In the early morning, Frasia woke up with a blank expression like usual. She got up from bed, bathed and dressed, and left her sibling's breakfast on the dining room table. As she left the back of the house to go to the woods behind it, she brought a tied up animal that had the appearance of a goat with horns and 2 pairs of chicken-like wings. It was also gagged so it wouldn't be heard and attract unwanted attention from any people or beasts.
After walking for what seemed like thirty minutes on a rocky dirt path, Frasia finally made her way to a small cave with three clear blue streams of water flowing into it. As she entered the cave, Frasia walked seven feet or so and stopped at where the streams gathered into the cave. In front of the pond where all the water stopped at, the cave expanded and had enough space for over two of her houses to be stacked on top or placed in there side by side.
Another trip here without getting caught.
Staring into the pond, Frasia's eyes visibly darkened and she recited a magic incantation that deactivated the illusion spell that was being used to give the pond a normal appearance. When the illusion was put down the underground lake took on a more blood red hue and had a small black flame flickering in the middle of it.
"Thank you for another day of protection O great Lord of Corruption! I make another offering to you out of appreciation from the depths of my heart." Shouting this all out loud, Frasia pulled a dagger out of her coat pocket and quickly slashed and beheaded the creature she had bonded. After this, she stuck the knife into it and carved out its heart. During this whole process, Frasia didn't bat an eye once.
It is cause of him that I even have the heart to do this. I used to always put on a show for my siblings that I was confident, but really I was just as scared as they were in some situations. That is until he gave me the power to not feel fear anymore! Every time I do anything now, nothing makes me feel scared, in fact, I feel confident in myself now at all times.
Sticking her hand over the the now-dead creature and its body parts, she recited another incantation for a spell. "Blackest flame that burns away all my hatred; come and take this holy offering for the divine. Oh sacred power that was forgotten, surge once more."
As she said this, a black and red mark with a skull in hexagram with symbols around it appeared and glowed on her hand. This was the exact same mark that Anastasia had on the back of her neck.
When the mark finished glowing Frasia went silent. Suddenly, It started searing with heat, and the black flames that were in the the middle of the lake, came surging towards her at a steady pace. Once the flames were at the edge of the lake where Frasia was standing, she threw the creature and all of its parts in there. The mark stopped searing and went back to its usual faded appearance. Once all of this was done, Frasia looked in amazement and said a quick prayer, and headed back to her house.
Even though it is just a low level beast it was not all that lacking in life energy for me. After converting it into my essence I can feel quite the increase in power. It doesn't seem to be nearly enough though as just being in the physical world as an entity made out of pure energy makes me have to exert a whole lot effort.
It had been several weeks since Frasia first reached out to Oliver and made a sacrifice to him. Once it was made she somehow gained his newly called mark of corruption. Once she had gained the mark she searched day and night until she could translate the symbols into a word, but she never found the language that was used. Then Oliver communicated with her in the form of a divine oracle that it was his mark of corruption and that he was the God of corruption.
It seemed to be an appropriate name at the time considering his power fuses and slowly corrupts your life energy if you cannot properly adapt to it. Oliver had tried to just strike somebody with it earlier hoping to gain another pawn, but a few days later he turned up dead having the same decayed skeletal appearance as those knights he killed.
Ever since then, I have been receiving sacrifices from her every day. If I were to measure my power in the form of quantity then I could definitely be considered powerful now since my mass has far surpassed its size from when I first expended energy to save that one elf girl. Even now, I still am being generous by having a gift in store for the most devout one. But I guess that can just be called a mutually beneficial relationship. I get more life energy and she gets some of my power. I wonder just how far she can go with something that this world has never seen.
Back at the elf's residence, Frasia entered the house to see Axel and Ana sitting at the dining table eating the breakfast Frasia made for them before she left. Since she doesn't want to introduce them into her activities just yet, which could be seen slightly as murderous, she has to lie to them about where she goes in the morning, saying she likes to go for a jog and get exercise. Her siblings know that something is amiss, however, they trust their sister so they won't say anything.
"As you know starting today since I am 13 now, I will have to start going to the Magic Academy in order to keep getting money from the Valkyrian Province. So you two will have to be responsible and keep yourselves out of trouble."
Axel sneered at her comment finding it a bit condescending taking into account they are only two years apart. "You're saying that as if we ever get into trouble in the first place. Handle your own shit and we'll handle ours."
"Axel!" Even though Frasia knows he's frustrated cause of the recent events and them not being as close as usual anymore with all of her "activities", she did not like taking disrespect, especially from her younger brother.
"If you're mad then just put that extra energy and effort into your swordsmanship training. You're never going to accomplish your dream of being the best on the continent if you just sit around and complain instead of practicing."
Axel just stared at her without blinking for a few seconds not responding. Once he thought about it, he figured she was right so he just sat there quietly and continued to eat.
Ana hasn't spoken a word this whole morning. With what she's been through I wouldn't be surprised if she is experiencing some sort of traumatic response. I better let Axel deal with it since their much closer than I am with her.
On that thought, Frasia got up from the table and grabbed her books she would need for class. As she was putting them in her bag Axel caught that she was wearing gloves.
"Why do you have gloves on?" As he was saying this he got up and grabbed her hand. When he was about to pull them off he looked at his sister's face and saw an expression she has only given magic beasts when she kills them. And only when him or Ana gets hurt does she look like that, but here she is making that same expression at her brother.
Sensing it wouldn't end well for him if he removed the glove, Axel gently let go of the glove and gave her a farewell before going into the backyard to train with his sword.
Frasia just stared at Anastasia before she sighed and made her exit out of the house. On her walk to the Magic Academy Frasia saw many beggars and people running stands. On one corner she even saw a young mother with two small children younger than Anastasia begging for money. They were demi-humans with noticeable inhuman ogre features so nobody gave them a second look and continued on with their day pretending to not see them though Frasia felt it was better than the assault that might happen to them if the wrong crows passed by. Although they tried their best to cover up the ogre parts of their skin with tattered cloaks you could
"Could you please spare a copper coin for my children? We have not eaten in days. Please, young elf girl." The mother ogre's voice was dry and hoarse grading Frasia's ears just from that little sentence. But Frasia knew what it was like to do everything you could to try to provide for your family members. Hell, the only reason why Frasia's not in that same predicament was because her family passed down magic spells and had a natural elven affinity with mana.
So feeling a bit sympathetic, Frasia was about to give one of her copper coins but she suddenly heard a voice inside her head. It wasn't human nor anything of the like, it was much grander and filled with some inexplicable power. Devoid of any emotion or tone it was directly translated into Frasia's Mind.
"Introduce her to the power of Corruption. They will be of much use to me"
Immediately Frasia prostrated herself on the ground quickly, joyful that the God of Corruption spoke to her.
If he told me that their going to be useful to him, then they must be invaluable people who I must make devout followers of the Lord!
It was not against the law to have different religions in the Valkyrian Province, but you had to choose one of the 4 true Gods religions - The Sun God, The Goddess of the Moon, and The Twin Gods of the Seas. These are all the legal religions that were allowed that most of the population worshiped, but there were some unpopular religions known as "heretical cults" who were ordered by the True Gods religions to be exterminated.
If Frasia were to introduce her to the God of Corruption, she must make sure that she is not apart of any other religion - or even involved in some cult! So when she got up off her knees she looked the demi-human in her eyes and said "I can give you 20 copper coins. But you will have to do something for me. It is nothing illegal so you won't be sent to be executed, in fact all you have to do is accept a gift. "
The mother looked at Frasia with confusion plastered all over her face, but when she seen the teenage girl pull out a pouch full of copper coins and give it to her, tears began to just fall from her eyes. "Thank you little girl, Thank you! This is enough to last us for a month! I will do anything you ask!"
"You are so very welcome Miss." With a huge grin on her face, Frasia suddenly embraced the mother and whispered into her ear "I will come back back here tonight and I hope you will join me. Your children do not have to come but you may bring them if you want to."
Getting the indication from Frasia's words, the mother instantly tensed up thinking something was wrong and that she might have just made a deal with the devil in the form of a teenage girl. Sweat started to trickle down her neck and her breathing became shallow quickly. "P - please do not involve my children in your affairs, I will do anything you ask but just don't get my children involved."
"Okay," Frasia responded with an even bigger smile than before on her face, not because of what the mother said and not because of the fact that she just told a lie without any guilt. No, It was because she felt the presence of her Lord right behind her! However, if anybody on the street were to look over there, they would just see two demi-humans embracing, but the two kids behind their mother saw something else entirely. What was in front of them was a huge black light with red lightning blocking out everything in the street. Its sheer size was able to stop all sunlight from touching them. Despite the being's appearance though, the children did not have an expression of fear but more of one of curiosity.
At the same time the ogre twins, both boys, reached out their hands to see what this never seen before life form was. As soon as their hands came into contact with it it suddenly dispersed and everything went back to normal.
"Never mind," Frasia said to the mother while letting go of the embrace. She then left with a slight smile on her face and continued walking to school like nothing ever happened. The ogre mother was left there sitting contemplating about what just happened.
Once she finished thinking for a few seconds, she decided to put the whole encounter behind her and finally get her and her kids a decent meal and new clothes. She then took one of each of the boys' hands and started walking towards the nearest store. What she failed to notice though was that the hands that she grabbed had dark veins pulsating all towards a black and red mark with a faint glow.