You hear the echoing sounds of footsteps against the stone stairs before you see her, and you see her before you hear her voice asking "Phillipes Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim, is that you?" She stresses each part of the name as though it were its own sentence, before quickly adding "Oh, I'm sorry, you prefer to be called 'Paracelsus', don't you?" Her eyes quickly dart to the blade in Rin's hands, adding "I'd recognise that sword anywhere."
The woman standing before you is the same as the woman you saw through Homura's eyes that first night. Though her Japanese is flawless, your guess that the witch was Polish from the structural analysis of her church was spot-on; now that you've identified it, you can definitely see the Eastern European heritage in her face, particularly in her nose and in the curve of her cheeks and jawline. Her face, pale and thin, is framed by pale pink hair and topped with a wide-brimmed hat whose long point curls in on itself., and you can see your reflection in her vibrant lime-coloured eyes. Her clothes are entirely black, from the high-collared jacket, the long duster and the skirt that both fall to just below her mid-thigh, and the high leather boots covering the rest of her legs; leaving only her pale, sun-deprived face and hands exposed. A single spot of dull silver accompanies her outfit, a necklace in the shape of a ram's head which she wears over the collar of her jacket. In the pale crimson light of the workshop her figure almost appears to be on fire, as black and red vie for dominance over her colour palette.
As the witch enters her workshop, she removes her hat and duster, handing them to the stone wall which grows a pair of hooks upon which she lays them to rest. You notice her fingers, long and slender, her fingernails stained with black like those of a chronic smoker from the noxious Grief she works with, and inwardly you grimace as she asks you "So tell me, what has brought you and your little student into my humble abode on this fine afternoon?"
You have no words to speak, no response you could give to this despicable person standing before you. The last time you saw her, through Homura's eyes, she was sloughing off responsibility for lighting on fire a building full of innocent people. She sets her familiars loose in the city where your family lives - familiars responsible for starting a War with an enemy faction of girls from another city - and now she stands here, attempting to make small-talk with you as though she's done nothing wrong. It would be as if Matou Zouken, after discovering you in the middle of his basement, invited you to have a drink with him while Sakura wasted away amid the worms.
"I am," you say, greeting the rising light in the witch's eyes with an answer she couldn't have expected. "The bone of my sword."
Kanshou and Bakuya fly from your hands, tearing deep gashes across the witch's body. Something - it isn't blood, that much you're sure of - black sprays from the witch's injuries as you ready your second pair of blades, tossing them to cut off any possibility of escape. You push your servant body to its limits; against your enhanced physicality, there's no way this witch can outspeed you in whatever excuse for a mortal shell she's confined to. A spear forms in your hand, crimson and familiar, and you charge as once you were charged by that spear's owner, drawing your arm back with a cry of "Gáe Bolg!" You thrust, ramming into the witch with such force that your strike pushes her backwards, pinning her against the wall. Books fall from their place on the shelves, exploding into dust and scraps of parchment and leather, and the wall behind where the witch is pinned is stained with black, which drips down to the floor.
After a strike from the Gáe Bolg, you would have expected for your enemy to perish, to see the mania blazing in her lime-coloured eyes die out as she breathes her last.
But damn if this witch isn't a persistent one. Her eyes retain their luster as they stare at you, and she says "Can I assume you were expecting for that to kill me?"
"Rin, grab as much as you can carry and get out of here!" you call, shaking Rin from her stupor. "Rider, be ready to act if things go south."
The witch's clothes are the first to go, melting off of her body into a puddle of black bile at her feet. Her naked flesh, carved open like Christmas dinner by Kanshou and Bakuya, is soon to follow. Her body takes just long enough to be rendered into a boiling black grease that your eyes barely have the time to count the massive number of scars littering her arms, legs, and torso.
Was she tortured at some point? Do you even care if something as vile as her were to be tortured? After her clothes and body have melted away, all that remains is her head, which fell to the ground as her neck and body melted away around it. Her mouth splits open in a wide grin, and even without lungs her cackling is loud enough to shatter your ears. Soon, even her head melts away, and all that is left behind is a lumpy Grief Seed and a pair of rounded emeralds.
Rin grabs what she can, some books from the shelf and the mould from the long table, and together the two of you attempt leave the workshop as fast as you can.
You say
attempt, because of course things can never be as simple as you'd like for them to be. You and Rin round the corner as you exit the witch's workshop and ascend the smaller flight of stairs, only to be greeted by a low growling noise and several pinpricks of light in the darkness. "Look alive," Rin says to you. "We've got company.
A pair of pinpricks approaches you, crimson light revealing just enough of its form to give you a general idea of its size - roughly that of a bear - without giving you a clear look at which animal parts comprise its form. As it approaches, the others behind it follow suit, each one revealing itself just enough for you to gauge its size.
"Looks like we're not getting out of here without a fight," you say. "Damn. I thought for sure I'd have wiped all her familiars out before we entered."
"We'll have time to figure out where your plan went wrong
after we defeat them," Rin says as she tosses her trophies to the ground, readying the Sword of Paracelsus you gave her as well as several gemstones as she takes up a fighting stance beside you. "Heh. Just like old times, huh partner?"
"Let's just hope this doesn't end with me being eaten while the less cool version of me walks away with my arm."
[ ]Wat do?
