CHAPTER. 158: THE HEROINE OF WATER

The Heroine of Water grinned from ear to ear, her body was mangled but it was quickly being restored. She didn’t even care that the Heroine of Frost was a no show, because now, someone much better had appeared. The fabled Hero of Humans. A legendary man who had, for lack of a better word, pissed off the entire world at some point.

She immediately grabbed at the air and twisted. Numerous skills and synergies going on at once; they had been her efforts for centuries and now⁠—

The man’s chest was ripped, and his heart was flown out of his body.

It was time to put them to the test.

She didn’t have any super flashy area of effect skills like the other heroes, in fact; she’d be a bit hard-pressed razing a city to the ground without the right conditions. But what she didn’t have in all of that, she had in lethality and⁠—

A blast of light came from the skies and hit her. She gritted her teeth through the pain as her body was burnt to the bone and then she fell to the ground as a bloodied mess. The light kept blasting her, burying her deep into the ground as she raised her almost boney-arm, only her tendons holding.

[Pressurized Canon].

And a thin thread of water emerged and cut through everything. The Hero of Humans was bisected as the beam of light stopped, the forest behind had thousands of trees felled and even the mountain in the far distance was affected. A couple of kill notifications went through her head as she gritted her teeth.

Her flesh actively reformed as she wobbly stood up. What she didn’t have in flashiness she had it in survivability.

She watched as the Hero of Humans reformed himself like a gross mass as he laughed, a palm on his face.

“My god, I cannot wait to kill you.”

“So you can use my skills? They are pretty good aren’t they?” she asked with a smirk. “Maybe you can finally put me out of my misery.”

“Maybe so, but it’d be a lot easier if you’d let me.”

And she waved her hand as the Hero of Humans began to asphyxiate. Water was such an odd element to her, nothing she ever did was actually… visually water for the most part, and yet water was present in a large part of the world. Unfortunately, the monsters of the Forgotten Places seemed to not have a lot of it⁠— otherwise she’d probably be living there.

After all, fighting was all she had.

The Hero of Humans met her gaze and she felt a bang in her head, blood burst from her nose and her ears. For a moment she felt dizzy before she re-stabilized herself. And she blinked as she saw a spear of darkness hurled towards her.

In an instant, it hit, sending her crashing into the forest.

* * *

Ceylon found it hard to breathe, she didn’t know why. It simply was happening.

The Heroine of Water had come for her life… and the Hero of Humans; the very same man that had killed Malz’ partner was fighting her off; protecting them. Protecting the entire capital city of Vaelith, protecting what belonged to Arc, and even protecting Malz. It was… hard to process.

Ceylon swallowed looking out of the castle window towards the forest that was being torn apart, where the two heroes fought.

Over the past few days Ceylon had come to understand Malz, to hear more about her, and one thing was for certain. The Hero of Humans was a despicable man. As for the Heroine of Water? She was also awful, but nowhere near as bad as the Hero of Humans. In her opinion both heroes were… terrible people. Not much different than the Hero of Flames or the Hero of Shadows…

Then again most heroes are terrible people… Ceylon balled her fists. But Arc is different.

For a moment, Ceylon wished her sister was here, even if it was hard to imagine Arc as that, but realistically speaking. Even if she hated to admit it, Arc was…

Ceylon watched as blood splattered across the forest, both heroes absolutely tearing their bodies apart.

Arc probably is not a contender in this battle. Maybe it was unfair, maybe it was because she had been missing for so long now, but Ceylon just found it hard to imagine Arc being able to fight on the same stage where that brutality is commonplace. After all, unlike them, Arc could only freeze her wounds at most. She couldn’t just regenerate her entire body from the ground up like them.

But still, she wished Arc were here…

Maybe it was because she didn’t know either of the two heroes, but right now, Ceylon felt… scared. She was trembling watching the fight, on one hand she wanted to hope that the Hero of Humans would win, since he was their protector, but on the other hand…

As soon as he is done with this, who knows what he’ll do… He may even go after Arc… Or maybe that was an impossibility considering the nature of Malz’s order for the Dragon of Water, but either way Ceylon was… worried. The Hero of Humans was most definitely worse than the Heroine of Water, but if she became the winner of this fight, then, the heroine would put an end to her life.

“Is the only option for the winner to be completely and totally exhausted so they can be killed…?” Ceylon asked disbelievingly.

“It indeed is,” an angry voice replied by her side. It belonged to none other than Malz, the Dragon of Shadows.

The black haired woman with pale skin and black clothing seemed, angry, and Ceylon could understand why, but at the same time, there wasn’t much they could do. And in fact, Malz shouldn’t interfere. Not now…

“That fucker is using Mysa’s skills…” Malz gritted her teeth.

Ceylon slowly nodded, seeing a spear of darkness being hurled. “Even then, you have to hold on and wait for the perfect opportunity…”

At that she got a slow nod in return, and they both continued to watch the battle.

In the end, Ceylon wasn’t sure what to expect, but she hoped for two things. For everyone to be safe in the end, and…

For Malz to get her revenge.

That was all she could hope for. As for what she could do? She could only watch as the battle of epic proportions unfolded. After all, all of this was outside of her control.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

As much as she hated to admit it.

* * *

“So, what made you return, hmm?” the Heroine of Water asked, licking her bloodied lips.

The Hero of Humans laughed. “I heard that a troublesome woman was going to get my friend killed, so I came to his aid.”

“Friend? You? Come up with a better joke.” She snorted, side-stepping a cut through space that blew part of the forest. “You have to be the most bloodthirsty hero in history, you can’t have friends.”

“You’re right.” The man grinned. “He’s more like my pet, but as a good master I can’t let a hardworking pet like him die. Not so easily. Besides, the lure of acquiring your abilities is… strong.”

The Heroine of Water rolled her eyes at that. She may have been a maniacal monster that killed for the sake of upholding her word, but this guy was way worse. His goal was to kill every single hero in the world so he could use their skills. The only reason she killed was to make her life easier, she derived no enjoyment from it, but this guy?

This guy is the worst… and yet I’m smiling. She chuckled to herself. It was silly really, but then again, her only purpose in life was fighting, and here, she was fulfilling it perfectly. Though I guess it’s time to become even more serious.

The Heroine of Water immediately reached forward and pulled. The Hero of Human’s eyes widened and he was immediately flown towards her, all while she modified the water within her body and punched.

She felt numerous bones crack and even the man’s spine as he was flung across the forest, tearing apart the environment. Then, she dug her hands into the ground, most of her attacks weren’t flashy unless she was in the ocean; that was a fact of her element, but at the same time…

Water is present in most living beings.

The Heroine of Water pushed herself as the ground dried, the plants around her died as water began to pool around her feet, the trees themselves started to turn into dust, and then she whispered.

“[Slice].”

At the same time the Hero of Humans appeared behind her wielding a scythe and⁠— he exploded, the water sliced him into pieces as his remains went flying. Unfortunately, it seemed since the last time she fought him, the number of heroes at his disposal had increased drastically, which meant…

The Hero of Humans regenerated not too far away from her.

… he was going to be a pain to kill. But at the same time, that made the battle all the more enjoyable. This was it. Maybe even it was going to be her end, but she didn’t care about that, all she cared about was giving it her all.

“Bring it on!” she cackled as she clapped her hands. “[O’ Water, I Command You To⁠—]”

A spear of lightning went through her chest, blowing apart part of her body as she grinned, finishing the incantation of her SS Tier skill.

“[Destroy This Damn Pest]!”

The forest⁠— exploded. Thousands of trees were cut apart as droplets of water flew across the air at lightning speeds, like a sharp particle storm that cut everything in its path, and needless to say, the Hero of Humans wasn’t spared as his body was destroyed.

She laughed as her own body was cut by her own attack, her heart was rushing in exhilaration. And there was more from where that came from, a whole lot more and she was going to use it all. She chuckled, bringing her hands together as she began to whisper.

“[O’ Water, I Command You To…]”

And then she sensed a presence behind her as she simply smiled, holding back her words.

“To think you’ve made multiple SS Tier skills. How marvelous,” the Hero of Humans said, now in an ethereal form that was unaffected by the water. “I want them.”

So he has something like this too… The Heroine of Water immediately changed the ending of her skill.

“[Bring Ruination to the Realm].”

With this, even the current pesky form of the Hero of Humans wouldn’t be trouble. In an instant, the droplets exploded⁠ and she was⁠—

Blasted as her body was torn apart, the Heroine of Water groaned in pain as she hit some distant mountain. Her mind foggy, and confused as she heard a cackle echo in the background.

“You’re not the only one that has changed.”

Of course⁠. Many more heroes had died, so that meant that the repertoire of abilities that this man had at his disposal was in the hundreds, if not thousands. But that made it all that much exciting.

And so, the Heroine of Water stood up, her body regenerating as she recovered, only to see the Hero of Humans aiming hundreds of weapons at her, they all floated in the air and each of them looked like a priceless treasure, from swords, to halberds, spears and even maces. It was an attack she recognized, because she had killed the hero that wielded it.

That said, it was also an incredibly dangerous attack, but not without its drawbacks.

“If that didn’t kill me in the past, what makes you think it’ll do so now?” she asked the Hero of Humans who simply smiled in response.

“Because this time, I’m the one using it.”

At that, she blinked as the weapons turned a pitch black darkness and danger filled her surroundings. The Heroine of Water took in a deep breath and braced herself as the Hero of Humans lifted his hand into the air and spoke.

“[Judgment].”

At once, all the weapons came for her as she braced herself and the Hero of Humans flinched from the recoil caused by the attack, and she herself simply crossed her arms as she whispered for her only SS Tier defensive skill⁠.

“[Deity of Water: Protect Me].”

Following her words all of the water in the vicinity gathered and the weapons of darkness, hit.

A loud bang echoed across the landscape and everything exploded as the Heroine of Water was sent deep underground, her whole body breaking apart as she screamed for the first time during the battle. The area of impact was uprooted in a diameter of hundreds of meters, trees went flying, and even the sky was plunged into darkness momentarily as the world shifted.

* * * * *

And all over Vaelith everyone witnessed it, they had known two heroes were fighting and the city had been in a state of emergency, but now, it was different. For it felt like the world was ending. The first person to notice was a child, a mere girl that didn’t know what was going on, and to her, it was something else.

“Mommy, it became night all of the sudden!” she exclaimed, in happiness. “It’s so cool!”

However, her mother, on the other hand, blinked in horror, and so did the other people in the shelter.

“Only god can help us now…”

“Weren’t we supposed to be under the protection of the Heroine of Frost, where is she?”

“She is dead, and now, we too shall die…”

And the girl couldn't help but realize the gravity of the situation and what the night sky represented.

* * * * *

Everything hurt, the world was nothing but darkness; a deep abyss the Heroine of Water had only seen at the edge of death, and for a moment, she thought she was going to die, but her regeneration quickly kicked in. Or so she thought, because what flashed before her eyes gave her pause.

[ Water of Life has been used. ]

[ Water of Life has used one of two charges.

Next charge in: 49 Years, 364 days, 23 hours and 59 minutes… ]

For the first time in a century, her revival skill had been triggered, which meant; she had actually died. And that unsettled her, but also greatly motivated her to try harder. Perhaps if she started using everything at her disposal the entirety of Vaelith could be destroyed, especially if she started to call upon the water of living beings; it was something she avoided doing in most scenarios and most situations, but this one… it appealed to her.

She was a monster, one whose only purpose was to fight, and while she tried to be humane when she could help it, there were times where it simply was an impossibility.

This is one of those times.

The Heroine of Water breathed as water exploded in all directions, emerging from the cocoon of water that was her resurrection spot. Unlike other heroes, due to the uniqueness of her skill she would always resurrect on the same spot she died, which in her opinion was a great thing.

She raised her hand as she turned to see the Hero of Humans who was⁠— thrown into the air by a gigantic black dragon and chomped down, causing him to scream in pain. Something that caught her off-guard because⁠—

The Dragon of Shadows had joined in the battle.

And she was here for revenge.