Blood & Brimstone 2.0

“I am Myra of Thantos, who seeks to enter the human realm?” A beautiful woman in long purple dress appeared from the darkness of the void between worlds. She had a bluish long hair that reached her bottom and a smile that bordered on a grin

.

She had in her hands a 2 meter-long straight staff with a large blue jewel at one end.

“I am the Witch Queen Anastasia. I seek unrestricted passage in the human world.”
A cute girl about the age of 14 in gothic lolita cosplay answered.
She was the Witch Queen Anastasia, one of the 10 Councillors of the Demon Realm.

“What is your purpose, Witch Queen Anastasia?”

“To find the power that will grant me the strength to overthrow the Demon Emperor Samyaza.”

“Very well, you shall be granted access to the human world, but the price will be for your power to be reduced to the level you had when you were 16 years old. Do you accept?”

“16? Isn’t that too much of a handicap? I only started learning magic when I was 12!”

“That is not my problem. The other lords were also given equally harsh penalties. I don’t see why I should be giving you any special treatment, Witch Queen.”

“The other lords?”

“Yup! You’re the last of the demon lords to enter the human world actually. Took your sweet time healing, I bet.”

“Damned it, I’m late! Fine, I’ll accept your penalty. Just let me in immediately!”

“Great! Have a safe trip, you’ll need it. Fufufu.”

Then with a flash, the void world that served as the border between the demon world and the human world disappeared, replaced by a view of the night sky and an unfamiliar town.
It was a small town, with probably around 2,000 homes.
Through research in the demon realm, she knew the town’s name was Twin Lakes, due to the two connecting lakes on the other side of the town.
However, that really shouldn’t be her focus right now.

“Uwaaah!!! That damned fake witch! Why am I in the air?!!!”

Quickly she summoned the spirits of wind to carry her up, but...
“Why aren’ they responding?!!!” Anastasia cried as she crashed into the tiled roof of a random house.

“What the hellllll?!!!”
A woman about 20 years old screamed.
She looked at the hole in her roof and the girl who fell on her butt into her room.

“Owieee...”

“Look here, missy. Don’t you know it’s bad manners to enter another person’s home through the roof? Is this a new form of harrassment? Is it not enough that the boy next door kept making that horrible screeching with his violin? Or how the damned couple in unit 303 kept mating like wild animals for the whole night when I haven’t been getting any for the past half a year? And who’s gonna pay for all the repairs? Plus, I have to deliver my manuscript tomorrow, how will I work with a hole in my ceiling? You better have a quick solu-“

“Sleep.” Anastasia pressed her forefinger against the woman’s forehead.

The woman slapped her hand away before planting her adult foot onto Anastasia’s lovely loli face.
“If you think telling me to go to sleep will make me want to go to sleep, you got another thing coming, little girl. Now tell me your parent’s phone number before I give you a spanking!”

Anastasia used her telekinesis to pull a random item from around the room.

“Guah!” a table lamp smashed against the left side of the woman’s head.

Anastasia used her powers again.

“Buh!” a table fan smashed against the woman’s back.

And she used her powers again and again.

“Gyah!” pencils and pens stabbed the woman’s back.
“Iyaa!” gold fishes from the woman’s aquarium flew and slapped against her face.
“Cooooolddd!!!” ice from the woman’s fridge flew into her clothes.
“Aiya!” a book hit her head from behind.
“Oya!” her laptop hit her head from behind.
“Aita!!!” a laser printer hit her head from behind.

“Kaahhh!!!” a whole desk smashed against the woman’s back, finally ending her torment.
No, the woman only fainted, not dead.
Manga artists are strangely resilient.

“Huff, huff. Scary... humans are surprisingly tough.”
Anastasia said as she left the woman’s home.
“Alright! Let’s go enter a computer!”

Meanwhile, about a half a mile away, in a house by the Eastern Lake...

“Sammy, Sammy, I found her again!” a sweet female voice exclaimed as she kicked the door open.

“Maria, would you please enter like any normal girl?”
A boy who was studying at the desk in that room complained without looking back.
It had become so routine that the boy removed the locking mechanism on his door.
He had gotten tired of having to replace it every few days.

“Oh poo! Opening doors is for wimps. Anyway, I met her again! Virgin Mary! I met her again!”
The 14 year old girl spoke excitedly.

“Why am I not surprised?”
Sammy said as he pushed his math homework aside and turned his swivel chair around.
“So what did you ask for this time?”
He asked as he swept his short brown hair to the left side of his head.

“Magic!”
Her eyes sparkled.

“So what have you burned so far other than the kitchen?”

“Oh you! I’ve told you the fire was an accident. But Virgin Mary didn’t actually give me any magical power.”

“Oh, that’s a shocker. I thought she fulfill all wishes? Are you sure you didn’t meet a fake one?”

“Geez! What do you think I am? I’ve met her four times including this one, you know? She just told me my body isn’t suitable for magic.”

“So what did you ask for instead?”

Maria held out her hand, in her hand was bracelet of some kind.
“I asked for good luck. Here, good luck on your exam next week.”

“That’s strange.”
Sammy took the charm.
“For you to give me a gift... are you sure you’re not sick?”

“You, it’s not like I wanted to do it, you know! Humph!”
Maria turned around and left the room, without bothering to close the door she just kicked open.

======

The Roman Life... a revolutionary virtual reality game, created by a local game company and released for free to the areas covering Twin Lakes, South Selkie and Fellows River.
Players may engage in unlimited interaction in an expansive world that covers the whole of Italian Peninsular during the age of the Roman Republic.
As players they may choose to become either a roman, etruscan or any of the barbarian tribesman.
After a short tutorial, players are released into a world so expansive and so unlimited in its scope that players may become anything they wish to be.
While some may choose to become part of the Roman Legionaires, a shopkeeper or even a bandit, some others chose to live a quiet life in the countryside as farmers or adventurers.
The possibilities are endless.

Rumours say that a certain figure called the Virgin Mary have made an appearance in the game.
The Virgin Mary supposedly could grant minor wishes if met in the game and that wish will be carried over into real life.
Pegasus Entertainment Inc. the company that made the game denied the rumour and informed the public that they had not programmed a character called ‘The Virgin Mary’.

It is said that an average person has a 40% chance of meeting the Virgin Mary once.
10% chance to meet the Virgin Mary twice.
Anyone who could meet the Virgin Mary thrice would be either extremely lucky or actually lying.
Considering the number of people who have met her, one has to wonder, is she really just a rumour?

The Roman Life is played via a bulky machine which transfers a person’s consciousness into the virtual world.
Because of its high price, the machines can only be accessed at and maintained by a dedicated VR center.
The game is currently in open beta.

======

“Good morning.”
Anastasia said to a middle aged woman who was watering her garden.

“Good morning, young lady. I haven’t met you here before, did you just moved in?”
The old lady replied kindly.

“I’m just visiting... umm, would you tell me where I can find a computer?”
Anastasia asked timidly, as she has not been to the human realm ever since her mother took her into the demon realm centuries ago.

“A computer?”
Anastasia nodded.

“Why, a computer shop of course.”
The old lady looked puzzled.

“Where is a computer shop?”
Anastasia asked, looking awfully cute asking such naive questions in her gothloli costume.

“Oh my, you must really be new here. Just walk along this road, turn left at the third junction and go straight along Ivy Road. You’ll get to the commercial district eventually. I think Old John’s son runs a computer store there.”

“Thank you very much.”
Anastasia said with a bow.

Once at the computer store...
“Excuse me, I’d like to enter a computer.”
Anastasia asked one of the shop assistant.

“Enter... a computer?”
The shop assistant asked back with a confused expression.

“Yes, I’d like to enter a computer.”
Anastasia nodded cutely.

The shop assistant, a guy in his mid-20s felt like an arrow from Cupid had struck his heart at the girl’s cuteness.
Calm down, calm down, she’s under aged. I’ll go to jail, he thought.
He coughed as he wiped his mind clean of any dirty thoughts towards this exotic-looking girl.
“Do you actually mean you want to buy a computer?”

“No, I don’t want to buy it. I don’t have this world’s money. I just want to enter it.”

This world’s money? Enter a computer? Is she a foreigner and mixed up her vocabulary?
He thought as he tried to understand what she was trying to say.
Is she saying she wants to test it or borrow it?

“I want to play football!”
Anastasia said loudly, as if that magically made everything a whole lot clearer.

“Ohh, if it’s football, you came to the wrong place, sweetie. There’s a football field right next to the school along Wisteria Road. They have girls playing football there too.”

“Can I enter the computer from there?”

“Umm... maybe?”
What’s with this entering computer thing? Is it an internet slang?

“Thank you. I’ll be going now.”
Anastasia bowed and left.

At the football field...
“Good morning! I’d like to play football.”
Anastasia greeted a bunch of girls kicking a ball.

“Oh, sure. Have you ever played before?”
An older girl wearing a stretchy blue shirt with the number ‘1’ sewn on the back and a smaller ‘1’ on the front replied.
‘Thomas’ was sewn above the number ‘1’ on the back of the girl’s shirt.

Anastasia assumed the girl’s name to be ‘Thomas’.
Strange how someone would name their daughter ‘Thomas’. In my days it was a boy’s name.
“No, I’ve never played before. Is that a problem?”
She answered innocently.

“No, no need to worry. We’re all just playing for fun here.”
Then the Thomas girl called another girl who had her hair in twintails.
“Remy, do you want another girl in your team? She never played, by the way.”

“I don’t mind, but... are you really going to play in that?”
Remy asked, referring to Anastasia’s gothic lolita black dress.

“I can’t?”
Anastasia asked innocently.

Remy and ‘Thomas’ looked at each other.
“Oh hell, if you don’t care about it being dirty, more power to you.”
Remy then pointed at the goal post behind ‘Thomas’.
“That is the enemy’s side.”
And Remy pointed at the goal post behind herself.
“That is our side.”

“Hey, hey, who are you calling an enemy?”
‘Thomas’ rebuked.

“Shut it, enemy number one!”
Then to Anastasia, she said,
“The point of the game is to kick the ball into the enemy’s goal post while preventing them from kicking the ball into our own goal post. You can use your head, your chest, your knees or any part of your legs. You must never touch the ball with your hands, okay?”

Anastasia nodded repeatedly.

“Good, my name is Remy, by the way.”
Remy smiled.
“And I’m Melissa, call me Lisa.”
‘Thomas’ added.

“Unn, I’m called Anastasia. Nice to meet you.”

“Anastasia is too long, I’ll just call you Anna. Alright, your position is Left Defense. Steal any balls that come your way and pass it to our team.”

“Our team?”
Anastasia, nicknamed ‘Anna’ tilted her head to the left.

“Hey, Team Remy, make some noise!”
Remy yelled, to the cheer of six girls on the pitch.
“That’s our team. So shall we get back to trashing Lisa's Team?”

Anastasia nodded and followed behind Remy.
“Unn, I’ll do my best so that I can enter the computer!”

About an hour later, the game ended.
Anastasia bungled through the game for the first 10 minutes.
But she quickly learned how to play and from then on she kept stealing balls and passing it to Remy.
She quickly became known as ‘The Devil of Left Field’.
The game ended in overwhelming victory for Team Remy.

“Thanks, Anna. You’ve played well today. Let’s play again next weekend, okay?”
Remy high-fived the confused Anna, whose gothloli dress was covered in dust and pieces of grass before she left with the others.
Both Team Remy and Team Lisa waved her goodbye and left the field, leaving Anastasia alone.

Anastasia was still no closer to entering a computer.
Anastasia was having so much fun she forgot to ask them about it.
Anastasia wondered if she had just wasted the whole morning.
Anastasia wondered if she had just made a horrible mistake.

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