moved her hand quickly in a motion much like a slap to the face but Lina didn't feel anything. Then Lina could feel the trickle of blood down her cheek.

"You ungrateful bitch," the woman scolded, "This is destiny!"

"There is no such thing as destiny or fate," Lina replied while desperately trying to keep her cool.

The woman let out and insane giggle that sent chills down Lina's spine. Her eye was wide with sadism and dementia. She stepped forward again and grabbed Lina's chin and to force her to look directly into her eye.

"There is no escape. We will be released from our shackles. Will you accept such things? Surely someone like you understands. Let us spill each other's blood, for it is the ultimate desire. Let us feel the pain that only the living truly understand,"

Some strange emotion that was a combination of terror and fascination stopped Lina from moving. Their faces were only an inch apart; Lina's eyes wide with terror and the woman looking at Lina in a perverse way that made her very uncomfortable. The woman licked her lips.

"A-are you. . .a Mazoku?" Lina whispered while trembling.

"Hardly," the woman whispered back in a voice that stood upon the thin line between sarcastic and downright evil, "I'm just a damned soul who wants blood to sooth my wounds."

The woman leaned forward slightly and kissed the red-haired sorceress lightly on the forehead. It felt like someone had shoved a needle into Lina's mind.

Lina sat up suddenly. It was early in the morning and still dark. She was in her bed in the inn. Her nightclothes clung tightly to her body due to her cold sweat. For some reason, she recalled the dream perfectly, in fact, even better than when she was experiencing it. Now she recalled that there was someone else present when she had been talking to that demented woman. Who was it though?

Lina sighed heavily and prayed to Ceiphied this was all just a bizarre string of dreams. She unconsciously lifted her hand to feel the cheek where the woman had cut her in her dream. The cheek was bleeding.

"What the hell?" she asked herself, "What the fucking hell?!"