The Cost of Vantera

> ”The cost of Vantera isn’t as simple as using meiyal. It’s a Magnum Opus that belonged to someone else. Copying someone’s greatest Art is never cheap.” ~Katherine Militia, Lady of the Void

“I had a feeling she had it,” Evanclad said, stirring from Kristel’s Mind Palace.

The Princess barely noticed his words, on the account that she was too busy admiring Katherine’s wonderful form. The Lady carried the glaive on her side rather than allowing the sand-ash to even touch the bottom shaft. She barely moved, her immense power fluttering her clothes and ponytail hair. Back straight and eyes forward, she was the peak of the strong. She was at the top of the mountain.

“What do you mean?” Kristel asked internally while they waited for Katherine to get used to her Art. The destruction the Lady had caused from manifesting the glaive eradicated enough Nightmares that it had caused a heavy lull.

Much to Kristel’s surprise, those monsters were stunned in awe.

“Vantera is a unique Meiyal Art. It was originally a Meiyal Weave that I converted into an Art. My Magnum Opus. And I bestowed it, along with my Exhibit, to the strongest practitioner under the Iristan rule. Brymeia helps with the process.”

“Why give it to the strongest?” Kristel asked. “Why not to the next monarch?”

“You jealous?”

“Can’t say I’m not, but I’m more curious in general. I don’t think I want it, though.”

“To be honest, I was always under the assumption that the strongest among our people would always be from my bloodline.”

“Sorry we couldn’t keep your expectations,” Kristel said sarcastically.

“I wouldn’t say that. In fact, my granddaughter, Eva… You know, that’s a story for another time. We have Nightmares to kill.”

Kristel waited for Katherine to say something, but the Lady of the Void was simply still. She was breathing normally, no signs of Art fatigue. So after a long drawn out silence, the Princess and the others looked at each other, confused.

“Kat, are you alright?” she asked finally.

“I just had an epiphany,” Katherine replied, her voice somewhat distorted by her surging meiyal. She didn’t turn to face them. “This power should probably belong to you, Kristel.”

“I don’t want it,” said the Princess. “But I want to know why you’re using it now, and why you didn’t tell us about it before.”

“Because Frein’s not here,” Katherine replied simply. “I never thought I would have any need to use Evan’s Magnum Opus. It feels like a disgrace.”

“Disgrace?” Xiv echoed. “I don’t think anyone can just whip out something that powerful and be okay with holding it.”

“Because it’s not mine,” she answered simply once again. “I don’t have a Magnum Opus. And unlike the rest of you, I don’t think I can develop my own.”

“Why not?” Frill asked this time.

“It’s too heavy. I’m not sure I can handle two Magna Opera.”

Kristel had somewhat of an understanding. When she had first used Verdict, though it wasn’t something she could consider a Magnum Opus, yet, it had exacted from her a payment that went beyond simple meiyal cost.

“What…” she started, trying to find the courage to ask. “What does it cost?”

This time, Katherine turned. Just slightly, enough to show a look of appreciation that someone else understood her melancholic state.

“A year,” she said, turning back to the sea of Nightmares. “It doesn’t work the same way with Venry’s, but every time I use Vantera, it’ll shave off a year of my lifespan.”

“A year?” Kristel asked. “Wait, what do you mean use? Did you pay a year just now?”

“Yes, basically. Each slash, each stab, each parry or block, any and all things that involved this glaive. If I use it as much as balance myself, that’s an entire year gone.”

“That’s…”

“That’s ridiculous!” Xiv exclaimed.

“Unfair!” Frill followed.

Katherine ignored their complaints, simply turning again to pose a question.

“What do you think, Kristel?” she asked.

The Princess understood. She had had a glimpse of that insane power. Power reached beyond simple training. Costs and sacrifices had to be made.

“It’s a Deitar’s Meiyal Art. We’re not supposed to be wielding them in the first place.”

Katherine smiled once again.

“Indeed,” Evanclad said within her Mind Palace. “Bestowing this Rule was the only way to pass down my Magnum Opus.”

“But if you become a Deitar…”

“It’s not like I don’t understand Frein’s choice in becoming a Visitor,” Katherine said, returning her gaze to the Nightmares once more. “I can’t even read him with my Heart’s Will anymore, which is the absolute proof that I trust and understand him with my entire existence. But I think, only now, do I truly realize why he’s not even bothering to find a way to stop his death.”

She turned fully, carrying with her a deep and understanding smile. Kristel found herself confused, and the others as well. They all had the same question.

There’s a way to stop his death?

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“I just really want to be with him,” Katherine continued, oblivious to the confused crowd behind her. “And if I have to sacrifice my life, I’ll gladly give it away.”

Kristel was stunned by her words, and so were the rest. Her question regarding the Deitar suddenly became an afterthought. The choice of self-sacrifice for the sake of a loved one was something all of them were familiar with. And to see it in its purest, simplest form, matched with the greatest, strongest power, left them speechless.

In the most generous of senses, the Lady of the Void could swing Vantera eighty times, given her age. A hundred would be miraculous.

Eighty swings against an infinite Nightmare… Kristel wasn’t so optimistic. But she had no doubt Katherine would swing them all, and even beyond, if she deemed it necessary.

“Rokudai…”

The Lady’s words stirred them back into focus. She had her free hand extended towards the Nightmares. They had grown bolder since the lull had passed. In response, the Lady of the Void amassed Milled meiyal that Kristel assumed easily matched her own entire reservoir.

“Diferenfra.”

The Princess was still processing the fact that the Meiyal Art had nothing to do with Vantera, when a massive explosion incinerated all the Nightmares in front of them. A cloud of flaming smoke formed from the point of impact, erupting a second time to disintegrate the flying ones.

“Hold on,” Katherine said.

Everyone, except for the Lady, braced for impact. The sound of the explosion came first, then the force hit them a second later. Ash and sand blasted into their faces with enough force to behead someone without Siffera, and gales of wind threatened to throw them off the dune.

They didn’t expect the second one to blast away their entire footing. It toppled the Princess over. She recovered in time, flipping in the air to land in solid ground, but a tsunami of sand and ash crashed onto her.

She forced herself out, looking for everyone. Xiv was on his feet, pulling Frill out of the sand. They had fallen quite deep, she realized. The entire desert was pushed back, revealing the real ground below. It was at least a few stories deep.

Kristel looked up and saw Katherine standing in the air. She had more questions to ask, but even with such massive destruction, the pile of Nightmares simply didn’t stop surrounding them.

“It’s the Nightmare Sign,” Xiv explained. “If we can’t find and destroy it, they’ll just keep on coming”

“That’s not a problem,” Frill said, turning to Kristel. “We can help with that.”

“Alright, let’s start the fuse.” Kristel nodded. “Xiv, defend us for a while.”

“Roger that.”

----------------------------------------

Katherine understood the idea behind the Rule within Vantera, and why Evanclad had made it such a way. The First Monarch had never expected the decline of power in his bloodline, as well as his people. Rather, he had expected them to find a way to match the powers of Deitars without depending on gods to ascend them. And this was his way of helping them out.

Vantera, a Deitar Meiyal Art that could be held by someone who had yet to hold such a status, in exchange for their lifespan.

But the truth was plain and simple. Her path to power was a singular path. If Katherine wished to wield this Magnum Opus and create her own, she needed to become a Deitar to pass Vantera’s Rule.

“It’s the same for Frein,” Elizzel said.

“What?”

Katherine stopped. It was partly because she was confused by what Elizzel had said, as well as the army of Nightmares surging in front of her like a tsunami. The mass of death was a mix of everything. From Grinding Teeth On Living Flesh to Jaws Lurking In The Forest, and many more classifications she had not met after returning to Brymeia. Nightmares that lived truly within corrupted territory.

She sent another Rokudai-Diferenfra, causing another set of massive explosions that people from Frein’s world would envy. The enormous destruction took into account the environment. While sand and ash were helpless against the force, Diferenfra did not melt or burn them away, and neither did it harm the ground.

Only Nightmares were destroyed.

“Explain,” she said audibly towards the faunel. “You can, right?”

Elizzel didn’t even hesitate.

“Remember when I told you that if Frein doesn’t want to find a way to stop his death, we’ll do it on our own? It’s because we actually know a way. And that’s to be a god, which means he also has to be a Deitar, which also, also means he has to be a Worldborn first.

“And yes, we wanted to explain this to you later after the Incursion, but I’m sure he won’t mind if I tell you some of it right now… even though he told me not to. It’s fine. We’re one and the same, remember?”

“And now, so are we…” Katherine felt her head jumping into things and topics she didn’t quite know if they were hers to begin with. “This is getting confusing.”

“I’m sure you have a lot of questions regarding that, but don’t worry about it for now. I won’t be going anywhere. And even if I can’t answer all your questions, I’m sure we can find someone who can. As for the Deitars, we can talk about it more in detail after we’re done here.”

“Alright.” Katherine technically didn’t have a choice. The Nightmares were surrounding her once again, even faster than before. “Let’s deal with this first.”

Despite the grim situation, Katherine was filled with hope and excitement. She took Elizzel’s information as a sign that she could aim to be a Deitar together with Frein. A straightforward path.

Only, the fact that it was broken by the Divine Severing abruptly placed a wedge in that hope.

“Not all the gods are gone,” Elizzel whispered.

It almost caused Katherine to lose focus. While she didn’t care about spending her lifespan with each slash with the Vantera, she couldn’t afford to summon it a second time with the amount of meiyal investment it required. Not as far as speed was concerned, at least.

“What?” She stopped completely.

“Again, for later. Sorry, I can’t stop trying to reassure you.”

A gigantic Forest Jaws appeared out of its pseudo-Nature’s Favor, its weird sideways maw outstretched in an attempt to devour Katherine. It was almost laughable, how slow the Nightmare was compared to the first time she had been ambushed since returning to Brymeia.

“It’s my fault,” Katherine said, still talking to Elizzel despite the danger crawling towards her. “I shouldn’t be distracted.”

The Lady of the Void stretched out a hand, allowing the Nightmare to engulf her whole. But instead of letting herself be swallowed straight to the stomach and be melted by its acidic fluids, Katherine stepped right into its ribcage and ripped away its core.

She emerged out of its chest already cleaned by Imbelia. In her hand was a meiyal-charged material like the one she had harvested before. She integrated with it in an instant.

“Frein can eat Nightmares, huh…” Katherine mused, realizing how she could essentially do the same. Her eyes locked into the mass of Nightmares. Despite eradicating wave after wave, she still couldn’t pinpoint the Nightmare Sign spawning them. Even I, Alone, Am The Center couldn’t detect it. In fact, simply judging from the amount of spawn rapidly coming out, there might very well be multiple of them.

She looked on, finding which monster looked more valuable and which she could destroy without mercy. There were plenty. Too plenty.

“Kat, are you…?”

Katherine, face to face with despair and the horror of Nightmares, only saw hope. A way to fuel Vantera for an infinite number of swings.

“Meiyal-charged materials have significance in them,” she started. Within her Exhibit, she pulled the material she had just harvested from the Forest Jaws and presented it to the First Monarch’s Meiyal Art. “This should be about equal to a year of my lifespan.”

She poured the material into the Art, allowing it to disintegrate from within her Exhibit. It was gone now, no longer usable.

Vantera had accepted payment.

Katherine heaved the glaive and took a giant swing as she Drew Rokudai-Katastrofera over the Deitar Art.

Meiyal froze, and space and reality themselves were torn asunder.

The slash that came from the glaive erased all Nightmares in the horizon in an instant. For a moment, even the Incursion itself was split apart, as well as the clouds above it. The ashes and sand, completely gone. In their wake were five Nightmare Signs already spawning more abominations.

The results were devastatingly destructive. In a singular slash, the entirety of Katherine’s front became a clean canvas, if only for a moment.

That moment lasted for a breath and the sands and ash began to appear from the ground again. The land was cursed after all. Even the skies and the Incursion started mending.

But this time, Katherine knew where the Nightmare Signs were. And more importantly, she didn’t feel the Deitar Art sapping her lifespan away.

Even as Deep Nightmares began to spawn, the Lady of the Void could only smile. For the first time ever, she could wield Evanclad’s weapon without any reservations.

“Get ready, Eli,” she said, carefully placing the glaive on her side once again. “We’ll be here for a while.”