A/N: I apologize for any typos or grammar mistakes. Please alert me of any mistakes I have made, and I'll fix it. I don't like mistakes, thanks! This is the PR'd version folks!
----------------------------------------
A black, solid yet shifty substance stabs out of Mother's chest like a spear made from the purest essence of the night. Dark and unflinching, boldly announcing its presence amid the bright day and dumbstruck crowd.
"Shit!"
----------------------------------------
Well, I doubt thing could get any worse than this...
Getting all stuffed up in this stiff dress, while my hair's being done by Amy.
Oh hi, how dare you peek at a lady dressing up? Die you bastard(s)!
In any case, Amy insisted that she re-do my hair personally after I finished the round of greeting guests after I greeted her aunt and uncle. Ugh, mother invited too many people, I only know about a handful of the actually important ones.
According to Amy, the maids who did my hair this morning probably did it with their eyes blindfolded, a claim I somewhat doubts. Not that I can deny Amy's much better at doing my hair then they are.
For one, it doesn't feel like my hair, which is about waist length since I hate cutting my beautiful hair, is being stretched everywhere. It took me a while to get used to having my hair done by someone else, since as a male in my last life I just cut them short. Run a hand through my hairs, done.
Not so as a girl... ugh I guess this is what the Melinda and the girls spend all their morning doing everyday. Gods, I can't imagine doing all these work myself! Maids. Definitely need them. Amy's so much better at this but she can't be her-
"OW!" What the hell?! "AMY!!!! That hurt!"
"Oh be quiet Pray," Amy mutters distractedly as she pulls my hair again.
"OWWWWW!" What the hell is she doing?!
"Pray, you got little knots everywhere, why are you hair so long? Make them straight, not all tangled up!" Bu-bu-but!
"But Amyyyy, it's the maids' fault!" I protests. How could this possibly be my fault? I let the maids do my hair every morning!
"Bad Pray!" Ow! She smacked me on my head gently, how could you?! "Grow up! For a genius you sure are lazy~"
"Bu-bu-but... Amy is a meanie!!!!" I scream at the top of my lungs. OWW, what is she doing back there? Trying to tear my scalp off? Mother, help!
Where is Mother?! Still in the ballroom? Hello, I need help here ASAP! Damn it, maybe a few more cries will get her attention!
"What is going on here?!" Mother barrels through the door. Welp, I guess we need another replacement. Third one today, if I'm not mistaken. At least it's not a wall this time... That always make me wonder what those dresses from Xing are made of. Definitely not a material we have here, nothing's that durable yet thin. Shame I can't test them, since they belongs to Mother...
"Amy," She questions Amy with her forehead knotted together, "Why was Pray screaming?"
"Oh Mrs. Anderson! I was just re-doing Pray's hair," Amy beams at Mother, unconcerned, "The maids did a terrible job of maintaining her hair! I have to untangle everything... sigh. Mrs. Anderson, have you ever done Pray's hair yourself?"
"Well..." Mother looks uncertain... hmmm, now that I think about it, both Mother and I always relied on our maids... "No, I've always told the maids to do it."
"How about yourself? Surely you have done your own?"
"I had the maids of the royal palace did my hair before I moved here... the maids here do a decent enough job for me" Mother shrugs off Amy's question, "Well, I see there's nothing to be worried about here. Keep going, Amy, I'll check back in half a hour."
Wait what?! Mother, come back! Stop this torture! Noooooooo!
----------------------------------------
Finally, I am freed this hideous torture! Blah! I'll shave my hair off so nobody can do this to me again!
To be honest with you... I treasure my hair too much to shave it off, but it's the thought that counts!
Anyways, I'm finally out of the dressing room with Amy...
...And straight into Mother's arms, where I'm dragged off to greet the guests again.
Sigh, it's like I walked out of the lion's den straight into hell. Not the best comparison, I know, but it's the best I can do for now.
I guess it can't be helped.
----------------------------------------
"...and we'll fund the entire tuition! No fees! We'll even pay your lodging and meals! Unlimited meals!" Hmm, tempting, but this representative need to do better than that to get me to even consider his proposal.
You see, I'm just about to take my first and only public mana and affinity test.
It turned out that a full quarter of the guests here are representatives of arcane academies from Britannia and Reim. Mostly Britannia, since Reim only have one official academy for the study of the arcane. Never the less, they did sent a full team of representatives plus a Reim ambassador to Amestris here to recruit me.
And that was before I even took the test. I guess they all heard about my genius and the blessings the gods gave me. Do the other countries have the blessing ceremony? I'm pretty sure we have that detail somewhere in the profiles we gathered for the other two countries, but I've been really too busy to read through them myself, even though I was the one who ordered it to be done in the first place.
Anyways, the archmage Mother invited brought out an transparent orb. A crystal ball, pretty much. I guess that's the mana affinity testing device. How cliche..
Ceremonial speech, such a big deal... I'm not particularly listening, so I'll skip that part for now.
Oh! That's my cue! I walked forward under the crowd's watchful eyes and place my little hand on the orb. Sad, sad, sad little hand, like a 8 years old. That god damn Nine-yin seal, I have already reached the maximum strength I could without looking like I'm on steroids, and I'm still short like... like... like a... sigh, I hate to admit it, but I look like a classic loli at the moment. And the damn seal is malfunctioning or something, 'cause it's supposed to be off by now but it's still going strong damn it!
Gotta keep the appearance up! Can't appear too buff as a 10 years old. I'm testing injection of mana flesh into human body to augment the frail human body, but so far the rejection symptoms has caused all my criminal test subjects to suffer hideous deaths. Mutations, like they are Not that they mind, since I already removed their brains beforehand. Want not, waste not.
A golden glow emitted out of the orb, almost blinding my eyes had I not know this would happen beforehand. It did blind me momentarily the first time I tried this test yesterday during the test run, but never mind that.
As expected, the glow solidified into twelve rings orbiting the center orb, like Saturn's ring. The orb itself turned into a myriad of colors, before settling down to a golden glow once again.
A gasp ran through the gathered representatives... boy, if only I have a few sausages to stuff their collectively gasping mouths... hahaha Mother took those away after i pulled that prank on the archmage yesterday. Aw, fun times...
"P-Pure mana?!?!" The crowd dissolves into a crowd of gossiping pussi... I mean the representatives can't help but murmur god knows what into their colleagues' ears. Hopefully to increase the recruitment pitch hehehe.
Pure mana is practically only heard of before in legends. The only mana affinity- mana itself- that can utilize mana to its full extent and master any affinity without penalties, or so the books say. "Muwahahahaha! Witness my glory you peasa-" shit, that's not meant to be spoken out loud...
Too much time alone in my own lab, I guess. I have a bad habit of talking to myself from my last life, it helps me concentrate and focus on the task at hand. Not so good for social purposes, I'm afraid. Spending half of my day in my top secret lab everyday probably doesn't help either...
"FULL BENEFITS!" An unmemorable representative jumps out of line and shouts in my face. Bad idea buddy, Bad, bad idea...
Mother teleported in front of me- Instantaneous movement as much as I can tell, but there's not much difference from teleportation- and grabs the poor representative's face. Out he went through the window. Hope he knew a few cushion spells, all the representatives are mages anyways.
"And NEVER come back, or you're dead!" Mother shouts after his rapidly disappearing figure, "Anyone who shouts in my house next better kill yourself, or you'll regret it."
A collective shudder ran through everybody in the ballroom, can't blame them for that.
"Miss Pray, if I may." A old looking man steps out of the crowd... he got guts, I'll admit that.
"I am the second assistant headmaster of the Imperial Newgrounds Academy of Britannia for gifted nobles and the Imperial Family," Wow, such a long title. Must be a mouthful. He took a breath before continuing, "On the behalf of the headmaster, I formally invite you to attend our academy as a special privileged student with full benefits. We are the best arcane academy in the world! You won't regret attending our prestigious academy!"
Wow, someone sure looks proud of himself. How typical of the Britannian nobles. Good thing there's no nobility class in Amestris, dealing with the arrogant bastard from Britannia during trading conferences was annoying enough. Trading with the Empire of Reim is no better. They have no nobles, but their military officers with fancy badges are easily just as arrogant the Britannians. And those bastards control the cross-border trades...
I guess the reason he didn't speak up until now is because he didn't consider me worthy of attending his precious academy until now... pompous bastard...
Huh, how come the other representatives stopped trying to recruit me...? They were so rowdy just a moment before...
"Of course, our Imperial Newgrounds Academy far surpass all the other... commoner academies. There's no need to even consider them, Miss Pray!" Ah, so that's why. The moment this guy spoke up they lost all their chances of recruiting me, or so they thought...
"Nonsense, lying through your teeth as usual, Alex?" Another old greezer steps up in front of me... wait no, not step up. He teleported. How?! I need that teleportation spell! It could save me so much logistical nightmares!
The group of representatives from that Reim academy suddenly bows down toward the newcomer for no reason at all...
"Lezenith, how rare it is to see you out of your cave. When was the last time you showed yourself to the world, three hundred? five hundred years ago? You don't belong here you hermit!"
"Silence!" A powerful pulse of mana surged through the room. Hmm, this greezer ain't no pusher, I guess. "Now then, Miss Pray, I am the headmaster of the Holy Reim Academy for the arcane. Only the most gifted individuals are allowed into my academy, and I have not seen your talent for centuries... what do you say? I can take you to the academy right this moment-"
"You mean steal them from us!" Alex, I guess that's the second assistant... something of that something academy is fuming now. Ugh, I don't like arrogant people, this old man is so much better, at least for now. You never know... "Don't listen to him, Miss Pray. They kidnap anyone they deem 'gifted' from around the world! They are no better than a bunch of kidnappers with borrowed knowledge! They may have the most grimoires, but we have teachers of unmatched qualification in every single field!"
Most grimoires, you say? I don't need bunch of teachers telling me what to do, I just need the knowledges we don't have here in Amestris... Besides, I already have experiences in 'magic' casting from those times I spend in the virtual reality games back on old Earth, I'm sure I can manage for myself... Alright, I've decided...
"Thank you for your generous offer, Mister Alex, but I'm afraid I must respectively decline it." I give a small curtesy to him.
"Well she got her manners down, that's for sure..." I heard someone mutters somewhere just within the limit of my hearing range...
"Good! Very good, now then, shall we Miss Pray?" Mister Lezenith extends his hand toward me... hmm I need to prepare myself befo-
BAM! The front door slams open... Whoa! Who dares to do that in Mother's presence? Speaking of Mother, she has been watching on the sideline for a while now, with Father holding her back from beating all these greezers senseless. I think she's letting him... there's no way Father's regular human strength could stand a millisecond before Mother...
The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
"Varete?!" A surprised yell slips out of my lips. What is she doing here? Her mere presence brings back nightmares of her nonstop etiquette lessons... Why? Why is she back? I'm pretty sure Mother haven't been in touch with her since she was dismissed years ago, much less invited her to my birthday party... and even if she was invited, she's terribly late as hell...
"Now, now, I can't have you take her away, Mister Lezenith." She walks forward amidst parting crowd... huh, why are they backing away like they are running for their lives?
"VARETE!" Mother shook off Father and walks forward to in front of Varete, "No uninvited guests are allowed! What are you doing here?!"
"Dear! Careful! She's a witch!"
Witch?! Father what are you saying? A witch this far from the battlefield? Unimaginable!
Let's see, I have never met a witch myself, the most I know of them are reports of the witches' movements secret radio backchannel I installed in the radio network I sold to the Amestrisian military...
Varete is dressed most inappropriately. She would've lectured me to no end if I wore something like that, not that I would even consider it at my age... She's in a almost skin tight black dress with the exception of loose cuts starting from her elbow and knees, with a very, very low back cut, and showing a quite generous portion of her... well, boobs, to say plainly. A pair of ear rings frames her face.
And atop of her neatly arranged hair rest a ridiculously large hat. Like the Elizabethan era lady's hat, just far taller, with a inscribed circle at its front...
...exactly like a witch's hat I've heard from the reports. Oh, was she sent to spy on me before...?
"Eeeeeeeeeek! Double S- ranked Witch of Darkness!" Mister Alex is on his butt backing away like a madman... hahahahahaha someone just soiled himself, "Go, go away! Stay away from me!" He looks like he's on the verge of exploding into a crying wreck as Varete advances toward us and Mother.
Ahahahahaha that look on his face! I wish I had a camera to capture that on fil- Oh wait, gotta focus here. Varete, shouldn't take my eyes off her.
Apparently I inherited my easily distracted focus from Mother, because she also turned around to look skeptically at the now crying mister Alex...
Varete's shadow twists itself into a pool of darkness in a perfect circle around her. How does she do that?! Shadows are intangible things! That's scientifically impossible!
Then the darkness gathered itself into a single spot... right below Mother. Before pulling itself out of the ground like a liquid substance...
And impales itself through Mother's back and front, dead center. A startled gasp slips out of Mother's lips, with a hint of blood red mist in her cough.
"No!" Father springs forward, snapping his fingers to activate his special flame alchemy against the witch- Varete! A half-dome of shadow springs up and surrounds Varete as flame engulfs it, to no avail.
...And I'm still staring at the pitch black spear. A black, solid yet shifty substance, stabbing out of Mother's chest like a spear made from the purest essence of the night. Dark and unflinching, boldly announcing its presence amid the bright day and dumbstruck crowd.
"Shit!" How is this possible?! Mother's skin are surely impenetrable! She walks through the reinforced walls around here like nothing! How?! HOW?! How dare you, Varete!
The pitch black spear disintegrate into dust as another burst of flame engulfs Mother completely. Ah, the Fuhrer himself has entered the battlefield! He was a strategic flame alchemist like Grandpa Maes, and a war buddy even, if I'm not mistaken. Not a single scorch mark can be seen on Mother's skin, though her dress is another story. The shadow spear got incinerated utterly in his flame.
How?! If even the Fuhrer's famed Incinerating Flame that's rumored to be even hot enough to melt mithril can't pierce Mother's unnaturally tough skin, how could Varete's spear pierce through so easily?! This is not possible!
Mister Lezenith teleports himself in front of Varete during this second of confusion that engulfed everyone.
"Cover your eyes now!" Mister Lezenith's mental voice ripples through everyone's head, hopefully not Varete's...
A oak staff appears in his hand, before illuminating itself like the sun reincarnate...
Holy shit, I'm seeing stars even though I closed my eyes and shielded them with both of my hands. How f*cking bright a spell is he casting?!
I'm pretty sure Varete's shadows have already been rendered into nothingness. Yup, I confirmed my suspicion as I take a short peek as the light dies down. Varete is on her knees in front of Mister Lezenith, with Father and the Fuhrer quickly approaching from both sides!
"Tsk!" An ever-so-annoying and yet familiar sound escapes from Varete as her shadows surges forth and covers herself, like a skin tight cover. Then the shadow-Varete disappeared into the shadows at her feet, like she's sinking down through quicksand!
No parting line? I guess she's not that cliche...
"You haven't seen the last of me!" A menacing whisper resounds through the ballroom.
Guess I spoke too soon.
I take a quick look around, yup, she's not behind me, that's a relief. Wait a f*cking second... WHERE IS MOTHER?! She's not anywhere in the room! I look around again frantically, "MOTHER! MOTHER! MAMA! WHERE ARE YOU?!"
A quiet chuckle right next to me disrupts my frantic shouting. About 10 meters from my left. I turn around quickly to face the second intruder who looks like...
A kid.
A kid even shorter than I am, wearing a golden robe adorned with Eastern dragons... He must have took Mother somewhere, since he's the only one looking relax in this hellish situation...
"Shorty! What have you done to Mother?! And who the f*ck are you?"
That definitely got the chuckle out of his system.
"Shorty?" He repeats my word, hissing like god damn snake, "Shorty? I have killed millions for daring to even be in my presence, and you dare to insult me?"
"What? What the f*ck are you talking about? Give Mother back!"
His eyes narrow down until he's glaring at me through his eyelashes. Typical Asian, and yes I am being racist. Sue me, there's no law against it in this world...
"I am," He pauses for dramatic effect, pumping out his chest like a f*cking idiot.
Ugh, "Just get on with it!" I snap at him impatiently. Where the hell did he took Mother? She must be near right?
"As I was saying," A undeniable force suddenly clenchs my mouth shut, "I am the one who rescued your Mother, so be grateful you little twerp..."
A hole in space opened up before my eyes, dropping down the unconscious Mother no doubt with her wound gone, and another guy dressed in all black lying in his own pool of blood, his four limbs and head decapitated with impeccably clean cuts.
"...And be grateful I am sparing you today."
I paid him no heed as I rush forward toward Mother, who is already half-awake, blinking away sleepiness.
"Mother! Are you OK?! Mother?" I arrive at her side, just in time for her to turn her head at look at me, crying with happiness
"Pray? Wha-what happened? I remember Varete bein-"
"You were stabbed in the back, literally." The kid interrupts our touching reunion. Tsk, how dare he! To interrupt Mother and I? F*cker!
Mother turn her head in the other way to take a look at the voice with a confused expression on her face.
Then she froze, like a perfect statue frozen in time as she stares at the kid, who still haven't move an inch from where he appeared. One second, Two second, Three seco-
Before I can react, Mother leaps on her feet, and got on her hands and knees, forcing me to do the same in the process. Oh shit, almost banged my head on the marble ground for a second. What is she doing?!
"Your Majesty!" Mother sneaks a peek at me, "I apologize for any insult my daughter might have given. She doesn't know anyone from Xing! It is my fault!"
Aw, Mother knows me so well- Wait what? Why is she apologizing to the kid? You Majesty? Who's that?
"No need for you to apologize to me, child," He glares at me purposefully... how dare he call Mother child! I will end you!
"Mother who the hell is he?" I ask as Mother allows us to sit up again.
"Pray!" Mother's hand covers my mouth, before whispering into my ear "Don't speak until you are spoken to! That's the Immortal Emperor! He could wipe out this nation from the world if he wants to!"
Say what?! That kid is the Immortal Emperor? He doesn't look a day older than a nine or ten year old! How?!
"Do you doubt me?" His soft words reached my ears, though his mouth never moved. What the hell, it's not even telepathy, that much I can tell at once.
Then he turns toward the dead body in black we've all been ignoring, "He was charged with the duty of protecting your Mother from the shadow, a task that he failed most literally."
Hahaha... f*ck you, don't joke about this!
"For his failure, his clan shall pay the price with their heads" Another portal opened up behind me on the ceiling, above where the surprise battle took place just moments ago. Out drops a mountain of corpse, a few hundred freshly decapitated bodies followed by their heads, frozen with surprise on their face, dropping down like bowling balls. The already sparse crowd made themselves gone from the room, with the exception of Mister Lezenith...
"Do you still doubt me?" His soft voice reaches my ears again, as Mother tensed me beside me...
Co-could the kid have done that? Shit, I swore internally for the second time in the day, he's really the Immortal Emperor...
"N-No, and I apologize for my earlier insults..." I speak through clenched teeth. Must. Not. Make. This. Any. Worse!
"Apology accepted," He chuckles again before continuing, "Well, I'm only a messenger here. You have been summoned to report to War God's mountain, make sure you aren't late."
He walks by us, heading toward the mountain of corpse that flooded the room, separating us from Father and the Fuhrer.
"Wait!" I cry out in a panic.
"?" He half turns and arch his eyebrow at me quizzically, as Mother watches on with terror visible to the naked eye.
"When?" I managed to croak out under their collective stares, "When must I get there?" This is crucial information people! Someone gotta ask it! And Mother doesn't look like she could at the moment...
"Ah yes, I almost forgot," You did! "Just get there within a few decades, what does it matter? Now then, I shall see you at the mountain..."
His hands shot forward like predators leaping for their preys, and rips space apart once again before he disappeared through the new portal, taking the mountain of corpse with him. If anyone told me after this that there was hundred of decapitated corpse lying in our house, I would've laughed at them. But the pool of blood staining the floor tells me otherwise. That was no nightmare, it was real. It was all too real.
...............
............
.........
......
...
.
Father runs up to us the moment the mountain of bloody obstacles cleared, taking us into a bear hug, sobbing like the crying wreck he is,
"Thank goodness... you're Ok... you're ok... you're all ok..."
Mother pats his back in sympathy, "It's ok Xix, don't cry... don't cry..." Just like a Mother soothing a baby...
"Daddy, if you keep crying, I'll say you're useless!" I toss in my two cents. That helped, a little.
And so my overwhelmingly bloody birthday party ended that day, with the Fuhrer's men bursting in five minutes too late. They left soon enough as they saw us and the Fuhrer unharmed, as did Mister Lezenith, after he left a letter on the chair I was sitting in before all this...
I think I'll sleep with Mother and Father tonight. I don't know if there's any therapeutic effects, and frankly, I don't care. It certainly sure is soothing to the heart...