Skarlet ran her hand over the wall of the cave, the deep gashes carved into the stone. Ahead of her, a dragon waited, but there wasn't any fear. She was absorbed in anything but anticipation, a sigh filled her but didn't escape her lips. Her thoughts weren't on what was to come, no they still lingered on the battle that was already done. Not the actual fighting but the words. Skarlet paused as she saw Beatrice, the sigh finally slipped out as all her. . . Friends words hammered into her. Damnit, I have to go. I can't be here anymore. Aguris is no longer a place for me I'm dragging them into danger. I can't get anyone killed again.
Beatrice stood in the center of the cave, a pleased smile on her face, she wore what was probably once a dress. It looked like it was a hundred years old, which it probably was. It was ragged, torn and dirty from years of use without ever mending or cleaning it. Skarlet shook herself before approaching the woman ahead of her, it doesn't matter anymore. I'll figure out what Beatrice wants then head to some other town away from Cody, Maria, and Aiko. That will protect them from me.
"Welcometh backeth Skarlet, didst thee bringeth m're wine?" The dragon asked hopefully. Skarlet sighed with a shake of her head she shrugged.
"Sorry, getting here was a bit rough." Skarlet tapped her lightly, unaware of her own anxiety and urgency. "So, why'd you want to see me after the battle?" Skarlet asked.
"Why art thee in a haste child?" Beatrice sighed, "I hath decided yond I'm coming with thee" With that Beatrice started marching from the cave.
"W-what!?" Skarlet exclaimed as she chased after her. "What do you mean?" Skarlet caught up as Beatrice stopped at the entrance to the cave, her anxiety evaporated, replaced by confusion and shock. Though as she reached the entrance she bumped into Beatrice who'd full stopped.
"Ah, hello dear." A familiar voice called out, Skarlet leaned out from behind Beatrice to see Griax standing there. The usual smile on his face and once again he wore an unusual outfit. "Look at that, my two favorite people." Skarlet stared in surprise and disbelief as Griax caressed Beatrice's cheek. She squealed in a really childish way as she leaped back. Her form shimmered and suddenly she looked like a little girl instead of a woman as she hid behind Skarlet.
"Holy Gia, wh're didst thee even cometh from bas-"
"My name's Griax." He cut her off, she rolled her eyes in response. "Are you still refusing my proposal?"
"I bethought mine own fath'r did get rid of thee three hundr'd years ago, what fowl creature even art thee!?" She exclaimed.
"Just a friendly helper. Skarlet, I came to give you a bit of help." He said, raising his hand, her sword was in it.
"When did you. . ." She looked at her now empty hand in confusion.
"Skarlet, there was something I forgot to mention when I gave you this, It has training wheels!" He exclaimed with a tone of joy, however Skarlet looked at him in confusion. "Nevermind, here." He sighed in disappointment as he tossed the sword over to her, she stumbled as she caught it.
"Now the pommel, twist it." Griax urged her, she did as he suggested and a sheet of paper slid from an invisible slot in the sword's handle and floated in front of her. It had a list on it:
Base Stats:
Name: Skarlet
Rank: D
Skill points: 20
Mana: 1400 Agility: 80/100
Reflexes: 54/100 Strength: 40/100
Racial Abilities:
Seventh Sense
Predator
Cat Ears
Skills:
Sword Arts [LVL: 3/10]
Presence Detection [LVL: 1/5]
She was surprised to see her name and rank, but even more surprised to see her mana, agility, reflexes, and strength calculated with numbers. She had several racial skills as well, she wondered what they meant when suddenly the information entered her brain. Cat Ears is a racial ability unique to Catkin, it is the heightened hearing of a feline predator. Predator is a skill that subconsciously guides the owner in stealth situations when hunting opponents weaker than the owner. Like a wild predator's instincts when hunting, the owner of this skill will just know the best places to be in order to not be noticed. Seventh sense is a skill unique to the Beastkin races that grants the owner a sense of danger. They were things she used all the time, there was a skill column as well, she also somehow knew what the skills meant. Sword Arts is a measure of the owner's understanding of the sword. Presence detection is an ability that uses the mana of others to detect their presence even through walls.
"Done reading?" Griax suddenly spoke up, he smiled as he watched her, "Cause you're gonna wanna hear this, I can't be here all day." She nodded, bringing her attention back to him "Alrighty, now this is a list of the skills available to you currently. And in order to do anything with these, you need skill points, which you happen to have twenty." He pranced around her, Beatrice circled Skarlet always keeping her between them. He stopped suddenly and handed her a piece of paper with words scrawled on it:
Mana Manipulation
Appraisal
Chant Shortening
Presence Detection
Elemental Blade
Intimidation
Magic Perception
Lie perception
Fire Resistance
Water Resistance
Earth Resistance
Air Resistance
Dark Resistance
Light Resistance
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
Moon Resistance
Sun Resistance
Poison Resistance
Paralysis Resistance
Mental attack Resistance
"In order to obtain a skill, you need to imagine writing it on the paper, it will cost five mana to add a skill, but one mana to level it up." Griax explained before suddenly looking at his wrist, it was bare and she was confused as to what he was looking at. "Oh look at the time, last thing: You should definitely head for Otalos." After saying that, smoke began emitting from his feet and slowly traveled upwards till he couldn't be seen. Moments later the smoke dissipated and he was no longer there.
"Otalos huh?" Skarlet was confused as the odd man disappeared once again. She glanced at the list, chant shortening and Mana manipulation caught her eye. She watched as they appeared on the list of skills and ten skill points vanished, she then put five in each of them. Beatrice was still hiding behind her, but seemed to be slowly gaining her confidence back.
Base Stats:
Name: Skarlet
Rank: D
Skill points: 0
Mana: 1400 Agility: 80/100
Reflexes: 54/100 Strength: 40/100
Racial Abilities:
Seventh Sense
Predator
Cat Ears
Skills:
Sword Arts [LVL: 3/10]
Presence Detection [LVL: 1/5]
Mana Manipulation [LVL: 5/10]
Chant Shortening [LVL: 5/10
Skarlet suddenly felt odd, it wasn't that her mana pool deepened, more like it became more uniform. Less like gas randomly blowing about her body, more like a river flowing around in a circle. She felt confident that she could do more magic with less mana.
Beatrice had left from behind Skarlet and was acting like she hadn't cowered behind her at all. "Since that gent's gone. . . Wherefore we not leaveth." Beatrice suddenly began transforming, she became blurry before getting bigger, and finally, she stood there as the Red Dragon.
Skarlet twisted the pommel and the paper vanished, she then leaped onto Beatrice. Skarlet pulled her barely remaining cloak off and wrapped her sword in it before using the sleeves to tie a loop to toss it over her shoulder. After that she laid down, Beatrice's back scales were warm and surprisingly comfortable.
As Beatrice rose into the air, Skarlet fell into a deep sleep, though it was filled with dreams of regret.
She stood in a cave, blood splattered the ground, and her clothes were torn. Her body was smaller, that of a six heart l year old.
"I can't believe we died to protect a pathetic runt like you." A voice echoed in her ears, it was familiar and unfamiliar at the same time. She recognized that it was someone she knew or maybe multiple voices of people she knew mixed together.
"I'm ashamed to be related to you!" Another voice growled into her ears, she fell to her knees pressing her hands against her ears. Once again, a weird mixture of voices taunted from the darkness.
"It wasn't my fault, it was an unfortunate accident!" She choked out, a tear slipped down her cheek. "I-I I've been trying to atone."
"Atone!? We're dead, and you're not, you're just the coward who kept running. You should have fought beside us and died beside us." Another voice whispered to her, the smell of blood grew stronger and she thought she could hear the sounds of screaming.
"You told me to ru-ru-ruuuun." She sobbed, "Please, I only did what I was told!" She gazed around wildly, searching for the voices.
"Did as you were told, a good girl, never did anything wrong." One of the voices whispered in her ear once more, she struggled to her feet, backing away.
"I-I thought sur-surviving would have been what you wanted." She stammered, wiping the tears away defiantly, that defiance was smashed as she was shoved to the ground and the voices roared at her in unison.
"How dare you get angry at the ones who died for your miserable life! You have done nothing, you sit in that room all day wasting away. Now that room is destroyed! Where will you run little kitty?" They screamed at her, and she crawled away, feeling a heavy pressure on her back. She saw the light ahead of her and pulled herself towards it.
"You're running again? We'll always be here! You can't always run away! You will face your past eventually Skarlet, child of misfortune. You will bring many others to their demise before you finally repent, you will break many more souls. Child, all those around you will die. You will always come back here, always alone."
She didn't listen, dragging herself from the cave, the voices faded as the light greeted her. A hand was there, she looked up to see a boy, one she recognized as he lifted her to her feet. "Hey, don't tell me your crying Skarlet? Come on what happened." He laughed as he led her out of the cave. Her dream ended there and she slipped into the darkness of dreamless sleep. A smile lit her face though, she was unaware why Cody had appeared, but she felt at ease.
The king of Kozak frowned as he sat on his throne. "The instructors have been notified of their mission, each prepared separately and left separately. They each seem to have different ideas of where to catch Cody." An advisor spoke as he kneeled in front of the King.
"To hell with it!" The King exclaimed as he threw his glass of wine, it shattered on the floor. "Damn Church, want are they thinking?"
"Your majesty, I believe they're in turmoil due to the demon's attack. They're lashing out, a lot of big names died and the hero betrayed them. It's possible the people holding back the fanatics are among the dead." The advisor spoke, giving his piece on the situation.
"You may be right, this could lead to war. There was a survivor right? That girl Amelia the blind prophet." The King changed the topic.
"Yes, I survived." A new voice spoke up, the doors to the throne room opened as a young girl in blood splattered priestess clothes walked through. There was no blindfold, her eyes were open and demonic, wings grew from her back and horns protruded from her head.
"Demon!" The guards exclaimed, they pointed their spears at her. Stepping in front of the king to guard him.
"Could you refrain from threatening me, I would gladly tear you all to pieces, but Amelia wouldn't be happy with me. So why don't you stop tempting me." The girl spoke without any form of my respect. Though the king felt a chill and in response he raised his hand.
"Stand down, may I ask your name demon?" The king addressed her, the guards wanted to protest but as the king was already treating it as a guest they obediently withdrew.
"You may call me Asmodeus, Bishop of Prophecies. My vessel here, her name is Amelia, though I think you already know that." Asmodeus spoke, a smile and an arrogant posture causing the advisor to grit his teeth. "Asmo, come on I told you to be respectful- hmph, to some lowly human, how could I- you show me respect, why can't you do the- give this man the same respect I give you Amelia, never. Child you're a being who trapped and forced a bishop into a contract. You're far greater than some king, hey wait!" A conversation took place before them, causing confusion before suddenly the demon's posture changed and a blush crept up her cheek. "I apologize for Asmos she's a very arrogant demon." Amelia took a knee and bowed. "I greet the king humbly and ask that you listen to a request." Amelia spoke respectfully unlike Asmodeus.
"Ah, I assume I'm speaking to Miss Amelia. Very well I will listen to your request." The king stood from his chair and approached her, lifting a hand to stop the approach of his guards.
"Let's take this outside yes?" The king held out his hand and she took it, as he lifted her to her feet. They walked to the left side of the throne room where the balcony was. As they stepped out Amelia gasped as she looked over the railing.
"Wow, we're very high up." Amelia breathed in awe. "It's not that impressive, I could take you above the clouds besides we're here for a reason remember.- oh yeah my bad. Why don't you take over I'm getting nervous."
"Sorry, I came out here to lighten the mood." The king apologized as he leaned against the railing.
"She's still young and not quite used to meeting with big influences. But we should get to business. You see, I took a glimpse at what's to come. The future is war, this kingdom will be enveloped in the fires of a holy crusade against all the church considers non-human. They will attempt to fully take over your kingdom and turn it into a holy empire." Asmodeus laid out her prophecy.
"So, why have you come to me for this?" The king asked with slight confusion.
"Amelia desires to reform the church, so we must defeat them." Amos replied.
"You're a demon, and a high rank at that shouldn't you be able to procure an army easily." The king pointed out, this caused Asmodeus deflate as she leaned against the railing.
"Only the high ranking demons have awoken, mostly just the bishops. And I can't alert them of my current predicament, I need to move in secrecy. As much as I'm loathed to admit, Amelia has left an impression on me.
"You're worried that due to your current standing with the humans, they will no longer be your Allies." The king surmised.
"Yes." Asmodeus admitted.
"You need my army to reform the church. Will the new church still be above me?"
"No, Amelia wants to make it a partnership. And I do what the girl wants." Asmodeus responded as she rose from the railing.
"We have much to discuss then hmm, let us finish this in my office. We can finalize contracts and formalities there." The king turned and led the way back through the throne room, the blind prophet in tow. "Oh right, have you met my daughter?" The King's voice faded as the two left the balcony