The moon was high in the sky by the time the princess had reawakened. She groans as she felt a sharp pain in her head as she rose from where she laid. Memories were fading in and out as she scrambled inside her head trying to know what had happened to make her feel like this. Then it began to click. She recalled the panic she felt and the many people that began to run about for something. She couldn’t recall exactly what they were all freaking about over.

Then an image of something white flashed through her mind. Whatever it was, it caused her to shiver with discomfort. Feeling the shadows in the room begin to animate with life, she starts to head to her door and tries to pull it open. It doesn’t bulge.

“Huh?”

She tries again, and still, it will not open up.

‘Odd, I never locked my door before.’

She lightly knocks on the door, expecting to hear the guards who normally stand near her door to hear and help her out. But after a minute of silence, she began to get testier with the situation.

Bam! Bam! Bam! She slams the side of her fist as she attempts to make enough noise to draw the guards.

Still silence.

‘What is going on? They cant have just left me here with no one around right?’

She tries the knob of the door once again and pulls with her arm strength to get it to open, she could feel the thick wood just barely bent, but still, the lock mechanism wouldn’t loosen.

She slouches on the door and begins pushing against it, in the small chance that she somehow forgot how to even open it and it swings the other way. She was locked in her room.

She slowly descends onto the ground and lets her arms lay on the ground as she begins to let the darkness of the room and the silence overtake her.

As she did, she could feel her left hand slightly feel warmer than her right. As she looks over, she could the strong ray of light from the moon shine on it. She looks up over her and finds the curtained window near the ceiling just over her balcony glass door was slightly opened to let the light through.

With the sudden realization of the door existence, she lightly chuckles to herself and feels her face turn hot red.

After getting herself up, she heads to the door and throws the double doors open to let the cool night air blow into the room.

Her balcony was on the third floor of the castle. Giving her enough height to look far through the cities and streets. She would often spend her lazy times standing against the railing and looking yonder down at the streets and see how the people interacted with one another. Without the help of the maids, she was able to see that some of the residents of the capital weren't just humans like her. Some were werebeasts, a mix between humans and crystalbeasts, and other races from other countries.

After spending so long like this, it began to wear out the marble railing and caused it to slightly wobble in place. Yasuline never really addressed this of out many reasons, but now she adds to her habit by rocking the railing back and forth as she lays her head on it.

Looking outside, she finds that the moon was nearly at the center of the dark purple sky shining down at her, giving the area around her low light hue to let her see the ground level. Outside of the gates, she could see the people still bustling around the large street that held many tables and tents filled with food. She didn’t bother to call for them as she already learned that she was too far away for them to hear. Looking down right below her, she finds a strange sight. She saw no one. Every instance where she had been out on the balcony, she could see the guards and others passing by under her, so to see the area empty was a clear fact that something was amiss in the castle.

Now, with the desire to search the castle for the whereabouts of all the guards and maids in the area, she attempts to look around for a way to reach the ground floor. As she looked around, she looked above the door to find the rooftop just narrowly over it. Just reachable if she had climbed onto the railing herself. She could look around the roof and see if she could find anyone else or at least a window so she can get back inside. She takes off her heels and begins climbing onto the railing, holding it on tightly, as she felt it wobble under her.

‘Easy does it now’ She mentally speaks to the railing. After it had settled in one angle, Yasuline carefully places her footing onto the top and begins to move forward inch by inch. Her hands extended forward to reach the edge of the roof. During this whole time, she was careful about watching her foot placements to keep it all balanced. She could feel her hand brush against the roof. She turns her eyes upwards to see how close she was. And in that split second of turning her attention, she moved her foot to get closer. She could feel the wobbling happen again, but this time, she didn’t expect it, the sudden movement caused her body to swirl left and right, and it only made the wobbling happen more. The cycle continued until she could feel her body’s weight shifting enough to where it was a general problem. The next few seconds happened to fast for her mind to truly process it.

She tried to save herself by leaning her body in one direction, but because of the sudden body confusion and the shaking, she couldn’t get her body to lean into the balcony, and instead, she was leaning out. With a final push to save herself, she leaned her upper body forward, but it only made her lower body stick out below and that was the final thing she could do. She would then began to feel nothing on the but air under her. She was forced to look up in the sky, she knew what happened.

‘I fell. Is that really how I’m going to die? So much for a miracle child.’ She could feel the fear of dying built up, but she didn’t bother focusing on that. She was more preoccupied with how distressed her parents would be. After being careful with her for so long, the one time they weren’t was how she was going to go? She closes her eyes, thinking of what is to come in the future after she was gone. Will her parents recover from her death? Maybe she won’t die but will be paralyzed for the rest of her life. Thinking it that way, with just a minor difference, she would be more acceptable to death than to stay in bed for the rest of her life.

Yasuline would feel her whole body jerk to a stop. That feeling of free fall was no longer there. Something had caught her hand. It was warm and felt like someone’s hand. She opens her eyes and sees that someone indeed had caught her in time. Their arm was sticking out between the fencing of the rails she was just on. She couldn’t quite make out the person because of the shadows of the railing.

She lets out a breath of air that she didn’t even know she was holding in this whole time.

Although the person seemed to have some trouble pulling her up all the way, they managed to raise her enough for her to grab onto the floor while the person continued pulling her up more. Yasuline could feel her body relaxing as she feels the tip of her toes were on the edges. Her body resting over the railing. The person that saved her stepped over to the other side of the balcony to give her room as she pulls herself back to safety. The rush of almost dying came and went once she sat down on the solid ground. Her breathing increasing as the went away.

She looked over her savior and felt herself holding her breath once more. The person had the body figure of a man, a young one at that. Slightly older than her. He stood taller than her but held himself with his arms folded over his chest. His boots looked to be unique with a strange combination of white and blue on them. She had never seemed such kinds before. They didn’t look to be made of metal or leather. The rest of his clothes was also strange. For the leggings, they looked to be a bit too big, but they slimmed down at the belt area. That was when she noticed there had some form of power as once in a while, she would see a pattern of dark-green lighting go around his legs. They were strong enough to emit a lighting hue on the balcony floor. His leggings weren’t the only clothing to do that, the most apparent piece of his wardrobe was the coat he had on. It was pure white with the lower end having a constant flame that waves around as if it were a real fire. The light blue coloring of the flames gives off a stronger light than the lightning on his legs. She couldn’t make out his face due to his head being deep inside his hood, but she knew who this was. The white fabric of her clothing connected itself to her memory of the white blur that passed by during the chaos of the arrow nearly hitting her.

“The White Reaper.” She muttered.

After she spoke his name, he would jump onto the railing and bounce against it, easily getting onto the roof and disappear from her sight.

She blinked and felt her breath being let out again. Questions and confusion flooded her mind.

‘That was the White Reaper. The same one who killed the Lunarclaw Queen and many other nobles across the world. But...he saved me.’

She looked inside her room to see if anyone else was present that could have been the ones to save her. The room was empty. The door to her bedroom was locked still.

‘What is going on? Why would he save me? He was the one who tried to kill me before!’ The hypocrisy of such actions confused her to no end.

Knowing no other way to get the answers to such a strong event in her life, she begins to follow him up to the roof. Carefully placing her foot and continues to scoot forward until she felt her head hit against the wall. Using the wall to balance herself, she would get up on her feet and begins to stand up straight. She was able to grab onto the edge of the roof and begins pulling herself up with some issues.

She lets out a sigh of relief after finally making it to the roof. She looks around for the White Reaper.

She found him laying on his back, one leg hanging over one knee, arms resting under his head for a cushion. He had tanned skin that looked natural in the white moonlight shined on him. A contract to his mystical white hair that seemed to almost glow with the moonshine. His eyes were steady as he looked at the sky, letting her see his fairly light blue eyes reflect the sight he was peacefully enjoying.

When she became aware of herself staring for such a long while, she nervously turned to look up at the bright moon in the sky with the stars.

The feeling of fear was still within her, even more, powerful than when she thought she was going to die. She was near Death himself, after all. But the strange thing was he looked so normal. Well. Normal would be exaggerating as he was likely to be deemed handsome to any other woman who sees him. That is. If any woman could look past his identity.

The White Reaper's name was legendary and passed down to the future generation of a boogeyman of sorts. Melodies tell of how he hunts naughty children who break the rules and wander by themselves into the forests and such. Adults continue that folktales and amplify them further with tales of what horrendous deeds he has done. Burning down villages, slaughtering knights and bandits. They are just the kind of tales they use to warm each other up before discussing the rumored sins he has done. Like eating his parents. Being the one who sunk an entire continent, along with its people and dullbeasts. Any disaster that has occurred was blamed on the White Reaper.

Yasuline gulped. Creeping closer to the White Reaper as close as she could. Managing to get close enough to where her feet bumped against his arm. She shrieked and pulled away, while he nudged the spot next to him as he scoots further away. Looking like he had just opened a spot for her to sit. Nervously, she sits next to him, bending her legs and arms together into a little ball.

'What am I doing!?' She yelled at herself. 'Sitting next to the most dangerous and evil person in the world!? Have I gone mad!?'

She kept her eyes to the night sky on the horizon as she was too timid to look at him, even at the corner of her eyes. Every flick and movement he made only caused her to tense up and freeze.

She didn't know how long she stayed like this. Seconds? Minutes? Hours? That last one might be an exaggeration, but she was still too scared to look up at the sky above her to see where the moon was positioned. As she sat there. Stories of what the White Reaper has done according to her parents and Caliber would surface again. Stories of how he murdered the Lunaclaw Queen on her wedding day. How he announced a kill-list of nobles that he would kill and completed it.

"He killed all of those people. But why would he save me?" She says under her breath. She then realized what she did and instinctively looked over at the White Reaper. He didn't seem too bothered by her and had his hand up in the air, waving it in a suggestion of a "so and so."

"Huh? What the heck does that mean?" She would bluntly say.

He gestures a shrug as he sits up. Now giving her more attention.

"I mean, did you kill all those nobles?" She says. The sense of fear was dwindling quickly, but still there. Her fists clutched against her dress as she sat on her legs. Curiosity and wonder were beginning to replace it.

The White Reaper would shrug again. And then changes his answer with a nod. Yasuline pondered on his answer and thought about it some more.

'So he admitted to killing them. Maybe the reason is different?'

"Why did you make a list to kill them?" She asks slowly. The White Reaper took a bit to answer back. At first, she didn't know what to make of it. Well. Before that, she wondered why he wasn't just talking. Making an assumption that he can't speak at all. But, he had pulled out a piece of cloth from his cost and hands it to her. Subconsciously thinking his hands were surprisingly gentle, she begins to examine the cloth. It was a dark color of sorts. Dark-red, she would conclude. The material was rough to the touch. Trying to tug on it showed it was some strong material. But she couldn't make out of it well enough to know what it was a suggestion. She hands it back to her and falsely nods that she knew the answer. Whatever it was. Things got quiet between them. But the tension that was there before basically blew away into the wind. The death incarnate image that he was was slowly dwindling, but...

“We finally found you, princess.” A sudden voice broke the silence, but it didn’t come from the White Reaper himself. Yasuline would turn to the other end of the roof to find two figures standing tall and seems to be looking at her.

They wore dark cloaks over themselves, but they seemed to be wearing the same kind, A dark red cloak that looked to be made of leather and had a flame pattern etched at their shoulders. She had a feeling that she had seemed them before, but either it was only once or that it was long ago since the last time she has seen it.

“And who are you? Why is everyone just now hanging out on the roof of my room? And Why didn’t I know about this?”

“She is quite the talkative one, isn’t she brother?” One of them commented as if she wasn’t even talking to them.

“Yes, A surprise that we had so much trouble finding her in this large castle.” The other replied.

Yasuline huffed and began to stand back up to confront them.

“Look, I don’t know who you two are, but it is rude to talk about someone when you are in front of them. My mom told me that a lot when I do it to Caliber.”

“Ah yes, the Royal Captain. We should take him out too after we take care of the princess here.”

“Yes yes, the Lumines Champion. It would be bothersome for our masters if he was still around and was hunting us for petty revenge.”

Again, she was ignored. She turned to the White Reaper to back her up but found that he was already gone.

“Geez, is everyone in the world rude!?”

“She is being noisy, brother. We should kill her now before she manages to wake up the guards and others with her screeching.”

“Yes, let’s”

“K-kill!? What do you mean? You’re assassins!?” She says, beginning to what was going on now. ‘Did the White Reaper distract me so they could find me? Was he trying to kill me this whole time? But wait…’ Her process was interrupted when she saw them beginning to approach her. She took some steps back to keep the great distance between them. She felt just a fraction of her foot had nothing under her and she turns back to see she was already at the edge. She turns back to see them still approaching her.

“Why are you trying to kill me? I haven’t even done anything in my life yet to gain enemies. I haven’t even been outside the castle!”

“A mere human cannot begin to grasp our bigger game here. You are a mere stepping stone in our masters plan to claim Atlas for the Demones.”

‘Demones? That could only be the conclusion for one thing.’

“You’re from the Hellfire Gang?”

“Correct, princess, and now, say your greetings to the Godbeast of the Moon in the Great Beyond of Wonder.”

They shifted from their slow steps to them running at her. The sudden shift in speed made Yasuline flinch and instinctively bends her arms in front of her to await their bodies to collide with her and push her off the roof again, she could almost feel that sense of free fall once again.

[Battle initiated. The White Reaper Vs. Hellfire Twins]

Yasuline would see a white blur dash from the corner of her eye toward the two assassins. It was the White Reaper, wielding a sword that the guards typically equip themselves with. He swings his arm and the sword horizontally, forcing them back to jump back to avoid a hit. She is taken aback to see him standing in front of her as if shielding her from them.

“What is this, brother. This is not what the plan anticipated.” One of them said, noticeably shaken to see someone facing them.

“I am aware of that brother, this is an anomaly.” The other seemed to be calm but she could still hear a hint of nervousness in his tone.

The White Reaper did not remark either of them and remained in his sharp stance of defense, holding the blade backward in his grip and aimed it at them, but also to the side to cover most of his lower face and neck. It was a unique stance that Yasuline has never seen or heard of, but he looked completely focused and sturdy, similar to how Caliber looked when he was in his battle stance.

[Round 1 Begins: Hellfire Twins’ Turn]

Both of the assassins start dashing toward the White Reaper. With the moonlight shining brightly tonight, the blades that they tucked into their palms were revealed. Yasuline wasn’t able to catch them and only believed that they were going to fight in hand-to-hand combat. But the White Reaper saw and acted accordingly to the threat. He twists and bends his body back to slip between both of their attacks that were perfectly in parallel with each other and sync of speed and precision.

It all happened in the spam for a few seconds, Yasuline could barely process the movements they were making. Even the Hellfire members seemed to be perplexed as to if their attacks even connected as they looked at their weapons for any blood on them. But the White Reaper was unharmed.

“He dodged our attack! He is the White Reaper then!” One of the assassins blurted out as it sunk in.

“It is still two to one, We just have to best him and dwindle his strength.” The other one replied, looking to be taking the predicament slightly well compared to the other.

[Battle Results: Hellfire Twins use Dual Strike Attack. Missed.]

[The White Reaper’s turn]

While the two assassins talked, the White Reaper rushed toward them. The two of them got into a position to block his attack as he drew his arm back ready for a powerful swing. At the near end of his movement to meet up with them, he surprises them at the end by slipping under them and getting behind the two. They made the mistake of only following him with their eyes and not with their arms, as his back attack connects. The two jump away from him before the sword hits them critically on the body.

[Battle Results: White Reaper uses Back Strike Attack. Moderate Damage to Both Opponents. Round 1 Ends.]

The two assassins seem to consider the White Reaper to big of a threat to even bother trying to kill her now that there was nothing between them and her. But with how swift the White Reaper was, he might as well still be shielding her.

“His skills and speed are even too much for me to not admit it, brother.” One cried out, losing more of his composure as he feels the pain of his back persisting him of his enemy’s threat.

“It was just a lucky strike. I doubt he would do something like that again, but even then, we must not play it easy. We should go full out. Does he dare stand in the way of Hellfire? Then he shall burn in the fire pits with the rest of the world!”

[Round 2 Begins: Hellfire Twins’ Turn]

The two join hands as they stand side to side. Their united fists were held up in the air as Yasuline could hear them murmuring something. Something strange began to occur before her eyes. It was something that she had seen only a handful of times in her life in the castle by Caliber. Skills.

The two assassin’s fist began to have slim rays of orange and red light peak out from their fist. Then their skin began glowing more and she could feel some strong heat coming from them.

“From the fiery pits of our Fallen Divine Lord’s home. Burn for eternally until your spirit turns to dust!” They shouted with perfect sync with one another. Yasuline could almost hear something of an echo when they spoke too. The White Reaper didn’t seem fazed by their actions, but he did seem to be preparing for it as he was lowering his upper body down and his legs spread out. “Assault Skill - Helix Hellfire!”

They point their fists right at the White Reaper and open their hands up like a blooming flower. Upon release, a small fire hovered between their palms. It blew up in one direction and was aiming directly at where the White Reaper stood. Not even three seconds later, the spot where she last saw the White Reaper was engulfed in a large fireball. The ball of flame slowly moved up while it left the rooftop darkly charred with smoke

The attack itself seemed to have drained a lot from the assassins as they were panting. Their hoods had fallen off of their heads. And with the flame still lighting the area, she was able to see their faces.

They looked almost human, but something about them made them look strange to her. She couldn’t quite pick out one feature that caused such a thought. Their pupils weren’t round like hers and the other humans, they had a sharp end at the top and bottom that she knew were like the reptilian werebeasts. The lines of their mouth were longer than hers. Some parts of their faces looked charred too. Like patches of their skin were burned, and some even had red lines going through those portions like something was underneath it. Looking at them longer, she settled in that the skin portion of their faces was stitched on. And the dark portions were their actual skin.

“I think that did it, brother.” One spoke. As he did, she would watch their overly long mouths move about.

“Yes, I believe so. I knew that would be overkill and we have exposed ourselves. But I’m sure the news of the killing of the White Reaper will have them forgive us and maybe even reward our accomplishment.”

The first one curved his lips in that of a smile. “Splendid, let us slay the princess and see what-”

The sound of a blade stabbing through his shoulder interrupted him.”

The sword itself flew from the smoke pillar from where the White Reaper last stood. His palms and hands were dark from the char and ash.

While the two assassins attempted to pull the sword out, Yasuline looked over at the smoke. She could see the White Reaper pull himself out from the edge of the rooftop.

“He jumped off and held on to dodge the flames.” She exclaimed excitedly.

With a shriek, the assassins managed to pull the sword out. Seemingly disgusted by it, they toss it away to see the damage that was done. The blade managed to go through their shoulder. Blood dripping on both front and back.

[Battle Results: Hellfire Twins’ Use Skill Series: Underworld Union – Helix Hellfire. Attack Missed. Counterattack occurs. Critical Damage.]

“Brother, my arm. I’m a liability like this.”

“Grr, we’ll have to withdraw. Reporting this is now our top priority. White Reaper, you may have won this battle tonight, but know that you have marked yourself as an enemy to Hellfire. When the flames rise, you shall burn with the rest of them now!”

The one with both arms unharmed would press his hands onto the floor in front of him. They began to heat the tiles of the floor and as they melt, they would begin to form another smoke pillar. But this one behaved strangely. Instead of it going up into the sky, it would instead stretch across the whole roof.

Yasuling coughed uncontrollably as it reaches her nostrils and mouth. She shields her eyes from the stinging smoke and tries to hold her hands out to grab onto something as she tried backing away from it. Forgetting where she even was, she felt herself stumbling back from the rooftop. However, at the angle of the fall, she felt someone grab her hand and keep her steady. Barely opening her eyes, she could see a blue light in front of her. She tried to call out to the White Reaper, but she ended up coughing instead.

She then felt him pull her into his arms, and then felt the two of them jump down, she tried screaming, but again, she would just cough.

[Secondary Actions: Hellfire Twins Use Passive Skill: Smoggy Smokescreen. Battle Ends.]

[End of Battle Results: No Experience Gained. Skill Series: Underworld Union discovered.]