After what felt like mere moments after she had lost herself to the corruption that had infected her, a woman, whose long crimson red hair which was normally kept in orderly braids prior to her untimely death, had become ragged with long strands blocking her forest green eyes, further blocked by her being face down in a void of pure unbridled darkness, what seems to be silent whispers rang out in her mind yet she could somehow recognize a single word from the source imprint itself in her thoughts
[A...w...a...k...e...n…]
Despite her best efforts, her body reeled back and forth as she struggled to pull herself up, nearly falling face-first onto the ground yet again, only averted by her stretching her arm forward to prevent the incoming fall, slowly adjusting her position to return to a standing posture, her off-hand wiping her disgruntled scarlet red hair to the back and side as to restore her vision but when the time for her to speak, only weak gasps escaped her throat, her hand immediately lightly clenching her throat as she tries to force words out
[Do not strain yourself young knight. Your body and mind has been destroyed by malevolence but your soul remains pure, for the time being. Even that will succumb if you act so hastily. Speak with expression. Do you wish to live again?]
The woman didn't hesitate for a moment as she firmly nodded, truly wanting another chance at life after having it robbed from her so abruptly, a giddy smile on her face as thoughts of her being reunited with her friends come soaring through her mind
[Understand that the laws of the universe are very unkind when it comes to the matter of reincarnation Lilica Teken. While you will keep your past memories and your personality, your very being will be irreversibly changed. Furthermore, you are not allowed to reside in any world that is connected to Gamindustri. A perfect world has already been located that fits these criteria: the world of Vistrahda; which is encased in a special barrier preventing anything from entering or leaving through conventional means, even those that Gamindustri applies. You will be given a special status as a protector of life to the world since it is still suffering from a force of corruption known simply as Chaos. You will not be alone however. You will have allies in Seedlings, Drauk, Serkah, and Lagora. The Seedlings will be a sort of lifeblood for your existence while the Drauk, Serkah, and Lagora will be your sword and shield.]
Hearing this immediately soured her perspective as the smile immediately warped into a grave frown, her head hung low at the thought as she thinks about what this reincarnation will cost her. Even though she knows she was unmarried and her immediate family had died long before her back in Gamindustri because of the immortality she had been granted by Arcadia's CPU, which was revoked when Arcadia's original Aqua Heart finally departed Gamindustri alongside all of her extradimensional allies, as a means of ensuring healthy relations between Arcadia and Parthenia by keeping Grandmaster Medea Lisalon and the elite Obsidian Squad alive as representatives, her immediate family comprising of her parents, older brother, and younger sister; she still had many friends among the living back on Earth and other such worlds that she will never going to see again, whether she is dead for good or reincarnated on this 'Vistrahda'
'This is...not promising. Whether I live or die, I'm never going to be able to see my loved ones again. Do I go through with this for a second chance at life or just enjoy undeath?'
Lilica pondered this with great thought as to which option seems more preferable in the long term, ultimately deciding that, even if she'd never see those she cares for, it is her responsibility as a Parthenian Knight to protect those who are suffering. While they had begun succumbing to corruption and incivility because of how their lands were dying, believing that if they were to die, they may as well discard chivalry and live for the moment, allying and later even surrendering their sovereignty to become an official part of Arcadia in name and station, had rejuvenated their spirit and reinforced the concept of a chivalrous knight once again as they drove themselves to fight monsters and defend the innocent with heightened valor. This was a difficult decision for Grand Master Medea Lisalon to make as she began to believe the strain of leadership over a country would only serve to brew corruption for an order of knights so she made the difficult decision to surrender Parthenia's civilian sovereignty and reform themselves into a simple order of knights who maintain their own chains of command within the order while being under absolute control of Arcadia. While this was a difficult decision for many of the higher ranked Knights to accept, they, in the end, put their trust in Lisalon to make what she believed was the right choice for her knights, which, ultimately proved to be beneficial as the separation of knight and civilian allowed them to focus solely on military matters on the ground while Arcadia dominated the sky and ocean with their advanced vehicles, and although it took decades of development, they eventually managed to construct a space elevator and a small navy in space, even to this day as they possess a mere fifteen ships, though their determination to protect the planet led to make each about half the size of the Inigu and scattered them about the world, though kept a grand total of 3 around Keisa filled to the brim with droid production facilities to produce mechanized armies, hangars which stored their vehicles, all sorts of crew facilities since each ship has a typical crew size of twenty thousand people.
With this done, Lilica opened her mouth and attempted to speak, quickly feeling the strain on her throat from the mere intent of speaking, her face cringing from the pain of exerting muscle that has been near entirely dulled and her balance beginning to weaken as standing is becoming difficult, same with her voice as she quickly learned.
"I...I...accept. I...am...a knight. Protecting...others...is...my-"
[Stop! You'll destroy yourself if you speak right now! Being in this void between worlds is killing you. I'm sending you to Vistrahda immediately!]
After this was said, a multi-colored bubble was created in voidspace in front of her and as if her body was being manipulated like a marionette controlled by a puppetmaster, she walked toward the portal and slowly fell through it; experiencing a sight of a myriad of colors as she went through, eventually witnessing a dull orange screen of light as she phases through, noticing her body become enveloped in a translucent white making her body undergo a bizarre metamorphosis as her legs disappeared, replaced with a large mermaid tail comprised entirely of dark see-through water, her hair warping into a ponytail resembling a backwards quaver and her lightly tanned skin morphed into pure water with a ivory white strapless dress shirt covering half of her body, seeing that her eye color has morphed from a bright green to teal because of the reflective surfaces before quickly shrinking into a small orb as it fully passed through a bubble shield as the colors changed from a kaleidoscope pattern to that of a proper planet's with blue skies, noticing the immediate environment seems to be entirely desert as she fell toward the ground like a shooting star, quickly landing in a small treeless oasis and her body reconstituted into the mermaid form she witnessed.
With control of her body being fully returned to her, Lilica looked about the area as she lightly swam around the oasis and found nothing but desert and mountain in the immediate vicinity, her breathing immediately became strained yet again as she dove under the water which quickly served to rejuvenate her being enough for her to acclimate to this new world's differing environment in addition to her transformation into a different type of being, the water having a sensation similar to an ethereal ambrosia as the effects took root and the frailty Lilica suffered vanished in a heartbeat. With this done, she returned to the surface, no longer feeling the complication of the air contrasting with her
"Aaah~, that's refreshing! Guess I needed a real burst of freshwater to get the ol' organs operatin' again. I have no idea how Karen was able to shrug off death so often so casually!" After speaking, Lilica paused as she reflected how her voice, while largely similar to how she was as a human, now carried a watery wisp similar to what Sui or the average Nexirian carried in their voices, the former being a nickname Lilica had to Suina, whom was part of the group from Yuidora "Oh geez, I hate these kinds of wisps! It always made understanding Sui or the Nexirians challenging, well, more the Nexirians since they're a drastically different kind of life. Sui was a tad more...human I guess. I don't know; I'm not a flippin' exobiologist or whatever the hell they call themselves! Well, guess I'll have to deal with it. At least I have a second chance at life, can't argue with that...much."
Continuing her inspection of the area, Lilica gave off a weak sigh "So I wonder how long I'll have to wait-...wait, did that voice actually say I'd have them at my side? Only that I'd have allies in this apparent conflict." Lilica mused her thoughts as she recalled what had been told to her in the 'afterlife', and realized the lack of clarification on the matter "Oh ffffff-"
2 weeks later
"Ugh. It's been fifteen days and I am seriously beginning to lose my mind, being kept trapped in this tiny oasis here! The old me likely could've handled this kind of thing for quite some time but I'm not that cool under fire anymore. I mean...I handled nearly half a decade traveling the vast plains of the Ultradimension's Keisa by myself. Well, technically since I had Aika with me? Then again, she didn't speak to me much at that time. I even had to fight off that twisted as hell Parthematus Order when they tried assassinating me when I met that dimension's version of the Parthenian Knights that were cursed by Rei into extreme cowardice. Hard to believe there was a sect of assassins related to the Kresniks like Mamoru, and as experienced and deadly as the Scattered Bones stranded in Gamindustri. Honestly, the bastards made me have to get a prosthetic arm, leg, and eye from Thraaklon and they even chased me to the mainland, that was awkward as hell, walking around and even fighting with such crippling wounds. I inadvertently got Karen, Maria, Nilia, and Hillary involved in the battle when they decided to do some sparring in Planeptune to help train themselves as Tail Red, Yellow, and Black, making them all get injured so badly. It indirectly led to Karen being captured by the Seven Sages for nearly a decade. Ugh, I can remember fighting Yellow Heart, Rose Heart, and Platinum Heart and failing practically a baker's dozen times. It was only until Twoearle deployed Athena that we were finally able to turn the tide and take the fight to Eden itself to buy time for the CPUs. Funny that Twoearle decided to create an artificial lifeform to become Tail White since Karen and the others weren't able to find anyone in any of the four nations to synchronize with Tail White. Athena certainly was an ice cold bitch, no surprise since she's a robot, but she certainly proved a powerful and loyal ally. I really kind of miss those four; we fought more than I'd like to admit, particularly me and Maria since we both came from knight orders and our different ideologies caused far more trouble than it was worth. Though the craziest thing was when Karen, Maria, Hillary, Nilia, Maria, Thraaklon, and I uncovered those...I think Dia called them Silhouette Knights? Those things were monsterous to pilot and maintain until Thraaklon, Dia, Klumse, and Miyo combined their own individual expertise to make them easier to use for Arcadia's ground troops and even my fellow Parthenians after a while. Thraaklon worked to replace the metal frame with more accessible resources, Dia helped solve the issue of the Ether Reactors' fuel supply in a whole new world which lacked the exact formula, Klumse focused on improving the interface system so our troops could easily use such powerful mechs, and Miyo helped establish a system to mass-produce them; making them more easily usable for us all." Lilica stopped speaking as she deeply sighed and cupped her cheeks with her hands as she leaned onto the small amount of greenery around her oasis "Here I am, reflecting on my life out of pure boredom until someone comes to keep me company. Fifteen days of near uninterrupted monologues about my life. Fifteen days to cover about twenty five years. If this goes on too long, I am genuinely screwed. There's only so much I can reflect on. I'm going to lose my mind to insanity and isolation if this keeps up. Please...someone come so I won't be alone anymore."
Fifteen days later
It has now been a full month since Lilica found herself in Vistrahda and that month of isolation has caused her to undergo a fair amount of mental degradation which had caused her to become quite unhinged, a small part from how much she has talked to herself to pass time which she did to try maintaining her sanity which only had the opposite effect as she looked up toward the sky enough to see the sun's glow without glaring at it directly, even though it had begun to dimmer as it passed the apex of the day quite some time ago.
"Hello there Mr. Sun. Huh? How am I feeling? Quite chipper if I may be frank, but it has been outright boring being the only living thing in this entire area. I'm almost mad I was allowed to keep my memories. If I had been a empty slate, maybe I might've been able to withstand this whole isolation thing. Sure I can imagine I'd be questioning my past if I lacked my memories. Geez...I hate this!" While she had been suffering from delusion for most of this monologue, she had managed to reclaim a brief bout of sanity, having forced herself into the oasis water for ten minutes before returning to the surface "This freaking sucks! I wonder if I should've chosen death." Lilica stopped speaking for a brief moment as she deeply sighed in mild irritation "I miss Astona and the others. I'd love having some way to pass the time meaningfully, cause honestly...I've completely narrated my entire life at this point. Considering I don't need sleep, I've been conscious about 700 hours now. 700 hours to reflect on over a century's life. Damn it. Medea and Wagtail would be ashamed of me right now, losing my composure like this. Haha, Wulfric always hated me calling him that but he was so fun to tease. Though he was still a capable leader in my merc band, hence why I named him my successor if I were to depart or die. I'm sure he's heard by now and took over for me as leader. Poor guy. I wanted to make sure he was ready before I gave him the role."
Moments after this final monologue, what seemed to be a scarab appeared in front of her, with it carrying a small crystal ball underneath it. The fact any sort of living being around, even something as minute as a bug, was enough to warm her heart which was oh so yearning for any sort of companionship from any sort of living being, which quickly began to show a group of forty, comprising of four races, noticing their wardrobes seemed similar to what she had read of the Egyptians from Earth, noticing some being small plant-life lifeforms, others being lithe lizardfolk carrying spears on their backs, humanoid rabbits with a height in-between the two but with large ears on top of their heads, dual swords on their lower back, and large robust creatures that Lilica couldn't describe fluidly, only vaguely similar to a humanoid scorpion, with large hammers also on their back. After seeing their appearances through the crystal, she instinctively touched the crystal with her gentle aquatic fingers, her heart and mind racing at the idea of seeing actual humanoid life which, by the way they carry themselves, carry advanced intelligence much like any average human, which quickly began to show what the group was saying
"Hey Tetha, you think there's any oases around here? We left your father's oasis nearly six months ago to get this far out and we're in some pretty inhospitable territory. We're starting to get tired of being in such dangerous environs. Saying that poisonous swamp from a week ago was one of the least encumbersome threats is saying something about how dangerous this area is."
"I know you're getting tired of traveling Miura. We've gone a far way from home, but it's our job to start rebuilding these safe havens. Slowly but surely, we're supposed to create sanctuary and reclaim this world from Chaos. Why not start in one of the more infected regions?"
"Tetha. You. Are. Insane. Even if your logic has some merit, you're still loco."
"H-Hey! I see an oasis over there! Look! Look!" One of the rabbitfolk jumped and slightly clapped his hand as he turned to face the group he is with, carrying a childlike smirk of victory.
"H-He's right. Kohaku found us an oasis. Finally. We can finally rest our legs in safety." Zebulon simply crossed his arms and smiled at the idea of a brand new oasis being established far from Tethu's oasis near Ostraka Ruins "Even though Esna gave her life to purify Chaos, it hardly means that the world itself is pure again. We have to put in a lot of muscle grease to make it lively."
"This is...the surroundings them are almost identical to what I've took glances at here. I won't be alone anymore! Wait, I just realized. Considering I was reincarnated in this new body, should I still call myself Lilica Teken? I'm not exactly a Parthenian the way I am. Hmm...names...names...Wait, I'll borrow the name of the Parthenian Knight's first female leader of Obsidian squad: Ceresica. Our records say she was the single most badass knight ever among us, living or dead. No one ever came close to matching her prowess or her kindness. The fact she was the one who domesticated our dragons only strengthened her legacy, even though she gave her life overusing magic to do it. Yes...I'll pick that as my new name in this world. Ceresica. A brave and kind woman willing to do whatever is needed to protect her home and those she loves." After saying this, Lilica, or rather Ceresica now, immediately began to recall past events in Gamindustri and profusely frowned as her head hung low and her eyes began becoming dewey
"...Just like Karen. She sacrificed a great deal of her nobility when she came into contact with that...I think Dia called it the...Dark Energem? The fact she was able to retain her innocence and memory only just goes to show how strong she was when the corruption was said to be instant and absolute. Karen...why did it have to be you? You should've let me fall to it! As much as it terrified her, Astona was prepared to kill me to make sure it was forever gone, and vice versa. Ginham and Lilon were prepared to do the same with each other even though they were twins. We were willing to die if it meant genuine peace! If sacrificing a single knight ensured that its corruptive nature would be forever destroyed, I would've gladly done it! Better a mere knight to die than an almighty CPU. But no...I died for nothing fighting Tybalt...no, Pellice in a pointless attempt to capture him for the TSAB. And my own hesitation made Hikari and Yami grow up without ever seeing their mother as she truly was. She distanced herself from everyone she cared for to protect them from her own evil since the combination of malevolence and the energy from the Dark Energem in unison forever changed her. Her alter-ego in Crimson Heart acted as a barrier for the energem, but the malevolence...it was too much as even that indomitable goddess, powerful and beautiful like a shined katana's edge, was lost to us all. In a sense, Crimson Heart died and was corrupted into Obsidian Heart, a being of absolute evil. Karen...you were so brave and strong. Stronger than any of us to have fought off such evil on your own for two decades. I...envy you my friend. I'm not sure if even Grand Master Selles would've been able to withstand it and he had been alive for millennia before Rei Ryghts finally revoked his curse of immortality and they both died in peace. That was...it was scary losing our leader, he led us for so long and now we suddenly had to acclimate ourselves to his replacement in Medea. I...hope you're free of the evil that infected you. I wish I could see you."
Ceresica was becoming more and more emotional the more she spoke about this particular event in her past, genuinely wishing that she had been more firm in her convictions and stepped forward to become the one corrupted and faced death by Astona's hand with as much free will as she could possibly muster. If she succeeded, she might've been able to keep Karen and her friends and future family together "What's arguably worse is that because she didn't fall prey to the corruption in its entirety back then, using the Split Emitter was pointless, unlike when we used it to separate Karen and Caelus before the battle with all those freaky CPU clones, giving them complete freedom as Crimson Heart and Aqua Heart respectively. It would've been scary facing such a powerful being, but we might've been able to separate them at the moment of transformation and destroy the monster the evil would've manifested as. The elegance and refined nature of Caelus' Aqua Heart kept Arcadia under control in terms of politics since she was experienced when it came to running a nation while Karen's Crimson Heart served as Arcadia's supreme leader when it comes to its military, though she was arguably wise to divide power among her generals back then. Garrus, Wrex, Yuela, Mamoru, Million Arthur, Nitroplus, God Eater, Segami's SeHa generals, and quite a few other experienced leaders. Oh god, it was scary when Milli, Nitro, and God Eater joined us since they said they came from a really bad future. Those three told us that the strength of the monster evolution caught all of the nations off-guard and devastated Planeptune, Lastation, Lowee, Leanbox, and Arcadia. It began when a large chuck of Parthenia's knights got annihilated and that timeline's Aqua Heart rallied the survivors around her own army and mobilized them to travel the country to exterminate the monsters, leaving a skeleton crew to protect Pendragon and Arcadia City. Unfortunately, battle after battle led to the near complete destruction of the Arcadian military and the deaths of CPU Aqua Heart and Aqua Sister which allowed monsters to rampage freely throughout the land rampaging. The only safe havens on that continent were the walled cities far apart from each other guarded by an absolutely tiny garrison, the distance had completely cut themselves off from each other. The Miyo Hanari of the time was utterly distraught and hardly did anything since she was in part responsible for the expedition, locked herself away in her lab. The technologically advanced Arcadia was beaten into submission and fear as its few thousand people remained trapped in their walled cities. Desperately trying to keep the fight alive despite their limited military capabilities and eke out a miserable life in the self-sustaining mechanized cities and the other four nations were completely unheard from by the few kingdoms living outside their reach. The monsters were simply too powerful for ships to cross that stretch of ocean. But even then, civilization far beyond the CPU's territory did manage to grow, such as the kingdom of Albion where Million Arthur came from, with most of the info of the ruined world coming from God Eater and Nitroplus who fled from the devastated Lastation and PC Continent respectively. The trio went back in time to ensure the nations survived the fight and live to the future. And considering the state of things now, they succeeded. Not as well as I would've liked since so many of my fellow knights did die buying time for Arcadia and the other nations to prepare their militaries to fight the good fight, but civilization in Gamindustri survived to see the light of day. Kinda a shame they faded into the dust once Arcadia began deploying their advanced mecha and airships which ensured that the monsters would not be a severe threat. But I suppose that since Gamindustri was saved, their old devastated timeline became non-existent and their lives alongside it. At least they went out smiling and said farewell to us and not just fade away in the middle of night." Ceresica stopped speaking as she wiped her eyes to try refocusing her attention off of what she was thinking about "I need to stop talking about my past now. Not when I need to start living in the present now that I have people will need my help."
Two and a half hours passed and the group of forty climbed up a hill that had neighbored the small oasis, finally being in close proximity of it as they began a slow approach, the slump in their bodies coming from a long journey evident
"Tetha, you see a spirit here or are we going to have to do this the long way?"
"I do Miura. Can you start getting our people spread out so they can rest while I meet the spirit?"
"Sure thing future chief. Come on everyone. Let's get some shut eye!"
Upon Tetha's request, Miura gestured the group to follow her while the seedling leader approached the oasis proper where Ceresica stood and calmly stared at her
"I'm honored to meet you great water spirit. I am Tetha, direct descendent of Tethu and child of the Great Tree. May I request your name?"
"You may call me Ceresica. I am pleased to make your acquaintance as well young Tetha."
"Miss Ceresica, I'd like to ask for your help in establishing a new oasis here so we can set up a home for my people here."
"Erm...about that young Tetha...I was only recently born so I have no idea how to go about creating an oasis beyond what is already here. I apologize." While Ceresica was hiding the fact she was from another world, the rest of her words were pure truth, if slightly adjusted according to her thoughts regarding the matter of reincarnation.
Despite Ceresica's hesitation, Tetha simply shook her head with a calm smile "My father told me of the ritual needed to create an oasis before I departed. I can take the reins if you don't know what to do Miss Ceresica. Take my hands and lead me to the center of the oasis here. I'll handle the rest from there."
Ceresica hid a blink of confusion at the seedling's words, wondering if they all can walk on water like she is suggesting but shook the thought out of her head. She's foreign to this world while Tetha and her party has context she doesn't have in this situation so she should just play along as she follows through with what she asked, taking the seedling's hand and moved to the center, quickly rising into the air as a bright light exited her chest and quickly entered Ceresica's for a brief moment before exiting yet again and soared above the duo as it began establishing roots for a tree which began expanding out into the surrounding area in a circular radius of a mile as the desert began transforming into greenery, with a large teardrop shaped structure growing underneath the new tree that was born, noticing a river extending all over the newly expanded oasis, both Tetha and Ceresica finding themselves within the aquatic environment; Tetha standing on a small upward path made of crystallized water while Ceresica stood floating in the water about the area, staring at the 'building' in quiet awe
'Wow, this feels like one of those 'ol Nexirian buildings I heard about from Haruka. I've never seen it first-handed unlike those guys since I kept myself to Glenwood all those years since it just felt so...homely to me. Gamindustri was more dangerous sure so I'd never see a lack for battle, but I just wanted something...different from battle. Heh, some of those stuck-up nobles wanted to adopt me into their families just to boost their 'standing' and stay relevant. Like hell I'd let myself get caught up in their bloody ol power feuds. I was freaking tempted to send the Scattered Bones after those numbskulls! Honestly, Alisha was one of the only decent nobles I met. We even called each other sisters. It was...nice to have someone that close back in Glenwood. Not that I wasn't close with Celina, Rose, and the Sparrowfeathers. Far from it. Well, more the latter two than Celina since that chick was bat shit crazy with her masochism. She made a damn good assassin though, despite her age since she was reaching her late fifties and her body wasn't as flexible than her time in Arcadia, not going to lie. I was the only one really ill-suited for the Scattered Bones since my upbringing as a knight contrasted that of an assassin, and I wasn't all that big on killing people. But my skill in battle did give me some credibility. Of course, there were times when when I genuinely wanted to kill targets that the Scattered Bones marked, like Konan. That bastard deserved to die for what he did. Sorey and Karen did try to stop us since they were Shepards, but Celina and I stalled them so Rose could kill him. Figures he turned out to be a hellion though so the job became a lot tougher. Wait, how in the flying hell did I go from thinking of the Nexirians to my time in Glenwood?!'
"Miss Ceresica, is something the matter? You seem distracted."
"It's nothing young Tetha. I'm just...amazed by the sights here. I've been kept stuck in that tiny oasis since the time of my birth. I'm just lost for words at the marvelous beauty I am seeing. Tetha, there is something I wish to ask in regards to the situation at hand. I am eager to have some companionship, so could you tell me what your companions are like? I'd like to know so I don't offend them while I talk."
"Miss Ceresica, you may not know this since you said you were recently born, but only us Children of the Great Tree can see spirits. I'm the only one who can see you."
"That's...I was hoping to be able to talk with more people, but I suppose beggars can't be choosers. Tetha, I have no idea what to do, but I'm in your care. Let's do our utmost and enrich the lives of the people living here."
A/N:
Okay, I probably really butchered the process that was shown in Ever Oasis, but I did the best I could with the context I was given from the game.