The mist gives way and Ambrose slams into the cold ground. Her eyes are wild as they hunt for her figure, but a cruel reality returns her hopes. She’s alone. In this void, with this stone stele, on a tiny island in the middle of nowhere and nothing. Alone.

Her hands slam into the dirt, emotions broiling up inside her like an oceans rage. It stirs, and shakes, and then goes silent. It all drains away, and Ambrose is just left there staring at the ground. A numbness spreading through her limbs.

“Why…” the word escapes from her lips, drifting out into the empty void before petering out. Her fingers dig into the hard ground, white with strain. “Why.” The voice is louder. The numbness gives way to red hot anger, dyeing her heart with its colour.

“Why!” Ambrose roars, glaring at the figure that towers above her. So giant, she can barely see its waist. Her hands dig further into the ground, bloody and cracked as they drag out the dirt. She forces herself onto her feet and throws the dirt at the giant. It sails across the island and falls into the void as her screams fill the air.

Apathy answers her. Her screams turn hoarse until finally she loses her voice, silence returns to the island. There is no condemnation, nor empathy in the void that surrounds her. Just silence. An overwhelming silence that bears its weight down on Ambrose. She sinks to her knees, staring up at the giant being in front of her.

The world seems to freeze for a time. Pain flares through her body, cutting like a whip across her spine. Her body barely held together. Her lustreless eyes remain frozen, simply kneeling there endlessly. Her mind plays the events over and over again. Torturing her with what ifs. And then, for a single moment, her mind caught something. A fleeting, barely conscious thought that Ambrose pounces on.

“She’s alive.” Ambrose whispers, but there’s no certainty in her tone. Barely hope. Just a hint, a sliver of greed. Enough that the light returns to her eyes. Her mind reassures her of two things. She never saw the sword cut Anastasia. And Anastasia is not here.

“She’s alive.” This time the words are more forceful. With gritted teeth Ambrose forces herself back on her feet. Her body aches, but far less than before. Even now it slowly repairs itself in its uncanny way, like time turning backward on the damage.

Ambrose limps forward, to the large stone stele that towers over her. She reaches its edge and looks up. Its blood-coloured letters cut across the stone. As she stares up at it, new letters start to form.

Eternal Hunting Decree

Mission Complete

Locate and kill the Arthreeki hiding in Sumi Village

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

Survivors: 2

Reward: Essence

The stele rumbles, and colourless, ethereal energy suddenly pours out of it. It swarms toward Ambrose and slams into her. Endless amounts of the substance pour into her entire body. Her body tries to fall but it’s simply held up by the overwhelming mass of energy, Ambrose’s body almost floating as it drinks it in with glee. A sense of strength, more than she’s ever had fills her. Ambrose feels like she could defeat anything, triumph over anyone.

It’s euphoria. Pleasure rushes through Ambrose in waves of pure ecstasy, her brain barely holding its sanity as every fibre of her being begs for more. It’s wrong, alien, and a sense of disgust fills Ambrose as the two contrary feelings clash inside her. Then the stele cuts off the energy, and she collapses to the ground panting.

Her dazed eyes stare up at the stone stele, mixed feelings unsettling her stomach. As she looks up, the previous letters on the stele fade away and new ones are carved in their place.

Eternal Hunting Decree

Mission

Hunt and kill the Legate Sameran

23 : 21 : 38

Ambrose just looks at it numbly. She wants to laugh, but finds herself unable to. Instead she cries. A wracking sob breaking the silence, as tears she can no longer hold come unabated. There is cruelty in apathy, a callousness that digs into her bones. She thought she’d gotten used to it. But Ambrose realises now she’d only buried her heart.

A rumbling breaks her thoughts, the ground shaking around her. The shaking grows stronger and stronger, until suddenly another stone stele pierces through the ground and shoots upward. It is smaller than the first, reaching halfway to about Ambrose’s height as it sticks upward to the right of the original. As Ambrose watches it from the ground, words quickly carve themselves into it.

Ambrose Songfall

Soul: F-1

Will: F-2

Essence: F-5

Cards of Fate

Lesser Arcana [???]

The Magician [F]

Soulbound

[Empty]

“My name…?” Ambrose whispers to herself, staring up at it. Her sight sticks at the very top, as a thought hits her. “That’s me? Soul, will, essence…I don’t have a body? I don’t have a body! Haha!” Her voice cracks as she looks down at herself. “No wonder this body makes no sense. I’m just a soul. I…died.”

“Why did you bring me here.” Ambrose chokes as she stares up at the giant being above her. “I don’t have this so-called desperate desire. I was ready to die. I did die. But now I can’t even rest in peace?!” She looks down and sees the butcher’s knife she had held stuck in the ground beside her.

Ambrose drags herself over and picks it up, her eyes lost as she looks at it. Suddenly with an angry look she raises it to her throat. “Body or not, I’ll still die the same. Meize proved that.” Emotions flicker over her, back and forth, constantly in a state of crazed turmoil. She’s angry one moment, empty the next, crying the moment after. “I already did my best. I don’t need this. I don’t!”

Ambrose presses the blade further against her throat, blood falling as she nicks it. Her hands shake, almost cutting herself further as she only grows more lost. “Anastasia…”