On a normal quest, the party was on a trip towards the outskirts of Axel. They were doing the often kill quest they'd take every once and a while. Although sometimes these quests would end badly, it became more of a smooth ride in the park if anyone didn't screw up their part.
"Are we there yet?"
The youngest of the group asked.
"No."
Replied the leader.
Aqua for once was silent.
She's currently looking through the window of the wooden carriage. Gazing into the green hills and valleys. But Aqua felt as if there was something wrong, something familiar in the green plains.
Has she been there before?
Aqua now felt as if there was a mass of swirling unsolved jigsaw puzzle pieces in her head trying to figure out what this was.
Being immortal nonetheless a god was not an easy task, they would often forget a lifetime's worth of memories. Full of friends, conflict, and so on. Sometimes they would forget choices that impacted the world millions of years later because gods are immortal.
Aqua, unfortunately, was one of those beings.
Did she hate it?
No! She couldn't care if she couldn't remember it!
She is a god!
She can do anything!
She is the one who was so valuable to the team, that she would just let the others do the work for her!
She was the one who could resurrect people!
She was living her best!
She was also the goddess of water that gets drunk often….
but with pride!
"Are you alright Aqua?"
Aqua gets off her high horse and looks at the blond crusader who was her friend.
"Yeah! I'm just dozing off because of how boring this whole trip is!" Aqua replied in her usual loud way.
"Don't get too tired. You've got a role to play!" Kazuma lectured her.
Indeed! Aqua might as well be this party's knight in shining armour!
Wait not that one.
The carriage stopped.
"Oh we're here!" The mage exclaimed excitedly.
The party got off the carriage. Kazuma was busy paying the driver as the other three went out to explore the plains with their eyes.
It was a cloudy day, lines were passing through the grass due to the wind and there was a huge mountain. Compared to the soft and calm plains, the mountain contrasted it with a bulky and spiky appearance.
The witch and the crusader were excited. Both were admiring the beauty of the place and its atmosphere. But it was just mostly the red one.
However Aqua was feeling something peculiar. Aqua thinks she knows something about this place. It has been long since she felt this, for someone who has spent most of her life in the sky, why did she have memories here?
Gods were almighty all-powerful beings, all created for some purpose.
Aqua then turned to the final straw.
She looked upon a broken house that was made of stone, rotting away due to time.
There was a village here.
"Oh."
-
The four corners of the world burned, broke, and shattered.
The grass was black as the night sky, the screams of the people were heard and the chaos never stopped.
"Get out of here!"
"Where's my son?!"
"Run away!"
The village of Lullin burned.
Panic sparked across the small village.
There were men in yellow and black hooded cloaks that had an illustration resembling a cube on their back, they were burning down the multiple houses that inhabited this town. They were also aimlessly attacking people with various weapons and spells. These people were faithful followers of the God of Earth, those who would oppose his grace would taste the steel of their blades.
The remaining people were rounded up, as the followers surrounded them.
While the citizens of this village were shaking in fear, clutching their loved ones close. A figure walked in between the followers, wearing a bright yellow hooded cloak that faded to black from top to bottom. He also had a large wooden necklace that resembled the cube sign. This man was their inquisitor, in charge of converting the masses.
In this world, a group of these followers would very often raid villages and take their people to the capital where they'd convert their religion and suffer the rule of a tyrant that governed the kingdom.
"Rejoice! It's time you put faith in the one that controls the world! Put faith in the one that would truly come on top in the end! We have already apprehended the god of fire. And took of what powers he has!"
"IGNITE!"
The inquisitor then raised his palm and a burst of flames spewed out of it, it was raised over the terrified people.
The crowd shook visibly with fear, as that was the same fire that started it all.
The leader then pointed towards a little girl within the group of people. The followers in black nodded and began marching towards the group.
"NOOO! ERI!"
"MAMA!"
The men began pulling the child away from her mother, any aggression from the mother was put out with a point from the follower's dagger.
"Why must we have this argument?" the inquisitor said.
The child then had an arm around her head and a knife next to her throat.
"He who is earth is beyond this. He can provide for you if you agree to his terms. All you need to do is move to the capital and put your faith in…."
He pauses.
"Terra."
"He is all-powerful, he is all mighty and is the most intelligent being of us all! He provides for you every day, yet you cease to understand! So throw away this meaningless life and join us!"
"So it's either you die eventually after her death, or you survive with the rest of us."
The priest pointed towards the hooded figure holding the girl.
Who was impaled through the head by three spikes?
"Impossible…."
The girl quickly ran towards her mother as the man dropped dead and looked towards her saviour.
It was a knight.
Its armour was a grey silver and a strand of light blue fabric from its helmet breezed through the wind, similar to the armour of a female knight.
Her trident was from the same metal except for its spike, as it glowed a light blue.
"It's her! Stop her! I'll summon the golem." The leader of the followers commanded.
The followers met the same fate as the one on the ground as their leader ran away.
One by one, stab by stab, cut by cut, the men dropped down dead by the knight's trident.
All 8 of them dead.
If any of the villagers have prayed this was their payoff.
She then sees a group of followers running away to retreat, but she doesn't mind.
"Who are you?" the mother asked.
The figure didn't respond as a rumble from the ground caught her attention instead.
Suddenly a voice shouts "YOU FOOL, WITHOUT ANY WATER YOU ARE USELESS!!"
The inquisitor is seen riding on top of a golem that was made from boulders.
The Golem then started walking towards the knight the people started fleeing as they were no longer being threatened by the followers.
Aqua then heard a scream from someone in the village's depths. Without a thought, she ran towards the noise. The golem notices this and runs towards the knight, the inquisitor holds up his hand.
"IGNITE!"
Fire spewed from him towards the knight in shining armour. The knight evades the attack by running towards the golem at incredible speeds, dodging the fire by at least 5 meters as she moves.
The knight spots the voice that called her here, a man with rubble on top of him, crushing his legs. The man is reassured that the hero is there to save him, but then he notices that the knight's attention isn't on him anymore. Instead, it was the golem that aimed its fists towards the knight, panicking the man even more than before.
When the knight reaches the man, the golem punches towards the both of them. The man closed his eyes as the golem's right fist was close to making contact with the pair, but was met nothing. The silence shocked the man, he opened his eyes and found out that the knight caught the large fist with her arms.
Just who is she?
The golem manages to get its right hand free from the knight. With a roar, it uses its left fist to punch the knight again. But what the golem didn't account for is who it was dealing with. But the leader knew who she was, he knew he may take his last breath here, but knew he wouldn't go down trying to take down the false faith.
A gold aura then surrounded the knight's fist so brightly that the villagers were watching in awe at a distance. All questioning who the knight was.
The golem didn't mind this as it charged its fist towards the knight.
"God's Blow."
The man covered his ears as a shockwave occurred when the knight and the golem's fist collided. The golem roared as its left arm shattered to pieces, which rained down across the village. Agitated, the golem roared as it hurled its remaining hand towards the knight.
The knight quickly picked up the man and threw him 20 meters away. He gave out a scream when he was in the air, surprised by her strength.
When he collided with some of the members of the bystanders watching the fight, everyone was shocked to find out that neither the man nor the people he collided with felt any pain. The man stood up and looked surprised, his legs were healed.
"Just who is this?" He asked as he looked at the ongoing battle.
The knight dodged an attack and then hopped on its right arm and sprinted towards the inquisitor.
"IGNITE!"
The inquisitor then used his flames to attack the knight but the knight responded by using her trident to block the flames. After the spell stopped, she hurled the trident towards the priest, piercing his shoulder.
As the man screamed, the knight finished the trip up the golem's arm.
"You! Will never stop him!" The priest screamed.
He flung his arms out and looked to the sky.
"We have Ifrit's power, you cannot stop two gods, can you?"
The knight wordlessly walked towards the man, grabbed her trident by the hilt, and had the man get closer to her.
She then drew her weapon back from the priest's body using her foot to push him off the trident, pushing him off the golem's shoulders.
As the priest fell to his death, the knight's trident's spikes glowed and expanded, its spikes morphed into a war axe's head.
She used this to chop the remaining arm of the golem from its shoulder. The golem screamed in pain. The knight then leapt off from the golem's shoulders from its back side.
While falling, she twists as she cuts the golem's hips sideways, causing its top to crush its master's dead body.
After the knight landed on the ground unscathed, she sighed and began walking towards the village's people.
-
When the knight arrived at the spot where the former residents of Lullin were gathered. She was met with multiple gazes of praise. One of the women in the group ran up to the knight, putting her head down as she kneeled in front of her. This woman was the mother of the child she saved earlier.
"Thank you for saving me and my daughter from those barbarians!" the mother said while crying her eyes out.
This started a chain reaction as the crowd began thanking their saviour for a good minute.
The knight didn't mind.
Until the praise turned into questions.
"Who are you?"
"How did you know we were under attack?"
"What are you? I've never seen a spell brighter than the sun!"
"Yeah what was that spell?"
The knight sighed she hated this part of the job, calming down the chaos of curious people.
The knight then removed her helmet and carried it instead, her skin was close to being pale and she had blue irises in her eyes. She pulled her long strand of light blue fabric which turned out to be her hair through her helmet as it was just sticking out of the back side of it. Her face was pretty, but it did contrast with her emotionless expression.
She finally spoke in a bland tone.
"I am the Goddess Aqua, the Goddess of Water, and the protector of humanity. My mission now is to bring you to refuge in my territory Arcanlentia. The people there will service you and provide the necessary resources for you to survive."
One would expect everyone to accept the god's offer.
But.
"You're just trying to get us to follow your religion! "
The crowd of people began berating Aqua with complaints. She hated this part of the job, sometimes humans can get on her nerves despite not showing it.
The knight then looked at the child she saved earlier, looking at Aqua with pity as the town's folk kept complaining.
Aqua thinks about the time wasted due to this particular obstacle.
"Shut up." Aqua spoke, stopping the crowd.
"I don't care about who you follow, if you wish not to follow me literally, feel free to run into those Cultists again." Aqua followed.
Aqua put her helmet back on and began walking towards the city of Arcanletia. Which unsurprisingly led everyone to follow her.
-
Aqua was staring at her hands. Then looked towards the golem's body she laid to rest millions of years ago.
"I've really changed have I?"
"I was meanie back then."
"Hey Aqua, stop lazing around! We need to get this quest done!" Kazuma ordered at Aqua.
She scowls.
Was it really too much to ask to have that part of her back?
Author's Notes:
Thank you for reading my first ever fan-fiction. Feel free to give constructive criticism.