A/N: This is my first time uploading on so this site please tell me if any mistake is made. I saw a lot of authors doing a disclaimer so might as well do the same.
Disclaimer: The individual known as the author would like to inform the readers that any and all assets related to the series called Touhou Project do not belong to him/her but to a Japanese doujin game developer that goes by the name of Team Shanghai Alice. The author does not have the means to, nor is he/she planning to commercialize this story, which has the sole purpose of entertainment, in any way.
I wrote this story on impulse so any idea/suggestion is much appreciated.
My Discord invite code is kkE3nyn9bW
The world was in a deep dilemma.
Ever since the revival of the Demon King in the north, the lives of all denizens of the Eilgsue continent had been sufferings after sufferings.
The Demon King and his army were vicious. They overwhelmed the countries' armies with great numbers, superior individual strength, and powerful magic. They razed villages, towns, and cities that they captured, enslaving humans and other races, including children and women for their various purposes. The most forgiving situation for those who fell into the demons' hands being forced into labor, while the most unfortunate souls would end up being livestock, waiting day by day just to be eaten, alive or cooked.
The nations of the continent tried different things to push the demon back or at least halt their advance, from upgrading their military equipment and conscription in order to increase their army capability to researching new magic to challenge difficult enemies. After some time, many realized that one country alone does not has the necessary force to face the demon army, so the nations of Eilsgue banded together to form what was called the 'Eilsgue Demon Defense Pact'. The Defense Pact, a shortened name, aimed to focus the effort of the entire continent's fighting force and resources on places that are under direct threat from the demon invasion so as to have a better chance of fighting them back. However, not everyone agreed with the idea.
At first, some island countries near the demon's controlled territory opted to close their borders and switched to a self-sufficiency economy instead of joining the Defense Pact, their reason taken from the fact that the demon did not seem to have the technology needed to cross the ocean, and thus they were safe from the demon army.
That was until the Kingdom of Fishowi was attacked and absolutely devastated. The demon's movement betrayed earlier impressions as they arrived at the shore of the island nation with ships built by the once thought primitive race and sea monsters so gigantic there were not many ways to slay them. The invasion was so sudden it caught the Fishowian authorities off-guard. The nation put up little fight as they didn't have the time to prepare. Battles and resistances were small and uncoordinated and they always resulted in the decisive victory of the demon. The entirety of the nation was conquered in just a month, its citizens enslaved and its royal family publicly executed to send a grim message.
You are not safe, no matter where you are.
The news caused mass panic among the island countries, and a lot had no other choice but to join the Defense Pact unless they want the same thing to happen.
Such an addition had led to the current situation. The whole continent is focusing on three major theaters, which in a west to east direction were the Gashol plain, the Ushimus mountain pass, and the Halkega city. For now, both sides are fighting on equal terms and neither army was gaining ground, but that could not go on forever.
A massive number of demonic troops were observed moving to the three theaters, and the Pact responded by doing the same. The war was wearing down many people especially the ones directly engaging at the frontlines, they longed for the once more peaceful times, though they weren't particularly hopeful.
And then the otherworldly heroes were summoned.
Seiwayan City, Ruten Kingdom.
Things were somewhat peaceful in the capital city of the kingdom despite the ongoing war. That was because of Ruten's position. Being far from the frontlines, they were not worried about an impending attack. Also, the country's membership in the Pact also ensured the citizen's protection and evacuation to safer areas should such an event occur.
People of many races did their usual activities, some could be seen walking around the streets, engaging in conversations, buying goods from the markets and doing other things one would do pretty much every day.
A person was sitting on a stone chair resting from their work when they got sight of a bird flying by and up out of view in the direction of the royal castle.
The Flenya castle was situated in the heart of the city, surrounded by the noble district which had beautifully built mansions where people of the high class of society lived. The castle itself had a white color and it was designed in a kind of way that places importance on appearance. A small hill sat under the giant structure and at the foot of it was a tall imposing wall constructed to keep both intruders and commoners alike from entering. Such a thing was necessary as this place was where the most important people of the country stayed: the king, queen, and their family.
A ritual was taking place on the top floor of the building. In the summoning chamber, a big magic circle was drawn on the ground and a multitude of mages was standing around it. At the end of the room stood a girl and an old magician. They were, in order, the third princess of the Ruten Kingdom, Emily Sisteno Ruten, and the Grand Mage of the Ruten Kingdom, Randall Aumentus.
The occupants of this chamber were in the process of performing what was called 'The Hero Summoning Ritual', a sacred ceremony to reach out to another world and summon powerful heroes. Each individual on their own could take on a force many times in number, not to mention the fact that those heroes would be the ones to slay the Demon King when the time comes. Therefore, nations one after another were digging through ancient archives and tried their best at performing the ritual.
The mages in the middle of the room were pouring their mana into the magic circle, chanting the required words for the ritual. The magic circle started to glow in a blueish light, then the Grand Mage stepped forward.
"O Great Heroes of the Foreign Land! Please answer our pleas and come to protect this world and the lives of the innocents from the evil hands of the Demons!" He called out.
The brightness of the blue glow from the circle increased to the point it was difficult to look at it directly. A light barrier manifested in the center of the spell and began growing wider until it had covered the entirety of the circle, preventing whoever was nearby from stepping inside the premise.
At the same time, five blue-colored streaks of light could be seen seemingly falling through the sky like a meteor, the only differences being the color and that the 'lights' were moving towards the top of the Flenya castle. All attendants present in the chamber observed the phenomena as it unfolded.
"I can't believe we managed to do it right the first time! I heard it took other countries quite a lot of resources to pull it off. With this our people won't be taken lightly anymore!" Princess Emily commented with a hint of excitement in her tone.
"Yes, for long we have received below satisfactory-level treatments. They always say things like 'you have too weak of a military and contribute little to the Pact!' or 'your spells are nothing in the face of our magic researched extensively for decades!'. Our success in summoning heroes right away when others spent quite some effort would be punching the face of whoever made those previous statements." Grand Mage Randall replied casually.
True to their words, the Ruten Kingdom wasn't an especially notable country. They were small and sparsely populated and the most they could contribute to the Defense Pact's army was excess agricultural products and a few barely trained scouts. They were just following the trend when they heard other countries started to summon heroes from another world and their success was surprising to the Princess, to say the least.
Both people continued talking to each other as the streaks of light entered the city's general airspace. However, something happened right when they were happily speaking about the plans to do with the people that got summoned.
The outermost streak of light was intercepted from underneath by another one but this time with a dark purple color and emitted a clear demonic aura. The purple streak immediately exploded and vanished but the blue one got its trajectory changed by a wide degree, going further and further from where it was supposed to be.
The Princess noticed the whole event. "Oh no! Why is this happening! What do we do!" She exclaimed in panic.
"Princess, please stay calm. The heroes are coming, and you will need to greet them. I will get people to search for that person as soon as possible." The Grand Mage reassured.
The Princess looked to the streak of light that was disappearing into the horizon and then to the four silhouettes that had appeared in the middle of the magic circle. "Yea, you are right…"
There was this lake among the multitude of notable landscapes in the land of the forgotten. It always seemed to be covered in a layer of mist that greatly reduced visibility and made the air quite chilly inside, no matter the time of the year.
That is why the place is called Misty Lake.
And on the shore of the lake, two figures can be seen playing cheerfully.
One of them was wearing a blue dress with white trim and sleeves, had green eyes and short green hair with a yellow ribbon tied to the left side of the head. Another noticeable feature was a pair of wings with a golden upper edge and transparent body sprouting out from the back of the figure. "Cirno-chan! I think you should stop freezing the frogs all over. What will you do if you anger somebody really, really strong?" A high and timid voice could be heard.
The other one, apparently called Cirno, had aqua-colored eyes and hair, wearing a big blue ribbon on the back of the head, a white blouse, blue jumper dress. The figure also had wings, but this time it was six icicle-shaped wings hanging midair near the back. "No worries, Dai-chan! Even if a goddess appeared, I would beat her up! I am the STRONGEST after all!" Said a confident voice, stressing on a word.
"You shouldn't say things like that! You don't know how scary a goddess can be!"
"Then I will show you when they come!"
The two laughed together and resumed their various childish games.
The girls decided to play a game of hide-and-seek. This time, Daiyousei was the one to find Cirno. Normally, it would take her a lengthy amount of time to find Cirno because she had quite a few sneaky places to hide. This time, however, Cirno was found surprisingly quick.
"He he, how did you find me so fast?" Cirno said cheekily as she walked out from a thick bush.
Daiyousei pointed to her friend's feet. "There is a big and bright circle right under you. Did you use some new magic accidentally?"
"Huh? Uh, I don't remember using magic circles before… And I have never seen this kind of spell before, not even from that Patchouli lady…" Cirno said, confused.
"C-Cirno-chan? Is that really true? Don't you think it's just that you forgot?" Daiyousei said, worried for her friend.
Hearing that, Cirno rebutted. "Hey! I will have to let you know that my memory is-" The magic circle under her suddenly brightened, covering her in a pillar of light. "Woah!"
"What is happening! Wait, Cirno-chan, you are disappearing!"
Daiyousei, completely didn't know what to do, tried to grab her friend's arm and pull her out of the magic circle, the keyword here being 'tried'. Her fingers couldn't touch Cirno's arm and just passed through it as if it was all an illusion. The green-haired girl couldn't do anything else but hopelessly watch as her friend vanished alongside the magical light.
The streak of light slowly descended across a plain.
It landed, resulting in an explosion and a small crater, just like when a small meteorite impacted the ground. Although, a small blue-haired girl could be seen lying in the middle of the crater, instead of a piece of metal from outer space.
The girl opened her eyes and slowly rose up. "Ouch… it's painful, just like the lazer from that scary flower lady's… She then looked around at the plain. "Where is this place anyway? Why am I in a hole?"
The girl got to her feet and walked out of the crater. "Dai-chan?" She called out to her friend.
Now she was going without a distinct direction. "Dai-chan! Where are you!" She called out again, this time shouting.
After a while, the girl realized that her friend was nowhere near her current location. "I have to find Dai-chan…" She murmured.
But before she thought of anything else, a lake appeared in her vision and caught her attention. "Whoa! Such a big lake! I wonder if there are any frogs there!" She exclaimed cheerily, running quickly to the lake and completely forgetting about her friend.
Such is the nature of this childish and simple girl. Many called her by the name Cirno, a fairy who was a little too confident about her strength.
And this is her story, in another world where fantasy thrived.