Thunder boomed in the background as heavy rainfall poured from the heavens above. A deafening silence echoed amidst the roaring winds as Anna felt her mind turn blank. In the blink of an eye, the person she wanted to keep alive the most, the prophesized target that would soon die at the hands of the person he considered a friend, had died and met his predestined end.
Winston, whose hand was coated in blood, grinned widely and shook his hand to shake off the excess blood and heart paste left in his grasp. Chuckling softly, the jet black wings behind his back that were fully extended out slowly retracted back into a more relaxed state, while the pulsating dark purple orb on his chest slowed down its pulsation.
Christopher, who was still surprised by the sudden turn of events, wanted to immediately attack Winston when a man with pitch-black skin wearing a white lab coat and a pair of glasses teleported right beside him.
Then, with a flick of the man’s arm, layer after layer of defenses were broken and blood spurted out of Christopher’s broken jaw.
Tooth and bloody saliva splat out in a disgusting scene of gore as the old sage was knocked unconscious in one blow. Struggling to remain awake, Mammon unceremoniously swung down his other hand and Christopher crashed right against the ground with a loud boom, traversing hundreds of meters in the blink of an eye.
As the archmage fell unconscious, only Anna was left alone in her team, with two peak arch-level entities ready to pounce and kill her. A fearsome aura of bloodlust and killing intent radiated from them as a cruel light flashed in their cold gazes.
She felt her heart skip a beat when she finally realized how dire the situation was. Although the dangerous sphere of light from above has been taken down and she still had access to hundreds of thousands of spirits, this level of power can’t compare to two entities that were far more skilled and experienced than her in combat.
It was still fine when she had those three experts helping her, because as inexperienced as she may be, she could soak up their instructions like a sponge and grow exponentially fast under their tutelage. Now? She’s nothing more than a kid wielding a nuke, and while powerful, could still be killed with a single shot through the head.
Running away was also not an option, because if she did so, certain death awaited her three other companions. While that wouldn’t normally mean the end of the world, it, unfortunately, was in her situation since those three were vital characters in the direction of the world’s story.
Their death quite literally meant the success of the Demon Lord in taking over the world and bringing chaos across the land.
So, she had to fight, whether she liked it or not.
The wind howled with a bellow as she gripped the air tightly. Blood rushed to her brain in a bid to ease the aching pain and strain coursing through her mind, while mana uncontrollably spewed out of her soul to connect with the hundreds of thousands of spirits following her will.
Winston, who finally got enough time to recuperate, chuckled and blitzed through the air at breakneck speeds. He appeared right in front of Anna with jagged claws as space cracked all around him.
Anna tried to protect herself by creating a layer of dense winds, but she suddenly found herself trapped in a vacuum with no air or water, while the fissured space crashed against her bare flesh.
She cried out in pain as her body stumbled through the thick cacophony of clouds and wind. A deep wound ran along her shoulder down to her chest, exposing the bones around the wounded part of her body, while her flesh turned into a redder hue from the suction force of the vacuum.
But in that moment of unimaginable pain and torture, Anna’s eyes glowed with a hint of calmness as the guiding force that constantly ticked at the back of her mind resurfaced with a far stronger influence.
It’s like a voice whispering to her ear softly and calmly, pouring cold water on her flimsy mental state.
This change didn’t escape the eye of the two as a golden flash appeared in their gaze. Through their mystical vision that can see the luck of all things, Anna’s luck slowly transformed from a vortex of colorful motes of light to a massive cloud of spirits surrounding a rainbow-colored ball of light in the middle.
The rainbow-colored ball of light swirled and transformed into a mirage of visions, from tornadoes to earthquakes, to a tiny fish, and into the mightiest of dragons. Like a unification of everything in the world, the light shining mysteriously in the center of that cloud of spirits released an overwhelmingly mighty aura of heavenly power.
The Opportunity! Winston and Mammon thought at the same time as a devious smile ran along their wicked faces. Slowly but surely, the variables on their chaotic board of chess are finally coming together into the crystalization of all their efforts.
Across the entire Northern Continent where humans were most dominant, an imperceptible yet incredibly large array broke open like bright lines running across forests and deserts. On the Great Northern Forest, the Vast Southern Desert, the Shadowy Western Plains, and the Deep Eastern Trench, glowing blue lines came together to form an intricate design of complex arcane knowledge.
This phenomenon didn’t go unnoticed as clamor and chaos soon came after. Scholars and mages all across the various human kingdoms and empires scrambled to try and deduce the purpose behind this humongous array of formidable power, but given the short timeframe and its sudden appearance, they couldn’t analyze even a fraction of the truth before the arrays began to glow brighter and brighter.
Back to the place between fiction and reality, Winston and Mammon began to ruthlessly launch one attack after another against Anna whose aura continued to grow stronger like a raging storm or a volcano ready to erupt.
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Space around her body warped beyond recognition as a complex barrier of magic formed a white egg-like projection around her. Inside the egg-like barrier, her eyes rolled to the back of her head as her long auburn hair flowed sporadically against invisible winds.
Their attacks landed on the barrier covering her body, but even with their peak Arch-level combat prowess, they only managed to form small cracks across the projection before it soon repaired itself to perfection. Not only that, the barrier turned more dense and solid the more time passed, which further increased Anna’s safety and ability to survive.
As the two mindlessly launched increasingly stronger attacks, they saw more and more spirits gather around Anna’s figure as if the whole sky was covered in a dense field of colorful lights.
Anna, on the other hand, was experiencing a whole different thing from the two outside.
When she opened her eyes, Anna found herself in an empty black void stepping on a nonexistent ground. In front of her, a ball of colorful lights pulsated beautifully like a beating heart. The moment her eyes landed on the mystical sphere, an urge to approach closer appeared in her heart and she inexplicably walked forward without any caution or fear.
It was as if she knew the orb of light meant no harm, and instead, only wanted to talk to her. As soon as she was only a foot away from the orb of light, a small grin slowly crept up on her face and she murmured, “So you’ve been the one talking to me all this time…”
“Annabeth Auburn…” the sphere spoke with a soft, weird, and alien voice, as if a multitude of human voices stacked on top each of other each time it uttered a sound. And yet, even though its voice was quite unusual, Anna still found it pleasing to the ear.
The sphere then slowly lifted itself up, going from chest-level to eye-level relative to Anna’s height, and then spoke once more, “I apologize that this is the way we officially meet one another, but as you can see, the circumstances are quite dire outside.”
“Yeah… quite dire indeed,” Anna said softly and silently clenched her fists in worry.
“Before I continue on with anything else, I think that you deserve an explanation for all that has happened, correct?” The orb asked and Anna agreed by nodding her head. Chuckling to itself to appear more humane, the orb then released a bit more of its power as the black void turned from nothing to something.
From the dark void, light burst out of the sky as the two found themselves amongst a plain open field of grass, a scenery reminiscent of the view on the campus of the academy, with two chairs and a table placed in between.
Sitting down habitually on the chair, a cup of tea materialized right on the table along with some snacks, while the orb of colorful lights hovered on the elevated chair opposite Anna. Sipping some tea to calm herself and place her mind in a more relaxed state, she slowly began to zone out all of her worries to listen attentively to the mysterious being with no name or identity.
Pulsing slowly, the orb of light finally spoke after seeing Anna’s attentive state, and said, “First of all is the biggest elephant in the room - Mammon Heist.”
“Yes, him…” Anna said with vile hatred spewing out of her elegant demeanor.
“Mammon Heist, a person whose origin is unknown, and whose fate has no ties to the one this world has. The fated savior of this world, the inevitable descent of the demonic lord, the five men who strive to steal the heart of the maiden in holy gold… These are all predetermined outcomes that would lead to the highest chance of this world surviving against the threat of the devil himself.” The orb mumbled and said words only she would understand and continued. “That was the plan anyway before I managed to awaken and attain semi-autonomous consciousness.”
“Then you came into the equation, the backup plan I had placed just in case God’s strategy proves to fail. You would have been the second protagonist of this world, a being whose role is as equally important as Holly Lavestine, the person who would work together in bringing down the infernal demon.”
“Wait, wait, wait.” Anna waved her arms profusely as she heard a certain word that made her eyes bulge. She already kind of expected the second protagonist part when she heard of fate and predetermined outcomes from the orb, but God? What has God had to do with all this shit she’s been going through right now?
“Is it so shocking that God is real? Is it so improbable that God would work with the world to defeat the entity who is essentially their greatest enemy, the Demon Lord?” The orb chuckled mischievously. “But we’re going off track right now. The big problem here is that the original fate of this world is essentially broken beyond repair, especially with the people who have no big roles in the original storyline as you liked to refer to it suddenly gaining more predominant roles in the world.”
“The biggest example of which is…”
“Rob Fortune…” Anna gasped in realization as things started to click in her mind.
If fate was real, if the being in front of her could control the flow of this world’s story and in general the lives of all that inhabited the world… Then that meant!
“ROB’S GONNA BE A MALE LEAD?!?!?!” Anna nearly choked on her tea upon realizing this hateful fact. Then, she also realized another fact that nearly broke her mind, “Don’t tell me… Noel and me…”
“That’s the equal indifference and balance of the world. In your fate, you are to be granted great power and essentially lead the fate of this world even after succeeding against the Demon Lord. Great power does come at a great price, and having your life, even your emotions, be toyed with by a higher power is merely a tiny price to pay” The orb spoke bluntly. “Tell me, would you rather care about the well-being of billions of organisms or care about the feelings of one young girl whose destiny has basically gone from average and mediocre to a shining star?”
“That’s… true, but still! I can’t believe you picked Noel out of all the people in the world!” Anna grumbled angrily.
“Well, he was simply the best choice possible. A reborn archmage who loves learning new things and can act as both your tutor and guardian in your road to power; compared to the other male leads, he’s the best choice for your situation.”
“I guess that’s true…” Anna bit on her lips and sighed helplessly. “So, now that you’ve explained stuff, what am I really here for?”
“…” The orb pulsated silently and ‘stared’ at Anna for a while before finally speaking, “Accept my power. While you will lose your true freedom and autonomy as an individual, and you can only rely on my promise that I’d let you act as you wish without any restraints even after making this pact, you’d immediately rise to the peak of this world in terms of power and can control all spirits as if they were merely a part of your body.”
“You’ll essentially gain a fraction of the power of a World Spirit, which is me,” the World Spirit said and then added. “The world you refer to as Tyr.”
“Well, guess I have no choice, huh?” Anna laughed and a resolved glint flashed in her eyes. “Fuck it, I’m already a puppet anyways! Might as well save the world while I’m at it!”