I would be lying if I said I wasn't excited about the dinner party.

  When was the last time I had gone to any event?

  5 years... plus 6 months since my family took me to a party.

  6 years basically.

  Since 14.

  “Null, are you sure you want to be here?”

  Null is sitting beside me on the bed, we just sat in silence the whole day, she had been repairing her body passively while I was left to stew in my own thoughts.

  “If Lilith wanted to kill me, she would.”

  She dropped the ‘master’ from Lilith too.

  “Fair... but aren't you... scared?”

  If I had been attacked by a lion there's a pretty high chance I wouldn't go to a zoo anytime soon.

  “I've seen her kill multiple versions of me for a while, I'm desensitized.” She threads a small ball for me, “here, just throw it at someone and it'll really hurt.”

  The ball of threads looks like they are pressurized to the point it could explode at any moment, “wont it explode in my pocket?”

  She shrugs, “probably not. Just keep it, in case things get bad.”

  Three knocks followed by a kick had opened the door, “time to go.” Lilith stormed in with a toothy grin, she had changed into a purple dress, the same shade as her hair.

  She looked around, studying the cabin with scrutiny in her eyes, “you really did a number on this place huh? What's this?” She picks up the date the original null had given me.

  I forgot to hide it.

  “Interesting. Who gave you this? My boss or...” Lilith rips it up, “who cares.”

  I get dragged outside, it was nightfall with the stars painting the sky a beautiful purple and red, much like her dress which was much like her hair.

  Lilith almost looked beautiful with the night like this, whenever she blinked and hid her orange eyes I could see no faults in her appearance, a thought crossed my mind that maybe she wouldn't be beyond helping, but then her eyes open again, and Id realise that was nothing but wishful thinking.

  “Why are you staring?” Lilith continues to pull me, her arm conjoined with mine like an escort.

  “What's with your skin?” I blurted out with the aim to alleviate some of this tension I'm feeling.

  “My pigment? Its muted right?” She squeezes our bodies closer together as we reach the carriage, “it's because I haven't done any changes in my appearance, unlike most higher ranks I don't have qualms with my natural features.”

  A clone of null puts on the red armour that I was used to seeing whenever Lilith would visit my old home, I guess that's what the other armoured people were, I used to think they were more demons but nope.

  This was the same carriage she usually took me in when I would stay in her room and talk, she lets me enter first while holding my hand.

  We both settle, end to end, staring at each other. “This is nostalgic.”

  Lilith gives a big breath out, “don't remind me, it hasn't been that long.”

  It really hasn't been that long, it's weird how memories work. Everything has been so hectic it feels like I've made a year's worth of memories in that cabin despite it being a few days. Is this how it is in the modern world?

  The carriage begins to move, “where are we going?”

  “You’re going to love this. Japan.”

  What?

  “Are my parents still there?” This is exactly why she is taking me, to mess with me. Before she mentioned my parents were on vacation there.

  “They are.” She crosses her legs. “The dinner party is in a remote island we hid from the world. Still in the outskirts of where your parents are.”

  She is doing this to toy with me. I know she is doing this to toy with me.

  “Can I see them?”

  She uncrosses her legs and gets up to sit beside me, “how much are you willing to pay?”

  I knew it was stupid to ask, how will my parents even react to seeing me? Would they recognize me?

  “How much?” I can't believe I'm asking.

  “Next time you need to take people, take 5 people, 2 kids and 3 adults.”

  Without hesitation, “no.”

  “Okay. Not like it matters anyway...”

  She sounds almost depressed.

  “What do you mean?”

  “I fucked up. Bad. With you, I should have just killed you when I had the chance.” She giggles a bit, “I keep messing my own life up, I never thought you'd survive that ring you know.”

  The carriage stops bumping as much, unrecognizable sounds of beeping and crowds screaming fills the air. Lilith moves one of the curtains and lets me look out, it's a weird looking wall, dark and smooth, there are black bags with grey stairs.

  “Hm. Must've overshot.” She pushes me out, I land in a small puddle in a pothole, the sky is black but there are no stars.

  She jumps out and waves at the clone, “keep it here till we get back.”

  “Let's go meet your parents. We are still early to the dinner party.” She clicks her fingers; her hair turns a raven black, and her face turns pale. Her eyes are still orange but small pupils make it look natural.

  Is she going to kill my parents? “No let's just go to the dinner party.”

  “Aw is someone scared ill hurt their mommy and daddy?” She pushes me into the open, I see people of multiple sizes and genders, fat people are especially weird to see after only spending time around people with nutrition issues.

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  Everyone is wearing colourful clothes, my mind can't keep up with remembering all their faces as they walk around me like I'm not there.

  “Am I invisible?” I look over at Lilith who is still in the alleyway.

  “No? People just don't care about you.” She steps into the crowd and walks with me.

  Cars drive past the road at speeds that feel unrecognizable, a concerning number of smells fills my nose, perfume and cologne and gas and sweat and-

  “They should be at this restaurant.” My arm gets pulled, I step into a yellow lit restaurant, this place is full of people sitting together eating food the people back home could only dream of.

  “Two?” A woman holds out two fingers smiling, Lilith nods and follows the woman as she guides us to a table.

  I look around everywhere, trying to spot my parents, is she lying? I don't see them anywhere.

  The woman grabs a menu and says words I can't focus on, I continue to twirl on one of my feet looking everywhere. A young couple... too young... there is a whole family, but the woman has red hair... that's not it...

  I spot people who have similar complexions to my parents, their hair is a little bit more grey, the woman has a streak of silver that goes down their shoulders. They are sitting together with two kids, one boy who couldn't be older than 4, and a girl who is sitting in a baby chair.

  Lilith touches my shoulder, “they replaced you.”

  I don't know how much time had passed since I begun staring, but those words had lit anger inside of me that made time feel like it was speeding up.

  I take a step forward, then another, each step feels like one up a mountain, my arms help me move into a run, “MOM, DAD!” I yell, I hear a click of fingers and I'm back in the alleyway, I run face first into a wall.

  Lilith giggles next to me, was that real? “What is happening?” My breath grows heavy, everything gets dizzy.

  “I did not expect you to yell at them. Cute. Let's go to the dinner party now.” She forcefully grabs my shirt and pulls me into the carriage.

  They seemed happy, they were happy. “Was that real?”

  Please tell me it was just a hallucination brought on by her.

  “As real as the sun, and daughter. Which replaced you.” She giggles again as she shuts the door, the carriage starting again.

  I can't stop thinking about them, they didn't even turn to look at me, did they know it was me? Or did they think I was just a crazy person? Did they see me disappear? Do they care?

  The carriage gets bumpy again, “we are here Master Lilith” the clone says softly, slowing the carriage to a stop.

  Lilith can't stop smiling, she snaps her fingers and her appearance goes back to normal, her eyes show the lack of empathy yet again.

  “Now you are in the right mindset to really enjoy this dinner party.” We step out, her arm joined with mine, this place is surrounded by water, the waves crashing onto the cliff side we are on. There is a huge stone path which reaches a massive mansion.

  Multiple other carriages and even cars rest beside the cliff side, some people stepping out while speaking to their plus one’s. The grass was lush and dark green, very few flowers like at Lilith’s estate.

  I feel a huge amount of whiplash, just 5 minutes ago I had screamed at my mom and dad, now I'm here, in the dark, walking towards a mansion that will have more people like Lilith in them.

  We reach the entrance, the two doors were already open, inviting us in. This place had similar architecture to political buildings they’d make in the 1800s America, so basically just roman architecture.

  There are multiple groups of people talking to each other, some holding wine, some holding the hands of people with them, it's all very normal. A woman walks up to us, she has deep crimson hair with a golden star clip keeping her bangs going to the side and down her back.

  “Glad you could make it.” She looks down at the both of us, her high heels add additional inches to her already overwhelming height, her black dress reaches the floor and leaves a trail, “is this him?” She leans down and grabs my hand, inspecting the ring, “very nice.”

  Lilith coughs twice, “may we get some wine?”

  She nods and leads us to the kitchen area, every person here seems incredibly wealthy and dangerous, “we aged this one for 700 years.”

  “I'll take the whole bottle.”

  “... it's very expensive.”

  “Does it sound like I care?” Lilith snatches the bottle from the woman's hands, her red painted nails scraping on the glass as it transfers, she uncaps it without a care in the world, bringing it towards her lips and chugging.

  For an awful 2 minutes everyone just watched as Lilith gulped down the entire bottle, once she was done, she smashed it on the floor, “thank you.” She stares at me for a moment, “let's go outside.”

  She begins to sway as she grabs my arm yet again, her hand slips once and she almost falls over, “I'm letting... poison get me... for fun... you’re gonnnaaa dieeee” She giggles while escorting me to the patio. Leaning on a bit of wood on the door frame before stumbling out, some girl with orange hair and red eyes grabs her.

  “Oh my, someone is having a bit too much fun. Do you have a license to party this hard this early in the night?” She picks up Lilith and lets her rest on a chair.

  The orange haired girl has a boy connected to her side, he has that same hair and same eyes, someone who had to be 12, “mom... is this...”

  His mom looks over at me while I stay beside Lilith protectively for some reason, “oh it is... Lilith is this your human disciple?”

  Lilith giggles a bit, “yeeep!” Her head turns to look at both of them, “just human.”

  The boy jumps up and down, “can I hurt him?”

  His mom just gives a soft laugh, “my son is so adorable... Lilith may he duel your human? I promise he won't kill him.”

  Lilith leans further on the chair, waving her hand in the air like she is being controlled by strings, “yeah whatever do whatever, leave me alone... kill him for all I care.”

  Why did she even bring me on this trip? What is the point of any of this?

  I finally speak up, “can I refuse?”

  The boy jumps in excitement, “you can talk?!” He runs down the patio and onto the grass lawn, where the cliff face is just 10 meters away.

  His mom stares at me, “go on. Duel him.” Her red eyes feel like they are going through my soul, a tingling feeling rises up from my spine to my brain, “go.”

  I step down the stairs, “what are the rules?”

  She steps down with me, not answering my question, “EVERYONE! A DUEL IS COMMENCING, COME WATCH!” Then leans to whisper in my ear, “my son is rank 2. a prodigy at his age. Good luck.”

  My shoes reach the grass, my mind is alternating between the present and the past.

  My parents have new children, I've lost 5 years of my life to these demons, they've caused countless deaths of those weaker than them.

  I don't care if this is a kid, he has probably killed humans too, considering his attitude.

  I walk down, this area is sloped, I'm at a disadvantage since he is higher up than me. I stay around 20 feet away from him as people congregate to watch this match.

  I'm not even rank 1 apparently, but I am significantly taller than this child, I hope that helps at least a little bit.

  I try something I hadn't even attempted before, I put my hand in the grass and imagine the implosion spell on it, envisioning the spells weight and symbols.

  I hear a thump and a slight pain in my left eye to the back of my brain, my hand is full of condensed grass, like a marble.

  The orange haired woman shouts, “Any bets on who will win? The human trying to copy us? Or my pure-bred son.”

  This causes the group of people to laugh, this wasn't a dinner party, Lilith just wanted a way to kill me, didn't she?

  How would her boss react if I was killed in a duel? Would Lilith take the blame? Most likely not. I would take the blame for losing, and she would be let go of all of this responsibility placed on her.

  She is doing this to kill me. ‘I was drunk so I couldn't help him’ she will say. She already disoriented me with my parents, she invited me to this before I can get any good at magic.

  This is a plot to murder me.

  The orange haired woman claps, “okay! Ready? I'm going to count down from 10.”

  “10.”

  I stand up, still holding the ball of grass in my hand.

  “9.”

  The patch of dirt where the implosion spell might cause me to trip, i move to the side.

  “8.”

  I could probably reach him in 4 seconds if I were to fire a spike of that liquid,

  “7.”

  What if he has a long-ranged attack too? I don't know how to defend against that.

  “6.”

  I hold the ball of threads Null gave me in my pocket, making sure it's still there.

  “5.”

  My feet begin shaking.

  “4.”

  Time slows down.

  “3.”

  The orange haired boy in front of me prepares his hand, holding it out towards me.

  “2.”

  He probably has a long-ranged attack.

  “1.”

  My feet move.

  “Go!”