“…Huh! This isn’t too bad!”
Previously, on Diana’s misadventures!
Just as Diana was reaching the portal, the portal rejected her, sending her flying back, which led to her getting caught and dragged into the pool of raging darkness, the withering tree in the centre of that world of darkness.
It was due to her carelessness, causing the silver coin Crystal handed to her to fall out of her hand, the only key that allowed her to escape. As she was dragged, she cried for mercy, but the hand that caught her had none, as it pulled her without thought.
And inside, she saw hell.
A bursting cauldron of vengeful spirits, all hauling from the devastated kingdoms that the Oldruin clones had slaughtered. Their formless bodies clung onto her, pushing their memories and feelings into her mind.
She was horrified. She witnessed the lives of man. They who killed, robbed, raped, and stole thoughtlessly, without any regards on what their victims felt. It was something that Diana could not handle, not on her own.
With no one by her side, with no familiar faces there with her, with no shoulders she could lean and cry on, she could only suffer, as lives after lives were displayed and played inside her mind. She screamed, her voice ragged and broken from the tears she swallowed.
Her legs stood atop an unseen plane, a floor of invisible glass that seemed like it would break if she stepped on it with even a bit of effort. All around her was a space of nothingness, a galaxy bearing no stars.
Her physical body was still there. She could even see it herself. But she didn’t have any time or energy to do so, as her focus jumped from one memory to another, suffering as their sins weighed on her pure and naïve psyche.
–You see? Humans are absolute sh*t, aren’t they~?
Then, she heard someone speak to her from the vast nothingness. The sound of her voice spooked and terrified her, because it felt familiar, yet she did not know why that was.
–Killing is just a normal thing, see~? No need to worry so much about it~!
Why was this girl speaking to her? Why was she saying such immoral things? She wanted to ask, but another memory from another man pierced into her mind, forcing her to witness more and more of humanity’s murky sins. Her screams coursed through the empty universe around her.
–The strong survives, the weak dies. That’s just how it works in the wild, you know~
It was then, that she finally realised whose voice it belonged to, and why it sent shivers and made her uncomfortable the longer she heard her.
This was…her own voice.
Or to be exact, the her that resides inside her. The piece of herself that formed after she merged together with Slimey to be reborn as the [Slime Queen]. She was the one who had no qualms about killing and stealing, living in this world like a wild animal.
–Oh, come on~, it isn’t that hard! Just forget all morals and survive! You’ve seen first hand what your naïve nature and overly kind attitude caused you, right~? Killing others is just a matter of surviving. Everyone understands that. Only you are different.
She knew what she said was true, that it was just her being naïve and spoiled to the core. Being born in a peaceful world like Earth, she had morals to live by, even if her contact with other humans was limited to chatting on skype.
–You want a world where everyone can have fun, didn’t you~? That’s why you hated cheaters and backstabbers in the first place! Now~, look at each of them. They’re all evil, right? The exact kind of people you wish would just disappear, riiight~?
Her voice was that of a snake, tempting one to fall and embrace what they have shown. Killing every evil human being was an easy way to make a place where everyone could smile and have fun. But, now she asked back.
“T-Then…w-what is e-evil…?”
In a dictionary, evil would be considered as breaking the law, doing something immoral, disregarding humanity for your own sake, that kinda deal.
She, however, didn’t answer. Because by this point, anything she said will be pointless.
This disembodied voice, one that imitated her, one formed from her and Slimey’s fusion, one that had the same ideals and dreams, but had a plan that completely contrasted to her own. She finally saw it.
Diana was breaking, not anytime soon.
Her words won’t reach her no more.
Lives after lives flash by, their memories and tales forever ingrained into the depths of her mind. The lives of man was sinful and tainted, they didn’t have a single f*cking care about what happened, as long as they themselves gained benefits.
She was right, Diana absolutely hated that. It disgusted her. Killing all sources of sins even sounded a bit like a good idea.
But, from time to time, in this world where time and space seems to have taken a vacation to the Alola region, she saw a different story.
They were simple, short maybe, but simple and pure. Like the lives of an innocent farmer, tending to his crops as he helped out his sickly family, before he died of the same sickness.
But he held no ill-will. He simply smiled at his death beds, caressing the cheeks of the children of his village, the ones he had so kindly treated and shared food and stories with.
Then there was a young female scholar. All her life, she was hated by her family. Disowned and thrown into the streets, a sympathetic young man brought her in and adopted her after her agreement. Under him, she learnt magic and scholarship, training and learning to surpass him.
She simply wanted to be loved, and when she finally met her lover, she found someone who loved her, and one who loved her back.
There were more tales of their simplistic lives. Like the tale of a young child, the happiness of an elderly couple, the bravery and satisfying defeat of a brave warrior in battle, and much, much more.
Just like the rest, they killed people, but not for their own sake. A knight kills his own squad to save a girl they had planned to rape. A magician drowns an entire fleet of ships into the sea to protect her husband. A hero summoned to fight, battled and killed many to save the world he had grown to love.
If evil was something immoral, then were they evil too?
Doesn’t that simply mean that every being in this world was evil?
Doesn’t that just make the word ‘evil’ pointless?
If that was true, wouldn’t she have to kill humanity itself to create her ideal world.
No, that was not what she wanted. Despite the many murky clouds of sinful men, she saw small gaps, with the light of those she could never kill.
The bodiless voice saw it, the eyes that were once darkened from all the suffering she endured from all the memories pouring into her, was now clear. Not completely, but clearer and brighter than before.
She could witness a small spark inside, bursting out into a flame that she once, and always had. The Diana that loved a fair and fun world, wasn’t going to break so easily from all those words!
The voice could only fade away, as the doubts Diana had vanished. But, perhaps, if she had a body, she would be looking at her, smiling as she saw her resolve built and renewed.
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Because after all, seeing her master stand her ground was the best.
With that, the piece of her that antagonised her, disappeared, along with the last remnants of Slimey’s soul, before surging and joining back with Diana’s true self.
And all that, brings us back to the present ‘time?’, where Diana is casually strolling around, now somewhat enjoying viewing all the tales and stories of different people, no matter how wicked or ‘evil’.
As this thing called ‘time’ was taking a journey to the west, she witnessed countless lives of others. It felt like an eternity, of her just patiently watching as their lives unfolded with a soft smile on her face.
The darkness that had once tried to grasp her and pull her down with them could no longer reach her. In fact, it’s been so ‘long?’ that Diana herself forgot that that even happened.
Actually, she forgot entirely why she was in this empty void in the first place, now only busy with watching the lives of people that had died, only watching on as an observer, their tales passed onto her.
But, even as ‘time?’ went by, she did not forget the things that she held close.
Her true first friends, her ideals, her dreams, and her pet and wonderful companion Slimey, these were the things that she could never forget, no matter how long passes.
Though as more and more time ‘passing?’ by, the lives she watched never stopped being boring. Even if the different was miniscule, every tale told, every story written, every adventure recorded was different.
Slowly, as the numbers of souls that died up to her being swallowed up diminished, so too does her consciousness. Slowly, her body deteriorated away, bit by bit, cell by cell, atom by atom. Her body slowly tore into tiny pieces, dispersing across the empty cosmos.
Until finally, the last tale comes to a close, and enough of their tales had been heard. With the satisfaction of having listened in and watched every single of their lives, and learnt all their secrets(even the naughty ones), she disappeared.
All after that comes in a blur.
She went to the ‘afterlife’, a place she knew existed, yet could not remember. There, she saw the other people killed by the clones, even the other 99 female sacrifices that was used to try and save [Albion] from its sad demise.
There, they chatted, not bothered by age, sex, likes, dislikes, or any other differences. As she was the one to witness all their tales, she knew everything they’ve been through. It became her oath to never forget.
It was then, after a countless ‘Millenniums?’, she heard a crying voice. Soft, almost unheard, but she could hear it. No one else could hear it, not even the girls she was talking to could, but it was there, crying for her.
She recognised that voice. That seemingly stoic, but also somewhat child-like and excitable as her, the voice of a certain girl that became her first true friend.
There were more voices, they too directing their feelings towards her.
There were the silent sighs of defeat, all coming from a silent girl Diana convinced and brought out of that rotting and withered forest. A girl was an unflinching appetite, and one with the surprising knowledge of cooking.
There were the screams of a certain black ogre. He was someone she hadn’t met for a long time, but them hailing from the same place bloomed a friendship faster than they could imagine. He had an insane passionate love for women of all ages, which does question if he was screaming due to the loss of a friend, or a girl he became intimate with.
And finally, there were the soft woes of a young boy, the disciple to an incredible psychic. He, on with no true talent and magic, fought his hardest to climb the chilly mountain and reach his master’s cottage. The determination in his eyes never blew out, no matter where or why.
She recognised them. She recognised them all.
The people who befriended her, a holed-up NEET turned [Slime Queen] due to her being carried off into another world of fantasy and magic.
She wanted to go back, to experience more adventures and journeys with them. It was short, but they were her friends! She…She may be dead now, but…Heck, she’s died and gotten revived before, doing it a second time shouldn’t be that hard!
Before her wish to return to her friends and comrades, before her wish to continue exploring, before her wish to create a place where everyone could have fun and smile, nothing shall stand in her way.
[Are you ready to sacrifice everything for your goals?]
–Anything…to return to them, I will do!
[Your pleas has been heard by the Gods. They have invited you to their domain, and through that, you may return to those you love. Are you ready?]
Needless to say, I’m pretty sure everyone reading this knows what she said.
–Absolutely!
……………………
It was a moment of silence.
Though countless years had gone by for Diana in the afterlife, only several hours had gone by, everyone there still frozen in shock and sadness as they saw that their dear friend Diana did not come back from the other side.
It was a new day now, but there was no light. The sky was still tainted in darkness, and droplets of water rained down from the clouded skies. Only the soft echoes of the water hitting the soil filled the silent atmosphere.
They could not see past the clouds. They could not look towards the unseen light.
But the battle was not over.
“Ah…Aaaahhh…Why…WHY…”
Slowly, like a vengeful soul rising out from hell itself, the cloaked bald man from before, the one who just sacrificed Diana to that eldritch magic, rose from below the cliffside and stared at them, his pupils shrunk and his body shaking violently.
In the time Crystal took to try and rescue Diana, the bald man stayed there, unmoving, reserving his mana until he could move once again. His plan had failed, his kingdom that he strove to rule and protect was swallowed, and now he had no way of reverting time.
He was angry.
But they all too were angry. Crystal, Rei, Ilgua, Gaz, they were all soo~ angry. So angry in fact, that I’m starting to speak like this for some reason~. Their eyes gleamed with killing intent as their eyes hovered towards him.
Crystal summoned her special staff of destruction, Rei readied her claws, Ilgua held his sword in hand, and Gaz prepared his fists. They may not have had a chance when he was at full HP, but~, hehe~, look at him now, all hurt and ragged. A perfect chance to kill him, yeah~?
And all hell broke loose.
Crystal starts with a volley of quick-fire [Phantom Blades], with the floating bald man countering with a shield of unknown magic. Rei comes in with a claw strike, barely missing as the bald man deactivated his flight and dropped down.
Gaz and Ilgua double-teamed the man and attacked at once, their swords and fists attacking together like that one time Jotaro and Polnareff joined attacks Alessi. The man frantically applied his shield and hovered backwards, firing a string of mana bullets towards them.
Rei blocks the bullets by throwing a large boulder she got from…somewhere, hitting away all the bullets off course, and just in case, Ilgua stood guard if any of the bullets decided to change course and head for them again, which they did. He struck down any that came close, his enchanted blade cleanly slicing the bullets apart.
Using her staff as an enhancement, she formed a sphere of [Phantom Blades] around the injured man in a near instant, and let them all fly at once, striking at a single point. The man cried out in pain, managing to block most of the blades, but some broke through and hit. His fresh blood splashed into the air.
The floating bald man did a triple axel in the air, firing bullets after bullets as he spun around to dodge the incoming mana strikes from Ilgua’s magical sword. Gaz came in to tank the bullets, using one of his skills to heavily reinforce his body to an insane level.
In conjunction with Ilgua’s air strikes, Crystal created countless [Phantom Needles] and fired them like a gatling gun, the needles cutting through the air as they chased the flying bald man, whose name we still do not know.
“AAH…IT’S ALL…IT’S ALL HIS FAULT…”
The man summoned several gross eldritch tentacles, firing out to grasp the four fighters and suck their mana to supply for his own quickly depleting mana pool. Sadly, all four fighters were quite agile, with the exception of Crystal, easily dodging the incoming tentacles.
For Crystal…Well, she just conjured a really big shield made out of her magic and encased herself in between four of them, creating a transparent unbreakable shield. Its name would be…[Phantom Shield] should do I suppose.
Using this chance, Rei ran up and jumped off the cliff. Crystal, knowing what her plan was by instinct, moved the shield that was protecting her back and sent it to catch Rei, and later bring her up to fly towards the man. There was no need for words, for their hearts only have one goal.
Kill this f*cker, and kill him dead.
The focus from controlling the flying shield stole her from using any other magic, only allowing her to maintain the three remaining shields protecting her. To close the gap in her defences, Ilgua and Gaz stood guard and blocked any incoming bullets that the floating man fired off.
Rei, standing on Crystal’s [Phantom Shield], flew towards the floating man, her claws readily grown out to strike a blow. In his attacking haze, he realised the incoming Rei a second too late, and ended up getting a full claw slash on his chest. More of his blood lost into the atmosphere.
“YOU…YOOOUUU…”
He was a broken man. As a mage and the previous helper of the king, he was strong, incredibly so. If it wasn’t for his injuries, he would’ve won this battle by a long shot.
But that man. He came and messed everything up. Even after he managed to finally break the curse that has been haunting his kingdom for decades, that thing came in and swallowed it all up. Not a single resistance could match up to his unflinching might.
He was angered, severely angered.
The reason he wanted to protect the kingdom was not from kindness or duty, but from his greed to be looked upon as he hero on his return, and later overthrow the current king and seat himself on the throne.
But now that the kingdom was gone, what throne could he seat himself onto?
Overtaken by his rage, his [Eldritch Magic] went odd. As [Eldritch Magic] by nature was dangerous, the user needed to have enough willpower and control over his/her mind to use it without going insane.
But in this state full of anger, even he could not resist.
Now, his body was only that of a mere shell, only striving to survive from the four attackers on its pursuit, using the best of his arsenal to tear down his four foes.
It was sad really.
Because of that, Rei got another claw strike in, cutting open his chest with another strike, before getting impaled by a streak of countless [Phantom Blades] created and fired out by Crystal, enhanced by her staff of destruction.
Finally, finally, as Rei made it back safely onto the cliff, the [Phantom Shield] disappeared, and along with that, the last remnants of his haywire magic, causing the lifeless body of the man to drop from the sky and down the cliff.
With that, the battle was over.
This goddamn incident, was finally f*cking over.