Number 7

'A dream... or perhaps something else.'

As Sylvia fell into the realm of sleep, she soon found herself awaken in a world of whiteness.

[Turn around. I'm over here.]

From behind her the crackling voice of a young girl spoke, at which the woman immediately turned around.

Standing there was the girl.

Her black hair was chaotic, as long as her knees and frayed about without any form of sense or logic.

The girl wore rags, and chains were present on her arms and legs that extended far off into the distance, so far that Sylvia could not see where they were connected.

Bruises covered the body of the girl. There was not a single spot which was not scarred or blackened on her strangely pale skin.

Yet even in such a state, the girl was smiling.

She smiled with an arrogance, one which was enough to overwhelm Sylvia.

And as she gazed into the eyes of the girl, Sylvia was frozen.

She could not move anymore.

'What... is this?'

'This... endless emptiness?'

And then, the scenery around the two changed.

Fields of grass spread around them, and the sun shone high in the sky.

Flowers covered the landscape, and Sylvia felt a strange sensation of bliss in this land of happiness.

Yet there was a strange premonition which she felt even as she was placed in such a scenario... as if it were nothing more than an illusion.

[You want to gain my power... do you not?]

The girl asked this statement, however Sylvia could not even move her tongue to answer.

It was trapped in a state of motionlessness.

It was then that the girl bent down, touching the ground with just the tip of her fingers.

And from the spot which she grazed, the green grass became purple with rot as it withered away.

Radiating out from the girl, an aura of death spread endlessly, overtaking the landscape completely.

And soon, even the very sun was blocked out by a series of poisonous clouds that had risen from the corrupted plants as they swirled about her chaotically like a hurricane.

[You wish to become stronger... because without strength, you are nothing more than a SLAVE to those who hold power.]

It was at that moment that the girl walked forward, approaching Sylvia who still was unable to move.

'Don't... come any closer...'

Fear overwhelmed Sylvia, and she felt her breathing become ragged.

Yet even such intense breathing, she could not feel.

As the girl approached her, the chains which bound her became taut before she could come close enough to touch Sylvia.

'Why... am I relieved?'

Sylvia could not possibly comprehend her emotions, yet there was an overwhelming sense of relief at the fact that the girl before her was bound.

[Such a hindrance... don't you think?]

The girl pulled the chains with her arms, looking down upon them with a bitter smile.

However this bitter smile soon wrapped itself to become a sinister grin.

[I suppose I should REDUCE these restrictions... to zero.]

As the girl said this, the chains began to rust.

In an instant the silver colored chains turned brown, then in another they crumbled away to nothing.

And at that moment, Sylvia felt a trembling terror unlike anything she had ever experienced before.

The numerous deaths that she had endured - including the torment she had experienced in the very memories of One, were nothing compared to the overwhelming trauma which overcame her in that instant.

For standing before her was a girl.

Yet this girl was a monster beyond human comprehension.

[If you want to control my power... then you will first have to strengthen your mind and body. If you can't do that... then you will reduce yourself to ashes.]

With this statement, the girl then seemed to fade away into nothingness.

The landscape around the woman became completely darkened as everything disappeared from her sight, and she was left alone in that void.

'She... was this girl truly human?'

Even when compared to Isabella, Number One was something far beyond mere brainwashing and violence.

She was a weapon which had been released upon this world.

This was the creature that was... experiment Number One.

----

'Reduce...'

'Reduce reduce reduce reduce reduce...'

Sylvia lay awake in that bed, looking towards the ceiling as this single word repeated itself in her mind over and over.

It was late night, and the girl at her side was fast asleep.

The short quick breaths of the girl were so innocent, yet Sylvia knew that within this seemingly innocent girl was a monster.

Yet inside of Sylvia was a being that made even this monster appear to be just that.

An innocent little girl.

'That... seems to be a pattern, doesn't it?', Sylvia thought with a bitter grin as she let out a quiet sigh.

'The destruction of innocence.'

Sitting up, the woman took care not to disturb the sleeping girl, yet even as she cautiously sat up the girl immediately opened her eyes.

"Mistress, is there something you needed? I will retrieve it for you if that is your desire."

"Ah... no. Go back to sleep. I was just going to take a walk."

"I see. Very well. I will do as you say."

With this simple interaction, Sylvia realized something as she got up and walked off.

The girl slept with one eye open, never allowing herself to fall to any sort of unpreparedness.

A combination of loyalty and absolute thoroughness had been instilled into her.

'What am I doing?'

As she approached the stairway and made her way down, dread slowly overtook the woman as her thoughts were plagued with worry.

'Did I really just fall asleep so carelessly... thinking that I could do so without any repercussions?'

It was not that Sylvia could not trust the girl.

On the contrary, she knew that the girl would never betray her.

Brainwashed by the man who had raised her, she would never go against his words.

And Seven had overtaken that very man, making his words into the words of that man.

The girl was quite literally enslaved to them.

A tool for her to use.

Yet this tool reminded Sylvia of something that she had forgotten.

'If I ever let my guard down in this world... then I will be consumed.'

'Even if we plan and plot, and account for every possibility that we can think of... things can still go wrong.'

'But that doesn't mean we can afford not to plan every little detail.'

With a smile, the woman entered the pizzeria downstairs as she headed over to the back room where the food was once stored.

Shelves of rotten ingredients lined the area.

Bags of flour, barrels of tomato sauce, blocks of cheese, and meats and vegetables of all types were once stored here, yet such things were all now ruined.

'Staying outside is dangerous... but staying inside a building carries a number of dangers as well. The possibility of collapse due to the rotten state of the world is first among these dangers... yet even that is only one of many dangers. Of course... Sleeping outside has its dangers as well. Being out in the open means that there is the possibility of being attacked or kidnapped at any moment. But the greatest danger of remaining inside...'

It was at that moment that Sylvia turned a corner around a shelf to see a man.

No, not a man, but rather a FORMER man.

Sitting in a corner, hurled up in a ball so that his breathing could barely be heard was none other than a member of the undead.

His flesh was rotten and his clothes were stained with the dried blood from his zombified condition, yet this man sat in this corner gripping his knees like a child who had been scolded.

He wore the white outfit of a worker at the pizzeria, and was almost certainly here in this place at the time of the cataclysm.

'Is the illusion of safety.'

Sylvia immediately realized that she no longer had a spear to work with, at which she bit her lip - regretting her own foolishness.

'Shit! I was thinking so much about being prepared and making sure that nothing was wrong that I forgot to even arm myself! How unprepared can I be!?'

The woman immediately had the desire to rush off and arm herself, however she stopped herself from doing so as she realized that the zombie was not making even the slightest movement.

He merely looked up to the woman, as if acknowledging her presence before looking back down to the floor with a dull expression.

'I guess this one isn't very aggressive... maybe they have personalities based on who they were in their previous lives? Ah... that's right. They don't seem to sense as to whether someone is one of their kind or not based on smell alone... they base it off actions and intuition. Therefore so long as I don't do anything reckless... this one shouldn't try to go after me.'

Taking a deep breath, the woman slowly backed away from the zombified man.

'I need to find a weapon-'

[This is where we differ, Sylvia.]

As Sylvia found herself slowly making her way away from the creature, the voice of One played in her head as if mocking her.

[If it were me... there would be no need for a weapon. Did you not say that you were going to master my ability? Or was that all just bravado?]

'What are you talking about? Are you saying that I should take on a zombie without a weapon? I...'

Sylvia looked at the man as she spoke, soon coming to realize something.

'This zombie... is pathetic.'

Everything about the one before her was pathetic.

The way he carried himself, the position he was in, and very likely whoever he was before the cataclysm as well.

'If I can't even take on this one without a weapon... then doesn't that make me even more pathetic than this?'

Closing her eyes, Sylvia recalled her situation.

'I can't get infected.'

'Even if this thing manages to bite me, the only punishment is pain.'

'I won't die unless he rips me to shreds, and even then I'll be revived.'

'As a zombie, regardless of how pathetic this thing may look, at the end of the day it's nothing more than a monster.'

'Even if there were a man left inside somewhere, then I know better than anyone that it would be better for him to die than to live as a monster.'

'So basically... the only thing stopping me from taking it on is my own PATHETIC nature.'

With a smile, Sylvia held out her hand.

And as soon as she did so, she felt something click in her mind.

'So what's stopping me from reducing him to nothing?'

Gripping her hand in a motion which seemed pointless, the woman felt as if an energy began to flow through her body.

A mysterious energy unlike anything she had ever felt before - as if she were changing reality itself.

And then in that instant, as she clutched her hand, the skin of the zombie became as dry as a prune.

The eyeballs of the zombie seemed to pop out of their sockets as it wrinkled up without reserve, only to fall over on the spot without even so much as a screech.

[Haha... I guess you can do it if you try. Good job, Sylvia. But to think that you could use my ability in that way.... hehehe... I've never tried something like THAT. It's primitive... but it's a start.]

However as soon as One made this statement, Sylvia felt herself topple over.

Pain exploded in her hand, and the woman let out a scream.

"AGH!!"

Gripping her hand, she looked down to see that it too was wrinkled up like a prune - completely void of any blood or fluid.

"I... shit!! Agh!! I didn't think... it would... shit.... ngh!!"

Biting down her lips as she tried to force down the pain, the woman grit her teeth as her hand trembled with fear.

[It really is a good idea. But I told you. These powers... they're not something so easily controllable. A single mistake... and you'll destroy everything around you. But even so... I'm surprised. To think that on your first try you'd be able to do such a thing... you reduced the amount of liquid inside him, right?]

"Heh... yeah... that's right."

Still in pain, Sylvia spat out these words while gripping her hand as a devilish smile came across her face.

"And maybe next time I'll reduce how much you talk."

----

'Shit... it hurts like hell...'

Sylvia felt the needles in her hand as she ascended the stairs, heading back to that room to sleep.

She had ensured to check all the surrounding rooms and lock all the doors wherever possible, creating temporary barricades in any locations that seemed unstable.

'All this pain just to kill one man... What kind of useless ability is this? At least Marcus can create weapons with his ability at no cost to his health...'

[Hehe... are you complaining? I had to master this ability on my own. But hey... if it's too much, then I suppose I could just take it away.]

'Wha... you can take it away?'

Sylvia was shocked to hear this, although after thinking about it for a moment it made sense to her.

'Ah... I guess it is your ability. It probably has something to do with your crazy cells, right? Like it's something that is a part of you, and the only reason I can use it is because your cells are flowing around in me?'

[More or less. That's why Isabella could temporarily use Seven's ability. But our ability to allow other people to use ours... it's limited only to us. If there were a normal human in this world who held an ability they would not be capable of such a thing.]

As One said this, Sylvia froze in her tracks.

'What are you saying?'

The pain which was previously in her hand seemed to begin soothing as the flesh rejuvenated itself, likely from the regenerative abilities which One held.

'There... could there be others that hold these abilities?'

[Ah... that's right. You don't know yet. Well... you'll see soon enough. Where these abilities came from, that is. For now... just don't worry about that.]

With this statement, One seemed to recede into the mind of Sylvia, who was left alone to comprehend this.

'If... if these abilities are held by other people... then it means that there are others out there... strengthening themselves. Training themselves. And preparing themselves... to fight anyone and anything that gets in their way.'

Taking a deep breath, Sylvia glanced at her hand, which was now fully restored to its previous condition.

It was still rotten, yet it was healed to the fullest extent given her state as a member of the undead.

'And if that's the case... then without a doubt... the greed of people will overwhelm the remains of this world.'

'People... are inherently power driven.'

'When presented with power that is seemingly unrivaled, they will exert such power on all around them.'

'And so... a new hierarchy will be born.'

'One of those who hold abilities... and one of those who don't.'

"Hey One."

Closing her eyes with a smile, Sylvia spoke with smugness in her voice as she chuckled to herself.

[What?]

"A villain... is someone who goes against what has been established as good."

[Yep.]

"Therefore... one who destroys the existing hierarchy... is always portrayed as a villain. Am I wrong?"

[You're correct.]

With this confirmation, Sylvia opened her eyes with a wicked grin.

"Heh... I see. So that's what your plan is, Seven."

At that moment, something snapped in the mind of Sylvia.

The shackles which she felt had bound her had been loosened, and everything seemed to click into place.

"We're going to destroy anyone who tries to take control... and take control ourselves. Isn't that right?"

[Hehehe....]

"I'll do it, One. I don't know about Marcus... but I'll do it."

Thinning her eyes in pleasure, Sylvia spoke with a fierce determination as she returned to the room.

"I'll become the villain who takes control of this rotten world."

----

[The Day of the Cataclysm]

"Another drink."

A man sat in a recliner inside a luxurious penthouse suite, stacks of money carelessly thrown about around him.

This fattened man wore a black suit clad in white vertical stripes, and wore a similarly patterned fedora atop his head.

With a thick mustache that covered his upper lip, the hog of a man seemed to grin with delight as he indulged himself in alcohol, gripping it from the clutches of the woman who stood at his side.

"Heh... heh heh.... this is how it should be. Don't you think, girls? A gorgeous view of the city... enough cash to party for days... why in Clarica would you possibly want it any other way?"

"Of course, Sir. There is nothing more that I would prefer than to be in this place with you."

The woman who said this had a peculiar style of hair, with two locks that fell in front of her and two behind her.

Brushing along her long brown hair with a smirk, the woman carried an air of confidence about her as she stood beside the man.

"I... y- yeah... I'm glad... glad... to..."

A timid girl with shoulder length blonde hair tried to express her own emotions, however in that instant she felt the hand of the man wrap around her face with an inescapable grip.

"Will you be quiet already? You're only good when you shut up."

The man whispered these words with an intense disgust before lobbing the girl to the side, causing her to trip over herself as she fell to the ground.

"Agh! Er! I... f-forgive..."

The girl immediately spoke up, however upon meeting her eyes with the expression of the man she quickly silenced herself.

"Get me another drink already, will you?"

"Y-yes! At once!"

The girl stumbled up as she rushed out of the room with haste, bumping into the furniture before making her way out.

"Useless... completely useless... maybe I'll demote her back to the lower floors. You two at least show some promise... but you. Why do you just keep on standing there?"

Glancing onto his left side, the man looked up to another woman who held her hands behind her back.

This woman, whose hair was black and cut into a clean ponytail, gave off the aura of an assassin.

She had a gun on her belt and wore the suit of a professional killer, complete with gloves as if she were ready to strike at any moment.

"Is there something more that you wish for me to be doing, Sir? I thought my duty was to protect you, yet-"

"Do you think I need protection from you?"

With a grim expression, the man looked up to the woman with disgust.

"Right now I need something else. Not a soul in this building would ever dare to lay a finger on me. We have guards all around this hotel - and that isn’t to even mention that man. Do you think anyone could ever make it up to this place? Hah! Right now what I need from you isn't protection. Heh..."

With a lecherous grin, the man pointed to the ground.

"Right now I need you to show me something much more... arousing."

"I..."

The woman seemed reluctant at the words of the man, however she was met with a sinister glare.

"What? Are you going to defy me? What about you?"

Turning to the pompous girl, the man glared up at her as well, at which she tightened up with a serious expression.

"Er... of... of course I wouldn't disobey you...", the girl stated.

"And you?", the man said to the black haired woman. "Will you obey me... or will you be demoted like the other one?"

"I...."

Gritting her teeth with clear hatred, the woman closed her eyes as she lowered herself.

"Will do as you say."

"Hahaha! Excellent. The two of you. Undress yourselves. And be sure to take it slow. Where is that last one? Why is she taking so long? Maybe I'll reconsider keeping her up here if she provides me enough entertainment."

It was then that the door burst open, and into the room stumbled the blonde haired woman, carrying a platter full of drinks in her hands.

"H... here you are, Sir!! Your drinks as you wanted-"

Splash!!

As the woman stepped into the room she tripped on the rug, causing the drinks to shatter as beer and all sorts of other cocktails covered the ground.

"Ugh...."

The woman slowly brought herself up to see the mess before her, only to realize that all eyes were focused on her.

"Tch... I've lost my appetite. None of you will be remaining on this floor anymore. I'm going to bed for now. If you wish to change my mind... then you'd better provide me something unforgettable."

With this statement the man stood up, carrying himself towards the bedroom.

"Clean up the mess. The payment for damages will be added to your debts. Ah... and if you two want to blame it on anyone... blame her."

As the man said this, he slammed the door shut, leaving the three girls in the room.

Silence overcame the room for a few moments, however this was quickly ended as the blonde haired girl felt a foot on the top of her head.

"You worthless piece of garbage... how dare you ruin this chance like that?", the brown haired woman stated.

"You didn't want to undress anyways. What's the harm in this?"

Speaking up was the black haired woman, who stood with her arms crossed as she leaned her back onto a wall with a serious expression.

"I... I'm sorry...", the blonde girl expressed.

"Tch... weak peasants like you piss me the hell off... clean this shit up yourself. If you think I'm going to do shit to clean up your mess..."

"You sure seem mad. What's wrong, rich girl? Can't regain your status even if you lower yourself to this state? Hahaha... the fact that you were born nobility... weren't you just lucky to have that much in the first place?"

"Luck?"

Snapping her head to face the black haired woman, the brown haired one grimaced with irritation as she took her foot off the other blonde woman.

"You think that being born an elite is LUCK?"

Approaching quickly, the brown haired woman furiously stepped over as she gripped the neck of the black haired woman.

"What would you know about being an elite, you murderer?"

"Hahaha... which one of the two of us looks more like a murderer right now?"

As the blackhaired woman said this, the brown haired woman fell back immediately upon looking into the eyes of the woman.

'Wha-!?'

Breathing heavily, the woman found herself unable to comprehend what she had just seen, however she quickly tried to regain her composure.

"You... you psychopath... you're nothing more than... a deranged monster..."

"What of it?"

With a grin, the assassin shrugged it off as she spoke in a deadly tone.

"At least I'm not a pampered brat."