World is pain, pain is world.

  It hurts. Everything hurts to levels I simply cannot describe.

  Not because I don’t have the words to do so, but because thinking too hard hurts as well. It hurts even worse than the rest.

  My blood hurts, my bones hurt, my flesh hurts.

  Hold a second… Why- How the hell am I thinking? I am dead. I am definitely dead. That damned automaton squeezed me like a lemon. There is no cutting it, I could not have possibly survived this, and even if I had, I would have long since bled out.

  So what the hell? Is this heaven? Did they forget to turn on the godly lights for me or something? This couldn’t possibly be hell, I was a good girl after all, I never did anything wrong, and I never even hurt a- That fly had it coming in the first place!

  The pain plaguing my being felt like an afterthought. It was still powerful enough to probably kill a whole nation from shock, but it was not something worth my attention at the moment.

  Was I alive? Was I dead? Where was I? Could I- By the gods, I can move! I have a body!

  I felt my fingers twitch, my entire body screamed in pain, but I didn’t care. I continued to move.

  It was as though I was just coming out of paralysis. My limbs and joints felt numb and struggled to respond to my commands for a while, but they were moving, and with every second passed in absolute agony, I felt more mobile, more flexible.

  The darkness all around me remained as such, but I could hear, and curiously enough… For some reason, there was a clinking and metallic squeak that lined up with each of my motions.

  That was a bit weird… I feel like I don’t want to question that too deeply right now.

  Soon enough, a glow seemed to manifest. It was pitifully weak, but when it came to pure dark, any light seemed like a beacon.

  The light was… A deep, dark purple… How odd, that the colour of my eyes, and I was fairly certain that they did not normally glow in the dark- No, scratch that actually! My eyes definitely did not glow in the dark. What is this? Am I still in that damned backroom? How long have I been out cold for?!

  Screw this! Something is wrong with me, my limbs feel heavier than normal, and that’s not due to being still for too long, they genuinely feel heavier- Like… Like they are made from stone or… Or… No, there is no way.

  Right? Right?! Hey, is there no divine entity to reassure a girl?! You bastard descend to make demigods, but you can’t spare a second to pat me on the shoulder for a second?! I’ll desecrate your temple, damned crooks!

  I needed to know what’s up with me, but before I got to have a good feel of my face. I heard something.

  A pipe that fell to the ground and bounced a few times, perhaps? But that was of no importance. A voice soon joined it. Now this mattered.

  I don’t understand any of what is being said. It sounds like the language I know, but making out any proper syllable is impossible.

  Is it those damned guards? Did someone notice the broken back door and call them? I snarl, and, by the gods, that too is horrendously painful, but no amount of pain can overpower the disdain I have for the lapdogs of nobility.

  As though possessed, I rise tall, the purple shine is of no use, but if I did not move from where I last was, the door should be right in front of me. It is closed, there is empty space on both sides, smaller on my right, but that place will be blocked off as the door opens, so that’s the best hiding spot.

  I walk forward, my steps are metallic, it sounds like I am wearing plate armour.

  I ignore that for now and slither up against the wall, finding the rightmost corner, where I stand perfectly still. I can hear multiple voices, two men from the sound of it. They seem rather young, and as far as I can tell, they don’t appear very worried.

  “What happened in here? Everything has been shattered”

  “All the kids in the city came here to fool around. Were you seriously expecting them to have left anything in good condition?”

  “Do you seriously think kids would have smashed chairs and whole freaking tables against the ceiling?! Look at this!”

  “We have beastfolk and demon kids as well. They probably have the strength to do it”

  “If you say so…”

  They were going back and forth, the one who was actually onto something being shot down by the one who was confidently wrong. If that wasn’t the story of life, I don’t know what it is!

  “You know… I remember my parents telling me that I came here when this place was opened, but I was too young to remember. But being in here makes me feel nostalgic for some reason”

  “Did you? You are one lucky bastard then, within just a few weeks or months of this place being opened, some lunatic- Wait, there is still an intact door in here?”

  Too little to remember having come here? What is this man on about? It hasn’t even been closed for a year… And are they talking about this door?

  I tensed up, metal groaned, I could hear their footsteps, I could hear them breathing, I could hear their heartbeat… I don’t know why I could hear that, but I definitely did.

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  Why do they have to be smart and enter the same room together? Can’t you guys split up for a moment so I can deal with you one by one? I am a pretty strong gal myself, but I don’t quite believe that I could just take on two adult men at the same time.

  Just as I seethed over their lack of stupidity, one of them began to walk away just as the other took hold of the doorknob.

  “Where are you going?”

  “I think I saw something over there…”

  “Huh…”

  Nonchalantly, the first to speak pushed the door open, and soon, the light of a lantern filled the room, unlike my own, which was powered by a mana crystal. He was just using a regular one that consumed oil.

  “Looks pretty empty in here- Ack!”

  He stumbled against something, resulting in glass breaking.

  The fool had accidentally kicked my lantern across the room. I could see it for myself, the mana crystal had run out in spite of the fact that they were supposed to last for years by absorbing ambient mana.

  What a scam…

  “What the… Why is there black sludge everywhere? And that smell- You need to see what the hell is in here!” he shouted to his fellow, who did not reply.

  “Is it blood?” he tilted his head in confusion, not noticing a thing, as strangely, I did not produce any odd squeak as I walked up to him.

  Being a rather tall woman, precisely one meter and eighty-five centimeters tall, I had to look down to get a clear view of what had my interest, namely, his neck.

  I felt compelled to act in a way that did not fit my usual methods.

  Foreign instincts melded with my own.

  My right hand lunged out, grabbing his face, covering his mouth as his body tensed in surprise, arms flailing upward in a meaningless attempt at struggling. What was the point of grabbing my hand or arm? You should be kicking back instead!

  My left hand instead seized hold of his shoulder, forcing him to his knees.

  It was surprisingly easy to overpower him. In fact, it was trivial.

  I wholly ignored the sight of my arms, focusing on the task at hand instead.

  The man struggled as well as he could, but I twisted his head, and within just a few seconds, a satisfying crunch rang out.

  He went limp. He was dead.

  I let him fall like a sack of rocks, admiring my craft with a head tilt before turning my attention to the open door. The footsteps of the second man were approaching, having seemingly stopped investigating whatever it was that he had seen…

  “Did you drop your lantern just now? Are you trying to burn this place to the ground?” he spoke before even reaching the door, and indeed, in the struggle, the dead man had launched his lantern at the wall in front of him, oil and flames had melded and were steadily spreading upon the old structure.

  I bent down and picked up a shard of glass from my own lantern. It was long like a middle finger and nicely sharp.

  I quite like the way it looked.

  One, two, three… Counting in my head, I smacked the second man in the face just as he was poking his head through the doorframe. The punch was very effective as he stumbled all the way back against the wall behind him, clutching his broken nose in shock.

  The instant he got a better look at me, I swear I could see all bravery leave his body. His knees buckled, arms trembled, body frozen.

  He screamed like a little girl, but that impressive impression was of no use against me. I embedded the glass shard into the side of his neck. Whether I hit the carotid or not, I honestly have no idea, so once he fell to the ground, I repeatedly kicked him in the head.

  The third kick exploded the man’s skull like a watermelon, and caused me to slip and fall on my ass.

  “L-L-L-Look WhAt YOU dId TO mE-E-E-E-E!”

  My voice came out like I was speaking through a cheesegrater, and it sounded like I had inhaled all the smoke in the world for some reason.

  “Ah!”

  My voice! My beautiful, adorable and charming voice!

  Kicking at the now headless corpse in contempt, I rose back up and bathed in the light of the second man’s lantern, which he had dropped gently enough for it not to break. I truly got a good look at myself.

  I twitched my fingers. I looked at my hands back and forth. I stared down at my body.

  No doubt about it, this really was me.

  HOW?! What did I do to deserve this? I used to be beautiful! My skin was smooth, I was tall, I had magnificent black hair, unique purple eyes, my face put all nobles to shame! I used to have countless admirers, and those creepy fucks would refer to me as their ‘muscle goddess’!

  I was perfect! I was the most beautiful woman in all of the land. That was an undeniable fact!

  But now… What can I even say about this?!

  How is this possible? How can I even be alive still?

  Just like I remembered, my body had been crushed by the mechanism of the automaton. Everything about me had been compressed into red paste- But somehow… Somehow!

  I lived.

  And things were looking dire.

  The suit once worn by the automaton’s steel skeleton was gone, leaving only a nightmarish sight.

  I did not know what had happened. It didn’t make sense, but undeniably, the steel skeleton and I were one and the same now.

  My flesh, which was supposed to have been ground completely, was growing like vines upon it. I could see what looked like organs dangling about in what was now my ribcage.

  I had a heartbeat.

  I was truly alive. Yet I did not breathe. I had no lungs.

  My being was no longer the same. I could not reasonably call myself human anymore, but then… What was I?

  I groaned, my voice unpleasant to the ears.

  This doesn’t matter right now. I need to pay a visit to my dear brother instead.

  He’ll have to explain himself for what happened to me.

  The fire wasn’t spreading quickly at all. The humidity of the building might actually keep it at bay for a while.

  I took some time to fetch clothes from the two dead men. The coat I had discarded on the ground earlier was gone.

  Thankfully, despite my situation, my height remained unchanged, but my build seemed a bit different. It was nothing I couldn’t get used to.

  I walked through the old place, toward the back door, but just as I was going to step outside, something appeared in my sight.

  Welcome, Mara Nebulo

  “W-W-WHAT tHe HEE-EEE-EELL?”