There existed a certain library in the world, in the place Theora was born at. It was a large library, for it was a town of archivists and scholars. And in that library was an entire section all dedicated to a single person, to recording her life, her capabilities and weaknesses, and all else that was to know about her.

Even though Theora had lived for so long, and even though a lot of effort was put into maintaining it, that section was not all that expansive.

Or rather, that’s what she assumed. Theora wasn’t easy to track; the System was the only entity that could know at any given time where she was. Theora didn’t have much of an aura due to how broken her body and character sheet were, and she rarely talked to people, so it was uncommon for anyone to find out what she was up to. If she did meet people, she rarely gave her name, because in most cases, her name wasn’t necessary to give.

It’s not that Theora was trying to be a private person. Rather, she had no reason to be open. It required effort, and she was always tired.

Without ever having stepped into that very section of the library all dedicated to her, Theora still had some guesses about what one might find in there. And, based on what this party of heroes was currently doing, she had a vague idea what might be some of their assumptions about her.

She imagined that, if someone would compile a list of ‘things to keep in mind when attempting to seal Theora’, it would look like a neat collection of suggestions.

For one, sealing a strong being was the best choice of how to deal with it if one wasn’t able or willing to outright kill it. Depending on the type of seal, it cost much less energy and effort to imprison something for a long time and deal with it later than to try to overwhelm it.

Especially things like a time seal as used for the Devil of Truth were rather cheap to establish, because it essentially just transported a being into the future without harming it. While still needing to be a Legendary rank Skill to seal away a being as strong as the Devil of Truth, it would get the job done of delaying further havoc.

Now, one of the suggestions on how to seal Theora would obviously be that it had to be a Skill explicitly dedicated to her. That would increase its strength dramatically. Another one might be that the sealing time should be as short as possible. Maybe only a few minutes, or even just seconds. Focussing all one’s effort into sealing away a very specific target for a very short amount of time enabled one to pretty much seal anything. And that included Theora.

Thus, Theora was sealed away. Now, that hero party would probably try to use this time to strip Dema of her immortality as quickly as possible.

Maybe they’d even steal Theora’s scroll. It was a very hard scroll to create, although it was easier to make copies once one had understood the mechanisms of how to make it once. It had taken the peoples on the planet a very long time of dedication to build the first one, and they’d done so before Theora was even born.

Scrolls carried one-time Skill usages, though it was arguable as to whether they should be called Skills at all, since they didn’t interact with the System whatsoever. Either way, whether they were banking on using Theora’s, or whether the System had somehow managed to prepare the expensive creation of a second one, it was likely that they had a way to end Dema, and were going to use it right now.

Additionally, when attempting to seal Theora, she imagined that they would make it so she couldn’t move. By now, her only offensive Skill was [Obliterate], and she’d use it by drawing her sword and slashing whatever target she chose. So, by rendering her unable to move inside her prison, they’d make sure she couldn’t [Obliterate] it, thus perfecting the seal.

And oh, it was such a seal. Even something like the Cube of Solitude wouldn’t have been able to hold her, but this, it was a true masterpiece. Theora saw the world glitter into sparks around her, and suddenly started feeling a soft pressure on her upper body. Oh, so very soft. Like receiving a warm hug.

This prison did not feel like a prison at all. It was the eversoftest embrace. Like being huddled by a mother, or a close sibling, or a lifelong lover. And this place was so full of feelings of love. Of acceptance.

All she saw was whiteness all around her. Not a cold whiteness, but a snow covered landscape on a glowing winter morning. Wrapped into the warmest clothes, no wind, no sound. An eerily calm world, only the soft feeling of one’s boots crumpling the snow beneath them. Twigs of bushes and small trees covered in white from above, and the sun barely visible on the horizon.

And that voice all around her that said, “Even though you may have made mistakes, we are here for you. Always.”

Theora had always been alone. From the very start, she’d done everything on her own, and oh, this was such a wonderful entrapment for her. Or, it would have been, if she didn’t already have a home.

That home smelling of ash and coal, tasting of salts in all colours, sounding like a raspy low instrument playing inside her very soul.

If Theora wanted a hug, she could just ask Dema.

Not that she’d ever gather the courage to, but this was a matter of principle. She did not require a carefully constructed seal for herself to not feel sad. The information they had on her was outdated. She was no longer alone.

But, the information was also wrong in the first place, or at the very least, incomplete.

Yes, Theora had always used [Obliterate] with her sword, at least to the knowledge of everyone else on the planet. But it was not a sword Skill. It was not even a weapon Skill at all.

[Obliterate] was a Skill that simply happened in her mind. It was a Skill that enabled her to destroy whatever she wanted, with a single thought. The only reason she channelled it through her sword was because it was not meant to be channelled through a sword. To constrain it, to weaken it, to lessen the damage it caused on the fabric of the world.

The sword was meant to hold her back.

So, if they had asked her for advice on how to seal Theora, she would have given them not a short list of things to consider. No catalogue of ingredients, no deliberations, no theory. The only advice she could give on the topic of how to seal Theora was, ‘Do not attempt to seal Theora.’

After all, it would have been a perfect solution to her problems. She wouldn’t even have needed to sleep, she could have just stopped existing in the world for an indefinite amount of time.

If such a thing as ‘sealing Theora’ had been possible at all, she would have done so herself a long time ago.