Just as she was foretold, a scouting party of 2 nimble, hog rider orcs could be seen huddled around their makeshift camp. Since leaving the protection of her 'guardian angel', the princess snuck very closely behind every tree and bush she could find. Being able to see in the dark made a whole world of difference when in unfamiliar territory. Not only was she able to spot the tracks the hogs made, but also the light of the campfire from outside of the orcs' hearing distance.
Creeping closer and closer, her nose picked up the familiar floral scent the ancient elf always smelled of. Unlike the sweet scent which Vy fell victim to very recently, this one smells bitter and left her with a slight headache. Although she was unsure if her own body had any built-up resistances to the biohazardous plants Viridi commanded, it seemed the items she was gifted had offered some protection against the deadly aroma.
The first clear view she got of the scouting party showed both were frozen stiff in place, except for one orc who had realized something deadly was being pumped through the air and into their lungs. Around their campsite, small pink larkspurs flowers were in full bloom, with their pollen slowly drifting through the air to and fro around the orcs. Having seen these types of flowers before, Vy knew touching them would cause nausea and paralysis even among forest elves, who had lived their entire lives breeding magical plants. Never before had she seen an airborne species with an even deadlier effect.
White foam had started to froth from their mouths as their lungs grasped and struggled for any air, but nothing apart from gurgling sounds could be heard by Vy as their airways constricted more and more by the second. Although she was drugged in a similar manner, to see the full potential to which the demigod commanded plant life from a third-person perspective made Vy thankful she was not on the receiving end of these flowers.
One of the orcs was hunched over their campfire and about ready to enjoy some roasted boar they had caught, but his body soon went stiff, as if frozen in time. A lone orc was the only one who seemed to have successfully reached for a cloth to cover his mouth and nose, even managing as far as to drag himself into his bag and searched for what Vy assumed would be a warning horn.
Vy felt conflicted inside after carefully assessing the scene. Horror stories fueled her nightmares with orcs since the first time she was introduced to their secret war, but seeing the agonizing fate these orcs were made to endure made her a bit sick. There was no honor in biological warfare, especially on the scale and potency which Viridi was able to wield so efficiently. Still, some part of her did think it was a fitting end for such barbaric animals, who did nothing but consume and whose very nature was to waylay.
Knowing the longer she lingered on with her own moral debate, the longer the orcs would continue to suffer, Vy understood why Viridi could so callously call others 'cattle'.
Only someone as powerful as her could provide paralyzed barbaric orcs as 'cattle' for an apprentice's training session.
Her gut churned, and she felt a slow tremble building in her hands and knees, culminating in a full-blown shake of the body after she realized she was nothing more than a single piece on a larger-scale game played by the elf-god. Each of her fingers felt rigid, fighting against her will as she tried to lift her hand to cast her spell. She was sure each of them had lives or loved ones which they all went home to at night, yet the more she lingered, the louder a voice inside her head chimed.
Memories of crippled elves flooded her mind, as images of the last elven village to be attacked by the orcs played vividly inside of her head. She was not sure how it was possible, but the memories seemed too eerily realistic, as if she were the person experiencing the tragedy herself. The orcs did not treat the elves as fellow sentient beings, just bags of meat meant only for pleasure and food.
Vy's face twisted in anguish, and then disgust, from the actions she was forced to remember. Heavy heart beats rhythmically drummed on in her pointy ears, but what surprised her was the trembling in her hands stopped. Although her conscious still considered herself to be the better being, Vy's heart had already made up its mind about the orc race.
Taking aim at the orc reaching for the warning horn, she focused on the anger driving her forward. The jade bracers around her wrists lightly glowed a brilliant hue of green as she shouted, "[Lightning]!"
Concentrating at the tip of her finger, a lightning bolt jolted out at blazing speed, leaving a smoldering hole the size of a watermelon in the orc's head where she pointed. Burnt flesh and blood flooded the dirt where the dead orc lied, with his body convulsing from the sudden shot of electricity through the spine. The loud crack and boom of blue lightning cause Vy to jump back, yelping in surprise at the destructive output she was never capable of.
From the time she first learned the spell to the day she exhibited exemplary accuracy, Vy was very adept at controlling and mastering precision over her magic, but the princess lacked any kind of potency when it came to destructive output. Only ever achieving results in the form of grape-sized lightning holes in her practice dummies, Vy's intuition began deciphering the purpose of the seemingly-excessive jewelry she was made to wear.
She had heard fairy tales of great heroes from faraway lands who wielded unimaginable power and possessed godly items gifted to them to aid in their quest. Although these stories were merely legendary tales to inspire children, Vy saw the hidden truth in some of them. There was no such line between reality and fantasy for Gods, especially one who could just give out items like these willy-nilly. For a single person to wield such powerful items, he/she would have to be a national hero, or at the very least the king of a nation. The dazzling armament which she thought was just protective in nature skyrocketed in her appraisal into the realm of national treasures which would only be brought out in times of war.
Still mesmerized in a daze of wonder at the items she was entrusted with, Vy failed to notice Viridi's magic spell connecting. "Do you mind? I don't have all day-"
"WAH! W-who's there?!" Vy screamed in surprise.
"There is no need to scream," replied an annoyed Viridi, clearly getting an earful of high-pitched childish yelping. "I'm talking to you using [Message]," she explained.
"How can you see me?! What's [Message]? Are you telepathic?" The princess rapidly asked in succession. She turned her head left and right, looking everywhere for signs of the angelic white wings.
Remembering she was talking to a literal child, Viridi restrained herself from saying something she would regret hearing from her mother later. "No, I am not telepathic or any kind of psychic. [Message] is a spell which lets me talk to you from a distance. I've been monitoring you with my plants."
Vy should have guessed as much ― there was no escaping the sight of the elf-god ― but to think Viridi's voice would sound so crisp and clear in her head via the use of a mere spell amazed the princess to no end. Remembering her manners, she quickly replied after the brief silence, "Thank you for allowing me to use such great treasures. I did not understand the power and responsibility entrusted to me. Please accept my deepest apology."
"The gesture is noted, Princess Vy, but daylight is burning out and you have yet to clear this scouting party. The quicker you clear through the orc horde, the faster you will achieve the 5th-Tier," Viridi said in a hurry. Since she doubted the natives knew about experience points and how it worked, a brazen explanation of her plan was good enough until she needed to fill in the gaps later. Grinding experience points from the orcs would be best for a low-level mage like the ex-princess, as the continuous use of spells would eventually lead to more being available to learn and use later.
"I'm terribly so-"
"Stop apologizing and start killing the orcs," Viridi commanded.
At a loss after no further words were spoken to her, Vy eventually realized the spell was cut from the other side. Although she heard the orders she was given loud and clear, she disliked the choice of words the ancient elf had used. Vy did not consider what she was doing was directly killing the orcs, but more akin to euthanizing them. Viridi had done the worst to them, poisoning them and paralyzing them permanently. What Vy was doing was nothing more than showing the highest form of mercy she could to these orcs.
Once again, she pointed to a crippled orc and shouted, "[Lightning]!"
By midday, the young elf princess had moved locations, but the scene she was in was still the same. A single trail of bloody footprints could be seen from the treeline leading to an outpost occupied by the rest of the scouting party. The only sounds which could be heard through the leather huts were thunderous cracks, followed by soft thuds and sticky splashing sounds.
- *Crack!* *Thud!* *Splat!* *Crack!* *Thud!* *Splat!*
She thought her anger and hatred for the orcs allowed her to so easily dispose of their mangled bodies, but after clearing the scouting party, she only found a hollow emptiness inside instead of sadistic satisfaction. Vy kept on making up new reasons why she was doing the things she was, justifying it was nothing more than euthanasia, but after the 3rd or so body hit the floor, she found it hard to argue she was just killing them because she was told to do so.
Warm blood soaked her bare feet as she could no longer avoid not stepping into the large, red puddles pooling everywhere she went. The crack of her lightning became dull in her ears compared to the squishy splats she was forced to hear every time her magic was casted. Trying to end their suffering as quickly as possible, Vy was sure to always aim for their heads, but in doing so, caused a great amount of blood to gush from their headless bodies as a result, since it meant the carotid arteries near the base of the neck was not cauterized.
- *Crack!* *Thud!* *Splat!* *Crack!* *Thud!* *Splat!*
At some point, her lightning had caught the wood around their settlement on fire, which quickly spread from behind her. Knowing these poor orcs were only paralyzed, Vy had sped up her pace to ensure she killed them before the fire could. Even though the outpost was small, she counted almost a dozen orcs had died by her hand. The finger she used to point death at the orcs was blackening from constantly shooting lightning. Despite the growing fire behind her, she only worried about how much mana she had left and if she had enough to finish the ordeal the entire time.
As she reached the other side of their outpost, a thick column of dark black smoke cloud had formed overhead from the burning oils from the corpses, along with everything else. Every time she shot another bolt of lightning, Vy's entire body would freeze up. She unknowingly held her breath near the end due to the stench, gasping for air with sweat dripping down her forehead. The bitter aroma which caused these orcs to foam at the mouth and freeze in place like they just saw a gorgon was replaced with the smell of soot and burning flesh.
Being a vegetarian all her life, Vy gagged on the unfamiliar and grotesque smells. She fell into a fit of violent coughs which threatened to make her puke up everything in her stomach. Vy fled as fast as her blood-soaked feet could muster. Tears rolled down her cheeks from her bloodshot eyes which stung terribly from the smoky air.
The back of her mind filled itself with grievances of the terrible things which had befallen these orcs. She thought these green-skinned barbarians were just animals, with how little they valued the culture and wellbeing of everyone outside of their race, but after seeing Viridi's treatment of them, Vy knew even mindless animals deserved better than what happened to these orcs.
"This is… *cough* cruel…" Vy cried, her tears running down her cheeks onto the brown ground. She wanted to confront these orcs on her own terms, with her own abilities and her own worth. However, the opportunity to do so was reduced to nothing more than mercy killings. The young elf felt less like herself and more in tow with what Viridi intended for her to be.
"They didn't drop any crystals… How disappointing," Viridi calmly said.
"Huh?!" Vy suddenly gasped. Out of nowhere, without as much as any flashes of light or distortion in the air, the elf-god appeared like an apparition to haunt Vy's thoughts. Immediately reminded of her status, the princess quickly bowed to her superior, not minding the pain of inhaling smoke prior.
"I-I've-I've done what you've asked… The s-scouting party and the outpost have been cleared…" announced a raspy Vy with regret and a dry throat.
"So it would seem," said Viridi, inspecting the princess's handiwork. "None of the orcs dropped any crystals upon their death?"
"N-No," answered Vy, unsure about the reasoning behind the question. "Was I to check their bodies for jewels and *cough* treasure?" She was not a grave robber yet, or any kind of robber for that matter, but today had proven to be a first time for everything.
The orange-red blaze of the fire shone starkly against the sky-blue irises of Viridi's calculating eyes. With a disappointed sigh, she answered her unlikely apprentice, "Disregard it; it's no longer a concern. I'm sure by now you are out of mana?"
She was unsure how the demigod was keeping track of Vy's movements so accurately, as well as status and health, but then she chalked it up to the priceless items she was given. "Yes, Lady Viridi. Using [Lightning] this many times… If I *cough* continue, I'm a-afraid it will be without my magic," she tried to explain. Even if her enemies were frozen from with poisonous spores, Vy would still be marching further into enemy territory with nothing to back her up.
As the heat of the fire continued to grow and the air permeated with wavy illusions, the light of the sun told Viridi the first day was already half over. From the memories she had glimpsed inside the princess, Viridi summarized from Vy's capabilities wielding the 4th-Tier landed her around Level 25, perhaps levelling up to 26 after clearing the outpost. Even if the orcs were only Level 10 or so, killing nearly a dozen of them would have given the elf-in-training enough experience points for a single level ― at least according to the numbers Viridi ran in her head.
Since Viridi was collecting experimental field data, she had yet to learn of how long it takes for these New World natives to learn new spells once they had accumulated enough exp points for a level up. The princess's memories told her it could take days to learn a new spell and perfect it, but that was under the guise of tutors without Viridi's time constraints.
Turning her back to the bowing princess, Viridi looked to the faraway treeline and pointed her open palm straight at it. "[Nature's Shelter]," she said, casting the 10th-Tier spell. It pained her to waste so much mana on a spoiled girl who did not deserve any of her time or attention, but reminding herself it was all in the name of duty to her mother helped her pride.
From beneath the trees, dirt erupted with explosive force in every direction. Roots jutted out from the brown earth simultaneously to form a miniature fortress in the form of an upside-down tree ― with the roots woven together as the roof and the soft leaves as the base. Each of the individual roots were thick in size and dark-brown in color, with a man-made wooden door at the front as the only entrance. Dozens of birds fled in surprise upon the sudden intrusion of their homes, but some still smacked right into the top of the magical fort, since its final height reached above the other trees.
The open palm she held out changed color from natural cream-white to a leafy green, before lastly drying up and crumbling to a darker brown. The proxy leaf clone Viridi had sent to keep check of the princess had run out of mana, which meant she had little time left unless she wanted to visit Vy in person.
Facing the awestruck child again, Viridi's other hand delivered a small piece of parchment to the girl. Before the rest of her crumbled away to dead leaves, she told Vy her next set of instructions, "The scroll has a list of 4th-Tier spells you can learn. Pick 3 you can learn by tomorrow which you think will help. I won't accept any delays."
With the last of the leaves shriveling up and dying, Viridi's instructions rang clear in Vy's ears. Quickly accepting the scroll before it dropped to the ground, she was still in shock at the ancient elf's ability with nature. From manipulating local plant life to being able to create lifelike clones of herself with nothing but leaves, the princess's admiration for Viridi's gift to bend nature to her will grew endlessly, disregarding her actual personality.
The heat of the fire behind her snapped Vy back to her senses, which caused her to back away from the all-consuming flames. Stagnant, smoky air slowly burned her throat and lungs the longer she stood near the burning outpost. Running quickly to the surrounding forest, Vy hoped the fire behind her did not spread to the wooden shelter she was to stay in.
For good reason ― normally, concentrated lightning strikes produced so much heat they carbonized their targets so quickly flames didn't have a chance to form or propagate. Natural lightning occurred under so many variables this event's happenstance was actually boosted. Only impure targets and media of travel enabled forest fire of this size ― usually, the most common culprit was long, steady, dry summer heat instead of temperamental lightning storms.
Approaching the main entrance, the wooden circular door opened itself upon her arrival, and just as quickly closed itself once she cleared the doorway. Behind her, she heard a familiar mechanical locking system, but started to panic when the door itself disappeared behind several layers of roots, placing her more under house arrest than actually protecting her from the outside.
Wood furniture accompanied the light hardwood interior of the magical root-house. A small cozy living room with a single table and a pair of chairs were the only things on this level, before Vy saw stairs leading to a lower level. The burning smoke smell choking her nose was cleared by an hearty-oak aroma, which she tracked to be coming from underneath.
Soft footsteps on the creaking wood could be heard from downstairs, as another person was slowly making their way upward. A fresh, white bonnet was the first thing Vy saw emerge from the rectangular hole, as she recognized who was also staying with her tonight.
Viridi's special handmaiden carried a steaming mug on a wood platter, which she placed on the table before Vy.
"H-Hello," Vy greeted with a respectful bow. Even if her status as an elven princess was higher than that of a servant, a demigod's personal dragonkin maid was probably leagues ahead of any title she currently held.
"Princess Vy," Gratia acknowledged. Gently setting down the steaming mug, her draconic biology gave her no troubles with hot temperatures. "The tea will help with your throat. I'm sure your kind does not thrive well under such caustic air."
"Thank you," said Vy back. Accepting her gesture, she took a seat at the table and began sipping slowly on the hot tea. The sore tenderness of her arms and tendons slowly unwound with each slurp of the bitter, rustic leaves. Despite the cold relationship between her and her unofficial teacher, Vy was sure in another life, Viridi would have been the world's best herbalist, or at the very least a renowned tea grower.
After being so far away from home and without the usual comforts she was used to, the refreshing tea abated a little bit of her homesickness. The Pantheon was by far the greatest feat of architecture she had ever witnessed, but she missed the simplistic smells and quietness of her natural forest home. Her puffy, bloodshot eyes could finally relax enough for Vy to keep them closed, as she drowned out everything else in her first moment of relief.
"Please head down when you're done. I'll have a bath drawn for you," said Gratia, noting the reeking charcoal smell on the child. She would have not normally mind the burning aroma, but to allow such an unpleasant smell near her master would be poor judgement on her part.
"I certainly will," said Vy. The mysterious case of the half-draconic, half-humanoid maid had always left a giant red question mark in her mind. She wondered how the young dragon girl came to be in the employment of such godly beings, let alone allowing herself to be a servant no less. Countless tales of proud dragons who would sooner die rather than let their self-images be ruined had shaped her expectations of these near-immortal beings.
Yet… with Toreii's family, everything was reversed.
Firmly grasping the mug with both hands, she realized the trembling in them had stopped altogether. The gentle heat through the treated wood was soothing, which helped with the jitters she had since today started. Remembering her conversations with Toreii, Vy wondered how long their family was separated for. Being sealed away for several millennia, she would have expected nothing but complete hatred for the dragons when the deity escaped, but the child-god was perfectly fine with her daughter having a live-in maid of the same race which separated their family.
Throughout her life, Vy has learned there were many reasons for war, but race superiority was among the highest on the list. Her people included, almost every race excluded themselves away from others, as xenophobia seemed to be a primal instinct among all of them. Only someone like Toreii, whom she guessed was among the first primogenitor to populate the planet, could casually see through race without discrimination. As time went on, Vy saw this indifference was not completely inherited by Toreii's children. Viridi did see all races as equal, but only so far as they were all equally inferior compared to her own godly bloodline. Equality through evenly distributed disdain was still equality, she could hear the ancient elf reasoning mentally.
At the end of the day, blood will always be thicker than water.
Since departing with the excessively needy princess, Viridi was walking cautiously along a beaten path. The outside world was neither the same as the one perfectly crafted by her creator nor was it as beautiful. Among the things she had quickly grown to hate was the newfound noise among the plants and trees which left a steady stream of annoyance in her ears. Having grown up in the serenity and comfort of her perfect biome home, the coexistence of flora and fauna left her in a foul mood to see such weak beings dependending on each other.
None of the new vegetation was in the herbal section of her mother's bestiary, causing Viridi to quickly note and scribe new names for the ones she found. Thanks to the memories of the elves, she already had a large head start in her sidequest, but filling out each entry into the book she borrowed was a long and arduous task. Ingredients for potions and food her mother gathered in her own fetch-quests were nowhere in sight, instead replaced by inferior copies with little-to-none of the potency of their originals.
From the moment she first saw the New World inhabitants, to her setting foot on its soil, Viridi was filled with nothing but pessimism. She saw nothing this new planet could possibly offer her mother, and the list of evidence was exponentially compounding in length. Had there been any amounts of benefits for their side, Viridi would have given the New World a second thought, but it seemed the generosity of her mother was being exploited.
If the current situation stands, even if Vy, the spoiled elf princess, gave up her kingdom to Toreii, the work needed to handle the transition of power and the manpower required to fix said kingdom was very heavily levied on their side. Viridi could learn to tolerate many things, her other sisters being the prime examples, but at the end of the day, she and her family were nothing more than tools for these kinds of people ― the kind she intends to never let her mother ever worry about.
Although her feelings for these natives rang true and clear, if her mother saw fit to help these people, Viridi was in no position to question her creator's decision. The difference between her own intellect and wisdom when compared to her mother would be nothing shy of worlds apart. If she planned something 1 year in advance, there was no doubt Toreii could accomplish the same in just 1 day.
Viridi did not manage to come to the same conclusion of her mother, but hoped something from these natives would show her why Toreii had placed any trust in them. Thus far, evidence was lacking in every category of any worthiness of her creator's time and attention. As her eldest daughter, she would never question anything Toreii did, but she was not her mother. Viridi did not possess the incomparable foresight her creator wielded, nor could she ever hope to.
She did not trust these subpar elves in the slightest and expected all of them to grovel in front of a higher power they did not understand like how spineless servs with no mind of their own usually did. The fact their kingdom was in sharp decline showed not only a weak leadership, but a rapid deterioration of central powers keeping the hysteria from completely breaking out. An entire kingdom of elves in panic and questioning their leadership, and whether it can provide adequate protection of its people, was nigh impossible to control again.
Had Viridi been given more time, more than the 3 whole days she forced herself into, she was sure better results could have been achieved. Unfortunately for these elves, the demigod did not have such luxuries. Since leaving the young princess to her own devices, Viridi considered all the ways the kingdom would eventually be introduced to her mother. One was, of course, a state left in a power vacuum with no clear side regaining control. Second would be a faux display of power by the current heads in order to receive additional aid to their cause. Of course, the third, which Viridi was personally hoping would happen, would be the complete denial of the demigod's claim to power from the current crown.
Viridi's mind was half dreaming of secret plots and half trying to maintain her pace on the dirt path. She was still mildly ticked off by the creases in her feathers from when she had to cradle the sleeping beauty, causing her to preen the outer coat of her angelic wings. Having started on her journey from dawn, she thought by midday she would be near the elven kingdom by now, but to her annoyance, the path she pulled from their memories was not a straightforward one. Instead, , the route she was forced to take had nothing but wayward curves and bends, never once symmetrical.
Of course, many of these complaints stemmed from Viridi's lack of athleticism, keenly noted by Nanami as soon as she heard her eldest sister was stepping outside. Although the ancient faced many standoffs with her younger sisters, bickering about the most trivial of things, she was indeed the least athletic among all of the Noble Sisters ― a toll from spending almost eternity cooped up in her biodome.
Having spent several hours already trekking through the dense forest, the stolen memories told her she was still an hour away. Someone of Nanami's calibre would have cleared the distance as soon as she set foot in the New World, which caused Viridi to wonder why she did not ask to be transported closer to her destination. Once again, she had sacrificed her own comfort and convenience to help the childish princess.
Still, she kept these complaints to herself, as she was fully aware of the fondness Toreii had for the elven princess. Despite the level of help each of them provided for one another being severely lopsided in Viridi's honest opinion, her mother held Vy's minuscule help in high regards. She did not understand in the slightest why her all-knowing mother would ever seek help from someone well below her own intellect.
These grievances continue to plague Viridi's mind as she follows the brown, dirt path. She did not trust these natives, but she trusted her mother. If there was nothing of value to these weak, prehistoric elves, then her mother would have surely moved on. Only when there were positive marginal returns could one take the risk in the decision-making. To Viridi, the numbers simply did not add up; as if she were a banker evaluating a potential borrower, she saw no profits dealing with someone who could not pay off their debts. Even if the elven kingdom was taken as collateral, too many resources would have to be invested before she could see any kind of positive returns.
Voicing these doubts to Toreii would make her no better than the childish princess she chided so openly. Whatever problems the kingdom had, she would have to face them directly, even if she did send one of their princesses to fight their war. As long as she had Vy's memories, dealing with the crown would be nothing more than a formality.
Letting out a tired sigh, she felt her feet become tender from all the walking she was forced to do. Flying straight into an unknown land was just asking to be shot down by an enemy archer, Toreii taught her. She trusted herself to not be ambushed by thieves because Nanami had chosen this specific path for her to travel on. Even if it was out of her way, the safest route was still better than the fastest route.
'Always have an escape plan; then, an escape plan for your escape plan,' Viridi remembered her mother drilling into her and each of her sisters as well.
Going forward with nothing but her blind ambitions, Viridi was ready to face the elven nation.
A/N: I hope you guys are liking this short break from Toreii and Asgard. I'll keep the new world stuff to side characters for now until Thor gets involved. Till then, thanks for reading and being patient with me.