Ersham woke up in the dead of night, his much-needed sleep interrupted by yet another bout of invaders. He stood right outside his house by the bridge. Behind him were his nephew and his daughter, watching intently.

Nervous sweat dripped down the swordsman’s face. In front of him were three humans, dressed in elegant armor. The crest on their armors made it clear who they were.

Beyond his irritation that another group of invaders had come to the village, beyond the fatigue of his body, beyond the desire to just roll back into bed and sleep it off, beyond all that, he felt instinctual fear as he confronted the armored men before him. These were opponents he could not dare to antagonize.

“What do you want here?” Ersham questioned the man in the human language, Voralten.

“…A demon speaking our tongue, eh? Interesting, you’ll be pretty useful to us. Vice Captain Claude, at your service! If you’ll listen to our requests, I’ll be nice enough to spare your whole village,” a clean-shaven man with swept-back blonde hair said. “We’ll just need everyone here to willingly come with us, under our custody.”

“Why? What are you going to do with us? No. To us?”

The man simply smiled silently in response.

“That’s not necessary for you to know, my dear demon.”

Ersham looked at the two behind him with a pained expression. He mouthed one word to them. Run. The two behind him watched in despair as he drew his sword, intending to fight alone.

“You are an evil being, a demon seeking to attack us peaceful worshipers of the Goddess,” the knight declared smugly, his statement dripping with sarcasm.

“You’ll regret this.”

***

I slept restlessly as another memory from the past played in my head.

I had returned to our sanctuary in the Northern Woods only to find it completely burned down. Thousands dead. I fell onto my knees and slammed my fist on the ground.

Corpses, incinerated by flames and turned into charred husks, littered the ground around me.

Why?

Why?

Why?

I cursed the name of the Norlaender King, who had facilitated this massacre. I cursed the humans who had willingly taken part in this atrocity. I cursed myself for being so naive, for letting this happen to my people.

By the Founder’s name, I swear they will regret this. They will learn to fear the vengeance of the demons. We have been too meek — they’ll soon realize we are a supreme race above them.

I flinched. I was awake once more, breathing heavily. I’ve been recalling more and more of Malachi’s memories as today went on.

“Luqa. Get ready to leave. Be quick.” My mother stood next to me, quickly rummaging through our house, unexpectedly tense and curt. She picked up her staff and looked at me with urging eyes.

“…Yes.” Something bad was happening once again.

“Let’s go.”

***

Ersham fell to one knee, his body battered. He tried to prop himself up with his sword, but he couldn’t find the strength anywhere in him.

What the hell is going on? Why does my body feel like this?

All the blonde knight had done was simply avoid his attacks, counteracting them with quick jabs. That man’s lackadaisical smile never left his face.

I can’t die… not here… Var… Lucia…

Ersham scrapped the last bit of strength he had in himself to try to attack the Holy Knight. Charging forwards, his attack never met his opponent, who simply sidestepped it. In response, the man grabbed Ersham’s head with his two hands and brought it down to meet his knee. A resounding clang rang out as Ersham’s face took the full impact of the man’s steel knee-pad. The demon swordsman fell backwards, down to the ground, blood dripping from his nose, his consciousness half-leaving him.

“Oops, too hard, hope he’s not dead. You dead, demon?”

The knight skipped forwards to check if Ersham was still alive. The demon suddenly stirred, pulling out a dagger and stabbing the knight through his left calf.

“Gah, fuck!”

Out of instinct, the knight stomped down his right foot right on Ersham’s head with excessive strength, crushing the demon’s skull and splattering blood and bone fragments on the ground.

“Shit! I killed one of them! And he spoke Voralten, too… yuck, that’s gross,” the knight complained as he looked at the mess he made. He turned around to face his two flabbergasted companions. “…Hey, don’t tell Captain Alphons about this, kay? He’ll yell at me like a jerk for messing up.”

“A-a-agh, you fucker!” A trembling voice shouted in Avestic. The knight turned back to see the adolescent who was standing back earlier charging at him with a sword. The boy was utterly blind with rage.

“What, you his son or something?” The knight expertly dodged every single slash and stab that Tavarius launched, though wincing with each movement as blood dripped from his left calf. “I don’t want to end up killing this guy’s whole family. That’d be sad, y’know?”

Tavarius’ movements became faster and faster, forcing the knight to exert more and more effort. The knight’s expression turned cold; he no longer found this farce fun.

“Okay, now that’s enough. Sorry kid, I’m not in the mood to play around anymore.” The man unsheathed his longsword, parried Tavarius’ sword, and sliced off Tavarius’ right arm with one smooth motion.

“Gyaaaah! You bastard! I’ll fucking kill you! I’ll end—” The knight slammed the pommel of his sword on the side of the demon boy’s head, knocking him out cold. Blood pooled on the ground, spurting from the stump where the boy’s right arm used to be.

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“And now, your turn, little girl. You gonna pull out a sword from your ass too?”

Lucia was unresponsive. She stared at the corpse of her father, at the unconscious body of her cousin. After a moment of abated, shallow breaths, she raised her right hand.

Great tornadoes formed around her, uprooting the trees around and swirling the dirt and dust up into the turbulent air. Claude’s two companions found themselves swept into her conjured tornadoes.

“Tch, of course, you’re dangerous too.” The knight zigzagged with lightning speed, avoiding the tornadoes. Lucia looked up as the knight stood over her, dragged her up by her collar, and gave her a few unrestrained blows to her face with his metal gauntlet. Satisfied she was knocked out, he carried her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.

“Hmm dadum dadummm~” the man hummed. “Man, what a village of monsters… Haha, you guys good?” the knight giggled as he looked at his two companions.

They were dead, their bodies torn apart by the girl’s conjured winds.

“Uhh, oops. I should’ve been more careful. Wait, no. You should’ve been more careful. Your fault, guys!”

His remark, thrown into the empty wind, was met with silence.

“Well, it’s time to really start then.”

He shot a ball of flame up into the air, signaling to the rest of the knights hidden up in the hills to descend to the village.

***

The village was up in smoke. Screams rang from the center of the village.

My mother and I ran down the hill, deeper into the village. Part of me wanted to stop her, to convince her to escape with just the two of us. To abandon the village. But the utterly worried look in her eyes told me that wasn’t possible. I couldn’t force her to do something that was so against her nature.

As we entered into the village in earnest, a tragedy played out in front of us. Armored knights — humans — capturing and mutilating the villagers. Men beaten half to death. Women dragged by their hair. Children carried over the shoulders.

What the fuck was happening?

I gripped my chest as I felt my breathing grow more and more constricted, and I struggled to keep myself conscious. I felt a malicious energy force itself into my mana reservoir.

This sensation… can’t be anything else but the effects of divine magic. Magic constructed solely to weaken and kill demons. The work of those of the Church.

Shit! I can’t do anything like this!

Clara, however, unaffected by the divine magic, moved into the thick of the fighting. Raising her staff in her right hand, the emerald-colored gem grew brightly as she cast her magic.

“[Blizzard]”

A blizzard of ice and snow ceased the flames that had spread throughout, continuously covering the whole village with layers of hail and snow.

“[Icicle]”

Ten large icicles fired, targeting the closest knights that were attacking the village. All ten reached their mark, each impaling a knight through their chest.

“Hoh? Who’s this pretty little lady? Oh. You’re the human.” Emerging from the blizzard was a blond knight with a longsword, carrying Lucia across his left shoulder.

I wanted to do something, to use my magic to kill that man and rescue Lucia. To put an end to everything here. But even staying awake was difficult now.

Shit, it’ll be just like the past. Like that dream. I was given a chance to live once again, but events are just playing out the same way!

“A human woman this insanely good with ice magic… Ya wouldn’t happen to be that Ice Queen, would you?”

The knight gave Lucia to another knight before dashing forwards toward my mother.

“[Stone Spikes]”

The man avoided the narrow stone spikes that Clara conjured with monstrous speed before hacking away at them.

“[Fire Storm]”

He ran through the storm of flames that descended upon him, emerging from it unharmed.

“[Water Ball]”

He bisected the high-velocity sphere of water, killing its momentum. He was now right in front of Clara, with a casual smile plastered across his face.

Clara’s eyes were downcast as she muttered something under her breath.

“[Greater Spirit: Wendigo]”

The knight’s smile grew wider upon hearing these words.

“A greater spirit! Ya really are something special!”

Particulates of ice formed to create a great humanoid beast of ice, with two gigantic horns sprouting from its head. Its roar intensified the blizzard, turning the howling gusts bitingly cold. The spirit went rampaging toward the blond knight, conjuring and slamming glaciers of ice into the ground. Each gigantic boulder of ice however missed the inhumanly swift knight completely.

The knight maneuvered around the spirit beast before deftly leaping onto it. His sword glowed as he plunged it deep into the head of the wendigo. The spirit beast dematerialized, leaving Clara fully exhausted of her options while the knight simply approached her.

“A shame, y’know? If I met a beautiful and powerful woman like you somewhere else…”

He ran his sword through my mother’s abdomen. The blizzard that was raging in the village came to an end, leaving the night calm once more.

“…I would’ve taken you to dinner or something. Welp, it happens! Right person at the wrong times and all that!” he chuckled.

Mother… Clara... She’s… That man… He…

Why?

What the hell was happening?

Why was this happening to this village?

Why were they here?

What did they want?

Why tonight?

Why does she have to die?

Why…

Why… does this have to happen again?

“Luqa.” Quiet yet resolute words from my mother took me away from my thoughts. “Run away. Live on. Get away from this place.” She threw her staff at my feet.

“Nothing more beautiful than the last words of a mother to her child, right?” The man looked at me with an innocent smile.

I’ll kill this fucking bastard. I’ll make him regret the day he was born. I — I swear it.

“Luqa! Go! And I love you.”

Sobs escaped my mouth. “I love you, too.”

“Great! You guys done now?” The knight pulled out his sword from Clara’s stomach and gazed closely at the blood that stained his blade, as if fascinated by the blood of his unexpectedly powerful opponent.

“[Freeze]” One last spell escaped Clara’s breath.

“Whoa, whoa, wh—” The man’s cries were interrupted as he found himself encased in ice along with my mother. Before being frozen within the ice, she had turned her face towards me, her pale blue eyes looking warmly at me.

I engraved her face in my mind.

The woman who raised me as Luqa.

The woman who loved me as her son.

I picked up her staff, turned away from her, and ran. Away from it all.

I turned a blind eye to the violence that still was going on in the village. A blind eye to the villagers who were being kidnapped and dragged away.

Anger and sorrow swirled in me, dominating and driving my thoughts, but I ignored everything to keep running.

Two knights on my trail. Up the hill. Through the forests. The forests I knew so well. Through this path. Past this tree. Down this slope.

Two knights closer to my tail.

Not looking back. Not thinking. Edge of cliff. Turning around. Knights still there. Jump down cliff. Into raging river.

And as my consciousness slowly drifted away as the torrents of the river dragged me along, my thoughts played on without my control.

My fault.

All my fault.

This was all Malachi’s fault. My fault. Everything’s my fault like always.

It was my fault that this peaceful village burned down.

It was my fault my mother died.

It was my fault that Lucia was kidnapped. That everyone would be at the mercy of those knights.

But the words of my past self rang through my head as if seeking to interrupt my brooding.

Hear this my reincarnation, if you will.

I won’t. You shut the hell up!

Learn from the mistakes that plagued my life.

Those words pissed me the fuck off. What the hell would that do me? What does that have to do with this?

Protect the ones precious to you.

It was too god-damned late for that!

Work to understand the others around you.

For what? To understand what sadistic reason why these shitty humans did this?!

Live a life unlike mine.

Was that still even possible? Was that really something I could do? At this point, I’m headed down the same path as Malachi, simply retreading the steps he took those 300 years ago, as if fate herself pulled me along. Could I… really change anything?

Why did he — why did I decide to reincarnate myself? Why didn’t I just die off in that temple?

***

As Clara slowly died, encased in the ice, bitter regrets popped into her head.

What if she had just wiped out the outpost of Holy Knights when she first found them? What if she had agreed to just evacuate the village? What if she had truly taken measures to prevent this from happening? To prepare for something like this?

She saw no one else but her to blame. But all her regrets were swept away by one hope she could take solace in.

Her son would continue to live. He could do it. He would run away. He would survive on his own. He wouldn’t have to pay for her mistakes.

In her last moments, she wished her son a safe, happy life in a place far away, in a world where such tragedy wouldn’t happen.