The awakening

In the ruined central city of the once glorious Valerius Empire, where the air was still dense with the echoes of that mysterious melody and strangely faint traces of scattered ice cream scent, a certain scene unfolded.

"......"

"......"

"....."

"....."

In it, the commanders, loyal to "Seraphina," solemnly watched as the body of the figure to whom they had sworn loyalty and adoration began to slowly collapse to the ground. This occurred after a parade in which thousands of small straw dolls, guided by a golden variant with a cape that floated alongside a small silver armor, led them back to "Seraphina."

The scene was almost ceremonial. The commanders continued to witness the entire process in which the straw dolls disappeared one by one as they entered the pockets of "Seraphina's" glowing attire until none remained. This caused the black and white dress, which had enveloped her figure evoking a peculiar sense of absurd power, to begin to fade. Even the medallion on her chest, which had flickered intermittently with red, blue, yellow, and green lights until recently, now saw its light completely extinguished as the dress vanished in luminous flashes as if it were a dream fading at dawn.

All that remained was the banquet dress from when she first entered the dungeon, now on the inert and powerless body of the figure of their loyalty. Previously, they had heard "Seraphina" utter a somewhat hasty explanation about how she was running out of time and would lose her powers, entrusting them with the rest, giving them what appeared to be an "empress" costume and telling them to rebuild the kingdom. Faced with these words that seemed to indicate a kind of farewell, the anxious "commanders" demanded to know if anything would happen to "Seraphina," who nervously replied that she would only undergo a kind of change in which she would lose her powers, becoming "normal," thus entrusting the rest to them.

"....."

"....."

"...."

"...."

This led all of them, despite their differences and origins, to agree to gather to witness and protect their "boss" while she was vulnerable during this process. They kept respectfully silent, watching from a distance until the event concluded, leaving a heavy atmosphere around them. This, combined with the surrounding devastation, the dense air laden with the metallic breath of fire, and the silent lament of what was lost, turned the scene into a true tragedy...

"Pfft..."

However, at that precise moment, amidst the overwhelming silence in the heart of that hell, a tiny, almost inaudible sound began to seep through. That sound was not a lament, nor a sigh of despair, but something... different. Upon searching for its origin, they discovered it came from among the ruins of what was once the plaza, where their "boss" lay inert. They noticed the sound emanating from her tiny figure, who now looked like a simple sleeping "girl," until she suddenly began to rise with slow and clumsy movements at first.

"Hehe!"

As she seemed to laugh with a giggle that grew progressively clearer, like a bubble of incongruous joy amidst the desolation, her body simultaneously began to change. Her long hair, once smooth silver reaching her back, began to fluff up with unheard-of vitality, turning into a vibrant platinum pink that seemed to pulse as if each strand was filled with playful energy.

"Hahaha!"

The laughter she let out was no longer a murmur but a pure, bubbling, contagious roar that resonated with improbable joy in that landscape of death. Her eyes also underwent a transformation, changing from the previously mysterious colorless white to shine beautifully with the colors of the rainbow, with an unreal light that was both innocent and profoundly strange, each hue flowing and blending in a hypnotic spectacle. At the same time, a tremor began to run through the earth; it was not a natural earthquake, but rather an unstable vibration. It was as if the very fabric of reality was stretching and contracting unstably in reaction to what was happening.

Before the events unfolding, all spectators, regardless of their circumstances, whether they were praying in adoration or terrified in misery, froze, overwhelmed and perplexed as they witnessed the scene before them, while the "girl" continued her metamorphosis. Now her skin began to radiate a faint, soft yet intense glow that spread over every inch of her body, while her veins glowed with colorful energy of various vibrant tones that visibly ran through her limbs, pulsing beneath the surface.

"AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAOOOOo!!"

She continued laughing uncontrollably in childish amusement and joy as she began to jump and roll uncontrollably everywhere, using a destroyed city submerged in fire as a backdrop.

"I think I had a good dream!!"

The "girl" began to speak, shouting as if she had finally woken up for the first time in her life.

"Until now, I didn't know or understand! But the world has many colors!!"

She continued to speak, shouting, amused by everything around her as if she were seeing it all for the first time. And in fact, it was true, because after all, since her birth she knew there was something wrong with herself, because no matter how hard she tried or how much she wished, she was unable to comprehend what surrounded her. For her, the world was gray, without any trace of color, as if "something" was missing, while she felt "incomplete," which led her to be seen as a strange and terrifying oddity by those around her. Even when they told her to look within herself to understand what they meant, only for them to "snap" at her, stopping her when she tried to "open" her own body to understand what they were referring to. Not knowing what was wrong, she decided to simply "imitate" the behavior of others in an attempt to fit in.

Thus, time passed without her managing to understand, leading a boring and empty life in which she had resigned herself to maintaining the "mask" of "normality" while living without reason.

"Hum~... But I wonder what I dreamed?"

But all that changed when, suddenly, at a celebratory banquet, while she was being incriminated by the man who played the "role" of her fiancé, everything changed for her as she lost consciousness.

"It was very pleasant~♪!!"

Thanks to that, she felt like new, as if something had finally clicked after a long time...

"Now I understand many things! Don't you think so too, little doll? Or wait, I should give you a name... Mmm... I got it, how about Alice!"

That was the day Seraphina finally woke up, and along with her, one of creation's greatest taboos...

"Don't you think it's a good name? Dear reader~♡"