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Circuit 2
Backstory To Tragedy
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There is a little church on a certain forest.
Rather than a church it acts more like an orphanage for orphans who seems to have potential and light affinity.
But rather than both of those, it acts more like a laboratory that treats the children there like cattle ready for slaugthering.
And the one who takes care of that church is none other than myself, Valper Galilei.
Today I decided to take in another child, while she doesnt have any light affinity she did came from a family of that new wielder of Durandal. She can just be used as a test subject to insert orbs with light affinity anyway.
At first she was scared of the other children, probably trauma of having her family slaugthered. But after a few weeks she started socializing with the other children.
Well it's not like I care, all that matters is the slight chance that even if the child doesn't have any light affinity, she could possibly have the affinity for holy weapons.
In truth it doesn't matter if the person doesn't have light affinity, if the weapon itself likes or recognizes the person, then there is a chance of them being able to use the swords ability. Having the light affinity does help though.
If not then she can be disposed of one way or another as a test subject.
While they weren't treated as humans, their conviction of being chosen by God is soo strong that it makes them not care about the treatment.
At the very least we gave them food so that they don't starve.
But the problem is that this isn't actually an operation that is supported by the church. Not the main one at the very least.
The Biblical faction, or rather the church under it is divivded. There are some who are truly devoted to the religion and joined the church so that they can further strengthen their belief and fight for it. This 'Believers' makes most of the people of the church.
Then there are some who joined the church and become exorcist in search for revenge agaisnt the devils or supernatural in general. Most of the exorcist are people who came from this faction, the 'Anti Supernaturalist'.
The main church is the one who is governed by angels directly, and are mostly made out of the 'Believers'. They would definetly not approve of theese method of research that I am doing.
So most of the funding is secretly given by the 'Anti Supernaturals' while a few people of the 'Believers' donated to the research as well.
The research itself is to transfer a persons light affinity to another, that and my own personal agenda of fusing the pieces of Excalibur.
I myself have once seen how dazzling that sword was in the battle field. Just the presence of the sword itself is able to purge lesser devils and weaken even the higher ranked devils.
If that dazzling light was made by only a fragment of Excalibur, think of how radiant the original fused sword would be.
Which shows the final faction that is inside the church, those who holds their beliefs like the 'Believers' and holds the hate against the supernatural as the 'Anti Supernaturalist', they are known as the 'Fanatics'.
Some people would just label these 'Fanatics' as crazy and they wouldn't be completely wrong.
But the problem is that the research isn't bearing fruit. Thinking that I smacked the table with both of my fist.
"Are they seriously going to cut my research budget! After all this time! When I am just so close too... no there's still time, if I'm able to get results than maybe-" My rambling was cut short by the knock on the door.
My face twisted from anger into a fake smile and asked "Who's there?"
The one who entered was none other than the child that I recently took in, Etherea Flowerchild sister to Xenovia Flowerchild whose name is now Xenovia Quarta after being taken in by the legendary Griselda Quarta.
Next to her was another child, she seems to be the next one to experiment on. An extra whose name doesn't need to be remembered.
"Ah, Anna huh. I was just about to call you in. Did you accompany her here Etherea?" Etherea nodded and patted the child in the head before leaving. It seems that she hasn't known the true nature of the facility yet.
But from the way that she saw the child next to me, I think that she is growing suspicious.
Every children who were taken in this room were children who weren't able to hold a holy sword.
But in the end everyone has a little bit affinity of light. The point of using theese children who couldn't hold a holy sword is to accumulate their small light affinity and stock pile them so that a person can hold a holy sword thanks to that stock piled holy affinity.
"Now then, shall we go in?"
She then followed me to the room next door.
Her screams were not heard due to the sound proofed walls there.
--(BREAK)—
It has been a few weeks after I was brought in by Mr. Valper. The word that can describe the situation here would be 'gloomy'.
I'm starting to think that those children who are getting 'adopted' and 'left' has one thing in common. Where in a normal orphanage there should at least be a 'goodbye session' between children.
But instead every children doesn't seem to return after visiting Mr. Valper.
The older and more matured children who are also living here seems to already know this and looked somewhat depressed.
More and more children are dissapering. I was copying how they weren't able to hold a holy sword by suppressing my innate powers.
But I didn't do anything about the dissapearance of the children.
And I regretted that till this day.
--(BREAK)—
It was supposed to be a normal day.
We were supposed to just eat breakfast and be over with it.
But instead we were gathered up in a single room.
Normally the children would be allowed to roam the building, while there would be several rooms that we would be prohibited from.
While some accepted their fate, some still held the small hope of living. And I was one of the children who held out to that small hope. I was the one who acted like a big sister to the younger children here. I kept telling them stories that I read in that cursed house.
After experiencing the fear of death, it would seem that I unconciously reverted into a more systematical approach to things. The fear, that single feeling that I felt driven me to believe that others bring misfortune.
It was proven by the fact that 'Mother' and 'Father' were the one who attracted the attention towards myself yes?
Though if you put it in a more logical manner, it would be my sister's fault for attracting attention to us. It was also thanks to that, both my 'Mother' and 'father' treated me like they did.
But in the end it was just me seeking an excuse.
The though of 'what if' never left my mind, not even untill today.
I would realize soon enough that this was the feeling of regret.
But the children here, even though they accepted their fate, even knowing that some of them doesn't have that much time here, they still accepted me as one of their own. I once again felt the feeling of having a family.
"And on top of that castle, the prince fought against the demon and saved the princess. And they lived happily ever-"
It was right when I was talking with someone when they bursted in.
Men dressed in black who were wearing gas masks who were carrying some sort of gun. The gun itself didn't shoot bullets but it let out a purple gas.
If I were in my original body then I shouldn't care due to my innate poison resistance. But in this fragile and weak human body, the moment I sniffed the gas itself I coughed up blood.
I once again felt the fear of dying.
I tried to run for the one and only exit since the windows were barred. But I was taken down by one of the men. "Hold still you little shit, this'll be over real soon." The man said in a low voice.
I struggled, trying to get away but with this body of mine I wasn't able to even push the man away. But suddenly someone threw themself into the man, it was a child with brown hair and same coloured eyes.
Thanks to the distraction I was able to excape the man's grip, but when I looked behind to the child again I could see determination in his face as he held the man down. It was a face that I have seen on the battlefield before.
'Go on without me' is simply what he is saying. No, it was they were all saying. When I look back at it, I should've seen the resolve in their eyes.
It was an expression that would be made by the many sky-dwellers that I fought before towards those who they consider friends or their important people.
Not even looking back I ran as fast as I can. At that point of time it was out of self preservation.
I didn't even notice the blonde that was running parallel to myself.
No, it was more likely that I didn't want to notice. It was simply the unconcious action that my body took to preserve and guarantee survival. The time that I spent on this church weren't long, but it was enough to build some sort of bonds with the other children.
It wasn't my intention to build bonds here, in fact I was the opposite.
As I continued to run deeper into the forest, I could feel the snow on my feet. Or to be exact, I couldn't feel my feet because of it.
But I couldn't stop running. The sun has already set, and the masked men brought out torches to search for us. But I never once looked back.
I continued to tread in the cold and snowy forest, slowly but surely getting further and further away the orphanage. I tried my best to stop myself from coughing up blood by holding up a hand on my mouth, but there was still red liquid that was flowing down.
I muted down the coughing that I heard from behind me as I continued to run as fast as I can. But the situation itself weren't doing me any favours.
I was sure that my own fragile body was breaking down and my own running speed is slowing down. I was sure that it was both due to the effect of both the enviorment and the poison combined. Then factor in the fact that my current body didn't have any sort of training at all which leads to a body with a low level of immune system.
It would be easily deduced that the one and only drive that kept me running was due to the fear of death.
It was thanks to that fear, that primal instict that was intilled on every single being was the one drive that kept me alive at that point. It was thanks to that primal instict that made me tune out everything around me.
At that point I didn't realized that the one who has been running parallel to myself had fallen.
But I continued.
Fueled only with the fear of death.
I lost track on how long I ran on the snowy forest. But I knew that this was coming to and end. Slowly but surely my pace slowed, slowly but surely my vision blurred. And before I knew my face had contacted the snow.
And slowly the white snow on the ground turned red.
And yet the one and only thing that was on my mind was the simplest of all instict.
"I don't want to die." I said out loud with the remaining energy that I had.
But no miracle happened.
There wasn't a prince that would come and save me.
The angels won't come down from heaven to save someone who prayed half hearthedly, not to save someone like myself.
The closest hope I could have was to be saved by a devil.
But unknowingly that hope was taken by the blonde who had already fallen.
And still, I wished for that miracle to happen.
But none of it would happen.
'If only I didn't hold back on that holy affinity exam...'
'If only I didn't go with that old man...'
'If only...'
Theese kinds of thought drifted on my mind.
"This is the end huh... to think that I would die like this... if only I was a normal girl..."
Eh?
Normal?
That question popped into my mind. Am I... normal?
No, I'm far from it aren't I?
From the start, the ability that I kept secret isn't at all normal right?
As I clawed the snow with my left hand, a staff twice the size of my body appeared. It was a golden staff adorned with purple gems and a purple handle.
The five soul staff easily appeared on my hand as I wished for it.
A weapon created with the purpose of healing, a weapon that amplifies the magic that are support based. It also amplifies light based magic attack.
"[Blessing of Light]." I whispered with the remaining strength of my body.
And soon the poison in my body disapeared. But even though the poison was gone my body itself still hurt like hell. I soon realized that my body was very, very weak.
Even if I was able to save myself, a sense of regret grew deep down. If only I used this power sooner then maybe I would have been able to save the others.
Why, why, why, why, why, why, why, why, why, why, why, why, why, why, why, why, why, why, why, why, why, why, why, why, why, why, why, why, why, why, why, why, why, why, why, why, why, why, why, why, why, why, why, why, why, why, why, why, why, why, why, why, why, why, why.
But at that time I didn't regretted it at all, at that time I was smiling due to the disapearance of the poison in my body. All that I had thought of was self preservation.
With the poison out of my system I ran once more.
But even with the poison out of my body, the body itself was still burdened due to running full speed for an untold amount of time. I didn't even realize that the men were no longer chasing me. But then a new danger arrived.
"Grrr."
A low growl was let out from behind a tree. I tried to stand, but my body was too tired. And soon a pack of wolves appeared from behind the tree. Six wolves with white fur started to walk towards me.
In my weakened state where I was using the [Five Soul Staff] to support myself, it would normally be dangerous to fight the pack of wolves in front of me.
'Ah, isn't this situation dangerous? Normally this kind of situation are dangerous aren't they?'
Even though I'm in this state, the normally hard and difficult even life threatening doesn't measure with the wars between the sky-dwellers and astrals.
'You can't even seem to compare any daily danger with a war though...'
As one of the wolves pounced towards me, a ball of light flew from the staff. And as it made contact with the wolf's stomach, a hole was left on where the ball made contact with the wolf.
The wolf then fell limply on the ground. The other wolves then took a step back, but then there were some who took another step forward. Those who took a step forward looked young though, it seemed that the older ones seemed more experienced.
'Ah, so the fear of death does exist in beasts too huh'
As a few more young wolves pounced towards me, they met the same fate as the first one.
Seeing this the older wolves then ran away.
I let out a sigh as I slumped down while holding the [Five Soul Staff]. Even controlling my magical energy and making all those balls of light were straining this body of mine.
'Ah, I'm feeling sleepy.' As I thought that my vision slowly grew darker. I decided to check my surrounding and check if it would be fine to sleep before falling asleep. At this point after deciding to throw away living a normal life, I seemed to have taken a more easy going look on any situation.
'it seemed that nobody followed me.' I then proceeded to sleep by leaning on a tree. It's cold so I created a ball of light that radiated a small amount of heat. After that my consciousness faded.
--(BREAK)—
"I think it's this way." My eyes shot open as soon as I heard voices.
'Who was it that was coming here?' as I took a peek from behind the tree, I saw that It was THEM, it was the men that killed all the children. There was three of them, and the weapon that they brought wasn't the gun that sprayed poison like earlier.
'Ah, didn't I let them die though?' I was lost in my thought, but was pulled back into reality when I heard their footsteps. My heart raced raced faster than the slaughter of the wolves. Wolves were wolves, animals who goes with primal instict, humans however had common sense, imagination and feelings.
it maked my heart raced and was filled with fear. As the men walked closer and closer to the tree that I was on, I prepared the [Five Soul Staff, three balls of light then floated around the tip of the staff.
"Are you sure it was around here?" one of the men asked.
"There was a reading of light energy around here, Valper said it himself didn't he?" Answered another.
The man responded with, "Well, guess that's right. But to bring whoever back alive, is he really sure that one of those children did this? There was only two that escaped, and they're probably dead."
"Just search for the source." Answered the third man on their group.
As one of them closer, the first one who seemed to be in charge ordered them to split up. One of them decided to go near the tree I rested on. As soon as he was right next to the tree, a ball of light hit him right in the face.
Before he was able to scream however, the rest of the balls went to continuosly attack him. Different from the balls that slaugthered the wolves, these three balls were weaker and each carried only half of the wolf killers destructive ability.
So following the events of the wolves. After being hit by the third and final ball of light, the man was left headless. His body then slumped down and a pool of blood flowed from his neck and coloured the snow red. I didn't feel anything after killing him. I guess even after feeling fear for the first time, since death was a constant companion on the sky realm it didn't change even in this world.
The other men heard the sound of him falling and rushed his way. The two then pulled something out of their belt. That something then had a beam of light come out of it and formed a sword of light.
'So those are the sword that the people of the church used.' I thought as the two neared me. I poured magical energy into the [Five Soul Staff] to make more balls of light. And as four balls of light with the same qualities as before appeared, my body felt some sort of force was emiting pressure.
'So this body can only hold up to three balls of light without getting strained.'
"Sacred Gear! If we capture her now, we'll surely get a promotion! Capture her!" the leader ordered and the two of them rushed towards me.
One jumped to do an overhead slash while the other pulled some sort of gun and pointed it towards me and shot two bullets towards my feet.
Pointing the staff towards the man who was jumping, two of the balls went and flew towards him. The other two then flew towards the bullet.
The jumping man used his sword to block both the balls of light while the other two balls deflected the bullet. I forced my body to jump away, and I barely avoided the jumping man's attack.
He then continued his assault by swiping his light sword and tried to swipe away the staff from my hands. I was barely able to hold on to the staff, but was able to keep holding it by jumping to the side using his swing to gain momentum.
I poured more magical energy to the staff as I was falling, and three balls of light flew towards the man's head before he could react.
He was the second to fall in his group.
The third and final man instead of fighthing decided to warn the others by screaming "She's over here!"
'Eh! There's other groups!?' as soon as I thought that, I saw a few more people in the distance. 'So they were still searching while I was sleeping...' seeing that more and more people were coming, I saw that with my current state of not well rested and only strong enough to make around three balls of light, I won't be strong enough to take a full group where I didn't have the element of surprise.
I took the first man by surprise and granted him a swift death, the second one I was able to kill because he was looking down on me and he was also ordered to take me in alive.
But the third person signaled for help this means that he's already wary of me, I won't have the element of surprise this time. Plus adding the fact that the others that he called would also be wary, it certainly means that I won't have a high chance of winning in this weak and frail body.
'I'll have to escape... but how?' as my mind raced trying to find a solution out of this situation, my mind wandered to the many scenarios that could happen.
'Simply running away would just result in getting caught, fighthing is no good too, then the only way out would be magic isn't it? But since I focus in combat magic things like that would be...' I then remembered the one magic that I saw in this world.
The magic used by the devils who went and got rid of my parents, they used some sort of teleportation magic to leave didn't they? 'If I remake the magical energy that they used that time... this would be my one and only method of escaping huh.'
Seeing this as my one and only way of escape, I gathered my magical energy on the [Five Soul Staff]. As the magical energy gathered, a magic circle began forming under me.
"A devil summoning circle!? No, it's... inverted? How did this child-" before he was able to finish however, the others was already coming near and one of them shot his gun.
Seeing as I was more focused on creating the magic circle, I didn't notice bullet until it grazed my cheek. And when it did, I lost focus on the completely finishing the copy. But the magic still worked and I disapeared from the snowy forest.
While the men of the churh were left confused due to the shock on how a CHILD who they thought used holy type magic somehow used a dark and devil-like magic, I was falling through the air.
It wasn't that high, seeing as a second after the transportation I hit a bunch of branches on my way down. While it did slow my fall, in the end I hit the ground hard. Left with small cuts and bruises, I opened my eyes and saw the grassy ground.
"[Sunshine]." I casted and magical energy wrapped my body and accelerated my natural healing. As soon as my wounds were closed I stood up and looked around. Seeing nothing but greenery everywhere was a good change of pace at the very least.
I decided to then travel deeper into the forest. My journey on the Familiar Forest began that day.
