Elizabeth’s Point of View
Gripping my chest, the panic increased yet again. It’s happening again, the nightmares. The scenes I'm witnessing are a horror story I needed to escape but can’t. Am I repeating the same dream, is it a hallucination or is it real? Watching in horror, the strange red mist approaches Alisha. Screaming out her name once again, I do the same thing I have the last several thousand times. Pushing Alisha aside, I watch as the red mist “plunges” into me.
As it enters me, my vision changes again. In a dark void, the same scenes play out once more. In front of my eyes, I see a severely beaten and wounded Alisha, in her hands is Alice who has lost her life. Alisha has an ear from the top of her head missing, her tail ripped out from her, both eyes gouged out and in her chest were four or five different types of weapons that had impaled her. Two swords, a halberd, a dagger and a spear.
I knew what is about to happen as a figure materialised behind Alisha. The figure is cloaked with a sword in her hand, crying out once more in fear I try and tell Alisha to dodge, but I make no sound as I watch the sword be swung and her head is decapitated. Screaming soundlessly, the figures fade away again, this time it’s Sally and Gray.
Sally is in her vampiric form, one of her horns broken while the other only has half of it remaining. A wing had been torn from her back and she was severely wounded. Gray faired no better, he was missing an arm and half his head. Although he’s still moving, I knew from all the other times I’d seen this scene that he’s at the edge of death, and like all the other times he stumbles forward, collapsing, no longer breathing.
Sally looks up at something as an arm is thrust downwards, and a large palm plunges into her chest, forming a large hole where her heart is. Seeing her eyes go blank, I tried for the thousandth time to see who the arm belonged to, but I can’t…the figure doesn’t exist. Once again, the scene changes, this time it’s Olivia.
Surrounded by other elves, she is strapped to an altar, struggling to be freed. She’d been blinded, caused by something cutting both her eyes. Her ears had been cut off and thrown to the side. The elves surrounding her were calling her despicable names…” filthy deviant” “evil being” “scum of the elves”...with each thing they said they used a curved dagger to cut her slowly.
Watching her slowly be tortured, I knew she's being poisoned slowly. Her voice had been long lost as she screamed soundlessly and watched as an older man approached her, he holds a strange glowing sword, etched with strange runes, he plunges the sword into her head, forever silencing her soundless screams.
Screaming once again, even though it’s completely soundless, I watch in horror as the scene loops. The red mist once again approaches Alisha. I’ve long lost count of how many times I’ve repeated this nightmare, and watching the red mist I moved once again.
***
Again, it’s happening again. The red mist moves towards Alisha. Why, why am I seeing this exact scene over and over, make it stop, someone…anyone make it stop. Once again, I shove Alisha to the side as I prepare myself for it to plunge into me…but this time, a bright silver light bursts from above, covering everything. Closing my eyes in reflex, I wait for the brightness to pass.
As the bright light fades, I open my eyes and look around. A lake below my feet and a night sky filled with stars, this…it’s my mana realm. Blinking in surprise, I look around…is this real, did I escape those dreams?
Looking behind me, I nearly fall over. A quarter of my mana realm…was gone, replaced by nothing. Looking closely, there is a void like someone had cut a portion of my mana realm away, and in front of that darkness of nothingness is a thin barrier.
The barrier is silver in colour, and as I approach it I sense a presence. It’s…it’s Alisha’s presence coming from this barrier. Reaching a hand out to touch it, I heard a voice behind me.
“I wouldn’t touch it, it’s still unstable as it is. Call it a rush job, since I need you.”
Turning on the spot in a panic, I see a young girl there. Void black hair and blue eyes that had stars within, she is slightly transparent. Approaching me, she lifts a finger and puts it to my forehead.
“I don’t have much time. You’ll forget about me for a moment, but I will lead you to meet me. I will tell you more once you arrive.”
Feeling mana surge into me, I felt sleepy. Seeing the young girl start disappearing, she sighs as I hear her mutter “New Sister, you’re so much work!” It's the last thing I heard before I fell asleep.
***
Stirring awake, my entire body hurt while my mind is in disarray. The last thing I remember is that red mist and silver light. Trying to sit up, I couldn’t see anything, my vision is blurry but it was slowly recovering. I heard a muffled voice to my right before I felt a force pushing me down, preventing me from getting up.
I knew the force on my chest was someone trying to keep me down, so I let myself relax. Even in my blurred vision, the System still provided itself to me clearly, and what I read made my heart sink.
Your soul has been corrupted, and your mana realm has been partially corrupted. You have lost 4,000 mana and your Stats are reduced by 20%
Soul Link established with Alisha. Soul Barrier has been created to prevent further corruption.
You have access to Lunar energy and magic due to a soul link with Alisha. When in close proximity, as long as Alisha allows it, you may use her mana realm.
The corruption of a God has given you a strange power…
Confused at these System messages, and panicked about them, I attempt to access my mana realm but a strange power prevents me from sinking into it. As I’m worrying about it, I tried to figure out what was happening when a thought came to mind. I should walk outside of the village, towards the south.
My mind lights up in confusion when that thought crosses my mind, what village? As I’m thinking of this, I make out a green light coming from above. Feeling my body being healed, my vision quickly became clearer as I made out who is above me. It’s an elf, one who looks very much like Olivia. Seeing her turn to me, she smiles.
“Good to see you’ve awakened, looks like the spiritual healer’s techniques are as good as they say. Can you sit up?”
Moving my body, it felt weak but I could sit up slightly. Seeing the elven woman smile once again, she calls out to someone. Soon, another older elf is by my side with a tray.
“Some food and tea. It all has good nature magic in it that will help you recover dear. It’s been a few months since you fell unconscious.”
Feeling my mind spin at her words, I recall the visions I had experienced. I wanted to blurt out these visions, tell this elven woman who looked like Olivia all about them, but a feeling arose within me, shouting at me that if I said anything about those visions the consequences would be worse than what I saw.
Seeing the tray be placed on my lap, I felt a hunger overcome me. Grabbing the food without a thought, I ate, not minding what I ate at all while also drinking the tea. Soon, I finished eating and felt my strength slowly return. I knew from the System messages I wouldn’t be at full strength any time soon. Looking around as I sit up further, I turn to the elven woman.
“Where is everyone? Where am I? Who are you?”
Sitting up a bit, the elven woman puts on a very serious face.
“Let us start with where you are. You're in an elven village called Ithil. You were bought here by Alisha and Olivia, Olivia is my daughter and she returned home with you and Alisha. They had managed to escape from Crater Hell to seek aid for you. We agreed to help heal you due to Olivia’s request.
"My name is Eowyn, as mentioned I am Olivia’s mother. My husband's name is Erestor, he is currently dealing with…well, I do need to tell you.
"Alisha and Olivia are gone. I don’t know where either. They were ambushed on their way to see the Patriarch a few days ago, and during that ambush, the Patriarch’s daughter exiled Olivia by using a random teleport circle. We have no idea where the two ended up, they could be on the other side of the world for all we know.
"We’re currently studying the teleport circle, but we can’t make out where they could’ve possibly gone…my daughter returned only for her to be taken from m-me a-again.”
Eowyn starts breaking down into tears. My stomach sinks as a thought came to my mind…it’s my fault that they had to come here, all to seek aid for my condition…what is my condition? Seeing Eowyn crying, I knew it was best not to ask her now. After a few minutes of silence, she wipes the tears away and looks at me.
“You need to leave this village. I can’t keep you safe for long, it’s best you find a way back to Crater Hell to tell your other friends what has happened. I’m sorry, this is the best I can do for you given the circumstances. We had thought the Patriarch would be more lenient since this has to do with our daughter, but it seems he has had a change of heart since.”
Nodding, I stand from the bed unsteadily. I would rather leave now than impose on Eowyn any longer, even if I didn't understand the circumstances. She passed me a cloak, green in colour with a hood.
“This is enchanted to hide your presence and System information. It’ll only work for a few hours. I’ll get one of my people to guide you out of this forest.”
Nodding, I put the cloak on as it covers my body. My System flashes up with a message.
System information hidden. You can only be spied upon by those much higher level than you.
“I’m sorry I can’t let you rest here longer, if you didn’t awaken today I would’ve ensured you reached a friend I have in a human city, so thankfully that didn’t happen. There is a town southwest of here, about two days on foot.”
Handing me 2 silver coins, she gives me a brief hug. It felt strange being hugged suddenly at my age, but my mind is full of thoughts of what was happening, keeping me distracted. Turning, she nods towards a figure that is in the corner. Stepping forward, it was an elven man, dressed in a black top with matching long pants.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“Get her out of the village. Elizabeth, take this compass, it’ll lead you out of the fog. This isn’t farewell, I know we’ll meet up again and I pray that my daughter is by my side when it happens.”
Starting to sense the urgency in her voice, I knew something must be happening. I was still confused, but for now, I needed to get to safety before I can think things over. Following the man out of the house, I store the compass in a pocket as I see where we are. Looking down, we were on a huge tree in a forest, it was beautiful. Seeing the man make haste, I make sure my hood was covering my face as I followed him.
Seeing elves everywhere, I knew this is the village that Olivia had talked about before. Keeping my head down, I follow behind the man as we made haste out of the village. Once again, my mind gave a thought…a thought to head south.
“E-excuse me.” Speaking in a low voice, the elven man looked back for a second. “Can we head south of the village?” Nodding once, he keeps walking in a slightly different direction as I follow behind. I never looked around, but no one stopped or questioned us, whether it is due to who was leading me or if they just didn’t want to be involved, I didn’t know. Maybe my presence was really well hidden.
Arriving at the very edge of the village on the ground, the man turns to me. “This is as far as I can guide you, you’re on your own from here.”
Thanking him, he walks away as I walk directly south. My mind was still ablaze with questions, all I knew was that I had been brought here to be healed, but Olivia and Alisha weren’t here anymore. I must get back to their side, no matter the price I must pay. Those children could be in danger.
As I’m walking, the scenery changed around me suddenly. Feeling my heart sink, my initial thought was that the visions were starting again, but they didn’t. Looking around, I wasn’t in the forest anymore, but instead, I’m in a garden, surrounded entirely by stars as a moon hang in the sky…just ahead of me is a table with two chairs, one of them preoccupied.
Looking at the figure sitting at the table, something in my mind broke. Memories flooded back as I recalled the figure…she’d been in my mana realm! Seeing her smile gently at me, she gestures for me to come closer.
Walking along the path towards the table, I took in the sight of this garden. Flowers of all kinds were along the garden, it was a dazzling sight. As I reach the table, I sit down knowing that this girl meant me no harm.
“We don’t have much time I’m afraid. I can tell you have possibly dozens of questions about your situation, and while I want to tell you everything and answer all of your questions I’m afraid I need to keep it short.”
Taking out a bag, she reached in and started eating something strange…they were circular thin strips of what looked to be potatoes.
“Right. First of all, I can not tell you my name but you are free to call me Flannery, Alisha does. I’m something of a friend to her, and since you’re a companion of Alisha you are free to call me that as well.
"Alisha has been forcibly teleported to the other side of the world. I can not bring her back, if I intervene directly with her there will be dire consequences for her. However, indirectly intervening is something I can do…even if I shouldn’t.
"Your situation is rather unique. Regardless of what that elven woman told you, the spiritual healer could not help you at all. Using experimental magic, I bound your soul with remnants of Alisha’s soul…no, remnants is the wrong word, more like I used soul energy collected from Alisha to build a barrier to prevent the corruption in your soul from worsening.
"Ah, not to worry though, the energy I collected is from the connection I had established with her and didn’t harm her in any way when I took it, it’s natural energy the soul lets off. Because of this, you have a unique connection to her, which is why I want to send you to her.”
Offering me the strange potato things, she winks at me as my mind buzzed with more questions. This girl used soul energy from Alisha to heal me? I’m…bound to Alisha as a result? Oddly I didn’t mind if that was the case.
“When I say bound, it’s not in the way you’re thinking…it’s worse. You will deteriorate without her near you, at the moment I am supplying you with a small amount of soul energy from her to sustain you, but as I said time is running out.
"Those visions you had…they aren’t hallucinations or dreams, they were real. You have somehow obtained clairvoyance, it’s not something you can control and it is rather unstable but it allows you to see random events from the future. It’s a power that is unstable and can show you things that may never happen in the future. Even I don’t know if what you saw is possible or not.”
Frowning, she suddenly looks behind her. Hearing a tsk, she turns to me.
“Alright, I know you still have questions for me, but I need to tell you something of importance, something that you will forget until it’s time to remember.”
Opening her mouth, Flannery starts speaking to me. Hearing what she said caused my mind to spin. I knew it wasn’t only Alisha in trouble with what she told me…everyone in Crater Hell was in danger, even Olivia and her parents weren’t safe! The more Flannery told me, the more shocked I became. Everything was moving too fast, but what she said caused me to temporarily forget my current circumstances.
“And that’s it. Now, I will send you to Alisha. I can’t send you directly to her, nor can I tell you a method to teleport both of you back as I’m bound by an oath that stops me from even uttering a word of the magic needed. I’m sorry, but I will need to adjust your memories. You will forget those visions, our meeting here today and how you ended up near Alisha.
"You will only know that you awoke from a slumber, and finding a note you know that Alisha and Olivia have been ambushed and teleported away and that you had been healed by someone unknowingly. The note told you to find a man who without a word teleported you away. You will remember everything when it’s time, I can not afford to have you accidentally tell someone what has occurred today, especially Alisha.”
As she stands, I wanted to protest, but she shook her head, as if seeing through my thoughts. “I’m sorry, but it’s time.” Pulling out a strange crescent-shaped badge, she placed it on my forehead and closed her eyes. In the next moment, I fell unconscious.
***
Waking up, I found myself in a small house, in a bed. Looking up, I saw an older gentleman standing over me. Sitting up, I recalled why I was here…that’s right, this gentleman is someone who could send me to see Alisha, she’d been teleported away to the other side of the world, shortly before I had been healed.
“You’re finally awake. Walking such a distance with a damaged soul isn’t good you know. Now, are you ready? I’ll begin the teleportation now.”
Frowning, I felt something was off about this situation. Digging into my pockets, I found a rather crumbled note addressed to me. Reading it answered some of my questions. I’d fallen unconscious when that weird red mist attacked me, Olivia and Alisha had managed to bring me out of Crater Hell, but after arriving at someone who could heal me, they were ambushed and teleported away.
It’s been two and a half months since I had fallen unconscious, the note said that to be by Alisha’s side I needed to find the gentleman in front of me and he would be able to use the connection between the two of us to teleport me to her. I had some questions about everything…but recalling, I remember struggling to reach this man for days before arriving, I also remember waking up and finding the note.
Closing my eyes and massaging the bridge of my nose, I must’ve been groggy after being asleep for so long. Opening my eyes and standing up, I turn to the gentleman and nod.
“Very good. I can not just teleport you to your friend's side, but I can get you close. Now, you’ll feel a bit strange but don’t worry, that’ll be you teleporting.”
With a smile, I sensed a massive surge of magic coming from the man as a huge teleport circle appeared behind him. As he closes his eyes, he extends a palm towards me as the magic circle grew in size, and shrunk before slamming into my chest. Feeling a strange feeling overcome me, the man opens his eyes and nods.
“Good luck…Elizabeth.”
Before I could say anything, the next moment I am standing in an open field, surrounded by snow. A strong wind blew past me, chilling me to the bone as I look forward. What met my eyes was a huge city, with walls on the outside. This city was massive, I couldn’t see it all from here.
I felt someone looking at me from behind, but turning back, the feeling disappeared and no one was there. Turning back, I saw someone coming from the city, straight towards me. Unsure of what was happening, I decided it would be best to meet with this person, to try and find Alisha.
Flannery’s Point of View
As Elizabeth disappeared into particles in front of me, I dispelled the illusion of the gentleman and house. Looking up, I see through my domain as I find the constellation of stars that represent farsight and I use the remaining of my energy and mana to spy on Elizabeth. A torrent of raw information explodes in my mind, feeling my nose bleed I bite my lip, ignoring the pain.
This spell is a Demigod-level spell. I fell short of becoming a Demigod, but even then I’ve learnt a few tricks. The repercussions from using such a high-level spell would of course come back to bite me in the arse, but ensuring Alisha’s safety is my top priority. Eliminating all the information that I didn’t need, I saw Elizabeth in front of Vale, some distance away but with their surveillance magic they’d find her just fine.
Cutting off the spell before it could do more damage to my mind, I close my eyes before turning around and opening them again.
“To think they’d send you, Luna. If it was anyone else, I’d have run.”
“Domain. Void.”
Overpowering my domain with ease, I find myself floating in an empty void, nothingness surrounding me. There was nothing here at all, no stars, moon or light. Using a meager amount of Lunar energy, I light my surroundings to fine that front of me is Luna, who wore a face filled with sadness.
“Master…why have you done this, you know the rules.”
“What have I said about calling me Master…you outrank me now. Do what you need to, Luna. I understand.”
Biting her lip, she moves towards me while speaking.
“Tessa Moonflow, I am placing you under detainment for interfering with a potential sister. Even though your crimes will not cause consequences for our new Sister, you have pushed it to the limits. Your level will be restricted to level 1 through the use of the Staff of Lunar Punishment and your mana links sealed. Your punishment will be decided by our Elder Sisters, whether you will be exiled or not depends on them.
Just tell me Mast…Tessa, why did you do this? You don’t know the girl, yet you send me to punish an Archbishop of the Church, you plant a seed of your consciousness in her mana realm and now this…Isn’t serving the Moon Goddess far more important than ensuring a new Sister’s safety?”
Smiling at Luna who had approached me, I caress her face as tears spilt from her eyes. “Those old foggies would rather watch her die in some unknown land with no friends than give her some simple aid. Rules and tradition be damned, I want to ensure that she won’t break down. You know she found out earlier she’s over a decade away from her home? My heart broke for the poor girl, I couldn’t talk to her because the seed was nearly out of energy. If I went to her and brought her back, she’d have been executed by those old foggiest.
"Don’t you remember, Luna? You were the same, we were told never to interfere with you and we didn’t, yet for decades you shut yourself in after losing your family when a simple step by one of us would've saved them. Maybe you understand how she feels, being on the other side of the world surrounded by danger, with a branch of our church planning to murder her and anyone connected to her. Why must I step back and allow such a thing to happen again, just because she was born a monster and human?”
Seeing Luna bite her lip, she responded. “I know…I know but we have to follow the rules that the Moon Goddess handed down to us. Your actions haven’t brought judgement on our new Sister, don’t worry, I’ll keep an eye on her…I just can’t interfere.”
Holding a hand out to her side, a staff appeared. As I felt an overwhelming power pulsing from the staff, I leaned in and kiss Luna for what could be the final time. My love, don't feel guilty about this, I am glad that it is you doing this, and not anyone else. Pulling away from her, I close my eyes as she trembles and holds the staff to my forehead.
“Under the orders of our Elder Sisters, I, Luna Starbringer, seal you, Tessa Moonflow.”
Feeling a power beyond my understanding bind me, my System flashes.
Warning! The power of the Gods has bound you. Your level has been reduced:
Level 89 ⭐⭐⭐ -> Level 1
Warning! The power of the Gods has sealed your mana links. You can not use or gather mana.
Feeling extremely weakened, I felt all my strength leave my body as I fall forward. Being caught by Luna, she held me gently.
“Tessa…” Smiling weakly at her, I felt my consciousness fading. The seed I had left within Alisha would bloom, providing her with a small amount of my insight, enough for her level. This is a secret that I would take to my grave and using the last of my strength I forcibly erased my memories of the seed of consciousness I had left to her as I fell asleep in Luna’s tender grasp.