Something was wrong. Olivia still was not certain what it was, but something was missing since a few days ago. She noticed it at first when she had once more been using Deceitful Implant but found it was taking more effort than usual. Her target at the time had been someone she never had to put such effort into before, so she had questioned it in the moment but thought little about it afterwards. So long as it worked in the end, it was fine. However, she did push anyone who resisted further away than before. Except for the prince, who she only kept around since she had layered Deceitful Implant extensively over him.
Olivia was on her way to see the prince now, since it was time to add another layer to the memories of the prince. She followed behind a servant, who constantly stumbled along as he led her. She had noticed that when her implanted memories caused a conflict with their actual memory that they would falter as they attempted to figure out which was the true memory. It was enough to make her laugh every time. Right now, the servant clearly did not want to bring her to the prince.
Entering into the room, she found the prince sitting on a tiny stool with one leg he had to constantly rock back and forth on to maintain his balance. He seemed unable to focus on anything else, as it seemed he was constantly having clashing thoughts. Upon sighting her, he perked up and came to his feet.
“Champion!”
He fell to his knees, then shuffled around the room to be in front of her. Looking up at her, Olivia could see the distant spark in his eye that was the lingering effort of defiance she was still trying to quash.
“There is something important I have to say, Champion,” the prince said.
Olivia was surprised that he could make any sort of self imposed statement in her presence.
“What?”
“The wall was breached!”
Olivia had no idea what the wall was.
“Why should I care?”
“It means bad things!”
Olivia was getting frustrated.
“Then fix it or something. Don’t bother me with this shit.”
“There’s something else.”
Olivia sighed, “What else?”
“A lady had a fight at the wall.”
“A lady had a… are you serious? I don’t care!”
Olivia slapped him across the face, sending him sprawling. She could have sworn that one of the first orders she had implanted on the prince was to only tell her if Tess was spotted in the capital. Somehow that bitch had slipped out several weeks ago and still had not been caught. Nearly every purple ranked adventurer was searching for her, so it was only a matter of time. It left her wondering if her implanted memories were not as strong as she hoped.
“Wait. What about this lady?” Olivia demanded.
The prince righted himself, though still remained kneeling.
“She’s the lady,” he replied.
“Who did she fight?”
“A big guy.”
Tess had fought a big guy at some wall. So the information was important because it fulfilled her orders. That meant her implant was functioning.
“Who was this big guy?”
The prince smiled.
“Demon Lord.”
Olivia paled. If the prince was not telling her about Tess’s death, then Tess must have won the fight. If Tess won the fight, then she was strong. If she was strong, then she would come for Olivia… and succeed. She needed a distraction while she figured out how to avoid meeting Tess again. Fortunately, Olivia had the right person to speak to about such things right in front of her.
----------------------------------------
Tess had given thought to going straight after Olivia and ending her little party of tyranny. Her success over the demon lord had left her with a unique blend of satisfaction and disappointment. She had set out to complete the story that was her adventure through this world, and had succeeded by the standards set by the examples she drew from. There were still some story threads, such as Olivia, that she needed to address in some way, but the gist of her story was already finished.
“The true test becomes what to do with this power now, huh?” she asked the monstrous deer creature she was effortlessly dodging the attacks of.
In the few days since defeating the demon lord, she had been pursuing the monsters that had fled deeper into the empire’s territory. The sheer number that had been flowing in made her feel that the effort was necessary, but she did leave a few here and there for other adventurers to train against whenever those creatures finally got too close to settlements. She had lost count of just how many monsters she had hunted now, but even her magic bags were nearly at capacity with quality materials she scavenged from them. She slated this deer to become her next magic bag due to the necessity, but also because it sported a beautiful pattern that looked like a field of stars.
Side stepping another charge, she lashed out with the Witchblade which slipped exactly in between the ribs and pierced the heart. The deer crashed to the ground, dead before it finished moving. She took the time to carefully extract the massive antlers, which were of a hard crystalline substance, before carefully skinning the body for the luxurious pelt. She also took a hefty portion of the meat, though it was likely going to come out gamey because of their fight once she got around to cooking it.
Tess was just slipping the last piece into one of the only remaining spaces she had when she sensed their approach. It was a team of five adventurers, which she could tell from their movements. They paused, likely believing that she had yet to notice them, before two split off, one to either side, in an attempt to surround her. While unsure of their rankings, Tess was fairly confident that in order to track her they had to be some of the Purples hunting her. With that in mind, their strategy was decent and were it not for the fact that now she was fully geared and carried the goddess’s blessing she might have struggled.
Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.
The warrior type one started the charge with a shout, followed closely by an archer and a caster of some sort. The shout was probably meant to be some sort of taunt, though her innate resistances shrugged it off. She did turn towards the charging trio, deflecting the first arrow away. With her attention apparently drawn by their warrior, the two flanking members broke their own cover to charge at her. It was sad that they all were going to try so hard, only to fail so completely.
Tess first unleashed her silent binding spell, overpowering and disabling the caster without anyone else noticing. She then drew the Witchblade, slicing another arrow in two before parrying the warrior’s opening strike. As she locked blades with the warrior, she swapped the Witchblade into naginata form, extending the grip. The surprise switch hit the one coming at her from the right in the chest as the butt of her weapon slammed into him. Tess shoved the warrior off her before doing a backwards flip to dodge the other one coming at her from the left.
“I suppose we can’t just talk this out?” Tess asked, giving it a shot.
“You injured the Champion of the Goddess!” shouted the warrior, “Like we could just let that go!”
“She is still recovering from her wounds, you heretic!” said the one from the left, some sort of martial artist with a clear religious fanaticism.
Tess was confused now. Sure it could be argued that she attacked Olivia, what with the binding spell. It could even be said that, in exposing her lies, Olivia was wounded socially, possibly even mentally. But the way they expressed their vitriol suggested literal, physical wounds. Olivia had not been one of those attacking her during the ensuing melee, so there was no way that Tess could have hurt her in such a manner. It was clear then that Olivia had manipulated their memory of the event somehow.
Tess sighed with the realization. This group must have been particularly gullible, especially because they clearly lacked mental defense skills like Shadow had. But a new thought came to Tess. How had this group found her this far from the capital? She needed those answers.
Tess darted forward, closing the distance she had created in a blur. She slammed the butt of the Witchblade into the stomach of the still grounded ambusher, some sort of rogue, then whacked him upside the head to knock him out. Her follow up slash had both the strength and speed to cut the sword of the warrior in two. She then punched him in the face, sending him tumbling to the ground.
The archer, having been thrown off by Tess’s speed, was slow to react and quickly succumbed to a few precise cuts as Tess reached to sever the tendons in his arms and legs. He fell like a limp noodle as his limbs struggled to respond. She threw a quick heal at him to prevent him from bleeding out due to the depth of the injuries.
Tess knew she was almost finished as the single blow to land on her so far made contact. She allowed herself to spin with the momentum provided by the punch. She was able to therefore deflect the successive punch with one arm as she jabbed forward with her blade, nicking the martial artist’s thigh. She got a good look at him now, recognition dawning on her.
“You were the one at the party,” she said, “I never got the chance to thank you.”
Indeed he had been the combatant that had finally managed to get through her defense that evening, starting her near-death experience. This time though, now that his companions were incapacitated, he was alone against her. She was certainly going to savor the beating she was about to dish out.
----------------------------------------
Tess sat in the grass, contemplating how she was going to break through the modified memories of the five Purple adventurers. They all sat just a short distance away, all bound to a tree by her magical chains. She had even been so kind as to heal them up, except for the martial artist. His face remained bruised and swollen from the absolute destruction she had inflicted.
The easiest fix she could try would be to magically heal the mind, attempting to restore the original pathways within. However, she ruled this out since it was likely something that any sort of healing magic would do. Given that she had just used such magic on several of her captives and their attitudes had not changed solidified this guess.
If magic could not undo the modification, then Tess suspected that the manipulation was from a skill. It meant that it was likely that only a skill could undo the changes. It made sense too since Shadow mentioned a skill shielded him from Olivia’s influence. She was staring at her menus, looking over the three skills she thought might help the best.
[Sturdy Mind - Increases base resistance to mind altering effects. Scales additionally with Intellect Statistic. Personal conviction, while not measurable, can also boost this skill.]
[Recovery - Ensures complete health during a period of rest. Capable of healing most wounds and status effects. So long as a rest period is taken, Recovery will activate.]
[Restoration - Improves natural healing during out-of-combat scenarios. Consumes energy from the user at an increased rate. If the user enters a combat state, Restoration will not be active until one hour after the end of the combat state.]
The theory she was building was that she might need to inflict physical brain damage to those affected by Olivia’s skill. Once that occurred, Restoration could work on the wound, with Recovery ensuring success on Restoration’s healing. If they had Sturdy Mind, then the alterations that Olivia implanted could not overwrite the healed area. There were two major issues with the theory.
The first issue was that Restoration did not kick in right away. Tess knew that severe brain damage, much like would probably be needed for this situation, would qualify as a combat state. In theory, she could probably apply healing magic to sustain the injured party until Restoration kicked in, but that could also prevent Restoration from working how she wanted it to. Additionally, other than Olivia, Tess was likely the only person that could pull that sort of healing off.
The second, far larger, issue was that such brain damage was probably, most likely, lethal. Even with Restoration, Recovery, and healing magic, this was no guarantee. Tess had a sneaking suspicion that being held responsible for the death of important people, such as the prince, would not really improve her situation. She needed something else, and so went back to examining her skill list.
[Counter - Inhibits Skill use against the user, reflecting the targeting Skill back.]
Tess stared at the Counter skill.
“I had something like that the entire time! What the hell? I could have ended this a long time ago! I could have avoided so much during the fight with the demon lord! Damn it, MSI!”
She was going to have words with MSI people whenever she encountered them next. Setting that anger aside, Tess saw that Counter did not specify that it was a combat skill. It was clearly designed that way, but was not specified. One thing that she occasionally forgot was that the wording was everything.
Tess stood and marched over to the warrior. She slapped her hand against his forehead and activated Counter. Nothing happened.
“Against the user… Crap.”
She was close, but still far away.
----------------------------------------
Elsewhere over Iriea
----------------------------------------
“You can edit things in my copy, right?” Oena asked, slightly menacingly.
“I could,” replied the lesser deity.
He had been strapped by Oena to his seat. While he was a deity, being a nameless made him less powerful than a named god like Oena. Additionally, being within her domain space made it difficult to even consider getting the best of her.
“Make it so she can undo the liar’s damage,” Oena said.
“And how should I do that? She will figure out a way in time.”
“You’re going to make it easy for her. At this point she needs an easy victory. She was just looking at that Counter skill. Make that work.”
The lesser deity frowned. He could do it, but that did not mean he had to like it. Reluctantly, he pulled his mobile platform back out and started accessing the System.