The Cliff Overlooking the Battle

Not Long after the Predator Division joined the Fray

Yusuke Yoshida, Two Star Merchant from the Eternal Dynasty, finds himself speechless as he watches the woman he had immediately suspected of being Death the moment he saw her and felt the death energy emitted from her body. Even without having his analyzers here on the continent yet, he knew that no being could unknowingly let out so much death energy. It just wasn’t natural.

Yusuke, who is a proud soul sword – an ability user with the ability to use death energy to enhance a bladed weapon – couldn’t imagine what it would take to have so much death energy emitted by one’s own body. Much less the soul energy he feels radiating out of her like a damned lighthouse.

There wasn’t any other possibility.

But now that he sees her tearing across the battlefield without a single care for her own safety, simply taking one shot after another, one bladed strike, one cut off limb, even losing her head or having entire parts of her body completely blown to ash multiple times. As she just recovers from every single wound and kills the one who dealt the blow to her in return, sometimes with their own weapons that may or may not be left stuck inside of her in the case of blades. All while even more death energy is created and emanated from her with each and every wound.

Now he can’t see her as anything less than Death incarnate.

She truly is Lady Death.

Yusuke looks at the seer beside him, a young man the same age as Lady Crimson who is a part of his merchant group and has the ability to project himself and others to another location, only to find said seer staring dumbfoundedly at the woman. A woman who is both beautiful, cold, and terrifying all in one. And a woman that Yusuke remembered spotting the seer sending quick glances at. Like a boy in love.

The Two Star Merchant understands how he feels. To some degree, at least.

When he first saw her, he immediately understood the phrase ‘there is beauty in death’ even if that’s probably not what the phrase was referring to.

Now the boy’s interest has most likely faded to fear instead.

Yusuke shakes his head at the thought and focuses on the battle, simply watching it as a spectator.

The merchant had two reasons to sell the technology to the Arterians before making contact with the Albarians. The first being that he wished to see the Crimson Eternal in action, believing that it would be a good way to judge whether or not she really is Death while they wait for the analyzer to arrive on the continent. And the second being that he knew it would spark the conflict up once more between the two nations sooner than it would’ve otherwise sparked.

A conflict that is needed in order for the Albarians to survive when the System restrictions lift.

What he wasn’t expecting was to immediately become convinced of who she was the moment he laid eyes on Death.

Yusuke lets out a sigh as he crosses his arms and continues watching the girl’s reckless charge.

Then he furrows his brows slightly.

Is it technically considered reckless… if she can’t actually die?

He thinks about that for a moment before shaking his head, deciding that it doesn’t matter.

What matters to them is building their relationship up with the Albarians, and more importantly, with the Horseman of the Apocalypse, Death.

“Now…” Yusuke mutters while tapping his arm, “…to notify headquarters about this.”

Then the Four or Five Star Merchant they send can make contact with Death and begin building stronger ties with her.

After that thought, both he and the seer – who is still stunned by the gruesome sight – vanish from the cliff.

But not before someone down on the fortress walls turns their head to look at where they were, having heard his words. Following which that someone narrows their own eyes.

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Aria

The others don’t say anything after we get back from the battle. Leaving us to all return to the Central Fortress – the name they dubbed the former headquarters of the invaders – in complete silence.

At least, until Harvey and I both arrive at our building, which is a separate building made for the two of us. Not all that big, but basically like a military-like house with two bedrooms.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

Once we enter, she for some reason sets up barriers around the building and turns to me, saying, “Aria, there’s something you should know about those merchants.”

I blink in surprise before asking, “Did you overhear something?”

She nods her head and says, “I did. Their main reason for working for us seems to be related to you in some way.” Her brows furrow. “Most of their conversations are telepathic, so I can’t hear what they’re saying, but the times they did speak out loud made this obvious.”

I frown at that.

Do they know that I’m Death, just like the Greater Void Spirit? But how would they know?

There shouldn’t be anything… unless there’s something about me that makes it obvious?

I look down while crossing my arms, trying hard to figure out what could’ve clued them in.

Could it’ve been the permanent deaths of that prince and the legate? Or, well, anyone else I kinda devoured the soul cores of?

Maybe it was the death spirit?

Or could the Void Temple have told the Eternal Dynasty?

I just don’t know.

“Don’t stress about it too much,” Harvey suddenly says, bringing my gaze up to her right when she pats my head as if I were a kid. “We can help you. Just let us.”

I stare at her for a few seconds, feeling more than a few conflicting thoughts running through my head. Then I eventually shake my head and step back, away from her hand.

“No, it’s alright,” I tell her, putting my indifferent face back on again. “You’ve already helped me out a lot.” Then I begin to walk towards my room, only to pause at the door and briefly flash her a smile, “Thank you.”

And with that, I enter my room and close the door, ignoring the look of shock on her face at my smile.

After entering my room, I head straight to the shower in it to wash away the blood coating me, not even bothering to take off my gear in the process. Which is probably for the best considering that it needed a major wash anyways. Considering that the blood was soaking it just as much as it soaked me.

Then I go back to my room, not bothering with drying off before collapsing face first into my bed with a groan.

I can’t catch a cold anyways. And I don’t feel like drying off.

Silence fills my room as I lie face down on the bed for several minutes. Eventually I turn over and look up at the ceiling, feeling my wet hair getting the bed equally wet. But since I’m still in full armor right now, I don’t really notice.

After a while, I slowly raise my hand up above me before looking at it, turning it one way, and then the other. Then I drop it back down across my front and stare up at the ceiling.

The silence returns for a bit as I open up my status.

Name: Aria Crimson

Class: Harbinger of Death

Ability: True Immortality

Level: 5

It’s hard to remember, but I think I was halfway to level six.

I purse my lips at that thought before wondering why I was perfectly fine killing the invaders despite feeling somewhat saddened after killing the people from Arteria. Maybe because one group is invading our world while the other isn’t? They’re like us in a way?

A large part of it is likely the number of them that I killed.

The most distressing part is the fact that I feel perfectly fine having done it. As if it’s perfectly normal to go slaughtering people.

That’s what makes me feel bad. Not the having done it, but the not feeling bad about it.

I let out a sigh before finally just putting the thoughts out of my mind.

I’m good at that.

I’ll just keep doing that.

A few seconds pass in silence before I get up from my bed and begin walking out of my room, where I find Harvey sitting on the couch writing in her diary. And when she looks up, her eyes widen and she jumps out of the couch half asking, half shouting, “You’re soaked?! Did you take a shower with your armor on or something?!” She rushes over to me and begins pulling me to sit down. Then she rushes out of the room and comes back with a towel and a hair dryer.

I just kinda let her go about drying my hair before, after a brief hesitation, asking about my current mental conundrum.

She just stays silent as she listens to me and dries my hair. And once I’m finished, she places the towel on my head and rests her chin on my head above it as she says, “Aria, don’t beat yourself up over things like this. All you’re doing is making yourself sad, and we don’t want that.” She raises her head again, making me glance up at her to find her looking down. “Sweetie, just do you. When we’re ordered to fight on the frontlines, the ones giving those orders are the ones responsible for the deaths caused by them. Not you.”

Harvey pats my head as I look down at my hands, fiddling with them a little.

“Just remember that, alright?” she says, patting my head once and walking away while shouting back, “And get out of that soaked armor! I don’t care if you can’t get sick! A sweet girl like you shouldn’t be walking around in water and blood soaked armor at home! It’s just disturbing!”

I crack a smile at that before leaning back and looking up at the ceiling.

Right. They did always tell us that the responsibility lies with the higher ups calling the shots.

Maybe it’s not a bad thing that I don’t feel anything after all.

Might be what’s saving my sanity, really.

It’s… kind of sad that I needed someone else to point this all out to me. And that no one ever did it in the last ten years.

Then again, I never spoke to anyone about any of this during that time.

This is the first time I’ve gotten close enough to anyone since… them…

And for the year I was with them, they made absolutely certain that I never had to kill anyone. Seeing as I was only nine at the time.

But now… will I end up losing Harvey and the others too?

I stare up at the ceiling for a while before shaking my head and getting up, heading to my room to change out of my armor.

Best thing I can do is to protect them while still keeping my distance.

And eventually achieving my goal.