Tanned skin with a pink hue.

On the bed is a naked woman, sitting upright. A tall woman with long, chestnut hair. Her skin has no blemishes, no irregularities, no injuries. Skin that was once as pale as a cadaver, now appears lightly tanned with a slight pink hue. Her eyes are open, looking at someone next to her, lying asleep.

The woman appears like an angel risen from the dead.

On her face is a trail of blood that appears to have fallen from her mouth down her chin. A few seconds ago, her chest had a large, bloody opening, right through her sternum, but not anymore. Another trail of blood had flowed from that opening in her chest down to her abdomen and onto the floor in front of her bed in a pool.

Yet right now, she only feels strength and life, power, invigoration! Warmth and love… She looks over to the edge of the bed. She sees him sleeping, wearing clothes she doesn’t recognize. How much time has already passed? What exactly is going on?

“...Ajax?”

The woman, Shaula, calls out to Ajax. Fast asleep, he doesn’t respond. She looks over at him from on top of the bed.

“Ajax? What are you doing? Get up–”

“You… How did… How did you…”

Shaula looks towards the door. Standing at the door are two men she recognizes. With their appearance she remembers what happened prior to her death. He was questioned by the man in the black medieval dress, the other man nearby observing. Cardinal… Gratia Loqus. He tried to have her strip searched, but there were no female holy knights nearby.

He tried to do it himself.

The scumfuck… She resisted his advances and scratched his face with her hands. He then… killed her. Using the force of his fist, he impaled her. He’s strong, too strong; is he even human? But Shaula notices something as she feels the rage bubbling up at being killed. That pain of her chest cracking and her heart being crushed. It was terrible. The cause of his anger…

“Where’s the scar I gave you?”

The Archbishop, named Andal Frasia, distorts his expression while Gratia’s eyebrow twitches.

“Mind your tongue, girl–”

“No, no, it’s alright. Please calm down, Andal. In answer to your question, I used healing magic to close the wound. I… I apologize for being so reckless. But, I never expected that your friend possessed such an aptitude for healing magic. It’s very obvious now that you’re not a spy, no mage with your level of healing power would be sent by an enemy force, it would be nonsensical. You too are without a doubt… from the other world, the world of the heroes.”

“Cardinal, we can’t be sure yet of–”

“Andal, be reasonable. This entire war against us has been unprecedented, our Lord must have decided to take unprecedented actions of His own. To send us… stronger heroes. Trump cards! We are the ones at fault here for our actions against the two of them.”

“...”

“Shaula, my dear. We deeply apologize for our insolence towards you. Is there any way that we can make up for–”

“Shameless… Fucking shameless! What exactly are you thinking, you fucking piece of shit? That after being stabbed in the fucking chest by you, I’ll do fucking anything for you!?”

Shaula’s eyes narrow on the words of the man who just killed her. Rage burns within her heart. Her words aren’t taken lightly by the Cardinal or Archbishop either. In particular, the Cardinal’s expression falls at her words of resentment and indignation.

“You... you undressed me. You tried to touch me! Or, wait… you actually did touch me, didn’t you… I wasn’t naked when you killed me, you sick fuck!”

“No. I was only checking you for weapons, it didn’t have anything to do with–”

“Shut up! I-I don’t fucking care, get the fuck away from me! I-I’m going to take Ajax and we’re going to leave this place. I don’t fucking care what you have to say about a war or whatever! I’m not going to do fucking anything for you!”

Both Gratia and Andal feel the hostility of Shaula towards them. It was the smallest chance of whether they could have her on their side after causing such suffering for her. But… he had to try, for the sake of humanity. A mistake on his part could not be responsible for losing someone so talented as Ajax.

Gratia notices, though as Shaula was speaking, how she picked up Ajax from the bed in order to protect his sleeping body from them. Right now, Ajax was being held in Shaula's arms, his head against her bare breasts. She truly cares for his well-being. Perhaps, there is an avenue for negotiation after all…

“...Your friend, Ajax there, killed two of my men already.”

“...What? What the fuck are you…”

“A young man named Kinser Timinides and Creta Dagmar. How were they killed, Andal?”

“Vonis will be here soon. She can share the details.”

“Very well. Then, Shaula Seikennith, please wait while you hear about what your friend Ajax has done since coming to our world.”

Shaula sits next to Ajax, dumbfounded. This… wasn’t a response she was expecting. She calls him and checks his breathing, his pulse, and his overall condition. She checks if he’s bleeding on the surface anywhere. He’s fine but he’s not waking up just yet; she starts to get worried. Carrying him out of him doesn’t seem feasible.

While she does this, a woman she hasn’t met before arrives, opening the door to the room and closing it behind her. Shaula notices the fearful expression on the woman’s face. This woman is looking at Ajax with this fear. In fact, she hides behind Andal, who tries calming her down.

“...What is this? Who the fuck is she?”

“M-My name is Vonis Arneth, first daughter of the Arneth barony. I-I have been brought here to speak of the actions of that man, A-Ajax Leonid.”

She speaks towards Shaula. Suddenly, it feels like she’s a witness on the stand before a jury of her peers. The judge and jury seem to be played by Andal and Gratia. Shaula doesn’t understand how to react to this situation but it is unsettling. They mentioned that Ajax had killed two men…

“The man named Ajax Leonid killed the two holy knights named Kinser Timinides and Creta Dagmar. It was a crime without provocation, where he cruelly froze them to death. I was witness to it all and he would have killed me as well if I didn’t tell him where you were.”

“...”

Shaula looks at Vonis in astonishment. Ajax killed two people in order to find her? Why would he do something that severe? He’s not that kind of person in the first place. He would rather die himself than kill someone for his own gain. While stewing in her own preliminary thoughts about what Vonis has said, Shaula sees Cardinal Gratia look towards her and start to speak.

“Vonis has witnessed his crime and we were notified of it immediately when our death artifact showed they were deceased. Your friend Ajax has committed harmful acts of violence against human beings, a race that is already facing extinction. Do you understand the gravity of his crimes?”

“...”

“If both of you fight in our war as the heroes that you are, we can guarantee that no punishment will be taken against either of you. You will be given rewards beyond your wildest dreams and you will live in luxury for the rest of your long lives… However! In the event that you refuse my offer of amnesty and choose to defy us, you will be seen as acting in defiance towards humanity and both you and your friend will face punishment for his actions against two anointed holy knights. His punishment will be execution. So… what do you have to say?”

Shaula thinks through her options carefully. She is starting to understand the game that is being played here. In the first place, she doesn’t believe for a second that Ajax would kill someone for no reason. He is a good person, a truly good person. He would not do something like that. These people are trying to control her and him through punishment.

It’s… infuriating. Did they think this kind of threat would work? But, she considers the way that the two men died… being frozen to death. For some reason, this sounds familiar to her. The dream that she had. The one where she was dancing with Ajax… the frozen trees… It’s not just that this woman was lying, Ajax must have used that power in some situation.

The power given to him by God… Shaula doesn’t realize that Ajax doesn’t remember what happened but she remembers it clearly.

She remembers when she and Ajax had met God; they were taking a test and then they were pulled into a different space where God appeared before them. They were so afraid of his form. God called the two of them to speak about his plans for the two of them and attempted to give them the aforementioned divine protection before sending them away.

God told her about why she and Ajax were being sent to Omicron but, in the end… He was unable to give either of them the divine protection. In exchange, He gave the two of them something else. Something more powerful…

I can feel it. The vitality of God through his blood. Where did it come from? Before I was killed here, I didn’t have this kind of energy. But, all I know is that… I’ve heard enough of this bullshit.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Shaula stands up slowly from the bed. She is overflowing with strength and energy. Her anger has reached its boiling point and she has no choice but to act. She knows these people are trying to threaten her by holding this lie over her head. Ajax? Killing someone for no reason? Complete and utter nonsense.

“...You killed me. Then, you try to threaten my friend? And what? You think I will simply accept that?”

“Think about this carefully. By disobeying our orders, you two will be sent to a military prison. Do you truly wish for that? Back on Earth, you must have had better lives as students untainted by suffering. You must have had luxury, right? Well, we can give you that luxury ourselves. If you refuse me now, you’re speaking for him as well. Do you really wish to–”

CRACK.

A sound rings out in their room, like an explosive break. One moment, Shaula was standing there next to Ajax in front of her bed, but not any longer.

“...Cardinal?”

Andal calls out to the Cardinal in front of him who has abruptly stopped talking. The Cardinal looks down at the face of Shaula right in front of her. Eyes burning with intense hatred. He looks in terror at Shaula, this overbeing from another world, a being he shouldn’t have harmed. He realizes how he has failed by angering her.

Shaula’s right hand has pierced through his black clothes, the armor under his clothes and through his sternum, grabbing hold of his heart. She can feel it still beating in her hand. Shaula had a wonderful dream prior to waking up in this world, a dream shared between her and Ajax.

A dream where I burned everything away, a dream where I commanded fire and it obeyed.

The air around Shaula’s entire body shimmers for a moment.

I want to burn you away. I won’t let people like you hurt me ever again.

Shaula’s hair starts floating through the influx of heat surrounding her entire body. Cardinal Gratia spits blood, still conscious. Shaula’s eyes turn bright reddish-white, surrendering to her own instinct. After all, she also gained something from that dream. The knowledge of how she can use the tremendous power given to her.

“P-Pl-Please... please st–”

Shaula’s hair blazes in bright reddish-white flames. She appears like an angel born in the inferno, like Lucifer falling through hell.

“Cardinal!”

Andal is standing behind Gratia and reacts finally to Shaula who was hidden behind Gratia’s imposing body. It is already too late to intervene as Shaula has pierced his heart. The suddenness of the attack makes Andal lose his bearing and composure. Meanwhile, Cardinal Gratia feels a new scorching heat from the hand of Shaula in his chest.

She just wants him to disappear.

“You… undressed me… you killed me… you dared to threaten Ajax… you’re just like... just like my...”

Shaula grits her teeth. In seconds, fire expands from the hole in Cardinal Gratia’s chest, its genesis in Shaula’s right hand impaling him. Shaula commands his body to burn to nothing. Fire so hot that his clothes disintegrate, leaving his melting armor underneath. Cardinal Gratia is a Cardinal extremely gifted in flame magic.

His clothes and hidden armor have a magic protection that makes it difficult to be burned by any normal fire. However, what Shaula commands is nothing so trivial. All of the water in the cardinal’s body turns to steam within seconds. All that’s left are the materials of his ashes such as the calcium in his bones, the carbon in his body, the iron in his blood.

These mix with the molten metal of his armor and disappear entirely. Andal can now feel the heat of Shaula’s power on his own face, whatever excess there was that Gratia’s flesh couldn’t absorb. Andal’s face is scorched by tongues of blazing fire and he screams in anguish as Vonis runs to the corner of the room away from him and Shaula.

“AAAAIIIIIIEEEEEEE!!”

“Ugh, shut up.”

Shaula, without giving it a second thought, uses the same hand that had just ended Gratia’s life to burn through Andal’s head. Andal’s body is left intact and all of the skin and muscle on his face melts off. His brain is destroyed instantly, turning into boiled jelly in no time at all. His skull is left, bare, on top of a melted, burnt neck.

Andal leans against the door behind him, the door itself left intact and undamaged. Destroying the building would only bring more trouble, after all, there seem to be other summoned individuals in this place. But Shaula immediately moves to her next inquiry. She turns to Vonis.

“What you said about Ajax… I know for a fact that Ajax would never hurt someone unlike he was pushed to do so. What really happened?”

“...I-I–”

“Spit it the fuck out, I don’t have all fucking day.”

“Alright! Th-They told me to lie, h-he just defended himself against the two of them. I-I told him you had died and then he wanted to see you. Kinser and Creta didn’t let him leave and broke his jaw to keep him there. He used some kind of healing magic and then Creta was stabbing him in the chest over and over again to stop him before he froze to death. Th-Then, Kinser tried to rip out his guts and the same happened to him…”

Vonis speaks quite easily. She decides to withhold the fact that the holy knights and the clergy were actually going to used interrogation tactics including torture in order to get energy from him before the rest of the heroes woke up. After all, she was abetting that without pushback or mercy.

She also withholds the fact that Andal didn’t explicitly order her to tell a false story, she had done that herself to not let Creta or Kinser lose face in their deaths. Shaula merely doesn’t care anymore. She lets Vonis leave the room as she sits with Ajax. She stares at the molten remains of the Cardinal and the burnt skull of the Archbishop.

She doesn’t feel remorse or regret. After all, they were getting in her way and they deserved their demise.

~

When Shaula had been lying on that bed with her chest torn open, she couldn’t hear or see anything. She wasn’t breathing and her heart wasn’t beating. She wasn’t moving. She couldn’t feel the heat or coldness in the room or any sensation on her skin. It was like she was floating alone in an empty space. But she thought she was alive. Her mind was still working.

Her consciousness was completely on. She didn’t need to breathe to think. But she knew that blood wasn’t flowing in her veins due to the missing sensation of blood flow. Then, in that limbo, she felt... a hand grasp her own hand, a warm hand. A hand reaching out to her in sadness and pain. Perhaps the hand thought she was dead as well, as it held her tightly.

Perhaps she was about to die and God was reaching out to her… But suddenly, she felt an outpouring of vitality coming from the hand. As the hand continued to hold her, she felt her chest wound rapidly close. She felt her heart slowly start beating. She felt blood flowing through her veins once again.

She left that floating void of nothingness as she started to feel light past her eyelids. Her body was tingling all over because of the lack of blood flow to her extremities. It felt like her whole body was restless, like how her legs would fall asleep when she crossed them for too long. But even that sensation disappeared within seconds.

Right now, she’s sitting next to Ajax after having killed Gratia and Andal. She holds his hand. The warmth of Ajax’s hand. This same hand which had provided her vitality.

It was you, Ajax… It was you… It’s always you.

She had been holding this same hand and running into... that fire… Shaula remembers the dream she had. The dream. The current only clue to this new world and the nature of her powers. Ajax was with her then. They both were walking through fire... and Ajax wasn’t hurt either.

Is it possible…

Shaula does a small experiment. She generates fire from her right palm. She lifts Ajax’s arm with her left palm and lets it graze the fire. At the very least, he should wake up from the sudden painful burning of the fire, right? But… nothing happens. His hand doesn’t turn red or form burn marks in response to the fire. She slowly increases the temperature of the fire.

Enough heat to set his shirt on fire… after quickly smothering that flame, she looks once again at Ajax’s body and he’s still perfectly fine.

I was right… Just like in the dream, he can’t be hurt by fire… just like me.

In the dream, after somehow being separated by Ajax, she had burned everything away. Her activation of her power in reality against Gratia and Andal was like...

Muscle memory? I felt the sensation of using the fire exactly like it was in the dream… and then I was able to use it in reality. What is that, some kind of divine programming? God gave me not only the power but the instinct on how to activate it as well?

But, was that the extent of her power? To only burn things away? Perhaps. But it feels more like… the ability to command energy… She wasn’t producing fire. She was producing heat. A form of energy… is it too far a leap to consider that other forms of energy as well might…

Sigh. Aside from that, I had felt it, that sensation of Ajax giving me power. His hand directing energy into me. Or, was it me consuming his energy? What if… what if I give it back then? Can I...

Shaula’s intuition is particularly strong in crisis situations like this. She is a natural genius after all. Even if her assumptions were wrong, it wouldn’t hurt to make educated guesses and try to test those out. Perhaps, fire isn’t the only outlet for her energy. It certainly felt that way but dreams can be interpreted in different ways. Perhaps, the fire was a representation of energy.

It simply doesn’t feel like fire is the only outlet. Perhaps... perhaps, it’s merely her divinely granted instinct. Either way, it feels natural that…

I could direct my strength to him, maybe? His hand is warm… Right now, let me try this... I don’t really have any other option to wake his ass up. Actually… wait.

Instead of directly waking him up, she first grabs some clothes for herself. There is a dress in a closet in this room that she can use. She puts it on and then picks up the wooden chair in her room; she uses it to break through the window.

She can now hear running from the hallway. Guards are trying to get her and Ajax, as she was anticipating. She carefully picks up Ajax, carrying him overhead like a firefighter.

The door opens as armored men enter the room. But it is too late. Without much effort, Shaula jumps out of the window carrying Ajax. A wall is in front of her and she carefully jumps to the top of the wall with Ajax in tow and hops down. After that, she just continues running. Nobody follows her at the moment. She eventually finds a large tree to wait beside.

Shaula places Ajax down on the ground and continues what she was doing earlier. She holds Ajax’s left hand tightly. Warmth. She commands her body, her soul, her spirit, to slowly direct strength and vitality to Ajax. Not heat. Not fire. Just... vitality.

Only she and Ajax were in that dream land.

Only she and Ajax were given the providence of God’s blood. This is the power of his blood, right?

Carefully... carefully direct the power... don’t... don’t overload him...

Shaula looks at Ajax’s face for any signs of change. She can feel his body incorporating her vitality and her own vitality slowly decreasing in turn. Running and jumping as much as she had just done also took a lot of her vitality so if she gives the rest to him right now, she will be effectively powerless.

Ajax’s eyes twitch.

She holds her breath. Her instincts have been proven correct. Ajax’s eyes slowly open. However, all of a sudden, frost starts to form in her immediate vicinity. The tree beside her starts to be layered in it. Ajax’s hand holds hers tightly. As it does, more and more frost layer on his skin and her own. His clothes start to freeze, solidify and crack.

As he continues to hold Shaula’s hand, vitality flows through her like a waterfall.

All of the energy that she had lost, she regained. She felt amazing. She felt even faster and stronger than she had felt when she had killed those two. She notices Ajax’s eyes. They were currently glowing brightly blue. More energy, even more flows into her. It’s unbelievable. Eventually, the bright blue light in his eyes receded.

His power… can give me power. Wow…

Ajax sits upright, looking at the sky above him, the tree beside him. He is as naked as the day of his birth; when he used his power to absorb energy, his clothes were completely robbed of their heat and they were brought to a temperature near absolute zero, completely drained of their energy. As he stands up, his clothes, now in shreds fall to the ground.

“Wh-Whoa!!”

“Calm down, calm down. You’re ok now, Ajax.”

“A-Ah… Where are… Is this still…”

“Yes, Ajax. It’s still Omicron. I got you out of there. Are… Are you ok?”

“...Am I ok… No, I’m pretty fucking far from ok. When I woke up here, I didn’t understand why I was here. I didn’t remember meeting God. But… now I remember. I remember what happened after that English test… Shit… I remember.”