The party was at a thrilling gallop, racing through the plains at the heart of the Royal Alliance's territory. Joana was leading the group, her red hair waving behind her in a thick braid and her round glasses holding for dear life onto her freckled face. "Hey, we'll be stopping at the town of Lamar for the night so keep up!" Joana yelled, her piercing green eyes straining to see the outline of the town in the distance. "Wait a second! You can't just leave me here! My horse is too slow!!!" Tina whined, Her striking blonde hair behind her in a ponytail as she struggled to see in front of her with her blue-ish grey eyes. "Hahaha! Well, I can't blame this little beauty for being a little slow. I'm a pretty big guy, after all." Carlos said, his loud voice cutting through Tina's whining. He was a big guy, tall with broad shoulders. He had light-brown skin with short, black hair and greyish-green eyes. "Can't say the same for this awesome guy! He's faster than both of yours combined and there's two of us!" Lucy said, trying to stir up a fight as usual. She was in front of Hanna and Hanna was reaching around her to grab the reigns of the horse. Lucy's medium-length brown hair was tied back into a bun and her amber eyes were focused on Carlos specifically. Hanna just laughed, her red and black hair staying out becasue it was cut into a manageable bob. "Guys, we should just go." Raine said, her red eyes scanning her surroundings. She had pale skin with her curly black hair in a ponytail behind her.
The group was riding on the horses that were given to them by the people of Eltra, the last village they were in. Joana's horse was a strong stallion, white with a long, orange mane, Tina's horse was a lazy albino mare, Carlos's horse was a gigantic snowcapped chestnut stallion, Lucy & Hanna's horse was a gray horse dotted with black and a silky black mane, and Raine's horse was a pure black mare. "Hey, how did you learn to ride a horse?" Tina said, moving towards Raine. "I was taught by my mother when I was eight. Then after she passed my father would occasionally teach me how to ride horses and other beasts." Raine said, petting her horse. "You were taught when you were eight?! Wait- then what else did your father teach you?" Tina asked, intrigued. "He taught me how to fight enemies and how to subjugate unruly servants." Raine said. "You knew how to fight? Why did you seem so helpless when we found you in the orc's lair then?" Carlos asked, also interested in the conversation. "I promised my mother that I would never use the things I was taught by my father on humans. I don't want to break that promise." Raine said somberly.
"Wait… You said subjugating servants??? What do you mean by that? Were you in a palace or something?" Lucy said, joining the conversation as well. "Oh, I must have neglected to mention that I am the daughter of the Dark Lord. I guess you all call him the Demon Lord." Raine said. "What?!?! You… You're the demon lord's daughter?!" Everyone said simultaneously. Even Joana was listening into the conversation at this point. "I was, but he probably has more Demon Lord candidates since I was a failure." Raine said bitterly. "A failure? What do you mean?" Carlos asked. "I wasn't able to prove how much I wanted to protect our people. With the war happening, I was tasked with using my training to destroy people. I would, but I can't help but to think about my mom and what she taught me…" Raine said, looking down defeatedly. "You don't want to kill. I get you, that's the reason I became a healer. It's completely normal and you don't have to feel ashamed, alright?" Tina said, looking at Raine.
"Hey, we're almost at the town! Raine, remember to put on your hood to keep your eyes and ears hidden." Joana said, pointing to the entrance of the town. "Um… Raine doesn't have the Royal Knightage badge, does she?" Lucy said, sighing. "... No, she doesn't. Hanna, Lucy, and Raine, go to the Knight Hall and get Nadia for me. I'll go get all of us our rooms and then I'll go to the Knight Hall so I can talk to her." Joana said, tossing them a map of the town. "Oh, okay. Let's go, Raine!" Lucy said, bracing herself for the horse's gallop. Raine, Lucy, and Hanna all went ahead of the group and got in the line that was going into the town. "This place seems pretty popular. As expected of the city, though." Raine said, smiling as she looked at all of the people shuffling into the town. "What was it like in… well… the other capital?" Lucy asked. "It was a terrible place for almost everyone… My father only cared about sentient beings like demons, elves, dwarves, and dragons. Even then, he only cared about the able bodied ones. He usually resented our people and just desperately wanted to make them stronger using whatever means necessary." Raine said, clutching the reins of her horse as she remembered how her father taught her how to deal with pain.
"We can talk about this later. We're up next in line." Hanna said, looking at Raine's trembling hands. They got to the soldier and greeted him as they showed him their badges and explained to him that Raine was coming to this town with them to register as a Royal Knight. The soldier let them through and they made their way to the Knight Hall. "Hey, this place is really crowded so we should hold hands to stay together." Hanna said, sticking out her hands for Raine and Lucy to grab. They made their way to the "This place does remind me of the Kingdom's capital, though there aren't any unsavory people wanting to talk to me like in my old home." Raine said, smiling. "There are definitely people like that here, but there are also the knights like us who will stop that behavior immediately." Lucy said proudly. "That's a relief that I can actually stop people with my power. Still, I can't use my powers on people, it'd be too cruel." Raine said. "Inhumane? What do you mean?" Lucy asked. "My demonic arts are very different from my father's, since I never wanted to be sadistic like him. It takes quite a bit of energy and focus, but I can create soul spikes to impale the soul of living things. It will kill weak things immediately, but if it's a powerful creature than it'll only hurt it." Raine said.
"Soul spikes? What are those?" Lucy asked. "Spikes that don't affect the physical body. It's visible, but it only hurts your soul, so it won't impale the heart but the soul." Raine explained. "Okay, let's stop talking about this because we have to go inside the Knight's Hall and I don't want to get arrested today." Hanna said, opening the door and ushering them in. "Wow! This place is huge!" Raine said, looking around. "Let's go." Hanna going up to the counter. There was a woman who looked really bored at the counter. "Hey there! Can you bring us Ms. Nadia please?" Hanna said. "Alright. One moment, please." The woman at the counter said, getting up and going into the back. A woman with light brown hair and green eyes came out, greeting the three of them. "Welcome, valiant heroes! Did you come here for a new mission?" The woman said, smiling and leaning forward on the counter. "Actually, Nadia, we came to give this little lady a knight badge." Hanna said, pushing Raine in front of her. "A new member? That's great, just follow me to the back!" Nadia said, getting out from behind the counter and going to Raine. "Wait! A-Actually, Joana wanted to talk to you about something and I think you should hear her out before you go the test." Hanna said, grabbing Nadia's hand.
"A request from Joana? That should be interesting. I guess we'll wait until she gets here." Nadia said, leaning on the counter. Just then, Joana burst into the room. "Oh, she's already here! I'll go talk with her and you guys just wait here for me." Nadia said, going up to Joana. "Hello, Ms. Leader, how've you been?" Nadia asked, grabbing Joana's hand and leading her to a seat. "I've been well. What about you?" Joana asked, a twinge of a smile on her face. "I've been wonderful. What was it that you wanted to ask about?" Nadia asked. "You know that new member we have? Well… she's a… um… a hybrid…" Joana said, looking defeated. "Wait- Really?! How do we even access her? Couldn't she just use one of those fancy spells?" Nadia said, freaking out. "Calm down for a second. She's been with us for a while now so I need you to trust her." Joana said. "Trust her?! She a-" Nadia yelled, cut off by Joana putting her hand over her mouth to stop her. "You trust me, don't you? I mean, we're friends." Joana said, putting her hand on Nadia's shoulder. "... Yeah, I do… Even still, how am I supposed to test her." Nadia asked. "Just try to kill her. It'd be a good test to show her resolve." Joana said.
"What? So just try to kill your teammate?" Nadia asked, a little suprised. "Yeah, she can probably take it. Now go out and test her before people start getting suspicious." Joana said, pushing Nadia towards the Raine. "Um… C-Come with me for your test." Nadia stammered, walking to the back. There was a walled off field and a stage in the middle. "Is that my testing area?" Raine asked, looking at Nadia. "Yes, it is. You can take off your hood now." Nadia said as they were walking to the stage. Raine took off her hood, revealing her red eyes. Nadia looked at her as they climbed onto the stage. "Do you want to test in your current form?" Nadia asked, thinking back to a few books that said that hybrids had a human form and a demon form. Raine looked surprised, but then she thought about Nadia's talk with Joana and deduced that Joana talked about it. "I'll use this one." Raine said, going to one side of the stage. Nadia went to the other side. "I'm guessing we have to fight?" Raine asked. "Yes, we do. I don't want to waste any more time, so the fight starts now." Nadia said, getting into an offensive stance.
Nadia started the match off, using her sword like it weighed nothing and moving faster that Raine could keep up with. All raine could do was block as many attacks as she could. "C-Can I step out of this stage?!" Raine asked. "Yeah, that's allowed." Nadia said, briefly stopping her attacks. Raine nodded and quickly got off of the stage. Raine took her up on that offer, jumping off the stage and putting some distance between them. She thought about her options. She could use some basic magic on Nadia, though she's not very good at it, or she can face Nadia head on. She can't use demonic arts because of her promise to her mom. She decided that she should at least try to face her head on, so she got into an offensive position. Her wounds had almost healed up since she was focusing her attention on recovery. Now, even though she was still bleeding, she decided to put all her eggs in one basket. She focused on getting faster and strengthening her sword.
At this point, Raine is running away as Nadia pursues her. Nadia catches up in no time, using a technique called
Raine gritted her teeth, getting frustrated by the situation. She screamed, throwing as many attacks as she could at Nadia. At first, Nadia could dodge most of them but after a few seconds of nonstop attacks she couldn't dodge anymore. She tried to block the attacks and Raine sword, which was strengthened by her magic, simply cut through Nadia's. Without a weapon, Nadia put her hands up in defeat. She was shaking with fear since she wasn't sure if Raine was going to stop, but that snapped Raine out of her rage. She stopped her next attack right before it struck Nadia in the chest. Raine didn't notice, but at this point she had cuts all over her and her nose was bleeding. "Did I pass?" Raine asked, struggling to stay standing. "Yes, you passed. Now I guess I should get you to the infirmary." Nadia said, going up to Raine and helping her stay on her feet. "Just let me go to my party and I can rest in my room." Raine said, starting to walk to the Knight hall. "...Thanks for not using your magic." Nadia said quietly. "I couldn't even if I wanted to… I made a promise." Raine said.
They made it inside the Knight hall and Lucy took Raine to their rooms. This time, Raine had her own room. "I'll treat your wounds so that you can go to sleep." Lucy said, putting Raine on the bed and going back to her room. After a little while, Lucy came back with some alcohol and some gauze. "Just hold still, this'll hurt a little bit…" Lucy said, putting some alcohol on Raine's wounds and wrapping them. It took only a few minutes, which was actually really impressive since Raine's body was nearly covered in wounds. "Thanks. Good night, Lucy." Raine said, going under the covers of her bed to sleep. She quickly fell asleep, and the rest of the party followed suit.
The next morning was a hectic one, with everyone in the party rushing to go to their horses and continue their journey to the town of Oltara. At this point, Raine had a bit more energy and has decided to take her training seriously. "I have to get stronger… I could barely defend myself against Nadia…" Raine said, saddened and discouraged. "Raine, none of us can withstand Nadia's attacks. She's one of the strongest knights there is and she was even one of the captain candidates for the Royal Knights of the palace!" Tina said, trying to cheer Raine up. Raine smiled, gaining a little solace from that. "Thanks, Tina. I really appreciate it." Raine said, smiling at them. "Alright, let's get moving. We're going to be riding for a while and it's getting dark." Joana said, speeding up as she spotted the start of the foggy rainforest in the distance.