While Nana was busy trying to figure out a way to 'legally' kick Jane out of the guild, and Jane was planning on how to stick like glue to Nana,
Nyx cut off her link to Earth and returned to her domain.
A realm of eternal twilight, a place she despised yet still calls home.
This was her sanctum, her prison. Her personal corner of the void, a world she had built from her own power and her own sorrow.
It was a beautiful place, or it should have been a beautiful place if not for the fact that everything was black and white.
The ground was made of solidified shadows, smooth and cold. The trees were made of pure darkness, their branches reaching for a starless sky. A river of liquid night flowed through the landscape, its waters silent and still.
There were no colors here.
No blues, no greens, no reds.
Just an endless, soul-crushing grayscale.
A constant reminder of her failure, her mistake, her guilt.
Nyx didn't spare a glance at her surroundings and walked to her home. A small apartment in the middle of nowhere. Her domain is vast and endless, but she has only built a small home.
The moment she stepped inside, her expression crumbled. The confident, playful goddess persona she wore on Earth vanished, replaced by a profound sadness.
She slumped onto a black velvet couch, her face buried in her hands.
Her white eyes, which had been sparkling with mischief and amusement, were now dull and lifeless, brimming with unshed tears.
"Mother..." she whimpered, her voice cracking. "... I'm sorry."
She wept silently for a few minutes, the tears streaming down her pale cheeks.
After a while, she straightened up, wiping her tears with the back of her hand. She took a deep, shuddering breath, trying to compose herself.
She stood up and walked to a small, ornate box that sat on a table in the corner of the room.
It was a music box, its surface inlaid with mother-of-pearl, its design simple yet elegant.
It was a gift.
A gift from her mother.
From Morgana.
She opened the box, and a soft, melancholic melody filled the silent room. The same melody that had lulled her to sleep when she lived with Morgana during the ascension trials, a melody that held both the warmth of a mother's love and the chill of a profound loss.
Nyx sat on the bed, hugging her knees, her white, pure eyes staring at a photo that was sitting beside the music box.
It was a photo of her and her mother.
Morgana had one arm wrapped around Nyx, her crimson eyes filled with a gentle warmth, a loving smile on her face.
Nyx, on the other hand, looked small and vulnerable, her head resting on her mother's shoulder, as they smiled at the camera. Her white eyes were filled with love and trust.
A happy memory.
The photo was taken right after Nyx revealed her identity to Morgana.
Nyx took a huge risk infiltrating the ascension trials to meet her mother, but it was a risk she was willing to take, and it paid.
Morgana didn't hesitate for a second.
She accepted her. She hugged her. She called her 'my daughter'.
She loved her.
Nyx's heart ached with a bittersweet pain. She missed those days. She missed her mother's touch, her voice, her scent.
A thousand years wasn't enough.
But more than anything, she was filled with a crushing guilt.
Ding! Ding!
Suddenly, the sound of a small, silver bell pulled her from her thoughts.
A small silver bell on her desk was ringing softly, a signal that she absolutely hates.
"Those faceless fuckers!" she cursed, her tone no longer sad but sharp and angry. "Can't I have a single minute to myself?"
She stood up, her playful demeanor vanishing, replaced by a cold, hard mask of authority. She was no longer Nyx, the playful sister. She was Nyx, the Primordial Goddess of Night and Darkness.
Her form shimmered, her simple dark dress replaced by a flowing gown woven from pure darkness, her white eyes glowing with an otherworldly light.
A portal of swirling shadows opened in the center of her room.
She stepped through it, her movements fluid and graceful.
She emerged in a vast, circular chamber. The walls and the ceiling were made from literal space. You can see the stars and galaxies in it.
In the center of the chamber was a large, crest-shaped table made of obsidian.
Seven figures were already seated around the table, their forms hidden by hooded cloaks of pure darkness. Their faces were obscured, their features completely erased, making them look like faceless mannequins.
These were the Faceless Judges.
Her jailers. Her 'caretakers'. Her creators.
"Grand Judge!" Nyx roared the moment she entered the room, her voice echoing in the vast chamber. "Why did you summon me?"
A figure, slightly larger than the others, stood up.
"I see you are in a foul mood, my daughter," the Grand Judge said, its voice a genderless, monotone whisper that seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere at once.
"I am not your damn daughter!" Nyx shot back, her eyes blazing. "I am the daughter of Morgana Nosferat! And I am busy!"
The Grand Judge ignored her outburst. It got used to her tantrums over the past eons.
"We have detected a disturbance in the cosmic balance," the Grand Judge stated, its tone as flat as ever, and with a wave of its hand, a gold card appeared on the table with a picture of a humanoid figure on the front and a scale of good and evil at the back. The evil scale was tipping more and more.
"This is your target," the Grand Judge continued, tapping the card. "An anomaly. A being who is disrupting the natural order."
"Your mission is the usual," he added. "Descend, eliminate, and wipe his existence and memories from all of reality."
Nyx looked at the card, yet her white eyes weren't focused on the figure on the card, but drifted back to the very first mission they gave her.
"I told you many times, I am done!" Nyx declared, her voice trembling with a mix of anger and pain. "I will not be your weapon anymore. I will not kill for you. Find another puppet!"
"This is not a request, Nyx," the Grand Judge said, its tone hardening slightly. "It is a command. Your purpose is to maintain the balance. This being is a threat to that balance."
"I don't care!" Nyx shot back, her fists clenched at her sides. "I will not do it. I will not be your murderer anymore."
"Then you leave us no choice," the Grand Judge said with a sigh. It raised its hand, and a red crystal orb appeared in its palm.
"We will have to... remind you of your place."
Nyx's blood ran cold. She knew what that orb was, and before the Grand Judge made a move, Nyx quickly snatched the card and activated it.
"I'll do it," she said, her voice barely a whisper, her head bowed in defeat.
She couldn't risk them using that orb. Anything but that.
Whoosh!
A golden portal materialized, and Nyx swiftly jumped through, appearing in another world.
The world was an ocean. A vast, endless ocean.
She was standing on a small patch of land, a small island in the middle of nowhere.
"Damn them! DAMN THEM ALL!" she yelled to the sky, her voice filled with rage and despair.
She looked at the card in her hand, the image of a humanoid, fish-like figure.
"Anomaly my ass," she spat.
According to the information on the card, this man was the first of his kind, and somehow, he managed to make contact with the world's core, thus gaining a special power and divine knowledge.
The god of this world was too lazy allowing this fishman to get out of control. He even created a magic system that, if allowed to grow, would create a chain reaction affecting other worlds.
So the Faceless Judges had to step in.
And they sent her.
Nyx knows that all the talk about cosmic balance is all dog shit. If they cared so much about balance, they shouldn't have 'created' her—a being that breaks balance.
The Faceless Judges are just a bunch of control freaks who want every world to be the same. No world should be unique, and this fishman is a threat to their 'order'.
"Sigh... let's get it over with," she sighed and threw the golden card in the air.
Whoosh!
In the very next second, the card locked on the fishman's location, and a portal appeared right in front of her.
Nyx passed through, appearing inside a throne room of a palace underwater. The fishman was the king, and he was sitting on a throne made of corals.
No one sensed or knew that a primordial goddess had just entered their king's throne room.
Nyx didn't care either. She approached the king, placed a hand on his head, and whispered,
"Forgotten by All Things"
Whoosh!
The king's body turned to a pile of dust, and a palm-sized blue crystal with black chains appeared in front of her.
The target's existence and memories.
Nyx took the crystal, then teleported to her domain. She appeared in a black and white desert. Around her were millions, if not trillions, of these crystals stored on top of black pillars.
Nyx placed the new crystal on one of the empty pillars, and from that moment on,
No one would remember that fishman king. No one would know that he ever existed. Not even the world god itself.
"I am so tired of this," she murmured in sadness. Then slowly turned her head, casting a glance at the very far end of the desert. A special pillar that stood in the middle of nowhere.
Nyx instantly teleported herself there.
On that pillar, there was only one crystal. A blood-red one. Its size was massive compared to the others—it was like comparing the moon to the sun. It was also wrapped tightly with golden chains and had ten massive golden swords stabbed into it.
Nyx kept staring at the blood-red crystal for a good while before bowing her head in shame.
"Greetings, Mother."