Six years ago.
Alya brandished her wooden sword. She hit the training log.
"Again!" Her mother exclaimed, "Keep your legs steady!"
Alya swung her sword again. Paw! She hit hard the training log.
"Did you notice that the blow was stronger?"
Alya nodded.
She was only eleven years old, but she was already being trained by one of the best female swordsmen in the world: her own mother. Days and days of non-stop training. Alya was determined to make her mother and her father proud.
Pah! She hit the training log.
"Mom…," the girl spoke.
"Yes?"
"What does it mean to be a knight?"
Her mother was thoughtful. She looked at the horizon and then at the girl:
"Being a knight means protecting the weak."
'Protect the weak...'
"Remember, Alya," her mother added, "if you are strong, you have an obligation to protect those who need to be protected."
Those words filled her with motivation. Her mother was an honorable woman, strong and unbeatable. She had an imposing bearing. She never wore a skirt. Her clothing looked more like a man's than a woman's. That's why people criticized her. But she didn't care. She was still wearing pants and a t-shirt.
Alya liked that. She loved that her mother was so sure of herself.
Alya gripped the handle of her wooden sword tightly. She thought of her father, he was an honorable knight.
"I shall be the best knight," the girl affirmed, and she flung herself forward to slash at the wooden log.
In the present.
Alya looked at her Treasure. A pendant with a small green sphere. She received it days ago. An eon called her: the feathered dragon of wind. When Alya received the dragon's call she wanted to plunge the sword into her stomach. That was the worst thing that had ever happened to her.
Alya had become a marked one. She became what she hated the most.
And the worst thing was that there was no alternative. Or she accepted the mission of the eon, or she would end up as a spectre. Wandering the world, suffering in pain for all eternity, until someone decided to put her out of her misery.
Now, the village was under attack.
Igneous could no longer transform. The soldiers were massacred. They were surrounded. She was going to die soon. Unless…
'Dammit…'
What other choice did she have? She needed the power. Her hands and legs trembled.
A sentinel's eye gleamed, about to fire at Igneous.
'Remember, Alya, if you are strong, you have an obligation to protect those who need to be protected,' she recalled her mother's words.
Alya squeezed her Treasure between her fingers. She took a deep breath and replied:
"I accept."
Fush! A fleeting green glow. Alya's clothes were shredded and green armor materialized on her skin. Or well, pieces of armor.
She had bracers, breastplate, shoulder pads, greaves, and knee pads.
The helmet was something special. It didn't cover the top of her skull, but the sides, the back, her forehead, and jaw.
[ ALYA – WIND USER
ATK: 180
DEF: 150
MAGIC-120
SPEED: 200
STAMINE: 500 ]
Alya gripped the hilt of her sword tightly. Her clothes gave way to her armor, but despite her transformation, her sword did not leave her.
"What?" The blue-haired woman exclaimed, "You said you were not a marked one!"
Igneous' eyes were wide open and his jaw dropped.
"Breeze…"
'Do not call me that.'
Sentinels flung themselves at Alya. She waved her sword around like a hand fan and a gust of wind blew the metal spheres into the air.
Alya nodded.
"Wind discs!" She yelled waving her sword around.
Fush! She shot out half a dozen compressed air discs, impacting and destroying the sentinels' glass eyes. The machines collapsed, inert.
"Wind discs!"
Fush! Fush! Fush! Pucks of air flew everywhere. Sentinels fell one after another. Fush! Fush! Fush!
The metal centipede lunged at Alya, but she easily evaded it. Then the giant sentinel whipped its tail like a whip, but the girl was too quick. She dodged each attack nonchalantly.
'Interesting…'
Alya nodded and jumped over the metal centipede.
"Quick burst!"
Fush! The girl fell like a tornado on the giant machine. Pieces of metal flew everywhere. The centipede collapsed.
[ VICTORY! RAKNA POINTS EARNED: 16]
"NOOOOO!" The blue-haired woman's scream was heartbreaking, "NOOOOOOOOOO! MY BABIES!"
Alya looked one way, then the other. Not a single sentinel was left standing. Just smoke and ashes.
"NOOOOO! MY BABIES!" The woman did not stop with her tantrum.
Poof! Alya's armor disintegrated and she saw herself in her usual clothes.
"That was incredible!" Igneous exclaimed, with a twinkle in his eyes.
Alya wanted to smile at him.
"This will not stay like this!" The woman yelled, before running off and getting lost in the woods.
Zenda walked over to Alya and looked at her seriously.
"Why didn't you say so?" He asked.
"What thing?"
"Don't play the fool. Why didn't you say you were a marked one?"
Alya lowered her head, as if embarrassed.
"Because I disgusted myself."
"Did you always have those powers?"
"No. I accepted them minutes ago."
"You did it to save us…," the old man said.
Alya nodded slowly.
"I was in danger, too," the girl reminded him.
The girl looked at what was left of the town. Pure ashes, smoke and debris. Poor demons, they had lost their homes.
She then saw the corpses of the soldiers who gave their lives to protect them all.
"I'm so sorry," the girl muttered.
"Thank you," Zenda replied, "but they knew what awaited them if they agreed to be soldiers. They gave life gladly. With courage and honor. That was their destiny."
Zenda grabbed Alya's hand. The girl was startled; she didn't expect that.
"Thank you," the old man told her, with kind eyes.
The girl blushed and nodded.