The Princess of Wrath

Echoes from the Past - The Gray Death, Part III: Escape

Behind the Master Wraith, as he placed the corresponding charges of Dragon's Greed between the desks and machines, the plastic veil slowly parted with a silent shake as if it had let a ghostly stream of air pass through it; the lights illuminating the lab were beginning to dim, causing the shadows around to rise to reign for a few brief minutes before the burning hell broke loose.

Lucy had left the test subject room without saying a word. Her Master had not given her the necessary attention to realize that something out of the ordinary was happening with her: her eyes were still wet from the sadness created by her memories and from having had to take the life of the nameless infected girl to release her from her suffering, but both her mind and soul had been seduced by a cold and deadly determination.

Staring at her Master's back, she knew what she had to do. The plan she had in mind was rudimentary and poorly designed simply because it was a product of her rampant emotions. Without thinking deeply about it, she was willing to give her life to achieve what she had just set out to do...

"Do you have the documents?" the Wraith asked as she joined him, glancing at her through the red eyes of his cursed mask.

"Yes, Master..." That was the first time she lied to him since she became his apprentice. "I'm ready."

"Excellent. You're doing great, kid. I'm proud of you," he complimented her, with no way of being able to read the darkness that was hiding in that final sentence of hers. The squeeze he gave her shoulder and those comforting words made Lucy feel a painful pressure of guilt on her chest. "Time to get out of here and go home."

Leaving behind that laboratory doomed to be consumed by flames in a matter of less than five minutes and heading straight for the intersection between corridors, Lucy knew very well that she could not meditate or think a little better what she was about to do. She had neither the time nor the space to do it; it was here and now.

"I'm sorry, Master...," she thought without taking her eyes off the Wraith's back, manifesting all the coldness of her soul to do what she had to do: she took out two runite blades from the inside of her suit and, with perfect precision, she stabbed him right below the shoulder blades.

Clearly her Master never expected his apprentice to stab him in the back. The treacherous attack had been so easy to perform that he did not realize what had happened until the pain reached his brain and made him let out a heartrending growl.

Without compromising organs and piercing only muscle tissue enough to produce non-lethal wounds, Lucy pressed hard, causing her Master to take two steps forward against his will and, in obvious sign of resistance, elbow her on the face with monstrously strength that caused the young apprentice to momentarily release the knives and stagger backward.

The upper right part of her mask had shattered, exposing her eye to light she was supposed to see no more. The blow had undoubtedly been infused with her Master's spiritual force through the mysterious arcane art called glyphtika. The impact had been such that it almost made her faint, but Lucy stopped her fall, gathering strength to keep her balance and lunged at her Master, clinging tightly to the handles of her blades and pressing again, this time with more gathered momentum.

"Agh...! W-why?!" the Wraith demanded to know, without getting an answer from her immediately. "Why, kid?!"

Lines of blood slid steadily down the sides of his wounds, evidencing the depth and agony she was putting him through despite all the years he had endured without feeling pain. Strength was leaving the masked man, making Lucy's task much easier.

That struggle did not last much more than a few seconds and allowed the young apprentice to push her Master into the corridor that led to the pilot plant, on the right side, while clenching her teeth so hard that it would not have been strange to have them ruined.