Chapter 3 – Mahotora
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It all happened so quickly. It was all my fault.

———

In the Depths of the World, the Beast awakened,
“I will cast out the Light from this world”, He said.
And the Beast did this, slaying the God of Hope.
“I will eat Your Flesh and bring forth Despair”, He said.
And the Beast crushed many under His dominion.

And so Despair came, Their name was the Dragon.
“I will swallow your Heart, Beast”, the Dragon said.
And the Dragon killed the Beast and ate Him.
But the Flesh of the Beast was Poison to the Dragon.
“We will come to rest here, honour Us”, the Dragon said.

And the Dragon died, giving Life to the Goddess.
And the Goddess’ Heart was filled with Sorrow,
“I will search for That which I lost”, the Goddess said.
But the Goddess could not find That which She lost.

And She made of all the World Her children.

— The Genesis of Yvullum

———

So this is my status. I really am a Vampire… a Noble Vampire.

Name: Ciel

Race: Noble Vampire

Level: 1

Experience: 0 (next level at 1,274)

HP: 2,101 / 2,101

Mana: 42 / 42

Strength: 398

Intelligence: 140

Agility: 266

Titles:

  • Mass Murderer (Mythical)
  • City Destroyer (Mythical)
  • Nation Killer (Mythical)
  • Bringer of Calamity (Mythical)
  • Betrayer of Light: Foundry of Curses (Legendary, Inherited)
  • Skill Limit Breaker

Passive skills: undeath (level 10), dark vision (level 4), enhanced hearing (level 3), enhanced smell (level 3), enhanced sight (level 3), enhanced taste (level 4), enhanced touch (level 4), accelerated perception (level 6), enhanced reflexes, (level 3), silent movement (level 4), health regeneration (level 2), accelerated health regeneration (level 2), body regeneration (level 4), accelerated body regeneration (level 6), accelerated mana regeneration (level 1), enhanced mana efficiency (level 1), all status effect resistance (level 2), poison immunity (level 10)

Skills:

  • Dungeon Creator (level 20) - allows user to create and manipulate their dungeons. Limit break warning: dungeon creation and manipulation mana efficiency increased x6. Limit break warning: creation of monster spawn locations available. Limit break warning: dungeon creation and manipulation mana efficiency increased x66 (stacks). Limit break warning: monster spawning mana efficiency increased x6. Limit break warning: dungeon creation and manipulation mana efficiency increased x665 (stacks). Limit break warning: monster spawning mana efficiency increased x66 (stacks). Limit break warning: monster spawning mana efficiency increased x665 (stacks). Limit break warning: allows the manipulation of all dungeons accessible to user. Limit break warning: monster spawning restrictions lifted. Limit break warning: internal spatial geometry restrictions of dungeons lifted.
  • Coagulation (level 1) - allows the user to change non-solid states of matter to semi-solid states temporarily.
  • Slime lover ♥ (level 1) - does nothing.

Mama and Papa are still waving their tails…

There were many new things Ciel hadn’t seen before, but they had to wait. Focusing on the Dungeon Creator skill brought up a three-dimensional map, with the full layout of the dungeon, including locations, races and levels of all of the monsters.

There must be tens of thousands…

Ciel’s current location was marked at the bottom-most level of the dungeon. Buried in the corner of the map Ciel saw herself and her family clustered together.

Noble Vampire (level 1)

Noble Vampire (level 207)

Noble Vampire (level 180)

Ciel had barely a chance to process what she found when her eyes were forcibly redirected toward something nearby.

What… what in the hell is that…

World End Boss EX (level 99,999)

We’ve been sitting right next to that thing, all of this time?!

Mama and Papa realised something was wrong.

“My Dear? Have you… awakened to your hidden power?”

“It can’t be, Ciel’s not even half-through her 9th year. Her potential would be…”

“I know that we’re trapped in here!”, interrupted Ciel, her eyes aflame. She realised she had said this much more harshly than she’d intended too. It was almost accusatory. This had hurt her deeply.

“You were just protecting me… I can save us from this dungeon! I can kill all of our enemies!” continued Ciel, looking down as she shouted, clenching her fists.

“But, my Dear, you have to get stronger first. Then we will make our escape and adventure together like Papa and Mama used to”. Mama’s voice was soothing, but it wasn’t enough.

“No!! I have the power to save us now. There’s no point in waiting. I’m only stealing your blood and making you weaker every time I feed from you. I will not be your burden!!”

Ciel begun to activate her Dungeon Creator skill. It was strangely intuitive. She immediately understood that she could create a portal, a gate, from their current location in the common room directly to the exit, which stood hundreds of levels above them.

Here’s our door out. And here’s the other side of that door, way up over there on the map…

“My Dear..”

Ciel heard a clap, and turned her eyes back toward Mama and Papa, smiling, giddy with excitement.

But her parents weren’t where they stood just a moment ago.

“Mama? Papa?”

Ciel begun to turn her head to the right. To the wall opposite of where she had just placed the gate.

Ciel was still smiling.

But she saw something in the corner of her vision.

She thought she heard something move.

But she didn’t want to look.

“…!”

Ciel’s voice was gone.

“We… we… are.. so.. sorry… my.. Dear…” said the ugly voice of the singular mass of organs, skin and bone embedded in the wall.

“We… wan.. ted… you… live.. as.. as… ha.. happy…”

It heaved and shook as it spoke, as if in great pain.

“Be… be.. cause… if.. they… fo.. found.. you… …”

It looked truly pitiful.

“We… we… cursed… our… self… selves…”

Why wouldn’t it stop talking?

“To… to.. safe.. safest… place.. in… world..”

Where was Mama and Papa?

“We.. we… can.. not.. ever… lee… leave..”

Where did it come from?

“You… go… you.. live… but.. but…”

An eye was hopelessly darting trapped inside some fatty membrane, as if looking for something or someone.

“You… mu… must… do… do.. one… last… …”

Where was Mama and Papa?

“Fo… for… Pa.. pa… Ma.. ma…”

Something pulled itself from a protrusion of mangled muscle, teeth and hair. It sprayed blood, bile, and mucus on the pale skin of Ciel’s face and on her long, blonde hair. The forearm, wrist and the elegant hand of a young woman dangled on a dislocated elbow.

“…”

“…”

Ciel approached Mama and Papa.

She gently grasped and lifted up Mama’s beautiful arm. The veins in Mama’s wrist were pulsing. Ciel paused, and then she forcefully sunk her fangs in.

“Good… Ciel…”

“Keep… going…”

“We… are.. so… proud… of you… Dear…”

“Keep… go… going..”

“We… love–“

A blinding white light filled the room and faded into the hallway.

———

LEVEL UP!

Name: Ciel

Race: Noble Vampire

Level: 273

Experience: 493,285 (next level at 494,522)

HP: 2,017,372 / 2,017,372

Mana: 35,182 / 35,182

Strength: 394,806

Intelligence: 69,589

Agility: 303,653

Titles:

  • Mass Murderer (Mythical)
  • City Destroyer (Mythical)
  • Nation Killer (Mythical)
  • Bringer of Calamity (Mythical)
  • Betrayer of Light: Foundry of Curses (Legendary, Inherited)
  • Skill Limit Breaker

Passive skills: undeath (level 10), dark vision (level 10 up), enhanced hearing (level 10 up), enhanced smell (level 10 up), enhanced sight (level 10 up), enhanced taste (level 10 up), enhanced touch (level 10 up), accelerated perception (level 10 up), enhanced reflexes, (level 10 up), silent movement (level 10 up), health regeneration (level 10 up), accelerated health regeneration (level 10 up), body regeneration (level 10 up), accelerated body regeneration (level 10 up), accelerated mana regeneration (level 10 up), enhanced mana efficiency (level 10 up), all status effect resistance (level 10 up), poison immunity (level 10)

Skills:

  • Dungeon Creator (level 20) - allows user to create and manipulate their dungeons. Limit break warning: dungeon creation and manipulation mana efficiency increased x6. Limit break warning: creation of monster spawn locations available. Limit break warning: dungeon creation and manipulation mana efficiency increased x66 (stacks). Limit break warning: monster spawning mana efficiency increased x6. Limit break warning: dungeon creation and manipulation mana efficiency increased x665 (stacks). Limit break warning: monster spawning mana efficiency increased x66 (stacks). Limit break warning: monster spawning mana efficiency increased x665 (stacks). Limit break warning: allows the manipulation of all dungeons accessible to user. Limit break warning: monster spawning restrictions lifted. Limit break warning: internal spatial geometry restrictions of dungeons lifted.
  • Coagulation (level 1) - allows the user to change non-solid states of matter to semi-solid states temporarily.
  • Slime lover ♥ (level 1) - does nothing.

———

This world’s generals, kings and queens didn’t fear vampires because they fed on their people. They didn’t even fear vampires because they skilfully exerted their power from the shadows and manipulated the course of history to their whims. They all feared the vampire’s rage. A vampire lost to his rage could level a the mightiest kingdom with a single month. It was long decided that the people could never know of this threat, and such events were covered up as natural disasters or monster attacks. In some cases the blame was put on neighbouring kingdoms as a means of justifying war. Whole squads of skilled vampire hunters would sacrifice their lives to slow the carnage before an S-class adventurer could be reached and summoned. Total and absolute obliteration of the vampire’s body was the only method which ever put an end to the vampire’s bloodlust.

Even the least experienced berserker would learn to stop themselves once their goals were reached. And if they didn’t, they would break their own bodies and die as they sought revenge or glory.

This was not the case for the vampires, for their regenerative abilities would allow them no such escape. In rage, they were as if cursed to feed on death itself, without end.

Noble Vampires were the most feared of all vampires, and a Noble Vampire enraged was classed as an SSS level threat, the highest possible. An SSS level threat was considered by the Adventurer’s Guild to be a potentially world-ending event. It called for the action of all national heroes and multiple S-class adventurers. That is if the world was lucky to have more than one S-class adventurer in existence at the time. Fortunately there was no record of this ever happening, and the danger was entirely a theoretical one. Scholars broadly agreed that Noble Vampires, if they still existed, had strict social structures in place to ensure individuals would never fall to rage. Those likely to enrage were eliminated from within their own communes. This conjecture relied on loose bits and pieces of ancient writings from supposed vampiric sources. But it was the accepted theory, as Noble Vampires were the most secretive of the vampiric monsters and would first kill their own before being exposed.

———

Ciel stood alone in the common room, with the corpse of that which gave her new life. She was expressionless. Time stood still. Then her head tilted ever so slightly. A degenerate smile followed. Her eyes begot a crimson glow, emanating a presence strong enough to strike fear in every S-class adventurer’s heart.

A massive shockwave rocked the immovable dungeon home. The common room’s wooden floor collapsed exposing the pit trap’s teeth. Securely nestled between those teeth was a packed bag, a child’s armour and a sword. The door in the hallway which had materialised moments ago was blasted out by a powerful projectile.

Something had burst upward out of one of the treasure chests and struck the heavily decorated ceiling, which was carved out of solid stone and polished to look like that of a chapel. Intended to inspire awe and instil ease, its pieces were now littered shrapnel flying through the air. As Ciel released the energy in her knees she launched herself into a spin in the direction of a massive arched door.

The orichalcum door leading into the treasure room reverberated like a bell and bent out from the inside, as if a giant had just punched it. It was an impossible sight. Impossible, because this was the treasure room of the World End Boss.

Ciel’s arms, shoulders and part of her face had been blown apart on impact, then almost instantly reformed as she kicked back toward the opposing wall. As she obliterated parts of the still-collapsing ceiling that were in her path, Ciel landed on her feet and cracked the wall as if it was glass. Ciel disappeared in the crater and the debris. A split second later she was flying toward the orichalcum door feet first with even more speed than before. The impact ignited the dust that filled the enclosed space of the treasure room, blowing the massive door out of its freestanding frame.

Tonnes of golden metal came crashing down onto the white marble floor. Above it, a girl aflame. She was making an acrobatic arc toward her target.

The World End Boss took the form of 18 angels, standing in a circle around a statue of an unknown fallen man, cast in bronze. The angels each alike, their bodies and robes formed from the same soft pearl-like material. Each stood with her arms outstretched toward the heavens. Each one blindfolded by cloth as she gazed upon the heavens. The man at the centre was wearing what looked like a medieval soldier’s uniform from some unknown land forgotten to time. He was holding his right hand up to the blue sky, his eyes as if realising something profound. Tears were streaming down his face, impeccably rendered. Around them, top-tier weapons of every kind were standing perfectly balanced on the endless marble floor.

Then the angels, without moving, cast a barrage of attacks, all directed at Ciel. The power and sheer number was incomprehensible. 6 of the angels cast more than 3000 elemental spells of various forms. The casting speed was virtually instant. Another 6 angels cast spells directed at the many weapons surrounding them. Each weapon moved as if its own will, and they all executed waves of both melee and ranged attacks. The final 6 angels launched pure mana forms, taking the shape of fists, feet, claws and tails, beholding the ferocity of beasts and the fluidity of expert martial artists. All of the angels worked with terrifying, calculating coordination.

Ciel could possibly survive direct and ranged weapon attacks, for a few seconds. A single strike from the elemental attacks would spell her death. And the pure mana attacks would remove any trace she existed. The elemental spells were the first to reach range.

But before spectacular demise could find her, she was shrouded in a perfectly black shield, made of 20 facets, and stopped right in mid-air. An imperceptible moment later each of the facets took on the images all the angels. The top and bottom facets took on the image of the bronze statue. The elemental spells struck the angels and the statue resulting in an incredible blast of earth, fire, lightning, ice, water, wind, darkness, light, acid, poison and disease. The weapons and pure mana forms were blown away outward. The white marble floor cracked and shifted into broken formations peering out from as far as beyond the horizon. The sky turned a deep red. The gate shield was completely unmoving and undamaged, floating above an enormous crater.

Then everything which had transpired played backward. The elemental blast became an implosion, finding its origin back at the angel’s call. The orichalcum door bounced back into its frame, sealing an explosion inside. The gate shield, however, remained hovering above the angels and the statue. The World End Boss, if its stats weren’t enough, could reverse time, adjust its strategy as necessary, and replay the battle endlessly until it won. But why was the gate shield still there?

It was perhaps a coincidence that Ciel decided on her particular course of action, but the rage of a vampire didn’t absolve her from exercising their faculties. In fact, the resulting lack of one’s self-doubt improved them in some respects. It was that the surface and the contents of the gate shield didn’t exist as far as the dungeon and the world was concerned. The inside was in a different dimension, created by Ciel’s Dungeon Creator skill, part of the dungeon, but at the same time spatially disconnected from it. She had connected the outside of the shield gates to other gates positioned next to the angels and the statue, to redirect the attacks back onto their sources.

For the World End Boss the situation before it was a paradox, but it was no mere computer. The flow of time reversed back to its usual forward direction. The treasury entrance was not destroyed as there was no one there to forcibly open it. So now it remained sealed. As viewed by an outside observer the gate shield would have had materialised itself above the angels instantly and out of nothing. The World End Boss did, however, keep memory of the histories it overwrote. And it was time to try a different approach. All 18 of the angels cast thousands of light elemental spells, focusing them into a needle-head sized point located on one of the corners of the gate shield. As the attack hit, a pentagram made of laser-like light appeared in between the angels. The intensity of the beams made any elemental immunities irrelevant. It begun to rotate rapidly and sliced the arms and heads of the angels cleanly off. 18 fountains of blood. Red blood.

Then everything which had transpired played backward. Time for round 3. The angels must have decided the elemental attacks weren’t working, so they all cast spells launching countless arrows, spears, swords, axes in the direction of the gate shield. They were all redirected by Ciel into the soft body of just one of the angels. Time did not reverse and the remaining 17 wasted none of it casting pure mana forms of great monstrous jaws. The forms passed through one another like ghosts, their teeth turning corporeal in unison as they bit down on the black jewel in the sky.

The bronze statue disappeared in a cloud of dust. A fist sized mass of heavy metal fell with a clank.

Then everything which had transpired played backward. It was a battle where one party possessed the ultimate offence, and the other, the ultimate defence. It could have gone on forever, that is until one side would take the initiative and risk everything.

While the angels cast another volley of attacks, a pale hand of a child appeared from behind one of the angels and grasped her left breast. It then violently pulled back ripping the whole of the left ribcage, lungs and heart, stealing them away to some place unseen, untouchable by time.

The other angels reacted almost immediately and redirected their attacks at the wounded angel. The attack power level was not a measured one, not one intended to be released into their proximity and so the result was the complete self-detonation of the World End Boss.

Then everything which had transpired played backward. Except one of the angels had a gaping hole in her left side. The angel collapsed into a pool of blood. There were now 17 angels. Somewhere in a pocket dimension a vampire girl was feasting on flesh and crunching bones in her jaws.

The World End Boss had a number of limitations, which Ciel was now exploiting. It would always reverse time back to when she had blasted through the treasure room door, even though this event was now erased. And it would only reverse time once all of the angels were destroyed or the statue in the centre was damaged. And finally, it relied completely on its ability to turn back time as its defence mechanism.

This time, all of the angels begun to cast wide area of attack fire spells. Their target was everything, including themselves. They paused, the elemental mana swirling around them, ready to be released.

A girl appeared before them, holding a still-beating heart. She bit into it like an apple. Everything in the area became a fireball of pure annihilation as a mushroom cloud reminiscent of a thermonuclear explosion rose into the vermillion sky.

Then everything which had transpired played backward. Except one of the angels had a gaping whole in her left side. The angel collapsed into a pool of blood. The gate shield was still ominously floating above them.

10 of the angels begun to cast another wide area of attack fireball spell. While the remaining angels used the highest-level healing skills to attempt to revive the fallen angel. The head of one of these angels suddenly turned backward and the skin of her neck ripped into bloodied ribbons. As everything was engulfed in fire, her head sunk, disappearing into her body.

Then everything which had transpired played backward. Except one of the angels had a gaping whole in her left side and another was missing her head. The angels collapsed into pools of their own blood. The gate shield was still ominously floating above them.

16 angels begun to cast elemental attacks of spirit, focused just below the gate shield. This attack would unbind the elemental mana in a chain reaction which would destroy the entire world. This spell took time to cast. So this was the most desperate measure possible.

The angels fell one by one. Their limbs torn off. Their bodies split in in half. Skin separated from muscle. Broken bones slicing at the internal organs. Only three angels were needed to trigger the chain reaction, and only three remained when their spell was finally cast. The energy released was so vast it had destroyed the planet, the twin moons and then the twin suns as if they were mere flowers in a wildfire. And then the entire system was gone. Part of the galaxy was to be bathed in deadly radiation.

Then everything which had transpired played backward. Except only three angels remained. The gate shield was still ominously floating above them.

The angels cast no spells. Two disembodied hands pierced skulls on the opposite ends of a circle of devastation. They pulled out the brains and brainstems with them. The last angel cast no spell, standing as she always had stood. Her hands reaching to the glory of the heavens. She was systematically taken apart by Ciel piece by piece until nothing remained.

When Ciel was finished eating, the gate shield disappeared and she dropped with the speed of an orbital strike. While the marble was rippling out from where she landed, she grabbed the face of the statue with her clawed fingers. She sunk her fingers deeply into the tearful eyes and mouth of the unmoving soldier. Throwing her arm back, she cleanly separated the head and launched it at the body of the statue with such force, it and the head vaporised instantly. The resulting explosion was so powerful it ruptured Ciel’s body, sending chunks of it flying. The larger of these pieces sprouted tendrils to the other parts in mid-air, forming a web that collapsed into a torso and head. Her limbs regenerated before she had a chance to fall.

A gate appeared. Ciel’s bare feet made not the slightest sound as she casually stepped through. The gate disappeared.

The only signs left the World Boss EX ever existed were smears of blood upon some broken foundations.

———

LEVEL UP!

Name: Ciel

Race: Noble Vampire

Level: 84,143

Experience: 687,704,540 (next level at 687,731,980)

HP: 77,768,191 / 77,768,191

Mana: 892,038 / 892,038

Strength: 6,582,338

Intelligence: 4,652,716

Agility: 5,825,173

Titles:

  • God Slayer (Mythical NEW)
  • Mass Murderer (Mythical)
  • City Destroyer (Mythical)
  • Nation Killer (Mythical)
  • Bringer of Calamity (Mythical)
  • Betrayer of Light: Foundry of Curses (Legendary, Inherited)
  • Skill Limit Breaker

Passive skills: undeath (level 10), dark vision (level 10), enhanced hearing (level 10), enhanced smell (level 10), enhanced sight (level 10), enhanced taste (level 10), enhanced touch (level 10), accelerated perception (level 10), enhanced reflexes, (level 10), silent movement (level 10), health regeneration (level 10), accelerated health regeneration (level 10), body regeneration (level 10), accelerated body regeneration (level 10), accelerated mana regeneration (level 10), enhanced mana efficiency (level 10), all status effect resistance (level 10), poison immunity (level 10)

Skills:

  • Dungeon Creator (level 20) - allows user to create and manipulate their dungeons. Limit break warning: dungeon creation and manipulation mana efficiency increased x6. Limit break warning: creation of monster spawn locations available. Limit break warning: dungeon creation and manipulation mana efficiency increased x66 (stacks). Limit break warning: monster spawning mana efficiency increased x6. Limit break warning: dungeon creation and manipulation mana efficiency increased x665 (stacks). Limit break warning: monster spawning mana efficiency increased x66 (stacks). Limit break warning: monster spawning mana efficiency increased x665 (stacks). Limit break warning: allows the manipulation of all dungeons accessible to user. Limit break warning: monster spawning restrictions lifted. Limit break warning: internal spatial geometry restrictions of dungeons lifted.
  • Coagulation (level 1) - allows the user to change non-solid states of matter to semi-solid states temporarily.
  • Slime lover ♥ (level 1) - does nothing.

———

No monster in the dungeon could escape Ciel as she strolled through its passageways and cavernous spaces gleefully toying, and ultimately slaying her prey. Whole floors would collapse and monsters moving to escape would find themselves back under the falling ceiling, as something watched on from the shadows. The fiendish traps of the dungeon were barely entertainment for her. She would jump from tip to tip of perfectly sharpened adamantite spears with her toes. She would beat the automated golem defenders with the flailing bodies of other golem defenders. She would drag monsters of all sizes into pools of Widow Acid, a liquid so corrosive that the fumes could melt SS-rank armour, throwing herself in together with the hopelessly struggling creatures. Most of the time however, the scenes were of very direct butchery. Monsters unseen since the dawn of time, that would certainly awe the Adventurer’s Guild into classifying them as SSS-class, were pathetically pleading for their lives or the lives of their spawn, as Ciel vivisected them alive. Those types of monsters ran out very quickly however, and the monsters that remained were getting increasingly weaker with each encounter.

———

It was almost 2 months since Ciel defeated the World End Boss and she was now relentlessly making her way up through the upper floors of the dungeon. In a cave the size of a small mountain, armies of goblins, hobgoblins and their high goblin generals and kings were making their first and last stand against the enemy which had been causing earthquakes in the dungeon in the weeks prior. As their battle cries crescendoed into a singular roar they all inexplicably fell into the rocky ground below them and reappeared high up above the clouds forming near the ceiling of the cave. The goblins, their weapons and mounts were now falling toward their doom in an obscene spectacle. Normally the strongest of them would survive the fall, but what they saw below was not the same surface they had stomped to. Jagged geometric formations had appeared from nothing, their irregular edges gleaming in the muted light of the cave.

As the battleground turned into a cauldron of goblin soup, Ciel made her way into one narrowing passageway, where she heard footsteps. The thing she found was making a poor effort at escaping. It was a human girl huddled in the corner of the bending tunnel. She looked about 15. Her clothes were torn and her body exposed. Without pausing Ciel approached and the girl looked up with dead eyes.

Ciel made a swift roundhouse kick that carved into the solid rocky walls and severed the upper part of the girl’s torso and her knees. That moment the girl’s skin and clothes melted into a semi-transparent, silver jelly with a slight purple tint, and reconnected into one single blob. It was a mimic slime. Its body acting as an imperfect mirror was the first time Ciel had ever seen herself. She looked just like her mother.

Ciel dropped to her knees. The slime stayed motionless in the corner.

———

A girl with blonde hair and crimson eyes kneeled before a slime in the world’s biggest dungeon. Her silent lips mouthed some unheard words and she fell forward, holding herself up with one hand. She was clutching at her heart as she bled from her eyes, nose and mouth. She lifted herself back up, unsteady on her feet and thrust her fingers like a blade into the centre of her chest. In agony, she slowly slit herself down to her stomach. Her entrails fell out and blood poured down at her feet. She threw herself into the slime. Ciel suffered as she was digested alive.

———

A blurry solid figure coalesced. The formless living host shuddered and shook. The figure grew, taking the shape of a child with a tail. The slime stopped quivering and a girl burst out from its membrane. Covered in purple ooze, the girl opened her purple and ruby ombre eyes. In panic, she frantically appeared to search for something. Then her bright eyes dimmed and became vacant.

———

Emica thought there could only be two possible reasons why her group was specially assigned this quest by the Adventurer’s Guild.

“Either the Guild’s top scouts were away on some hush hush business. Or the Guild wasn’t convinced all of their valuable scouts would come back alive… so they sent us” she said to herself with a bitter smile.

Emica was an elf that looked to be in her mid-twenties. She was part of a B-class adventurer group. The group didn’t have a self-proclaimed name like most others. Someone at the tavern coined “Emica’s Children” instead. And it stuck. She wasn’t the leader of their group, they didn’t have a leader. Neither did she have any children. The name was obviously tongue in cheek.

“Sometimes it is wiser to make a bad choice yourself, lest others choose something considerably worse for you” is the conclusion she had come to.

There was some truth to the name, however. The other adventurers in the group had a penchant for getting themselves into trouble, and it was always Emica who would ‘rescue’ them out of it. Or maybe the name was a reference to her ample, plump breasts. It was one of those things Emica preferred not to dwell on, especially during a quest. Which was definitely a scouting mission.

The quest was to investigate “a disturbance in the Wyn Tower Forest”, as the Guild put it. If they were to spot “any major monster activity or anything significantly out of the ordinary” they were not to engage, but to immediately make their way back to report. They were well compensated, but it was an extremely vague quest. Even the Guild Master had to concede on that point. Vague or uncertain meant ‘likely to die’ in the adventurer’s profession. And there was the issue that the forest the group was investigating was the largest in the whole continent, so they had to split up, not that it would make much of a difference given the area. 

“If one looks for something in the Wyn Tower Forest hard enough, they will find it, is the old adage after all…”, Emica’s thought was interrupted by movement appearing on the left of her peripheral. She had already instinctively readied her bow.

Emica would never forget that day.

A naked child. Her blonde hair glimmering in the broken light of the forest canopy. Her eyes refracted the hues of gemstones. Her pale skin luminesced through a layer of wet dirt. She had a strange tail. As she walked, she was almost tripping with each step. Her gaze completely fixed on something on the distant unseen horizon. The girl looked so very fragile, as she would shatter if she were to fall.

Emica holstered her bow and rushed over to the child.

“Oh little one, you’re safe now”, she kneeled and embraced the child.

“…”

The child was unmoving in her hands. Then the quiet sobs surfaced. She started to cry as she was firmly pressed against the elf’s warm and soft chest. Tears flowed  drowning her eyes, and down onto her cheeks.

“Maamaa!! Paapaaa!!”, a high-pitched cry of pain, grief and anger burst out from her small frame.

She wouldn’t stop crying. Her nose was runny, her entire face wet. Hours passed as she wept and wailed, calling out to her parents. The Twin Suns sank to their slumber and rain begun to fall. The elf didn’t let her go, as Ciel cried a lifetime’s worth of tears.

———

End of Chapter 3

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