Rem, decked out in his new gear, stepped out to meet the morning sun. Truthfully, he thought the protection was excessive. What was he wearing again? Long-sleeve chain-mail, a leather vest, and pant that was way too tight. On the bright side, Scathach's taste on boot was okay; black and silver-studded for the win.

Sighing tiredly, Rem flipped a belt equipped with an array of throwing knives over his waist and covered his face white Venetian mask.

"Someone looks like a video game character today," the badger commented wryly. "Are you trying to be the final boss's henchman?"

"Oh," Rem shook his head dejectedly as he humorlessly fastened a white cape over his shoulder. "Once upon the time, I was the general of the demon lord's army. However, the hero convinced me that talent has better use elsewhere. How tragic to think a monster like me deserves such forgiveness. Miss Scathach, now I turned over a new leaf and dedicated my life as a hero secretary."

"Is this a joke?" Scathach observed Rem, fearing that he must be.

Then she heard the clanking of metal.

Cytortia came decked in a green suit of armor from the helmet to greaves. A sword hung by her yellow leather belt while an oversized shield hiked behind her back for an extra hero point.

"Ahoy, my gallant comrade!" Our goddess proclaimed heroically. "The elf lord is asking for our audience, and we shall answer! By our goddess's will, we will bring justice back to this land!"

Scathach's jaw dropped to the floor.

Rem smirked.

...

"Welcome back to Lightwell Forest, Hero!" A smiling pudgy elf with blond hair and a goatee proclaimed. "The demon lord has invaded our realm! With our army destroyed, you are our only hope to repel this great evil! Please save us!"

Rem could have sworn he heard Scathach's jaw hit the floor.

Cytortia humbly knelt.

"Of course," she said in a dignified voice. "We will overcome the demons and restore peace to this land! Your sacrifice won't go down in vain, my friend!"

The badger's knee hit the floor a moment later.

"How did this happen?" She screamed into the expanse of outer space. "When did this world become Dragon Quest!"

...

Earth was not the first planet to join Phantasia.

Even to this day, the first race assimilated into Phantasia was one of its greatest mystery. Multiple experts throughout Phantasia's long history regularly fought each other via angry emails about these taboo subjects. Although the fights often turned immature, resulting in many dead mascots, the expert agreed on one thing. 

After the gods, it was the elves who trump the rest in antiquity.

The Northland of the Elves was equal in size to the Earth's surface area. Politically, few Elven lords administered the woodland superpower. Its foundation laid on a massive mana-imbued underground water-network feeding the nation. It was a network so complicated that more than over 60% of it remained unexplored.

Such closeness to the mystical water gifted the elves with a natural affinity for water and nature spell-craft. Its impact reflected in elves' culture. Every season, the elves celebrated the gift of water and life.

The ruling clans would hold a massive party celebrating the generosity of the water-spirit every start of the new year, ending with a tournament contesting the ancestral art of spiritual familiar.

Northland's capital of Lightwell epitomized this spiritual way. Familiar and spirit guarded the staunched magically enhanced borders. An interconnected network of red, white, and brown grove of magical cedars made the city. The system of water bridges and canals powered by the forest's natural magic created the city's connection. 

At Lightwell's epicenter stood the Paradise of Light, home to a historic garden housing a gigantic ancestral tree, The Evergreen. It was a tree scraping the very heaven with a height over one kilometer. The Evergreen's root covered the Paradise of Light, providing a relaxing refuge for both young and old elves alike.

That was the place the gang founded themselves. Inside a spacious cedar abode, sipping Lightwell's trademark cider with one of the city's leaders.

...

In that room, Cytortia, still dressed in hero's armor, waved her hand over Scathach's blank face, checking for any reaction.

Doctor Cy turned toward her audience.

"She shut down," Cytortia sounded concern. "Uncle Avar, I think the practical joke broke her too much. Rem, do you have any idea how to cure her?"

"Toss her into the river," Rem suggested and finished a cup of apple cider. "Wow, this stuff is good. Way too good to exist."

"Thank you, young man," replied the elderly elf, Avar, as he poured Rem another glass. "It is from my orchard. I save it for a special occasion like this. Little Cy is often too busy to visit these days."

The elf leaned on his intricately carved chair and enjoyed the show.

"Never think I would live to see the warrior maid lost her mind," the elf said amusingly. "I might not survive this, but I won't regret it."

Rem nodded, pouring a glass of cider for the fellow member of the death-seeking clan.

"The stress had not been kind to her this week," Cytortia commented. She promptly left Scathach's soulless body and joined the rest in cedar sipping.

After a gracious amount of time of drinking amidst the chirping squirrel, the conversation resumed.

"How do you know Elder Avar anyway, Cytortia?" Rem asked.

"It was quite a story," Cytortia blushed, her cheek bulging with apple. 

“Indeed," Avar said, reminiscing about that hour with a faraway expression. "A few years ago, my daughter was poisoned with a lethal toxin. She would die within three days, and I couldn't find anyone to treat it. Luckily, lady Cytortia was there. Who would have thought an eleven-year-old goddess is an S-rank Alchemist studying under the queen of heaven herself?"

Rem sipped his cider. It appeared the goddess had an incredibly hidden depth under the useless veneered. Maybe she was hiding-

The goddess turned redder and tried to hide under the table.

Scratch that, she was useless in almost everything aside from Alchemy.

Avar continued his tale.

"I was not always a good man. When my daughter laid within an inch of death, I begged heaven for someone, anyone, to save her. I was ready to do anything. Who would know that a tiny, little goddess would come up to ask me why I am crying?"

"I wasn't doing much," said the bashful voice of Cytortia. "I am just doing the right thing."

"Most people find doing the right thing difficult," Avar gave her a reassuring smile. "Yet, you never hesitated. Do you know we threw a quiet celebration last year when you became an S-Rank Alchemist?"

Rem gave a small smile of agreement. Inside that world of poppy and the black sky, a tiny semblance of humanity was still glowing no matter how steeped into insanity its host becomes.

"You are too soft," Scathach chose that moment to wake up from her shock and ruin everything. "Other Heavenly Daughters would demand a steep price for that boon. You asked nothing but a meal or fresh produce. That was an opportunity burned for nothing."

Rem's eyebrows ticked; someone needed to beat some idealism into the badger's mind.

"I don't know Scathach," Rem said, biting into an apple and looked at Scathach with the intent for murder. "I don't think exploiting that opportunity will help do anything when the World Enemy invaded. It will only persuade a certain someone to give you another [Space Crush Impact]."

Scathach went pale and decided that shutting up and avoided pissing the all-powerful Satholia was an excellent life choice.

With Scathach defeated, Rem mentally put the other Heavenly Daughter on the enemy list. But before he got them, he must accomplish his mission first.

"Lord Avar, to tell you the truth. We are after someone you might know."

"Yes, Uncle Avar," Cy added with a hint of concern. "A certain goddess recommended me to find someone called the Exile Lighting."

Avar's face lost several shades of color, seemingly aging several years in a few seconds.  The elderly elf rubbed his chin in contemplation and sighed.

"Exile Lightning... this is a truly fitting name for her," he said, slumping into the chair.

"That day moment wasn't my proudest moment," Avar poured himself a cider to chase away his depression. "Before she left to join Lady Artio, my daughter had asked me to adopt that girl, but I couldn't. The Drakokia is already looking for an excuse to control Lightwell, taking her into Avar Clan would cause a political crisis. The best I could do was discouraging my peers from a more-" He paused. "Lethal approach."

Scathach dropped her fork.

"The Drakokia want her dead?" Scathach said in shock. "Who or what made them go that far?"

"Are you honor-bound not to disclose her existence?" Rem asked. His tone was silent and contemplating.

Scathach shivered. The boy's imagination was the stuff of nightmares. And she knew him for only a week. Rem contemplating was a sign to flee to the hill.

"Technically, I had been forced to take an oath not to lend her any aid," Avar admitted, but a sheepish smirk sneaked past his sourness. "But if she finds aid by coincidence, it won’t count as helping."

Scathach and Rem smiled. Those two loved abusing loopholes.

Avar went on.

"If anybody asks, I am just confessing my shame to a family's friend and asking for her advice. What that said family's friend did with this information is something above my control. Isn't that right lady Cytortia?"

Cytortia clapped with excitement.

"Oh, so you are pretending you are not helping us while helping us!"

Everybody else rolled their eyes. Scathach dropped her fork and groan. Rem looked as if he wanted to complain to heaven, and Avar reconsidered whether this was a good idea.

"I will pretend I never hear that," Avar replied, fed up with living. "Do you ever heard of the Drakokia clan?"

"One of, if not, the most powerful Elven clan in Lightwell," Scathach answered. "Their clansmen excel in ice and holy spell-work. They are also ridiculously good with nature familiars. Their most powerful ancestor and matriarch is a former-priestess in the Isle of Prophecy. Quite a feat if I may say so."

"Yes, that would be it," Avar nodded. "Originally, the clan was to be inherited by the eldest daughter Luxinna Drakokia but her awakening, pardon my word, was regarded as a terrible omen."

"How bad can it be?" Scathach asked in disbelieve. "How bad could her skill be for the clan to order a death sentence?!"

Avar stood up and walked over to the window in grief.

"Why do you think she is called Exile Lighting?"

Scathach stunningly dropped her folk again.

"No freaking way," Cytortia's jaw drop. "An elf with bloody lightning magic? B-But you guys are terrified of lightning!"

"Yes, lightning," Avar dreadfully stated. "Overwhelming against water, and the best counter against our familiar-art. Even those of us that dabble with flames and Alchemy cowers before lightning raw destructiveness. Luxinna Drakokia's power is our bane. None of us believe one of our children would be gifted with such an all-destroying beast until we saw with our own eyes. To make it worse, Luxinna has the worse talent in familiar-art of our generation."

Avar sighed.

"It is as if Luxinna Drakokia is as a punishment for her father, Lucian, for his ambition and brutality. He always wants to expand the Drakokia's influence outside of Lightwell. Ever since I had known him, Lucian only lost his composure twice. First, when he returned from the Forbidden Zone defeated, and the second time was the moment Luxinna's awaken with lighting aptitude. The daughter of the clan was all but disowned that day."

"Your daughter took pity on her," Rem said emotionlessly.

Cytortia could hear an echo of yearnings in that voice. A hope that at least there was some good left to defend in this world. It was sad, looking at the boy who treated such a minor act of kindness with reverence.

Avar answered the boy.

"Eva and Luxinna are an old friend. Those two are practically sisters. Alas, things only got worse. It happened three years ago when Luxinna's younger sister, Magnolia, reached the age to awaken."

"Drakokia got their golden girl." Rem guessed with no anger but a disappointment.

"Ice, wind, water, and nature," Avar nodded. "Even among the elves, to have an aptitude for four different attributes is incredible. It took less than a day for the Lightwell council, led by Lucian himself, to convict the poor girl under a charge of heresy."  He looked visibly ashamed. "As a member of the council, I managed to persuade them to give her some room. In the end, we banished a twelve-year-old girl with no formal training of any kind into the wild and never to return upon pain of death."

Rem nodded, accepting the result. The case wasn't a total loss from his point of view.

However, that acceptance didn't apply to Cytortia. She wasn't disappointed. Seething was undoubtedly a better term to describe her temper.

"It isn't your fault! You did the best you could?" Cytortia said, gritting her teeth as she smashed her fist on the table.

"In every religion, the coming of lightning was a punishment of heaven against those who commit evil," Rem said airily. "What do you think, Scathach?"

Scathach spent some time considering deeply before giving her replies.

"How high is her MAG when awakened?" Scathach's eyes open up. "Are there other noticeable stats?"

"290," Avar said. "Her dexterity is 295, which is absurd even among the elves."

"Incredible," Scathach whispered dangerously. "What the hell got into Lucian Drakokia? The matriarch will murder him the moment she comes out of seclusion."

The badger murmured in regret, rage, and disbelieve. Knowing Scathach, Cytortia dreadfully feared the coming of the badger's mass-murdering season. Beside her, Rem regretted that he didn't have some popcorn.

"What do you mean, Scathach?" Cytortia asked. She didn't remember seeing the badger getting this angry before.

"Luxinna Drakokia is practically a demi-god," Scathach clenched her teeth in outrage. "Her reflexes and magic potential are top class even among the elves. Combine with her lightning aptitude, and she would be nigh-unstoppable in live combat. If I properly trained as a child, even Tie Hua would be hard-pressed to match her."

Scathach volcanically exploded from rage.

"What the fuck is wrong with the Drakokia? They gave birth to a golden goose and tossed her into a garbage compactor! I would kill to train her, and they threw that privilege away like that. Are they insulting me?! Wasting a natural resource like this is unforgivable!"

She grabbed Rem and Cytortia and dragged them to the door like a carry-bag.

"Err..." Rem put up a half-hearted resistance. "What do I get to do with this?"

"My arm!" Cytortia cried as her body slid ungracefully across the floor. "It is coming out of my socket."

"Shut up, both of you!" The badger yelled back. "If you two still had any semblance of honor, then come with me to avenge your future kouhai as good sempai should! Fuck the Drakokia! Fuck the political fallout! Someone will pay today! I will drag the matriarch out of her seclusion if I have to!"

Thankfully, a maid rushed into the room in time to prevent the mass murder.

"Elder Avar," The maid bowed. "Lord Artos Sevar and Lady Magnolia are right outside. Lord Lucian is also with them. They are demanding an audience with lady Cytortia."

"This is outrag-"

"Good!" Scathach savagely grinned. "I loved it when the prey delivered itself gift-wrapped like this."

The badger lifted the rag-dolled Rem by the neck.

"Kid, you are one of the worst cheaters I have ever known, and likely the most vengeful. So listen to me. I want them humiliated before I come to get them. And I don't mean losing face. I want history to note down that I am doing the world a favor when I blast these multiversal garbages out of the water. Do you have a plan?"

Rem smirked insidiously and started the whispering of doom. Rem might accept the cruelty, but that didn't mean he wasn't pissed. That calmness was just a veneer to insulate his sadism.

Cytortia heard the entire plan. She nodded and stood up regally for the first time in the known memory.

"Uncle Avar, please told them to come."