Fucking pests ! Stay down !
Liz'a watched the Wyvern melting another golem that just arrived on the scene. It glanced at her group and let out a very audible hmpf of annoyance.
Why are you still here, suicidal bastards ?! I told you to go away !
RHA ! Get the fuck out of here ! You're slowing me down !
More golems were approaching from one the front and Raya began to drown them in her sea of fire. The constructs didn't last long and melted to form mounds of molten rocks.
She sent a golem that came from the side flying a dozen meters away with her tail and jumped on it.
The sounds of rocks cracking under immense pressure snapped the terrified group out of their trance. The sizzling hot air too. Meanwhile a squad of six Paladins showed up and five of them roughly grabbed each one of the students by the wrist. They didn't even get the chance to argue, in a blink of the eyes, they had been teleported back at the entrance of the forest.
At the same time, Raya was still destroying more golems to dust.
Paladin ! Can any of you desactivate these golem ? These imbeciles must have triggered the training grounds' mechanism ! We have to stop this !
"Wyvern Raya !" the sixth Paladin answered. "Master Ragnar is already working on it ! Just hold on a few more instants !" to which she responded with a click of the tongue. And soon enough, the runes on the golems' bodies stopped glowing. The rocks that weren't too damaged sunk back into the ground and everything returned to normal.
The Paladin was looking at the Wyvern, the two were as equally pissed off as the other it seemed. Despite the helmet covering his face, one could almost discern the Paladin's furrowed eyebrows and left hand gripping tightly his hammer.
Raya's annoyance was... a lot more in the open. Heavy smoke was coming out of her nostrils and a deep rumble escaped from her throat. her tail was also smashing the ground, shaking slighly the surroundings.
"Wyvern Raya. What do you think will happen to these students ? Will they get punished ? Those are royalty and the Hero candidate was among them."
Oh, so the Paladin was female. Raya seriously couldn't tell with all that armor and the screaming before. Then she realised that every female armor she saw in the city were... actual armor. Like pratical armor, that didn't show any skin. Good... That world had common sense.
No matter their status... they will get punished. These training grounds are used by you guys, Senior Paladins. S-rank warriors by international classifications.
They could have died even before knowing it. There's not just golems here, am I right ? There's a Basilik too. It's trained to recognize you guys but it will absolutely seen them as snacks.
Now hop on, Paladin, I will get you out of there.
"Much appreciated. I hope Master Sun Mane gives these reckless students a good sermon."
As I do paladin. As I do...
...
"-you mad ?! You could have killed everyone ! Every future rulers of this world ! Liz'a de Wandermer ! Do you realize the consequences of your own actions ?! As the heiress of the biggest force of this continent... I expected better from you !
You who will lead millions of soldiers to battle one day ! Your actions will have consequences ! They already do ! That goes for each one of you ! You are expected to lead countries at some point !"
A huge shadow flew by, covering the sun. Raya landed, sending flyers and small objects flying. She made her way towards the group of students and the troupe of Paladins. The headmaster was here too.
She decided to circle the spot with her body. Sun Mane nodded in an almost imperceptible way and he went back to shout a tthe students.
Sun Mane. Already reprimanding these imbeciles ? You didn't wait for me it seems. And who are they... ?
"Raya. These cretins are first-year students. Their identities are irrelevant. Right now they're just a bunch of unruly teens who ignored magic barriers and entered restricted grounds. Never in my century of living I've seen disrespectful kids like this !" Sun Mane hissed between his fangs. His tail was swaying back and forth, indicating deep anger.
What will you do then. I recognize a Holy Sword and the crest of the de Wandermer family.
"I'll punish them of course. First ! I want to know how you managed to bypass the magic barrier we set up ! Second, I'm forbidding you from exiting school grounds for half a month, you will learn to obey orders, even if you're some kind of heir to a kingdom ! Third and final, you will write letters to your parents to explain what you did wrong, give them to me and I'll send them.
Young Liz'a... Future emperess or not, you'd be dead meat if not for your comrades..." the lion-man stated in a disappointed tone..
His shouts and roars seemed to have attracted attention and students were now trying to see what the commotion was about. Paladins sent them away but they had already heard a lot of things.
"Young Raya. What are your thoughts about this ?"
"Hold on a second, headmaster Sun Mane. I believe I already have the answer as of how they broke into my Paladins' training grounds."
"Your Holiness." the Paladins saluted as Sun mane waved gently.
"You do ? Then please enlighten me."
"The Holy Sword this boy holds. Holy Swords react to magic. He surely used it as a key to open the barrier. Am I right, Hero candidate ?" Kari asked in a neutral tone, tilding her head on the side.
"I- Y- yeah..."
Then, confiscate the sword too. And ban these little rule-breakers from this week's dungeon exploration. Who knows what they'll try to do in there. You told me there are still many unknown areas the Paladins haven't secured yet...
"Good idea." Sun Mane and the pope responded simultaneously. The teens had the complete opposite reaction. They were mortified.
"You can't... How will we grow then ?!"
"You... ? Hero candidate. Do you truly think that a Hero would allow their companions to go in unknown, restricted areas ? There is no growth once you're dead. Even the traitorous hero knew we had to play it safe while we were still a party. Just this act could cost you your position as the Hero candidate. I could take the Sword as the Wyvern said, and seal it until someone worthy presents themselves... In fact, I will take it. It will be up to your attitude whether I give it back soon or late."
The teens were trembling. They were alarmed by what was being said. One even had tears in the eyes. So much for future rulers...
Sniff ? Sniff ?
Huh ?! Did someone just pis-?
Sniff ? Sniff ?
"Y- no way."
The pope, the Paladins, Sun Mane and Raya all recoiled and watched in disgust as the elf girl created a puddle near her feet.
I- what ? I'm out of here !
Sun Mane gazed helplessly at the shrinking form of the Wyvern and sighed heavily.
"What a mess..."
He shook his head and went away with heavy steps. What a great day...
A Paladin went close to Ramiel and harshly snatched the holy blade from his hands. She gave it to the pope and went away together. The only ones left were the Union twins, Liz'a, Frea and Ramiel who were staring aimlessly at the pavement. Cracked, again. What was up with Raya and pavements ?
...
Sun Mane got into his office, suspended his coat on a dresser and searched around in his safe. There it was. The CommuStone. A magic-infused gem that was paired to another gem. Injecting mana in it allowed for long distance-communication. It was a very useful artifact during wartime and when important events happened in a country.
The one Sun Mane was holding was kined to Gram de Wandermer, the current emperor of the Akwa Empire.
Fuck, I feel like I'm a teacher calling the parent of a six years-old...
The stone shone a ligth shade of green and the Lion-man waited.
| Sun Mane ! It's been a while ! Why are you calling me this late ? You know I go to sleep early nowadays. |
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"Gram. I don't have time for pleasantries. Something happened with your daughter."
The line went silent and a few seconds later, the cheerful voice of the emperor turned into a somber, glacial one.
| What happened ? She's supposed to be safe at Staillon Academy... | but the headmaster cut the man off.
"She entered forbidden grounds. An area where S-ranked warriors train. She could have died if not for a... friend of mine. Gram..."
| Don't say no more. Liz'a is precious to me but I cannot tolerate her getting herself in danger. Confiscate her wand for the month. |
The link got cut off and Sun Mane sighed again.
"Long day, I get it. You buzy ?"
He turned aroud to see Raya leaning on the doorframe inher scaleless body. She was covered in armor similar to the one Night Paladins wore. Relatively big obsidian shoulder-plates and reinforced rust-colored leather that covered half of her neck. The chestplate was made up of one thin layer of iron, surrounded by two layers of the same reinforced leather.
It was solid, but still comfortable to move in and covered the Heart of Wrath's glow as much as it to avoid stares in the chest area.
She didn't wear boots due to her pelicular leg anatomy, just plates strapped there and there.
"No. You got some gear ? When did you get this ?"
"Millia. She wanted to dress me up. I told her it was unnecessary. Not like the armor makes a difference either. But it's nice nonetheless. By the way, I'm going out tomorrow, first mission as an Inquisitor. I should be away for... three days.I'll be back for the first-year's dungeon exploration."
"Well good luck then. I guess you'll be able to feel your Wrath again. Must be suffocating here sometimes."
"You bet. Everytime there's a lot of people, I want to puke... I'll be free, pretty cool~"
"Hehe, you really sound like a teenager. Pretty interesting to see the difference. But in any case, good purge."
"Hm mh~"
----------------------------------------
Ramiel was sitting in the lounge of the boys' dorm, completely defeated. He was being comforted by RaviK and Margos, but that didn't really work.
"This is... bad. No, it's horrible. It's literally the worst thing that could happen."
"This... is a huge fuck up. How we're going to get the relics of the school's dungeon now... How much did your sword give you ? No, nevermind, I don't want to know."
"How are we supposed to get the receipe of the experience potions now... We could try in three weeks but the lore says that the room it's in will be cleared right after this week."
"Wait guys ! What if it isn't discovered ! The room should be accessible only after we clear it, and no-one other than us can open it !"
"Maybe you're actually right Margos ! It should be preserved without us unlocking it !"
"But... the biggest concern will be..."
"Yeah. Why's Raya here ? That doesn't make any sense. And most of all... she's strong, too strong. She killed a golem just like that, in a way even a max level damage dealer can't."
The three began brainstorming to theorize about the consequences Raya's appearance could have in the plot. And what was her relation with the Papal States ? They wracked their brains for a good hour, scribbed down notes, places and tips from Sins of Marka.
But after an hour they had to accept that fact that... every strategy the group had planned up until now were as reliable as a wet firework.
Then RaviK stood up and suddenly asked a question.
"Did anyone manage to see her status ? It could be useful ! Let's ask the girls !
...
"F-Frea.. It's not that big of a deal, really ! There was no-one there ! Everyone left !" Liz'a patted the elf on the back. She was still crying in her room half an hour later while muttering incoherently.
Liz'a tried everything she could but the shaman was in some sort of trance.
"Frea... please, we have to-"
Frea grabbed the heiress by her two wrists. With crazed desperate eyes and disheveled hair, the elf looked a bit disturbing.
"Pure damage... she's got pure damage..."
"What do you..."
"Liz'a ! This ain't a game anymore ! There is no fucking plot ! Raya ! I- I ugh... I've seen one thing, one line... She doesn't... have an attack stat, she's got a damage one instead..."
"And ? Why does it matter ?!"
"Liz'a ! It's fucking DAMAGE ! NOT ATTACK ! Liz'a ! Wake up ! There is no plot anymore ! Raya is here in early game, we got Ramiel's sword confiscated and we can't even get the first loot we're supposed to get !" Frea cried out while hitting the wall with her fist.
"But then... h-how much ?!"
"Five thousand pure damage... the strongest tank build has twenty-thousand HP Liz'a... and on top of that... three thousand as physical attack too. We can fucking die by getting pushed by her tail ! I- I can't. I'm out. I- I'm going to live my long life in Elfort, away from you, away from this academy, away from the demon lord, away from Raya, away from this so-called plot that doesn't exists anymore... I'm packing my stuff. Farewell."
"W-wait !"
Frea slapped away Liz'a 's hand with a sharp glare and started to pack her belongings.
"Don't touch me. It was a mistake to even believe we could stand up to this. One or five of us, it doesn't matter if we can't even survive one attack."
Liz'a watched hopelessly as the elf went away in the corridor. Then she began to roam aimlessly in the dorms to clear her head off from what happened today. So much mess. In a dozen minutes, everything they had build was gone. Where were the boys now... ?
Oh, just as she exited the building, Liz'a caught the three teens coming towards her.
"Hey, Liz'a. Have you seen Frea, we've got questions and stuff to share."
"She... she left. She left us."
"Wh- why would she do that ?! Sure the piss incident wasn't glorious but we still need to maximize our chances..."
"No. She was able to appraise Raya. She saw... I- I don't really know. She said her fire dealt 5K pure damage or something like that and that her attack was at 3K... I didn't fully understand her explainat- Huh ? Margos ? RaviK ? You okay ?"
The two tan-skinned twin were as pale as a sheet of paper. They were looking at Liz'a, then each other, then Liz'a again.
"Can you... repeat that ? 5K pure damage ? That's what she told you ?" RaviK's voice faltered the more he tried to speak.
"I- Yes ?! What's the deal with that ?!" Liz'a shouted with her arms extented at her sides.
"You... Don't know what that means ? I- okay. When a game speaks about pure or true damage... it usually means bad stuff. It means that... the character's offensive value completely ignores defensive stats. So in Raya's case, that means her fire gets past physical defense and magic dispertion. And the damage value you take is equal to the offensive stat of the character... It's the final numbers after the game's calculations add-up, adn there's no in-between..."
"So she would take... five thousand HP per hit from our healthbar with her fire... ?"
Liz'a and Ramiel stared at their stat sheets. The heiress' 110 HP and Ramiel's 250 seemed to mock them.
Everyone was silent.
"Is... is that why no strategy worked ? If she deals pure damage then there's no point in building up defense, right ?! how come this was never stated in the game ?"
"Rahhhh ! Can we fucking stop with game this, game that ?! I- Frea is right. This... it's not just a videogame world anymore. We can't respawn, we... we're against a fucking lizard who spits fire and is the enbodiment of destruction and furor ! We have to think like people in this world. From now on, I don't want a single fucking reference to Sins of Marka or whatever.
G- getting the status passive was a mistake... we shouldn't have done that. It's messing with everything we can experience. A game is not reality, no matter how immersive it is. So from now on, we grow stronger, we find loot and we don't try to follow the plot. We go at our own pace. Understood ?"
"Yes !" the boys answered in a firm tone.
"But now, you guys should go back... we're almost past curfew... I don't want any trouble with the headmaster..."
---
"Enjoying your last meal for the week ?"
"Oh ! Kari... I- yes. Since I'll be away for three days... I wanted to..."
Gosh this is awkward...
"Yeah, I see... So, uh... I wanted to apologize for yesterday. The stuff I said and that... your reaction pained me so I wanted to... make things right..." the pope stated while shifting nervously at the entrance of the small housing Raya was now living in.
"I... well don't worry about that. It just made me think about stuff. A... A person who's dear to me. I guess that I'm all over the place, y'know ? I... that person..."
"Do... you want to talk about it ?"
Raya gestured towards a chair and Kari sat down.
"So what happened with that person ?"
"I... This person and I... we were hella close. It was more than a decade and half ago. We lived things together for years, we laughed, cried, experienced countless... I... loved her. We loved each other. I still do. But... she's... she died in front of my eyes and we couldn't do anything about it.
And then Astria happened. The only thing that kept me from destroying everything and succumbing to the Wrath I'd be forced to hold. It's... it's a whole mindset, truly... You get a Heart but you mainly get... a mindset. One second you're yourself and instants later, you're an entity tasked by god to purge the world.
But that person... she still allowed me to continue. The... the Progenitor was even worse than me. The was no nuance for Them. A sin, no matter how insignificant had to be purged. But They lost themselves in their Wrath. They got consumed by it and when They realized, it was too late. I promised I wouldn't make the same mistake, because I had memories about my precious person I could hold on to...
But... these same memories... the more I live, the more I realize that I'm not holding onto them, I'm clinging onto them. Like a reverse parasite. I'm desesperately trying to keep them from leaving, from being consumed by the Wrath in me. It's tiresome... too tiresome. And worst of all... I could have escaped if not for these memories I cling onto.
Worst of all... I'll surely never get to see that person again. I would have been fine with dying and meeting her in Hell of Heavens... But no... no... I am the Drake Sin of Wrath !
I cannot be killed unless my Wrath finds no more fuel ! I cannot be killed unless sins disappear from this world ! I'd have to incinerate this world as a whole ! The only reason They fell was because of direct divine intervention ! They did not die ! They were just sealed away to repent... and only when They found a sucessor, they could ascend to Heavens...
Do you realize how long this would... how long this would take ?! Millenia... Even longer than a normal Wyvern's lifespan... I'm seventeen dammnit... I'm not even four years old for you humans... I won't even be sexually mature the time half of the students here will reach their forties. Not that I can have a linegage even.
Y'know. I didn't even want to become a female Wyvern. These fucking humans forced me to become one... that's so pathetic... I had the power to break out, to stop this... but I didn't want to. I shackled myself and let them turn me into this...
That's so messed up... I just wanted to live quietly and to honor the memory of my precious person... until I died. Why... can't I have that... Twelve years... Twelves years of hell and much more... I'll spend my existence sending people to Hell but I'm already bathing in it... And I can't even bring myself to hate what I became, because everytime I send a soul straight to Hell... everytime I love it."
At this point, Raya had soaked her meal with liquid fire. The tears of a scaleless Wyvern. Kari was rubbing her back in silence, not knowing what to say. She hadn't expected what was supposed to be a goodnight, to become some sort of therapy session. But strangely, she felt warm in her chest.
Warm because Raya wasn't just the Divine's Executioner but also a person. She was feeling warm because she was the one Raya opened up to. She was feeling warm because Kari was the one dumbly patting the Wyvern's back.
She felt warm, and for maybe the first time in this life, so did Raya.
That felt... nice.