Hellbound Heart

A horrified gasp escaped Elle's mouth the moment she realized she was not dreaming. And that she was not in her room nor anywhere near Alicia's house. What… what was she doing here? How had she suddenly appeared right in the middle of… the forest?!

Panicking, she looked around and a little relief bloomed within her when she noticed the tiny glowing white flowers on the ground. She recognized these flowers as only belonging to one place specifically. This meant that she was still in the Black Forest!

But… how did she end up here?!

The only explanation that made sense was that she had sleepwalked all the way here. She remembered thinking about all the things she had heard from Alicia before she fell asleep. Alicia had given her information about the powers of the witches. She had explained to her about what she had witnessed and told her that the witches can teleport.

All the things Alicia had told her were mind-blowing. When she had gone to bed, her mind was filled with thoughts of the witches' magic. And about how unbelievably amazing it was that those kinds of magic really did exist.

Elle could not remember if she had any dream after she fell asleep. She just fell asleep and the next time she opened her eyes, she was already here. Alone in the middle of the woods and standing there in her pajamas. Should she call out for help? But what if that was a bad idea?

She calmed herself by reassuring herself that this place was safe. As long as she was inside the Black Forest, she would be safe. However, she did not know what kinds of wild animals were prowling around. Perhaps there are other more unspeakable things other than the animals that she should be wary of. Thus, she came to the conclusion that yelling might actually be a bad idea.

So, she turned around. There was no path behind her or anywhere else. But if she had sleepwalked, then she must have walked straight ahead without taking any turns. So she thought that if she just turned around 180-degrees and walked straight back the other way, then she should end up reaching Alicia's house.

Hastily, Elle turned around and walked off in the exact opposite direction that she was facing in. She wished she could just run, but the surroundings were dim. She was just glad that those little flowers were growing all around. Because without them, she would not even know how to begin navigating her way around in total darkness.

Her heartbeats were thundering loudly in her ears as she rested her hand against a tree. How far had she gone? She had been alternating walking and running for maybe twenty minutes or so by now.

After taking a few moments to catch her breath, Elle continued. She needed to get back to the house as soon as possible before any more trouble was stirred!

Something bright flashed like lightning in the distance, causing Elle to halt and hold her breath. There was no sound but a cool gust of wind blew over her. That felt unusual to Elle as she knew there should not be such a breeze in the forest that was so thick with trees. This kind of wind could only be formed in areas of land that are beside large bodies of water - specifically the seas or oceans. Thus, Elle knew that this was something unusual.

The only good thing was that she did not feel any danger from it. All she was feeling was… curiosity that kept bubbling.

With measured and quiet steps, Elle walked towards the source of that bright light.

She hid behind a large tree trunk that was before her and the moment she peeked out from the sides, her eyes slowly widened. There was a woman there! She had long silver hair and was dressed in flowing silken material. The hem of her white dress kissed the ground and the skirt fluttered elegantly along with the silvery lights floating around her. She looked like a deity of light came down to earth, or perhaps a wingless angel.

Her eyes were closed as she slashed her long sword in the air with such smooth and impossibly fast moves that her eyes even failed to follow it. It did not even make any sound but instead, produced a quiet gleam that had sliced all the falling leaves into pieces before her.

Elle's jaws dropped. Awe and amazement shone in her eyes as she continued watching that lady start to move - no, dance - with her sword like a blur. It only made Elle feel like she was watching some kind of an ethereal dance of silence.

She immediately knew this must be… Lilith. The witch queen she had heard so much about. She already knew there were only three witches with silver hair – Alicia, Zeres and the current witch queen, Lilith. Lilith was so much younger than she had even imagined –!

Her thoughts were cut off. A sword was pointed at her in an instant. Even much faster than a blink of an eye.

Lilith was already right before her, standing there as though she had been in that spot forever, looking a little surprised seeing her there.

"You are… Izabelle…" she said as if she could not believe this was indeed her.

Somehow, Elle could not help but wonder why everyone seemed to be having this kind of shocked expression the first time they saw her.

"Yes." Elle replied unblinkingly and Lilith's sword shattered into tiny white glitters before disappearing into nothing. That long and majestic looking sword that was utterly breathtaking had literally vanished before her eyes!

"I… I apologize." The witch queen said.

"Oh…oh! I… am the one who came here unannounced and disturbed you."

"May I know how long you have been here?" Lilith asked as she looked unhesitatingly into Elle's eyes.

"Maybe just a couple of minutes. I couldn't help but watch because your swordplay was absolutely amazing…" Elle trailed off at the sight of shock on her face. The witch queen tried to hide it almost in an instant but Elle already saw that look. Why… why did she look like she could not believe she had been there for about two minutes?