Time flew, and before I knew it, the Month of Water had arrived. The day I awoke from my slumber had faded into a memory. I couldn’t believe four months had already passed from then. Finally, the time had finally arrived for my official enrollment to Melas Academy.

But it wasn’t an easy time in the past four months. What happened during the incident back in the Winter still haunted me to this day. I thought about it a lot, about how it could happen in a different way if I acted different. Was it because I lacked resolve? Was it because I lacked restraint? There were many things to thought about, but no matter what I thought of, I couldn’t change the past, I couldn’t revive the lives that were lost by my hands, and the people I failed to save. The Headmaster did a cover up story, but we both knew of the shameful truth.

“Never again…”

I trained hard in the past four months, about restraint and discipline, about self-control and morality. The deal I made with Nilrem was still working, if I graduated from Melas, I would earn my freedom and allowed to leave the castle. I didn’t want any more tragedies to happen because of me, which was why I would try my best to make it out of this place.

This would be the day I make my first step. The day I would become a cadet of Melas Academy.

I stood before the main hall of Melas castle. The place was packed with new students who wanted to enroll into the Magic Arts Department, the same as my own choice. I already knew the extent of my physical strength, it would be bad if I were to join the War Arts Department instead. The Alchemy Arts was actually a safer choice, but I wasn’t very interested in it, so that left only the Magic Arts, the same as my forte because I wanted to have a good head start. How could I safely graduate if I failed in my studies?

“Still…It’s rather amazing.”

For the past four months, I had walked through the castle main hall numerous times on my path to visit the general store, but only at this moment did I realize how grandiose it was when being filled with hundreds of people in it, holding the same wish to join the Magic Arts Department as I was. The place was rowdy with noises from endless chatters of the students eager to make new friends, or just simply happy to meet their old acquaintances. All of them donned the black cloak of Melas, a symbol of their successful enrollment to Melas castle. Almost every nook and cranny were packed with people, only the center of the main hall remained empty enough if we didn’t count the teachers busy setting up something for this proxy entrance test.

“Oh.”

Suddenly, as I stood in awe of the sight before me, something, or rather someone, bumped into my back and fell down to the ground on their own while I barely fazed from the impact.

“Ouch! Why would you stand there and block the path for everybody? Can’t you find a better place to stand?”

I turned back to face the one who just bumped into me. On the ground lied a girl, a pretty girl with long purple hair tied up by a cute white ribbon at the back. She wore a frilly short black skirt and a purple stylish shirt supported by a sturdy but fashionable outer black corset, all of them lied underneath the standard black cloak of a Melas student. What separated her from the rest of the other new students were her tiny bat wings hidden beneath the cloak, and a slim black tail that ended with a heart shape head that hanged freely behind her back. She was not the same as the other demons, or rather devilmen.

“I’m sorry. Let me help.”

I offered my right hand to the strange but beautiful young girl. She seemed to be the same age as me. If I played my cards right, we might become good friends in the future. Maybe…that would brighten the following years of my school life before I graduated and left this place.

“No thanks! I can stand just fine on my own!”

The girl pushed away my right hand and forcefully stood up by herself. After cleaning off the dirt on her pretty and frilly skirt, the girl suddenly pointed her finger at my face and yelled.

“What’s up with you and your freakishly tall height? With your figure, you ought to be at the War Arts Department instead of a sophisticated place like the Magic Arts!”

I wished I could, but I would prove to be a danger to the people at that place. Magic Arts was the safer choice of the two, but I couldn’t tell someone I just barely met about that secret.

“I’m sorry...”

“Hmm, weak-willed girl! Do you think you can survive the front line with that sort of attitude!? You’ll just get yourself killed being weak like that!”

Now this girl was getting obnoxious...

“But well, since you’re earnestly sorry for your vile action, I, the generous Amadia Deveraux, will accept your apology! Be thankful that you’re weak, because I only have my eyes for the strong!”

The young girl burst out a noble lady’s laugh, silent enough not to be loud and attract attention, but still obnoxious enough to get on my nerve. Just calmed down, Deborah, this girl didn’t worth getting yourself worked up.

“I...see. Thank you...!”

I replied. That was the best I could do. I didn’t want her to get any misunderstanding. I just wanted to get this over with. This girl was bad news, the more I stayed near her, the more trouble would arise, and the last thing I wanted was to have more troubles involving me.

“Hmm! And if you excuse me, I shall take my leave. The teachers are waiting for their genius student to make her appearance, after all!”

The girl bid her farewell, and just as sudden as how she appeared, the girl walked away from my sight and blended herself to the huge crowd of students, although I could still hear the sound of the girl named Amadia bumping into others on her path, and the troubles that came with it. It was lucky that my trouble with her was over...for the time being.

“That girl is bad news alright...”

I mumbled to myself. I hoped I could stay away from her for the next three years.

So much for making new friends, though. Amadia was so promising until the moment she pushed away my hand and showed off her personality. Her boisterous persona wouldn’t be a fitting match for my timid and moody attitude. I guessed I would have to keep looking for the people that I could call friends.

“May I have your attention, cadets?”

Seemed like the time was up to start the ceremony. I heard the voice of a teacher, which prompted the chatters to a halt and turned the attention of the new students toward the center of the main hall. Thanks to my height, despite standing far away from the crowd, I still had a good view of the main event with no difficulty.

The teachers of the Magic Arts had gathered at the center of the main hall. There were about ten of them, enough to shoulder the weight that came from the department with the highest number of enrolled students. At the center lied a pedestal with a crystal ball on top of it, it looked rather similar to the type used by fortune tellers I read in novels. Were they going to tell our fortune before we enroll?

“Welcome to Melas Academy. My name is Walpurga Hausmannin, and I am the head of the Magic Arts Department. You had done well to pass the entrance test and make it here on this day. And after this ceremony, all of you will be officially known as a cadet of the Magic Arts.”

Instead of Nilrem, who was standing among the teachers of the Magic Arts, the one to greet the new students was apparently the head of the Department, the witch called Walpurga. Her attire was truly that of a typical witch, wearing all in black from her robe to her hat, even with her long black hair and eyes. She even had a black cat soundly sleeping on her shoulder.

“The ceremony is very simple, all we want is to know your elemental affinity and soul energy capacity. This simple ceremony will definitely be of help to define your study course, your strong and weak points for improvement, which in turn will drastically increase the survival rate if all of you truly wish to brave the Dark Line and face the humans.”

The witch woman pointed her hand toward the crystal orb nicely set on the wooden pedestal.

“I shall make you wait no longer! When your name gets called, please come here and put your hand onto the crystal orb. What it shows you will determine your elemental affinity and the extent of your soul energy. Consider that we have a lot of students here, those who completed their ceremony are free to leave until further notice.”

The woman brought out a list of name hidden from beneath her robe and loudly read the first name written on the paper.

“Amadia Deveraux!”

That was a very familiar name, and I realized how familiar it was when the girl who bumped into me earlier made her presence known to the hall as she proudly walked toward the teacher and the crystal orb.

“The Deveraux family, that means she’s the seventh Asmodi’s daughter!”

The crowd burst into chatters and gossips as Amadia became the center of attention from everyone in the room. And she sure enjoyed it a lot, to the point of missing on the true task at hand to make a proper introduction of herself in front of all these people.

“Indeed I am! My name is Amadia Deveraux, daughter of Ashtart Deveraux, the one all of you know as the seventh Asmodi! I am here to make my mother proud, and to become a strong demon to serve the will of the Demon Realm! If you think you are strong, challenge me to a duel! I’ll defeat you all to prove the power worthy of my mother’s love!”

That was…very brazen of her. It sure took a lot of courage to boldly announce something like “I’ll beat all of your assses” in front of a crowd like this. The strange thing was, no…it was more like as expected, the crowd took this brazen act of Amadia rather well, some even seemed to be impressed. Maybe Amadia was right, only those with the courage to claim things like that might prove to be strong enough to survive on the front line.

My strength was unmatched, but my will was weak. I could punch people to bloody pieces, but I coudn’t even clench my fist without shaking from fear. If I had Amadia’s courage that day, maybe things would had turned out different.

But that being said, she was still very obnoxious and I would love to stay away from her as far as possible.

“Impressive speech, Miss Deveraux, but we still have more important matters to attend at hand.”

“I know, teacher. I’ll get to it right this instance.”

The girl with black tail finally approached the crystal orb and put her silky white hand on it. As Amadia placed her hand, the crystal-clear orb suddenly turned black, but soon after, a light sparked from inside the orb, making a dance of thunder and lightning bolts. The bolts were as bright as daylight, and as fierce as a real thunderstorm. I guessed the answer for Amadia’s elemental affinity was too obvious.

“The lightning element, a rare one to be used by a demon of the Demon Realm, or should I say as expected of a succubus descended from Ashtart herself? Either way, a very impressive demonstration, Miss Deveraux. You have a rather sizeable amount of soul energy as well, judging from the brightness of the lightning inside the orb.”

Said the witch Walpurga as she wrote down Amadia’s result on the same list of names.

“That is to be expected from me.”

“This is only the start, Amadia. I’m sure soon you’ll realize the path you chose isn’t as simple as you thought it will be. Either way, you are done here. You may dismiss yourself, cadet Amadia Deveraux of the Magic Arts.”

So Amadia had officially became a member of the Magic Arts, the ceremony earlier sealed the deal.

“Thank you, Miss Walpurga. But I would like to stay and watch the result of my fellow future classmates. I want to know who’s strong and who’s not for future preference.”

“Suit yourself, but please make way for the others.”

The boastful girl nodded. She excused herself from the center of her attention and quickly found a place to spectate the others’ ceremony near the teachers themselves. A rather bold move, but none of the teachers said anything about it. Probably had something to do with both her potential power and lineage.

That confirmed it, this girl was big trouble. If I wanted to have a peaceful school life without any incidents, I needed to make sure to stay away from her as far as possible at all time.

“Let’s continue the ceremony.”

Walpurga resumed reading the names from the list, and the called students took their turn to partake the ceremony. Most of them had the common elements of Earth, Wind, Water or Darkness, only those descended from the Witches and Warlocks can acquire the rarer elements like Fire and Light. Some had pitiful soul energy compared to others, but what they lacked in potential might be compensable by putting efforts into training techniques. Either way, the ceremony was rather standard without anyone else bold enough to make a scene like Amadia did earlier. The girl herself seemed to be bored and was on the verge of sleeping on her feet, she probably had yet to find someone worthy enough to become her punching bag.

“Deborah Draconis!”

And my turn finally arrived. I actually looked forward to this, but Amadia’s presence had already killed a bit of my excitement.

“Draconis…but that Lord Dargoth’s…”

Unlike earlier, where merely name dropping Amadia’s family name was enough to start a stream of gossip from students, now, it didn’t start with gossip, but complete silence from the whole room as their gaze fixed upon me when I slowly approached the crystal orb. No chatters, no gossips, only intense gazes of disbelief. I was too scared to even look back at the people staring at me. My eyes were fixed at Nilrem, who was standing from afar to oversee the whole thing. We barely met in the past four months aside from important matters that required my presence. She probably knew I was asking for help in this moment, and she knew me well enough to know I wouldn’t expect that help from her.

Either way, there was no avoiding this. I needed to finish this quick before trouble arrived.

“Deborah Draconis. The Headmaster told me about you, granddaughter of Dargoth. You already made quite an impression with your very existence alone. Can you show me the power that came with that name?”

And Walpurga just had to blabber about my relation to Dargoth, which sparked an endless amount of chatter from the crowd of students behind me. In contrary, Amadia was awfully silent in awe of the sudden turn of event.

Geez, let’s get this over with so I could bury my face behind a pillow inside my room in peace.

I put my hand onto the crystal orb. And from inside of it, a spark of fire got ignited. It was rather obvious what my element was, considering ‘what’ I truly was. Still, for the presentation of my element to be a tiny spark of fire was still a bit…underwhelming.

Suddenly, my head hurt. And I started seeing images, of a world burning in fire, with a crimson dragon roaring in the middle of the sky. The same images I saw in the nightmare that tortured me for days in the past four months, and it decided now was the time to emerge outside the dream of the night? I didn’t really know, my head hurt too much to even think straight.

But my eyes were still working, and they saw that tiny spark of flame emerged into a sea of fire, engulfing the empty space inside with the yellow flame of destruction.

“Incredible!”

Said Walpurga. It did seem impressive from outside perspective, but I knew better. I couldn’t shake a bad feeling inside my heart as I saw the flicker of flame ravaging the nonexistence air inside the orb. Something bad started to approach, I could sense it.

And suddenly, it began. The flame inside the orb grew stronger, and the orb cracked.

“Everyone! Get away from here!”

Nilrem shouted right at the moment the crystal orb cracked and shattered into tiny pieces of glass, unleashing the fire inside to the outside world with the intent of causing havoc and destruction. And I could only stand dumbfounded as the fire made an exception out of me and spread out across the room.

The moment the fire spread out, chaos arose as the students ran away out of the main hall with all the strength in their legs. Walpurga luckily managed to evade in time and escaped being burned alive by the sudden fire. Together with the other teachers, Walpurga attempted to subjugate the spreading fire. In conjunction, the witches and warlocks made a barrier surrounding the spreading area, but the fire spread faster than their chanting speed. The urgency of the situation made it hard for them to concentrate on effectively preventing the fire from destroying the main hall further. The best they could do was to defend themselves and other students from harm.

That was where Nilrem stepped in.

The woman threw an orb toward the burning fire, and suddenly, the fire stoppped spreading further, and inversely they retreated back as if time itself had been rewound. But with a closer look, it was not really the case. The flame was sucked away by the crystal orb Nilrem threw. Through a tiny crack, the flame that escaped from the crystal orb earlier found itself being contained by another empty crystal orb. Eventually, all the fire was gone, trapped inside Nilrem’s own orb. The matter had been resolved.

But the aftermath…was something that I couldn’t even bear to watch.

The whole main hall burned to the ground, all the banners and flags used to decorate the place to welcome the students had been turned to ash. It looked like a war party just came here and razed the place to the ground. Lucky, it seemed like no one was injured, and the students soon came back inside the room only to witness the pitiful state of the main hall, and the culprit standing amongst the ashes.

“No…it was…not my fault…”

And what could I do but run when being confronted by hundreds of gaze blaming me for this whole mess?

---------------------

With all my strength poured into my legs, I ran away. Without even bothered to think about anything, I ran away. When I finally realized it, I found myself already ran past the opened East Gate. Stood before me was the stone bridge leading to Erkunia Forest and the rest of the Demon Realm. This was the way out of Melas castle, and I was several steps away from it.

‘I screwed up again…’

For all that talk about self-control and restraint, I let my fear get the better of me and burned the main hall to the ground. I was indeed a danger to all these people, I didn’t deserve to stay here in Melas castle, I would only bring harm to all of them. It was better…if I was to disappear and never be seen again.

I needed no luggage, I wouldl be fine on my own out there…probably. I did regret having to leave behind the books I had yet to finish reading, it would be boring out there without any books by my side, but I had to make do, it was already too shameful for me to return to the castle.

“Farewell.”

I bid my last goodbye to the castle behind me, and ran with all the strength in my legs...

BAM!

…only to ram myself into some sort of invisible wall when I arrived at the center of the bridge. The sudden collision made me fall to the ground with a bloodied nose from the impact. It rather hurt, but not too much. The thing that hurt more than that was the feeling of having your hope of an alternative future being crushed in seconds by a literal invisible wall.

“What in the world…”

I stood up, wiped the blood off my nose and started examining the invisible wall. It had no shape and didn’t seem to be a simple wall, more like a barrier covering the whole exit leading to the rest of the Demon Realm. It didn’t seem to be the physical type, considering when I tried to wipe the blood on my hand onto it, the blood didn’t stuck on the invisible wall.

That led me to my remaining option. I clenched my fist, and threw a punch at the wall with all the strength I could muster.

BAM!

Yet, even with the strength that could tear people apart, my punch failed to put a dent onto the invisible wall. The impact left my right knuckle bloodied, my blood fell to the stone bridge below, as if they were crying for me instead.

“What’s the meaning of this!?”

I yelled and rammed my fists repeatedly at the wall over and over again, until I got stopped by a familiar voice.

“After everything you’ve done, all you did was running away. I expected better from you, Deborah. You disappointed me.”

I turned back to face the person speaking to me, the one who stopped the mess I caused, and the last person I wanted to talk to.

“Nilrem…what’s the meaning of this?”

I pointed my finger at the invisible wall, which prompted a simple sigh from the witch as her reaction.

“You already know at this point you are a danger to others, yes?”

She didn’t have to remind me of that, I already knew it too well…

“Do you think I want to put the rest of the Demon Realm to be at risk of facing the same danger?”

“So what exactly is this!?”

I yelled.

“A magic barrier. On papers, it is used to prevent magical attacks and summoned beings from the outside, but in reality…it is a cage I made to prevent you from going outside and make contact with the rest of the world.”

So in the end, I was merely a dangerous beast that needed to be contained, was that what Nilrem meant?

“Damn it…damn everything…”

I fell to my knees. Despite my strength, I felt like my body was growing weak. I already had a few ideas the moment my punch failed to work, but to had that fact thrown to my face by Nilrem…it hurt my heart.

“Why didn’t you tell me…about this…?”

“You never ask.”

I would if I knew about it.

“You were a good girl for the past four months, Deborah. I was actually afraid of the day you find out about this. I would prefer not to let you know until necessary, but what I promised you was the truth. If you graduate, I’ll give you the freedom to leave Melas castle, no strings attached.”

Even so, that didn’t change the fact that I was forced to live inside a gilded cage, because I was a danger to others.

“However, consider what happened today, I need to take a more extreme approach to prevent you from harming others. I trusted you with your own freedom to keep yourself in check for the past four months, and you did well enough to prevent something similar to the incident four months ago from happening again…until today…I hope you understand, Deborah.”

So just locking me up wasn’t enough, now she wanted to keep me in chains as well?

But if that was what needed to be done, then so be it.

“Do what you want, I’ll comply…I just don’t want to hurt anyone any more…”

The witch just simply nodded.

“Thank you, Deborah…for being understanding.”

------------------

After the bief meeting at the bridge, I followed Nilrem to her office, where another ceremony would take place with me as its only participant, according to what Nilrem said. As the two of us got inside the office, the witch carefully locked tight the door and gave me the signal to follow her inside. Her room was still a mess like always, it had been a while since the last time I visited her office, yet it barely changed from what I remembered.

Nilrem waved her hand, and suddenly, the piles of books occupying the center of the room got blown away by a gust of wind, clearing the room at one place and leaving a mess at another, but it seemed like Nilrem didn’t care, the center of the room was the only place she needed for this ceremony of hers.

The witch took out a knife from beneath her cloak, and with it, she made a slash at the palm of her right hand, leaving behind a wound deep enough to keep blood flowed out of her hand like a fountain. Before I had a chance to be surprised, the woman took a walk around the center of the room, letting her blood flowed down and formed a circle, a magic circle to be precise.

“The reason for today’s incident was because of your rapidly growing power, Deborah.”

Rapidly…growing…?

“When you first awoke from your slumber, the toll of the long sleep had waned your innate power somewhat, but with time, the power of a dragon like you has rapidly returned by itself. Given enough time, your power will eventually become strong enough to burn the world to ashes.”

When she finished the magic circle, Nilrem took out a handkerchief to keep the blood from draining out of her hand as she continued her explanation.

“And that’s not a good thing. What happened today is just the beginning. You are unable to control the vast power you possess. Your power is destructive by nature, if left unchecked, it will spell ruin not only to Airumel, but to yourself as well.”

“And how can I control it?”

I tried not to use it, I tried not to get into situations that I had to use it, yet the incident at the main hall still happened. What was it that she wanted me to do!?

“I’m afraid the only solution left is for you to regularly use it until you get a hold of it. But that’s not you want, right? And not what I want as well. The whole castle will be at risk if I give you the freedom to freely use your power.”

Said Nilrem.

“And what exactly you want me to do?”

The woman sighed.

“It’s not about what I want you to do, it’s about what I’m going to do to you.”

The way she spoke scared me a little, but at this point, nothing scared me more than my own self.

“I’m going to put a seal on you to limit your power. This seal is called the 「Seven Layers Seal」. It will not stop the accumulation of your power over time, but it will drastically limit the output of the power you can use. The seal is separated into layers, the more layers get lifted, the more power you can use. I don’t want you to see yourself as a prisoner of mine, so I’ll teach you how to open the seal later.”

A limiter that would prevent the overuse of my power. That was...what I desperately needed.

“I’ll do it! I mean...please, put that seal on me, so that what happened today will never happen again.”

The witch stared at me before she replied.

“What I offered you is just a temporary solution. It will not make your problem magically goes away. This seal isn’t a hundred percent guarantee that you will not make another mess in the future. Knowing this, and you still want me to put this seal on you?”

“Anything is better than what I currently am. I don’t want to unwillingly harm others anymore.”

I clenched my fists and announced my intention. What happened today was the last straw. I didn’t want to live knowing one day I would put the lives of others around me at risk. This was what needed to be done. I needed to be kept in check.

“Very well, let’s begin.”

Nilrem suddenly smirked.

“First, strip off your clothes.”

What...?

“What...?”

“They will get in the way of the ceremony.”

But that didn’t mean I could simply strip off so sudden like that...

“I have enough decency to tightly lock the door for you. So are you going to do this or not?”

Geez, this woman really knew how to put someone into an awakward situation. Told someone they were a danger to others at one point and told them to strip away their clothes at another.

“Fine...”

I had no other choice. I needed my power to be sealed away. It couldn’t be helped. Since Nilrem was a woman as well, it should be fine...right?

“Make it quick, I don’t have all day.”

“You don’t have to urge. I’m just...not mentally prepared for this...”

I took off the shoes first, next the black cloak and slowly continued with my white shirt and black skirt. When I was down to my undies, I gave a glance at Nilrem to check whether this was enough. Nilrem replied simply by batting an eyebrow at me, to urge me to finish the job.

'This is so embarrassing...'

...which I did. Now, with my red undies gone, I was truly naked before Nilrem, with only my hands to protect what needed to be protected. Even though she was a woman, I had never consciously shown my naked body to anyone else. It was very embarrassing for me to let loose like this...

“You have grown into a very beautiful woman, Deborah. Any guy would be lucky to have you by his side.”

Did...she just praise me...?

“That being said, the height would be a rather big minus. It’s rare to find someone into that sort of thing, though it’s not like they don’t exist.”

This was simply ridiculous...

“Please...get it over with. It’s embarrassing to be seen like this.”

I just wanted to get back to my room and buried my head to the pillow for the rest of the day...

“What a bummer, just when things start to get fun. But well, you’re right. Please step inside the circle and stand still.”

I did what she said. I just wanted to get this over as quick as possible so that I could bury myself in shame in peace.

The woman held her hand to the air, her mouth started chanting the incantation. The magic circle made of blood suddenly glowed as I sense soul energy being filled across the room.

「O ʜɘɒvɘn ɒnb ɘɒɿƚʜ, I ɔɒll uqon ƚʜɘ winǫƨ oʇ qɿoƚɘɔƚion.

To ǫuibɘ ɒ loƨƚ ɔʜilb ʜomɘ, ƚo ǫuibɘ ɒ loƨƚ lɒmd dɒɔʞ.」

A gentle gust of wind flowed across the room, which rapidly flipped the pages of the books on the ground, making it sound like an orchestra performing a musical movement.

「Ꭾɿɒnƚ mɘ youɿ ƨʜiɘlb, ɿɒiƨɘ uq youɿ dlɒbɘ, oʇʇɘɿ youɿ oɒƚʜ, ɘmdɿɒɔɘ youɿ qɿomiƨɘ

To ɔʜɒin mɘ wiƚʜ youɿ lovɘ, ƚo dinb mɘ wiƚʜ youɿ ƚɿuƨƚ」

As Nilrem completed the second verse of the spell, the glowing magic circle made of blood suddenly splitted itself into four snake-like moving lines and crawled across the ground toward my feet. The moment they made contact with my naked feet, my skin felt like burning as if there was a hot iron glued on my feet, and that was simply the start. As more verses from Nilrem’s spell got chanted, the faster the lines of blood climbed up my body, burning away every inches of naked skin that I laid bare for them to invade. I was on the verge of screaming, but I was stronger than that. This was just a part of the ceremony, I wouldn’t let pain stop me from doing what had to be done!

「Tʜɿouǫʜ ƚʜɘ qɒɔƚ oʇ lovɘ, ƚʜɘ ɔonƚɿɒɔƚ iƨ ɔomqlɘƚɘb.

Tʜɿouǫʜ ƚʜɘ ƨɒɔɿiʇiɔɘ oʇ dloob, ƚʜɘ ɔonƚɿɒɔƚ will nɘvɘɿ dɘ dɿoʞɘn.

Tʜɿouǫʜ ƚʜɘ ƚɿuƨƚ oʇ donb, ƚʜɘ ɔonƚɿɒɔƚ will dɘ ʇɿɘɘb.

Anb ƨo, lɘƚ iƚ dɘ bonɘ, lɘƚ iƚ dɘ ɔʜɒinɘb, lɘƚ iƚ dɘ ʇɿɘɘ.」

When the final verse was completed, all the lines of blood gathered to my navel, near where the strange tattoo resided on my body. They once again splitted themselves, this time into seven smaller lines circling around the tattoo, eventually formed into seven feathers of blood neatly arranged to resemble a circle. When Nilrem finished chanting, I let myself free to fall down to the ground, with my breath heavy and my body drenched in sweat.

“You did well to endure the ceremony, Deborah.”

Said Nilrem, she herself also crouched down to see the result of her work, the seven feathers that acted as a symbol for the seven layers capable of putting my dangerous power on hold.

“Just right around where your Dark Seal is, so symbolic…”

Dark Seal?

“You know what it is?”

“Yes I am. But that’s for another time, you are exhausted, get some rest.”

Nilrem stood up and began cleaning the mess she made from the start. I guessed she was right. I really needed a good sleep, considering everything that happened today.

As I was in the middle of wearing back my clothes, Nilrem suddenly opened her mouth for another conversation.

“The seal will help prevent you from overusing your power, but it does not prevent the accumulation of your power over time. Eventually, it will grow so powerful to the point you may get overwhelmed by it should you choose to release a layer off the seal. Your power is destructive by nature, by any chance something like that happen, you may find yourself losing your own sense of self, and become a feral dragon of destruction.”

That was…really scary, and it was a believable fear that I did not want to come true. The nightmare I had everyday was enough to convince me that would be a really bad thing.

“I want you to promise something, Deborah. One day, you may find yourself in a situation that requires releasing a layer off your seal for more power, when that happens, promise me one thing: If you think you can’t control your power at that point, DO NOT release a layer off the seal!”

She was right, nobody wanted it to happen, and I held the same view as well. I wouldn’t let myself be consumed by this power of mine and threatened the safety of the people around me. I knew I could do it. I would not let this power of mine consume me into madness!

“I promise you....I won’t!”