It was a sunny morning when a young boy stepped out from a van in his new gear. His new long-sleeve chain mail was designed to provide sufficient protection without adding unnecessary. The brown leather vest wrapped on top to enhance said protection. If there were anything he could complain, it would be the pant that might be too skintight for his taste. Rem bent over to ensure his new silver studded leather boot clicked into place. It was.
With the flipped of his hand, Remus Breaker quickly wrapped a belt equipped with an array of throwing knives over his waist and put on a white face-plate covering his eyes.
"Someone certainly looked like a video game character," The badger commented wryly from the sidewalk. "Are you trying to be the final boss's henchman?"
"Yes," Rem said humorlessly, as he fastened a white cape over his shoulder and shook his head dejectedly. "I was indeed the general in the demon lord's army. Despite my crime, the hero had accepted me as her comrade. To think that a monster like me deserves to be forgiven, all my pitiful self can do is atone as her secretary...how tragic."
"Is this some kind of a joke?" Scathach viewed Rem as if she was looking at a mad man.
Then she heard the clanking of metal.
Cytortia came toward us dressed the green metal breastplate, helmet and grieves. A sword hung by her yellow leather belt and a laurel headgear was adorned majestically on her blonde hair. She had an oversized shield behind her back for extra hero point.
"Ahoy, my gallant comrade!" Our goddess proclaims heroically. "The elf lord was asking for our audience, and we are duty bound to 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 while smiling smugly. "The demon lord had threatened to invade our realm! Our initial offensive had failed. You are our only hope to repel this great evil! Please save us, Hero!"
Rem could have sworn Scathach's jaw was hitting the floor.
Cytortia humbly knelt.
"Of course," she said in a manly 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.
"How did this happen?" She screamed loud enough that her voice reached the expanse of outer space. "When did this world become Dragon Quest!"
...
Earth was not the first planet to join Phantasia.
It was unknown which was the first race to be assimilated into Phantasia. 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 did agree on one thing.
After the gods, it was the elves who trump the rest in term of antiquity.
The Northland of the Elves was equal in size to the Earth's surface area. Politically speaking, few clans administered this massive woodland superpower. Supplying this forest nation was a massive mana-imbued underground water-network. It was a network so extensive that more than 60% of it remained unexplored.
Their closeness to this mystical water gifted the elves with a natural affinity for water and nature magic. This affinity was reflected in their culture. For four times annually, the elves celebrated the gift of water and life for the end of every season. A massive party celebrating the spirit was held every start of the new year by the ruling clans, celebrating their generosity and hereditary gift in familiar-art.
The elves' capital of Lightwell epitomized this spiritual way. The staunched magically enhanced wooden gate and walls were guarded not by the system of man but by familiar and spirit. The city was an interconnected grove of magical Cedars with distinct colors ranging between red, white and brown. Each tree was inseparably connected by a network of water bridges and canals operated by the forest's natural magic. At its epicenter was the Paradise of Light. A historic garden housing a gigantic ancestral tree, The Evergreen, with a height surpassing one kilometer scraping the very heaven itself. The root of these trees covered the Paradise of Light providing relaxing refuge for both young and old elves alike.
That was how the gang founded themselves in a wooden home. Inside a spacious cedar abode and greeted by the elderly elf-lord. Warm meal steaming on the table and neatly arranged forest good enticed was a welcoming sign indeed.
...
In that room of cedar's wood, Cytortia, still dress in hero's armor, waved her hand over Scathach's blank face; checking for any reaction.
Doctor Cy turned toward her audience.
"I think she shut down," Cytortia said with concern. "Uncle Avar, I think the practical joke kinda go too far. Rem, do you have any idea how to cure her?"
"Toss her into River Tiber," Rem sat down on the table and drank 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 started pouring Rem another glass. "It was from my orchard, saved especially for a special occasion like this. Little Cy was often too busy to visit these days.."
The elf pulled out an intricately carved wooden chair and sat next to Rem.
"Never think I would live to see the warrior maid lose her mind." The elf said amusingly. "I might not survive this, but I won't regret it."
Rem nodded pouring the elf a glass of cider as a fellow member of the death-seeking clan.
"Truth to be told, the stress had not been kind to her this week," Cytortia commented. She promptly left Scathach's mindless body and joined the rest in sipping the steaming stew.
After a gracious amount of time of eating and chirping squirrel, the conversation resumed.
"How do you know Elder Avar anyway, Cytortia?" Rem asked.
Cytortia blushed her cheek bulging with apple. "It was quite a story."
"Yes, indeed," Avar said, reminiscing about that particular hour with a faraway expression. "A few years ago daughter poisoned with a lethal toxin. The poison would kill her in three days, and I couldn't find anyone to treat it. Luckily, lady Cytotia was there. Who would have thought that an eleven year's old goddess was actually an S-Rank Alchemist studying under the queen of heaven herself?"
Rem sipped his cider. It appeared the goddess had an incredibly hidden dept under the useless veneered. Maybe she was hiding...
The goddess blushed and tried not to face him.
Scratch that she was useless in almost everything aside from Alchemy.
Avar continued his tale.
"You see, I was not always a good man. When my daughter was within an inch of death. I beg heaven itself for someone, anyone, who could just save her. I am ready to do anything. Who would know that a tiny, little goddess would come up to ask me why I am crying?"
"It wasn't much. I just do the right thing." said the bashful voice of Cytortia
"Most people won't, doing the right thing is incredibly difficult" Avar gave her a reassuring smile. "Yet, you didn't hesitate. Do you know we actually threw a quiet celebration last year when you became an S-Rank Alchemist?"
Rem gave a small pure smile of understanding. Inside that world 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. "If it was the other Heavenly Daughters, they will demand a steep price for that boon. You idiot didn't ask anything but a meal or fresh produce. I don't know why you burn that opportunity for nothing."
Rem's eyebrows ticked. Someone needed to beat some dream into the Badger's reality-obsessed mind.
"I don't know Scathach," Rem said biting into an apple and looked at Scathach with intent for murder. "I don't think exploiting that opportunity will help do anything when the world enemy invaded, or more importantly when a certain all-benevolent deity got ticked off enough to sack your faction so hard she gave you a PTSD."
Scathach went pale and decided that shutting up and avoided pissing the all-powerful Satholia was an excellent life choice.
With Scathach remarked, Rem mentally put the other Heavenly Daughter on the enemy list. But before he got them, he needed to 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. He seemed to age several years in a few seconds. The elderly elf rubbed his chin in contemplation and sighed.
"Exile Lightning...indeed, this is a truly fitting name for her..." He said, slumping into the chair.
"Truth to be told, that moment was not my proudest," Avar poured himself a cider and down to chase away his depression. His shoulder suddenly grew dragged and tired. "Before she left to join Lady Artio, my daughter had asked me to adopt that girl but I couldn't. The Drakokia was already looking for an excuse to control Lightwell, and taking her in as part of the Avar Clan would cause too much disturbance. The best I could do was simply discourage my peers from a more...lethal approach."
Scathath dropped her fork.
"The Drakokia want her dead?" Scathach said in shock. "Who or what would make them go that far?"
"Are you honor bound not to disclose her existence?" Rem asked. His tone was silent and contemplating.
Scathach shivered. She knew Rem for only a week. The boy's imagination was the stuff of nightmares. Getting him to start contemplating, was a sign to run for the hill.
"Technically, we had been forced to take an oath not to lend her any aid," Avar admitted, but a sheepish smirk managed to sneak past the exhaustion. "But if she finds aid by coincidence, it wouldn't be count as helping."
Scathach and Rem smiled. Those two really love 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 said family's friend chose to do with this information was 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 or not this was a good idea.
"I will pretend I didn't heat that," Avar replied, fed up with living. "Do you ever heard of the Drakokia clan?"
"One of, if not, the most powerful house in Lightwell council," Scathach answered. "Most of their clansmen excel in ice and nature magic. They are also ridiculously good with familiars. Their most powerful ancestor and matriarch was a priestess in the Isle of Prophecy. That was quite a feat if I may say so."
"Yes, that would be it," Avar nodded. "Originally the clan was supposed to be inherited by the eldest daughter Luxinna Drakokia but her awakening, pardon my word, was regarded as a terrible omen."
"How bad could it be?" asked the disbelieved Scathach. "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? But... you guys are terrified of lightning!"
"Yes, lightning," Avar dreadfully stated. "Our water can't block it. That element is rampaging magic that annihilated nature. Our spirit magic and familiars can't withstand its intensity. Even those of us the dabbles with Alchemy cowers beneath lightning, fires just can't hold a torch to such violence. That terrifying element was indeed the bane of the elves. Can you believe one of our children would be born with such an all-destroying beast? Even I wouldn't believe it until I'd see with my own eyes."
Avar sighed.
"It was as if Luxinna Drakokia was a delivered as a punishment for her father, Lucian. You see, Lucian was brutal and ambitious. He aimed to expand the Drakokia clan's influence across Phantasia. Ever since I had known him, Lucian only lost his composure twice. First when he returns from the Forbidden Zone defeated, and the second time was the moment Luxinna's awaken with lighting aptitude. The jewel of the clan was all but disowned that day."
"Your daughter took pity on her." Rem said emotionlessly.
Cytortia could hear an echo of wishes 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 struggled to bury his hatred and drown himself in the nothingness to protect his ideal.
Avar answered that boy.
"Eva and Luxinna are an old friend. Those two were practically sisters. Alas, things only get worse. It happened three years ago when Luxina's younger sister, Magnolia, reached the age to be awakened."
"They got a better heir." Rem confirmed without anger but a disappointment.
"Ice, wind and nature," Avar nodded. "Even among elves, to have an aptitude for three different magic was incredible. It took less than a day for 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 out of into the wild and never to return upon pain of death."
Rem nodded accepting the result. This wasn't a total loss in his point of view.
However, that acceptance did not apply to Cytortia. She was not disappointed. Seething was undoubtedly a better term to accurately describe her now.
"It is not your fault! You did the best you could?" Cytortia said gritting her teeth and 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. "It signifies heaven intolerance of injustice. What do you think Scathach?"
Scathach spent some time thinking deeply before started saying anything.
"How high is her magic when awaken?" Scathach's eyes open up. "Are there other noticeable stat?"
"290," Avar said. "Her dexterity is 295, which was absurd even among the elves."
"Incredible," Scathach whispered dangerously. "What the hell got into Lucian Drakokia's head?"
The badger shook from regret, rage, and disbelieve. Knowing Scathach, Rem and Cytortia dreadfully expected that they needed to stop the furries' mass-murdering session soon.
"What do you mean Scathach?" asked Cytortia. She didn't remember seeing the badger getting this angry before.
"Luxinna Drakokia was practically a demi-god," Scathach clenched her teeth in outrage. "Her dexterity and magic was top class among the elves. This complimented absurdly well with her lightning magic. Under my training, even Tie Hua would be hard pressed to scratch her."
Scathach exploded in rage.
"What the fuck is wrong with the Drakokia? They gave birth to a golden goose, and tossed it away into the wild! She would be the best diamond I would ever get to train, and her fucking family threw away like trash. Are they insulting me?! Disrespecting a natural resource like this is unforgivable!"
She grabbed Rem and Cytortia and dragged them to the door like a doll.
"Err..." Rem said, trying to resist getting dragged. "What do I got to do with this?"
"My arm!" Cytortia cried as her body slid ungracefully across the floor. "It is coming out of its 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 senior should!"
Just as they finished talking, a maid rushed into the room.
"Elder Avar." The maid bowed. "Lord Artos Sevar and Lady Magnolia were right outside. Lord Lucian was 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 worse cheaters I have ever known and likely the most vengeful. So listen to me. I want them humiliated. And I don't simply mean losing face. I want history to note down this idiotic clan as the biggest idiot in the multiverse. Do you have a plan?"
Rem smirked insidiously and started whispering conspiratorially. Rem might accept the cruelty, but that didn't mean he wasn't piss-off. That calmness was just a veneer to insulate the heat of anger.
Cytortia heard the entire plan. She nodded and stood up regally for the first time in the known memory.
"Lord Avar please told them to come."