V.I.R.A.L

Chapter 118: Broken Reality

Destroying Eyes over Reality, that is all that matters Scarlett thought to begin with. Ever since dropping into the arena that and helping Alton was all that came to mind. She did not care for such dramatic and fanatical ideas like wishes, although she wasn't wholly immune to the picture. There was one wish she did think about but chose to push it into the back of her mind. She had to get her priorities straight no matter what. Standing on the edge of the floating pirate ship, she glanced around looking for more streamers having already dealt with a group who teamed up. Her time and patience paid off as in the not so far distance she spotted the one streamer she was most suspicious of. Checking her scanner, she confirmed it was the so-called Killer Queen the streamer with zero followers. If anything, this was the target. Jumping off the ship to the beach down below Killer Queen stopped his back to Scarlett and hood up. As Scarlett started sneaking upon him, he cleared his throat. "Scarlett Dawn, member of team Rhapsody. Quite foolish to think you could get the drop on me."

Scarlett shook her head sighing. "I was never one for the aspect of surprise. No matter, I am well aware of who you are EOR. Such a disguise is useless against me."

Scarlett reached into her pocket to pull out the tarot cards only to flinch finding them gone. Killer Queen held them up, shaking them showing his skull mask. "Looking for these? I'm more than aware of your gimmick Mistress Justice. Or is that all for the show? I find it rather amusing that you claim to already solved the puzzle. How wrong you are, it just proves how superior I am to you."

"Big words coming from someone who's about to get his ass kicked… Wait, where are you going?"

Killer Queen began walking away hands in his pockets the ripped tarot cards falling to the floor. "I do not need to lower myself to meet your demands. Your wordless threats mean nothing to me as you are nothing. Wasting my time around pure weaklings in pointless I have much bigger fish to fry."

Scarlett bit her tongue ticked off by the streamer's arrogant nature. "You little shit… I'll make you regret underestimating me." Chasing after the streamer, she stopped in her tracks finding him gone in his place a single red door. The door was out in the open with no clear sign in really what it was doing there. Scarlett walked up to it, leaning right seeing behind the door. "Now I'm confused…"

Opening and closing the door serval times she held her chin in debate as she opened it once more stepping through. As she did the door crumbled away as her full gravity shifted and the world turned sideways. Scarlett fell collapsing into a new reality as the clouds opened up, devouring her. Realising all too late she had fallen into EOR's trap she tried snapping out of the fake illusions. "You need not bother resisting. No matter how much you try and convince yourself this isn't real, your mind will always work against you. Once your mind starts playing tricks on you what's to ever stop?" Scarlett bolted around seeing dozens of copies of EOR floating around, staring down at her with both arms out. "Resistance is futile, and now you will witness my reality." The floor caved in as Scarlett fell into an endless abyss. The city of Rhinefield down below but the longer she fell, the further away the city got. Turning around, Scarlett saw the same city above her. She fell into the street as all the people walking around were her each one staring. Standing up, she tried walking only for the city to lift upwards into a cube blocking out any light and escape.

Scarlett closed her eyes, shaking her head. "I know how this works, I mustn't lose sight of what's real. I won't fall for these lies again."

"What's another lie to a liar? A lie is just someone else's truth. The truth is only accepted when it works in your favour; anything else is just an illusion."

Scarlett opened her eyes to find herself home. The paint on the walls slightly rusted and the house dissolved of life. There was nobody in sight apart from the faint crying coming from under the floor. Scarlett was well aware of where it was coming from as she walked through to the kitchen, pushing a set of cupboards aside revealing a hidden room. Opening the door, she stepped in, staring down a flight of stairs the crying much louder. She stared idly at the stairs, her stomach turning and palms sweating. She wouldn't let her curiosity get the best of her as she turned around, opening the door and leaving. Doing so only put her back in the same room as she was trapped in an endless loop. Having no choice in the matter, she chose to descend the flight of stairs to what she knew all too well would just be pain.

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The basement was pure white, clean and well looked after. There was a one-way glass mirror taking up much of the wall. On the other side was a little girl with bleach white hair and pale skin. In front of Scarlett was all sort of components and torture tools as well as speakers to talk into. Already shaking slightly, she froze her heart, skipping a beat as the speakers began whispering to her. "Victory or death… Victory or death… Victory or death."

Scarlett found herself intertwined to go inside to help the girl. Pulling the large metal door open she stepped in each step, making her heart race faster to eventually she could hear her own beat pounding against her chest. The little girl lifted her head being held up by chains by her arms and legs. Her face was bloody and worn down, but she shared the same features as Scarlett herself all apart from her eyes. However, the same colour, the emotion was of pure adultery hatred compared to Scarlett's usual dull and lifeless look. Without thinking twice, she started freeing the girl, not thinking of the consequences. As the last of the restraints clicked, the girl fell to the ground being caught by Scarlett. The same crying came from her as Scarlett gulped trying to speak. "I don't understand."

The girl began whimpering repeating the same words over and over, never stopping. "Victory or death. Victory or death. Victory or death. What will you choose Scarlett?"

Before she could react, everything suddenly changed as Scarlett found herself now swapped as she was chained up unable to break free. All the lights flickered on as Scarlett was looking around frantically. The speakers boomed on again as a familiar voice began talking. "You've failed us again, daughter of mine. We cannot accept such terms. If our family is to be reborn, you will be the catalyst for the new dawn."

Scarlett began panicking as she tried to break free as she was shocked by a jolt of electricity. Crying out, the voltage stopped as Scarlett started to break down sobbing. "Stop, I don't… I don't want to. Not anymore!" She continued to be zapped with volts as her rage was building to breaking point. She crushed her eyes together before screaming. "I said, stop!" The room exploded as she fell to the floor, panting. Eyes Over Reality stood in front of her glitchy illusion smog wrapping around him.

"Look at you falling apart so easily. How can you carry out the master plan if you can't even keep your emotions in tack?"

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The room crumbled away, leaving an open arena on top of the V.I.R.A.L HQ. Massive towering pillars rose from the ground hovering around EOR as fire exploded from all corners blocking escape. Scarlett glanced around smirking. "If these are just illusions then I'll have no problem fighting you since they can't hurt me."

Scarlett jumped up only for the flames to engulf her. Falling to the ground, she felt her body burning, although there was no apparent damage. "Even so, your brain can quite easily believe it is real activating the nerves to cause pain. You may not actually be taking any damage, but you will surely feel the pain."

"You bastard…" Scarlett roared holding her hand up trying to pull EOR down, but it appeared he too was but an illusion. Her chances of defeating him were near to zero all she could do was fight for her life until the illusion wears off. Drifting her attention from EOR to his many traps, Scarlett was forced to float in the air avoiding the flaming turrets covering the arena. As she did, her body was smashed into a wall by a pillar crushing her. Scarlett screamed out, blowing the pillar apart holding each piece of rubble, aiming it at the traps breaking them all. Landing back on the ground, a wall of spikes fell down on her. Scarlett reacted quickly using her powers to holding it in spot-freezing it mid-air. Struggling to keep the weight up, it slowly began to fall on her—the spike stabbing into her shoulder with no wound but the same pain nonetheless. Screaming Scarlett snapped as her voice cracked as the entire arena was obliterated by an all-out barrage of explosions. The illusion began falling apart as Scarlett found herself back on the beach EOR standing in front of her not responding. Grinding her teeth together, she ripped EOR towards her holding him by the neck-breaking down laughing. "You gave me quite the show, didn't you, Henry? What a wonderful little magic trick you provided I bet the children love you. But now you must die."

As Scarlett went in for the kill, EOR laughed vanishing as a gunshot went off shooting Scarlett directly in the head. No blood nor bullet wound, but it was enough to make Scarlett fall to the ground passing out from the pain. As her vision went blurry, her eyes began glowing a crimson red as she saw Killer Queen walking away. A voice started whispering in her ear, causing a chain reaction. "Finish the deed daughter of mine."

Scarlett laid back hissing under her breath as all her senses faded and she slipped into an unconscious state "Victoria aut mors…"

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