“You...answered my call?” Niva whispered, tears spewing down her cheeks.  

“I am a spirit. That is why we exist.” Primrose kneeled and touched a hand to Niva’s mythril prosthetics. “How awful... I’m sorry you had to endure such an ordeal. But I am here now. I will protect you from harm. Even if it cost me my very life, I will ensure what happened to you will not be repeated. Hmm? Why do you continue to cry?”  

“I’m— I’m just so happy... You’re here... You’re really here...”  

“Is this the first time you summoned a spirit?” I asked. Primrose turned to me, and not even a second later, she had this disgusted scowl plastered across her face. Bright, brown light collected itself in front of her chest, leaving behind a shimmering wooden jewel. It then absorbed itself into her body. If that was her spirit core, then breaking it would kill her. 

She still has HP and mana bars, though. If the HP runs out, she reverts to her spirit crystal and must regenerate. From there, you can break the crystal to kill the spirit. 

“You should cease speaking, detestable creature. I know your kind from anywhere.”  

“My kind?” I scoffed and stood up. Primrose did the same and stood protectively in front of Niva, blocking her from my view while crossing her arms. A flash of light illuminated her body, altering her clothes and hairstyle while giving her a pair of wooden horns. 

“That’s right. You’re a cursed, unholy creation that should not exist. A sickening chimera that feeds on the living and takes the dead’s power for themselves.”  

“Tilde, explain.”  

“Beats the hell out of me,” Tilde replied. She flew to my shoulder and stared down at the threatening spirit. “[Status Cloak] literally hides any identifying marks from your mana. That’s why when those Bellerophon agents used [Detect Chimerism], they received a negative response. Hmm...”  

“Sekh?”  

“I do not know, but I do not like her. Her attitude is ugly.”  

“She is a spirit attuned to nature, and nature spirits are more sensitive to these things. Chimera kinda goes against the natural order of things... Eh, regardless, she knows, Master,” Tilde replied. Her tone was casual, so if she wasn’t worried, I wasn’t. “As long as [Detect Chimerism] fails, you’re perfectly safe. Only a fool would kill a High Elf for being a chimera after she was proven to not be one. That’s a scandal in the making if I’ve ever seen one. Besides, you’re a Vredi. Your word means more than hers.” 

“M--Mistress! Umm... Prim—Primrose, please calm down... Mistress is—”  

“You don’t need to know how I know. Master, someone like you does not need to be in the presence of a monster! Even if she’s forcing you to do her bidding, Bellerophon will not see it that way! I must get you away to safety.” 

“Like hell you are. The safest place for Niva is with me.”  

“I highly doubt that. What can you do? You may falsely claim the Vredi name, but you’re a detestable beast. Fairy.”  

Has she been spying on us? She said she was born from the Eagle Yew, but Primrose didn’t say how long ago that was. I wonder if the realm we saw was the inside of the Eagle Yew? 

“Fuck you. My name is Tilde.” Tilde flicked Primrose off, and she looked genuinely taken back.   

“Th--Then Tilde. Why do you remain around someone like her? A fairy is supposed to be the very symbol of—”  

“Yeah, fuck off with that. I am who I am. You’re starting to get on my nerves.”  

“How dare you, chimera! What have you done to her?! A fairy is supposed to be loving and kind! Gentle as the morning breeze and as ever-changing as the calm flow of a river!”  

“Bitch, please. I was born this way. The Tilde Life is the only life I've ever known. You’d best watch your mouth.” Tilde glared daggers, causing Primrose to take fearful steps backwards.   

“Then you leave me no choice.” Primrose turned to the open door, but my stern, threatening voice stopped her cold in the tracks.   

“Listen carefully. If you walk out of this room, you will die a painful death. No—I won’t even let you die. I’ll keep your ass alive and use those branches from your head as firewood.” 

“I’d like to see you try it. My powers are based on nature, and we are in the very place where I am the strongest. What can a heathen, who should have remained dead, do against someone like me? I’ll walk where I please, and I’ll go where I want. You cannot order me.”  

Sekh grabbed her mace and shield and looked at me for orders. 

“I gave my warning. The only reason you still draw breath is because of Niva. Had you been the spirit of anyone else, Sekh would have torn you apart. In fact, she still might. All I must do is give the command, and you will die before you know it.”  

Primrose, while still staring at me, walked backwards to the door. She edged closer and closer to passing the threshold, but even a desperate cry and plea from Niva refused to stop her in her tracks. “This is for you, Master. I must free you from her diabolical clutches.”  

“No! It’s not like that. Primrose—” 

She had this stupid grin, but that all changed when just one foot crossed the threshold. A dozen vines from my forearms burst forth and aimed at Primrose’s legs. 

“[Razor Wind!]” Primrose raised a hand as sharp blades of air cut through my vines before they reached her.  

“You don’t have to chant? That’s fine,” I replied, letting loose another dozen vines from my arms.   

“Don’t do the same thing and expect things to be different! [Razor Wind!]” Oh, but things were different. Those invisible attacks sliced my vines, but these had the property of slime and just reconnected the moment her attack passed through. That gave me the opening I needed. Primrose screamed as my vines brought her to me, and I grabbed her scrawny fucking neck and squeezed tightly.  

“What the fuck? Your skin feels like wood? No, is it wood?” I asked myself quietly. 

Ultimately, the answer didn’t matter. 

Choking the air from her body, I rushed to the wall and slammed her head right through it.   

“GUH!” she cried out in pain. Niva was panicking and begging us to stop, but Sekh held her back.  

But I didn’t stop at just a single wall. I choked Primrose hard enough to crush that throat, but she wouldn’t die if the spirit core in her chest remained intact. She flew when I tossed her against the opposite wall, landing with a hard thud and coughing relentlessly to catch her breath.   

She looked fearful... 

She realized she fucked up. 

Bang! Bang! Bang!  

Three shots from Reina’s gun rang out in perfect unity, sending two through her eyes and one through her stomach. This wouldn’t kill her—it only drained her HP by about 30%, but she cried out and grasped at her head. Roots branched off from her legs and jabbed into the ground. Slowly, the hole in her abdomen started to close. She lifted her hands and used [Razor Wind] four more times, yet her aim was pitiful. My eyes perceived their movement in slow motion, allowing me to dodge under them as I retrieved my spear and whacked her across the head, shattering her chin.  

“Is that the best you can do? How pathetic, spirit. YOUR ATTACKS ARE SLOW!” I used the impact to spin around, cracking her a second time while knocking her to the ground. There was a definitive gap in her neck from where the skin had been chipped.  

So, it is wood. Wood colored to look like skin but shares the same texture as bark. It probably feels the same as the Eagle Yew. 

“Where’s that bravery? Where's that hearty fierceness? Where the fuck is it?! You’re still going to fucking betray me?!” I lifted her up with my vines and smashed her through the ceiling to the third floor, then slammed her back down, where my spear pieced her left breast, narrowly missing her core. Her endless cries affected Niva more than I thought, but I wasn’t done. Thick sap leaked from her injuries, and I rubbed her body in what I believed to be her blood. 

I slammed, threw, smashed, and crushed her limbs until she was just a torso and head. Her eyes had recovered, and they went big and wide when my left hand nurtured a glowing ball of orange flame.  

“Niva, Primrose is a failure. She doesn’t deserve to live. She isn’t even a draconic spirit. She is going to die because she intended to betray me, and you will summon another. Is that clear?” I didn’t mean to glare at Niva, but I was glad she couldn’t see the expression on my face. The room around us was almost totally destroyed, the only remaining furniture being the bed and a few desks here or there.  

It didn’t matter. Aetos would fix it. In fact, he started doing that a few seconds later.  

“NO! Mistress! Please, don’t kill her!! I—I'll take the blame! Punish me!” Niva begged. 

“That won’t happen. Primmy’s disrespected our Master and even tried to betray her,” Tilde noted. “That little birch is going to die. There isn’t anything you can do about it.”  

The fear... The utter fright in the idiot spirit’s eyes activated the predator hiding within me. She looked so helpless... Lying there like the leftovers she was.  

What did wood taste like? Would she have a flavor? Since she was a spirit, I needed to assimilate the core, right?  

I crouched beside her and smiled, touching the flaming sphere to the bottom of her torso and inhaling the delicious smoke while her cries were music to my ears.  

“AAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!! IT BURNS!!!!!!! IT HURTS!!!!!!!!!!!! STOP IT!!!!! STOOOOOPPPPPPPPP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”  

“Hmm... You’re damn right it does...” I licked my lips and jabbed a hand into her chest cavity. It sprouted off a second hand to rip a literal hole to reveal a shining brown jewel. It pulsed like a heart, and it beat even quicker with each passing second while I drooled at the power a woodland spirit would give me. I was already part slime, so would my genetic makeup alter itself to be part spirit? 

Wait, does that mean I’m part plant? Because of the draingi? 

“MISTRESS!!!! PLEASE, DON’T DO IT!!!!!” I turned to Niva and saw her struggling against Sekh’s hold. I knew a fragile, meek girl like herself couldn’t break free, so Sekh purposely let go. Crying out, Niva slammed into the hard floor and navigated around the damage using Primrose’s screams as a source.  

She eventually crawled to her spirit and blocked her open chest with her body. I didn’t think she knew that was where her core was. It was just a spot of dumb luck.  

“Move.”  

“Please, don’t do it! Mistress—” 

This rage I felt... It knew no bounds. I summoned and gripped Reina’s pistol hard enough to nearly crack it. Slowly, I aimed it with my finger off the trigger and pointed right at Niva’s head. “I’m not going to repeat it. Move.” 

“I... I can’t let you kill her!” 

I shot two bullets into the ceiling. “She’s a failure! She was going to betray us! Just summon something better next time! THAT’S ALL YOU HAVE TO DO! IT'S NOT THAT FUCKING HARD, NIVA!” 

Failure... Just summon something better... Shit... SHIT!!! SHIT!!! SHIT!!!!!! SHIT!!!!!!!!! SHIT!!!!!!!! SHIT!!!!!!!!!! FUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

“But... But there probably won’t be a next time!!! Primrose’s the first one to answer me in three years!!!! Please, Mistress... Don’t do it...” She turned her head to my voice, allowing me to see her tears... 

Tears that I caused... 

Tears that came from my behavior... 

Niva whined and tensed up, then begged again, and again, and again, using her petite body to save the life of her spirit. Realizing my foolish nature, I stored my weapon and demanded an explanation, bloodlust still visible in my eyes while I forcibly turned my Wrath to 0 to enter a better state of mind. 

What the fuck is wrong with me...? 

---

Niva was born 23 years ago to an impoverished family in Barbil, a frigid, freezing country to the far north. The only other point further north was the tip of the Kidonia Kingdom, located on the continent which housed the Cridian Empire.   

Her life was simple, if a bit painful, since there was never enough food. But her large family of a dozen brothers and sisters somehow made it work. The only consolation was that it became more hospitable in the summers when you could last more than a few hours without a jacket.     

In her poverty-stricken village, Niva wasn’t ostracized for her hermaphroditic appearance—not by her family or neighbors. But upon her sixteenth birthday, she began to experience vision loss. For a family with very little food, affording medicine to help reverse her mono-eye degradation was an impossibility. It would cost about five years’ worth of saving if they sold everything they harvested from the frosted fields they were forced to farm. Her parents tried to ask the local baron, yet he refused to hear them out. After endless begging, he allowed Niva’s mother into his mansion to profess her case, yet she was sent home with no money, no medicine, ripped clothing, and proof of abuse visible upon her lips and crotch. She refused to talk about what transpired, but it didn’t take a genius to read between the lines.   

With her mother sunk into a severe depression, Niva became the village’s social pariah because her disease meant she was a consumer, not a producer. Having someone blind toil the fields only resulted in damages the community couldn’t afford. Niva’s mother’s attempt to get her daughter the money for the medicine brought undue attention to the homestead.   

Two years later—when she was 18, Niva had resolved to die. She went out one night, intending to never return, but while lying on the soft, snowy underneath the starry night sky, she felt a presence by her side. Unable to see this mysterious entity, she did nothing but listen to its words of grandiose wonder for the future she couldn’t understand.   

With just a fraction of its great power, it granted the self-destructive Niva [Mana Language] and {Summoning Magic: Spirit]. This allowed her to perceive the words of this great being that only spoke with the mighty power that made up the skills and magic of this world.   

Yet understanding its language only confused the young Niva even more, and the entity left as quickly as it appeared. As she laid there contemplating what had happened in her loneliness, a squad of warriors approached and stole her away under the moonlit sky.   

Within days, Niva was marked, enslaved, and sold off to the highest bidder, who demanded she summon a spirit. The specter of flame that answered her call had its spirit core destroyed before it even had a chance to greet its summoner because it wasn’t what her owner wanted. After a recovery period of six months, she was chained and forced to summon again, and the events played out like a broken record. Only this time, a water nymph answered her call. The sparkling source of power resting in its forehead was pilfered and shattered, bringing another end to a spirit that didn’t need to die.   

All because Niva’s Master was unhappy with the strength of the spirit summoned. Instead of giving her a third chance, he sold Niva to another family to recoup his losses. This was where Niva was adopted by a noble family residing in Dirge's capital city. She was added to the family registry and given the last name of Mesalitos, yet her fate hadn’t changed a bit. She suffered through six more summoning sessions until her 22nd year of living. And while the first three were successful, the incoming spirits had their cores instantly destroyed because they were weak. For the following three tries, no spirits answered Niva’s call. However, the Mesalitos family did not see fit to punish Niva. She was spared the rod while not yet a part of their family. Still, it was the first time Niva felt something barely resembling familial acceptance since her vision started to degrade.  But it was still abuse because they never spoke to her. She was forced to live in a room on the other side of the Mesalitos estate with no verbal communication. The Mesalitos family made it clear Niva was a mere tool without any rights as a person. She was property-- plain and simple. One that had a bed and food, but someone without free will, whose only task was to summon when she was ready. 

It seemed spirits residing in this world and the realm of spirits refused to answer her call. What use was a spirit mage who could not summon? When Holy Lord Gloria visited the Mesalitos family, she saw some use in Niva as a ‘shield’ after mistakenly learning of her existence and used her authority to claim ownership over the half-breed.   

Not even eight months later, Holy Lord Gloria performed the ritual to call Soul Warriors from another world. Niva was given to Noelia to act as a damage sponge since Holy Lord Gloria decreed that was Niva’s only use in this life since her status as a summoner was less than a toddler.   

But as the immaterial power of time rolled by, fate decided to play a strange card and introduced Niva to a 0-Star Soul Warrior turned chimera. The blind girl who had no more faith in the world was slowly introduced to hope after losing all sense of individualism.   

Through the pain...   

Through the rape...   

Through the abuse...   

Through the dozens of attempts to treat her like she was some object without any sense of self-worth...   

Niva somehow survived-- holding on to a speck of hope that was infinitesimally small to the point where even the girl blessed by divine flames of wrath would find it hard to hang on.   

Her name was Niva, and she would defy fate and become powerful enough to stand as equal with the Transcendent Dark Lord.