With a pale skin as a ghost and her cold glowing yellow eyes, she continued walking forward without care about the number in front of her.
Her white dress looked pure and unstained by anything.
I could already tell from the light way of walking that she could move incredibly fast.
“But how did she get here so fast?” Ichika confusingly asked after recognizing the queen of spirits that was supposed to be back to her tree house.
“No…” But there was one thing that I understood from her human sized body.
“That's not the same spirit we first met.” I told everyone as that undetected spirit suddenly stopped moving.
“It's coming.” Akemi warned everyone before an afterimage of that spirit moved right behind me.
I was a little surprised that it tried getting rid of me first, but I wasn't going to die that easily.
While trying to suppress myself from using any of my skills, I swung my right leg and tried kicking its face as hard and fast as I could.
“Hatsuko!!” Ichika called out to me as she fired arrows from her position. But in the end, her arrows hit nothing as that spirit turned out to be another afterimage of that spirit.
“It's okay, I’m not hurt.” I tried calming Ichika down since she could become an easy target if not supported by at least one of the girls.
“It seems like she’s playing with us.” Akemi smirked after seeing that the spirit was back at her position where she first stopped moving.
“Hatsuko, you should stay behind us.” Chloe told me as she was preparing herself to fight back to that emotionless looking spirit who couldn't care less about this situation.
Hearing them say that I shouldn't be fighting beside them, kind of makes me.. Lonely… but…
“We’ll protect you!”
Hearing her saying such words with confidence, made me feel happy.
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* * *
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Rushing back to the forest was the same spirit who guided Hatsuko and the girls to the deepest floor of the dungeon.
Sweat was running down her face, and she seemed really anxious as she finally arrived in front of the queen who was waiting for her return.
“M-mother, I did it! They are all stuck in the main hall of the tree.” She bowed her head to the spirit queen while trying to catch her breath.
“Thank you for taking this harsh task in my stead…”
“It's my duty to act as my mother asks.”
“Lilita…” But hearing such words made the queen feel a lot more guilty than before. Just like a knife penetrating the innocent heart, that's the kind of feeling the queen felt..
There was silence going through the room before the noise of something falling into the ground was heard.
And the cause of that noise was no other than Aletta.
“What have you done?!” Alette was shocked after hearing the conversation between the two spirits.
Both the queen and the Lilita looked at the entrance of the room, finding Alette shocked by such action that they had done.
“Alette… we didn't have a choice.” The queen looked on her side, guilty about the thing she had done. And she already knew that ordering her own child to trick Hatsuko and the girls, was the same as doing the deed herself.
“No choice?!”
Lilita tried calming the angry looking spirit that was yelling in confusion by the thing that her own family had done to her guests. “Alette, listen to us, we–”
“I don't want to listen to anything!” But Alette didnt let her own comrade and sister even explain why they had done that.
“They saved my life even though I tried scaring them away. They stood by my side and they even took care of me when I didn't even know where I was.”
The queen and Lilita didn't know how to properly explain their actions to the innocent looking Alette who didn't know anything.
She was gone for many years, so it was not surprising that the spirits wouldn't be the same Alette once knew. Her closest sisters were also long gone and many of the other spirits were either dead or turned into zombies.
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“Without any rewards or compensation, Ichika and the rest cared about me as if I was part of their own family. They gave me food and a place where I could sleep without having to worry about dragons or monsters. And now I come back, finding that my own sisters have tricked them?!” Tears were coming out of her small and narrow eyes as she was glaring at them.
She felt betrayed that things were going through in the worst possible way she could have ever thought.
“Alette!!” Lilita yelled out her name in frustration after seeing how she was disrespecting the queen of spirits. “We had no choice, that's why I trapped your friends in the dungeon!!!”
“No choice?! I don't understand it!! What did they do to deserve such treatment?!” Alette snapped back at her.
“IF I HADN'T DONE THAT, THEN OUR ENTIRE WORLD WOULD’VE BEEN DESTROYED!” Lilita’s voice echoed throughout the whole room as she yelled the truth about her actions.
“Lilita…” The queen lowered her head from the guilt she had gathered inside her.
“What?!” Alette was just as confused as before after seeing the frustrated and angry look of Lilita’s face.
What could Lilita be talking about? Why would their world be destroyed if her friends didn’t get trapped in the dungeon?
“Lilita… let me explain this to her.” The queen took a small step towards the confused and angry looking Aleete.
“Mother…” And Lilita on the other hand, backed out as she was being cautious in case Alette would try to attack the queen.
“It all began when our world’s barrier was torn apart by something powerful. Our world was slowly overtaken by monsters. But thanks to my children, we managed to protect our home.
We thought that we had found peace for at least some years, but fate didn't seem to be on our side…
The infection began…
Many of our spirits were driven insane and killed themselves before they could kill their own sisters. It hurt so much seeing my children fight with each other. I would have never wanted that to happen in my entire life.
But the one who was hurt the most… was my sister…” Aurora’s hand was slightly twitching in fear as she was hiding it behind her back, so her children wouldn't see how scared their great queen was feeling.
“Sister Ashera?” Alette asked in realization after recalling the most powerful spirit to ever have lived in this world.
“Yeah, she was a great sister of mine that loved everyone. That's why she couldn't hold herself back from not helping my dead children that no longer felt anything… But Ashera realized how big of a mistake she just made the moment she tried facing all of the dead spirits.” The queen’s voice was trembling a little as she was recalling what had happened to her own sister.
“My sister couldn't fight back an enemy with the faces of her own sisters. That's why she tried dodging or taking any attack from the spirits that couldn't remember the face of their own respected warrior. My sister didn’t have the heart to hurt them.”
But Alette was still confused and couldn't understand where this conversation was going because she was already told how zombies managed to kill most of the spirits.
“But my sister wasn't someone who would die without any reason. She saved the rest of us by taking the rest of the infected sisters by herself and led them to the main birthplace of all spirits.”
“The tree of life…” Alette said after realizing what had caused the beginning of that dungeon.
“With the sole purpose of waking them up, my sister tried giving the spirits’ energy…” There was another pause as the queen was trying to hold herself back from crying. “But her plan backfired… the tree began withering to the point of not providing any more energy.”
“Mother…” Lilita called out to her in worry as she was looking at Aurora retelling this painful memory that hurt deeply many of the spirits.
“And what's worse… my own sister became part of those broken children. Her own hatred took over her entire being and she could no longer remember any of us. While she still could talk and fight like she used to, her eyes had turned into something else… they turned into something terrifying that defied what was normal and what wasn't…” There was another intense gap of silence in the atmosphere as Aurora was trying to tell the truth.
“My sister was no longer herself, and thanks to that weird disease, she became several times stronger. So strong that she could even kill one or even two dragons at the same time.”
Lilita clenched her own fist in frustration after seeing that she couldn't do anything to help Aurora.
“Then how did everyone survive if sister Ashera was that strong?” Alette asked after seeing that some gaps in the story weren’t connecting with each other.
“That was the last part of kindness holding herself back in that same tree. She already knew the state she was in, that's why she bound herself in that same room so she wouldn't be able to get out of that dungeon. It's only a matter of time before the last part of Ashera’s consciousness would disappear, and in the end… destroy this world.” The queen herself couldn't handle the fact that she had fallen this low to see her own beloved sister destroy what she loved.
Lilita on the other hand was bleeding a little from gripping her own fist in anger and frustration.
“I understand that, but that doesn't explain why you had to trap my friends in the dungeon without explaining anything like this. They would have helped even if they knew how bad our situation was!”
But the queen looked on her side once again in sadness from Alette’s ignorance. “I already know that… I could feel kindness in every single one of those girls, especially that boy. I actually was hoping if he could have stayed behind, and become the king of this world, and a husband of mine as well. But for the sake of my own children, I’m willing to do anything.” The queen’s eyes became a little sharp after accepting and remembering the real reason of why she was doing this evil act.
“I know that your friends are strong. And I’m sure that they will manage to weaken Ashera even just a little. That's why… after she kills them all, she will be able to get out of that tree. And with the hope that she’ll be tired, all of us spirits will finish her off before she can regain her own strength once again.”
Alette clenched her own fists in anger after understanding how messed up their plan actually was. Her friends were worth nothing else but a tool to only weaken a zombie.
“T-thats…” And she couldn't even gather her courage to even talk back to them anymore. Alette understood that the fate of this world was in their hands.
“Alette, don’t. I understand your anger, but there’s nothing else we could have done. With our tree not producing any more energy for us, we’ll simply die without being able to do anything.” Lilita closed her eyes, accepting the guilt and fault of what she had done. “Your friend's death will be remembered between the spirits. We won’t forget their great sacrifice.”
Alette had to choose between her own sisters, or her friends who cared about her and protected her as if she was part of their own family.
“No matter what happens, Ashera won't be defeated that easily. And if we aren't lucky, not only our world, but also the other one will be in great trouble…”
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