Number 7

"So often do we hear that the evil fear the light."

"Terrified that their actions will be revealed to all, they avoid the light like the plague - as if the very essence of light is something righteous in itself."

"However what of the wicked man who fears the dark... out of terror that someone will sneak up behind him without being noticed and catch him in his vile actions?"

"To this wicked man... the light is his greatest ally."

"An ally which reveals those who have just intentions... before they can possibly shed such light on him."

- A portion of a speech of Kyle Ruthobold during the time he ruled as king.

----

Once upon a time, there was a girl.

This girl came from a vile place, a planet filled with evil where the righteous were seen as wicked and the wicked were seen as righteous.

This place was called earth, and these wicked people were called politicians.

This girl was slaughtered one day and awoke in a new world called Yolenos.

However perhaps the universe had mercy on this young girl, for she was granted power beyond belief.

She was given the title of "The Determined", and she was granted both the knowledge and capability to redetermine every aspect of the universe as she pleased.

This girl spent her days helping people.

She learned how to use her powers for good and did so, helping those around her without reserve.

However, with every person she helped, she realized that something was wrong.

The very people she assisted were terrified of her.

They hated her, and considered her to be nothing more than a monstrous overlord who could never possibly assist others out of the kindness of her heart.

Rejected time and time again as she extended her hand only for it to be slapped away, these people drove the girl into a corner.

Until she cracked.

Her mind was split into two, and her desires were manifested in the form of a split personality - with one side retaining that naive desire to help others and the other with a burning hatred for everything and everyone around her.

These two became known as Claire and Clarice, and together they formed the being known as the Determined.

The two fought one another, with Claire pursuing the path of peace and righteousness and Clarice pursuing the path of chaos and wickedness.

And eventually, the two came to an agreement out of hatred for a particular man.

The two became fueled with hatred for the very man who slaughtered them in a previous life, and sought out to defeat him - even if it meant the end of the world as they knew it.

Taking over nation after nation and enslaving all who went against her, a demonesse was born.

A Dictatorship filled with monsters soon came under her control, and her name was spread through the world as the most vile being to ever exist.

She was known to the humans of that world as the "Queen of Evil."

This Queen of Evil then led a raid on all the humans of the world, with armies of monsters at her disposal.

And after a hard fought battle with the man known as the hero, she won.

She became the ultimate Dictator over the world of Yolenos, and ruled over it as she saw fit.

However without any competition, Clarice grew bored.

Therefore with her power to Determine reality as she pleased, she began to create new worlds.

The number of worlds she created became limitless in number as she placed all sorts of people and creatures within them - viewing each and every one of them from outside as if they were mere insects that existed for her viewing pleasure.

This is the story of one of those worlds.

"And inside this world... I will place these runes."

"Why would you do that?"

Claire asked this to Clarice one one particular day, however the devilish figure merely smiled with an eager expression.

"Each of these will carry the power of a word. And one day, these runes will fall into the hands of someone who is capable of using them. On that day... things will become very interesting."

"Eh? What do you mean by that?"

"Haha... well, just wait and see - my other self."

Without remorse for her actions, Clarice placed these runes in a particular world - runes which would shift the balance of power towards anyone who could take control of them.

"Isn't that... isn't that wrong? Don't you feel sorry for the people who will die as a result of this?"

"Feel sorry for them?"

The sinister voice questioned the kind one, both opposite to one another in every way.

"Why would I feel sorry for them? They are my creations. After all... this is no different that a cruel author writing a book. Am I wrong?"

"Heh... I suppose you're right. After all...."

With the flick of her hand, Claire let out a sigh of relief as she nodded in agreement with her other self.

"If their existence can be turned on and off with nothing more than my imagination... then it isn't like causing them pain is something I need to concern myself with. After all... without me they wouldn't exist in the first place."

"Haha... let's send that one. To guard the runes."

"Oh... you mean that one?"

"Indeed. She... will serve a good use there."

"Yes, she will."

Thus, Clarice created a planet.

"Hey... what should we call it?"

"Oh... good question... hmm... ah! I know. Let's name it after me."

"Mmm... Claire... Clarice... ah! I know!"

With an excited nod, the silver-haired girl smiled grandly with satisfaction.

"Let's call it Clarica!"

----

"It has been... a long day."

Letting out a sigh of exhaustion, a businessman walked through the empty streets of a ruined city.

The man felt as his eyelids became heavier with each step, however he forced those eyelids open at every moment.

"Yeah. I suppose it has. We should probably get some rest somewhere... but then again... the last time we fell asleep in the middle of the streets it didn't end very well."

Responding to this man was a gorgeous woman who was dressed in a luxurious manner, her hair flowing about her like a diva as she walked with grace and style.

"The fact that we even allowed such a thing to happen in the first place... haha... that is nothing more than our own miscalculation. Would you not agree?"

"I suppose so. However... there will be no further miscalculations."

These two walked side by side with a young girl in between them who kept her eyes straight forward, not so much as even glancing at the two as they spoke.

"Perhaps... we haven't been taking this seriously enough. And that may be why we have failed... so many times."

Holding his head in anguish, the man let out a chuckle as if mocking his own pain.

"Regardless of how serious we took the situation or how hard we tried... we would never have succeeded until we bent to their wills. However... now things are different."

With a smile, the woman gazed at the man as she thinned her eyes with a lowered tone.

"Isn't that right, One?"

[Hehe... who knows? I'm just here for the ride.]

The innocent yet devious sound of a young girl played in the minds of both people, causing their expressions to wrinkle with defeated smiles.

"Then, what of this girl, Seven? What of the deal regarding her death?"

[Expired. She is not someone who I wish to kill off. Not only will she prove useful to you if you can harden your hearts enough to use her... but she is not someone who I am willing to sacrifice in order to teach you a lesson. After all... I said it before, did I not?]

The sinister voice of a male now spoke to the two, though they were the only ones who could hear these voices inside their heads.

[She reminds me of my comrades. Therefore... I have no intention to punish her for the wretchedness of humanity. To put it simply... she is merely a product of this wretchedness... yet she is not the cause.]

These two were Marcus and Sylvia.

And the voices inside their heads who spoke in sinister manner were none other than the remnants of human experiments.

Experiment Number One and Experiment Number Seven.

"I see. So that's how it is. Very well then, Seven."

Closing his eyes with an almost peaceful smile, Marcus let out a breath of relief before opening his eyes once more.

And those eyes were filled with a vicious determination.

"We'll use this one to our hearts' content."

----

'An ability... eh?'

Marcus couldn't keep his eyes off his hand.

Somewhere along the lines during the chaos, he had lost his weapons - yet being disarmed was the least among his fears.

'The ability to change the very properties of a substance...'

Gripping his fist, Marcus looked back and forth from Sylvia to Isabella.

And as he did so, he nodded.

'In other words... the ability to redefine.'

[Yes... that is exactly correct.]

Adding his voice into the head of Marcus so that Marcus alone could hear, Seven spoke.

[Redefine. That is the essence of my ability. Now that you are aware of that... master it.]

'Master it?'

Squinting his eyes in thought, the three came across a restaurant.

What was once a flourishing pizzaria was now just a destroyed building, yet even so Marcus could almost taste the food as he gazed upon the broken sign.

'What do you mean by that, Seven?'

[I'll show you next time.]

With this, the voice faded out with a sinister chuckle.

[Next time you die, that is.]

----

"Hey. I'm tired. You're tired. The girl is probably tired too, though I doubt she would ever admit it. Perhaps she can't even feel exhaustion. But either way, we should find somewhere to rest for the night. The sun is going to go down at any minute, so we might as well try and set up a small encampment here."

"The sun... ah... I forgot that such a thing existed."

As Sylvia spoke to Marcus with authority, Marcus held his hands above his eyes as he glared at the ball of fire which drew ever closer to the horizon.

"If only the evil of this world could simply disappear with the emergence of the light... haha... yet all that the light reveals is how shitty this world is."

"Would you shut the fuck up and pay attention?"

Jolted up at the annoyed words of the woman, Marcus once more came to his senses.

"Ah. Forgive me. I was just thinking."

"Yes yes yes, well you can think all you want when we're in a position to do so. But we've got to find somewhere to rest first. What would you do if we found a bunch of zombies and I lost my head again because you were zoning out?"

At this oddly out of character interaction, Marcus widened his eyes before soothing his own expression.

"Is this your attempt to lighten the atmosphere?", he asked.

"I just don't feel like dying again.", Sylvia responded.

"Mistress, you speak as if you've died multiple times."

Interrupted by the statement of the child, Marcus and Sylvia soon focused their gazes on the girl.

For a moment the two looked to one another in silence, and then they burst out into laughter.

"Hahaha..."

"Ahaha...."

At first small, then little by little growing, the two laughed until tears filled their eyes.

And those tears began to stream down their faces.

"That's right, Isabella.", Sylvia croaked as she wiped her tears, soon calming her breathing as she faced the restaurant.

Then, bursting open the doors without reservation, the weakness in the woman which had just shown before was no longer.

"We've died over and over again. And we're not going to stop here."

----

"Raargh!!! Rurgh!!! Ugh!!"

The two burst through the doors to witness a strange sight as all eyes instantly fell upon them.

Sitting in their chairs with rotten food on the tables before them were a number of zombies who appeared not to have moved from their positions since the day of the cataclysm.

All the heads turned around at once at the arrival of a new set of customers, and the waiter who was holding a rotten pizza in his hand seemed to glare over at the two with his dead eyes.

"Ah... how rude of us... it would appear that we are not welcome here."

Stepping forward calmly as he approached the waiter, Marcus held up his hand as a weapon began to form from it.

This weapon took the form of a mallet, which the man gripped as the zombie slurred it's words while approaching him.

"Grr!!"

"But you know... this is quite bad business practice. Discriminating against customers because they don't fit in is a surefire way to get put out of business"

Smash!

The skull of the zombie was crushed to pieces and the flesh of its head was sent flying in all directions as the mallet was thrusted straight through the creature's brain.

"I suppose we’ll be taking our order to go."

Slicking his hair back, Marcus then looked up to the crowd of zombies who were still sitting at their tables.

And with a grin, the flesh of the man's left hand slowly formed into the shape of a sharpened stake.

"Don't mind me, good customers. Go on. Continue with your meals. Ah... but there is something else here that you surely find more appetizing. No?"

At this provocation, the zombies seemed to collectively gain a mindset of aggravation as they jumped up from their seats, each and every one of them approaching Marcus in their rage.

"Argh!!"

"Grr!!!"

"Rgh!!"

However even as he was approached by dozens, the man gripped his stake in one hand as he held the mallet in the other - and then with the flick of his hand he drove the stake into the forehead of the first zombie to approach him.

"Unfortunately... the girl is not on the menu. She is a limited edition."

Then, slamming the stake through the zombie's head with the hammer, a rain of guts and blood covered the businessman as he thrust the weapon out, preparing for the next enemy.

"And we're all sold out."

----

Marcus was surrounded by corpses.

"To think... that I would kill so many of my own kind."

Thinning his eyes in delight, Marcus walked through the aisles as he headed to the back of the pizzeria, not daring to look back for even a moment.

"I suppose I really have become a monster."

The weapons molded back into the hands of Marcus, as if they had never existed in the first place.

"But that much is fine. For if I become a monster who slaughters my own kind... then I will proceed to eliminate more and more monsters from this world."

"That's pretty self righteous, don't you think?"

As Marcus made this statement he was stopped by the words of the woman who grabbed his shoulder.

Turning around, the man came face to face with a woman whose expression was filled with unbelievable confidence.

"Since when have we ever cared about anyone else?"

"Haha... I suppose that's right, isn't it?"

Letting out a sigh of relief, the man looked down to the emotionless girl who stood by their side, following them at all times and listening to their commands without question.

"We don't really have any reason to help others."

Raising his hand in a conceited motion, the man seemed to grip all that was around him as his grin deepened.

"All we need to do is take from those who have robbed those around them all their lives."

"You're losing your mind, aren't you?"

"Are you not as well?"

"What if I am?"

"What if I am?"

"Heh."

The two came closer to one another as they grabbed the shoulders of one another, slowly falling into madness as they spoke.

"Then... I suppose we'll just have to fall even deeper into this madness together."

----

"Even if we said all that... I guess having a place to sleep is nice. Ah... a real bed... well, even if it's just some shack on top of a store..."

The two had searched the building to find that on the 2nd floor was a living area, likely where the owner of the pizzeria had lived before the cataclysm.

"It's a whole lot better than sleeping on those streets."

Laying down with her hand on her forehead, Sylvia stared at the dust covered ceiling with relief.

"I suppose that is true. Even a couch such as this will be much more suitable than the pavement."

Marcus laid on a couch and the girl sat by his feet, quietly awaiting any orders without a peep.

"I'm tired."

"Me as well."

"Marcus... Do you think that we overdid it today?"

"Regardless of what we did or did not do... we had no choice in most of our actions. Everything that happened... was out of our control."

With a sigh, Marcus closed his eyes as exhaustion overtook him.

"But even so... I feel that somehow... we have taken a step closer."

"A step closer?"

Sylvia sat up with a confused expression as Marcus made this comment, to which he responded lightly.

"Yes. I feel that we are getting closer to taking control of our lives once more."

"I see."

Laying back once more, Sylvia nodded.

And then, silence overtook the room.

How long that silence lasted, even the two could not say.

"Redefine."

Yet the silence was broken by this single word.

"This is the essence of the power that seven holds. According to Seven, this power is something different from a mere scientific phenomena that occurs with his body such as the regeneration or the parasitic capabilities of his cells. It is something... beyond mere science."

"So magic?"

With a chuckle, Sylvia seemed to close her eyes in a mocking manner.

"Well, regardless of whether there is an explanation or not... anything that doesn't have an apparent explanation will seem like magic. But that doesn't change the fact that they're monsters beyond belief."

"That much is true."

With this statement, Marcus shifted himself as he sat up, sitting besides the girl who calmly remained still.

"However to that end... we have also become monsters beyond belief. And if we cannot control ourselves... then we will be no worse than those zombies. No... perhaps we will be far worse. Therefore... we must master these abilities."

With the flick of his fingers, a blade of flesh formed from the hand of the man.

"Redefine... this is what has allowed me to redefine the very essence of anything my flesh comes into contact with. I wonder... just how far this ability can be taken? Perhaps with this... I can even redefine your mentality, Seven."

[Haha!! I'd love to see you try. But Marcus. You may have figured out how to create things using your own intuition. But from this point out... It all depends on your compatibility. If you aren't able to understand the essence of what it means to redefine something on a fundamental level... then you will never be able to reach me.]

"Very well."

With a nod, Marcus closed his eyes as he leaned back on the couch.

"I will master it. And then once I have mastered it... I will redefine not only you... but this entire world around me. Into something that I can be content with producing. Until that moment... I will not die. And that too is a part of the ability you have given me. No?"

"Master, are you talking to yourself again?"

The girl looked to Marcus with a tilted head, confused yet asking in a manner which suggested that she didn't dare to question her master - only that she wished to understand.

"Haha... perhaps I am."

Placing his hand on the head of the girl, Marcus notioned for her to head over to the bed where Sylvia was.

"Perhaps you are merely a figure of my imagination, Seven. If your power truly is to redefine something... then would it not be possible to redefine your own existence?"

[Marcus... you...]

"Ah... I'm so tired. Isabella. Why don't you go sleep on the bed with Sylvia? It's large and likely far more comfortable than this couch."

"Understood."

"Hey. Aren't you just trying to get more room on the couch for yourself? Why do I have to share the bed with the girl?"

Sylvia made this comment in a cold manner, speaking as if she truly didn't care about the outcome.

"If you wish, Mistress, then I shall sleep on the floor."

The girl said this immediately as she laid down without question at the foot of the bed - to which Sylvia grimaced in annoyance.

"Get the hell up here. If you catch a cold or get a backache then how the hell are you going to fight all those criminals tomorrow?"

"I see. You are correct, Mistress. Forgive me. Taking care of my own body is not something which I have ever prioritized. Yet it is something which will benefit you, therefore I will do so."

The girl stood up as she approached Sylvia, cuddling up in the bed without reserve.

"This is likely... the better decision."

"Yeah... that's right."

Turning around as she closed her eyes, Sylvia thinned her eyes with a hint of sadness in her smile.

"I'm not going to make any more bad decisions. I'm sick of that."

Closing her eyes, the woman was left in silence.

The three soon fell asleep in that room, however as the exhaustion overtook her, a single thought permeated the mind of the woman.

'If Redefine is Seven's ability... then what is yours, One?'

[Heh... I thought you'd never ask.]