A Devil's Grace 1930

| Prologue | 3 Years Ago |

Automatic weapons fire rang in her ears, explosions in the distance. Tanya was laid out on the dirt, blood staining her flight suit and uniform beneath, in former Entente Alliance territory. 

Her eyes drifted along to her subordinates, who she had ordered to retreat following the defeat of the local military forces, she smiled lightly. A clean record, she had never lost a single person, not once. She let the back of her blonde headrest back in the dirt, her eyes centering forward as she went to face the cloudy skies above. 

There were renewed dog fights going on between Aerial Mages and Fighters. A shadow cast over her and blocked her few. She was sure she heard the person let out a cheerful giggle at the prospect of her death.

Tanya just let out a sigh, her chest heaving up and down slowly, before her azure blue eyes locked upon the person who had laid her out. A brunette, an Alliance Native, the daughter of a man who she had killed near the beginning of this dreadful war.

She frowned as she heard the cocking of a pistol's hammer. Tanya's vision had already begun to blur due to the loss of blood. She had been in this situation before, about to die at the hands of this girl. "Pathetic..." Tanya uttered quietly as she spat under her breath.

She was sure she could see Being-X laughing down at her as she refused to pray, to accept him as God. And soon, she believed that she would accept him. Tanya didn't want to die, she didn't want to feel this pain anymore. 

Her eyes locked on Mary Sue, lifting her gloved hand as if to shield herself from the threat. 

"I'm finally going to get vengeance for my father... For my friends, the people and the home you've taken from me." The hammer of the colt 45. clicked into place, her pistol was primed and ready. 

Tanya could hardly make sense of her words as the world was being drowned out into the darkness. She could hardly keep her arm up much longer. So as she dropped her arm and kept her gaze up at the hesitating woman, she smiled faintly now seeing the golden glow of her eyes.

"Time to die..."

"I don't think so," these four words made the brunette raise her head and just as she did so, three shots rang out. Each shot landing in shoulders and the last blasting through her forehead, having shattered her magic shield instantly.

Watching as her arch-nemesis crumbled to the ground like a broken twig, Tanya groaned in relief. But there was someone else to worry about, the person who shot Mary, how did he bypass her shield so easily? 

The weapon, it sounded like another colt going off, Tanya wasn't sure. Her gaze shifted to the luger which was a few feet away. Turning onto her stomach, she began to drag herself towards the weapon, gasping at the pain as dirt got into the wound.

Hard leather boots kicked up dust from the ground, crushed grass beneath its soles, and soon she saw them from the corner of her eyes. Black boots, green pants. She paused just as the being kicked the gun that she was about to take into her hands away from her.

Blurry eyed, she looked up at the being who gazed right back down at her. 

"Why I'll be," a young man's voice sounded as he knelt down to look at her as she lay there, "It's the Devil of the Rhine... It's a pleasure to meet you, my young friend." The hero of the day acted surprised, seeing her mildly irritated face.

Her orb cracked and currently invalid so she couldn't use it to calculate her spells; not that she had the energy to cast. She had no way to defend herself, but there was little he could do to her.

"Who... Who are you...?" She slurred, "You... You don't sound much older than me..."

"Well don't you have Grace," the boy chuckled at this and shook his head, looking up to the sky.