Inyaki opened his domain and let the goddess in. A being with skin as dark as a void appeared, she had armor covering her chest and her private parts but was bare everywhere else. If Inyaki was human, he would have found her entrancing.
She also had a veil on, and her hair was a rumbling dark cloud. As she walked, she seemed to be close and far at the same time with every step she took, the Goddess of Mysteries was an expert at manipulating space. She was also the creator of the Forsaken Lands.
"God of… Origins." She spoke with a voice that couldn't be assigned to any specific gender or species, "A new god that appeared out of nowhere, you are full of mysteries."
"That means you already know how I came here." Inyaki said. The titles of the gods weren't just titles, they were their jurisdiction. If new life was created the Goddess of Life would be the first to know, and when they die the God of Death would sense it. As the God of Origins, Inyaki knew the origins of a lot of things and would know more as he grew stronger, even if it was a name that he gave himself.
His coming to this world was full of mystery, so the Goddess of Mysteries should know when and how he came there.
"Actually, I know when you came but not how, I assumed it was the Maker who assigned you to this world." She shrugged.
The Maker, Inyaki had a mild understanding of it. He knew it created and looked after the universe he was in, he knew it created the Spiritual Mist, which makes the gods different from normal beings. Apart from Inyaki, every god in the universe were created through the imagination of intelligent life forms. There were a lot of things born in the Imagination Void, and the more the intelligent beings believe in their imagination the more concrete it would be. And when gods are born they are assigned to the planet of the beings that thought them up.
That's why the power levels of gods differ, even when they were born. If people imagined a god that is able to destroy everything with a thought, that god would be more powerful that the god imagined to be able to speed up the growth of crops.
That was why Inyaki was not scared of the Goddess of Mysteries, she was imagined as cunning, intelligent, cryptic and obscure, and while he was not created by the Imagination Void, his followers believed he could do anything.
"So, what do you want?" Inyaki asked.
"Hmm, don't you think it's rude to take someone's things without permission?"
"I want the Forsaken Lands, can I have it?"
"Well, its too late now." She chuckled, she walked around him and even though she seemed to be everywhere yet nowhere at once, Inyaki could pinpoint exactly where she was.
"That place was my playground, you know?" She whined.
"I know you don't use it anymore." Inyaki rolled his eyes. The origin of the Forsaken Lands and its inhabitants was a peculiar one. The Goddess of Mysteries carved out a piece of land from the earth, then gave birth to a bunch of weird creatures. Gods can't really create life in the Mortal Realm, but they can tweak the appearance and compositions of beings that already exist there.
She shrouded the whole lands with twisted and refracted space, watched the creatures interact for a few decades, then got bored.
"So, you want to build your religion over my playground?" She asked.
"No. If possible, I want to spread my influence to the whole world."
She giggled in a voice that sounded like cracking glass, "Then be prepared to be disturbed very often."
"So, what do you want?" Inyaki was getting tired of her being in his realm.
"Battle." She said plainly.
Inyaki shook his head, "Gods can't fight each other, it would cause a catastrophe on the world." Plus, in the aftermath the justice gods would want to punish them while the chaos gods would want to protect them, which would cause a Gods War, which would cause the apocalypse.
"Don't worry, I have a way for us fight without consequences." She waved her hand. Inyaki could feel something coming close to his realm, so he checked to see what it was.
"You brought your realm here?" Inyaki scoffed in shock.
"Yes." She said like it was no big deal. She stopped her realm before it touched his and clapped her hands, "There would be two battles, first would be through our projections, and the second would be through our followers." She jiggled her shoulder, "I may not be one of the popular gods, but I have followers here and there, enough to deal with yours."
"And why are you doing this? Are you that angry that I took something of yours without permission? I assumed it was of no importance to you."
"Don't give me that crap." Her hair rumbled, "I'll be dammed if I let some newbie god boss me around. You want something of mine? Let's see if you have the power to take it." The she disappeared back to her realm.
Inyaki made an arena in the middle of both realms and kept a projection there, the Goddess of Mysteries projection came a few seconds after. Inyaki was actually looking forward to see how he would fare against another god.
'A newbie god with intermediate power level versus an intermediate god with beginner level prestige, this should be interesting.'
…
"Ugh, why did we have to take such a long time to leave!"
Jasmine and Damon were in a carriage, and not just a normal carriage either, it was a carriage fit for a noble, with two beautiful white horses drawing it. Daman was well dressed and sitting in the coachmen's seat, while Jasmine was in the carriage, dressed in a stuffy heavy gown, white stockings, pearl necklace with earrings to match, and dainty shoes. Damon had even had someone do her makeup. She looked just like a noble lady.
"Well, did you expect us to just go to the Transport Station and request to use their Teleportation Formation in commoner clothes? How would you have explained where we got the money to pay for something like that?" Damon asked. "Not to mention, we are fugitives now, and I bet Viscount Victor already sent people to look for us. We needed disguises."
"Whatever, I can't wait until we're out of this country so I can lose the heavy dress. It's making me sweat all over!" Jasmine grumbled.
"Use the fan I bought you!"
"Hmph!" Jasmine brough out the fan and waved it in front of her face. "Say, Damon, how do you even know drive a carriage?"
"I've done this before." Damon replied.
"I've known you all my life and I've never seen you even ride a horse."
"You didn't know me all your life."
"Yes I do, you were around when I was born. We've lived in the same neighborhood till now." Jasmine said.
"I came to the neighborhood the year you were born, I lived elsewhere before that."
"I know that," Jasmine said, "So that's where you learned how to drive a carriage?"
"Yes."
"Well, you can't blame me for not knowing, you don't tell me about your past! Why don't you?"
"Because, I don't like to talk about it." Damon pronounced every word clearly to emphasize his seriousness.
Jasmine knew then not to pry anymore, "Whatever." She said and looked out the window, at the Trasport Station. The station didn't have a gate or fence, but there were a lot of guards, there were rumors that say because the king puts upmost importance to the Trasport Stations there were knights in charge at every station.
The was a bit of traffic in the lane they were taking since it was the lane for those who want to teleport with carriages, very often, Jasmine would see a bright flash of light and a low hum when then Teleportation Formation was activated. Soon, they were the third carriage in line, Damon told her to get ready. They had been practicing how they would present themselves for a week, and it was almost showtime.
After the two carriages in front of them were teleported to their destinations, it was their turn. The security checked their tickets before checking the carriage. Jasmine didn't panic when the guard looked at her, she was sure that the heavy makeup had altered her face, even if Laker was standing there he wouldn't be able to tell who she was. She gave the guards an impatient look she copied off a snotty rich brat.
When they thoroughly searched the carriage and saw that they weren't carrying contraband of any kind, only dresses, they finally let them ride unto the formation. Although she had heard of the Teleportation Formation, Jasmine had never seen it, but she was acting like a rich lady so she could only subtly look at it. The entire formation was drawn in a circle, there were four pole-like staffs forming a square around it. Four sorcerers dressed in robes held the poles and started chanting, the gems on the poles slowly glowed red.
Jasmine tightly grabbed her dress as she forced herself to sit still. If they weren't running away she would have jumped out of the carriage.
Soon, the chanting reached a crescendo, the red light glowed even brighter. Then the gems shot beams of lights unto the formation, Jasmine couldn't stop herself from leaning her head close to the window to check what happened. The formation itself started glowing red, the air around them started getting hazy, like on a very sunny day.
"Stop, I want to get out–!"
Before Jasminne finish her sentence a red light swallowed them. For a split second, she didn't know what happened. There were still at the Transport Station, but she noticed that the guards and the sorcerers where different from before.
"We're here, Ma'am!" She heard Damon say, probably for her benefit.
She cleared her throat and answered, "Well, what are you waiting for? Drive, I don't want to be late for my appointment!"
The guards ushered them out of the formation circle, when they were out of earshot Damon laughed, "You were scared, weren't you?"
"No, I wasn't!" Jasmine said indignantly.
"You were totally scared!"
Jasmine huffed but decided not to reply. She tugged of the dress and began changing into her normal attire, Damon was humming a tune as he drove away from the Trasport Station. They both were focused on the journey ahead and didn't notice the carriage slowly following them.
…
Heather and her team had been following the target for a while. The Viscount Victor had hired their mercenary team to retrieve his gold back from the thieves who stole them, and also bring them back for punishment. But from what she could see, some of his gold had already been spent, so he'll have to make do with the culprits and the remaining gold coins.
When she got the request, she had thought that it would be very hard to find them, even with the portraits. But luck shined of her and her team because they found someone who recognized them. It was a man who sold dresses, he led them to a make-up artist who led them to a pedestrian who saw where they went. After a short walk, Heather found them buying a carriage and two horses from Carraige and Horses owned by Madam Brenda, the best horse and carriage owner in the country.
She could have attacked them then, after all, mercenaries had their legal rights, but they would have to explain the details of their mission to the Patrol Knights, and Viscount Victor had explicitly told them that he didn't want the Patrol Knights involved because he got the gold through illegal means.
So, they followed them instead. After buying a carriage and strong horses they didn't waste a single time and drove to the Transport Station. Heather knew that they were trying to flee the country, and she was a bit annoyed because she had to follow them to their destination, which meant she would have to buy transport tickets with her own pocket money.
When they tailed them to the Trasport Station, Heather had one of her teammates, Primrose, check where their destination was going to be. Primrose came back a few minutes later to tell her that they were going to the White Tiger Duchy.
Heather made sure that her carriage was after theirs in the lane, so after they get teleported, she and her team would be next. When it was their turn the guards there wanted to decline their teleportation due to the weapons that they carried, but a flash of their mercenary badges made them shut up.
''Where are they? Do you still see them?" Heather asked her other teammate who was acting as their coachman after they teleported.
"Yeah, I still see them!" He said back.
'Good' Heather thought. It would be much smoother catching them in the White Tiger Duchy, after all, her brother was there and he was a respected Swordsman who had unlocked his Third Aura. Since she had nothing to do at the moment she rested her head and was about to take a short nap when Owen alerted her.
"Miss Heather, they're not driving to the duchy, they're taking the route that leads to the Rocky Plains!"
"What?" Why would they go to the Rocky Plains? Heather couldn't understand what was going through their minds, "Just follow them, this works well for us. We'll ambush them there, away from prying eyes."
Heather waited until they got deep into the Rocky Plains before instructing Primrose to stop their carriage. Primrose stuck half her body out of the window and chanted a spell. Primrose was a Tier Two sorceress. Their team consisted of a sorceress, the ranger Owen, and Heather, the Swordswoman.
"Fire, o fire, ye who burns and gives life, ye who can be both warm and destructive, answer my call! Form and blast my enemies away!"
As Primrose finished her spell, a fireball formed on her palm. She aimed it at the carriage in front of them and destroyed one of the carriage wheels. The carriage squealed and the horses neighed as the man driving the carriage tried to steady it. By the time their carriage stopped Heather and her team had all ready left theirs and were walking cautiously towards them.
As soon as they got closer Heather called out, "We are from the Mercenary Organization! We were sent by Viscount Victor to retrieve his money. If you return it, we will let you go!"
People were usually scared of the Mercenary Organization so she made sure to mention that first. But just in case they weren't, she gestured to Owen to load his bow with an arrow.
The door of the carriage opened with a bang, and a girl wearing unusual clothing dropped down, she was the girl in the portrait, Heather knew even with her strange clothes. She didn't look scared of them at all, in fact she looked pissed. The coachman – who was also in the portrait – also came down, he ran in front of the girl and held her still. He was cautious, the girl grumbled a bit when he grabbed her, but when she saw the arrow aimed at them she became cautious too.
Heather nodded in satisfaction; she made the right decision asking Owen to load his bow. Even though she was confident that she could subdue them easily, she didn't really want to tussle with common thieves.
"Damon and Jasmine, right? Come closer slowly, or else we will be forced to take action towards you."
"I hope they don't listen so I can shoot them." She heard Owen whisper to Primrose, who chuckled. But the thieves disappointed him and walked forward slowly.
"Stop!" Heather said when they were a few feet away, then she brought out her wrist chains, "Now, I'm going to chain your wrists. Don't try anything funny…" As she spoke, she noticed that Damon wasn't paying attention to what she was saying and was rather looking down at something, it didn't look like he was scared but like he was concentrating on something. Heather traced his gaze to Owen's shadow, and she noticed it squirming unnaturally.
The warning bells in her brain rang loudly, "Owen, watch out!" She screamed.
"Huh?" Owen looked at her in confusion, but before she could say anything a part of his shadow elongated and stabbed him in his neck.
'Sorcery? The viscount didn't say anything about them being sorcerers!' Heather quickly enveloped herself with her aura and moved backwards. She had unlocked her First Aura a long time ago and hers was solid, not hazy or smoky.
She saw Primrose staring at Owen's dead body and screamed at her, "Primrose, stop standing there and fight!"
Her scream jolted Primrose from her daze, she quickly chanted the fireball spell and chucked it at Damon and Jasmine. They both jumped to the side and the fireball hit the ground instead. Before they could do anything, Primrose had already thrown another fireball at them. But Damon's shadow rose up like a wall and blocked it. Damon took a piece of his shadow and formed it into a blade, Primrose began chanting again to intercept his spell.
"Dodge that you idiot – urgh!" As Heather was screaming at Primrose she felt something slam into her stomach. She tumbled backwards and checked to see what hit her. Jasmine twirled the whip in her hand as she glared at her.
"You must be really confident to not pay attention during a fight." She sneered at her before attacking again. Her blades on her whip curved towards her; Heather quickly parried the blades away. She hadn't fought someone with a whip before but her aura sharpened her reflexes. She ducked and rolled away from Jasmine's attack.
Jasmine used [Whip Dance], the blades seem to come at Heather from every direction. Heather couldn't dodge and block all the attacks and even though her aura protects her, she was already accumulating bruises. Heather decided to risk it and ran towards Jasmine while using her sword to cover her face. But before she reached her Jasmine dragged her whip back and stepped on it, making it curve towards Heather's back, knocking her to the side.
Heather growled and scrambled away from the flurry of attacks Jasmine sent her way.
On Damon's side, the fight ended fairly quickly. Damon's magic was almost instantaneous while Primrose's needed incantations to form, and she didn't have enough magical control to shorten the spells. Damon easily blocked her spells while moving closer to her.
"O-oh f-fire – "Primrose stuttered while chanting a spell. That caused a backlash, her head rang, and her vision went blank for a few seconds. Blood dripped down her nose as she trembled all over.
Damon didn't misuse the opportunity. He ran forward and punched her in the face.
Primrose gasped from the pain and fell on her back, with blurry eyes she looked up at Damon and begged him, "Please… Please..."
"Sorry," Damon was unaffected, "But I can't leave any loose ends." His shadow shot up like tendrils and stabbed her in the chest.
"No!" Heather screamed as she watched Primrose die. In anger she ran forwards, ignoring all of Jasmine's attacks and slammed her shoulder into her. Jasmine grunted and stumbled backwards.
"I'm just about sick of you!" Jasmine said. She got into a stance and growled, "[Devastation]!"
She swung her hand with great strength and speed, her whip whizzed towards Heather faster than her eyes could catch. The blades hit her side so hard she was launched into the air, her aura shattered and disappeared. Before she fell, she was hit again, and since her aura wasn't there to protect her the blade sliced off her arm.
"Argh!" Heather yelled in pain. Her brain buzzed and her eyes went blurry. She could feel gravity pulling her back down, but before could hit the ground the blades on the whip dup into her stomach and dragged her back up. The blades ripped off some of her intestines as it came out. More and more hits landed on her, she was cut over and over again mid-air until the skill duration ended.
When Heather landed, she didn't look human anymore. Most of her limbs were cut off, her intestines were spilling out of her stomach, her face was lacerated with one eye gone. Her exposed lung wheezed as she breathed, her remaining eye glared at Jasmine with all the anger she could muster.
'I won't let you go!'
After their parents died, Heather and her brother had gone to visit a witch for a peculiar spell. Witches were outcast in the sorcerer society because they dabble in darks arts like Soul and Blood Magic. They had the witch bond their souls together, so if one died the other would know. And if they were killed by another human being the spell would mark the killer, and the remaining sibling would be able to trace them even to the ends of the earth.
Before her last breath, the spell activated and an ouroboros appeared on Jasmine's palm. Feeling reassured that her brother would avenge her, Heather finally died.
Jasmine vomited as she watched the blood ooze out of Heather's body, Damon walked up to her and patted her back.
"Are you alright?" He asked.
"No!" She sighed, "I'm never using that skill on a human again!"
Damon shook his head, "Never say never." Then he walked towards Heather's carriage, unlike theirs her horses stayed during the fight, "Come on, lets get moving. God knows how many bounty hunters Victor sent after us."
While trying her best no to look at the dead bodies, Jasmine followed Damon. She got in the carriage while Damon drove them.
"I hope there wouldn't be anymore problems." Jasmine whispered to herself.
…
In a sword school in the White Tiger Duchy, a group of friends were talking with each in the cafeteria when one of them jumped from his seat, spilling his food all over the table.
"Lloyd, is everything okay?!" A girl said concerningly.
"Sister!" Lloyd growled as he felt his connection with his sister fade away, which meant she was dead. After a few seconds, a new connection appeared and an ouroboros appeared on his palm.
'She was murdered!' Lloyd clenched his palm tightly as he thought. He ignored his friend's questions and walked out of the cafeteria.
'You better pray I don't find you, because if I do, I'm going to make your life a living hell' He thought, his eyes exuding a sense of foreboding.