The skeleton with a simple black robe emanates an extremely ominous aura. Enough for her to take a step back simply by him announcing his presence. He walks towards her.

  [Siola]: “L-Lord Ludwig.”

  [Ludwig]: “You seem anxious… afraid.”

  Under the light of the moon, he reaches his hands towards her. A slight flinch, but all he wanted to do is patting. Rustling her hair as she frowns. Nervous. She turns, leaving the comfort that the skeleton lays out for her, “You were asking for Replica.”

  [Siola]: “It’s… haa… not anymore, Lord Ludwig.”

  [Ludwig]: “Lord?”

  Sighing, scratching her head as she looks down. The comfy boots made of unfamiliar materials wrapping her feet warm, “I lost my power. Twice. This time, it’s just… worse.”

  [Siola]: “You know how this works, Ludwig. Whatever resemblance that I have with this Luosa of yours, I’m not. I’m just a girl who came here from a metal box. And I can’t go back anymore.”

  [Siola]: “What the hell am I supposed to do now?”

  Reaching his skeleton fingers towards her back, he retracts it midway. He still remembers when a cone of light engulfs her in front of his eyes, she just disappears right there and then. Clenched fists as his dot for an eye flare slightly.

  [Ludwig]: “Regardless of who you are supposed to be, the divine system no longer chains you. Nothing binds you anymore, Luosa.”

  [Ludwig]: “It is all up to you, how you will proceed from here.”

  She turns, looking up at his dot of an eye.

  They walked out of the room and Ludwig brought her outside after passing several hallways. The front yard of the castle that happens to be a garden as well. Surprisingly well tended despite the gloomy contrast, but the scenery is not where he’s taking her to. Instead, it’s what lies beyond the fence. Countless people are chained by undead. Like cattle, people like herself. At first, there’s confusion in her eyes, but she can’t put the pieces together.

  [Siola]: “Why are you showing me this?”

  [Ludwig]: “A choice.”

  [Ludwig]: “Serve me. Become what you are supposed to be.”

  Eyes widened as she tries to force a smile, “After all that talk… Heh, what a joke.”

  A shade of skeleton fingers etched on the back of her shoulder, burning her new color. Dirty brown for an outfit, wearing rags. She walks out of the gate with a collar chain on each one of her limb. Joining the rest of the people as they make way for her.

  [Man 1]: “That the last one?”

  [Man 2]: “Damn, they really take everyone, huh.”

  [Man 3]: “I was literally about to step in the portal, man. Now it’s gone.”

  [Woman 1]: “What do we do?”

  Now sitting amongst them. One wouldn’t be able to pin point the exact location of where she is amidst the sea of people trapped in an overcrowded pasture.

  Hours passed.

  [Man ?]: “Man, I’m… hungry.”

  [Man ?]: “How long are we supposed to be here?”

  [Woman ?]: “Water…”

  At the end of that day.

  [Man ?]: “Oi, water.”

  [Man ?]: “I need it too, where…”

  [Woman ?]: “Food…”

  Stolen novel; please report.

  [Man ?]: “WATER! FOOD!”

  [Woman ?]: “Cold… it’s so… cold…”

  Many of them marches towards the gate of the castle, yelling and smacking the door but their cries remain unheard while some attempts to escape but their chains kept them from leaving too far from the castle. Even if they can manage to escape, they will find none in this desolate plane.

  In the second day.

  [Woman 1]: “Kyaaaaaaaah! Get away from meeeeeeeeeee!”

  [Man 1]: “Ayo, what’s wrong girl. Just wanna cop a feel, just a lil. You know you got the urge for it too.”

  [Woman 1]: “I-I have boyfriend!”

  [Man 2]: “Get your hands off of her.”

  [Man 1]: “Waaaah, tryna be a hero, boy?! Guys! Look at this.”

  After a single punch from the gentleman, a fight broke out. Fists meeting eyes, knees meeting stomachs, and so on. One week passed. Their stomach churn, yearning for nourishment. Unable to control it, they start seeing their own kin as one.

  [Woman ?]: “What’re you doing…”

  [Woman ?]: “Hey, stop joking around…”

  [Woman ?]: “No, nooooooooooooo!”

  Fallen, the man is shunned and crushed by the others, but that was the start of it. Some people have split themselves into groups. Protecting themselves from the others. However, the scene in the next sixth month is different than what one would like to imagine. Many have succumbed to their primal instincts, becoming an animal. Feasting on each other forcefully, like a mindless creature. Some are resisting, some have given up hope.

  One such creature grabs a hold of one’s wrist, Siola, “Get your hands off me… you ***.”

  [Man ?]: “Huh?”

  A slap, with a powerful enough force to shake his brain. Siola sidesteps in and deliver a kick to his side before chopping his neck with a plunging roundhouse. Although it stays intact, the man is stunned enough for Siola to grab his arm and bites on his finger. Continuously, until it left its body.

  [Man ?]: “Hraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh?!”

  That missing finger bleeds, but in time regenerate itself albeit extremely slowly. But then a woman comes and grab Siola, trying to pluck out her eyes, but Siola bites her fingers before elbowing her and deliver a blow straight to her eyes. Kicking her when she’s down.

  [Siola]: “You fuck! Fuck! Fuck!!!”

  More and more people grab her, and there, she fights. Blood spills. Teeth flying. Eyes pluck out as it becomes an endless battle filled with rage and pain. A battle of sustenance, for the victor shall claim the prize of a full belly made of the body of their kin.

  Three years have passed ever since, and only a few are left fighting. Two bulky men, a woman, slim yet muscular man, and Siola herself. All of five them fights to crush the other’s spirit. Their will to live, to become husk like many others. Blood continues to spill, until one rainy day, a change to the battlefield. To the battle itself. For magic gathers on the palm of one’s hand, a shard of ice is formed. She whose hair resting on the ground. Nails sharp as a shiv, eyes as lively still. An end to the battle as the very same shard pierces another.

  At the break of dawn, footsteps coming closer towards that woman who is using a shard of ice to cut her hair. It melts when it’s done. She turns to see the visitor, and it is the heavily armored humanoid creature with an armored tail. Avarice. She brought her to the castle. Even with Avarice looking at her, she doesn’t return her gaze. Brought to stand in front of the Ruler of Prison Realm.

  [Ludwig]: “Have you give it some thoughts, Luosa?”

  Her fists clenches tightly until it bleeds. The others – a Draugr in a magnanimously enriched outfit, a headless knight, Avarice, Malice, Replica, and Goolag posing as Siola – witness her. Siola falls to her knees, and bow down with her bloodied palms. The dot for an eye within the skeleton’s eye sockets, aflame in silver. For Siola has pledge her loyalty to him.

  She returns to the same room she wakes up from. This time, donning a new color of outfit after a fresh bath under the moon. Cleaner, albeit, slightly more glamorous than she’s expecting. Black and pink dress with a corset and leg armors. In the mirror, she looks into it, seeing what she has become. Nothing. Nothing has changed at all. Except just a little bit of unkempt hair.

  As she tries to smile, “At least I know I can’t die,” suddenly, her body in the reflection of the mirror rest her forearm on the desk as her eyes become pitch black.

  [???]: “How useful.”

  *CRASH*

  Her fist an inch into the mirror, cracking its entirety. However, her reflection continues to act like its own person.

  [Siola]: “What is it this time?”

  [???]: “I don’t remember your first instinct being in the face of an unknown is to punch it. However, I’m glad that it has become the case. Considering how much of a mess your mind is.”

  [Siola]: “You’re not Madam Goolag.”

  [???]: “You call her Madam still? Even after what she did to you?”

  [Siola]: “?”

  [???]: “Heheh, it is only natural that you didn’t realize it, but I for one, never expected that she did what she did. Even after all the circumstance that compels her otherwise.”

  [???]: “After all, who would ever let the one who is carrying such precious name to be endangered, let alone hurt. Not that it originally needs it.”

  [Siola]: “You’re Luosa.”

  [Luosa]: “Heheheheh.”

  [Luosa]: “You are free to keep that name for yourself. Heheh, after all, without it you would just be another empty husk like those travelers out there.”

  [Siola]: “Don’t tell me you’re trapped in that mirror.”

  [Luosa]: “How I wish it would be so simple, but my circumstances are indeed quite similar. And I wish for the same resolution as you might have presumed. Freedom.”

  [Siola]: “Uhuh.”

  [Luosa]: “All these people wish to exploit me for their own gain. I wish to be free of it, but now that we have arrived to this current predicament, I’d say it is best for us to proceed together.”

  [Siola]: “Exploit you. We’re talking about you, here. Why does it concern me.”

  [Luosa]: “Because it does concerns you, Siola. You carry my name now, so you must learn what it means to live with it. The importance of that name, and its history.”