Book 3. Chapter 22
“One less.” Part 1
The second time Mhiralla faced Seth-Mainyu, she didn’t do much better. Though at least she put up some fight and despite not doing much damage to him, she couldn’t help but feel proud of herself that at least this time he hadn’t defeated her so quickly.
“What happened to you?” Her second sister asked her at the same time she ran and started to heal her. “Did you fight with Seth-Mainyu again? You know very well that you have no chance of getting over him, especially now that all the gods have gone into hibernation after sealing the power of the god of darkness! And that stupid guardian they created to prevent Seth-Mainyu or Sejmet from invading the seventh dimension where they sleep while they regain their strength won’t let any of us in either! So stop bothering them already! If Sejmet wasn’t so obsessed with protecting her father’s tomb, she would have killed us all by now!”
“I highly doubt she would. She hasn’t even touched the queen of the fairies,” Mhiralla growled, suddenly annoyed with the sudden attention from her middle sister, someone who normally ignored her. But ever since the goddess of light had gone off with the rest of the gods for centuries of replenishing sleep, her second sister had begun to pay a bit of attention to her continued escapades.
Although they had not yet discovered that she occasionally sneaked into other worlds and absorbed the stats and skills of small populations, pitifully, so far she had only been able to raise her stats.
But that didn’t mean she had given up already. If she was once lucky enough to absorb the powers of the Seth-Mainyu servant system, maybe someday she could have some luck again.
“I think you should stop or one of these days he will manage to kill you, just like he did his older brother,” she continued to scold her, but Mhiralla ignored her.
Suddenly she marveled at the healing power of her second sister, the way her energy entered her body with a slight golden tint, closing each of her wounds and making the bruises disappear in a matter of minutes.
It was then that Mhiralla felt jealous.
And without being aware of what she was doing, her hand positioned itself on top of her sister’s wrist and whispered:
“Absorb!” Although Mhiralla no longer had a system to notify her of the amount of stats or the skills she was absorbing, she could clearly see the white glow around her second sister’s body begin to fade completely and her own glow increased.
The fear-laden look she gave her sister just before her body turned to ashes at the same time Mhiralla could feel her own strength increase was priceless.
It was also in that instant that she realized how Seth-Mainyu had done to get rid of her older brother.
“He probably wants to defeat his older sister too,” she noted, and a smile full of cruelty came across her face.
Unfortunately for the young goddess, things did not turn out as she thought. And instead of defeating her older sister who ruled over the light elves and the northern kingdoms of the continent in the fourth dimension, she was defeated and exiled from those lands.
The east was already dominated by Sejmet, so between the two older sisters they maintained a balanced and respectful control of the whole territory, without giving any room for Mhiralla or anyone else to conquer it.
It was after much wandering in other worlds to increase her power and influence, that she began to hear new rumors about Seth-Mainyu.
It was said that he had conquered the first dimension and that all worlds that opposed him were completely destroyed.
After a small encounter in the second dimension, made her realize that she had to escape from there and work on expanding her influence elsewhere, so she began to move between worlds of the third and fourth dimension trying not to attract the attention of her brothers, it was then that by accident she discovered the queen of the fairies and her people in Elinor.
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Who had not only prospered after fleeing from Seth-Mainyu, but had also created their own system.
During all the decades she had spent in hiding, there was very little she had been able to absorb from the humans or from some of the other races that were almost as weak as they were.
But the fairies were a completely different story.
Not for nothing had their queen been her father’s favorite creation, and his mistress for centuries.
“If I can’t beat my mother’s children, then maybe I can beat my father’s,” she said quietly. And so she began her hunt.
And after absorbing the queen’s eldest daughter, Mhiralla was able to obtain a system again and begin to study it in order to launch her own version, a blue system that would reflect the color of her eyes, just as the violet system reflected the color of the fairy queen’s eyes.
But luck was not on her side for long, as the fairy queen realized what she was doing and without even touching her or being in her presence, took the system from her.
Imperfect as it was, her copy of a system did not allow her to grant powers to herself it only allowed her to grant them to others within certain limitations so she chose several humans on different continents of Elinor for her tests. Allowing them to obtain a system of awakening powers and inciting them to increase their stats and level up so that she could then absorb them and increase her own abilities effortlessly.
While she concentrated, for decades, on trying to catch the elusive fairies.
Despite her constant efforts, she was only able to catch two in fifty years. One on Elinor and one on Earth.
But though she tortured them for years, she couldn’t get all the information she wanted out of them. Still, she was finally able to start making advances in her system. So as soon as Seth-Mainyu began to conquer the third dimension, after conquering the second, she decided to put up resistance by selecting thousands of humans and turning them into hunters, a group of warriors who in the future would become part of her personal army and go to war against Seth-Mainyu and his people.
It was the perfect plan.
****
Again, the scene in front of Kalysto changed.
And now they were in the backyard of the house she had grown up in, the flowers she had planted with her father in the garden were blooming and a wave of nostalgia swept over the fairy champion at the sight of the familiar place.
The light of the full moon shone in the clear night sky, illuminating the despairing figure of her father, while a semi-transparent version of Mhiralla moved under the shadows of the trees near the entrance to the forest that bordered her yard
“You’ve already lost your wife and your firstborn. Are you willing to lose your only remaining daughter as well?” Mhiralla whispered, knowing she had him where she wanted him as she saw the fear and despair flooding the man’s face.
Will you leave her alone? Will you promise never to hurt my little Kalysto? -He asked as the little girl's face appeared from the window of her room on the second floor. All color drained from her father as he saw the danger she was in so he signaled her not to come downstairs to play with him and expose herself to great danger without knowing it.
Kalysto's heart clenched with pain as she remembered that scene that had haunted her dreams for years.
I'm not like Seth-Mainyu, I don't go around kidnapping or killing children.
Promise me,” he insisted, ”I want you to give me your word, I want you to swear me a sacred oath!
...Of course, come with me voluntarily and not run away or I will come and kill her,” she said with a smile loaded with falsehood that he did not seem to notice, not realizing that since she was not a fairy, she was not obliged to keep her promises or commitments.
No daddy, don't go! Don't leave me! -Kalysto shouted, but to no avail, and as she ran to her father, the whole scene changed.
And she was swallowed up by the thick fog.
For an instant through the mist she could see Mhiralla torturing her father.
You fucking bitch! Leave him alone! -she shouted as she tried to get closer to him, even though she knew it was in vain.
But when she approached the dark cell in which her father was being held, the scene changed again. And this time she relived the merciless way in which Mhiralla had murdered him.
Feeling her delight as well.
You damned monster, I'm going to kill you! -She swore, at the same time that a powerful wave of darkness was expelled from her body devouring everything around her and forcing her to return to the real world, “I will not rest until I get rid of your pathetic existence!
A bunch of notification windows had opened to her left, but Kalysto ignored them. Too focused on hurting the scum that had dared to steal her only remaining family to stop and look at them. Though she did notice that the white glow that had once surrounded the goddess had diminished quite a bit and that she was in the exact same position she had been in when she began to absorb her.
But now, the great surge of darkness that had been unleashed within her mind had also been unleashed in the physical world, forcing Mhiralla to back away, frightened at the fact that the brat in front of her could absorb her skills as well.
Just as Seth-Mainyu had done long ago.