Thousands of years ago, a tall tower of indestructible stone,
Called, The Cradle emerged from the ground.
Following its emergence was the appearance of dimensional rifts…
opening across the entire world to dimensions filled with monsters,
Humans fought back the monsters that traversed the rifts,
And climbed the floors of The Cradle…
As the years flew by, there remained five unchallenged floors,
until the very peak of The Cradle…
Then a group of ten would conquer the Cradle.
But only two would remain…
[Records of a Dead World stream, Solaerum.]
#There’s some missing information here. @Oswald, is there a reason for that? - AO
#That’s a little strange. Never had this happened before. I’ll have to investigate this later. - OzDiet
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…Atop The Cradle stood two figures amongst the five that made it, who were now simply unrecognizable corpses on the ground, their defining features long gone after the destructive fight that occurred against the beings at the top, with the leader now bisected vertically, the two were a tall stoic man and a petite determined girl.
The tall, stoic fair man whose hair altered was now white with turquoise highlights reminiscent of moonlight, and eyes that glowed a similar color but beneath it, were natural yellow eyes, the armor he wore embedded with crystals of moonlight, damaged with dents and cuts, his cape now tattered carried the sigil of the guild Lucia’s Visage,
his great sword stabbed into the ground to support his body, its design simple yet elegant, its blade glowing with moonlight.
The petite, determined pale girl whose hair was a soft pink complementing her rose-red eyes, wore a now tattered lightly armored robe, its color matching her eyes, also carrying the sigil of Lucia’s Visage on the back.
she kneeled with her left leg and held a staff with her right hand, its catalyst a crystal designed in the shape of a moon and at the very tip a blade for self-defense.
The two of them were exhausted. Since the fight had started from the evening to midnight with the moon, with all its glory now shining over them. The stoic man coughed and chuckled before breathing in, looking down, and exhaling.
“The Cradle… it’s conquered” he looked up to the sky, his face filled with mixed emotions, standing in silence. The girl gave him a somber smile.
“We really did it…” The girl stood up with the support of her staff and walked up to the side of the man “I am sorry… Morris, I couldn’t get everyone to make it” Tears were about to form as she was about to continue, but the man, Morris, wiped them away.
“Stop” the girl is interrupted as Morris puts his hand on her shoulder. She looked over at him with her usual somber expression, his eyes closed and his head now lowered.
“I know how you feel Clara… I understand…” He took another deep breath,
“I could have done the same. It didn’t go the way I wanted either… but…-” he turned his head over to her with a soft smile. “All that matters now is that their deaths aren’t in vain and that we conquered the Cradle.”
“You’re right…” She agreed, her expression brightening up a bit. Before looking back at the bisected monster that resided at the top of The Cradle’s centre.
In the end, they had won. They may have lost people, but now more people could continue to live without fear, as they had taken care of the source of the dimensional rifts.
“Let’s collect everything we’ll need to bring back. I’ll pick up our comrades’ equipment and… bodies for their funerals…” Morris told Clara as he stood upright and placed his great sword back into its sheath.
“I’ll look over the stuff these monsters dropped. Maybe they’ll have something useful for us!” Clara decided. Morris nodded before going over to gather the equipment of their dead allies while Clara went along to loot the monsters.
Sometime later, Morris was busy collecting the equipment and bodies of the dead comrades that remained at the top of the tower. Clara gathered anything that didn’t have any information on them, from unknown materials and equipment to accessories.
“The fact we were fighting these…” Clara thought as she scanned for anything to pick up. It was a little frightening knowing now that they were fighting against monsters with materials unknown to their world...
As Clara went over to the center, she scanned something in front of the huge bisected monster, crouching to check it out. It was the front of the amulet the monster wore. It remained undamaged, with a rather intricate design and a black spherical crystal in the middle.
“This could be really useful. I’ll call Morris over.” She stood up, walking away from the amulet, but as she did so, it glowed an ominous red, and slowly at the centre of the field, something was flickering into existence...
“Morris! I found something!” She called Morris over as he prepared the bodies to be transported back down the Cradle; Morris turned, immediately alarmed.
“LOOK OUT!” Morris shouted as he rushed over to Clara, his eyes widened in what appeared to be absolute panic.
“W-what’s-” Before Clara could say anything, her body quickly maneuvered and imbued her staff with a hefty amount of mana before blocking a flickering magical blade that appeared to come out of a vortex in the middle.
“I… didn’t sense that?” Clara thought as a notification appeared in front of her.
[Forced Preservation Activated!]
Morris made it in to defend her. As she toppled over from the sudden attack, a little disoriented, and attempted to look over where the attack came from.
“Stay behind me, Clara!” Morris urgently told Clara as a turquoise aura manifested around him and his sword imbued with mana once more.
“D-did the amulet do that? But I didn’t touch it!” She spoke with confusion, but before she could speak further, a new notification popped up.
[Forced Preservation Deactivated: Could Not Find Solution.]
It caused her to feel immense dread yet… “Could not find a solution… then…” She didn’t know if she was thinking clearly, but she began to slowly stand up.
“W-what are you…” Morris questioned before realizing why, his eyes widening with horror. “It deactivated?”
Clara nodded. “I can’t run anymore.” She laughed awkwardly, getting up. “It deactivated… but… I don’t feel like running away…” she gave Morris a crooked smile yet it looked like she wasn’t all there…
“Oliver… Mom… Dad… I’ll be there soon… I’ll just fight one last-” Clara felt something hold her two hands, pulling her out of her thoughts. It was Morris, her hands in a cupping gesture by him.
“W-what are you doing?” She asked, confused, unable to determine his actions or expression. Then he grabbed something from his pouch and placed it in her hands.
The medallion appeared, engraved with the guild's sigil in a crystal at the center that glowed brightly, the same turquoise the guild was known for, and immediately Clara received a new notification.
[Forced Preservation Activated!]
Clara’s expression was that of bafflement, “N-no way… You…” She was in complete disbelief, tears beginning to form as the medallion’s effect began to activate and a mysterious barrier appeared around her.
“I am sorry Clara…” Morris slowly stood up and turned to face the vortex that continued to grow now, having grown much larger than before.
[Forced Preservation: Preparing for Hibernation]
“I… can’t let you die, you might resent me, but I hope you’ll understand.” he walked towards the vortex. Clara’s body began to hibernate as it maneuvered Clara’s body to fall safely.
“Why… Morris…” was all she could muster before slowly going unconscious, but before that, Morris turned his head to look over at Clara with a gentle smile.
“The next time we meet… tell me Lucia’s secret,” was all she heard before going unconscious.
Clara flutters her eyes open. She breathed in the stale, desolate air. “That memory again…” was all Clara could mutter as she sat up on the bed, hugging her legs with a somber expression, looking out the window at the desolate city she once called home.
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Chapter 1: Dead World.
In the end, all that was left, Was an insignificant magician, Named Clara Eustons.
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Clara traveled down the city streets. The morning was chilly as the wind blew heavily through the streets of the desolate city, old newspapers flying through the wind that jingled the occasional wind chimes.
It had been half a month since she had woken up to the desolate world before her and broke down, though after having calmed down, she descended the Cradle and immediately noticed the complete absence of people and how old the world appeared.
It was as if everyone simply vanished from all existence, and a few centuries went by with the Cradle having overgrowths lining its interior, and animals making their home on its various floors.
There were signs of panic near the Cradle, but as she went further out, it was as if people were simply living their daily lives until suddenly vanishing, toys littering the playgrounds, crashed cars, and various belongings left behind in the old malls.
The implications were something Clara chose not to think about and if she did, it would make what she was doing useless. She hoped there’d be someone else that remained in this world and that was all that mattered, so she traveled, now to her final destination, Lucia’s Visage headquarters.
Walking… was a monotonous task for Clara. She tried to teleport to the guild, but the teleportation circle appeared to not be working, as no matter how many times she tried, she couldn’t teleport with the coordinates she had.
She tried to drive over, but couldn’t find the keys for them and if she did, it was a car that she wasn’t used to, which she regrets about not learning how to drive a manual vehicle.
Aside from all that, she had finally arrived at her destination after a week of walking with some needed rest. She was finally at the guild headquarters.
“Let’s look around, then.” She thought, walking into the Lucia’s Visage Headquarters. Though not before feeling a strange sense of uneasiness.
She had gotten used to the loneliness of her situation, but the guild’s building had always made her feel uneasy when she wandered it alone, yet it felt like she wasn’t actually alone either…
She stopped walking for a moment. “Whose there!” she spun around quickly to glimpse a cloaked figure running around the corner. She gasped and immediately chased after the person.
“W-wait, please! Come back!” she ran for the cloaked figure. As the pursuit continued, the figure appeared to be slowing down as Clara caught up.
her stamina having vastly improved after all those days of walking, and as Clara rounded another corner, she spotted the figure running into the guild’s courtyard appearing to be exhausted.
“Stop! Let’s-” Clara shouted out but was quickly interrupted as her eyes widened after spotting a rift in the courtyard, similar to the one that appeared at the top of the Cradle flickering.
“GET AWAY FROM THAT RIFT!” she yelled out loud to the figure, as she prepared her staff to protect the figure, but unfortunately, a monster jumped out of the rift.
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Clara abruptly stopped just as she got to the door leading to the courtyard as dirt, dust, and rocks blew out in all directions.
Clara coughed repeatedly as she covered her face, but then heard bones cracking, snapping, and grinding, blood squelching as her vision cleared up from the falling dust.
She saw the person she was chasing now between the beast's teeth. Their other half was just a bloody paste on the ground, appearing to be ripped to shreds by the beast’s bulky arms.
“T-the only other person I had found in this world and… just like that… gone…” thoughts ran through her head from self-blame to the dreading feeling that shackled Clara in place, with the dust settling she could finally see the beast in full…
“W-what kind of Luthrox is this?” the beast was a Luthrox, a monster she’d encountered various times before, yet this one differed from the variants she’d known which didn’t help with how much pressure and dread it was emitting.
Unlike the steel-like hide of the Brutehides or the tough rock of Cragscales, its silver scales were slim and appeared frosted at the edges.
its head, compared to the two-pronged horns of Brutehides or Cragscales' solid rocky head, was slim, with a sharp spike meant for spearing or slashing,
and the tail while not as dangerous as the bladed tail of a Brutehide, or the head-crushing hammer-tail of a Cragscale, its finned tail could toss around someone as small as Clara...
That was all she could gather as it consumed the figure. Now Clara was the only thing that was in its sight. It licked its mouth, its red eyes now staring into her very being.
“I-I need to run!” The beast tries to lunge at her, but she quickly takes a step back and shoots the ceiling in front of her, collapsing it to break its line of sight. Then, makes a run for it while quickly compiling what she gathered from its appearance to better escape it.
It appears to not be far behind as she hears the collapsing of walls and turns to look back at it… she regrets it fully as she watches the monster galloping towards her. She needed a solution… and found one, as she reinforced her body.
The chase continued for a little longer as she rounded another corner. The unknown Luthrox jumped and clung to the wall, digging its claws in before leaping towards her, but Clara countered with a burst of heavy wind, knocking her further while flinching the beast a little before entering a room.
The Luthrox stormed into the room, crashing through shelves, tables, and the like, creating a mess as it shattered glass and crushed metal objects. Immediately, a barrier formed, covering the walls of the room.
The beast falls under pressure, feeling weakened roaring in anger, and rampages all over the laboratory. Clara on the higher floors of the laboratory rested for a bit.
“Good thing…” she huffed. “I chose to be an assistant… the pressure’s gone,” Clara muttered to herself, having activated the laboratory’s lockdown mechanism, the crystal above glowing brightly,
[Lockdown in progress, enhancing personnel, weakening foreign entity]
She felt much stronger than before, and the pressure that came from the beast weakening, yet another thing was concerning her now.
[Lockdown will lift once the foreign entity no longer shows signs of life or all personnel have ceased functioning.]
She sighs. It’ll continue to rampage all over until either the crystal breaks, the crystal runs out of mana, or the monster kills her.
“There’s no running away now…” She sighed, jumping down to the ground floor, though she wondered, that passive of hers hadn’t appeared since encountering this Luthrox was it because it believed she could do it, or it was something else…
She shook the thoughts off, preparing to fight the monster as it now faces her after its recent thrashing around.
The Luthrox slowly approached, before quickly lunging for her, ripping through the laboratory’s flooring, however, it missed as Clara dodged to the side, and debris flung all around from its impact,
channeling mana on the tip of her staff into the shape of a blade, she slashed its left arm, before following it up with a mana blast and slamming it over the beast’s head, using the knockback to distance herself from the beast as its head recoiled from the blast.
“How strong is this thing?” Clara thought as her attacks could only create superficial wounds on the beast, she quickly chanted summoning a large and fast projectile at the beast, knocking it back a respectful distance, but also creating a plume of smoke that obscured her sight.
the lockdown’s weakening field doing good work, as the beast was now much easier to handle, though she’d yet to see if the Luthrox had a ranged attack like the Cragscales and their magma spits,
And it seemed it wouldn’t be delaying its answer to her as she sensed and quickly dodged a jet of water that barely grazed her through the plume of smoke. The jet of water impacted the barrier, causing it to glitch.
"If that hits the crystal...," Clara thought, but she was immediately pulled out as a frightening roar emanated from beyond the smoke, as it cleared The Luthrox appeared to be dripping with water now, the frost that covered the scales was dripping off and a cold mist surrounded the Luthrox appearing enraged…
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Several minutes passed as the fight went on. As the fight went on, the laboratory became ruined, with impact craters on the floors, wetness from the water that dripped from the Luthrox and its projectiles, and various residues from Clara's myriad of spells.
Clara had to become more defensive and block the projectiles that the Luthrox were throwing at her by conjuring barriers, leaving her open to the occasional tail slap or a cross punch when it changed directions.
And there was an issue that was now apparent, “Damnit… the amount of mana I am using…” Even with the lockdown’s help, she was simply using too much, from keeping her reinforcement and acceleration on to enhancing her staff, and her spell usage.
However, the Luthrox, now dubbed Icebreacher, was now battered, with its nose spike severed by a well-placed mana blast. If she could keep up and just simply wait between her heavy usages, she could win.
But it seems the beast has had enough as it slammed the ground, enraged. Its roar sounded desperate as it shot out of its mouth; a long concentrated stream of water… and didn’t stop.
“You!...” Clara quickly blasted it with a strong projectile trying to interrupt the flow, but… soon realized her mistake as the Icebreacher’s head recoiled and the nonstop jet of water made contact with the crystal.
“S-shit!” she swore in her head as the crystal shattered. The Luthrox finally stopped, exhausted from blasting so much water…
[Lockdown lifted; Crystal destroyed]
Immediately, Clara felt her mana drain completely as she dropped to her hands and knees.
“Ugh… I have to…” She stopped all the mana that was being channeled, but quickly the dread and pressure that was lifted by the lockdown returned.
[Forced Preservation Activated]
The notification appeared as she barely stood up and immediately felt her entire body quickly reinforced… no, it was like her mana was going all in reinforcing her entire body.
Only to be hit literally as the fist of the Luthrox connects with her centre of mass. She’s knocked through a wall into the guild’s lobby, her body aching all over. She tried to stand but couldn’t and opted to crawl as far away as she could.
“Damned it… doing all this… and in the end, running away again…” She muttered to herself, crying as she continued to crawl “I am really…”
[Forced Preservation Deactivated: Death Imminent]
Clara vomits blood as she looks at the notification. Her crawling stops as she’s lifted off the ground.
she doesn’t even feel it… as a blade of ice stabbed through her abdomen connected to the broken pointed nose of the Icebreacher Luthrox she fought with all her might.
For the last few minutes of her life, she was in complete agony. The pain was to her indescribable a mixture of being frostbitten and the ripping and tearing of her flesh, before finally… blanking out, feeling nothing…
Drifting in nothingness, she recalled her past. Clara stood out in the rain in front of an orphanage. She turned her head over to the right to find a younger version of herself unconscious. All that was covering her up was a blanket wrapped tight yet snugly around her.
The scene changes. Now she’s in the orphanage recalling the various memories there, and the day the Eustons family adopted her, another scene shift, now living with the Eustons, her first birthdays, and everything that entailed being a part of a family.
She continued to watch the memories play out, such as her school days, the day she and her brother went to join Lucia’s Visage, the day her brother died protecting her, and her failure to save her adoptive parents…
the further it went on, the fewer memories of happiness there were in her life.
However, there was one last happy memory, just before the last climb up the five remaining levels, the celebration of her birthday with the whole guild, and thus the reel of memories, ended, leaving her standing in an empty void.
She exhaled, closed her eyes, feeling weightless, and thought that she lived a good life… even if it all went toppling over near the very end. “Maybe… in the next life, I’ll do better…” she allowed herself to relax and felt a peace finally embracing her…
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[Congratulations on being the last human to die!]
Clara heard the peaceful embrace gone, her eyes quickly opening, finding herself still in the empty void standing again and now, processing what the voice had said and the window that popped up in front of her left her with an unreadable expression.
[A-are you alright? I was just joking!]
Tears welled up in her eyes as she dropped to her knees and dropped to her side before completely breaking down and crying. For all she had gone and suffered through was a punchline to a joke.
[I-I am sorry! Just please listen to what I have to say…]
The voice timidly tried to salvage the situation, though Clara appeared to be babbling on, mixed in with her sobbing, sniffling, cries, and rolling around on the non-existent floor…
[My Creator’s going to kill me.]
A metaphorical sweat dropped from the voice’s window. Though it appears Clara calmed down from the mess that was a few moments ago. “Alright… I’ll hear you out,” Clara answered, now sitting and hugging her legs.
[Really?]
Clara nodded, though she felt a little nervous. Whatever it was offering, it sounded like it wouldn’t go away until she accepted...
[Alright… I’ve watched since you woke up to the dead world you once lived your whole life in, seen the hard-fought battle between you and that monstrous beast…]
If it could express it, it’d probably be cringing at what it was even saying. Clara even appeared to be embarrassed and uncomfortable listening to what could have been just flattery.
[Bleh… I’ll just get to the point. Contract with me and I’ll turn you into a magical girl and undergo regression!]
“U-undergo regression?” Clara repeated, her attention now caught. She’s heard of regression before having read comics about them where the main character returns to the past and changes the future.
[Hehe… looks like I’ve hooked you in! Yeah, become a magical girl, undergo regression, go back to the past, and save the world!]
It sounded all too good to be true as she got up. “I-I’m not getting scammed, am I? There’s usually some sort of twist to this kind of magical girl business.” She questioned it, cautious to not make a deal that was to her detriment.
[I promise there’s no scam! I swear as a creation from Avalon.]
“A-Avalon!” is another word that caught her attention, thought to be of legend, a garden outside of time and space where the god of time Aion originated and where his greatest followers go.
one notable one was Oswald Die Ziets, known as the greatest magician to exist even though he was both revered and despised for various things in his history.
“T-than are you a creation of Oswald?” her eyes appeared to sparkle with hope.
[You sound like he’s quite an inspiration to you~ maybe this was even destined~]
“I-I can’t decline now…” after hearing it out all the way, she couldn’t convince herself to decline. If she did, maybe she’d reincarnate but lose the memories that she held dear and she already showed a complete interest in it…
“The next time we meet… tell me Lucia’s secret.” She remembered Morris’s last words to her. “Could it be… could Morris be a regressor, too?” she speculated.
“Alright! I’ll contract with you, I’ll become a magical girl and regress!” she told it, now determined to see it through.
[Very well! I’ll introduce myself. I am Terminal Mondlicht.]
Mondlicht introduced itself as something appeared in front of her in a bright turquoise light. As the light dimmed,
“So, this is what you look like, Mondlicht?” She appeared impressed as she saw Mondlicht’s appearance, a small transformation device coated in pink with gold and silver accents, its body made with black metal and mana with a turquoise hue reminiscent of moonlight.
[Do you like it? Well, all you have to do now is channel your mana into me and the contract is complete!]
Mondlicht informed her through the device, to which she nodded in understanding before hovering her hand over Mondlicht and channeling her mana into Mondlicht.
At that moment, a soft aura of turquoise mana surrounds Clara as a sigil of the contract forms on her upper back, the edges of her soft pink hair turned turquoise, and her eyes now shimmer with turquoise contrasting with her rose-red eyes.
[Contract complete! Terminal Mondlicht at your service!]
“Now that we’re contracted… how do I regress?” Clara awkwardly asked Mondlicht, looking away, scratching the back of her head.
[You got this far yet didn’t even ask me that until now? How hopeless~ Ack!]
Mondlicht teased Clara, who then squeezed Mondlicht as hard as she could.
[Alright… it's really simple! Just tell me how far back you want it to be!]
“Oh… then… let’s go back 5 years before the last climb up The Cradle!” She told Mondlicht with confidence arm up at it.
[...Regression destination established… linking with established coordinates…]
A magic circle appeared beneath Clara and Mondlicht and glowed brighter and faster as Mondlicht went through each step. “By the way, Mondlicht… is regression a one-time deal?”
[Is Regression a One-Time deal?... no, but, it uses a lot of mana, and each time I have to use more to prevent… an accidental carryover… Preparing to depart…]
The mention of an accidental carryover sounded ominous to Clara but to hear that she could regress again, but at the cost of more mana, with each regression. Looking down, the circle spun much faster and was almost blinding.
[Departing in 30 seconds… Clara, I hope we’ll get along from now on!”
Clara nodded. “I will, Mondlicht.” the circle now spinning impossibly fast, the turquoise light engulfing Clara’s bottom half, continuing to speed up.
[Departing in 15 seconds…]
Sparks of turquoise mana appear around the two, intensifying every second.
[Departing in 10 seconds… By the way Clara.]
“Eh?” Clara, confused by Mondlicht, as they were departing.
[You never asked to check my information… Departing in 5…]
Clara’s eyes widened. “Why didn’t youuu-” the blinding turquoise light engulfed them as they blinked out of the black void.
[Departed for 21XX, 5 years before The last climb…]
In The Garden Outside of Time and Space.
A bright turquoise orb amongst others from various other world streams appeared in the sky, approaching a segment of the world stream it belonged to In the past.
Under a gazebo out in the garden, an old man watches the dazzling garden sky as the turquoise orb arrives at its destination. “I hope in your success, Clara Eustons.” was all he said, smiling and sipping his coffee.
Somewhere in The Past
In a two-story house on the outer edges of the residential district of the city known as Selene, a room was engulfed with a bright turquoise light before quickly disappearing, inside the room lying on a pastel bed Clara Eustons sound asleep while Mondlicht appeared on the nightstand, next to Clara’s phone.
The phone’s screen momentarily turns on from a quick alert by The Cradle Association having experienced a quick and massive mana signature at 2:27 A.M. before being turned off.
To be continued…