My birthday celebration came with only minor hiccups. I’ll spare you descriptions of the ceremony. It was nice, (I got to eat cake) and received a few gifts, but the only thing I could think of was what would happen after. I couldn’t sit still. I had been dolled up by Zenith, played with Aisha and Norn, and had a rare conversation with just Paul and Lilia together.
It was all very nice, but every time I saw their smiling faces, the only thing I could think of was what would come next.
Aisha, yelling out in rage, her self esteem constantly being whittled down by the people in Millis that dared call her family.
Paul, his eyes so dull and his head so full of booze he couldn’t tell night from day anymore.
Lilia, whose expressions had opened so much in the last few years, going back to a listless gaze, staring outside the window looking for an answer.
Norn, crying over the remains of her father’s belongings, clutching a sword way too big for her.
Zenith… Zenith… It would take years before she would be able to outwardly smile again. And to whom could she come back to..? Her husband lies in two in a dungeon on the other side of the world.
I had to stop it. Somehow.
The only thing I had to do was make sure that we all held hands together. Where we would teleport, how high, or how low, it didn’t matter. All that mattered was that we did it together. I could figure the rest out myself.
I could only curse myself that I hadn’t taken more drastic measures sooner. Just because I was scared?! It’s a poor excuse. I should have done something! Said something! Their lives were more important than my need to keep up the facade. A beautiful facade, where I could be part of this family without having to lay myself bare, where my existence wasn’t a curse upon them!
I wish I was born without any memories of my previous life! Then I wouldn’t have to pretend to be their daughter, pretend to be their sister. I could just be.. I could pretend that I was part of their family. These last ten years have been so peaceful, so happy, so… everything that I could ever want.
But the time for that is over now. I had decided. I wouldn’t wait until tomorrow. We had to leave now. No time for anything less.
I reached for the new sword Paul gave me this morning, the old one little larger than a dagger at this point. This new one had a bigger hilt, reinforced with a different kind of metal. It would help me with parries and blocks better than a normal sword would. Perfect for the Water-God Style.
I didn’t have provisions for the road yet, so I would have to head down to the kitchen for th—
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I woke up to a rocking motion. My back hurt. My head hurt. My eyes refused to open until I forced them to, and when I woke, I found myself in a carriage, on the road.
The pounding in my head refused to go away, making it hard to focus. My sword along with its sheath was next to me, as well as a knapsack, filled with clothes? My clothes..
“You’re finally awake.” An unfamiliar figure in front of me said. I looked up.
A smartly dressed man, elderly, with little hair, sat in front of me. Somehow this situation felt familiar. “Where am I?”
“You’re on a carriage.” The man said calmly, dimmed sunlight peeking through the blinders. I looked outside. Lots of clouds today…
“Why am I on a carriage?”
“Your father instructed me to take you to the Capital Ars, and make your way to the Water God dojo there. We will be arriving in approximately two weeks.”
“What.” No—Paul did? Why?
“Yes. Your belongings are next to you. I’ve been instructed to prevent you from leaving this carriage.” The man’s eyes narrowed, and it was then that I noticed the sword resting next to him.
I looked outside again. Something about the clouds set something off in my brain. The wind was picking up too…
Oh.
My eyes widened. “I have to go.”
“I do not think that is advisable.” The man mentioned. I couldn’t tell how strong he was, but he was in no way prepared for me.
“You don’t understand. I have to leave. Now.” I made to grab my things, but before my fingers reached my bag, a sword has nestled in between. It flashed dangerously..
“I do not think so. I have my orders, and I have never once gone against them.”
A flash of murderous intent surged through my veins. “You won't stop me.”
Preemptively, he raised his sword, but I had already begun.
I launched an Ice Spear straight through the middle of the carriage, breaking his downward sword slash and absolutely demolishing the inside of the carriage.
Grabbing my bag and my sword in the disruption I blasted through the window, hurling fire at the carriage.
The man was outside before I did so, sword drawn into an advanced Water God stance. “I didn’t expect you would resort to violence this quickly. Your father said you were a kind soul.”
“You don’t know the half of it.” I drew my own sword, but I wasn’t dumb. I wouldn’t beat this man in a sword fight. From his speed just now, he was about as fast as Paul, if not faster. If his skill level was similar, there was no point in engaging in a sword fight.
Luckily, I didn’t need to. Blatantly stealing Rudeus’ technique, I let the ground around us grow into mud, sinking him deeper into the quagmire.
He caught on quickly, jumping up and towards me.
I reacted immediately, sending a shockwave to my side powerful enough to launch me out of the radius of the quagmire, and away from his attack.
Strangely, he somehow just leapt again as if the quagmire wasn’t there and headed for me again.
I landed roughly on the ground. “I don’t have time for you!”
Ice spikes broke out of the ground, aiming for his chest. He sliced through those, but I knew he would. I jumped up, flipping over him and arcing my sword down into him, fully expecting him to counter it.
When he did, knocking my sword into a lock and pulling me closer, I threw flames at his face. Point blank.
He couldn’t dodge. Yet he somehow did dodge it. Most of it anyway.
“Aaaaah!!” He dropped to the ground and started rolling, flames licking at his neck. I didn’t wait for him, grabbing my knapsack again and beelining it down the road, the opposite way the carriage had been going.
I had to hope and pray I was still close enough to home to where I could make it.
My heart was beating a mile a minute as I ran and ran and ran. I had to make it home! I had to!
I didn’t know when the teleportation would happen specifically, just that it wasn’t anywhere near at night. I had to hurry! As fast as these stupid little legs could take me!
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Thirty minutes of running later, my heart was beating through my chest and my clothes were thoroughly soaked with sweat before I came across a farm I recognized. I had treated the owner’s wounds before. Common ones that come from outdoor work. Cuts on his hand, aching in his knees.
Once, he had thanked me for healing his shoulder from a fall with flowers. He said they couldn’t quite match up to my beauty, but he wanted to give them to me anyway.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
I ran right past him, not stopping to greet him as he worked the fields.
I passed another couple. They had caught a pretty bad case of the flu and were not doing well. Thankfully the detox magic had healed them, but they had to stay at the clinic overnight to recover. I still remember the love they had for each other curled up together like that, thankful they had both made it through.
They waved at me, and I ignored them.
I passed Sylphy’s house. Rawls wasn’t home, likely hunting or with Paul. Her mother might still be inside, but I didn’t bother to check. Sylphy would be in a field somewhere by now right? Did I have time to care about that?
I kept running.
Finally, finally, I had made it to the guard outpost. Which was empty. What do I—
The forest! They had to be preempting the monsters coming into town there! I forced my feet to move again, bursting off the ground and heading for where I thought they might have started.
I had to slow down eventually, my feet and legs aching beyond belief at this point, but I couldn’t.
Searching for far too long, I finally found Paul.
“Alti? What are you doing here?” He asked. He was in his full knights uniform, surrounded by other men of the village holding weapons on the lookout for monsters. They looked at me in surprise. “You’re supposed to be on the carriage with Wilhelm!”
“We need to—*hah*—get back to—*hah*—the ho—use. Now.” My tone brooked no argument. But this was Paul. He would try anyway.
“Alti. Did something happen at the house?”
“No, but there—*hah*—will be. We need to return—*hah*— immediately.” I said,still trying to catch my breath.
“Alti, wait—”
I was already turning back and running. “There’s no time! Let’s—”
“Wait, I said!” He grabbed me by the shoulder, affixing me to the spot. “Look around! We’re not finished here yet!” I took a second to do so, seeing some of the more physically fit members of the village preparing gear. Rawls was there, loading up his bow. “You know the monsters have been acting up lately! We need to deal with them first before I can go anywhere.”
I gave him a look. If he could be persuaded to hurry up.. “Let’s just *hah* take care of it together then. We don’t have to get everyone else involved.”
Paul raised an eyebrow at that. “And what if one or more of them breaks from the herd and decides to attack the townsfolk?”
Then screw the townsfolk!
“Tou-san. Please.” He was silent for a moment, assessing.
“Alright, we’ll move out right now then. Is everyone ready to go?”
He got an assent from several people, and so out into the forest we went. I ran at a breakneck pace, slicing through monsters without a care for my surroundings. The worst they could offer here would be B-rank, no matter how erratic their behavior was.
I shot out a Flamethrower spell at a horde of Terminate Boars, their screams bellowing out through the whole forest as they were cooked alive.
Another Attack Hound met its end through my new blade. It sliced through like bone and sinew were nothing. At least Paul didn’t skimp on the blade.
“Alti! What did you do?!” Paul yelled. I looked over.
“AAH! The forest is on fire!” Someone yelled.
“It’s spreading!” Another shrieked.
“What are we gonna do if it reaches the wheat fields!?”
Great. “Douse those flames, Alti!” Paul screamed at me.
I had half a mind to summon Cumulonimbus clouds to shut everyone up, but knew that was a bad idea. Instead, I just let some rain fall down and humidified the surrounding area with melded magic, making it harder for the fire to spread.
In about a minute or so, all the monsters were dead and the fire was doused. I grabbed Paul’s arm and tugged. “Tou-san! We have to go!! Now!”
He looked at me like he didn’t know me. “What’s gotten into you, Alti? You almost put everyone here at risk!”
“Please, tou-san, just listen to me this once!” The desperation in my voice seemed to catch him, and he acquiesced. “Alright, alright. We’ll go. But can I a—” I had already ran off.
He caught up to me fairly easily, and tried to ask me several follow up questions while we ran, but I answered none. The sun was already on the horizon.
As soon as I came into the house, I burst the door down, ignoring the exclaimed “Hey!” from Paul.
“Kaa-san! Lilia! Get everyone ready to leave!”
“What? What’s going on?” Zenith called out from the kitchen.
“No time! Get Aisha and Norn into their travel clothes! NOW!” I had never, not once in the entire decade I’d lived here, talked to my parents like this, and I think it cowed them into actually obeying. Zenith dropped the soup she was making in the kitchen and started heading upstairs.
“Tou-san I need you to pack food and essentials. As quick as you can.”
Paul stared at me, before silently obeying my word.
I rushed upstairs, getting a groggy but still protesting Norn into her clothes. I had bought outfits for outside conditions for both siblings a while back from the tailor in this town. It wasn’t cheap, but it was worth it.
Aisha and Zenith were both already sitting down at the table by the time I came back down with Norn. Paul was having quiet conversation with Zenith, probably about me, since they ceased the moment I came into view. From the corner in the kitchen I could see Sylphy here as well, looking about frantically. Crap. I had forgotten she was here as well.
Once everyone (including Sylphy) was seated I did the first reasonable thing and got rid of the table. I picked it up and blocked the front door entrance with it. While I was at it, I opened up all the windows wide.
Storm clouds had already been gathering when we were wasting time fighting monsters, and they were only getting worse.
“Alti, what are you doing?” Zenith asked, voice irritated. She had stood up from her seat “You’re ruining the flooring, scraping the table against it like that.”
“Don’t worry about it. We won’t have a house soon, anyway.”
“Wha—” Zenith wanted to go into it further, but was stopped by a hand on hers by Paul.
“There’s something you wanted to discuss with us right?” He asked. “Does it have something to do with why the monsters are getting so bad recently?” His arms crossed. “And why you keep looking outside of the window?”
“Yes, yes and yes. Now hear me out. I got a vision from the future.” They tried to interrupt me right there, but I kept going. I was trying to do this quick. “This whole area, the entire Fittoa region will cease to exist soon. Today. Everyone inside the region will be teleported around the world. From here to as far as the Magic Continent and the Begaritto continent. There’s no escaping this.”
“What are you talking about!?” Paul raised his voice.
“It’s true. You see it outside. You can feel it on your skin. This static, this sensation that something big is going to happen, can’t you?” I trembled. The feeling for me was overwhelming.
“Nee-chan, you’re scaring us…” Aisha looked between us.
“If that’s really gonna happen then.. No! I have to warn my parents!” Sylphy got up and tried to hurry for the door. Do I stop her? Do I not? Ariel would die, complicating about ten million things (at a conservative estimate), but ultimately that didn’t matter much to me. Unless Rudeus does end up taking the fight to Hitogami, I would be making his job that much harder.
That’s assuming Hitogami won’t try to kill me and my entire family the moment he notices my presence and his future changes.
And, assuming I hadn’t just thrown off the locations we would be teleporting to just by my presence either. Ariel could already be screwed six ways to Sunday, and I’d have no idea.
My body was wracked with indecision.
Sylphy started climbing out of the window to run away, and I let her.
“We have to warn the rest of the town! Tell them to seek shelter!” Paul continued. Everyone had stood from their seats by now, the atmosphere between us tense.
“No! You can’t hide from this! It’ll take everyone and everything! Quick! Everybody needs to hold hands! If you’re in contact with somebody, you’ll be teleported together!”
I grabbed Zenith’s hand, squeezing as if trying to meld our hands together. “Altea Greyrat, you had better explain what is going on here!” She tried wrenching her hand from me, but I did NOT let go.
“Please! Everyone! Just take each other’s hand!” I took Aisha’s hand next, hoping that if I set the example, they would follow my lead. Reluctantly, Zenith took Norn’s hand.
“Tou-san! Please!!”
“How long did you know about this, Alti? And why did you not tell us?!”
“TOU-SAN!!” I shouted, way above my previous level. “Please!” He ignored me, letting go of removing the table from the entrance with a slice of his sword.
“I have to go out and tell the others the same news you told me! How much time do we have left?”
Blue light erupted from outside the window.
No time!
“TOU-SAN COME BACK HERE!” I let go of Aisha’s hand and grabbed the wind from outside using my magic, and slammed him back inside. He flew in.
The light was faster than I anticipated. Much, much faster.
It came into the town in less than a second.
Paul flew back in.
I didn’t have time to unite everyone’s hands, or try to bump into everyone. I had Zenith’s. Next to me was Aisha.
Paul stumbled into Norn, breaking her hold on Zenith.
The light pierced through the windows.
The light caught us inside, and all I could see was black.