novelnext Signs of awakening
Signs of awakening
("Slowly... Goldie will help.")At the exact same instant Goldie’s invisible seams were sealing the fate of the warriors of Ky'lar...
"I found it."
... And while Silver defied the ontological laws of stone just a few meters away.
"But don't you think it’s a waste to waste all that energy in the palm of your hand, Raina...?"
At the center of the forest clearing illuminated by the twin moons, an androgynous figure with silver hair waving in the wind stood completely absorbed in a screen.
"I mean, why don't you try and shape it into some kind of weapon!"
Mireya, his eyes fixed on the constant flickering of the handheld console, remained submerged in his own bastion of absolute denial, deliberately ignoring the subtle changes that were beginning to brew in the very structure of the air.
"You know, like for example... Mmm... Let's see... A spear... or maybe an axe?"
His voice, soft and melodious, broke the tense calm of the surroundings with an almost absurd banality.
"Eh... Combine both?"
For him... No, rather for the stability of his own psyche, the truth was terrifying and something he was still incapable of accepting.
"You're right that it needs a name!"
His mind had deceived itself, had fragmented, and had dissociated...
"Am I able to think of a name for the weapon?"
He had forgotten who he was. What his name was. Who his parents were, and even what his gender was.
"What is a good name for a halberd... Mmmgh...?"
However... did he really forget... or perhaps...?
"Aaaahh! What name would be appropriate in this case?!"
At that moment, he was focused on fleeing from the truth, burying it time and time again beneath an ocean of a fear he couldn't even remember.
"Let's see, it’s a halberd... So... A mythical name... maybe some language that falls into that category...?"
And because of that, Mireya, absorbed in his console, continued interacting with the character of "Raina," totally oblivious to the gigantic anomaly that, invisibly and silently, was beginning to loom from the most remote borders of the forest.
"I’ve got it...!"
Without any of those present at that time and place noticing, a colossal dome, woven from a dense and oppressive amalgam of spiritual and natural energy, rose toward the starry sky, expanding like a microscopic net that devoured the internal space, restricting magical laws and subtly mitigating the capabilities of any entity considered "anomalous" inside it.
"Achoo!"
In parallel to this, a certain fairy reacted.
"Mmm...? Oh, sorry for the interruption... How do you like the name {KATA-STROPHÉ EUDOKIA} for the weapon!!"
But unfortunately, at that moment, the reaction was faint, so as a result, Mireya merely tilted his head, feeling a slight vibration in his lap.
"... Sniff... Sniff-snif... Eh...?"
There, Flora, the little flower fairy, began to manifest the first symptoms of metaphysical rejection.
"What's wrong?"
Being a hybrid existence born from the assimilation of the Natural Spirit Queen's core, she was deeply bound to natural energy, causing her delicate organism to react immediately to the pressure of the invisible barrier closing in on the place.
"It itches..."
Due to her origin, Flora was in her own right the legitimate princess of the Spirits, having been born from the core of an avatar of the Spirit Queen herself, granting her a perception of natural energy currents infinitely superior to all else, which in turn caused her to manifest the symptoms before anyone else.
"... Sniff... Mphm... It irritates me."
However, due to both her youth and the intricate complexity of the barrier, coupled with her own inexperience and immaturity, the result was that she was incapable of understanding what was happening.
"I itch!"
Instead of identifying the threat, her spiritual body translated the environmental pressure as a sudden and insufferable allergy, triggering an intense itching in her little wings and an annoying discomfort.
"Ah, hold on a moment, Flora, I'm a bit busy."
Therefore, without anyone being aware, the first layer of the barrier sealed with absolutely no opposition.
"Fly, fly, fly, fly high!"
Consequently, the little spirit princess began to flail and grow restless in the young man's lap, buzzing with increasing annoyance, unable to understand the cause of her own discomfort.
"... Hey, brother... Isn't he doing something incredible...?" (Whispering)
Nevertheless, Yuriel, whose bicolor eyes immediately caught the fairy's sudden restlessness, reacted with a promptness born of pure desperation to please him. Fearing that Flora’s erratic movements might break her master's precious concentration and spoil his moment of mental escapism with the console, she stretched out her fingers with utmost delicacy.
"Achoo-Mphm~!"
Thanks to that, she gently pinched the small creature's nose just before it could draw breath to sneeze once more.
"... Shut up and keep going with the massage." (Whispering)
In turn, catching the silent signal from his brother-in-arms in parallel, the other priestess, Helena, pressed her lips together and immediately increased the pace and firmness of the massage on Mireya’s shoulders.
"Kyaaa... out of nowhere it got better?!"
Her hands moved with a hypnotic and steady cadence, applying the exact amount of pressure to ensure the young man's attention remained completely scattered across the graphics on the screen, keeping him in his blissful ignorance while the space around them continued to contract.
Nevertheless, despite Yuriel's millimeter efforts to seal the small spirit princess's airways, the situation took a drastic turn.
"I can't stand it!"
Right at that instant, the complex structure of the invisible barrier enveloping the forest executed a silent transition, manifesting its second layer of spiritual compression.
"¡¿?!"
"What?!" (Murmur)
The density of the metaphysical air doubled all at once, sending a vibrating shockwave that no one else was capable of perceiving, triggering a violent reaction in Flora, who, unable to cope with the violent allergic reaction...
(ACHOO—BOOOOOOM!!!)
... sneezed, causing an explosion.
(Fliiiiii-shhhhhh...!)
Directly after, breaking free from the grip, Flora began to flail in the air, fluttering in erratic and chaotic trajectories around the two priestesses.
(Fliiiiii-shhhhhh... sssss-fuuuuuu...!)
In parallel to that action, with every frenetic beat of her translucent little wings, a dense and glowing mist of golden pollen drifted down in concentric cascades, floating with an ethereal lightness before touching the damp earth.
(Mmm-shuuu... clink-clink...!)
The particles hung suspended and glowing, breathing a grotesque and instantaneous vitality into the soil under the influence of the second layer, causing the flora of the clearing to surge and mutate aberrantly in the blink of an eye.
(Crac-crac... sss-hiss... gzzzt!)
And immediately, roots as thick as tree trunks twisted like prehistoric snakes, tearing through the earth's crust as colossal, festering buds opened with a fleshy hiss.
"... Hey, brother... No... What do we do now, chief?!" (Murmur)
From the dense undergrowth emerged dozens of nightmare carnivorous plants, their maws bristling with keratin thorns and dripping highly corrosive gastric fluids that devoured the grass.
(Fwaaa-shhh... swisssss...!)
In turn, the mutated flowers unfurled petals sharp as pitchfork blades that, in a deceptively peaceful swaying, launched into a coordinated attack, stretching with murderous intent toward both of them, while Mireya...
"...." (Cold sweat)
Remained suspiciously immersed in his screen.
"Perfect, he still hasn't noticed!" (Murmur)
"Seriously?!" (Murmur)
Therefore, in response, the ancient villains inhabiting the princesses' bodies instantly acted under pressure, moving in a choreography of silent violence executed with the coldness of two specters of war.
"As expected of the chief!" (Murmur)
In this way, Helena was the first to react, and extending her left hand with fingers rigidly arched, she released a burst of high-density wind magic.
(Shas—Fwoooooooo!)
As a result, the airflow did not expand but instead concentrated into a spherical, acoustic barrier of absolute vacuum that enveloped Mireya’s immediate perimeter.
(Fwush-ssss-ZRAKK-ssss-Fwush)
In turn, the cyclonic currents cut the threads of reality, completely isolating the outside sound.
(Wouff-shhh-TK-TK-TK-shhh-Wouff)
(Zuu-ssss-CHAK-CHAK-ssss-Zuu)
(Khhh-vrrr-SHRAK-vrrr-Khhh)
In this way, the external noise became partially isolated while, at the center of the hurricane...
".... There's a pleasant breeze... Yes... Very pleasant..."
... Mireya stubbornly remained in mental denial.
"Good... Now that we don't need so much silence..."
However, at the same time, Yuriel reached beneath the folds of her sacred garments and, with a fluid motion that defied inertia, drew a hidden, colossal axe whose dark metal seemed to absorb the dim light of the twin moons.
"I'm going to turn those plants into decoration!!"
Originally, the souls of Ubel and Desmos, which now moved the bodies of both princesses of the now-fallen Valerius Empire, were extremely weak by the human standards of the world of Ky'lar.
(CLEAV—SPLASH!!)
However, fate had granted them a twisted fortune by allowing them to seize the biological bodies of the princesses of the fallen Valerius Empire.
(KRA-KRA-KRA-TA!!)
Those bodies not only possessed physical and intellectual talent developed to the very limit of human genius, but by harboring their souls within them, the villains immediately inherited the mana channels, spatial reflexes, and muscle memory of warrior royalty.
"It's impressive, chief!!"
But the true evolutionary leap stemmed from the hell of their training.
"I won't lag behind either!"
First, they suffered the ruthless mental and physical "conditioning" by Echidna, like a baptism where they experienced a restructuring of their limits that forced them to break through their power ceilings as their minds were "molded" to become worthy vessels.
(Vriii-FUSH-PRRAK-FUSH-vriii~!)
And just when they thought they had reached the pinnacle upon being released after knowing the "light," they fell into Melioris's clutches, experiencing an even worse indoctrination just for being deemed interesting.
"Damn everything, I'm never going back to that place!!"
Having been pushed time and again to the brink of death, experiencing the dissolution of consciousness only to be dragged back to life, their capabilities had increased exponentially.
(ZING—ZASH!!)
They had become so familiar with the princesses' anatomy that they now controlled every single atom of their musculature with divine precision.
"Well said, chief!!"
Because of that, what followed was a massacre where they cruelly vented all their frustrations, pains, and traumas on every monster they caught in their peripheral vision.
(PLAF—PLAF—PLAF!!)
Yuriel moved like a translucent exhalation, wielding her axe which became a blur of silver and dark lines that sliced through the necks of the carnivorous plants with surgical ease as they went flying, spewing dark sap, before the ground could even register the weight of her footsteps.
(Sssss-fiiit-ZAK-fiiit-sssss)
Meanwhile, by her side, Helena coordinated her wind spells not to push, but to concentrate the pressure into invisible threads as thin as a hair, slicing the mutated roots into perfect cross-sections.
(Fwiiii-ssst-CHIK-ssst-fwiiii)
And even when a cluster of arrow-flowers lunged from her blind flank, Helena, with a twist of her hips unbefitting of a priestess and showcasing the superhuman reflexes of the Valerius Empire, projected a thrust of vacuum that disintegrated the biological offensive into microscopic particles.
"..."
All of this was happening mere millimeters from Mireya’s back, who simply remained silent, focusing his gaze on the console.
(ssss-shhhh...)
Meanwhile, the petals continued to drift on a peaceful draft of wind as the priestesses' bodies moved with a frenetic cadence, resembling a ballistic dance of slashes, compression magic, and the decapitation of botanical monsters.
(VIUUU-shhh-CRUNCH-shluck-PFFF-splech!)
The axes rose and fell, the shearing winds whistled, and the enemy biomass piled up in a pool of mass destruction, but due to the acoustic isolation and the absolute speed of their movements, Mireya’s domestic bubble remained intact.
"I wonder how my life turned out like this...?"
... Or at least, so it seemed.