A girl that can't be older than 14 walks under the dimly lit sky covered with dark clouds, gravel crunching below her feet, breaking the unnatural silence. The river flowing by her side echoes as if it's far beyond a hill.
She's been here before long ago; she spent a good few years here in fact. Not often does she get invited to stay somewhere so peaceful. She even learnt basic cooking; something she lacked for most of her life.
She looks at a brass breastpin as she contemplates her surroundings.
“Might as well…” she says with a sigh before casually dismissing the pin into the river and moving along.
The small town was obviously long since abandoned. Foliage growing around the wooden buildings while moss made home on the stone. No sign of havoc to be seen; just an ordinary town that lacks people.
Even with such menacing clouds up above, no wind can be heard. Birds fly and critters forage, but they cannot be heard. Only footstep crunches can be heard within the ominous silence.
The girl didn’t know what she was looking for until it was painfully obvious.
An unnaturally flat terrain full of vibrant flowers, only interrupted by stacks of stones, neatly organised in a grid.
257 graves, 161 of which are for people she once knew.
At the centre of it all stands a mighty oak. It would’ve provided shade if it weren’t permanently cloudy.
At its root slumps an old man in his 80s. Limp hand on the ground, and with his bracelet still slowly rotating around his wrist.
“The pulse effect didn’t care whether you’re dead or not huh.” The girl squats in front of him.
He must have been laying there for 4 years now? And yet, his body remains in pristine condition.
His heart was no longer beating and his lungs were no longer breathing, but that didn’t matter to the pulse effect surrounding his body. Rather, it keeps cells alive based on its initial command of healing. It does not recognise brain death as failure.
“You know… it wasn’t a permanent thing…
“It was gonna keep you alive until your prescribed time finally came to realisation.”
A cut forms horizontally in her left eye and blood slowly crawls out until her pupil is fully covered.
She can’t help but flinch in pain, even if she’s been undergoing intense self mutilation constantly for the past few years. It’s not something she could, or rather, should get used to.
“I hope you don’t mind me peeking.”
In front of her bloodied eye, an almost glowing pupil is drawn. Very intricate shapes and figures, drawn so incredibly small and detailed, stack together to look like a pupil to even the keenest of observers until closely inspected.
“You only had around 16 years left anyway…”
She sits down next to the preserved corpse to rest herself.
She closes her eyes and takes a peek into time, probing for his moments before death.
They called it the white plague.
People started getting weaker for no reason.
To some, exhaustion was the only symptom. To unfortunate others, it could range from loss of self to liver failure and everything just short of death.
They sought the village elder, seeking any glimpse of hope.
He has always been there, protecting them, giving hope, and providing support to any who seek it.
So he provided.
He promised to look into it and offered healing to those that needed it.
To his dismay, he could only slow down the symptoms and ease their passage.
His first thought was that it would be a pathogen let loose, but after rigorous research, there was nothing out of the ordinary.
If it’s spreading it might be environmental change.
But it was not.
Oxygen levels were just right. No airborne chemicals or sudden changes of temperature and Demarian waves.
He even experimented to see if there were any changes in the consciousness prism.
Travellers and merchants stopped passing through town after a while.
This led him to look into what’s happening outside the village, and the worst of his suspicions were true.
All cities he could contact were showing the same, but on a much larger scale.
By the time he ran out of ideas, the villagers had already lost hope.
Everyone but himself had already declined in health and were nearing the passage of the Veil.
They did not blame him, the opposite in fact. Even though things were not looking well, he still gave them a hopeful smile and supported them through their weakest.
Afterall, to be there for an entire village is a feat not short of legendary.
It must’ve been 6 months before the white plague had consumed all.
In their last few days, they did not disturb the sage; he deserves some alone time with his own family.
He sat by his remaining progeny.
The least he could do was ease their pain, give them a smile, and small talk to distract them from whatever dark thoughts that must be lurking at the back of their minds.
He held each of them as they passed peacefully.
The sage remains alone.
Someone has to take care of their remains.
Even though old, he still had strength to spare.
Where a park once was, he spent days digging.
After making sure that the town was fully empty and all were buried wrapped in their cloth properly.
He sat by the great tree in the middle.
That must’ve been the first time in years.
No… decades…
The sage burst into tears.
All forms of dread taking shape.
But who can blame him?
He had to witness not only the death of his entire remaining family, but also a village he watched grow for years untold.
He cared for them, smiled for them; never once showing weakness.
Alas… even mountains succumb to time in the end.
He already lived more than he should have.
His rune carver started to turn around his wrist.
One last rune to give him peace.
A precision wave.
She’s putting the tools the old man left by his side to good use.
Digging a grave will take her a while.
“You had a wonderful life, didn’t you, old friend?
“You loved many, guided many, cherished many, and lost many…
“No matter how many passed away in your arms and how much it hurts… you stayed true to yourself…”
Though she may be experienced in digging graves, her child body is more than a hundrence when it comes to digging unforgiving soil while trying to conserve energy.
“Strong in both body and mind… yet soft of heart…
“You always thought you were weak… couldn’t handle situations when it mattered the most…”
She spent hours upon hours constantly digging.
“Always wondered what it would’ve been like… if you just stayed with us…
Things would’ve turned out very differently for you, I can tell you that much.”
Her left eye stays red throughout, as she watches snippets of the old man’s life while she’s setting up a resting place for his body.
“I, too, sometimes wonder what it would have been like…
“Living a normal life… an outlandish idea…
“I get snippets of it every now and then, thanks to great friends like yourself.
“But I can’t imagine what it’s like, even as I’m watching your perfectly ordinary existence.”
Everything got ever so slightly brighter under the grey clouds, possibly indicating the start of a new day… or it could mean something entirely different… nobody could tell at this point and it wouldn’t matter either way.
“It’s such a beautiful thing to have… being able to love and care…
“Being loved and cared for…
“It kept you going…
“It’s what keeps everyone going…”
Her right tears up while her left cries blood down her cheek.
“After all… it’s what any of us mortals could hope for in this ephemeral life…
“Well… at least it is for some of us…”
After putting the old body, now wrapped in white cloth, into the grave, she starts filling it in at a faster rate, now that the dirt is already broken down and manageable.
“But you got it all wrong, old friend…
“You… Tav’Taroush… Mezian and Co’l… many of you… were much stronger than many of us…
“Keeping your heart from turning to stone in our line of work… that’s a more impressive feat than anything we've ever done…
“Thriving despite the darkness we face everyday… smiling and loving others… providing warmth to those who lack it…”
Her heart conflicts with itself as it feels bliss and sorrow... Only now is realising how hard it must’ve been for Tav’ to keep her cheery self and care for her.
Her bleeding eye fades away into only red before it starts to dry away as the wound closes itself.
“Such is life’s fragility… you easily come and easily go…
“You know… it doesn’t take much to end a life…
“A shame really…
“At this point… I’m the fool for caring.”
He's finally arrived.
“I thought I was gonna be waiting for you till I die of old age,” she says at nothing towards the other side of the river.
“If you wanted me to find you, you could’ve dropped your damned shield before yesterday.”
The voice talking to her permeates through the air, kept from decay, from very far away.
“Well, won’t you come and face me in my final moments?”
“Come now… you think so low of me as to fall for that?”
“I rather do yes…”
He doesn’t respond to her blatant mocking.
“Afterall, you thought it would be a good idea to side with Chaos Agents, jumpstart an apocalypse, and poison the world compendium. You’re as dumb as they come.”
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“You just don’t understand…”
The voice answered her with pompousness rather than agitation.
“Maybe time despoiled much from you… it seems that you’ve forgotten that you too are mortal… and maybe it’s time someone shows you just how fickle life is when it matters most…”
Her tone of voice rises in anger the more she talks.
“Afterall, you never considered the millions of people you completely ruined…”
“You care too much…”
His cold response touched a nerve.
Her blood now runs hot as she can barely contain her rage.
“You know… you don’t have Chaos Agents to protect you now… depending on them was a mistake…”
A blade leaves the side of her shoulder only to connect back to her grey arm at the wrist.
“Maybe… your biggest mistake was fucking with me.”
Her voice no longer yelling as a chilling calm tone replaces it.
She leaps out, running towards the empty hills beyond the river.
Each of her steps covers several metters, and a single jump of hers crosses the flowing water below her.
It doesn’t take long for her to see the gargantuan snake at the horizon, presumably with her target on its head.
Though it greatly resembles the great Tazma, it’s clear to her that it’s but a defective imitation.
A large boulder-like chunk of thick green keratin flies at her at neck-breaking speed.
She steps ever so slightly to the left and swings her dense wooden arm at it.
The boulder must triple her small size; weight as well if you discount the Tanaran steel embedded in her body.
It’s still deflected as the blade extending from her wrist grinds against it, as it rushes past her head, leaving sparks behind from the interaction.
The shock from the impact and sudden air wave it left behind makes her stumble down but she swiftly recovers as her hands gently touch the ground and throw her up back again to her running form.
She makes good distance before another boulder targets her, but much faster and from above.
Both her and the projectile are much too fast for her to dodge it.
She stops on her tracks and lets her momentum take care of going forward as she slides through the grass, readying her arm for a punch.
Right before impact, a scythe-like arm slashes her back.
Her swing goes out of aim as she flinches in pain, but her target’s big enough for it to be highly unlikely to miss.
The second boulder is pushed in front of her as she collides with it before rolling off it and surpassing it.
She knows that those two things were shelled Bevars; nature’s equivalent of tanks.
Ignoring the pursuing beasts, she keeps closing her distance with the giant snake.
She won’t last long in a fight with most of his summons, so her best bet is to take him out before her endurance gives out.
“Atrash,” she says as her already ludicrous speed doubles.
Dirt starts to fly from the ground in small chunks and garther in the sky in front of the increasingly closer snake.
She jumps into the air right as one of the Bevars behind her was about to tackle her.
Instead of falling back down to the ground, to the man’s surprise, she steps off the air and keeps on running without ground under her feet.
Worry flashes through his face for a slight moment before dismissing it with his ego.
As she runs through the air, a slash goes across her back. It doesn’t dig deep thanks to her implants, so she forces herself to ignore it and keep approaching her target.
She doesn’t get further than 3 more very long steps before she starts to fall.
All her muscles tense up at the same time and refuse to let go.
She regained control as the toxin dissipated as quickly as it came into effect.
She rights herself upwards to land properly, only to be met with a huge mass hurling towards her.
Putting her hands up to block, she’s pushed along as the ugly head screeches at her.
She flips back onto her feet just in time to block the scythe-like claw going for the decapitation.
She masterfully parries almost every attack single handedly; she has to, as a hit to her left arm would almost definitely disarm her… again.
Shockwaves leave her time after time as she has to entirely block hits every now and then.
Between her graceful footwork and quick reflexes, her defence is nearly impenetrable for as long as her stamina can hold out.
Exalted swordsman she may be, but that doesn't mean she can perfectly avoid every hit from 4 simultaneous sources.
She times it so every time a cut gets through, she jumps with just enough ferocity as to be far enough for her to get paralysed and back to normal before the Bevars catch up to her.
It helps that, even though monstrously powerful, they’re still beasts with no skill behind their ‘bladework.’
“Just give it up woman… you should’ve died in Ai’s fall with your people anyway…”
She doesn’t respond.
Could be because she’s too focused on survival, or she just doesn’t have anything to say to that.
“You’ve burned so much of yourself, you actually look like a child.”
Though no longer making a run for it, she still sways the motion of battle towards her target, just in a very slow manner.
“How does that work anyway… can’t just remove a layer of yourself and suddenly get younger. That’s just not how ageing works.”
The flow of dirt and rock still makes its way to a giant dense ball in front of the giant snake.
A few minutes pass with blades colliding being the only sound booming in the unnaturally silent area.
“I can’t believe it took me multiple decades to finally kill you…”
He’s confident that he won.
It’s a logical assumption, really. She’s not yet recovered from her battle with a Chaos Agent half a decade ago. Her body is quite literally that of a child and she’s fighting off 2 incredibly deadly beasts, while the third is about to be ready to go in a few minutes.
It might’ve had a very different ending if she did the sensible thing and used actual ranged weapons. Afterall, nobody actually uses swords anymore.
While the man watches from above, she finally makes a move.
She swings her blade back and locks one of the Bevar’s claws between her blade and her arm; restricting it from moving back.
She bends her left arm pointing it at the beast’s incredibly disgusting head.
“Mo!”
Her voice vibrates coldly through the unnatural silence.
With it, a thin ripple visibly distorts the air as it goes through the beast.
The beast falls limp, and so does her now-dislocated left arm.
She only dropped her defence for a mere 1.24 seconds, but that was enough for her insides to get acquainted with the business end of the other Bevar’s claw.
With it’s extraordinary instincts, it managed to pierce between the carefully placed Tanaran steel implanted beneath her skin and move right through to the other side.
Her impaled body is effectively paralysed as there’s enough toxin flowing through her to OD a Mansorian Death Adder.
The claw perturbing through her chest doesn’t make a sign of leaving any time soon.
Another claw pierces, this time a lot slower and more carefully, through her side and into her kidney.
The Bevar burrows into the ground ever so slightly and rolls up into its boulder-like form, with only its two claws staying out, keeping its prey exposed to the air.
Ideally, it would also keep its prey in the sun as well, but the creature has surprising awareness of its lack.
While this is enough to kill most people, he’s not so dumb to let his ego take the high road out and walk away while his oponent still breaths only for them to comeback later with a vengeance.
If anything, he’d rather not get close at all and stay high up on his skyscraper sized snake for the few minutes left for the dense dirt ball to be usable.
After a long silence, he’s surprised as she talks to him telepathically.
“You know… I’m not sure why you thought my body would be of any hindrance… don’t you know… I survived the last extinction event… not only with the body… of a child… but when I… was actually… a child…”
While even her thought transmission sounds extremely tired, she has said just enough to convey her message.
Of course, the last extinction event had nothing to do with physical strength or combat capability; but he understood.
That explains why she primarily uses a sword.
That explains why she has access to previous era techniques.
That explains Vezirva’s reputation and rumour of insanity.
She’s void touched.
While psychosis is almost guaranteed, she is also likely to have at least 2 voidal features.
In panic, he raises his arm and prematurely moulds the dirt.
The ball of dense dirt expands rapidly.
From it, leaves the head of a giant snake, almost like the one already looming over, aiming straight down, accelerating towards the paralysed foe.
Anti-lightning cracks as the world suddenly goes dark for a split second.
From somewhere, an ornate sword pierces the shelled Bevar from the back and comes to a sudden stop in between the dense wooden fingers of the paralysed girl.
A burst of energy is let forth, a combination of raw power and the sudden velocity drop from mach 7 to 0; the entire surrounding area suffers inexplicable damage.
The girl flies up towards the newly generating snake coming down from the skies above.
She burns a bright yellow across the dull grey world as she screams her heart out.
In mere seconds, she had already gone through the incomplete beast, cutting it from the inside.
She leaves through the other side and then some, until she breaches the clouds above.
Her trajectory changes drastically as all her momentum is transferred downwards and she now starts to drop down from the heavens like a shooting star.
Before the man could even react, his face contorts in absolute terror; an emotion he had never experienced before.
There she stands, on the lifeless dry dirt, in front of a broken man.
A large cut goes down from the top of his head, through his right eye, down to his neck, and stops at his ribcage.
Unfortunately for both him and the girl, he still lives.
She drips blood as countless cuts stain her skin red.
“You win, Demran… you win…”
The girl, still emitting very dim yellow light, turns around and walks downhill towards… something…
The now 9-year-old-looking girl walks about at an impressively slow pace, leaving a path of blood in her wake; all of it hers though. But that’s okay, as nothing changes in the scene for the next few days.
The man remains unmoving and unsightly.
The hills remain damaged and lifeless.
The sky remains grey and cloudy.
The girl remains slowly vacating.