Karen was all but emptied out of tears, days after she saw her hero leave for the Trials. She was still confined inside the teardrop-shaped building, even though no one exactly locked the doors. The Luminard simply knew that she wasn't allowed to leave.

The young Maliferons, Seera and Jokrum, would often come visit her to give her food and comfort, but they never brought any news of the Trials. But since she was still allowed to live, then perhaps that may mean that her hero was still alive.

A knock came from the door. Karen got up wearily to open it, and when she did, she wasn't surprised at the creature outside the door.

"Hello, Karen." Seera went inside, carrying a metal basket of some kind of fruit. "I've brought you sustenance for the day."

"Thank you, Seera, but you don't have to keep coming every day. Luminards don't need to eat so often." Karen offered the child a seat.

Seera stood almost awkwardly as she wrung her hands together. "… In truth, I only wanted to keep you company. If I am this nervous for our Hero YAP, I can only wonder how worried you truly are…"

Karen sighed. "Alright, then. Come sit down and eat with me."

The Luminard watched as the Maliferon child bite cautiously at a fruit's peel. "Don't you eat human food, Seera?"

"Oh, we do! But we do prefer the living worms and the small animals that live under the ground. Our strongest warriors can even eat the larger beings roaming above ground," Seera told Karen, picking at her fruit.

"… I don't seem to understand that. I heard you never ate avian creatures," Karen wondered aloud. "But you seem to be able to eat both meat and fruit."

Seera let a short laugh. "No, no. It isn't a question of capability, but of preference. As far as I know, our kind can eat and digest most anything, even the rocks and the soil. However, we have the belief that the closer our food is to the Ferric Goddess, the healthier it is!"

"And the Ferric Goddess is…?"

Seera smiled with her black mouth, and recited, "The Goddess of the Maliferons! The Holy One that lies asleep underneath!"

Karen couldn't reply to that since the child seemed to have only answered her with a line she probably had been taught to remember since she was young.

'The Ferric Goddess… I suppose then, what does the Ferric Goddess think about all the Pixie corpses lying on her walls…" Karen thought, her mind wandering into dark places.

Yet, the Luminard didn't think about asking the child about that. After all, she probably didn't even know about the real identity of the dome's blue light. Even if she had known, Karen didn't think the child would care that much.

While she was drowned in her horrid thoughts, she saw the Maliferon child suddenly stand up from her seat and run towards the closed door.

Also starting to get up, Karen asked the child, "What is it? Did you hear your brother call?"

Seera, with wide, black eyes, shouted back at her, "My mother is coming! Brother Jokrum as well! They... They are bringing the Hero YAP here now!"

Karen felt her pounding core quickening and ran towards the Maliferon as well. Together, they opened the door.

A few paces away, bathed in blue light, were two Maliferons carrying on their shoulders an unconscious, bloody body.

"YAP!" screamed Karen, and ran towards the group. The hero was bleeding so much and from so many places that she seemed to be a Luminard glowing red with anger.

"Is she alright? What happened?" Karen found herself saying, wanting to touch the hero, but also scared that she might hurt her in the process.

"Let us carry her inside first," a deep female voice came out from the unknown Maliferon. "The sooner I tend to her, the higher the chance that she might live to see another day."

Without any other word, Karen only followed them as they brought Yassi into the teardrop-shaped building and onto the floor.

In a daze, Karen could only be a spectator as the Maliferons worked on Yassi. The older Maliferon, probably the siblings' mother, gave several instructions to her children. For a short while, the two were gone to gather materials. Then, the mother started tending to her hero's countless injuries. Karen was also ordered to wet a blanket and ground some herbs. Before long, the hero's face had slowly returned into a pale, but healthier complexion.

As the Maliferon doctor leaned back to rest, the Luminard gently placed a hand on her hero's chest, feeling the steady beating of her heart.

"She'll be okay," the adult Maliferon said, her voice sounding tired even in the Luminard's ears. "Give her a few more earth days and she'll be up and about."

Karen stared at the stranger. "… Thank you for saving her."

The Maliferon only nodded, and gestured towards her children. "These children have been bothering you for a while now. I have to apologize for that as their mother."

Karen glowed pink in embarrassment and told her, "No! No! They have been nothing but a help and a blessing to me when I was alone here. It is I that should thank you and your children!"

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

The Maliferon accepted her gratitude silently, and then urged the Luminard to sit down with her, slightly away from Yassi. Karen sat down on the hard seats.

"I go by the name, Heka, and I unfortunately bring bad news," she told Karen after ordering her children to go outside.

Karen gulped in anticipation and worry. Bringing in a heavily injured superhero hardly brings anything but ill news.

"Even I could hardly believe it, but YAP has failed in her Trials. She bravely, but quite stupidly, held on until the very end, stubbornly refusing to use her powers. I do not know if she is so arrogant that she thinks she can face the Trials as a mere human, but…" Heka only shook her head. "She lasted so much longer than any other human; almost five earth days, but... Alas, she has failed."

Karen could only sit in silence, simply frozen in disbelief. 'Never had I heard a story where the Great Superhero YAP was defeated to the point of her becoming unconscious by anyone or anything…'

"So, here is our situation." Heka continued. "YAP was about to be killed by our ferric instruments, but many of us in the council begged our leader to let her live. The leader was incredibly hesitant about this, especially because he implements our traditions so harshly. However, seeing the mass opposition, he decided to allow only one of us to tend to her, and I was the voted person… He allowed three earth days for recovery, but after that…"

Heka sighed as Karen listened with a blank face. "After that, we will have to force you out of our territory."

The Luminard glowed a dark red, clearly angry and frustrated by the situation. "... YAP saved your whole species from extinction, and THIS is how you repay her!? This is just- This is ENTIRELY- HAGH HAH!"

Heka clearly didn't like the position she was in, for she idolized YAP but also respected their leader dearly. Picking a side will always be hard. Often times, wars start with such vague loyalties…

"I'm sorry," Heka said, bowing her head. "I'm terribly sorry, but the Ferric Goddess didn't deem her worthy."

Karen couldn't even speak anymore for fear that she might lash out with hurtful words towards her hero's life saver.

"Please…" Karen managed to say after a long while. "I need some time alone with YAP."

Heka could only agree, and went off to find her children.

Karen approached her hero, lying on the cold ground. Looking at her like this, Karen only saw a young woman. She could hardly understand how a frail-looking human could be so strong as to change the tides of an intergalactic war, but here she was… incredibly human and definitely not invulnerable. She was still so young that Karen could clearly still see her as the girl in her stories. The one who lived a complicated, yet still simple life.

"Yassi, I don't understand why you did what you did. Maybe you're just hiding your powers. Maybe you're scared you'll be too strong that you'll hurt others… I know you have your reasons. But, now, all I see is a young woman who lets herself be battered down for the sake of other people...

"If this is how people become heroes, then I'd rather you not become one."

Karen waited for any response, but Yassi was too deep asleep to hear her.

A whole day passed and Yassi was still unconscious. The Maliferon Heka told Karen it was quite normal, seeing as the hero was just at death's door only a day ago. But, Karen was still worried. She was so anxious that she couldn't even sleep.

Just as dawn broke the second day, Yassi too woke up with the sun. At first, she was feeling too groggy that she couldn't place her surroundings. But, when her vision straightened, she started to realize where she was and what had happened.

'I'm supposed to be dead…' she thought, wondering why she could still feel so much pain if she was already in the afterlife.

Then, she found a familiar figure. She called out to her, "Ka… ren."

Quickly, Karen was fully alert and hurriedly called for Heka. Then, she carefully appeared by Yassi's side. "My hero, my sweet hero, you're finally awake…"

Yassi tried to smile but found it hard to even do such mundane action. Nevertheless, she had to speak. "Karen… I'm sorry I… lost."

The Luminard's eye was already filling up with tears, seeing her hero so incredibly weak. "No, do not be sorry. You fought bravely, I'm sure."

Yassi shook her head. "… I'm nothing… but a coward."

The human had spoken with such certainty that Karen couldn't even reply. At that moment, Heka finally arrived and gently told the Luminard to give her some space so she could properly examine the hero.

The day passed by with Yassi recovering and gaining strength. She truly was resilient in Karen's eyes, because any other human being would have surely died already with the wounds and injuries she had. In fact, Yassi seemed to be recovering too fast that it wasn't quite human anymore.

On the last day they were allowed to stay in the territory, Yassi had called for Karen. "Come. I will fulfill my promise."

The Luminard was quite confused by what her hero had said. She was already so busy thinking about what they would do once they had to leave the next day that she couldn't remember any promise she had made with her hero.

"Promise?" she asked. "What promise was it again?"

Yassi laughed at her companion's clueless face, which promptly made her grasp at her side and gasp in pain. Karen fussed over her for a while before the conversation started again.

"I mean the promise about me telling my life story," Yassi explained.

"Oh, that! You don't have to do that now! You clearly need more time to rest," Karen complained hurriedly.

The injured hero then shook her head. "If I had learned anything about what has happened, it is that my days could easily be numbered."

She held up a hand before Karen could say anything. "No, Karen. The life of a hero will always be hard, but frankly, I'm not even an ordinary hero at all. I've become too tangled up in matters that are much larger than us, and that can make everything about my life… difficult. Let's just say that nearly dying has reminded me of my real responsibilities."

Karen couldn't quite understand her hero, but she decided to let her be.

In the long silence, Karen found herself festering in her thirst for vengeance against those who have hurt her hero. The Luminard found herself staring into the room's blue lights…

"… Karen, culture will always be different from one place to another, from one era and from one time zone. A viper's bite may seem like a crime against the deer, but in the viper's eyes, it was only defending itself. I beg you, Karen, to not hold grudges against these people. The Maliferons may have looked ungrateful in our eyes, but they have already done so much for us to the point of bending and breaking their rules again and again. So, do not be angry at them, my fair writer, and have an open heart."

Karen was silent as she heard her hero's wise words.

"… Go on then, my hero." The Luminard smiled. "Fulfill your promise. I am listening."

Yassi, too, smiled in response, propping herself up into a sitting position. She started organizing her story inside her mind.

"... Now, Karen, I shall continue my tale. And yes, I will start it with how I had to go through a certain test in order to belong. It is very much like how I had to undergo the Trials here in Maliferon territory. But, no, do not show such an outraged face. No, Karen, I was not hurt this badly... But something did change in me that made me do... wrong and bad things. In fact, it was so bad that I would say that I'd rather be tested by the Ferric Goddess again than be tested in that way…"

Yassi took a deep breath, her eyes gazing into the far away past.

"Listen well, Karen, for I will tell of the time that I acted so villainous.... just to become a hero."