The Great Crestmaster

For a moment Aldrich was struck with uncontrollable fear, he almost believed her.

After all she knew that he was from Wakefield which very few people knew, and the way she talked about his mother… it sounded so believable. She also took away all his powers somehow.

But she didn't seem to know about the nightmare realm. That was strange, if she knew so much about him then how could she not know about the source of his power?

Only that she couldn't hear his thoughts about the nightmare realm for some reason, Aldrich didn't need to know the reason now, he just needed to use that to his advantage.

"If you know everything then can you tell me about the nightmare realm?" Aldrich asked.

"… what was that? Can you say it louder?" She demanded. And Aldrich could sense some impatience in her at last. Anyway, the experiment was a success.

"I said the nightmare realm? Aren't you death? Aren't you the thing that is beyond my perception?"

The woman shook her head violently her neck elongating to the height of her own body, her head hit the walls and made dents and cracks with each blow.

Alright so this confirmed that she was definitely not human and that not knowing something did affect her, perhaps more than he expected to.

In a way it made perfect sense, this thing thought that it was in a position of unopposed superiority in terms of power and knowledge and yet she was met with the reality that she wasn't all powerful or all knowing.

"I can't hear you?! Say it clearly! I know everything about you, I know I do."

Aldrich smirked with derision and ridicule, "oh, I know what you are, you're just a bitch in heat. Stop pretending to be something more, you're not that special."

"Mortal, you dare mock me!!" She shrieked. And then her head returned to her shoulders and she calmed down.

With that, she began to sing. The haunting lullaby filled the chamber, bouncing off the wall and redoubling as the creature made a sound that was anything but joyful.

For a moment, Aldrich's heart hurt from the beauty of it—then more of those broken, discordant notes joined the melody. A deep, sinister tone entered the song, warping it into something twisted and evil.

The woman's smile dissolved, along with the rest of her beautiful disguise. What lay beneath was the angular, vicious face of an apex predator.

Her teeth glistened like knives in the torchlight. Her skin was not fair anymore, it was deathly blue and white, her hair was black like ink and it gained a life of it's own as it formed tendrils and floated in different directions.

"Come here!" she shrieked, her voice going banshee-shrill in an instant. She didn't launch herself at Aldrich or assume a battle stance—she simply fell, as if gravity had reversed and Aldrich's body was the floor.

He had not seen anything like that before. Nothing in the world moved like that.

The dagger fell from Aldrich's nerveless fingers as the women's shriek rattled his skull. He had just enough time to see the creature's blur before the creature slammed into him.

The room shifted around him as he flopped onto his back, going down in a heap. Aldrich cursed this body, it was too weak, too slow and he didn't know what to do with it.

The monster—for it had never been a beautiful woman, not truly—stared down at him, her nails elongating like daggers.

This reminded him of the nightmare specter so uncannily that he thought he was back in that corridor again and this was but a mere disguise of that monster.

Those sharp fangs flashed in her face, her eyes pointing in the opposite direction like a deer's. She lifted her hands to skewer him, her long tongue lolling from her drooling mouth.

Somehow he found the sword . No one was more surprised than Aldrich as he lifted it to parry, catching the demon's swipe on the downswing. Anger flared in its inhuman face.

"Eat you," the creature hissed. It sounded half-demon, half-witch. "Eat you up!"m

"Eat this bitch!" Aldrich stabbed at the banshee in her wide open mouth, the creature flailed and fell on it's back.

Aldrich got on top and started twisting while he straddle her, she struggled despite the fatal wound. But Aldrich didn't let up and instead he pressed harder and she went limp.

But even then he pulled the sword out and started stabbing in her torso looking for her hear if she had any.

But after a dozen stabs he backed away from all the blood and fell on his butt, huffing and puffing.

"—did you really think it was going to be that easy?"

Aldrich stood up in panic but as soon as he did he was bound with her hair even while she was ten meters away. She was back to normal all the wounds vanished like they were only in his imagination.

"Heheheh, you're mine now and forever!"

Aldrich could not move at all he, if he had his true power then he might've been able to escape but…

There is no such thing as if…

Suddenly the hair was burned with golden flames. The banshee screamed in pain and Aldrich looked at the fire that burned the hair and yet did not hurt him at all. In fact he felt it soothing and warm.

"Away with you, witch."

Aldrich saw another woman appear besides him, she dressed like a priestess with black and white on her dress, except it was slightly stylized.

She had long platinum white hair and held a golden scepter inscribed with holy words, she had a mole under her pink lips slightly to the left side and her eyes were covered by a cloth tied around her head.

"YOU DARE!!" The banshee shrieked again, in pain and anger.

"It is not your place, nor is it your time [Banishment]!"

The priestess spoke with grace and poise but he also felt a different kind of rage within her.

A swirling vortex of light appeared behind the banshee and before she could do anything she disappeared.