Enchantress

Warring depth

Alessa had been playing with the nails on her hands. “Hmmm… too brittle, those ones.” She threw one of them away. “And too dirty.” She crumbled the rest and spread the pieces on the ground. “Why didn’t you take better care of your nails, Anton?”

The man on the ground could do nothing but whimper in response. There wasn’t much strength left on his body.

“Hmm, I think the hair won’t be useful either.” She turned to the mannequin on her side with a ‘natural fresh wig’ as she called them. “It’s full of split ends and there are these sticky gross things below the scalp.” Frowning her forehead, she pondered. “No surprise they all cut only the hair, it becomes gross with the skin beneath.” She massaged her temples. “But then it would become too hard, I may need a professional.”

As she gave a step back the man started trembling. He didn’t beg for anything anymore and was fully operating only on his instincts.

Alessa was walking towards a nearby shelf of ‘helpers’ but a distinct notification distracted her.

You have been surpassed on Hall of fame - Canyon rush and thus lost your leading place. You lost your blessing upgrade.

Give way to the next generation!

She kept walking while reading, almost not believing the words. A slushy sound beneath her feet dragged her back to reality. “Curse you, Anton! Now your dirty blood is on my feet.”

Anton shuddered and coiled on himself. He did so every time the sound of his name came out of her mouth.

“Don’t worry, naughty friend, I will come to you later.” She thought about the messages she received. “Now I have some pressing matters to attend.”

Before leaving the room, Alessa dressed up in her social clothes as she called them: black military-like pants, a sleeveless shirt, and a belt full of an assortment of items. No amount of pockets on her pants was enough for her.

Her personal assistant greeted her upstairs. “You are earlier than expected.”

Alfred had been once again having an affair with the new recruit, her scent is everywhere on him. Maybe in the kitchen, he wouldn’t dare do that somewhere so close to my room. The light worn patch on his pants wasn’t there before. It is at the exact height of the rugged wooden table if he leaned on it with his pants. A split second later Alessa shook those thoughts out of her head, just before asking to inspect the back part of his pants to confirm what they had been doing on that table. “Urgent matters Alfred.” She made sure to find a man named Alfred for the job this time. “Grab me the Hall of fame list, Canyon rush.”

Alfred didn’t question as he got in contact with one of his own assistants through a telepathic blessing.

“Contacting a new person this time around Alfred? The last assistant got killed?” Alessa cocked her head. “You took almost half a second longer to get into the proper mindset.”

Alfred started sweating a bit as he nodded, trying to maintain composure. As much as he was used to having his every move exposed, some things still caught him by surprise.

“Someone surpassed me Alfred, isn’t that incredible?” Her eyes shined. “What kind of monster is this person?” She smiled. “Find some information from the mainland on gateway six. Our little friend will be there.”

Alessa started pacing around the room, “we need more information. That is too vast,” and bit her nails. “Where is the list, Alfred?”

“Coming any moment now, miss. Why gateway six?” He tried to distract her, knowing full well she knew his plans.

“The mating season Alfred, it’s happening in the gateway six right now.” She gave him a fake smile. ”Where would someone who surpassed me on the canyon rush be if not on the canyon. I thought you were better than that Alfred.”

Before he could cook up some response, Alfred received a telepathic message. “Just arrived, miss. His name is Coming to you Alessa, with 16688 points. Nothing much of note changed on the rest of the list.”

“Oh my horrendous god.” Alessa felt the excitement bubbling inside her. “That was way above my expectations.” She crossed her legs as she trembled from inside.

Alfred misunderstood Alessa’s contorted face. “Shall we behead some people, miss? I believe those that know you by your name aren’t much.”

“Are you stupid, Alfred?” Alessa calmed down and regained control of her body. “What kind of person would I be if I mistreated others for such petty reasons?”

Alfred stayed silent but wondered what went through her head to justify what happened so often in her ‘dungeon’.

“That changes a lot…” Alessa squatted. Not often she did so, only when she needed her brain the most; to find the hidden truths, she often said. After a while, in which Alfred waited patiently by her side, she got up. “Check the blessings’ list of the kingdom depth. Keep an eye for Hellborn and Conduit on the unique section. Also, there are four islands which are unusually abundant in crystals, start on those.”

“Care to explain, miss? I’m most curious.” Alfred asked, knowing she loved to show off.

Alessa smirked. “That person must have killed the earth calamity. No way they faced the wave as I did.”

“I think so too.” Alfred nodded.

Alessa huffed in disdain. “They also went out with a bang. From the points, I bet he used a huge explosion to wipe out the earth calamity and the surrounding monsters.” She paced around the room. “He must have fought somewhere near an artifact and it was attracted to some stupid groups fighting for it.”

Alfred nodded once again and let her talk.

“This person should have received some help from some friend who knows how to fly or some speedster. That, or an artifact. No way he would leave the aftermath alive without some trick.” Alessa sat down on her chair and eyed the map she designed on her favorite table. “Something that increased detection would help too, the damn worm is too fast if you don’t know it’s coming beforehand.”

Those moments where Alessa was deep in thought were mesmerizing for Alfred. The woman was a cut above all others.

“As much as I don’t want to believe, this person also should have gotten two unique blessings. Which is the most insane part.” She kept moving the pieces on the table around. “There is no way a single unique blessing has this much potential or else I would have done the same. The only solution is two unique blessings focused on explosion coupled with crystals powering it up.”

Alfred thought she had all the right to rule everyone. If only she didn’t have such a twisted side… he sighed mentally.

“It was done by a sole person, or else the rankings would be full of new people, just like when I did it.” Alessa kept rearranging the pieces on the battlefield. “I doubt something but an explosion wiped out the earth calamity.” Her finger kept banging on the table. “It is reasonable, a big attack rupturing it in half. No surprises there, I considered doing that too in the past. There were just not the proper resources at the time.”

Alfred kept silent. It was not the right moment to make himself present.

“Wide-area attacks, particularly explosions, are their most glaring weakness. Except, not even that can explain how thousands of critters were wiped out. There is some missing secret that I don’t know of.” Alessa kept staring into space. “Not enough information. There is just not enough power to kill beyond the earth calamity.” She shook her head. “That's enough thinking wasted on that. The solution is there, just incomplete. We search with that as a base; to happen otherwise would require an even more improbable string of coincidental events.”

As her assistant, Alfred kept nodding in silence. He eyed the table, full of pieces and designs that only existed in Alessa's mind.

“What a cocky person. Even announcing it to me.” She bit her lower lips. “Check for some new murderhobos on the guilds more prone to fighting on the sixth gateway’s mainland.” When she was satisfied with the pieces’ positions on the map, she continued. “If there aren’t any murderhobos, focus on the Lion Clan. They are the most probable environment on that island for such a person to have grown.”

“Incredible, miss.” Alfred made an impressed face, true to his feelings.

“That person will appear sooner or later,” Alessa smirked. “That… or the cocky sleazy ball just wants to drag my attention and manpower away from other matters.” She lay back on the chair and closed her eyes. “However, I will have to give that to him; too impressive, too interesting. The probability of him knowing our plans is almost null... As much as I am paranoid, we can’t rely on that.”

Alfred nodded once again, doing his job of agreeing with the miss.

“Come to me, my dear…” Alessa smiled. “I’m waiting eagerly.”