Chapter 1 – End Of Three
A sight that was normally impossible to see.
The soul.
It wobbled, it jiggled. It was the core of a life.
Kind of shaped like an egg, a disc, then a wide oval. In truth calling this a soul wouldn’t be entirely correct. In actuality, it was the shell of a soul. That was ready to house a freshly cleansed or a newly created Soul.
This shell in particular was also an ordinary shell. Supposed to welcome a common immature soul.
But as they say, accidents happen and, anything that can go wrong will go wrong, eventually anyway. Nearly nothing is truly impossible after all.
Then in the quiet whispers of the void, three wisps of light emerged within the shell’s empty space. One bloody red, another an extremely light pink–boarding on white–and the last one a simple grey.
The sparkling light of all three quickly faded. Becoming dim, as the three lights swirled around. Resting. Sleeping.
Accidents can create the greatest of wonders.
But for the time being this wonder will stay quiet until its–their–moment to shine again.
On a large open battlefield under the dry sun, two armies faced each other, each ready for the other to make the first move.
One side wearing two styles of matching sophisticated silver or black knightly armour while the other…
“Damn this isn’t exactly how I planned my end to be,” said a tall woman with medium-length red hair and blood-red eyes to match. Wearing mostly normal but unrestrictive clothes with small bits of metal covering the vitals and hardened leather over other key points.
Her bloody grin widened, “But it could be worse.” Scars covered her large muscles and sharp face. Behind her stood an army of men and women who did wear noticeably more armour than her, but each individual’s setup was still very personalised.
No one expected that one minor noble hiring some mercenary for a scuffle would eventually end up with the entirety of two countries' military force versus the small army of a couple of minor nobles and basically, every mercenary they could hire–which accounted for 97.63% of mercenaries on the continent. For a group of small nobles, they sure were rich.
“Okay listen up!” She looked around to see the small combat force that remained. It had been over two years of constant combat which shaved down the mercenary unit numbers. But that hadn’t been the biggest factor in the mercenary unit's current lack of numbers.
“If you're doing this for money, you better leave cause you won’t be living much longer!”
Thanks to multiple surprise attacks during the night and extremely immoral actions–poisoning large sections of farming, fishing, rivers and agricultural land along with all the people who lived upon them–to name a few of many. Large chunks of the mercenary force had been annihilated.
“But to be honest... The ones who were doing this just for the money are long dead.” She laughed and so did the rest of the ragtag military force.
Her two large long swords ignited in flames, “Now! Let’s dine on their blood in hell!”
“““YAR!””” The crops cheered.
The final battle of the two-year conflict ended with no prisoners and a pile of corpses on the floor. The combined Keter-United Force was left with less than 50% of its initial force. The records made by the battlekeepers of the time stated–‘We lost so many of our forces due to the fact our combined army simply wasn’t used to working together’.
But the subsequent lack of capable personnel to defend the borders from monster invasions told a different story.
Within the pristine main church of the Nevald Kingdom. A white-cloaked figure spoke to one of the current female saints.
“Eliana Alinastar Bright Shinelight, you have been given an appointed task.”
The saint opened her light pale pink eyes and replied, “Understood, may the light shine upon you.”
Wearing a modified version of the ordinary white nun outfit of the church, with a connected cloak–that had a hole for her long white hair–and golden symbols adorned on both, an indication of the status she hated.
Eliana Alinastar Bright Shinelight was given the mission to help cure the sick and injured within the small town of Cobble–a town placed near the demon’s border.
“Lady saint.” A village woman walked up and welcomed her into the village. “Thank you for coming to our lowly village.”
She said with a fake smile plastered across her face, “Tis fine. It’s my duty.”
Eliana went to each villager and used her moonlight healing magic. However, as the saint continued her work, a screech echoed throughout the village, “Ereeeeeeeeee!”
A creature made of black bones connected and stitched together by a dark red tar. A monster had emerged.
The villagers panicked and screamed, “Arghh!” With one adding “Please save us, lady saint!”
Eliana Alinastar Bright Shinelight mumbled, “There are twenty more behind the tree line, walking forward now.”
This many monsters should’ve been easily tracked by the church long before they sent her here. Thinking about the situation, she knew she couldn’t defeat two monsters let alone ten times that.
“Everyone, this is my one and only order.” A soft white light appeared in her hands. She thought it would be at least correct to keep doing her job until the end, “Run to Nevalest. And never stop running.”
…
Five days later a causality report was finally written.
Causality report–‘
Deaths: Saint Eliana Alinastar Bright Shinelight and sixteen cobble villages out of the nineteen who lived in the village.
Details: The village was destroyed. May saint Eliana Alinastar Bright Shinelight rest in peace and guardian spirit protect us in our crusade against the evils that took her’.
…
Impaled through the stomach and her body rapidly decaying, she sighed in a hopeful tone. “I’ll see the rest of thou in hell soon.”
In an old rundown lab on the outside ring of the highly populated city of Aeverlast.
“Seventh failure…” Her vision faded in and out–her grey eyes unknowingly flashed amber in frustration–but she still was plenty awake. Her potions made sure of that. But another failure meant more money had to be spent on materials.
Dirt, muck and stains covered every part of her body. Her brown hair and grey eyes had no semblance of life remaining–neither did anything else in her tiny one-room house/lab.
Ever since her talent was revealed her path in life was set–well it should’ve been set. No one could have known her talent had few ‘flaws’. Too deep into her role now and scared to try anything else, she tried and tried, practised and practised, trying to increase her skills enough that she wouldn’t be labelled an absolute failure–just a normal failure.
She flopped back onto the single-seated chair–which was also used as a bed–in the corner of her room. She wondered, “When was the last time I ate?”
She gestured with her index finger and her cupboard door opened, revealing nothing inside.
“Ah… that sucks.” She sighed, “Maybe I can beg Lady Emily for another apple…”
Eventually, she passed out.
One month later. A group of collectors who came to pick up the batch of potions that hadn’t been delivered arrived and found her dried-up corpse rotting away.
“George, look! It’s a beautiful baby girl.” The wife lifted her newborn up to show her husband.
“Be careful!” Noticing his voice was a little too loud and terrified he might harm the baby with the noise, he proceeded to slap his mouth shut. “Carefully… with her…” he whispered.
“Don’t worry.” The wife laughed with tears of joy, “Sweet child, may you grow up strong.”
Two years later the child finally received its name–Anna.
MiniMidi· Oct 1, 2023
Bobple· Author · Oct 1, 2023
