Smiling, Liara pulled back from leaning on a man’s shoulder. Just sitting there with him, under an apple tree and on such a sunny day, made her whole body tingle with excitement and put her restless mind at peace. There was nowhere else she would rather be. Liara leaned back in so she could fall into his eyes again, but as she did so the sky began to grow cloudy and overcast. That’s when Liara noticed the surrounding landscape, where it had previously just been a blurry vision, it sharply came into focus when she actually looked around.
The sky was not darkening from clouds. It was thick, acrid smoke coming from the encompassing city that was blocking out the sun. Liara felt a dreadful sense of déjà vu as she witnessed the carnage before her. The screams of thousands of people intermingled with sporadic gunfire and bone chilling roars of rage.
Without any sense of direction people were running out of the city in all directions. However, some of the figures ran extraordinarily fast, and they easily caught the fleeing people. Men and women were dragged down to the ground, ravaged by teeth that tore out their throats or else had their skulls caved with chunks of debris. Some of the fleeing figures tried to fight, but they didn’t stand a chance as they were killed as fast as if they were running.
The struggle between the living and dead was over as soon as it started. The scene would have been a paradigm for a dark painting of the underworld. Bodies were heaped upon other bodies in the grotesque positions that they were slaughtered and the ground ran with rivulets of blood. Like vengeful revenants, the thousands of slain bodies rose from the ground and began to gather in a huddle, bumping into each other with no sense of purpose or direction. Pushed around by the press of bodies, one of the figures instinctively climbed up on top of a car. Liara’s heart fell when she saw his head was twisted far enough to make his cause of death obvious. Her heart fell even further when she saw that it was staring right at her.
Liara fervently prayed that it wouldn’t do anything, but her prayers were for naught as the monster began hopping up and down on the car hooting and pointing in her direction. Thousands of eyes turned at once and saw Liara on the hill. The air was filled with their undulating wails as the corpses began to rush toward the hill with single-minded ferocity.
Letting out an inaudible scream, Liara tried to jump up and run, but her legs were not responding, they became like two anchors weighing her down. Her hand instinctively reached up to the dream man’s shoulder for support but as she did so a massive dagger was brutally slammed into her stomach.
All the screaming ceased to exist in a sudden void of any noise whatsoever as Liara gaped at the dagger protruding from her abdomen; now bleeding profusely and making a crimson red blood flower spread on her white dress. She followed the dagger, up the handle and the arm that wielded it, to gaze into the face of her attacker.
With a wicked grin of filed teeth and slate gray eyes, Talia looked back. Wordlessly Liara could only mouth the question “why?” before she blinked and found herself falling down a hole, with Talia’s face staring over the edge, still grinning. A second head popped up on the other side of the hole’s edge, but all she could make out was an emotionless gasmask staring down and the hand of a familiar young man that reached for her. Time seemed to go into slow motion as she grabbed for it, her fingertips just brushed his, yet it was not enough and Liara continued to fall.
The Imp reached down longingly at Liara, but he quickly went out of view as she plummeted into the dark void. A yellow dot began to grow with increasing rapidity as Liara fell, seeing it jolted Liara’s memory back the same way a defibrillator restarts a heart, and the vision of her own eye staring at her gave Liara control over her voice. It didn’t do much good though as it only gave her the voice to scream on the way down to the pit of grasping hands and grinding teeth.
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We are, all of us, heartbroken by the tragic loss of life that defined the reprehensible attack on Apophyllion, but just as the last month was a time to mourn those who are no longer with us, now is a time to rejoice. For standing with me here today are the heroes of Apophyllion’s defense. Brave women, each of them, who in the greatest hour of need, answered the call to take up arms and defend them people and homeland.
Standing with me now, are three of the Queen’s greatest Magical Girls. Selanora Valchekonov, Candice Sweeney, and Collete Noblesse. It was thanks to their actions that the black heart of the Yabanchi invasion was cut out like the cancer it is and put to a stop before any more of those horrific beasts could be summoned. The Queen wishes to bestow on these heroes the highest honor she can give and award each of them the Platinum Crown. May they continue to be shining examples of our strength and determination to stand against all forms of evil and hate in the universe.
Yet not all heroes wear mana armor, for standing beside them are two students of the Apophyllion Magical Girl Academy, newly chosen Magical Girls themselves, who played key roles in defending their school. Facing potential loss of life and limb, they fully utilized the Queen’s blessings and slew the Yabanchi who thought they could make easy targets out of the students who are our kingdom’s very future! For their valor and noble example to other upcoming Magical Girls and civilians alike, the Queen is awarding Belle Noblesse and Dana Cole with early class advancements.
This boon is a burden as much as it is an award, for the coming days will surely call upon them to use these powers and responsibilities. May you wield them with honor and courage and continue to inspire us!
Please rise and give your praise to the Queen’s honored champions! May we all strive after their example!
Pellas clicked off the television and cast an eye toward the darkened room nearby. He was afraid that the sound of the award ceremony speech might have woken Liara up, but his Magical Girl was still lying in bed, and aside from waking up from a nightmare an hour ago, had hardly moved since he last checked on her. The days since she had been moved from the hospital intensive care unit and moved into her own private house had been quiet. When Pellas tried speaking with her, Liara answered with shrugs or one word answers, and she never looked him in the eyes. Paradoxically, she never slept alone. It was only just last night that she was able to fall asleep without Pellas in the room with her, but only if he was in the next room and the door was open.
It was happening again, Pellas felt it deep in his core. He had lost another Magical Girl and he'd have to go back to that weightless void until he was called to serve another champion. No. No, those thoughts came crawling in, but he banished them forthright. He still had a champion, he just had to be patient with her and wait by her side. Besides, he had a few ideas that might cheer the young woman up and drag her out of her sorrow. And if that didn't work?
Well, it had been a long time since he had prayed. The memory of warm hands folded together, blood coursing through his heart and breath, wordlessly beseeching the Almighty came to him. Did God hear a golem's prayers or was his memory just another teasing glimpse of hope for a redemption that would never be his? He wanted to ask others so many times, but his voice could never form the words, trapped by the dark powers of a perversion of something good and once holy, now an abomination that made the eyes of Providence look away in darkened clouds of condemnation...
*KNOCK-KNOCK*
Pellas sprang off the couch and out of his thoughts and flew toward the door. They were here earlier than he expected, but he was happy that they had gotten his message. He did not think that such a high ranking Magical Girl would condescend herself to cavorting with them, but Selanora had a good reputation. Perhaps his secret hope would be realized and she would accept his request! These flights of fancy made Pellas hum a cheerful tune as he opened the door to their house and joyfully shout.
"Welcome! Welco-" His voice caught in his throat as if the compact itself was strangling him, for Selanora was not standing in the doorway. It was Belle Noblesse. His tone changed, "What are you doing here?"
"Well good to see you too, Bug Boy. I'm here to see Liara."
"She is not seeing visitors."
"Oh yeah? Sure seemed like you were expecting someone."
"Yes, anyone but you."
Belle puckered her lips and looked like she bit back an insult she was going to hurl at the golem, instead she spoke as cordially as she could through gritted teeth. "You rebuffed me at the hospital, but you will not do so again. Please let me see her."
"She does not want to see you."
"You mean she does not want to see Holzer. I did not bring him this time." Belle flung her arms out and Pellas looked around. The stodgy paladin was indeed not hanging around or in sight. When he glanced back at Belle again she gave him a look that one hundred percent expected to get her way.
"Even if he is not here, you may remind her of...," Pellas paused. "She just needs rest."
"Perhaps she'd better rest with a less annoying partner," a familiar feline voice replied. Pellas groaned as Cassandra came floating down from above their heads. She was well partnered with Belle, since they both gave Pellas the same withering look of dignified annoyance.
"Oh, be quiet, stupid cat. I know what she needs and it is not you two barging in here and waking her up!"
"Pellas?" Liara's voice cut across the house and made everyone freeze. "Who is that?"
Before Pellas could reply, Belle pushed her head in and shouted, "It's me, Belle!" Liara did not reply and feeling the awkward pressure build up, Belle added, "It's just me and Cassandra!"
A long enough moment passed that Pellas was about to usher them off the porch when Liara replied, "Come in."
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
Belle brushed past Pellas without making any snarky comments, but Cassandra could not help but arch her eyebrows at him. The golem took it all in with a smattering of grumbling and closed the door with a fair bit of force. He felt annoyed that the blonde Magical Girl and her golem tramped through their house like they owned the place and beelined straight for Liara's room. At least they did not flip the light dimmer up when they went in the room or else he really would have lost it.
From Belle's point of view, it was natural that she be there. That golem had been keeping Liara sequestered from the outside world for too long and she had things that needed to be done and words that needed to be said. As it was, she had to fix her face from the look of shock that almost broke across it as she saw her Academy classmate. "Hey girl," Belle waved at Liara and Liara waved back, but the normally slender arm was now gaunt, matched by the rest of the owner's body who looked like she lost twenty pounds in the weeks she Belle had last seen her in person. There was a body odor smell lingering in the air that the scent candles Pellas had placed around the room could not cover up. It was obvious that Liara had not bathed in days, but Belle was certainly not going to mention it.
[Don't say a word, Cass.]
[Of course, of course. You give me too little credit, my dear.]
Belle cleared her throat and said, "It's been a while, last time I saw you, you were pretty touch and go at the hospital."
"Yeah." Liara's voice came out rough and barely louder than a whisper. From what Belle had been told, there had been some severe trauma to her trachea that only time could heal. Belle had been the one who saved Liara from being strangled to death by Talia, or more accurately, the Yabanchi that had been wearing Talia's skin. Liara had just stood there and let the thing choke the life out of her until Belle cut its head off. In oppressing hindsight, Belle probably shouldn't have cut off Liara's best friend's head in front of her, the shocking ramifications of that decision still haunted her in quiet moments where her customary accusatory thoughts assailed her. Yet if she felt that way about it, she could only imagine how Liara was taking it.
Or Doctor Holzer.
Her paladin had been quiet for the first few days after the attack, Belle had chalked that up to recovering from so much battle shock, but after they had visited Liara in the hospital, he had broken down all at once and poured his guilt out in a tearless confession. Liara had asked him to protect Talia while she made her suicidal distraction run and of course Holzer had said yes, but when Belle was in danger while electrocuting the Kort, he had left Talia to save his Magical Girl. Cassandra's unasked for opinion was that the paladin had done the right thing and served the proper master, but Belle had been a little less comforting. He said he would do one thing and yet he did another, the consequence was a dead girl. Whether she would have died without Holzer's intervention, they would never know, but the concrete reality was the hollowed out corpse of Liara's best friend being used like a skin suit by a Mylock.
“I’m sorry for your loss.” “I’m glad you’re okay.” “We’re here for you.”
Cheesy cliches and words of sympathy flooded Belle’s mind, but they all fell flat before she even spoke them. She knew that nothing she could say or do could bring back Talia, so she reverted to wringing her hands and mumbling, “We have a gift for you.”
"We decided to gift you with the Kort's mana core, you are the most deserving of it, darling." Cassandra purred.
[You say that now, but you were complaining about giving it to her the entire trip here.] Belle mentally jabbed at her golem, but the socially adept cat pretended not to hear the mental barb.
From thin air, a mana core the size of a basketball materialized on Liara’s bedside table. Holzer had spent the better part of an hour cutting through the Kort’s corpse to retrieve it and after thinking about it for some time, Belle thought Liara should have it.
“It was your plan that let us slay that Kort and your courage to be a distraction that let us pull it off. Please accept this as a token of my respect.” Belle bowed toward Liara and kept the pose for a full ten seconds. When she looked up, Liara was still impassively staring, but her lip had a small quiver that went away.
Maybe Liara was about to say something, but if she was it was interrupted by another knock at the door. Pellas jumped up and skittered with his jumble of legs past Belle.
“Coming!” Belle heard the Golem open the door and then him ushering in someone. Belle thought it was rude that he was letting more guests come in while they were still there, but her complaint was stilled in her throat when Selanora walked into Liara’s room.
“Ah, Ms. Noblesse, I didn’t expect to see you so soon after the ceremony; a pleasure to see you.”
Belle instantly composed with her years of social training and replied, “Likewise, Lady Selanora. I was visiting my friend.” Belle ended the sentence with a blunt pause as she suddenly wondered if she could call Liara that. They were peers now, certainly, but Belle had spent so many years teasing the girl that it felt kind of wrong to say they were anything more than that.
Selanora either did not pick up on Belle’s awkwardness or did not care, for she walked past the blonde girl and took a knee by Liara’s bedside.
“Good to see you too, Liara. You probably don’t remember, but we visited you in the hospital, had a neighboring room for a bit too,” she gestured to her missing right arm and continued, “but I’m glad to see you’re awake and alert.”
Liara smiled at Selanora and broke Belle’s heart. Even she could tell it was forced. With as much cheer as she could drum, Liara replied, “Thank you for visiting me, then and now. I’m honored such a renowned Magical Girl would pay me any mind.”
“Well, your golem must have messaged us a hundred times. I figured it was about time that we obliged.”
“Oh and we are thankful indeed that you are here, my Lady!” Pellas hovered over by Liara’s bed and said, “I will just jump straight to the point and ask you. Will you be Liara’s mentor?”
From the way Selanora’s face suddenly twinged and she glanced up and away, Belle knew the answer before anyone else could say, which made it all the more awkward as the moment dragged out.
“Uh, I’m flattered that you considered asking me, but I don’t think my current schedule will allow me to do that.”
It was a gentle refusal and Belle hoped that the golem would drop the issue, but to her amazement he kept on prodding and not only that, but he brought up Lady Selanora’s grievous injury!
“Well, I had thought that you might want to hear us out first, since we have the solution to your limb loss problem.”
A man’s voice rumbled from the doorway, “You have something that can restore Selanora’s arm? Impossible, even the best artificial limb crafters couldn’t graft a replacement back on her.”
“They said the corruption from the Lich’s attack made it unstable, correct?”
The man nodded. He was wearing a black trench coat over light mana armor, but Belle did not need to see the twin swords hanging from his belt to know that it was Leng himself, Selanora’s legendary paladin. Pellas was bold indeed to banter words with such a person whose reputation was death walking.
“Well, it just so happens that Ms. Noblesse dropped a Kort’s mana core in our lap a few minutes ago. Very convenient, given what it can do when applied correctly.”
Belle knew what it could do, but her main concern was that the core was ludicrously expensive, its true property was so much more. Selanora’s golem materialized and made an exclamation.
“It can restore any tissue damage whatsoever! Melt it down and apply it to Lady Selanora’s arm and it will regrow a new one, corruption or not!”
Belle did not know if she believed in fate, but she felt the weight of something coming together in this small room. The core, the wound, the mentor, the mentee. It was like watching puzzle pieces finding their matching pair and Pellas was manipulating everyone on the fly with his ideas and proposals. It was doubtful that he knew Belle would give them the core, so he was just going along with the flow.
[Clever spider.] Cassandra’s whisper brushed her mind and Belle had to agree. From the look on Selanora’s face, she knew that Pellas had won. Of course she’d take on a pupil if it meant she’d get her arm back! Belle was feeling jealous, considering who her mentor was, but that shattered when Liara spoke.
“No. No, I don’t want that. She can just have the core.”
Pellas’ gloating air burst and he whirled on his Magical Girl.
“What?!”
“I don’t want to be a Magical Girl. I’m done with all that.”
“But you agreed to the terms! You can not just quit!”
The other Magical Girls and Golems did not say anything, but waited to hear Liara’s reply. It came with a sigh that expended a lifetimes worth of regret.
“I’m not worthy to be one. I’m sorry, but I just want to sleep.”
“But,” Pellas stammered and Leng interrupted him by grabbing the Kort’s mana core.
“I think we should go. Your girl needs rest, golem.”
“You can not just take that!”
“Why not, she gave it to us.”
Pellas shot Selanora a pleading look, but the high ranked Magical Girl’s face was as unreadable as the mask her paladin wore.
“Yes, we are taking our leave. Good day, Pellas, and thank you, Liara.” With a nod that was not reciprocated, Selanora strode out of the room and toward the front door. Belle was torn, since she wanted to say something more to Liara, but the white haired girl had closed her eyes and pretended to sleep.
Seeing this, Belle ran after the fast paced Selanora and caught up to her on the street outside. Before she could close her aircar door, Belle put a hand in and asked, “Just what do you think you’re doing?”
Leng was staring at Belle’s intruding hand, but Selanora took it in stride and replied, “Respecting the girl’s wishes. Now if you please, I have places to be.”
Belle’s every instinct was to back away and cower from the sudden pressure in Selanora’s gaze, but she stood her ground and gave her a stiff upper lip.
“I’d have thought that the great Lady Selanora would not condescend herself to be a thief.”
“Watch yourself, girl.” Leng growled from inside the aircar, but then he cocked his head and then sat back down.
“The core was freely given. I am no thief.”
“That core is worth at least fifty thousand points, maybe more if you can find the right buyer, and you’re just going to scarper off with it like it’s a cheap wedding gift.”
Selanora’s composure broke for the first time and she frowned at Belle, “What do you expect? Your friend is broken, even if I wanted her under my wing, there’s no restoration item to heal the kind of wounds she has.”
“She just needs time.”
“Time is not a luxury I can afford.”
Belle pulled back a bit from the aircar, only the edge of her fingers kept the doors from closing and Selanora flying off. She agreed with the swordswoman, but a fire in her gut refused to let her just walk away. Talia certainly wouldn’t if she had still been there, but since she wasn’t, Belle resolved to do her best.
“Your new arm will take some time to grow, three months at least. Give Liara that time to recover before you just abandon your debt to her.”
Selanora stepped out of the car and Belle almost fell on her rear. The high ranker seemed to tower over her, despite them being relatively the same height.
“Don’t mistake me for being a cheap Glamour Girl. I have never broken my word nor forgotten to repay a debt. I was going to forward said fifty thousand points to your friend, but you’ve ticked me off. You'll have your three months, girl, but if Liara still refuses to be a Magical Girl, then I want you to quit with her.”
Belle gaped at the pressure that almost forced her to her knees, but Cassandra spoke for her.
“You can’t make her do that!”
“Oh? I can make it so that every Conglomerate corpo knows to stay a million miles away from you two. No sponsors. I can make it so any time you want to purchase a ship, the yard is conveniently out. No transport. I can make it so you’ll never advance your class upgrades. I can make your life as a Magical Girl as miserable as I want to.”
Belle cringed at the older woman’s venom and flattened her expression despite the urge to run. There was truth to what Selanora was saying, but she forgot that Belle’s mother was just as powerful and influential as her. If Belle wanted to, she could run to her mother for help.
It was too bad they both know she would not do that.
“Deal. Three months and Liara will be your student.”
Selanora broke her intense gaze and Belle felt the pressure instantly lighten. As she stepped back in her aircar the Magical Girl replied, “Or more like you’ll both be recharging mana batteries together in retirement.” The door swished shut and Belle was left to watch the car fly away. Even if Selanora was still there, she would not have had a witty reply, for she wondered herself if that would indeed be their fate.