[Content warning. This chapter contains acts of sexual and emotional abuse. If you find yourself as someone who is easily affected by these types of things, please don't read this chapter.]
A young girl asks someone "Uncle Leo. We are slaves, correct?" To which this Uncle Leo says "That is correct Little Ali. We live to do our master's bidding."
Little Ali then asks "If that is so, why do we bother to live? Why not just kill ourselves and let the dumber slaves that master who is going to buy to replace us anyways do the work?" Uncle Leo says "You are thinking terrible things young child. You shouldn't think so negatively of our situation."
Then Little Ali says "But look at mom. She came from master's quarters beaten up again for the third time this week. Why do we just live to suffer when that man can do whatever he wants with us?" Uncle Leo says "Your father's and your mother's relationship is special. He may…"
Little Ali interrupts Uncle Leo by saying in an angry tone of voice "I've told you to call that thing my father. He treats mom like a punching bag while also thinking of her as a pile of pretty meat to put his dick in. Meanwhile mother just smiles and takes it with tears in her eyes. That bag of shit doesn't deserve to do what he does to us." Uncle Leo says "You shouldn't say things like that. Those kinds of words are the reason why you get slashes so often. Try to at least make your life a little more comfortable by doing as you fa- our master tells us to do and don't complain too openly."
Little Ali says angrily "But you haven't answered my question Uncle Leo! Why on Ao's name do we bother to live?! We just suffer, day by day, only to keep this stuff going and further suffer! Mom says that I am her light, but what light am I to give when we are fated to only slave away at our master's orders!" Then Little Ali says with a more calmer tone as if she had an idea "If I am mom's light, then why don't I kill myself so that she has no more reason to continue to suffer?"
Uncle Leo says with a stern tone of voice "Don't ever think that that is the right thing to do. If you hate your father… master so much, then why do you let your dark thoughts, that you undoubtedly inherited from him, to further hurt your mother? You might as well kill her yourself if you think…" Then, after giving a sigh, Uncle Leo says to Little Ali "Look. Life isn't fair sometimes. We haven't earned the gaze of Ao for one reason or another, but that doesn't mean that we shouldn't continue to live and try."
Little Ali says "B-but Uncle Leo, that is…" But this time, Uncle Leo interrupts Little Ali by saying "No buts. I need you to promise me that in the name of your mother and Ao, you will not act on these dark thoughts you are having. Can you do that for me, Little Ali?"
Little Ali stays silent and Uncle Leo asks "Little Ali? Can you promise me that?" Little Ali makes a few grunting noises as she thinks, but ultimately ends up saying "I don't care if I promise on Ao's name, but I can't promise on mom's name."
Uncle Leo says "You do value your mother very much, huh. Can't blame you, she is always so cheerful even though she arguably has it worse than any of us. But Ao is a god, you know. You shouldn't place your mother above a god." And Little Ali says "If Ao is so great, why hasn't she given us the stars that would let us out of this shithole?"
Uncle Leo says "Gods work in mysterious ways, Little Ali. But enough about that, can you promise the thing in the name of your mother also?" Little Ali stays quiet for a moment, until she says reluctantly "I… I promise in the name of mom and Ao, that I'll do my best to live on. To value the life I have."
Uncle Leo pats Little Ali on the head and says "Good girl. Now let's get back to work." Little Ali nods and both go back to what they were doing before.
Altair opens her eyes when she wakes up from the dream and stares at the sealing blankly. She gives a big sigh while rubbing her face with her left hand and taking the blanket with her right. When she rises up from her bed, she looks at the clock in her room and stares at it for a while.
Then Altair mumbles "Yeah, I promised I have test runs with that girl Weiss and that robo chick that is supposedly the strongest of her kind." Then she stretches for a moment and says "Well, better get dressed up at least."
Meanwhile, Li summons Atkoosa for the reason that he has some questions that have been asked by the Elysium citizens. Atkoosa waves his hand happily and says quite loudly "Hello there god slayer! Have you missed me?!"
Li just keeps sitting in his meditative pose and says "Not in particular." Atkoosa makes a pouting face and says "How mean. Here I hoped that people would love me and miss me when I'm away."
Li says "I didn't say that you weren't… well, loved, but the people of Elysium haven't been that pious towards the gods of this world even after the church was built. Personally I think it comes down to the person in charge having prejudice against humans on some level, but that is besides the point."
Atkoosa says "Yeah yeah. I will take a look at that one after we are done with whatever you called me here for. But you know, calling a god over just like that isn't something just anybody can do. You should feel a little more honored than you do now. Oh, but don't get too hung up on religion and stuff. The gods would hate it if the fabled god killer would turn religious."
Li says "No need to worry about that. I'm quite happy with what I have now." And Atkoosa says "But yet, you called for me for a reason. Did you not? So what is it? OH! Now I get it! You are what people call tsundere, aren't you?! No worries my man, I keep that hush hush just between the two of us."
Li says "I'm not… *sigh* I called you here because I wanted to hear more information about this world." Atkoosa says "So you say. Hit me up. What does the lil old alien want to ask from one of the architects of Lutah?"
Li says "First of all, I have come to understand that there are separate gods for the sun and the stars, correct?" Atkoosa answers "That is correct. I'm the god of the sun and Ao is the god of the stars."
Then Li says "In Odysseium, the stars were the sealing of the world that let the souls pass through them to the afterlife and the sun was the lifegiver that radiated the power that the souls in the afterlife had back to the world. In my lord's world, suns and stars were the same, but the star that their home planet orbited was simply known as The Sun. So what is the difference in this world?"
Atkoosa then explains "Well, while my title is the god of THE sun, that doesn't limit me to the one sun only. The suns in Lutah are the objects that the planets often circulate. The stars on the other hand are holes at the edge of the galaxy that connect to the god realm. Both suns and the stars bring aether to the world from the god realm, though the methodology is different and the suns are kind of the prototypes. And since I heard that you made contact with the space elves, I'll tell you that true moons are the masses that were taken off from the edge of the realms to make stars."
Li says "I see, now I get the reason why Maumar called them both star elves and moon elves. But that gives me another question. Why did Altair feel insulted when she was called a moon elf?" To which Atkoosa says "Well… you see, um… that is kinda…"
Li asks "Is it a sensitive topic?" To which Atkoosa says "Not per say but… It is kind of a sore spot for me since, um… I'm in a deep relationship with the god of the moon, so…" Li inquires "I'm listening if you are willing to say."
Atkoosa rubs his head nervously for a while, squints and makes noises while he thinks deeply. Then he shouts "Fuck it!" And comes back to Li to say "Look… iLuan and Ao never really got along. It is like the two are the two sides of the space elf culture in which Ao is a woman that is a brilliant star that guides the mortals and show the future and iLuan is a man who eats away the shine of the sun and stars to only guide the thieves and shake the fragile waters. They are like divorced parents in a way that juggle their child along with themselves."
Li asks "But how did it become like this?" And Atkoosa says "Well since you heard of what happens to those space elves that don't have stars on them, I'll tell you something about the past. While the consequences of having no stars is now lenient, back in the day, it was a sign that the elf wasn't blessed by Ao. Hence, the no stars having space elves were considered lesser and called "moon elves" as an insult. And for the longest time, the consequence of being a moon elf…
Was to be a slave to a star elf."
Altair went to the arena where she saw Weiss already waiting. Altair looked around and didn't see Lud anywhere, which made her a little disappointed. But still, she understood that the king has their duties to fulfill.
Weiss came to Altair and said "It is a pleasure to have this opportunity Ms. Altair. I'll promise to do my utmost to show you why I was called the first of the sword saints of Rucksta." Altair responded by saying "It is my pleasure as well. I yearn to see where the beastfolk stand these days in terms of combat. Though I must say I'm disappointed about the patriarch of your race."
Weiss says "I understand. Even after countless defeats, they still insist on sending their troops to fight against an unwinnable battle. What I have heard, the amount of soldiers sent to fight Elysium has made the security in Rucksta quite fragile." Altair says "It is only a matter of time until they start to fight amongst themselves."
Weiss says "I agree, some of the nobles have hired people to their ranks to prepare for the upcoming civil war. I heard that there are a total of four major players that people turn their bets to."
Altair says "I also remember hearing something similar, though there is an argument to be made that there might be a fifth major faction in there, but it is too soon to be said if that is truly the case." Weiss inquires "Is that so? I only know of The King Jeremaja faction, The King Soramaja faction, The Arnossetos faction and The Church faction. Who is the so-called fifth?"
Altair says "Though it is only a rumor, The Tomson faction has gained some weight when led by Werner Tomson, but that is enough about politics. Let's get to the main reason why we are here." Weiss says "Right, sorry about that. I just miss how things used to be."
Altair says "Your people hunting humans, hmmm?" To which Weiss says in a hurry "Not that! Not that! Just that… the times when things were more simple."
Altair says "I don't want to put words in your mouth, but you do sound like your pedestal where you were was only to be used as a tool to bind you. But to burst your bubble, the church and Arnossetos have been plotting for quite some time according to our reports."
Weiss says while looking a bit down "Is… is that so." But then she returns to the main thing and says "So do we do any warmups, or…?" And Altair says "No need for me, but if you need, I'm fine making and taking a few practice swings."
Both took their places and Weiss readied her sword while Altair only put her glove on her left hand like when she had a bout with Tear. Altair put her right hand behind her back and left hand in front of her while only extending her index and middle finger. Then she said "I'm ready when you are." And Weiss took a pose, took a deep breath, and charged in.
Two were exchanging blows as if Altair was wielding her two fingers as a blade. Weiss could not break Altair's defense down, but since this was a warm up, she didn't mind it yet.
Altair commented "You should work on enhancing your body with magic more. Try training by casting costly spells repeatedly to make the flow more malleable. Then find an object that you can punch repeatedly whilst enhancing your body with magic. This should make your enhancements more flexible and potent."
While Weiss was doing everything she could to keep up with Altair, she tried her best to absorb the information she just received. Altair was mostly defending, but she also made punishing strikes whenever Weiss gave her an opening.
Two continued trading blows, until Altair noticed that Weiss was sweating quite a bit. Then Altair made a quick bonk at the back of Weiss' head that caused Weiss to fall down. Altair then said to Weiss who was about to get up "Let's take a break."
Weiss looked a bit confused at Altair for a moment while she was panting, but when she saw Altair going to take a seat, she followed suit and calmed her nerves a little.
When Weiss came to sit besides Altair, Altair gave her a bottle of some sort of liquid while saying "Here. This should quicken your recovery." Weiss took the bottle and said without thinking much "Thanks. I must say, I have a long way to go if I am already this sweaty. As expected of a being from a higher realm."
This struck a chord with Altair who said "Excuse me. What did you just say?" To which Weiss responded by repeating what she said just now, albeit a bit confused.
Then Altair said while annoyed "So I wasn't mishearing things. Good grief, the boy has a long way to go if this is the best he got." Weiss asked in confusion "What do you mean by that? Are you talking about Faust?"
Altair answered "Yes, and you not realizing what was wrong with what you said to me just now proves that even the most successful person from the middle realm's correction project isn't even close to being a success." Weiss asks "What are you talking about? I was only complimenting your heritage."
Then Altair said while having a mean look at Weiss "And that is the issue. You assume that BECAUSE I'm from a race that comes from the higher realm that I'm able to overpower you." Weiss says "I don't understand. Aren't the people from the higher realm generally more powerful than the people from the middle realm?" To which Altair says "Haven't we been trying to make it clear that the classifications of lower, middle and higher realms doesn't have anything to do with the power balance of the world."
Weiss looks down at the ground for a moment as she is disappointed in herself. Altair then says "The reason why I am this powerful is because of my efforts. You dismissing that effort by redirecting it to what race I was born in is disgusting behavior to me."
Weiss says with a sad voice "I… I'm sorry for dismissing your efforts. I'll make sure to learn from this experience." And Altair said "Good. You better do so."
Weiss stays silent for a moment while Altair drinks from her own bottle. Then Weiss says "As someone born to a leatherworker, I should have understood what you just said even before you said it to me. For this, I apologize."
Altair then looks at Weiss' sad face and says "Sit down little one and drink. I'll tell you about my background to make things clear to you." Though hesitantly, Weiss sits down and starts drinking her drink while Altair begins her story.
"I was born to a bloodline of slaves back when slavery was accepted in star elf society. My mom was a slave, but my sorry excuse for a baby badder donator was a five pointed noble at the time. And it wasn't your romantic novel kind of "Master makes love to his slave" kind of deal. No, it was pure abuse.
Whenever my dad felt horny, he would find my mom and drag her by the hair to the nearest place he found suitable for going at it. It didn't matter if she was working, sleeping or eating, that man would always come to my mother and rape her sensless.
He didn't care for my mom the tiniest bit and he had his fun with her only because she looked pretty in his eyes. He could always punch my mom, or any other slave for that matter, and not worry about it too much since all the slaves were taught how to use healing magic.
Mom did get pregnant multiple times, but that rat bastard would keep punching her until the baby came out too soon and died. Mom was a sensitive person, so of course she took each time heavily when it happened, and I managed to only come out alive by some sort of miracle. After that, my mom made sure to shower with her love. As did the other slaves.
But I never accepted that love, and you know why? Because I was a bastard child of their master. A master that would make sure our lives were as miserable as possible, but just fine enough to stay alive. How could I have accepted their love if I was the child of that bastard? They could never convince me that they didn't harbor any resentment towards me because of my dad and no one ever can. There was no reason for them not to harbor resentment.
Eventually, when I gained more womanly features and my mom died, my dad decided to have his "fun" with me the same way he did with mom. I did end up getting pregnant myself with his child, but while my dad tormented my mother by killing her stillborn children, my dad saw it more suitable to let me go through with those pregnancies. I tried a couple of times to kill the stillborn children before they were even born, but my dad would punish me so hard after those times that I almost ended up dying. In the end, I did end up giving birth to two sets of twins.
Honestly, I didn't know what kept me going. I saw value in myself and I could only see the same thing continuing for the rest of my life. My dad would always hammer me with the words "The only value you have is to be useful to me. Other than that, you are worthless." Honestly, that bastard had no sense of pride for his slaves.
Then one day, there came a rumor that the upper echelons of star elf society were talking about making slavery illegal, which made my dad panic and sell all of his slaves to various places. I ended up being sold to a dark elf noble who saw me nothing more as a breeding material. Since I had the blood of a race that came from a higher realm, I would give birth to more noble children that he could have ever hoped to get by having kids with his own kind. I heard later that the star elf society made slavery illegal, but for some reason they never came to find me.
Bunch of kids and grandkids later, the noble who I was sold to died, and in his dead bed, he gave me all so emotional speeches about how he never saw me as his slave and he really loved me, jadi jada. He said that I was now free to do as I chose, so I left that house behind and began to figure my life out. Never to see those people again."
Weiss thinks for a moment and Altair says "So what do you think of me now?" And Weiss says "I… I'm speechless. I don't… have the words to describe how I feel." And Altair responds "Whiplash, I know. Kind of heavy stuff."
Weiss asks "Did… did you ever care about those dark elf kids?" To which Altair said "I gave them bare minimum of attention, though those brats cling to me quite heavily as their father told them to revere and care for me. Some figured out that I wasn't interested sooner, some later and some never figured it out."
Weiss asks "Do… Since you took care of a bunch of dark elf human slavers some time ago, do… do you think some of them might have been related to you?" Altair replies while leaning on her hand "I don't think so, though it is not impossible. That noble wanted to have a painting of me, which apparently became a family heirloom with multiple copies made. I am quite a famous face in certain dark elf families, though I care a little about that reputation."
Weiss says "I… I see." And then thinks for a moment before asking "What happened to you father then?" To which Altair says with a smirk "Sit a while longer while I tell you one of my proudest moments."
"Eventually, I found that my dad was alive and I wanted to pay back what he did to all of the slaves during his time. I hired some people to kidnap him, rented a shack in the lower realm in the dead of winter to send him to, gathered all kinds of supplies, and proceeded to beat him to the edge of death multiple times three days straight.
And when I mean three days straight, I mean that I made sure to heal him when he was at the edge of death only to beat him up to that condition and repeat. I did take breaks to eat and jug down stamina potions to continue beating him as soon as possible. He would beg for mercy of course, but I made sure to ignore it.
He called me a devil multiple times and all kinds of insults, only to end up begging for mercy that wasn't coming any time soon. I made sure to make him suffer as long as I could.
Eventually, I felt like I had done enough, so I cut all of his limbs one more time, opened the shack door and left it open while Ieft the place. I don't know what happened to him after, but he most likely got eaten by hungry wolves or froze to death.
It is ironic that he made sure each slave could use healing magic, but he never did learn to use it himself.
Then I went to a nearest star elf inhabited place and told the authorities of what I did. I didn't care what happened afterwards since I did what I longed to do for so long. But guess what is the interesting part? They never arrested me."
Weiss says "Why wouldn't they? You just told them that you killed a noble star elf and they did nothing? Why? Was he some sort of criminal at that point?" And Altair answers "No. The reason why they didn't arrest me didn't have to do with what my dad was. Oh no. The reason why they didn't do anything was because I had gained all of my nine points in my stars when I came to tell them."
Weiss says "You gained all of them while you beat your father?! How? I understand that it is a big thing to gain one point in your eyes, but you gained all nine?!" Altair says proudly and with a smug face "That's right. While they did make sure that I didn't use some sort of trick to make my stars like that since it has always been highly illegal, they ended up sending me to an upcoming meeting between other nine pointed stars at the time. There I told my story of how I got them and they told me to come up with something that I would represent in the council since I was going to be one after I figured that one out.
So that is how I came up with me being the embodiment of freedom. Not morally good or morally bad. Chaos that makes things waver and leaves little room to order. The idea of not being bound by anything while acknowledging that it may cause good or bad things to come. That is how I became "Altair the flying one" and found the Aquila guild."
Weiss looks at Altair with a black expression and then slowly turns her head to look at the arena. Then Altair says "I think that is enough banter for now. Let's get back to the match lest we lose the benefit of the warmup."
Altair rose from the chair and walked to the arena where they would have the match. Altair turns around to see that Weiss hasn't moved, so she asks her "Are you alright missy? Don't tell that stuff I said is getting to you too hard." Weiss then takes a deep breath and raises from the chair.
When she began to walk to Altair, she decided to ask "Do you regret what you did?" To which Altair responds with "You mean the thing I did with my dad? Well yeah. I do have one regret and that is not that I beat him senseless for three days straight. Oh no, I regret only letting it stop at three days."
Weiss stops for a moment to think before she draws her sword. Altair then says "So we are having a serious bout this time, right?" To which Weiss says "Yeah. Try not to kill me will you." And Altair chuckless and says "Sure sure. I'll make sure that you will see the next sunset."
Then the two began the fight. Weiss charged at Altair with all the speed and strength she could muster and Altair took the swing with her finger weapon. Weiss took a step back as soon as she could to only be stricken by Altair who closed the gap in a moment's notice.
The strike that Altair made against Weiss sent Weiss flying to the wall, but Weiss managed to soften the impact with magic infused on her legs. With that done, she launched back at Altair like a spring and made a huge crack at the wall that even the normal soldiers at Elysium couldn't do that easily.
Altair redirected Weiss' momentum and sent her flying to the sky. While Weiss was going up, Altair teleported on her flight path and kicked Weiss back to the ground with great force.
Weiss crashed to the ground and made the floor have major cracks. She coughed blood and she didn't even get to take a moment to breath before Altair came striking down from beyond the smoke that had formed.
Altair pierced Weiss' right shoulder with her finger blade and the match was over. When the smoke cleared, Altair offered her hand to help Weiss get back up while saying "You did well enough for your age. You splendidly made an effort to soften the impact against the wall. Yet, you still have to work a little on your reaction speed since you couldn't block my kick when we were in the sky."
Weiss rose up with the help of Altair and said "I'll work on that with the fingers later. Now I need to heal my body a little."
Weiss was about to leave, until Altair stopped her by saying "Where do you think you are going? I can heal you right here." Weiss says "Oh yeah. You did mention it in your story. I'm in your care then."
Altair started healing Weiss' injuries. While she was doing it, Altair decided to ask "So, what do you think of Faust?" To which Weiss said "He is a good man, though he has to work on the air he puts out since he doesn't put on the air of a king."
Altair says "I get what you mean. Sometimes, people want to feel some sense of authority from the people higher than them and overly friendly attitudes can be damaging to the credibility of the higher ups. But personally, I'd rather work in a friendly atmosphere than a professional one. I proposed official meetings between the council members should be more friendly, but there are some members who want to keep it in the professional setting. There are some council members that agree with me though, so it is only a matter of time."
Weiss chuckles a little and Altair asks "What's so funny?" To which Weiss says "Just thinking how you can switch from hard stuff to silly banter."
Altair looks confused "Where did you get that from? And why would it make you laugh? You youngsters really do confuse me sometimes." Then Weiss asks "Did you really not care for those children?"
Altair says "You mean the dark elf ones? I was completely done with everything during that time and I never smiled during those times." Weiss asks "Do you wish you acted differently?" To which Altair looks at the sky and says "I do wander. What was that thing that the rell guy says sometimes? "Children shouldn't be blamed for the actions of their forefathers" or something like that."
Weiss says "So you don't know." And Altair looks back at Weiss and says "I… I wasn't free at that time, so my emotions… they were… I've changed since then, so… maybe if they weren't in the same group that saw the human pet program as completely normal, then maybe I would…"
Then Altair starts to scratch her head vigorously in frustration. After a moment, she stops and says "I really don't know. But they all lived happy lives as far as I know, so I'm thinking too much about this. Look, the wounds have now healed, so enough talk about this."
Weiss says "Thanks for the heal. I need to work on some things." Altair says "I gave a few pointers, so you should work on them first before you do any advanced stuff." Weiss says "Thanks. I'll get on that." and she begins to leave.
Then she thinks of something and asks Altair before she leaves "Hey. Do you think the reason why you stopped beating your dad around the third day is because you received your stars?" To which Altair says "I've had plenty of time to think about it and I have stopped caring for the reason I stopped. If it really was because of these stars, then I'd like to give Ao one good punch before I'm satisfied." Weiss says "I see." And then leaves while waving to Altair.
Then Altair stops for a moment and says "Now that that is out of the way, how about we test your tricks, miss best finger around the block." With that said Bai jumps from the audience to the arena while saying "You really like to use your mouth, don't ya. I've been waiting ages to get this over and done with, so why don't we start as soon as possible."
Altair says "Well I can say that I dealt with plenty a dick using my mouth during my time, so that's something. But suit yourself. Banter filter off." Then Altair snaps her left hand's fingers and Bai becomes unable to move.
Bai notices this and says "So I can't switch places with my swords or move. What did you do, elf?" Altair starts to walk towards Bai while she says "You gave me an okay to start whenever, so I just trapped you inside a "separated space" of sorts. It makes you unable to move as your space is only limited to the size of your body, so that is something."
Bai says "I thought we were going to have a match. What's with dirty tricks like these?" And Altair says "Oh I know I have no grounds to beat you in terms of stats. If I would have tried to pull this off while you had your guard up, I would have undoubtedly failed since your reaction time is far superior to mine. As for the match, it was mostly a pretense to get to test my little spell and see if it worked on your kind or not."
Then Bai says with a hint of frustration "So this is all pointless then. Let me out and let me chill somewhere else." Altair, who is now right in front of Bai, raises her left hand, starts to close the gap between her blade fingers and Bai's throat and then says "Oh this is not pointless. You see, in case you people become enemies of mine, I have a measure to fight against your people. And since I can do this at a great distance to multiple people, I can effectively shut down all the fingers from operating properly."
Altair's blade fingers then make a scratch on the side of Bai's neck to illustrate that she is capable of cutting through Bai's skin. As she is doing it, she continues "And if I tried a little bit harder, I could get into your systems and write my own type of code. Now wouldn't that be a hassle for you guys."
Bai says "You are trying to sound villainous, but I don't understand why you are revealing these things just like that. Now that we know we can't fully trust you, we will be on our guard against you." Altair then takes her finger blade out and cancels the spell while she says "If you guys weren't on your guard already, then you all have failed greatly. I have only been here for a couple of days and while I have acted friendly so far, I could have always been putting up a front to deceive you guys. If this is how you treat potential threats, then I see no future in your plans. And Faust…" Altair chuckles and says "He is the worst case. Though I must admit, I enjoy seeing someone as naive as him work hard on what they believe in."
Altair begins to walk aways and before she teleports away, she says "The lesson today was that, while it is okay to be friendly with people, you shouldn't let your guard down too easily. Though I'll enjoy watching you all be friendly since I have gotten interested in you bunch. Just make sure you consider all the possibilities in the future. After all…"
Then before teleporting, she turns around, makes an innocent pose and gives out a childish smile as she says "Freedom can be a terrifying thing."