Tragic Heroine

Yarny

Sorry for the really long wait, I’m in the middle of a hard grind right now.

If spacing looks a little weird, it’s because it’s too much of a hassle to fix it on the phone. I am lagging while typing this. This is a monster chapter.

She leapt towards the nearest shadow, thrusting her knife down its head, only to meet with no resistance at all.

Odd… it felt like I was swinging through empty air?

“Take this!” Chris swung her arm and felt her mana rush about wildly inside her. Although she had no spirit to aid her, she hoped using the mythril steel knife as a conduit would allow her to make her own special move just like Sevraus.

Whatever energy was about to gather seemed to sputter out and die as it left the knife.

Shit. All her previous confidence left her as her face flushed red. Wasn’t this normally the time when the protagonist showed their prowess and wiped the floor with the enemy? What was with this shameful display?

“...”

Bertram stared speechlessly at the knife in her hand as the horde of darkspawn that was chasing after them continued to advance. 

She silently snuck it back into Bertram’s hands as he sighed. He tucked the sheathed knife back into his breast pocket with a blank face and stepped forward.

Raising his sword high up into the air, a faint golden aura surrounded his being. With his sole spectator holding her breath in anticipation, he swung down.

The golden aura surged forth into a tangible blade of mana that flew forward to decimate the enemy. On contact with the nearest darkspawn, however, it dissipated like it was nothing but a gentle wind.

“Pfft.” This time it was Chris’s turn to react to his failure. Even though the situation was dire, the contrast between his serious attack and its less than optimal results made her break into light laughter. Bertram just glared at her.

“Tsk.” He clicked his tongue in annoyance. “Magic isn’t my strong suit, okay?”

Meanwhile, the shadows in the clearing silently writhed and birthed more monsters of the abyss. Chris was briefly reminded of the horrors of her first night in Irudeia, and shivered, thankful for whatever light remained around them…

Wait.

Why were darkspawn showing up here? The System clearly told her that these creatures shied away from all sources of light. Even under the tree cover, this dimly lit forest was still a far cry from the almost pitch black darkness of her own room at night.

A sudden burst of chaos erupted from the ground near them.

“What is that?!” Chris cried out in alarm at spotting movement not far from the direction they were fleeing from. A sinkhole appeared in the earth, a dense circle of darkness that exploded into a cloud of dirt and debris

The two immediately started sprinting away as fast as they could, not willing to look back to see whatever was chasing them.

They continued to frantically dash through a mind numbing maze of trees, each one tall enough to block out the light from the forest floor below. Any normal individual would have already lost their minds in this seemingly endless purgatory.

Chris could only lament the fact that she listened to the voice in her head and somehow got them into this mess. They were trapped in the domain which the System called Amphitrite’s Veiled Garden, a relic of some distant past. But if this was an illusory reality, then what was its purpose for being here, and who was responsible for its creation? 

They kept up with each other’s rapid pace using whatever methods were at their disposal. She guessed that the boy’s strength that was on par with her mana enhanced state came from his awakened bloodline. What its specific effects were, she didn’t know; the System was unhelpful on this front. 

If they escaped this domain, then he might answer her if she asked nicely.

They were at first successful in escaping the enemies they encountered in the domain, but they gradually lost out in a war of attrition, as more darkspawn rose out of every unlit nook and cranny of the forest to surround them, and their unknown pursuer continued to crash through the undergrowth.

Adding to the difficulty was their dwindling stamina. Chris couldn’t rely on mana reinforcement to strengthen her speed for anything longer than a sprint without more refinement of her physical body, and Bertram had already winded himself when following her into the domain. They were both running on a mix of sheer willpower and fear.  

Strangely, the voice in her head stopped egging her on. Perhaps she was just hearing things before.

“Think you can take it? Bertram uttered out with the only hoarse voice his tired lungs could muster.

“Aren’t you a knight?!” She yelled in rebuttal. And you have a fucking sword! 

“In training!” He used up some precious energy to glance back to see a small storm of roiling dirt, stone and twigs being disturbed by whatever beast from the underworld was after them.

Seeing the waves of dirt that parted in its wake made them shy away from confronting it, especially considering their current state.

Chris saw something in the corner of her eyes that made her heart drop. Several dozen massive umbral appendages loomed from the tree canopy overhead.

She subconsciously tried to squeeze out any last vestiges of the vital energy that empowered her, only to end up frustrated with the reality that her mortal body couldn’t seem to draw from her well of mana anymore.

“Dammit.” Knowing that she could no longer avoid the incoming attacks, she raised her arms to at least protect her head and vitals.

Someone rushed in, pushing her out of harm's way at the very last second. It was Bertram. His breathing was erratic and he certainly looked even worse for wear than she did. They dodged another incoming attack from the darkspawn hidden in the trees, quickly gathering their strength and wits to flee in the opposite direction.

But their momentary pause was enough time for their previous pursuer to catch up to them.

With an ear piercing shriek that shook the surroundings, a monstrous centipede demon the size of a bus burst out of the ground. It stood above them armored with a dense pitch black carapace. Its many legs ended in sharp spear tips, and its mandibles were longer than the two of them were tall. Dark shadowy mist billowed out from its terrifying form.

“Hey… is that thing looking at you?” She uneasily commented. 

But Bertram was too busy thinking and staring into its blood red eyes to reply to her. The boy was glued to his spot, not even raising his sword. He seemed to be paralyzed under the monster’s gaze. 

The beast crawled closer, each of its many legs clicking with the sound of approaching death.

Damn it! I have to do something! Sure, he wasn’t the nicest guy, but the kid risked his hide to save her once, she wasn’t going to let him become bug chow.

Still…

Her lungs burned and her legs ached and trembled from being pushed beyond their limits. Her feet felt raw after trekking through the tangled ground for so long. The absence of mana in her veins made her feel wrong and empty, weak and frail. 

But a monster wouldn’t wait for her to regret and feel sorry for herself. The centipede lunged forward with savage speed, it’s jaws wide open to snap shut on the young knight recruit.

She had mere moments before the beast leapt upon him.

Don’t screw with me! She was tired and pissed off. Why was she just standing there, quaking in her boots? Was she really about to let some kid die right in front of her?

She had her own pride, too, damn it! If this thing wanted to chow down on someone so bad, then she’ll give it a meal to remember for the rest of its life.

“Choke on this, motherfucker!” She ran forward with her arm raised in preparation for a right cross. Unbeknownst to her, her mana surged in resonance with her at this very moment, rising from the depths of her soul with renewed vigor.

It was imbued with the call of defiance.

It answered to her Will and gathered towards her fist to rain destruction upon her foes. Her limb flew forward as a crackling blue green comet. 

Upon connecting, a sharp snap echoed, the centipede was launched tumbling away in a mess of tangled limbs and roaring anger. It screeched, and all the darkspawn in the clearing began to converge upon them.

The shadows around it seethed, creating an even more monstrous illusion. Bertram, seemingly revived, stumbled down in shock from his near death experience.

“You owe me for this, kid.” Chris stepped in front of him, her two fists gilded in crackling energy with the color of an aurora. Bertram shook his head, chuckling. Using his sword as a crutch, he stood back up and stood next to her.

“Before we throw away our lives, I just want to say that I’m sorry for insulting you when we first met.”

“Hmm? Why are you saying something like that right now, you fucking idiot?” Chris couldn’t control herself from letting out a swear.

“You’re… definitely not the person I imagined you to be. I’m sorry for thinking otherwise.” He seemed a little astonished at her word choice. She huffed.

“Oh, shut up, kid. If we live through this, just treat me to some food at some places you like and we’ll call it even.” Chris ignored the look of pleasant surprise on the boy’s face.

The centipede looked ready to wreak bloody vengeance on the two of them, and stride towards the two with a terrifying speed on its many legs.

As they prepared for the inevitable clash, she once again heard the voice in her head, this time with more clarity. It sounded feminine, and carried a light tone of approval.

Passable.

For a second, Chris felt a gentle force settling on her back, dispersing all her adrenaline and mana. Regaining her senses, she took notice of the deathly stillness of everything around her. The vicious centipede that hunted them was frozen in time just inches away, fangs and claws outstretched. Then it, along with the dozens of darkspawn and all the towering trees around them disintegrated into tens of thousands of incandescent particles. 

Before their eyes, the prison of ironwood trees faded away to reveal a lush and vibrant garden filled with all manners of exotic flowers. A lavender purple brick path cut through the middle from where they stood and stretched out before them. 

If they were in purgatory before, then this was a surreal scene out of a fantastical wonderland. 

She frowned. This was anticlimactic, but at the same time vaguely disturbing. As they stood dumbfounded, the sea of grass and flowers in front of them seemed to sway towards the direction in front of them.

But there was no wind.

“...” There was little choice but to follow the ominous road towards who knows where with her trusty companion.

As she walked forward on the path, she admired the many varieties of flowers that bloomed along it. They looked maintained to an impeccable degree, more so than even in the Lorien palace gardens.

Chris gradually lost all sense of time as she walked. She wanted to bend down, sniff and feel the flowers’ soft petals gingerly between her fingers…

Wait, what?

She snapped out of her trance, quickly understanding that something was horribly wrong, as if all the earlier events and their current surroundings did not serve as a good enough indication. 

Bertram looked similarly dazed, and she decided to give the boy a quick slap on the face out of the goodness of her heart. His mop of brown hair shook along with the rest of his head as he tensed in shock. He shot an irritated glare at her.

She smirked, but turned back to the task at hand.

It was then that they heard the faint humming of a young child coming from ahead of them, which made alarm bells ring in their heads.

After all, who would expect to find a little kid in a place like this?

They slowly advanced towards the source of the sound. The humming grew louder and clearer until they spotted a small silhouette in the distance.

The figure —a girl, from the look of her long and neat dark green hair that extended down to her legs— stood next to a bed of flowers on the pathway. Her loose fitting white robes dragged along the ground, but not even a speck of dust dirtied their surface. 

The strange girl reached out a delicate hand that emitted a faint glow, from which sparkling water sprinkled onto the flowers below, causing their petals and leaves to dance and flutter. It looked strangely peaceful but at the same time… unsettling and surreal. 

The little girl turned around, facing towards them with long curtains of hair draped over the top half of her face, obscuring the sight of her eyes.

Her expression, or at least what they could see of it, seemed to shift between the various hues of shock, disbelief, and amazement.

A bright smile bloomed on the girl’s face, revealing an array of shark-like teeth.

“Oh! Visitors!” she started walking with a bounce in her step, her overgrown hair waving freely behind her.

“Huh?”

The girl trotted closer until she stood only a few steps away from her. She raised and tilted her head while smiling, a decidedly adorable gesture. 

”One of Amphy’s descendants, and a girl too! Although the two of you wouldn’t have been allowed to wander in here otherwise.” She leaned closer, examining Chris’s every feature down to the tips of her toes. She turned to Bertram, who was awkwardly scratching the back of his head. Her face fell into a grimace, her tone one of disdain.

“A muscle head who formed a soul bond with an angel. What’s a whelp like you doing here, instead of bootlicking your gods? Did you get lost and decide to stick with the daughter of Lorien?” The girl teased. 

A vein pulsed on Bertram’s face. His eyes twitched. He seemed like he was about to say something, but suddenly hesitated, as if a voice in his head warned him against making a mistake in impulsivity.

Chris wondered why there was such animosity between the two when they just met. She mentally noted to question the boy and the System in greater detail later. His mysterious bloodline and contract with an angel of all things just smelled like the meddling of some higher up entity.

[...] The Heroine Creation System stayed silent.

The girl walked closer, her face twisted into a teasing smile. They weren’t able to see her eyes, but they must surely have been shining with amusement.

“Sorry, did I make you mad? Oh, we can’t have sharp objects here, you can hurt someone with that, you know…” she nonchalantly flicked at the sword in Bertram’s hand, and after merely a split second it dissolved into countless particles of light.

They paled.

Seeing their distress, the girl giggled, as if their distraught faces were some form of entertainment. 

“Oh, don’t worry, you silly kids! I just stowed that sword away for now, you could have it back later.”

“W-wait, slow down please.” Chris grew bewildered. Everything about this girl just seemed wrong. It didn’t seem like this stranger was hostile to them, but things were moving a bit too fast for her liking.

“Who are you?”

The other party stopped moving, her smile faltering for a split second before warping back into its previous cheer.

“Ah, yes, sorry. I forgot myself for a moment there. Been a long time since I talked to people, you know?” Without warning, she snapped her fingers and a large section of the road became replaced with a round table complete with a set of chairs. She clapped her hands together, and all of a sudden the three of them were sitting on the chairs as if they had long been stuck in conversation.

There was only one problem.

Chris felt a bead of sweat drop from her brow at seeing Bertram’s face at the same height as the rest of their torsos. The enigmatic girl seemed petty enough to seat him on a stool of all things.

Bertram’s expression told her all she needed to know about how he felt. The dude looked like he wanted to just go home. She wanted to do the same.

But something told her it was better to just get swept up in the flow.

[...] The Heroine Creation System chose to remain silent even now, offering no tips and tricks for survival, which probably meant that there was either no need to fear the other party, or that, if the stranger in front of them so choosed, she could end them in the time it took to blink. The former conclusion was much more comforting.

“Forgive me for the lack of any refreshments. There’s very little to work with here, as you can see. But please, make yourselves comfortable.”

“...Uh-huh. 

The girl’s grin grew to a crescent shaped smile that looked out of place on her childish face, her innocent appearance morphed into something more foxlike.

“Before we launch into conversation, and I’m sure your pretty little heads are just full of all sorts of things to say, why don’t we introduce ourselves?”

She made a show of clasping her hands in enthusiasm.

“You can call me Ilias. A caretaker, of sorts. for this garden.” She dismissively waved at the flora around them.

Chris blanked. She was expecting a… more grandiose introduction from some mysterious being that showed up in a fantasy garden that came out of nowhere.

“Bertram. Trainee in the Royal First Knight Order of Lorien.” The boy took the situation in stride, while the other party didn’t even bother looking at him.

“...” Ignored, he hunched over the table and sulked.

She felt an eager stare that expected her to reciprocate.

“My name’s Chris —Christiana.”

Ilias leaned forward.

“Christiana, an interesting name. But it’s not yours, now is it?”

The girl froze. How did she— no, just how much did this person know about her?

As far as she knew, there was one surefire way to get at least some answers to her questions.

[Notice: It is not recommended to use the Affection Level feature on the individual Ilias Chaernenbolg.]

Go through with it anyway. What was the worst that could happen?

[Processing…]

[Name: ERROR]

[Affection meter measurement: ERROR]

[Description: ERROR]

The girl reached across the table with one arm and flicked Chris’s forehead, causing her to flinch from the sudden pain.

“That’s a little rude, don’t you think? To use such a crude method against me of all people.” The girl was still smiling, but her voice was no longer jovial. Her hair had parted with her movement, letting both Chris and Bertram see the rest of her face. Her eyes had been shaped into menacing crescent shaped moons.

Chris’s breath hitched, not out of awe or admiration but of fear. Two red eyes and their slitted pupils were the only indicator of the true nature of the ancient demon that stared at her from its childish visage. Bertram seemed to recognize the features, and looked similarly alarmed.

She took a step back, but found that she couldn’t bring herself to turn away from the other party’s stare. It was as if they saw through all of her being, gazed through all the masks and walls that sheltered her soul until it lay utterly naked before them.

“I-I’m sorry.” The scolded girl lowered her head.

“Haha, it’s alright. I won’t hold it against you since you managed to pass Amphy’s trial. You’ve got guts!” Ilias closed her eyes and reverted back to her cheery self. “You’re also my first visitor in like… forever!”

She continued without stopping to take a breath,

“It’s impressive that you faced such enemies when you’ve barely started living in this world yet. Just how did a child like you meet the greater darkspawn of Umbra Minor? You surely couldn’t have summoned one.”

Bertram chose this moment to butt in.

“Wait, how did you know what things we fought? And…” He turned to look at Chris. “Is she saying that you’ve encountered those things before? When? How?”

This time Ilias glared at him. 

“Don’t interrupt, you pest.” She looked back at the Lorien princesse. “Although, I am very curious, if you don’t mind me asking.”

Chris sighed. Did she feel like reliving that shit again? No. But she didn’t have much of a choice with the two people questioning her. Remembering the details of the night she “arrived” in Irudeia, she went on to explain her story.

At the end, the two others had different reactions. Bertram’s face showed no small amount of shock, if only because he realized that the royal family had been attacked right under everyone’s noses.

Ilias pondered the new information for a while before sharing her own.

“As far as I know, only Treuscha, Saern, and my... the Demon God have mastered the abyssal arts necessary to be able to summon creatures from the Umbral planes. Of those three, one has been sealed for longer than your entire family line has been alive, the other was utterly disintegrated by Belrhast’s Ancestral  Archdragon, and the third was banished completely from this world.” 

She chuckled,

“Wow! I can’t tell if you’re really lucky or unlucky to be meeting monsters that no one has seen in millennia. Your destiny must be something pretty big, huh?”

“No, that’s not true…” Chris tried to refute to no avail.

“Have some confidence, child. You’ve certainly done well to unlock your mana at such a young age. Why, Amphy only had her Awakening when she had just ascended to her post as Lorien’s warrior queen! You are something special all right.” The area around Ilias began to sparkle with excitement.

The System said that my mana is sourced from my soul merging with parts of Christiana’s, could this not have been the case? What does it mean to “Awaken”? For some time now, Ilias had been referencing a history that Chris had almost no idea of. The only knowledge she had of the world’s past came from brief descriptions from The Guardian Knight’s Saga. Needless to say, she was totally lost.

“Can I ask a question?” She nervously asked.

“You just did!” Ilias grinned.

“...” 

“Haha, sorry. Please, continue. I guarantee that I can answer any question you’ve got for me.”

“Ilias, why are you here?” 

“To fulfill my role as a caretaker, of course.” She gave a sheepish grin.

“Why in this garden?”

The smile on the other girl’s face faded into wistful reminiscence for a brief moment, making Chris rethink her decision to satisfy her curiosity.

“...because I have to stay here.” There came a certain chill in the air that told Chris it would be unwise to further go down this line of questioning.

A dreadful silence started to choke away at the three of them. Chris ran through a dozen other avenues to lead their talk on, regretting asking a question that was so obviously sensitive to the other party.

She couldn’t imagine that a conversation with a stranger would almost be as terrifying as facing that giant centipede that came close to killing them from before! Conversations in novels always seemed so much easier.

It was Bertram who came to the rescue.

“Then what was that other monster that we saw at the end? Was that also a darkspawn? And you mentioned there being a trial?” Ilias seemed to perk up at his inquiry. She responded without uttering a single complaint against the boy,

“Yes. Amphy placed illusion magic at a certain area near the heart of Lorien. It’s my responsibility to help run it. It was supposed to invite her descendants and test their strength of Will by having them face their fears,” Ilias furrowed her brows. “Or at least, that’s what she told me.”

“As for the critter you saw at the end, well, as soon as I felt holy energy of all things in this Domain, I knew that something was up. So I prepared a little surprise against an intruder.” Bertram looked like he swallowed a bug at that statement, while Chris looked thoughtful upon digesting that information.

So that's why the entrance to the Domain was near the training grounds. But how come after all these years it was me and Bertram who stumbled into it, and not someone else?

Seeming to spy the question about to leave her lips, Ilias continued on.

“As I’ve said before, the conditions for having access to this Domain are very specific. To open it, you must be a female descendant of the Lorien bloodline who has already Awakened.”

That word again. 

“What does it mean to be “Awakened”?” Chris asked. Ilias looked at her in confusion.

“How could you not know? I saw you bring out your mana in the illusion trial. Your soul should have already reached the stage of Awakening.”

So it’s the ability to produce mana… no wonder. Considering the familiarity with which Ilias talked about the past, she might have been alive since the Ancient Era, when beings could freely control mana and magic at Will. Such an ability was rare in the current era, and The Guardian Knight’s Saga only mentioned it briefly. She was only lucky that the fusion of Larry’s and Christiana’s souls seemed to do something to artificially “Awaken” her.

“Oh, my bad.” She didn’t bother elaborating since Bertram was pointedly glaring at her and she didn’t want to answer a stream of questions once they got back.

“But let me ask this,” Ilias directed a stare at Bertram, causing the boy to tense up. “Why do you have him following you?” 

The young knight stood up and quickly replied in a louder voice than usual.

“My family has faithfully served Lorien for generations. Of course I would accompany her highness if she were to wander into the First Queen’s Domain.”

“Ho?” The green haired demon’s voice sounded impressed. “It looks like you know your stuff. What a nice dog you are, sniffing out everything of danger to your master. I expected nothing less from a slave of the Gods.”

“...” Unexpectedly, Bertram could offer no comeback. He slumped back into his chair, and hung his head.

Ilias scoffed, derisively turning her back to him, and directed her gaze back to Chris.

“Christiana. There are many things that you must do. Many things that I must tell you. But not here. Not now.” She glanced at the third wheel of this exchange, who was now slumped over. “You two need to leave. Him especially. However…”

She waved her hand to materialize a flower into Chris’s palms. It was in the middle of bloom, and had light blue shade on its petals that seemed to complement the colors of her hair. 

“Take this as a little token of appreciation for visiting me. I look forward to seeing you again, and by yourself next time, please.” 

Chris didn’t know how to respond with anything other than,

“Okay.”

The last thing she saw before the world collapsed into a sea of shattered light, was Ilias’s wide shark tooth smile, the corners of her mouth raised into a mischievous smirk.

She felt some form of weightlessness. And then, with the familiar ironwood forest somehow below them, she realized that both she and Bertram were falling through the air. 

“SON OF FLYING FUU—” her screams of anger and terror became drowned out by the currents of wind that blew past them.