“… Saunte!” (Charge!)
“Ciene!” (Twist parry!)
With a single stomp, Father lunged forward with his burning rapier like a spearman charging forward on the back of a horse. In response, I twisted my ankles and used gravity to let myself fall before catching myself just before Father struck me, striking his rapier to the side, using my falling momentum to completely divert the strength he used for his lunge, leaving him completely open for a counterattack.
Stomping my feet to anchor myself, I used my superior agility to thrust my lightning rapier at his chest, but Father slammed his guard on my blade, using the bad defensive move to let his body fall to avoid the piercing strike, before stomping his feet and twisting his ankle, nearly landing a kick to my face if I hadn’t avoided it.
We both raised our blades when we returned to a neutral stance, clashing our blades before we took a step back, holding our weapons in a ready position.
“I am your memory of your real Father, daughter,” Father said. “You haven’t given up on those fond past times of ours, and that also means you still envision me as superior. You’ve gained a fear of disappointing me after a year of living with us, after you finally reached level 139. All those improvements, and you still couldn’t even land a scar on my bare arms.”
“The fencing techniques handed down by the Yok family were superior to what I learned in the military. Aside from your recommendation, I changed my sword weapon of choice due to this. I wanted to learn how you could attack so gracefully, while being such a menace to your opponents. You have so many different weapons, yet the rapier has always been your favorite,” I replied.
“Your halberd has always been your favorite. It survived, but your arming sword did not in favor of adapting to your new Yok family. Yet… you were horrendous when it came to learning it. In a way, your current voltaic red technique for your rapier is just a pale imitation of ‘Twehsa,’” he said before he lunged forward, forcing me to block, only to do a feint by lowering his body and twisting it, doing a horizontal slash, nearly disemboweling me. “… Twehsa.” (Stomach Feint)
I breathed out quickly, gulping down some spit as I realized Father was speaking the truth. This fake of his was as fast as the real one. From the look of it, in this dream world, our abilities seemed to be a perfect replica of the last state I remembered of each of us, however, just without the Divine System. This was a dreamland. While our stats were high, we didn’t really have our skills boosted and made simpler to use by the Divine System.
Which meant, for the first time, our levels and stats were pretty close. I could win this with my current stats, but technique was the issue.
“Pale imitation is harsh, even for you, fake Father,” I replied. “Twehsa is a swift feint. [Voltaic Red: Thunder Divider] is a sweeping strike with a concentrated beam of my lightning on its tip, made to create widespread damage with the intensity of [Voltaic Red: Thunderspeed Roar]. I took inspiration, since my fighting is different.”
“Hee told you to do so, right?”
“He taught me much, and even still after he became my apprentice! Saunte!”
I stomped the ground just like Father did to lunge forward, but unlike him, I used my smaller frame and my red lighting to jump into the air before stomping the ground, dashing to his back in an attempt to strike him in his blind spot.
Yet, Father knew my moves.
“Ciene.”
With grace, he twisted his ankles, but unlike me, he twirled his body instead of letting gravity take over. With precision, he dodged the attack by letting it go through his opening arm as he grabbed me, pulling me closer to trap my arm in his, locking my rapier in place. However, this left his rapier open to strike me, ready to strike my exposed side before I grabbed his arm in time. Being extra close to me had its disadvantages, and that was it made it harder to strike me, but easier for me to grab his limbs.
“I learned the Yok style as it was meant to be learned—with grace and unpredictability. Your version of the Yok fencing style is a complete adaptation. In fact, I would even call it a different school but with the same roots,” Father said with a wide smile.
“Mother hated it, but she couldn’t deny its usefulness to me. Grace didn’t matter to me—it never did—as I only wanted the practicality of the different moves. It always irked me that your ancestor had to act intelligent and boast to his peers by creating this school of technique by inventing ‘cool-sounding’ words for the different moves! That man was in his seventies when he documented it!” I complained. “Reading those manuals was impossible for any beginner.”
“Haha! ‘To stop the saunte of a foe, thy braveness is put to task with ciene as you must dodge at the moment of talliho,’ was the quote, yes?”
“Imp. Poss. Si. Ble!” I said, frowning. “Just words he shouted out as he performed his attacks. It was like a song for him, or a warcry.”
“Yet, you never gained any of them because you wanted to adapt the moves to your fighting style. You always wanted to become stronger, and you believed that if you made the techniques yours by fitting them to your body, that it would become better, but only for yourself. That is why you could never truly master the techniques.”
“Your children sucked at them as well. You never taught any of them the last few techniques needed to master everything.”
“You could have if you listened to me more. Do you regret it, Vifi?”
I bit my lips as I forced myself out of the armlock, almost too easily as if Father was trying to let me go, and got back into a neutral state.
“It could have been another memory of you… I can’t remember how you used them properly, so you can’t use them.”
Father smiled and giggled before we resumed our duel.
A clash of techniques and stats erupted in front of our mansion as Father attacked me with the single-minded command to kill me, or whatever this dream self of mine was. He might act and look like how Father always used to look when we sparred, which meant I had a clear idea of his tendencies. Yes, as he was a perfect replication of my last living memory of him, he had all the skills and experience to defeat me in this spar, even after I had gotten stronger, but so did I.
However, what made this different from usual was the fact, unlike me, Father had full access to his six weapons. Six floating lava arms materialized on his back, all but one forming one of his most preferred weapons. With his rapier in his hand, he also had access to a warhammer, a staff, a shield, a parrying dagger, and a crossbow.
Rapier, warhammer, staff, and crossbow… honestly, I might have inherited a bit too many weapons from my time with him. Only my halberd, which I have had since the first time I was able to conjure an elemental weapon, and my gauntlet differed from Father’s set of weapons. I didn’t take his parrying dagger since I didn’t care for the combination of rapier and dagger, as it was more suited for duels, while his shield was too defensive for me. I’d rather rely on my speed and mana magnetism to avoid damage, after all.
Well, I certainly wished I had a better secondary weapon, though. As I said, a rapier and parrying dagger were the perfect combination for the traditional Yok style fencing techniques, and they excelled in duels. My style focused on killing monsters and inflicting large-scale damage as befitted a traditional Warbringer apprentice. Even if Father didn’t fit that image, it was precisely due to his specialization that Lord Wrath accepted Father as his third Warbringer—a master of solo combat was ideal to defeat particularly strong warriors who had mastered imbuing their weapons with their aura, like that former imperial knight Hestia met in Gleisvale.
Yet, that same specialist failed and was slain in a solo combat. This was another lesson. Dueling wasn’t worth the risk, when ganging up on the enemy was far more effective. The only reason Hestia defeated me in Gleisvale was that she ganged up on me. Mhmm, I would have beaten up Hestia or Fargryneill if it had been a duel.
“Distracted? Against me?” Father slammed his hammer onto the ground before he unleashed a barrage of crossbow bolts, leading me around until he used [Saunte], almost cutting me if I hadn’t used my voltaic lightning to dodge it. “Your magnetism is easy to counter if one is precise with one’s spell cast. You cannot dodge forever, yet you know how to fight against it. Invoke your full lineage, wrath demonkin. Even in this dream, you still can’t envision yourself unleashing your emotions, daughter. There are no restrictions here for you; Satanael cannot stop a dream. Bring out all six weapons at once! What is this mental blockage?”
I don’t know either. I just can’t get them out. I thought I could when I challenged you. I thought, but kept my focus on the fight.
As mentioned, this was a dream. The Divine System had no command over a dreamland, but our memories had. If my Father had all his capabilities from the last memory I had of him, then I should also be able to pull out my powers before [Original Sin: Satanael] shackled my powers, yet why wasn’t I able to? My current body felt exactly like before my battle with the elementals, including that month of training and survival when I journeyed with that group of elementals.
Yet, why? This was supposed to be a dream, and it didn’t seem like the elemental emperor was able to restrict me completely. If they could, I wouldn’t be able to contend against Father. This seemed like to their advantage, but this was neutral ground. Father wasn’t randomly stronger, nor was I weakened, yet there was still a restriction—
“Tsk!” I groaned as I snapped my hand back, noticing a burning scar on my hand. The wound had already been cauterized. Father drew first blood in the most fencing way possible.
“Ethics means nothing in war. To us Warbringer, the honor is only gained if we can achieve victory for our country and Lord Wrath. We bring war, and we shall win for the sake of our kinsmen.”
“… And to do that, you always lace your weapons with venom.”
“Always.” He snapped back into a proper stance, ready to start again at any moment now. “A single scratch is all I need, and extracting that venom is difficult when my lava closes the wound immediately and agitates your body with the extra heat. The venom spreads fast, slaying the opponent before they can fight back. Like a snake—strike when needed, avoid when you do not. Exhaust health, mana, and stamina.”
Ahhh, I just couldn't get used to that style, even with my agility complementing it. At least in this dream, the venom isn’t too bad. I know I can’t be affected by it since I had [Abnormal Status Nullification].
“Remember?” Father smiled, putting me on edge. “Before you reentered the Twin-Elemental Lake? You looked miserable as bells after eight months of living with us, unable to yield any proper progress in mastering the Yok style. Your growth as a warrior was phenomenal, but our house’s techniques were something you couldn’t adapt to. Have you any idea how much your mother and I worried about it?”
“My siblings never made me forget it, so yes—”
“Saunte!” he lunged at me again and our battle continued, only this time, Father kept talking. As he said, he might look like an honorable fighter, but he never showed leniency to one of his opponents, and talking was one of his ways to agitate people. “You felt that pressure! To live up to the army standards of a Warbringer apprentice, as a commoner who became a member of the Yok family, and also to show the people who cared about you that their trust wasn’t misplaced. You wanted to make sure I wouldn’t regret my decision to take you in, so you asked her again. Your friend!”
“Former!”
“Jumi’Yal still was your friend at that time! You confided your shortcomings to her, asking her how you could improve! You relied on her! The two of you became friends despite the age gap, as she saw a worthy…” he paused as I could see a vein about to pop. He smiled as he saw this “—partner in you.”
“You know it was all fucking wrong!” I shouted as I transformed my rapier into my halberd and blasted Father away to gain a distance advantage. Holding and feeling the red lightning streaming through my fingers managed to soothe me. “Jumi… is a lustie. She has always been one. Even Lady Klea’Hatma likes to play with me. Both mean well somewhere, but neither make it easy to like them. I still don’t understand why Lady Klea’Hatma still leads me on about how she can solve my problem but isn’t willing to just give me a solution! I don’t understand the archdemon of lust, but I understand Jumi. She is a hedonist through and through!”
My halberd and his weapons clashed once again as I forgoed the Yok style for my own, self-honed fighting stances, utilizing my lightning and its magnetism to their fullest potential. Thunder rumbled in the dreamland as Father’s lava scorched everything, destroying the mansion, the garden, and everything else in our home. Our strikes exploded into ear-piercing sounds while our spells made the air shiver in fear.
A battle between two Warbringers without the direction of the System felt so liberating, but I didn’t know why I was feeling so remorseful about it. We were both sweating, we both drew each other’s blood, and we were crying out in laughter as our warlike nature as wrath demonkin came to the surface. No matter how elegant, graceful, and kind Father was, at the end of the day, we were demonkins.
All demonkin were slaves to their blood. To our sin.
Me, Father, Lord Wrath… even Jumi.
Huh?
Strangely, as Father’s weapons and mine struck each other, a bright flash appeared in the area of impact. It happened only for a moment, but to me, it felt like I was reliving my life. Shards of my memories were injected through my mind, making me relive everything as if my past was still being played before me just before I challenged Father.
The first of many was my memory of Jumi on the day Father was taunting me about. A few days before my leave to the Twin-Elemental Lake.
“… You can’t learn lust Abilities, Vifi. You know that; even if you had some lust blood in you, your wrath is purer,” Jumi told me as I begged her to train me on that day.
I frowned, looking at her as if I were speaking to a toddler. “… For the third time, I am not asking you to ‘train’ me like that. Marsven’s shadow, if things don’t interest you, you really are just the dumbest pink-haired in the neighbourhood, huh?”
Yup, close to a year, indeed. My speech was still rough, but it was all in proper order now.
“That’s Lady ‘Dumbest Pink-Hair’ to you, apprentice. You’re not a sin heir just yet, so I still outrank you.”
“Uh-huh, yeah, you really are. You’re over ten years older, and you act more like a kid. Maybe that’s the privilege of being a sin heir!” I argued, causing Jumi to laugh as if she was enjoying the fact that she was irritating me. Still, I took a deep breath and calmed myself down. “I’m not making any progress with the Yok style. My adoptive mother has been urging me to put in more effort. She’s pretty annoyed I can master the other skills of a sin heir of wrath apprentice has to learn, but the Yok style is completely ah-an-anthamena to me.”
“Anathema.”
“Whatever. You willing to help me?”
Jumi’s family style was fully focused on the application of the lust powers of her bloodline, instead of a fencing technique like mine. Since lusties could morph their blood into flesh, bones, and other grotesque bodily fluids, they didn’t need specific weapon styles to excel. They needed instinctual learning and experience against various forms, for lusties adapted their fighting style for every encounter. Unpredictable hedonists in peace, wildcard uncollared beasts in battle.
Ellaine doesn’t have this side of her that she needs to master the lust Abilities. She needs Lady Klea’Hatma’s influence during [Assimilation] to perform the feats needed to become a strong lust demonkin.
Yet, that was the exact style I thought I needed to become stronger. Adapting the Yok style to what I learned in my life was the solution to things, and I earnestly believed that would be how I would gain the family’s approval.
After Jumi’s help, I reentered the monster-infested area and ventured as deep as I could. I was also tasked by Lord Sloth and his assistant to also test their theory concerning my mutated organs, and that was to see if my powers would increase if I were to be affected by the different elemental storms or not. It didn’t work, even after I screamed to the sky as a lightning bolt struck me.
Regardless, I trained and leveled up, and when I returned on the anniversary of my being adopted, I thought I would come home with applause like the many soldiers who managed to return after an arduous campaign, but…
“Good work, Vifi. Your Father and siblings had to go on a campaign, so I will be the one to assess you. A fellow sin heir apprentice will test your might, so shall we?” Mother said. The home felt so cold and lonely without Father.
“But despite how well you performed, she rejected your style! You sealed it away!” Father said as his blade somehow felt heavier. That rapier of his was starting to overpower my halberd. “You erased any evidence of the Yok style from your Profile and developed the Voltaic Red style upon your third entry into the monster lands. You erased the ‘blood lightning’ nickname people had given you and forced the ‘Voltaic Red’ on yourself after what happened with my wife. The pressure of the family finally caught up to you, and you tried to distance yourself from that bond.”
Suddenly, smoke began to rise from the destroyed garden grounds, creating four shadowy silhouettes. Their appearances formed, widening my eyes when I learned they were my adoptive siblings and mother. They were all wielding their weapons, though not their demonic powers.
“However, even after betraying us, you can’t stop thinking of us. Have you been envious of Hestia and her family? Of how the dragoons have sworn their loyalty to the Nordor family and would defend their young mistress with even their life?” Father smirked.
“You are nothing, Rat! Remember that this is your place!” My eldest brother shouted.
“You have the Yok name, but you’re an embarrassment to us. You can’t even learn a single attack properly!” my second brother chastised.
“You dress and look like a tomboy… You stuff your mouth with food. I would have loved a younger sister, but you barely qualify as a guard,” my only sister scolded me, reminding me of those biting words during Father’s funeral.
“Vifi, I cannot say that I am proud of you, especially now that you decided to throw away everything about yourself with your defection,” Mother said as she pulled out a crossbow, her favorite weapon. “Even if you wish to help us, defection means death.”
How funny. My entire family was turning on me now… well, what could I have expected?
“Hraaah! Stop talking and just fight!” I shouted before charging forward, aiming at Mother to take her out first, only for my three siblings to protect her, buying enough time for Father to nearly graze me.
Father smirked as he continued his aggression, now with the assistance of the rest of the Yok family. “Talliho!” (Stab!)
Another clash of elemental weapons and another spark of my past memories.
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
“Vifi! I want you to become one of my sin heirs, all right?” Jumi pleaded, looking disastrous after crying two days after the death of the former Prince of Lust.
Her ritualistic sacrifice allowed the summoning of those otherworldly visitors from Earth, making Jumi the new Prince of Lust. However, even if she knew the reason, seeing her relative die in the fashion she did must have scarred her. I knew she didn’t mean whatever she said today, but…
“I made you, Vifi! I MADE YOU! I gave you all the opportunity that a damn rat like you would have never achieved by yourself! I gave you everything to survive the Twin-Elemental Lake, and you won’t even stand by my side? I don’t care if you’re not a lust! I want you with me, Vifi, please. You would have died all alone if I hadn’t reached my hand out to save you from the gutters!”
Our friendship ended.
“Vifi! Please! No, no, no—Don’t leave me, please! Don’t leave me all alone with this new role…”
… Though, did I really know Jumi at all? Maybe this was her real self.
“Hra!” I groaned as Father and my siblings pushed me back, forcing me to clap my feet together to repulse them with my magnetism. I needed some time to think, but both Father and Mother had crossbows and could cast magic, so nothing really changed.
… Though, a new memory flashed before me.
“We weren’t able to retrieve his remains, but we saw the conclusion of the duel,” an officer of the army reported as he visited our home, handing the message to Mother as she went pale with grief.
No… not this memory! Not this one—
“Lord Wrath’s third Warbringer, Oshul’Yok, has been slain by one of the Hands of Heaven. His sacrifice allowed us to strike a terrible onslaught on one of their resource bases, cripplying their material gain from the dungeon in that area. We managed to pilfer what was left behind. As a testament of his contribution in this battle, his share of the food and spoils are to be delivered to house Yok’s matriarch.”
No!
“Get out! Father is dead, so leave us already!” My eldest brother took the first chance he could to shoo me away.
“Nonsense! Regardless of his demise or not, the girl is now one of us. A Yok! You will treat your adoptive sister with the respect she deserves as a member of the aristocrat. This sort of behavior is unfit for the family’s future patriarch, and I did not teach you to act as such.” Mother defended me, but the look she gave me was anything but welcoming. “Vifi, go to Hee’Rlak. You must prepare to ascend to the status of Warbringer now that you have reached level 150. You must honor your father’s sacrifice. You must find his murderer!”
I had no choice. Two years of living with this family. The home was cold as heck, but the only warmth I would receive from them had died out like a flickering flame. We couldn’t even see his remains or ID. Only his rapier was recovered, but as it was part of the Yok family, it would be handed down to the next heir apparent.
My siblings squabbled for that right, even looking at me as a rival when I never had the ambition to become the matriarch. Yet, I still listened to them and made myself scarce by becoming the next Warbringer for Lord Wrath, as despite the fact that none of my remaining family wanted me, I still needed Mother’s approval so I could continue living in that mansion.
It was my prison, but it was also a luxury I had found hard to give up on. Father did everything to give me a home, and I didn’t want to waste his effort by throwing it away. Even if I was a Warbringer, sent to battlefields far away, at least I would have a home to come back to. At least that home would have people inside, even if they hated me.
A part of me wanted to never be alone again, nor survive on the scraps of things I stole.
“Yet, you gave it all up. Do you regret it, Vifi?” Father asked as his rapier finally found its mark, piercing my stomach, holding me down long enough for my siblings to do the same. “You wanted to show me this dream of yours. Why are you fighting for this dragon princess? I wonder if she can even bring us salvation at all, or if you gave up everything for a foolish thought.”
My first off-country mission was a failure, broken down by Aurora’s efforts. My second mission was another failure, destroyed by Hestia’s party and mother. I lost my ability to use Satanael and to raise my emotions above 15%, and I chose to bribe a foreign mercenary to keep my defection a secret by giving him my sin crystal. My defection forced me to live inside a human orphanage for a few weeks, before I had to run around, stealing and working as a mercenary to survive.
What the fuck had even changed about my life?
I guess… I was able to dream again. To remember that dream Father shared with me, before making it my own. That was a worthwhile exchange for all my failures, right?
“Do you regret it?” Father asked as he pierced his rapier deeper into my body, causing me to groan in pain as I felt something deep in me starting to be torn apart. Was this… my soul?
“You should regret it.”
“You betrayed us!”
“You threw us away!”
“You never think anything through!”
My “family” spat out insult upon insult as my siblings’ rapier’s dug even deeper into my body, eventually pinning me onto the ground. My lightning weapons dissipated as I felt a strong lethargy take me over. The venom shouldn’t be working, but it felt like the venom was real and affecting my dream self. The pain Father inflicted on me started to spread.
“Vifi, I feel you are regretting something,” Father said through the cacophony of repeating insults. “Living without regrets is difficult for even the most hardened warriors, but it is the duty of a Warbringer to settle those regrets before one walks into the battlefield. A tainted heart dulls the blade.”
“Urrghk!” The blade dug deeper into my body, sticking right through.
“Then, let’s reverse the question: do you believe I regretted everything?”
“Huh?” I froze in place, the pain disappeared as I felt numb to even my thoughts.
Did Father regret anything? Did he… regret taking me in? Wait, why am I even trying to think of these things? Father never regretted taking me in! He might be a Warbringer, but he never tried to be sly when it came to family.
“He never saw you as family. Only as a useful apprentice. Making you his daughter was his way to make it official.”
His inheritance to me was his knowledge. The only thing he could give me that none of my siblings could steal from me! A gift an urchin like me could never obtain alone.
“What nonsense. Two years would have been enough for him to have something commissioned, yet everything you owned was from that monster-infested area. You scavenged everything like a miserable raccoon. ‘Knowledge’ was all you needed and deserved.”
Yet, knowledge is what is needed as a Warbringer. To hone one’s blade with ignorance is foolish. He knew I could acquire everything from the Lakes. Armor, weapons, money; everything could be obtained there—
“You were simply his fail-safe to assure the Yok family didn’t descend into ruin with his biological children. Your eldest will inherit the title as house head, but you will be the rapier that will remind Bole’Taria that the Yok are still strong. You will sire a child and inherit the lightning onto your children, bringing a new age for the Yoks.”
I…
“You feared that outcome. You knew that would be your fate after Satanael crippled you. Either you would sire a child with the Yok’s name, or you would have your organs harvested so it could be studied. Either way, despite your failure, you would serve Bole’Taria well. This is why you chose to defect. You didn’t want this for yourself. You never truly converted to the dragon princess’s dream. You have always sought your own survival, nothing more. Once a rat, always a rat. Your refuge in the Yok mansion disappeared, so you sought freedom, only to shackle yourself down again with the dragon princess. Once a rat, always a rat.”
Yes, I am a damn rat, all right! I know that! I know that already… so, I have to leave—
“Isn’t it about time for you to give up, Vifi? Why not enjoy this moment of peace. You deserve a rest.”
Fight… come on, Vifi. Fight. Stand up… urgh, Marsven’s shadow, what is happening? I feel so—
“—the desert ♫
—bright— ♫
—brave—she walked ♫”
—drained. Huh?
“She—♫
—bringer—smiles ♫
—bleaker without her ♫”
Music. Instead of the noise of my memories trying to drown me in sorrow, the soft, gentle voice of a woman pierced right through everything, even garnering the attention of my fake family. They stopped their mockery as they looked up to the sky, tilting their heads in confusion as the music became louder.
“But all wounds—the tears ♫
—legacy remains—everybody to hear ♫
—wounds will heal, mourning—end ♫
—loss of a—♫”
Hestia. That’s your voice, no? Ahhh, it’s not that song I wanted to hear, but ‘The Heir of Hope’ is still so soothing to hear. It calms my [Fear], lowering its potency by quite a bit… hold on. Why am I hearing her voice here? Her damn songs can’t be part of my memories, right? I mean, sure, I hear them a lot, but it isn’t like—
“I must choose, down—♫
—condemn me ♫
—hypocrisy ♫
It’ll work itself out for now—♫
—(don’t try to appease everybody) ♫
Maybe I am—(sins stain—) ♫”
‘Burn all the Hatred Away.’ That’s the song Hestia randomly wrote when we met again in the Inkoran-Tazul. The lyrics are discombobulated, but the melody is just too similar to the original.
Upon my realization, the numbness around my body started to fade. The pain was coming back, to the point I felt that “draining” feeling again that I had just a moment ago. Not that fatigue-like state I was feeling right now, but the pain coursing through my inner core did feel like somebody was stabbing me. It felt like getting my blood drained with leeches, or siphoned by a tool for the alchemists to analyze or use.
Like a mosquito sucking blood to survive… yet why was I feeling this when these rapiers were piercing me? Why exactly did it feel like my soul was being damaged? What exactly was causing this immense lethargy that it was overriding my own survival instincts?
“Lost in all those fears— ♫
But—♫
Break free— ♫
What can my life— ♫
Burn all the hatred away ♫
Let them—I bring this wall down! ♫”
‘… Then kill her already. I have had enough of this play-believe. I shall dedicate more time to analyzing this Twin-Elemental Lake, so finish her off.’ That was what that elemental said. He is looking into my memories for Plesia’s mana. Mana… that same thing I provoked him about. He’s just like those alchemists! Trying to find a clue in Plesia’s mana lingering inside my heart and liver! He’s draining my damn mana!
“And I will always be that rat!” I shouted as lightning coursed through my manatech arm, forming a warhammer as I swung it around me, forcing my attackers to jump back unless they wanted to feel the wrath of this weapon!
“But my heart, I shiver to do the move ♫
Even though I know I must ♫
How could I forgive myself (stagnate in silence) ♫
But this path is filled with spikes (bear these sins like scars) ♫”
“I know, Hestia…” I nodded. This wasn’t a memory; this was her. “Lost in all those fears (what is right?!) ♫”
A voice that could penetrate souls and dreams. She was, after all, the one and only idol of Peolynca.
“But somebody has to— ♫”
“Break free, away from all this pain! ♫” I sang along with Hestia as I charged forward, slamming my hammer right into my sister’s hand. Without looking at her pained face, I smashed her head like a ball, causing her body to dissipate like smoke. “Yes, that man should regret something! Dying before he even finished teaching me the damn Yok style! Father, you ingrate; you made me into the person I am now, and you couldn’t even muster the damn strength to come back home to us! You were the only thing keeping all of us together, and you fucked off without a care! You should regret dying! That’s what you should do!”
Anger surged. My legs and lightning moved, dragging me along as my emotion awoke. It felt like a puppeteer was controlling my body while I was responsible for speaking the lines from a script.
My warhammer changed to a spear as I pierced my youngest brother, while I lunged at my eldest, pummeling him into bits before dodging to the side as a bolt was shot at me. My lightning reformed into a crossbow, rapidly firing multiple projectiles at Mother, only for Father to defend her.
My crossbow then transformed into a staff as I cast [Extreme Speed], raising my agility to the point that my voltaic lightning rush allowed me to outspeed even Father’s reaction. After a long chase, I finally reached Mother and stabbed her right into the heart with my rapier.
“… You should regret things too, Mother. Regret that I wanted to gain your approval as a warrior and daughter. Regret that you made me want to fit in, so I wouldn’t be tossed away like the urchins I grew up with. Regret that you made me soft.”
“Vifi…” Mother said as a death rattle as she dissipated like my siblings, returning the battlefield to how it was.
I took my fencing stance. “Give me back my mana that you stole.”
“Then you must defeat me… although, will—”
“You never fought me with all six arms, Father,” I said, remembering things more clearly now. “You showed me those six arms of yours, but we never fought. I don’t know how much stronger you are in that form, so that means that I am only imagining you as stronger as I have a reference in me. That’s okay then. Use whatever you need to, Father; right now, it is a two-on-one, anyways.”
“‘Two—’”
“My mind is breaking apart to think right, with those nightmares I see all night ♫
My mind is breaking apart to think right, with those nightmares I see all night ♫
(What’s right?) My mind is breaking apart to think right, with those nightmares I see all night ♫
(What’s right?) My mind is breaking apart to think right, with those nightmares I see all night ♫
Break free, away from all this pain ♫
What can my life do before it all ends ♫
Burn all the hatred away ♫
Let them all know when I bring this wall down! ♫”
“You versus me and my background noise!” I charged forward with [Saunte], performing it exactly like Father did without any adaptation or innovations—this was traditional, straightforward fencing. “Did you hear me? Do you regret those choices you made, Father?”
“W-why are you—”
“Because this is a Yok versus a Yok!” I said as I channeled a second rapier in my left hand, using it like a parrying dagger to deflect Father’s attacks to counter him. If this was my memory, then I knew every single move of his! “Regret it, damn you! Regret the fact that you made me a Yok! This is all your fault!”
“Krk!” Father parried my attack, but that puppeteering feeling still hadn’t disappeared. Without even needing to think, I continued my onslaught as I delivered my answers to him.
“Yes! I do regret things!” I shouted. “I regret the fact that you showed me what true love was! I regret the fact that I accepted you as my family, despite knowing what attachments would do to me! I’ve lost my comrades and friends, weeping over them when I learned of their demise, and you did it to me as well! You made me cry for your death, Father!”
Fear and sorrow were filling up my heart, balancing out my anger. My moves slowed down so I could perform each attack with the concentration and grace needed for it to be traditional. “The Yok style of fencing is also a way to meditate, to keep yourself from losing yourself to the roars of war. It helps you keep calm, and that is the best state to be in to fight with it,” was Father’s advice to me on mastering the fighting style.
“You made me excited to live! You made me wish to eat good food, creating an opening that those Donuts and fluffy bread used to bring me to their side. You gave me a dream to think about, and let me build my own. You gave me purpose beyond just survival!” I yelled as my senses sharpened. “You made me… feel like I deserve to exist.”
I wanted to stay here with Father, I really did. I wanted to return to the time I had with him, even if it meant abandoning Aurora. I wanted my old life back. I was a damn rat for thinking like this, but I, too, was just a person. The guilt was just making me feel more excited.
Anger, fear, and excitement. I felt all three emotions growing inside my mind and chest, making my heart beat so fast I couldn’t control myself from wanting to continue this fight, until I finally stabbed Father right in the chest. The moment I did, the damage he had caused to my soul instantly vanished. My soul felt whole again.
“Hrrk! Hrraah!” Father roared as he slammed his warhammer onto the ground, forcing me to clap my hands, sending Father flying away from me. The distance was long for both of us to launch range attacks unperturbed for a moment.
However… I felt whole again. This play-fighting had to end.
Red lightning surged around my body as my demonic features appeared, while my six arms came into existence for the first time since I lost them. I raised my rapier in the air as I gathered electricity on its tip. “… Those were the words I always wanted to tell you, Father. You died far away, and your body couldn’t be retrieved. I didn’t want to talk to an empty coffin, so I held my words. So, thank you, Elemental Emperor. You allowed me to free my heart of these words. Thank you, Father, for adopting me. However, I have to say goodbye to you now, because the future is more valuable to us children.”
“No.” Father suddenly took an unknown stance I had never seen before, readying his rapier by lowering his waist. “I should be the one to thank you for growing up to be an exceptional Warbringer.”
“What is that?” I asked, confused as I felt magma concentrate on the blade of his rapier.
“Vifi, you lied to yourself. It isn’t that you have never seen me use one of the last few techniques of the Yok style, it is because you can’t remember the one I showed you,” he said. “During our first meeting, when I drew my warhammer, your emotions all surged to their max out of instinct. I fought your berserker self, and… thanks to this world, your subconsciousness managed to dig something up.”
Huh?
“I am not your Father. I am that elemental’s creation to sap your mana over time, but… I enjoyed my time here, so let me, this insignificant mana creation, show you a goodbye gift. Vifi, I enjoyed playing your father in this dream. It was a story worthy for a fae to witness!”
A fae?
“And use it to free our Ice Elemental King!” Father said. “Yet, I must abide by their order and kill you! Will you survive and rescue our Ice Elemental King?”
I clicked my tongue, concentrating on the lightning. “By my honor as Vifi of the house of Yok! I shall make the dreams of Aurora come true, so that I might bring mine to a realization! For the prosperity of Bole’Taria. To create a future for its children! Witness me, oh, Father! Even if her hand is brightened by the Goddess of Light, it shall be her voice that will wake us up from our nightmare!”
“Break free, away from all this pain ♫
What can my life do before it all ends ♫
Burn all the hatred away ♫
Let them all know when I bring this wall down! ♫”
“[Yok Lava Style: Saunte Accelo]!”
“[Voltaic Red: Thunder Divider]!”
Like a cascading lava river, Father charged at me as lava covered his entire right arm, turning it into something like a massive spear or harpoon. He was faster than I thought as I twirled my body like “Twehsa” and slashed horizontally, as his blade reached mine before I could release my blade of lightning.
Our elemental weapons clashed one last time, but I was ready for something like this. I grabbed onto the blade of my rapier, half-swording the thin blade to bash Father on the head with the handle of my weapon. As he flinched, I returned to my fencing stance and lunged forward.
[Saunte Element]—the name of the technique flashed before my eyes as flashes of my first encounter with Father returned from the depths of my mind. I couldn’t remember everything, but being able to watch my false Father perform the move allowed me to understand what the move was supposed to do. After all, this was a technique made for wrathies, so it was obvious there had to be techniques that involved our elements.
So the last few techniques involved using our elements to imbue our attacks? Then, wouldn’t my [Voltaic Red] techniques be exactly that? Mother? Why? Why didn’t you accept them then?
“I dub this! Voltaic Red: Saunte Blitz!”
As Father was recovering from being hit, my right arm turned into a red lightning spear larger than myself. I stomped the air and used my voltaic lightning to shoot me forward like a sling, as I struck my Father one last time, with his smile engraved in my mind. My vision blurred as only the sound of thunder stimulated my senses, and the moment it disappeared, so did this dream world start to vanish.
I turned around, seeing the body of my Father dissipate until it revealed his true form—a small blue floating light. It was a faefolk, a lesser fae to be exact. If Tasianna’s description was accurate, then I had the feeling who I had been talking to all this time was one of the three nymphs who served the previous Ice Elemental King. If the other fake members of my family had a similar situation, then it seemed the Elemental Emperor had used the fae to torment me.
I gripped my hands as I began to understand what was going on.
Elemental emperor, you are no god of the fae. If you use them like sacrificial pawns, then you are more Edjurl than the Origin Gods. You will not ascend to godhood. Not while your power belongs to my mistress!
“By my honor, I, Vifi of the house Yok, shall pry out your core and the amulet that rightfully belongs to Princess Hestia Atsuko Kargryxmor!” I stated. “As such… Tasianna! Tasianna! Your past mistress is none other than one of the fae inside the glacial peak! He used one of the nymphs for this sick plan of his! Do not let—”
Unfortunately, before I could say anything, my vision blurred until it was all dark.
My eyes shut open as I was launched outside of the body of a slime, feeling the sting of the cold slice into my face.
“Vifi!”
I knew that wasn’t a memory.
“Hestia!” I shouted, unable to locate where my allies were, but I knew it was time for us to fight back! “Your Warbringer hungers for your order!”
Demi-god or god, it didn’t matter. The moment you decided to mess with Frozen Nest, you were doomed to fail.
Pay for your arrogance and sins with your demise.