RosenkreuzStilette Freudenstachel
~Es Werde Licht Fuer Die Göttin~
Note from the Compiler…
The story of RosenkreuzStilette ~The Blades of Rose Cross~ is the work of our well known WOMI-sensei. I simply compiled WOMI-sensei's story into such a fan fiction while trying to stay as true to the original story as possible, with my limited Japanese skill. Thus, don't be surprised that, by the day an English patch for RosenkreuzStilette Freudenstachel comes out, the original story text in the game turns out to be the same as what I compiled into this fiction.
The whole time while I was playing RKSF, I cannot stop thinking about the holy atmosphere created by WOMI-sensei's superior BGM and graphic; it was as if Freudia's world is a true "Kingdom of the Last Elf" where taints from our world do not reach. It is my wish to present this story to as far an extent as possible in terms of truthfulness.
I do not know how many people will find this story. It is not my top priority to get attention in writing this story anyway. Thus, I hope that those of you who actually did find this story could also see what I am seeing now; a frozen yet beauteous Walpurgisnacht.
And so, "let there be light for the goddess…"
Der Anfang Des Endes
A ray of burning laser slashed across the twilight sky as a dark seraph flew into the blazing holy aurora, following by a blonde-haired girl dressed in black and white gothic suite.
"Iris!"
The seraph turned around, the aurora behind her glowing like an evil halo, foiling the spite and contempt in her eyes.
"Tia, how should I comment on this idiot known as you?" the seraph mocked, "let me land the holy judgment on you at the very least. Scream, suffer, and wither at the hand of God "
The gothic girl stopped in front of the seraph. She has neither wings to fly the sky nor an air of devastation. Her eyes were as firm as her spirit.
"Iris, I will stop you right here!"
"Nonsense!" the seraph started chanting, "Es werde licht!"
A bundle of raging laser shot out from the wings of the seraph towards the gothic girl.
"Geisterwand!" a wall of dark elements were conjured out of air by the chant, colliding head-on with the laser.
"Hahaha, let's see how long you can last " the seraph glared unforgivingly into the point where her laser angrily ate away at the barriers when a tiny ball of light jumped right in front of in surprise, "ya!"
"Let go of Tia!" a tiny green fairy shouted.
"Get out of here you dirty bug!" The seraph, not losing her poise, gave a short chant and soon the fairy was trapped into a yellow sphere.
"TIA!"
"Your Tia is not coming!" the seraph sang out her words of doom for the fairy just when the barriers collapsed at the unyielding pressure of the laser.
"What?" the gothic girl was, to the seraph's surprise, not behind the barrier.
"FREUDENZWINGER!"
Sixty four magic platforms dashed out from behind the seraph, encircling her in all directions. Snow icicles shot out of each one of the platforms into the other, forming a prison that locked the seraph inside.
"Tia!" the seraph hissed with hostility. The girl she called "Tia" was floating above her on a frozen ice platform, her hair white as snow and eyes red as if in sadness. Slowly, her hair color started to change again, this time, towards orange.
"Iris," Tia whispered gently, "I believe…" Tia's hair is completely orange now. She held out her palm towards the seraph in the ice prison, sparks of waves started to gather, "I believe, that you will change. So come back to us, won't you?"
"I won't let you win that easily!"
In Tia's hand, a glittering orange ball of energy was roaring.
Break, the ice prison. Take the seraph, and give us back Iris… Tia raised her arm above her head and flung it down towards the ice prison.
"LUSTEATEM!"
The holy church collapsed in a series of thunders that Tia was not aware of; the serene drape of twilight as if marking the beginning of the end…
It's been two month since the rebellion the RosenkreuzStilette. The army of the church started to move again in the persecution of the magi. The people with power divided into two groups; one stood up against the church and one planned an organized pilgrimage under the protection of the RosenkreuzStilette. The former perished, and a dark hand is about to reach the throat of the latter…
Tia and Lilli were hurrying towards the imperial training hall, the ghosts of magi's screams and blood haunted them as if in search of appeasement.
"Lilli… what I did, were those wrong?" Tia murmured gently, a trace of regret started to surge in her voice.
"Absolutely not!" the little green fairy asserted firmly, "Tia only did all she could to help!" But realizing the plight they were in and Tia's confusion, Lilli started to feel the knot in her own training of thoughts as well, "it's not Tia's fault…"
"Thank you, Lilli." Tia uttered gently, knowing that her faithful friend had done what she could just like she did for her own friends. It doesn't matter whether what I did was right or not. But I cannot allow myself to simply stand and watch. This power… will the shield for my friends…
As the two stepped into the imperial training hall, a familiar voice struck them suddenly.
"Alas, isn't this cutie here Tia-chan?"
The voice was flippant, but nevertheless sent a chill down Tia and Lilli's spine. A dark figure walked out of the shadow of the stain glasses. She has chestnut colored hair with a slim pair of glasses bridged on top of her nose. She carries a hammer whose size is nearly twice her height and the drench coat that she wore was as if stained in blood.
"Schirach!?"
Schirach smiled dagger and bid her greetings, "Yo Tia-chan, how are you DOING!" With the last word said, Schirach violently brought her hammer down, shaking the ground while an octopus machine teleported right above Tia, immobilized her, and brought her into the midair.
"Iya!" Regaining her sense, Tia looked up at Schirach in confusion, "why are you doing this, Schirach? And why are you here? Didn't you disappear from the RKS a long while ago?"
"That's a lot of questions you've got over there, baby," Schirach's lips curved up, "but unfortunately, I was simply told to guide your way to the church. So here you go!"
A shot of hot air pumped out of the back of the octopus machine and it started to fly back towards the church. "Tia!" Lilli shouted and chased after the machine without even leaving Schirach with a glare.
"Oh, by the way!" Schirach yelled after the machine, "Don't try anything weird! That machine was designed to seal your magi… man, that thing flies fast… right, Ai-chan?"
Another teleportation brought, this time, a young girl in front of Schirach. She is dressed in a blue coat and hat with a yellow cross in front of her chest. A long scarf dangled down from her neck to her exposed legs just like her pale, yellow hair.
"Schirach, have you done the job?" the girl asked emotionlessly.
"All like planned, for the sake of myself as well… good luck in holding her back I guess."
"Is she really going to come? I don't want to waste time on anything pointless."
"Don't worry about. Can't you see this snow falling?"
Outside of the imperial training hall, a lonely Moon casted down her pale white light on the ground. Slowly, snake flakes started to dance the sky as an aura of frozen magic started to fill the atmosphere…
Schneenacht der Anfang
Freudia Neuwahl was flying towards the imperial training hall.
Tia's aura disappeared... no, there's still a trace of it, and it's getting further away… did something happen…
Freudia's aura coated all the statues in the hall with a layer of snow. The shadow of the snow only made the statues look more omninent.
Tia…
"Wa "
…!?
"Ehehe," Freudia stopped and gracefully landed herself on the ground at the sound of giggle. The light of a small fairy appeared under one piece of falling snow flake. The little fairy had flowing blue hair and was dressed in a matching blue cloak. There didn't seem to Freudia to be a trace of negative sentiment in the fairy's blue eyes.
Blue, huh…
"Are you kind to have smooth bumps on your head?" the fairy asked innocently, her eyes blinked with expectation, "Ruu likes very much to rub round objects "
There is no time to deal with her.
Freudia closed her eyes, in her usual habit, and flew past the fairy towards the bridge leading to front hall. A river gleaming chill below the bridge quietly flew past the rows of lily. A mountain sat peacefully in the distance under the white moon that dominated a third of the night sky. The territory that was once governed by Count Michael Sepperin was this vast. Freudia, sensing a different aura in the air, stopped again on her way towards the front entrance of the hall.
…?
In one glance, Freudia counted one hundred and twenty-three different locations around her where magic power is being poured into plants, all simultaneously. The mysterious wave of magic aura then started weaving an invisible yet intricate pattern around Freudia, as if with the help of the plants themselves, taking the shape of a transparent jail.
With one flick of her index finger, Freudia sent an icicle flying towards a withered yellow rose growing out of a crack on the bridge to the front left of herself. The aura in the air soon collapsed.
"Frozen ice magic aura. Is that you, Freudia?"
The girl who was talking to Schirach teleported herself in front of Freudia.
Freudia was in no mood for pleasantries and demanded, "Is that you who abducted Tia?"
"Correct." The girl answered curtly.
"Give her back now, if you don't want to be laid to sleep on a frozen bed." Freudia started to inject her aura into the air; for some reason, she felt that this fight is the one that she cannot evade.
"I have no interest in Spiritia Rosenberg. I am Eifer and my target is you. Die, Freudia." The girl said coldly.
"This is not even making any point."
"You rat!" with a low hiss, Eifer sent her aura pouring into the air, soon dominating over Freudia's aura. The plants around the two started to budge and were soon dancing to her rhythm.
"…!?" This magic aura output… her body won't be able to support it long…?
At the suicidal amount of aura she was spreading in that short amount of time, Freudia was quite sure that Eifer was serious. However, there wasn't much time for Freudia to think about the reason for that. The weeds below the bridge wriggled at the influence of the Eifer's aura, climbed along the pillars of the bridge and gathered themselves in front of Eifer. At the same time, the plants hardened into thousands of spears and fired themselves towards Freudia.
"Schneekristal!"
At the chanting, a meteor of blizzard struck down on the bridge in front of Freudia. The bridge collapsed at the pressure and giant pieces of rocks that originally constituted the art of the bridge were falling to their doom at the bottom of the river.
Freudia and Eifer floated in the mid-air, where Eifer's spears of plants were battling fiercely with Freudia's blades of snow. Down below them, the ruined bridge met the river and raised tides to the height of the two. The output of aura by Eifer started to decrease at the same time.
"It's over." Freudia claimed.
To Eifer's dismay, all the water around her started to gather and gradually took the form of her opponent. Soon, she was rounded off by dozens of clones of Freudia, all of whom are pointing their arms towards her. Even the pale light of the moon behind Eifer seemed to be freezing.
"Freudenzwinger!" Freudia's voice resonated around Eifer, "Taste the absolute zero!"
Simultaneously, all the clones started shooting and soon broke through the barrier of plants that Eifer managed to retract. She used up the last bit of her strength in putting out the aura around herself as a final protection against the unwavering Freudenstacel. However, the aura that she had left was no longer enough to even make her float and she was slammed into the wall of the imperial training hall by the stings of joy.
"Argh!"
Not wanting to kill her only source of information, Freudia stopped her attacks and landed herself in front of Eifer, her eyes closed again in her habit. Just before she could ask anything, her sense was captured by an unusually powerful atmosphere of aura. A magic platform cut itself in between Eifer and Freudia and a figure came walking out of it. She was clad in red and white battle coat, the formality of which reminded Freudia of the church. She has long red hair, partially tied by a dark red laced hair band, that extended down to her black tights. Her eyes are condescending and are a deeper red than Freudia's.
"Pamela!" Eifer managed in surprise.
"Eifer, stay down." Pamela ordered, her eyes scanning her next prey in front of her.
"I can still fight…"
"You have been ordered. Disobedience is not tolerated." Pamela glanced back, telling Eifer with her eyes that she wasn't joking.
"Tsk…"
"So you are Freudia Neuwahl, aren't you?" Pamela turned back to face Freudia. "I am Pamela Arwig, the captain of Schwarzkreuz, the black cross. I am here to give you the last chance to retract this pathetic little charade that the Rosenkreuz is putting up and subject yourselves to the holy church."
"And you think I will listen to you just because you said so?" Freudia replied firmly.
"Think about it, Neuwahl. Among all those who had betrayed the church, none was able to make it alive, not to mention the fact that the Schwarzkreuz led by me never let any traitors escape."
"Do you not understand what I am saying?" Freudia started to show signs of annoyance, "Or rather, it is you who should stop your pathetic little charade and return Tia back to us."
"How lowly is this witchy stupidity!" Pamela exclaimed in disgust, "I thought you were a witch whom could actually handle some reasoning. Looks like I was blind. Eifer, we are going back to the church!"
To Freudia's surprise, Eifer was already able to stand up. Dusting the dirt off of her coat and adjusting her hat in place, Eifer stared deathly into Freudia's eyes.
"Freudia…"
"…"
"One day, I will put you to death. I promise."
Eifer left the words and teleported with Pamela, leaving Freudia among the heavenly snow dance.
Schwarzkreuz… so they abducted Tia. This is really going to get complicated. But since they are the culprits, it's just reasonable to conclude that Tia's at the church... Tia…
"Is the fight over?"
The voice of the tiny figure again interrupted Freudia's train of thoughts. The blue fairy showed herself before Freudia, who greeted her with silence.
"Ruu's name is Strudel. What's your name?"
Freudia let out half a sigh, "Why were you following me?"
"Your sparkling and freezing magic, Ruu is very fond of it!"
"Is that so? I am still in a hurry, take care." Freudia turned around, but the fairy flew to in front of Freudia again before she could teleport.
"Say, can I follow you?"
Judging that she won't be able to get rid of the fairy easily, Freudia brought her bitter memories again. The fire, the scream and the pain of the fairies and their futile struggle in putting out the fire…
"Strudel, listen to this. I am the witch who burned the Forest of Darkness that you elves lived in. If you know what that means, do not approach me again, OK?" Freudia said in her coldest tone and was surprised for a split second that the fairy's expression didn't change.
"Is that memory painful for you?" the words seemed to break Freudia's emotional barrier. Freudia stood there, in front of the fairy, letting her image and the vastness of the nature behind her sink in.
"Ruu, doesn't quite get what pain is. Ruu doesn't know where the Forest of Darkness is either."
She doesn't know the forest? Isn't she from the same clan as Lilli? Freudia forced her sense, and her shattered coldness, to return. "I don't know what is going to happen to you if you follow me and I certainly don't have the leisure to protect you. Don't be a burden to me."
"Then I will follow you anyway "
Freudia didn't know what to feel at the moment. She closed her eyes and let out a sigh.
"Do as you like."
Der Wald von Gott
The lack of sleep has never bothered Freudia. However, the lack of sleepiness had never been accompanied by pleasantries for her either.
A ray of sunlight found its way through the intricate pattern of leaves in the Forest of God, partially thawing the absolute freeze that was still left over from the night before.
The chirping of the birds, the cry of the insects, the frolic of the elves, Freudia would have been less oblivious to these if only she had the leisure.
It should be the White Desert after this forest, past which, there's only one day of travel left before the church. Tia, wait for me…
"Hey YOU!" Freudia came to a sudden halt; too much of her mind was occupied with thoughts of Tia that she didn't realize that she was trespassing on one of the guarded territories of the RKS Special Operation forces. A shuriken-shaped object smashed its way through the leaves and landed itself in front of Freudia.
"Dolis of the Special Ops squad if I am not mistaken?"
"Freudia Neuwahl!? What are you doing here? The strike forces are supposed to be holding off the church armies!" Dolis, throwing her right twin tail behind her head, snorted at Freudia.
"Unfortunately, there's something urgent. And as a member of the strike force, I was allowed to make judgments of myself in such case scenario." Freudia said with her eyes closed.
"Tsk," Dolis grimaced, "that's why I don't trust you strike forces; you are all so random all the time! Especially that moron Luste! Arghhh every time I think of how idiots like that could order me around, my stomach churns!"
There's no ground for me to argue that one… Freudia was ashamed that she had to admit her agreement.
"But I have to follow the order of Sichte-sama. If you don't have Sichte-sama's words, I cannot let you pass!" Dolis claimed, holding up her weapon.
"What a little hothead…"
"YOU!" Dolis, now red in face, seemed to be on the verge of crying out loud, "YOU SAID THE TABOO, DIDN'T YOU! DON'T CALL ME SMALL!"
Not waiting for any response from Freudia, Dolis leaped into the air as if the ground held no bounds on her and faded into the background of greens, only leaving a few pieces of leaves drifting down from where she disappeared.
Fesselspirale, this is going to be a drag…
Dolis's shuriken flew out from the tree trunks to the left of Freudia. The blades scratch Freudia's waist and merged back into the trees. The figure of Freudia started to deform and soon melted into a pile of snow. Freudia herself landed right besides.
"Ha, is that what you call strike forces? You won't be lucky next time!"
Dolis jumped out from behind Freudia and, not waiting for Fesselspirale to return, slid towards Freudia and caught Freudia's right leg, causing her to lose balance. Freudia, poised as ever, leaned back and aimed at the ground;
"Frostfackel!"
With the recoil from the shot, Freudia came back on her feet while sending the ice torches burning in Dolis's direction. Dolis managed to jump away from the torches before they reached her and once again merged herself into the woods.
"Looks like you are something else, but don't think that you can always be lucky!" Dolis, obviously begrudged that her surprise attack fared badly, sent her voice through the woods, "let me see how you can attack without finding me!"
Dolis's time-consuming strategy quickly ate away at Freudia's patience, causing Freudia to start outputting in large amount her frozen aura. The white of snow emerged from under Freudia's feet and spread in all directions in the consumption of the nature while angry Frostfackel shot up from the icy ground like spears.
"Y-you really think you can scare with that?" surprised at Freudia's fortitude, Dolis managed to hide the uncertainty in her voice to a level of success, "Spirale, come back!"
The shuriken flew back to Dolis on a tree branch to the right of Freudia, who quickly raised her arm in that direction, ready to chant.
"Huh?"
Dolis, under the impact of the fast-spinning Spirale, lost her balance and fell from the tree branch. Right underneath her, the spear-sharp Frostfackel as if cheered in the upcoming doom of their prey. Freudia quickly started to retract her aura, cursing herself inside for her immaturity. She had outputted too much aura and the Frostfackel had become too strong for even herself to manipulate provided the short time interval.
Dolis's scream grew even more desperate as the seemingly last few seconds start to drift out of her clock of life. In a split second, a ball of light flew past Dolis's head. After the sound of a sharp crack of ice, Dolis landed safely, on her face.
Freudia opened her eyes and beheld the shocking scene; the icicle torch that not even she herself was confident in breaking was shattered into crystal-sized pieces. Among the falling shards of the icicle, Strudel showed herself. She was staring at Dolis, inspecting every aspect of her, and finally arriving at her conclusion;
"You are not round. But you are so cute and small "
Dolis revived herself from the face-smashing disaster that just took place and shouted right back, "DON'T CALL ME SMALL!" realizing that she was talking to a fairy, Dolis added with a flush, "You are smaller than me!"
"Looks like you are just fine, aren't you?" Freudia let out a breath, making sure that she wasn't noticed.
Turning towards Freudia, Dolis continued, "I just wasn't in the mood today, OK? But one day, I will grow up to be like Schirach-sama, mastering all the gracefulness and popularity."
"You won't get anywhere following the footstep of some flippantly random person like that."
"But you are certainly cute and small " Strudel cut in.
"STOP CALLING ME SMALL!" Freudia let out a sigh, complaining inside of the upcoming lengthy argument. But out of her expectation, Dolis simply gave her a last glance, murmured something to her and left.
…
That was a lot of time wasted…
"Freu! Found you " Strudel sang out to Freudia.
"You are still around?" Freudia broke herself off at mid-sentence and stared disbelievingly into the jewel embedded in the ring that Strudel wore around her neck.
"That's the elves' secret treasure? Lilli should have returned it to the Forest two month ago with Tia…"
"There are seventy-seven of them, hidden throughout the land." Strudel paused for a second and made a playful grimace, "actually there were originally seven-eight. But that's our secret "
"I see…"
Fairies aren't beings of strong magical power… but she has a blurry aura of such strength… Ruu, what in the world are you? Flamme des Zornes
"Ahh, how unpleasant!"
Pamela whined out loud to Eifer on their way back to the church. The Rosenkreuz Imperial Training Hall shone under the bath of the lunar bless behind them, soaked in a façade of peace that the land has had no fortune in enjoying.
"Tsk…"
Eifer grunted while following Pamela through the marble-paved path lined by a sea of blooming flowers; angel's trumpets, moonflowers, night phlox…
Rats. Soak in darkness and wither…
Eifer's mind was occupied, as it always was. To her, flowers meant no beauty; the day meant no light. There was only everlasting darkness of the evening, the haunting coldness of the pieces of memories.
"Ya, Ai-chan, how did it go?"
Eifer looked up, with a scratching glare, "Don't ask me the unnecessary, Schirach."
"Oh mine, mine!" Schirach didn't let her knife-sharp smile leave her face, even for the slightest second, "seeing that you had something with Freudia, I was generous enough to give the chance. Why would you suppose that I want to waste such a fun fight?"
"Hmph! Or I could dig your grave for you right here. I am pretty sure you will get plenty of fun fights in the other world!" Eifer threatened, her tiny hands curling up into balls of fist inside of her thick gloves.
"And here they go again~"
"Ri…right. Schirach, Eifer, please stop… if you please…"
The shadows of seemingly two images casted themselves on the snow white ground; they were two girls dressed in black sister suits. One of the girls had a long piece of ponytails hanging from the left side of her head with a row of bandage covering her right eye while the other had her ponytail dangling off of her right side. Both tied their ponytails with an oversized white ribbon.
"Lecht is right," Pamela cut in, "there is no point in us arguing with ourselves. Schirach, have you done the job?"
"Yes, yes milady," Schirach narrowed her eyes as if babysitting Pamela. A look of annoyed embarrassment flashed across Pamela's face, "but the church really does seem to like waste time and energy, moving all the magi into some special colony… killing them all would be much faster…"
"Tha…that's such a scary thing to say! God will never allow something like that!" one of the sisters in black exclaimed shyly.
"As I thought, she's got the worst personality." the other sister commented.
"We are the prestigious Schwarzkreuz. This witch hunt is also for the purpose of capturing the evil magi dissidents and correcting their wrongs. All is for the peace and honor of the Holy Empire. Unnecessary bloodshed should be avoided whenever possible." Pamela said with authority.
"And isn't that some beautiful ideal you've got there?" Schirach was on the verge of laughing while Eifer showed nearly obvious contempt, adding to Pamela's embarrassment.
"Talking about unnecessary bloodshed…" a thought flashed across Pamela's mind, "why don't I just go destroy the Rosenkreuz!"
"…!?" Eifer reacted to the words as if she was stung, "the church never ordered anything like that!"
"Don't worry," become somewhat confident in herself, Pamela seemed to be quite happy to be able to relieve the embarrassment, "all is for the sake of proficiency. As long as I bring back results, the Pope will certainly understand my intention."
"But…" the shy sister was just about to retort when a sound of thunder disrupted her.
"Magic aura!?", Pamela murmured to herself, looking towards the mountain range off in the distance towards the church. Near one of the tallest peaks in the range, a crimson red glow caught everyone's eyes, "Looks like my first target is set, Here I go!"
Without waiting for anyone else to say anything, Pamela jumped off, leaving behind all the grunts and worries behind.
I will prove to you all… that I, Pamela Arwig, am the justice!
Following the wild howls of the volcano, Pamela found herself landing on a meteor-stricken land overran by boiling magma; the breaking dawn is as if dyed scarlet by this river from hell.
"What's… wrong with this place…" Pamela murmured to herself, "the empire army is close. At this rate, the magma will run right over them…"
"That's right!"
As if from the burning flame of the rising sun, a bomb fell right into the pond of magma in front of Pamela and detonated in an angry roar, sending magma flying through the air like arrows of flame. In a swift dash, Pamela dodged through the flying magma intact. By the time she readjusted her vision, a girl with a metal claw already stood right over the broken shards of the bomb shell.
"You are?" the girl asked like a ghost. Her head was down; she wasn't even looking at Pamela.
"Looks like the RKS doesn't know any manners at all, Zorne Sepperin." Pamela drew out Weiβsilber, which was shining like a devil's trident, "I am Pamela Arwig, the captain of the Schwarzkreuz."
"Schwarzkreuz… the black cross?"
"Let this be your ultimatum to…"
"SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP!" Zorne raised her head, shooting an burning glare at Pamela, "all you dogs of the church, I won't forgive you ever! ZORNESBOMBE!"
At the scream, Zorne sent a bursting amount of her aura into the air. Almost instantaneously, two rows of bombs lined Pamela's feet in her surprise. In a flash of scarlet light, tons of rocks were sent into the air. With the help of a magical platform, Pamela landed on one of the rocks blown up.
"What a madman! This won't even make a talk, !"
A small congregation of aura from underneath alerted Pamela to the existence of another bomb magically embedded into the piece of rock Pamela landed on and she jumped into the mid-air just in time before a dazzling explosion.
"Nmph… Sepperin!"
Zorne leaped into the mid-air, positioned herself to be facing Pamela and lightly toss a bomb behind her. At the sound of thunder, Zorne was sent flying towards Pamela with a heavy kick, which Pamela blocked with Weiβsilber.
"It's not over yet!"
Zorne fetched another bomb and detonated it zero-distance. Pamela was nearly caught off guard but managed to summon up a barrier trigram. The rush of the hot air nevertheless pushed Pamela down and sank her deep into the group. Pamela let out a muffled yell of pain. When she opened her eyes again, Zorne was standing over her, the burning sun, now glaring halfway over the mountain range extending to the distance, fostered a dark silhouette on Zorne's forehead.
"Your forehead… is bleeding?" the words came out more like a question than intended.
"This thing is no comparison to what the church put my father through! It's over, Pamela Arwig." Zorne's sliver claw slowly turned burning red as she lifts it, aiming at Pamela.
The church? What nonsense. Injecting all her aura into the sword, Pamela brought the blade up with all her strength.
"ZORNESBOMBE!"
"WEIβSILBER!"
The two aura clashed head-on, its impact as if ripping the sky…
Die Weiβe Wϋste
The world is dyed purely white.
"Waa… so white!"
Ruu reached out her hands and a piece of snow flake gently fell on her palms.
"It's cold~… although snow is pretty, but it's freezing~"
"It's time to go, Strudel. We've already wasted enough time."
The blizzard grew more violent the farther Freudia went, like a dark foreboding of something ahead. The morning sun looked pale and powerless in the seemingly endless desert of snow.
"Yes, yes " Strudel sang out, "But why are we hurrying?"
"Why? Of course so that I can get to Tia as soon as possible."
"Tia?"
"One of my closest friend. She was abducted by the Schwarzkreuz." Freudia didn't know how to feel at the time; she was embarrassed to call Tia her closest friend out loud while Tia's abduction made her worry.
"Ahh~ so that's why you were in such a hurry, to rescue a friend?"
"Right. Tia taught me that; to always help a friend and to never give up."
"Freu, so kind " Strudel smiled.
"!?"
Freudia stopped. The blizzard suddenly grew monstrous, pouring down as if the sky was falling down. Then, slowly thawing away, an aura revealed itself.
"Good afternoon, Ms. Freudia."
"Liebea?" Freudia recognized the figure standing in front of her in the snow; curly pink hair draping over her bare shoulder with a loosely fit green dress, "aren't you supposed to be guarding the fugitive magi with Kahl? Plus, your magic power should be weak in such a blizzard."
Strudel came out from behind Freu, "say~ the blizzard is cold, could you stop the blizzard ?"
"Back down, Strudel. Do not approach that person."
"?"
"The church is so morbid. She looks exactly like Liebea, but nevertheless is a fake, like Tia has gone through before."
" Good afternoon, good afternoon, good afternoon, Ms. Freudia, good afternoon, good afternoon, good afternoon…" Liebea's arms started to fling up and down, colors faded from her eyes. With a twist of her feet, she came flying towards Strudel. A ghost of the smile that she was intended to imitate lingered on her face.
"Eisschwert!"
"Freu?"
Liebea fell past Strudel and right into the ground; sending snowflakes flying around her.
"Waa~" Strudel stared at the figure on the ground with curiosity; Liebea is wrapped in a coffin of ice. Soon, deformation started and the figure dissolved into a pile of grey dusts that dissipated into the thin air with the shattering of the ice coffin.
"Let this be a lesson to you on RKS's real power, and the fact that Liebea's magical attribute does not get along with mine, Ms. Fake." Freudia, with her back towards the coffin, said with her eyes closed. Her voice was droned by the sound of blizzard around her, which seemed to be crying in the funeral of a close friend.
"Freu is awesome! How did you know that person was fake?"
"There are always elements in a real living person that cannot be imitated, even though a living person was probably sacrificed."
"Oh… oh…" Strudel nodded.
"On top of which, Liebea is a kid who can only work around her brother, to the point where 'brother' is her most said word. It is utterly impossible for this Liebea to leave her brother on her own."
"Just like Freu and Tia-chan?"
Strudel's words brought Freudia to flush so much that it was almost recognizable in the snow, "I… I don't say 'Tia' that much at all…"
Freudia stared at the ground in embarrassment. Involuntarily, the shattered ice coffin came into her sight. A trace of sadness flashed across Freudia's expression.
" Freu, you held back for a second, didn't you?"
"…"
For just a short moment, the atmosphere around Freudia seemed to be filled with a different magical aura; one soaked in hatred and sadness that sublimed into a warm and loving aura like the real Liebea's.
"Good night. This aura will certainly protect you from the bitterness of the cold…" Freudia murmured.
"Freu?"
"No, nothing. Let's go, Strudel." Freudia flew off. Strudel stopped for a second and looked at the same spot Freudia was staring; a smile soon bloomed on her face.
"Okay " Strudel flew off after Freudia.
Lying on top of each of the thousands of shards of the ice coffin, crystalline ice flowers stood upright, blooming in their most grace.
Tränen Der Verzweiflung (Preview)
Pamela was dashing through the palace floating above the massive body of water. The rage of the scarlet sky earlier in the day faded but a deep blue seemed to seep in..
