World’s Chosen

Moments before Alphazzel opened the Incursion orbs…

“You’ll pay with your life!”

Frill’s screams echoed while she crunched on the ground. The pain from her severed arm had never ceased. It was taking all of her Samesia and Siffera combined, both emphasized to Nidai-levels, just to keep her body from experiencing paralytic shock and suffering from blood loss, while enduring the throbbing pain.

Her heart raced. She regulated that, too. The fury she had cultivated after all this time, blazing and swelling with hate, she directed it all towards Smyl.

The traitor was planted on the ground, even as Kristel fought the faunel. Frill was so surprised by the Princess’s Blessing that she almost forgot she had lost a hand. But the astonishment when the Law of the First Monarch forced Smyl to answer the question that had eluded them for so long.

There was no denying it. Under the spell of the Blessing, Smyl had admitted to his crime.

“Frill,” Brymeia’s voice—Liona’s voice—whispered from within her Mind Palace. “You must calm down.”

Frill thought she was going crazy with rage. Everyone kept saying she had to calm down. Even the glimpses of her sister’s memory were reminders of how hot tempered she was.

I’m not…

“I just miss her so much.” Frill’s pain overwhelmed her. Despite Brymeia and Liona’s voice, they only hastened her deteriorating grip upon her sanity.

It wasn’t even a matter of patience, or a matter of discipline.

The person responsible for her sister’s death was there. There was no need to wait for justice. There was no need for further discussion. He was there, just kneeling on the floor, waiting for his death.

“Trust me, Frill. I’m not here to stop you.” Brymeia’s voice came with a cooling sensation, as if to douse the flames within. It was not overwhelming, but enough to encourage the Aria to listen. “I’m here to help you.”

“What do you want?” Frill asked. Only now did she realize that time had stopped, and that she was completely pulled into her Mind Palace.

“It’s time for you to become my Chosen, Frill. Time for you to accept my Blessing.” Brymeia, in her mature Liona form, swam around the ocean-themed Mind Palace. “Hmm… It’s actually pretty nice, once you get used to this place.”

“Why now?” Frill asked, ignoring the cheery mood of the world’s personification. The sight of her sister, especially now that her murder’s appearance had resurfaced that ache, made the Aria turn away.

“Because you need me now, Frill.” Brymeia forced herself into view, clutching the owner of the Mind Palace with both hands. “You will run out of meiyal, and then run out of blood, if we don’t fix your arm. We can’t depend on Katherine. She’s done plenty and needs to recover before she can fight again. If she’s forced to break her concentration because you get yourself in trouble, then everything we’ve worked for will be over in a flash.”

Brymeia looked down, frowned, before looking back to Frill with a shrug. “And I sort of owe Frein a live Katherine, Frill, and Kristel, if I’m being truthful with you.”

The Aria tried to process the world’s words. The clarity came a moment later. Brymeia had a point. If she failed now, the cascading effect it would bring would eventually accumulate in them ultimately losing.

“What do I have to do?” Frill asked.

“I just need your consent, Frill,” Brymeia replied. “Keep your mind calm and accept my Blessing.”

“What Blessing?”

“I think it’s pretty obvious.” This time, Brymeia smiled. “World’s Chosen. With this Blessing, you’ll be able to use four of my other Blessings. Heart’s Will, Nature’s Favor, Soul’s Walk, and Heaven’s Grace. Of course, my meiyal will be at your complete disposal. You’ll never reach Art fatigue or anything similar. You can Mill at a rate and yield far greater than a mastered Perpetual-Layered Milling Form. In addition, you can integrate with any meiyal-charged material without fear of any potential backlash. And lastly, you will be protected from all the other Blessings, like Time’s Eye or Monarch’s Law.”

Frill’s eyes widened. “That’s… absurd.”

“Only the best for my chosen vessel.”

“But you haven’t explained that at all.”

Brymeia released her hold and sat, or at least, she tried sitting. She remained bobbing up and down within the water, with a leg over the other and a hand reached out, asking for a drink.

Frill obliged with a teacup. The water inside her Mind Palace was purely superficial, created by the dream. Much like how she could breathe in it, the tea’s purity wouldn’t be diluted either.

“No soda?” Brymeia asked.

At this, the Aria frowned. But with a mere flick of her will, the teacup changed into a bottle of soda. The world’s personification, who looked exactly like a mature Liona, smiled with such familiarity that it hurt Frill to see.

She endured, waiting for Brymeia to proceed with the explanation.

“It’s not as you or Kristel fear, Frill. Becoming my vessel doesn’t mean you’ll have to take my place. Once Frein is ready, I will have to synchronize my existence with him, much like how he is with my daughter currently. This is something he has no knowledge of currently, but I’m sure he’ll eventually figure it out.

“If he manages to convince Destiny, then we’ll be able to properly take the Nightmarish Void out of this world. But in order for me to help him out with this task, someone must stand-in for my duties in the meantime.”

“And that’s me?” Frill asked.

“Correct. How long before this has to happen is beyond my knowledge right now, but preparing you for this task will take a long time. I’d say it’s more difficult than Katherine’s training as a Lady of the Void and the Seeker combined. In fact, even after becoming World’s Chosen, you won’t be able to use the other four Blessings right away. You’ll need to properly train yourself for those. You can use one right away, however. And I suggest you make sure that it’s Heaven’s Grace.”

“It’s the one that can regenerate my body, right?” Frill ran through her history lessons quickly. “That makes sense. I can get my arm back and prevent blood loss.”

“Yes.” Brymeia sipped from her soda. “And eternal youth.”

“What?”

“It’s not as drastic as Fate’s End, trust me.”

“Frein said your Blessings are more like curses.”

At this, Brymeia shrugged. “Can’t say he isn’t wrong. It’s somewhat true for some, yes. But it simply depends on your perspective. What do you think of it, Frill?”

The Aria sighed. “I think they’re useful right now. Yes. I’ll become your World’s Chosen.”

Brymeia smiled and approached, leaving her soda behind. Frill instinctively closed her eyes and waited for the Blessing.

“When you open your eyes, you’ll find yourself back in the battlefield. We will talk more soon. But for now, I need you to make sure you survive.”

Frill opened her eyes and saw Smyl breaking out of Monarch’s Law. She raised her severed arm. Meiyal enveloped it, shining with blinding light and forming the shape of her arm. As it vanished, her entire arm had returned, as if it had never been severed in the first place.

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

“Heaven’s Grace,” Katherine said. She was still meditating and focusing on recovering, but the sudden surge of meiyal stirred her away from her task.

“So you really have become Brymeia’s dog,” Smyl said, grabbing the axe that murdered Liona. Several Meiyal Arts and Armaments surrounded him. While they were far from the quality a Virtuoso or Smith could produce, he made up for it with sheer quantity.

In response, Frill moved her once severed hand like she was pulling something from the ground. Spikes formed, pointing at Smyl.

In other words, Meiyal Weaving.

The traitor, although taken by surprise, simply sliced through the spikes as he retaliated with a frontal assault. Frill continued with more gestures. Immediately, the spikes cut from their roots honed on him.

Smyl refused to back away from his charge, the spikes flying hot on his trail. Frill made another sign, pointing from the ground to her head. A wall of land erupted to block his path, but her assailant sliced through it without losing momentum.

Frill made a strong gesture, clasping her hands together. In response, the meiyal within the wind created a strong gust, pushing away Smyl right before his axe fell on his target’s shoulder.

“You can fake your meiyal signature,” she said in a low voice, walking slowly towards Smyl. The traitor tried to get back on his feet, but she quickly Drew a concentrated lightning Meiyal Art, piercing through his leg. It wasn’t even named a Art; the pattern wasn’t even clear. She simply thought of it and the principles surrounding patterns of tia, the lightning element, made it possible for her to Draw.

Smyl screamed in pain as he stumbled to the ground. His hands applied pressure on his thigh.

“Vyndival weapons require matching signatures before they can be used. This might look the same, but the axe that killed my sister had a different one.” Frill felt her stomach churn. It might not be as deplorable as murder, but this act was disgusting all the same. “Plagiarist.”

“I never liked you Velis,” Smyl spat, hyperventilating. “You’re nothing but dogs of the royal family. You should blame the Princess for your sister’s death. Liona had no business flying with us—”

“She sent her to help!”

Smyl simply laughed. Almost crazed. He hadn’t even tried healing himself.

“I didn’t think she was smart enough to keep following me around. You should’ve seen the shock on her face when she found out. I took the closest weapon at the foot of the mountain while Alphazzel kept her frozen. I drove that axe straight into her heart.” He awkwardly reenacted the motion with his right hand. Frill rewarded it with another bolt of lightning.

“Damn you!” Smyl cursed in pain.

Frill’s hand shook, but not from lack of control. She could end his life now, but it didn’t feel right. She wanted him to suffer.

Truly, Destiny had a way of mocking people.

“Frill!” Katherine shouted, and pointed to the skies.

She saw the surge of black meiyal coming from where Kristel and Alphazzel fought. And then the sphere of the Incursion suddenly reappeared. Only this time, the pressure that came from it was magnitudes stronger.

Frill fought against it, using all of her meiyal to stay on her knees. This Nightmare was different, far more oppressive than the ones she could effortlessly resist. Even her Blessing was of no help.

No. She quickly realized that World’s Chosen was helping her to stay sane, but that was the limit of her current mastery of the Blessing.

She was just like any Iristan.

Smyl, on the other hand, stood like there was nothing wrong, except for the fact that his leg limped. He sent his good foot back and drove it to her chin, knocking her back.

“You’re lucky we need you alive,” he said, wincing as he ultimately lost his balance. “Now that you’re the World’s Chosen, Alphazzel will have a good use for you.”

Now that she had lost her chance, Frill could feel her consciousness fading in and out, her tension losing and giving way to all the stress and physical fatigue. She could see Katherine barely standing her ground, breaking out of her meditation.

In the end, she failed that task. Before she passed out in tears, however, she heard the sound of Smyl’s footsteps fading away.

Frill saw Katherine slump back on the ground. Both of them were helpless.

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

With many of the Nightmares rallying against Katherine and the others, Xiv eventually reached Venry and the others. The destruction of Aderis Tower gave them enough cover to actually sneak in without Alphazzel or Smyl knowing about it. They followed Enza down to the dungeons and spotted two large, floating abominations guarding the prison cells.

“They don’t look like ordinary Nightmares,” Hal whispered as they hid in a corner. “Venry, are you alright?”

The Iristan Guard Knight had suddenly fallen into complete Art fatigue. He was barely conscious. But surprisingly enough, the symptoms had only lasted until they were in the dungeon. He was recovering, but the sudden attack had taken a toll.

“We can take them down,” Xiv said, Flourishing his Benovrymm. “That’s most likely Frein and Mother Selfiya behind those cells. I can take the one on the left.”

“Hold on a sec,” Dystro interrupted, holding him by the shoulder. “We have no idea how strong those things are. They’re guarding a freaking Mother of the Void. What makes you think they’re not strong enough for either of you?”

“Void Mothers don’t specialize in fighting, Dystro,” Xiv argued. He shoved away the former Lord Knight’s hand, but he settled down nonetheless.

“I’m just saying we need to come up with a plan.”

“As much as I hate to admit it,” Ral began, keeping his eyes guarding their rear. “I agree with Dystro on this one.”

“Same,” Hal followed.

“Surprisingly, me too,” Venry said in between heavy breaths. “I’m not sure I can contribute much, by the way.”

“Okay, fine.” Xiv conceded. “Distract the ones on the right while I kill the one on the left. Then I’ll come back for you cowards.”

“Hey, that’s not very nice!” Dystro hissed. “But good plan, I—”

A scream came from the prison, and Xiv and the others stopped their breathing for a second. The screams continued along with indistinct cries. They heard an explosion and a clash of metal. Xiv felt the floor shake, and when he heard a thud, he couldn’t take it anymore. He slowly peeked and saw something entirely different.

Frein was there on the floor, steaming in Art fatigue and screaming as he squirmed in agony. His prison cell on the right was completely destroyed while the two Nightmares guarding him were gone.

“Hey, what are you doing?” Dystro hissed, but Xiv ignored him.

He ran closer to Frein. The smoke coming from the Visitor wasn’t normal, at least not compared to the ones he had seen from other Meiyal Arts practitioners who reached Art fatigue.

“Don’t touch him,” said a woman on the other side of the prison. She had long, white hair and fair, elegant features, if not for the scars and bruises all over her arms and legs. Void Mother Selfiya Lunasensia. “He’ll overwhelm you with the Contradiction, and you’ll go mad. Bringing you back, with my current state, would be impossible.”

“What’s happening to him?” Xiv asked.

Before he could respond, the other four and Enza had caught up. Xiv immediately held the yuma back away from Frein and explained the danger. The yuma understood and sat obediently despite constantly whining her master’s name.

“Mother Selfiya?” Venry asked the other prisoner.

“Hello Venry, Dystro, Hal, Ral,” Selfiya replied, turning her eyes on each of them. “You must be Xiv, correct? And you must be Enza.”

“That’s right,” Xiv replied. “How did you know our names?”

“Frein and I had nothing much to do.”

“We’ll get you out.” Venry tried to Draw a meiyal blade, but the Void Mother quickly reached out from the bars of her prison.

“No Arts,” she warned, pointing her eyes over to Frein. “You’ll disrupt him.”

“Then this should do.” Dystro pulled out a Forged sword. Nothing fancy. “The bars look fairly rusty. You can get out of this place if you want to.”

“The bars weren’t exactly the problem,” Selfiya replied and took a few steps back.

Dystro slashed the prison bars and escorted the Void Mother out.

“Thank you,” she said, then turned to the Visitor. “Frein, you’re running out of time.”

“What’s happening to him?” Xiv asked again.

“He’s absorbed all the meiyal in this place, fulfilling part of his Destiny a little early than he should have.” Selfiya smiled. “The rest, I’m not in any authority to share with you.”

“The meiyal here is pure Nightmare,” Venry said. “He’s going to die if he absorbs it!”

“I’ll be fine,” Frein replied, his voice breaking. He quickly held up a hand before any of them could reach out to help him. He stood up on his own. “No touching. Until I kill that Alphazzel bastard, I’ll be Contradicting each and every one of you. And I have no idea how this works. Worst case, you’ll cease from existence in a blink.”

Despite this however, he reached out to Enza. The yuma followed without hesitation.

“For now, I can only hold those who I’ve bonded with.”

“Brother,” Xiv began, “you’re not okay, and you’re totally burned out.”

“They’re fighting a faunel out there.” Frein scratched Enza’s fur by the neck and she reciprocated with affection. “Don’t worry, I’ll be fine.”

“You were squirming in pain just a second ago,” Dystro commented.

Frein looked at him. “Who are you?”

“I’m Dystro, nobody important.” He stretched out a hand for a shake. “Monarch Kristel said this is how you express your greetings.”

“Right.” Frein took it mindlessly and turned to the other person who was in Art fatigue. “Then you must be Venry. So, you all survived after all.”

Venry shook his hand with a bit of hesitation. “It’s an honor to finally meet the Visitor.”

Frein gave him a nod like he couldn’t be bothered with all the formalities, then turned to the twins.

“Fancy meeting you guys here,” he said.

“Who would’ve known, right?” Hal said.

“Not me,” Ral said.

“That’s funny,” Frein said last. He opened his Spatiera, pulling out various Vyndivalian weapons he had collected during the Battle of the Vanguard. The twins immediately recognized what was theirs.

“There’s a massive wave of Nightmares coming from south-east, trying to connect with the Incursion and eventually expand towards Minaveil and Southshore. Alphazzel is summoning them from the Nightmare Lands. I’m going to stop him, but I prefer to do so without distractions.”

“How massive are we talking about?” Dystro asked, picking up a pair of long daggers from Frein’s Weapon collection. He went on to choose an Armor. “No signatures required, these should do…”

“Thousands, probably more.”

“You expect us to stop that?” Xiv said, almost complaining. He felt himself shaking both from fear and shame.

“Delay,” Frein corrected. “I’ll get this done within less than an hour. Turn back if you’re overwhelmed. No need to play hero.”

He turned towards Mother Selfiya. “Alphazzel would’ve turned this place into a Prime Nightmare Land by now.”

“As long as they stay near me, they won’t be affected,” she replied. “We’ll be alright.”

Frein nodded and took a deep breath.

Something changed.

Xiv felt a chill run through his spine and was sure he wasn’t the only one. Everyone, even the Void Mother, instinctively raised their guards as they saw the Visitor and his yuma walked.

Bloodlust.

Killing intent.

Deafening calm.

Frein and Enza left the prison dungeon, leaving the rest of them sighing with relief that their lives had been spared.