“urgh, my head…” Realynn rubbed her head, pausing as something appeared to be off. Part of it felt hard, cold, covered in… “The fox!” she sat up, flinching once she realized she could only see out of one eye.

She slowly grabbed the sheet of ice stuck to her face, trying to find a grip hold on it “No wonder that idiot ran off with her, using magic under the barrier… the barrier!” Remembering the state of their machine she stood up. The original crew that was manning the barrier were on the ground, passed out by the initial explosion while a new crew had came and replaced them, but the state of the machine itself was in a dire state.

Previously, only one side was blown out and in disrepair, but that had spread to over 3/4ths of it, the barrier barely holding on “T-this can’t be.”

“Miss Realynn! You are finally awake!” one of the crew members had noticed her, and ran up to check on her but stopped “A-are you a-alright?” the man asked, unsure if he should approach what was in front of her.

“Am I alright?” Realynn snapped towards him “Our barrier generator is failing, half of my fucking face is frozen, the bitch that did it is gone, and to make it all worse, I was not even supposed to be here! I was supposed to be back at my lab but here I am about to be blamed for a failure of mission! Do you think I am alright?!” She yelled.

“…” the man coughed “n-no but.. why are you… hm…I am sorry, ma'am.”

“Good, now that we have that established, status report!”

“R-right! As you said… the barrier will fail within the next hour. The slots are shot, it’s demanding more energy than ever recorded, blowing the fu-“ The man was cut off as he was cleaved clean in half.

“Damnit! Damnit Damnit, Damnit!” Realynn shouted, drawing the attention of everyone, she was going to get blamed for this failure, letting that beastmen escape, even if she wasn’t the cause of the barrier going down that will be the explanation given “Gaia forbid anyone questions the effectiveness of his barrier.” She clicked her tongue, trying to figure a way out of this.

“Was that really necessary?”

She froze, quickly spinning around and going into prayer “Priest I-“

“Don’t bother, I see that animal really made a mess of things here.”

“Priest with all respect it-“ Realynn looked up towards the man, a priest of Gaia wearing ceremonial robes of white with gold embroidery, a necklace of Gaia adorning his neck while he carried a large staff with a large glowing piece of gold decorating the top.

“Hrm? Are you questioning my evaluation?” A hard bang resounded as the priest tapped his staff “Did you not allow a stray beast to get close to the holy relic and damage it? You don’t look too remorseful about it…” The man looked at her as if pitying a child.

Realynn “Y-you! You of all should know that fox didn’t lay a hand on that thing!” she shouted, “Everyone here can attest!” she questioned, annoyed that the priest was already spinning the lie, just to protect that man’s creation.

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

The priest shook his head “And then in your rage… you struck down a comrade… who would defend someone who would do something like that, with a smile on their face no less.”

Realynn looked around, everyone turning away ‘fucking holy ass, how many have you killed all the same?’ she was smart enough to know she was only being kept alive just so this idiot could make her the scapegoat… smile?

She slowly reached up, past the ice sheet, and realized that yes, she was smiling, even in her situation she was smiling ‘why?’ she asked herself, the outside world fading, it didn’t matter, none of it mattered.

She chuckled ‘ah… that’s why’

She had witnessed something impossible, multiple times something had surprised her today.

The barrier that was previously thought to be impervious to any attack without so much as flinching was now taking so much damage at once it is breaking, draining all available power before exploding.

A beastman managed to sneak past said barrier and invade a heavily guarded camp. she had an aura about her that was not stopped by the barrier, it was not something some child should have… yet she had it… that freezing aura that seeped into her skin…

Then, she cast magic while in the barrier. A feat few could accomplish. To make it all the better, it had harmed her… sure it caught her off guard, but it had harmed her, her, an evolved human…

She laughed “I want to dissect her…” she whispered to herself, gripping the frozen ice on her face.

“Ah Realynn… going mad because of your failure.” The priest shook his head “My holy comrades, please escort her to her tent. She will be placed under house arrest until we pack up to mo-“ the ground shook the whole camp, the priest turning around to the direction of the dungeon “took you long enough you fowl thing.”

Bursting from beneath the dungeon, a giant chitinous wrym extended into the sky, dwarfing the camp in its size “Little fooooox!~” its voice reverberated in the air, causing the lesser members of the church to panic.

“Hmph.” The priest rose up into the sky, his voice amplified with magic “Do not fear, followers of Gaia, this beast is but a stepping stone on our journey. Take up your arms! Pray to Gaia for vic-“

“you ever get tired of doing that?”

“hu-what?” The priest looked up, the creature had arched their back towards him “F-fowl beast! You are nothing in the light of our go-“

“Hrm… a few of you are nice looking, that fox has slipped away since I spent so long on that dumb false sanctuary or whatever… let’s see… ooh you are pretty! Be with me my darling!”

The ignored priest could only watch as a fresh hell opened before him, the wrym assaulted the camp, tearing through buildings with its body, grabbing people and running them down the chain of small claws on the underside of its body, dragging them to their base and presuming into the dungeon “A-attack!”

What followed was nothing but futility. Weapons bounced off its shell, large scale magic not even scratching it, the priest looked to Realynn “Realynn! stop your mad ramblings an-“

“It’s glorious, truly, glorious… a wrym of such size, of subspecies… how does it live? How did it get here? How long has it lived… I must!”

The priest watched as Realynn ran off towards Cy, getting lost in the dust and wreckage. “Gaia..no, she has not forsaken me yet.” The priest flew high into the sky overlooking the entire camp. he pointed his staff at it “By Gaia’s name I borrow her light, purify the land so that we may flourish.”

The top part of his staff spun, clicking into place its bottom flared as its middle extended, revealing a green core “For my people, for my pope.” The bottom ignited and a small panel opened in the middle of the staff “Bring peace.”

He clicked the button, the top flying off the staff like a rocket, colliding with Cy’bogbi and exploding, the explosion quickly expanded, covering the entire camp and the lake.

The light consuming all as smoke rose into the sky.