Extra Chapter: Beta's First Love
She no longer fears killing others. Beta whips her katana, splattering congealed blood off her blade and onto the ashen ground in a clean line.
She stands cloaked in the darkness of night and surrounded by a group of soldiers lying face down.
"End him" Orders Beta. The girls in black bodysuits pierce their blades into the guard.
One of their hands in particular shakes violently, but it doesn't stop the girl from thrusting her sword into his pressure point.
"Guh… Gaaaah!" Shrieks the soldier with his final breath, causing her blade to freeze in place.
It's the type of cry that'll haunt her in her sleep until she becomes accustomed to killing. Beta envelops the girl's hands on the helm with her own before giving the blade a sharp twist.
Together, they feel the soldier's life leaving his body. "Ah, ahhh"
Gasps a voice. This time, the cries are the girl's. Beta wraps her arm around her subordinate's trembling shoulders and issues her next instructions.
"Secure the target" The group makes its way to the carriage, boarding the loading deck. Following the shrill sounds of a chain snapping, the girls emerge from the wagon with a dark mound of rotting flesh.It's still breathing.
"Return to Lady Alpha, fast" They haul the mound, carrying it tenderly, and start to pick up speed, followed by the member of their order previously nestled in Beta's bosom. Beta squints slightly, watching them go.
She's raising them well. These girls used to know nothing about combat. They'd never held a sword and it goes without saying that they'd never murdered anyone before meeting her.
Beta is reminded of her own past, and old memories begin to resurface.
She still remembers how it felt when she killed for the first time, hersword piercing their heart, their hand grabbing hers. Beta couldn't believe the strength of their grip even as they suffered a fatal wound.
"There's a short period of time when people can move after they've been stabbed through the heart. Don't let your guard down. Hey, Beta, are you listening?" Beta was listening to Alpha's calm voice but couldn't understand what she meant for her life.
She was paralyzed with fear, incapable of moving or thinking.
"You're impossible" The head of her enemy soared through the air. Alpha had beheaded him. The corpse dropped to the floor, spurting blood that splatted Beta, and large teardrops fell from her eyes.
"Find a reason to fight" Those words sounded so cold. Beta was a child who had trouble doing things on her own.
After joining the Shadow Garden, she always followed Alpha around because Azaka was busy with his research so he couldn't meet her.
After all, these two Elves were old acquaintances, and she knew she would go down the right path if she stuck by Alpha's side. But Beta couldn't find a reason to fight by following Alpha's footsteps, or understand the importance of finding said motivation.
As a result, she couldn't get used to the idea of murder, vomiting violently after killing someone on a mission and shaking in fear every night as she tried to fall asleep. It wasn't unusual for her to wake up screaming in the middle of the night.
On one particular evening, Semvoid approached the tormented girl.
"Couldn't sleep, Beta?"
"Y-Yes?" Beta answered all jittery as she cocked her head to the side. In her eyes, Azaka is a charismatic person, but Semvoid is a terrifying one, both of them are extremely powerful.
"What's wrong? Do you not like your Noble Phantasm?" Asked Semvoid.
"No, that's not it.." Beta remembers the unique power she has aside from magic, in fact, it's the only thing that she feels comfortable with.
"Um, Master Semvoid, what motivates you to kill?" Her voice is very low, but she couldn't stop herself from asking that.
"Strange thing to ask, because it was needed" Beta was surprised with his answer. "Morality will keep you and the others down, I would rather dye myself with blood to make sure the world will have a better future"
Beta was hesitant, not knowing how to respond since she couldn't come up with words.
"I see that's not enough for you" Semvoid said. "So how about some wisdom? If you seek wisdom, I can give it to you"
He might mean the knowledge of easing my emotional turmoil from murdering others, she thought.
With great expectations, Beta nodded. "I-I want wisdom" Her voice trembled.
"Then I shall give it to you.." Semvoid began telling a story. "Once upon a time, in a faraway place, there was an old man and an old woman-"
It was an ordinary fairy tale, no smidgen of wisdom or anything else. What the heck? She wasn't sure how to respond, not that she was brave enough to oppose the one who can destroy the entire world so she shuts her trap and just listens to his story.
It was more interesting than she'd initially imagined. In fact, she realized she'd been so absorbed in the tale that she'd forgotten the time.
That evening, Beta had a deep, peaceful night's rest. And ever since then, Semvoid recited a bedside story to Beta before she went to sleep like a parent and a child.
Beta had always been a bookworm, but she'd never heard any of his tales before. They were gripping and original to her ears. Time flew by as she listened to them and she'd be fast asleep in no time, at the same time stopped jolting awake in the middle of the night.
Her favorites were "Cinderella" and "Snow White". This may have been around the time Beta began chasing Semvoid with all her might.
She noticed she was spending more and more time around him. At first, she observed him with a timid gaze. But after a year had passed, Beta was attached to him at the hip.
Semvoid was indispensable to the Shadow Garden, absolute strength, knowledge and wisdom. His unconditionality comforted Beta. Soon enough, she found he'd become a necessity to her, too.
She realized her doubts had disappeared somewhere along the way. Without Semvoid, Beta would have been killed for being possessed.
She'd been disowned by her family, chased out of her home country, and this series of tragedies made Beta slow in processing her new situation. She'd lost too much to notice her gains.
With her skepticism gone, Beta was able to realize something. That is Semvoid had given her a new life and strength.
She could feel this truth swelling in her heart. Beta had found a reason to fight. She began keeping a journal to write about him and Semvoid every day, for her to keep in touch with her memories and feelings, for her to never doubt anything again.
Beta had found a reason to live. At first, she'd jotted down words and adjectives, but she noticed it had turned into sentences, and that flourished into a story somewhere along the way.
The faint sound of movement brings Beta back to reality. She unsheathes the sword before approaching the loading deck and peers under the wagon.
"Eek!" She locks eyes with a young soldier about her age. He panics and drags himself out of the confines, trying desperately toescape.
He didn't know a thing when he chose to guard the carriage hauling the possessed and he will know nothing in death.
"S-Stop!" Beta swings her sword down without hesitation, and blood squirts out of his neck as he sprints for his life.
He staggers a few more steps before collapsing to the ground. Swiping the blood spatter off her cheek, Beta gazes at the night sky, where a full moon peeks out from between the clouds.
Under the moonlight, she smiles innocently, as if she's a lovely flower fraught with danger in the night. Beta has no doubts. If it would make him happy, she would even walk down the path of evil.