Vows in Crimson Flesh

"Is this dress too tight, or am I just too anxious?" Seraphina smoothed the white silk fabric clinging tightly to her body. She stared at her reflection in the thick glass mirror framed in carved gold wild roses. Beneath the luxury of the wedding gown wrapping her slender torso, her chest rose and fell rapidly from a wild, uneven heartbeat. Tonight was the deciding night for her life in Upper-Aether, the day she carried the entire future of the Thorne family on her shoulders. A faint, forced smile formed on her lips as her trembling fingers adjusted the delicate lace along her chest. The crystal chandelier hanging gracefully from the ceiling cast a greenish-yellow light from the liquid Anima tubes attached along the marble wall. The rhythmic ticking of a large silver-plated wall clock echoed with a constant metallic clinking, signaling that the sacred wedding ceremony was drawing near. Seraphina turned slowly, reaching for an engraved glass perfume bottle on the mahogany table filled with silver jewelry. She pulled out the crystal stopper and sprayed the lily-scented liquid onto the curve of her neck and her pale wrists. "You look beautiful, Seraphina," Seraphina whispered to herself to calm the panic creeping into her mind. "Everything will go according to plan. You just need to get through tonight." However, that illusion of tranquility broke instantly. The hinges of the thick teak door at the end of the room creaked softly, cutting through the silence of the perfume-scented bridal chamber. Seraphina turned around quickly, holding her breath as her silk gown rustled against the floor. Heavy, measured footsteps echoed, approaching the dressing area from behind the dark velvet curtains. "Who is there? Lucian? The party has not started yet, right?" Seraphina asked, stepping back a few centimeters. There was no answer from the shadow-covered entryway. A cold wind blew through the upper ventilation gap, bringing a pungent smell of hot machine oil and iron rust. A tall man dressed entirely in black stepped out slowly from the darkness. His face was completely covered by a cold metal mask without clear eye slits, leaving an unshaped carved symbol on his forehead. The man held a medium-sized chainsaw powered by pure Anima energy. The iron blade vibrated violently with a high-frequency hum and emitted a blinding bright green light in the dim room. "You should not be here. Who sent you?" Seraphina whispered, her voice beginning to tremble violently. She tried to step backward slowly until the back of her hips hit the edge of the vanity table. The glass perfume bottle in her hand slipped from her suddenly weak fingers, falling onto the marble floor and shattering into pieces, splashing a sharp fragrance across the room. Before Seraphina could reach out her hand to grab the small jewel-encrusted dagger on the vanity table, the masked figure leaped forward with extraordinary speed. The screaming venomous saw was slammed directly across Seraphina's abdomen. The roaring sound of the engine cut through the fine silk fabric and expensive lace in an instant. The high-speed spinning steel blade penetrated the skin, cutting through the flesh of Seraphina's stomach without mercy. Fresh blood spurted heavily from the open wound, soaking the pure white wedding dress until it turned deep crimson within seconds. Seraphina screamed hysterically until raspy as unthinkable pain struck every nerve of her consciousness. "Stop! Help me! Anyone!" Seraphina shouted, trying to strike the man's metal mask with what little strength she had left. The assassin ignored Seraphina's screams and weak strikes. Instead, he pressed the chainsaw deeper, cutting through the abdominal wall muscles and tearing vital tissue inside the bride's body cavity. The once clean and cold marble floor was now filled with a thick pool of warm, red liquid smelling strongly of iron. Seraphina collapsed to the ground on her knees, her trembling hands trying to hold her heavily torn internal organs so they would not spill out completely. "I do not need your life. I only want your Heart-Core," the assassin said in a heavy voice distorted by the metal face cover, sounding like raspy old iron scraping together. The assassin turned off the blood-stained chainsaw switch, then tossed the heavy weapon carelessly onto the floor with a loud clang. Without hesitation, he plunged his fingers, coated in serrated iron gloves, directly into the bleeding, torn wound in Seraphina's stomach. Seraphina crawled helplessly across the marble surface that was slick with her own blood, trying to move away even as her body writhed in unbearable physical suffering. Her body trembled violently, her temperature dropped sharply, and her vision began to fog over from the severe, non-stop bleeding from her chest cavity. The assassin's fingers coldly rummaged through the flesh tissue to search for the life-energy crystal bound tightly inside Seraphina's internal organs. Every rough movement and forced push of the iron fingers made Seraphina gasp heavily for air, her vision turning increasingly white. "Where are you hiding it? Tell me before I cut your chest wide open!" the assassin snarled while gripping Seraphina's broken lower ribs. Seraphina could no longer make a sound to answer. Her vision grew darker, her lips peeled pale, and her chest felt extremely tight as if the air supply in the large room had been sucked away by death. "Help... anyone... I do not want to die here..." Seraphina whimpered in her fading mind as her consciousness nearly vanished completely. Suddenly, the tightly locked teak door of the bridal room shattered in two from an extremely powerful external impact. A booming sound like a bomb explosion deafened ears and shook the floor foundation of the room. Splinters of wood, copper hinges, and dust flew into the air of the stuffy room. A tall, authoritative figure stood upright behind the thin smoke enveloping the severely damaged doorway. Cassian Vance strode in with slow yet intimidating steps, holding a black-bladed greatsword drawn in his right hand. His thick black leather coat billowed gently, revealing the silver Inquisition emblem grandly etched on the left chest of his military uniform. His glinting silver eyes, cold and sharp, pierced the bloody scene before him without the slightest ripple of surprise. Without uttering a single word, Cassian charged forward in a lightning-fast leap and swept his sword through the air. The thick steel blade engraved with Anima runes cut through the air with pure speed and lethal precision. Before the assassin could pull his hand out from inside Seraphina's stomach, the metal-masked assassin's head severed cleanly from his neck and fell, rolling onto the marble floor. Thick, foul-smelling black blood spurted from the severed neck before the headless body collapsed onto Seraphina's feet. With a casual sweeping motion, Cassian kicked the assassin's corpse until it crashed hard into the corner of the room. Cassian sheathed his greatsword back into the scabbard on his back with a fast mechanical movement, then knelt beside Seraphina's dying body in the middle of the pool of blood. The thick, sharp smell of blood stung his sense of smell without causing his facial expression to change. Cassian's hand, covered in a thick black leather glove, firmly gripped Seraphina's jaw. He forcibly pulled the face of the woman lying on the floor upward, forcing the weakly slumped Seraphina to look directly into his silver irises that radiated coldness without mercy. "Look at my eyes and don't you dare close them for even one second," Cassian commanded in a heavy, firm tone that no one could argue with. Seraphina coughed violently, her body jolting as she vomited fresh blood that instantly dirtied Cassian's fingers and sleeve cuff. "It hurts... help... stop this pain..." "If you die now, this entire investigation plan will fall apart and lose its purpose," Cassian muttered coldly without the slightest sympathy for the woman's suffering. With his left hand, Cassian pulled out a steel-plated syringe filled with a deep red, forbidden Anima liquid from inside his black coat. The cylindrical tube vibrated softly in his fingers, emitting a scorching heat that burned the surrounding air. Without a moment of hesitation or waiting for consent, Cassian drove the large steel needle directly through the flesh tissue into Seraphina's exposed heart area inside the open wound of her stomach. Seraphina jolted in shock and screamed silently as the extremely hot chemical poison liquid flowed rapidly, forcibly destroying, burning, and fusing her damaged blood vessels and organs back together. An intense burning sensation exploded and spread quickly throughout every blood vessel in her body. Seraphina groaned in extreme pain within Cassian's grip, her blood-stained fingers clutching Cassian's leather collar tightly with the last strength she possessed. Tears mixed with red stains trickled slowly down her corpse-pale cheeks. Cassian did not loosen his tight grip on Seraphina's jaw, holding the position of the woman's head so she would not pass out. He lowered his head slowly, bringing his sharply lined face closer until the distance between their faces was only a few centimeters apart. "If you want to survive tonight, Seraphina... hand over all your remaining breath to me!"