When she came back to her senses, Alice was in a different place altogether.
After discovering she was betrayed—fooled from the start, actually—Alice had gone on a rampage. She wasn't herself, but a beast consumed by hatred. The memories of that time were fuzzy; only that mocking smirk was vivid in her mind.
“Where am I?”
It was nowhere familiar, but that didn't mean much. Alice had never left the kingdom, let alone the West. The distinction between the four parts of the continent is very clear, so she guessed from the generic grassland that it was still in the West, but it didn't narrow the options much; the West is vast.
Her body felt numb. She experienced a lack of sensation in the arm once or twice, and it was almost identical, with the exception of being able to move.
Without any other option, Alice started to walk in hope of finding the closest village or city to rest in. Luckily, there was a fortress city close by.
Two guards with spears stood at the gate.
“Excuse me, can I come in?”
She asked, surprised at the coarseness of her own voice.
One of the guards looked at her suspiciously. “What happened to you?”
It took her a moment to realize how she currently looked: pale gray skin and clothes soaked in dry blood. Not to mention the hideous scar revealed by the hole in her shirt's fabric, obviously made by a sharp instrument.
Not to mention she reeked a foul stench.
Had she realized she looked like that, Alice would've taken a bath. She saw a river near the place she woke up, but then the thought didn't occur to her.
“I was...”
She wanted to answer, but words stuck in her throat. A flash of memory left her paralyzed.
“Come on, Mike, a little dirty lady isn't dangerous.” The other guard flashed a smile at Alice. “You can ask me anything if you need help. Have a good day.”
It was a friendly and polite way to talk with someone. There shouldn't have been any unusual reaction, but the fresh memory of Albert—the Malevolent One. Alice now realizes he was talking about himself. Boasted—caused her to grimace.
Her look was cast down. She ran past them without answering.
It was an exaggerated reaction, but she couldn't help it.
Alice goes to the closest inn, a two-story building. She only had a handful of coins but decided not to be too conservative with her money. It wasn't that hard to make money as a magician.
The myth he told her was definitely real. He glorified himself while mocking her. Now she needed to find out more about him, find his weakness, and once she did, she would kill him.
“The bath is ready. Also, I have some clothes my daughter used to wear; you can have them if you want.” The innkeeper suggested.
Another nice suggestion. Another wince.
It seems every time someone is even slightly nice to her, she won't take it well. The trauma was deeply engraved in her heart, fueling her desire for revenge.
“I'm leaving the clothes here.” The innkeeper leaves without Alice saying anything.
After some hesitation, she takes the clothes and heads to the bath.
In the bath, she scrubbed her body hard. The festering smell stuck on the body even after ten minutes, and she eventually gave up.
Wearing the clothes brought by the innkeeper, Alice throws her own except the hood and covers her head while heading to the local mercenary branch.
“Give me a suitable request, please.”
She hands the receptionist her membership card—a metal plate with the letter C inscribed on it—and adds, “I'm a magician and want to work solo.”
“No staff?”
Her former staff fell after she was stabbed. It wasn't with Alice when she woke up.
“No, but I can still cast spells.”
“Attribute?”
Attributes refer to the magic elements one uses. There are four basic elements—wind, water, earth, and fire—but there are also other elements like ice or lightning that are extremely rare. Usually, a magician only holds affinity for a single attribute, but Alice had two, which is very impressive and rare.
“Fire and wind.”
The receptionist widens her face with a slight shock. But then carry on to take a paper from below the counter and let Alice see the details as she tells her about it.
“Then I would suggest you take the mission to subjugate the rats infesting the river. It could cause various problems if they transmit a disease through our largest source of water.”
The river area would be perfect to deal with the fire, so Alice wouldn't need to worry about starting a fire, and rats aren't a physical threat. In addition, they move fast and are small, so it is hard to hit them with swords or arrows. Magic, on the other hand, is generally fast. Hitting some rats won't be much of a challenge to a capable magician.
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“I will take it.”
Heading towards the river, Alice passes by the same guards she met earlier but doesn't say anything.
The rats have taken a liking to the river, crouching their tiny heads to drink, forming a long line at the riverbank.
Alice took a deep breath. Staffs and wands are crafted with a magic stone to augment the power of spells. They were tools used by every magician but weren't really necessary, only existing for assistance.
Every time she tried to learn a new spell, Alice practiced without her staff first. So she was confident she could deal with the rats even without it.
She visualized the spear of fire and was ready to cast the spell. Taking a deep breath, she stood quietly enough to hear her own heartbeat.
She didn't hear it.
“Fire Lance!” she shouted.
From the tip of her fingers, a spear of flames...
Did not arise.
“What the hell?”
Never in the past did she fail so thoroughly to cast a spell. Even the first time she tried her hand at magic, something came out. Now, not even the weakest breeze, not even the smallest spark.
“Wind Blade! Fireball! Wind Arrow!”
Nothing.
The only reaction she got was the rats running between her legs. Some even tried to bite her boot.
Alice tried to calm herself, tried to remain collected and visualize the magic more vividly, and tried to feel her own heart beating. Thump. Thump.
She failed at everything.
She remembered with remarkable accuracy the sword piercing her heart, but the wound closed on its own, and Alice had hoped it wasn't what she thought.
One thing she knew for sure was that ever since that moment, Alice had changed forever, becoming something else. Something irreversible.
For hours, she kept trying to cast her magic. She meditated, repeated every basic step of magic she knew, and tried other elements. Nothing worked. The magic that was a part of her for years just vanished into thin air.
“Hey, are you here for the rats' subjugation as well?”
Startled by the voice from behind, Alice immediately distanced herself and positioned herself for battle. It was a bad stance, as she reflexively took the one she used to take while carrying her staff.
“Why so upset? There is no need to be on such an edge.”
It was a group of five. Two girls and three men. One girl and one boy dressed in robes and carried wands, so Alice assumed they were mages. There was one giant man with the stature of a bear and a big shield, so he was the tank, a woman with bows and arrows, and a man with a sword—the one who had approached her.
Alice tried to relax, but found herself clenching her fists tighter.
“Please leave me alone.” Her eyes were those of a ferocious beast driven into a corner. She was frightened.
But the group did not yet understand Alice's current mental state.
“Don't be rude,” said the archer. “The captain just tried to be nice.”
“Leave. Me. Alone.”
They looked so perfect together, compensating for each other's weaknesses and supporting each other. They could trust each other. Alice felt so far away from trusting anyone but herself that the group felt like a disgusting ideal, as if they were sent to mock her.
“Just ignore her, guy. Clearly, she is feeling embarrassed for us to have seen her trying to use magic.” The male magician tried to diffuse the situation, but that only earned the female mage's mocking laughter.
“As if it's that easy. You either have it or you don't. That girl clearly doesn't have it.” She looked at Alice with pity.
Her words weren't that venomous. It was like making fun of some stranger who did something funny on the street. There's nothing personal, and you don't really think badly of them. After a good laugh, you will be on your way. You won't go out of your way to mock and torture them. Normal people aren't like that.
But Alice wasn't stable. She couldn't even properly be called sane at this point. It felt as if she was attacked right now, as they grabbed the knives the Malevolent One stabbed her with and twisted them.
And the next line hurt worse than a slap to the face.
“With how aweful and pale you look, I would recommend you quitting the mercenary business." The female mage meant her words as genuine advice. “It would be a shame if you died.”
Hearing that line—the same line she heard from the man who proceeded to torment her by killing her hundreds of times—something snapped inside Alice.
A pulse of ashen-colored light comes out of her, causing the rats to collapse and the group to falter back.
The green grass under Alice's feet started to rot, emitting a foul stench.
The unnatural ahsen glimmer in her eyes caused the group to feel fear.
“I will kill him. I will make sure he is the one to die this time. I...” Frantic mutters, almost like a prayer, were accompanied by the flow of an ashen aura.
The group, sensing the danger, immediately took out their weapons and attempted to defend themselves. They soon learned the power of an Elmental Master, one that was part of the ancient tyrant.
“I WILL NEVER LET HIM KILL ME AGAIN!!!”
But he couldn't kill her anymore, even if he wanted. Alice was already dead. She was just a soul dressed in dead flesh.
Now she has finally realized this truth.
There are five steps to grief. The first one is denial, evident by how Alice couldn't accept her own death, even going to the point where she suppressed those memories deep in her mind.
The second step is anger.
And she wasn't just angry; she was furious.
The archer, taking the first move, shot an arrow at Alice. Fear caused her to miss, and she only scratched the arm.
But what dripped out of the wound wasn't blood.
It was the ashen aura of decay, the power of death.
Alice screamed, not because of the wounded arm. She couldn't even feel the pain. No, she screamed her emotions and pain that she couldn't express during the impossible situations she was caught in against her will.
This worked to stress the group further, causing them to attack all at once.
Barely realizing what's happening, Alice hurled a wave of ashen aura at the tank and swordsman.
Their bodies instantly decayed, the skin melted, and the muscles, veins, and bones were exposed, turning into various colors that were not the originals and most certainly didn't mean anything good. The two men screamed in agony, but the pain didn't end until they died a minute later, a minute filled with the pain of every living cell in the body dying.
Arrows and magic didn't work, all equally melting at the touch of the aura of death. Terrified by the horror scene unfolding, the three escaped while crying for help.
For a long time, Alice simply remained where she stood. Her legs didn't hurt; her whole body was just numb.
As if to showcase her feelings, the ashen energy covers the area and causes everything to rot and fester.
“There it is, the monster!”
“Don't let the innocent appearance deceive you!”
“Kill it!”
A furious and large group of mercenaries started to chase after her with their weapons drawn. Alice was identified as a monster, and they are now acting to purge her.
She could have killed everyone without much effort, but looking at her own gray, shriveled hand. She was a monster. Maybe even one deserves to be purged this pathetically, like a mindless beast.
But there was a far worse monster than her, one still alive. One knowing how to coat himself in human skin. One who must pay for his crimes with her own monstrous hands.
Alice once again decided to kill the Malevolent One, who had taken everything from her.
She believed that was the only reason her spirit still leaves: for her to enact her revenge for the sake of her family and village. That's why she must survive until the day she can pay him back for all the pain he has caused her.
Running opposite her pursuers, she ran for her revenge.
It was the first time in a long series of persecutions of the first ever-sighted ghoul.