Chapter 1a: Mind Fog
This place is beautiful, don't you agree?
I do. In fact, I've found myself coming here almost every day now.
Me too! Doesn't that mean we're going to be seeing each other every day?
I guess.
In that case, let me introduce myself. My name is…
Winter of 1425 ME
?
Somewhere, in the middle of a forest, there was a flash of light. The animals that were minding their own business scampered away, startled by the sudden source of illumination. When the light faded away there was a man with short black hair, dressed in a plain gray shirt and brown pants laying seemingly lifeless on the ground. A few minutes later, some of the animals came out of their hiding places and began to sniff the man. He remained stationary. Losing interest, the animals scurried away.
Some time later, the man would awaken. He sat up and looked around, an expression of confusion and fear on his face. The man shook his head and stood up, brushing off the dirt and grass that clung to his shirt. He searched his pockets, and to his joy, he found something. That joy was short-lived as he realized it was a shard of broken glass. He tossed it away and kept on trying to clean himself. As he was trying to rid his shirt of an annoyingly persistent blade of grass, he noticed something. A badge, in the shape of a torch with white wings. The object caused the man to become lost in his own thoughts for a full minute.
How did I get here? What's this badge? Who am I?
…
Who am I?!
Suddenly, the man became aware of something else. He was incredibly, incredibly thirsty. He needed water badly. He picked a direction to walk in and set off, leaving nothing but some trampled grass in the shape of his body on the ground.
There was nothing in the forest worth looking at. Just endlessly thick trees. The monotonous and dull environment caused his mind to wander again, a welcome change that distracted him from his ravenous thirst. When he would eventually reach civilization, he needed to call himself something. He didn't want to live his life as a nameless person.
But what do people call themselves when they don't know what their name is?
Unidentified? Unknown? Unnamed?
Anonymous?
He thought Anonymous sounded good. "Anonymous." He said out loud, his voice raspy from not speaking for so long. "Anonymous." The man repeated. Something bugged him about the name. It was too long for his liking. He decided on a shortened version of the word.
"Anon."
Yeah. That sounds about right. That settled it, then. He was going to call himself Anon from here on out.
"Anon. Anon." It felt good, being able to say his name. He felt comforted by it.
"Who are you talking to?"
Anon spun around, looking for the source of the voice. A flash of green brighter than the grass caught his eye. He found himself facing something very strange; A green-skinned, white haired woman with brown eyes sitting in what looked to be a pinkish-red and green chair made of plants attached to the ground. Completely naked.
"Yeah. You. I'm talking to you." The woman said. "Instead of talking to yourself, why don't you come and spend some time with me-" The woman sniffed the air, her warm smile suddenly becoming a disappointed frown.
"Forget I said anything. Are you lost?"
"Um… Yes?" Anon spoke, still confused and shocked. "Do you know where the nearest civilization is?"
"I hate to say this, but it's several hundred miles away to the west." The woman pointed behind her. "Blame the Chief God for making the world so unnecessarily large."
"Several hundred miles?! Surely there must be something closer?" Anon exclaimed.
"That's the closest civilization to here. I'm sorry. I really am."
"In that case, I'd better get going…"
"Best of luck to you." The woman's chair seemingly folded in on itself, trapping her inside. Anon sighed and began walking west.
Several hours of walking passed. Anon's vision was blurry, his mouth was dry, and his head was aching. He cursed to himself, lamenting how he hadn't come across a single source of water in the past four hours. But he kept going. He was not going to die in a random forest in the middle of nowhere.
Suddenly, he heard something. It sounded like rushing water. Anon pushed himself as hard as he could towards the source of the noise, delirious from several hours of dehydration. As the noise got closer, he tripped on a tree root.
Regardless, he kept on crawling, eventually coming across a small river. Anon immediately dipped his hands into the water and began scooping as much liquid into his mouth as he could. Some of the water didn't exactly look clean, but he would rather have unclean water than no water.
Anon suddenly felt incredibly queasy. He heaved, throwing up bile into the river. He flopped onto the riverside, completely exhausted, taking deep breaths to try and calm himself down. With his thirst quenched and his mind somewhat clearer, he realized he should've asked the weird naked woman more questions.
What was she? Why was she in the middle of the forest hundreds of miles from civilization? Why was she naked? Who is the Chief God?
Anon didn't feel like backtracking several miles, even if he was dying to get answers to his questions. He decided to follow the river and see if it led him anywhere. While walking, he looked up at the sky. The sun was beginning to set, prompting Anon to walk faster. Even if the strange lady said that the nearest civilization was several hundred miles away, he hoped he would maybe come across someone living alone in the forest that he could stay with until he could get his bearings.
While he was doing that, he decided to theorize some more about who he was. He had very, very little to go off. The plain and casual clothing clashed with the seemingly fancy badge that looked like it belonged to someone important, like a government official or a high-ranking soldier. If he was important, that means his disappearance wouldn't go unnoticed. Someone would be sent to find him. Maybe his amnesia was the result of an experiment that had gone wrong.
But why would I be in the middle of the forest hundreds of miles away from any civilization? Were they trying to get rid of me? Was I supposed to die?
Anon looked around. He spotted something in the ground. A hoofprint, looking like it belonged to a horse. He grinned. All he would have to do now is follow the footprints and see where they lead to.
It ended up being easier said than done. Several hours later, Anon was barely able to walk due to sheer exhaustion. He hadn't eaten anything since he had woken up nearly ten hours ago, and any animals he could find immediately ran away from him. He mentally kicked himself for not asking the plant lady if she had any food she could give him.
Eventually, he came across something other than trees and the occasional rock. A cave entrance embedded in a large hill. Going in, Anon found that it didn't go too deep, and it didn't look like it was inhabited by any predators. Gathering the softest leaves he could find, he arranged them in a rectangle on the hard ground to form a makeshift bed, if he could even call it that. He laid down to try and get some rest.
Sleep didn't come easy. Anon grew to hate the ambient noises of the forest being so loud. Mixed in were the growls of his stomach, constantly reminding him of how he was going to slowly die if he didn't find nourishment soon. But eventually fatigue won over, allowing the man to enter a restless sleep.
Sharon the unicorn had gotten used to living alone. Exceptional hearing was both a blessing and a curse. No one was ever able to sneak up on her, but she would also pick up on every noise her hometown would make, including when she tried to sleep. It was part of why she had decided to move into the forest. The ambient noises were still loud, but they helped her sleep. They were peaceful, compared to the constant hustle and bustle of her original home.
Unfortunately, that decision came with a downside. Like all mamono she wanted to find a husband eventually. Yet there no human wanted to live in the middle of the forest. Hell, she didn't even need a husband, just someone to keep her company. A fellow monster looking for company or even a human woman would do.
Something derailed her train of thought. Behind the insect calls and shifting of tree branches and leaves, was the sound of a human man. Sharon focused her hearing more. It sounded like the man was severely distressed, possibly lost. The unicorn immediately got off the large, soft carpet and charged out her front door, heading to whoever was making those noises.
The sounds lead her to a cave entrance. Inside, was a human man, laying on a pile of leaves. Quickly her mamono instinct kicked in, only to vanish a second later when she realized that there was the scent of another monster on him. Sharon felt disappointment, yet relief that she would have someone to live with, even if only for a short time. Gently, she scooped the man up, and began trotting back to her home.
Anon awoke, suddenly feeling much more comfortable than he had remembered being when he had first fallen asleep. He looked around and immediately noticed that his surroundings had changed drastically. The drab gray cave walls had changed to brownish-red wooden log walls. The room was sparsely decorated, with the only objects being a small nightstand, a candle, and a dresser across from the bed. He pinched himself to see if he was dreaming. Everything felt real. He began to panic; Had someone kidnapped him?
Anon got out of the warm bed and began tiptoeing to the doorway. He grabbed the doorknob and twisted it as slowly as he could so as not to make any noise. Looking through the crack in the doorway, he saw what looked to be a light-blue furred horse, but with the upper body of a pretty-looking human woman, with a horn protruding from her forehead. The horse lady turned around, seeing the man peeking at her. She stopped whatever she was doing and began trotting towards the room. Anon panicked and retreated to the back of the room while trying to look for a way out.
"Wait! Don't be scared, I'm here to help you!" The horse lady said as she entered the room, her hands in the air.
"Who are you?!"
"Let me introduce myself. My name is Sharon. I happened to find you sleeping in that cave, and you looked so uncomfortable that I decided to move you into my house. Let me be clear, I have no ill intentions."
Anon calmed down somewhat. He worked up the courage to come closer to Sharon, getting his first good look at her. First the plant lady, and now a human woman with the lower body of a horse…
"Never seen a mamono before? It's fine. Many humans haven't. I'm a unicorn, a type of centaur." Sharon explained, answering the question he was going to ask. She pointed to the horn on her head.
"I took the liberty of healing all of your injuries while you were sleeping."
"Oh. Thanks for that." Anon felt much better. She had essentially saved his life.
"In the meantime, I made some stew for us. You can introduce yourself while we eat." Sharon beckoned for him to follow her. She laid down on a large cushion next to a low table with two bowls of some delicious smelling stew. Anon sat down at another smaller cushion at the opposite end of the table, and immediately began to devour the food. He had momentarily forgotten how hungry he was.
"What's your name?" Sharon asked curiously.
"Anon." Anon responded, even if he knew that wasn't his real name.
"Nice to meet you Anon. What a peculiar name, I'm seventy-three and I haven't met a single person called Anon." Sharon smiled warmly.
"To be honest, that's not my real name. I just woke up in the middle of the forest without any memory of how I got there or even what my real name was. I just made it up while traveling."
"Oh… That's strange. You have the scent of a monster on you."
"Monster? There are monsters?" Anon thought back to the plant lady. Was she a monster?
Sharon sighed. "Do you know who the Mamono Lord is? Or the Chief God? Or the Order? Do any of those names ring any bells?"
Anon shook his head. "No?"
The unicorn sighed and got up from her cushion, grabbing several large books from a nearby bookshelf. She set them down in front of Anon. "There's too much for me to explain, so if you just read through these, you should be able to get a good sense of the world you live in."
Anon looked at some of the books. There were two books labeled Monster Girl Encyclopedia Vol. 1 and 2, one labeled "Lescatie", another labeled "Mamono Realms" and one labeled "Sabbaths". He had a lot to go through. Finishing up his lunch, he handed the bowl to Sharon and began skimming through the books. He decided he would read them in full later.
Several hours later Anon had finished skimming through some of the books, getting a good idea of the world he was in. Sharon and the plant lady he had seen the previous day were monsters, all female and incredibly attracted to human men with the sole goal of finding a husband. Sharon had explained to him that they weren't always like this. A long time ago, they were horrific abominations who existed only to kill humans.
The Maou, or Mamono Lord had ultimate authority over almost every single monster in the world. Strangely, she and her husband had gotten strong enough to defeat the Chief God, her natural enemy, just by having sex.
Then came the types of monsters, or mamono as they were sometimes called. There were too many of them for him to remember, but the plant lady he had encountered yesterday was called a Claustrophyte.
There were a few more books he still had to read but he decided to do that tomorrow. He thanked Sharon for the food and decided to go outside to get some fresh air. He sat down on the porch, looking at the trees. His mind flitted back to something he had read in the first encyclopedia; How monsters would aggressively pursue men to take as their husband. Sharon had said that he had the scent of a monster on him. He chalked it up to some of the clastrophyte's scent sticking to him. He wasn't married to a monster… As far as he remembered.
Suddenly, when thinking about his amnesia, Anon remembered something he had read. He had an idea.
There is powerful mamono mana contained in a unicorn's horn, and because of it, they can use powerful healing spells.
"Sharon!" The unicorn stopped whatever she was doing and quickly ran out to the porch.
"What is it, Anon?"
"I read your entry in the encyclopedia. Unicorns can use powerful healing spells, right? Do you think you can get rid of amnesia?"
Sharon scratched her head. "I don't know… I haven't had much practice with using my horn to heal people. I've helped my father and a couple strangers recover from small inconveniences like colds or a bruise in the past, but nothing as major as amnesia. What if you get hurt?"
"I want to try something. If it doesn't work, we could always find a Sabbath or a dark mage and let them do their magic to get rid of my memory loss. I don't want to be an amnesiac for the rest of my life."
"…Alright. Come inside and lie down. It'll work better if you're asleep." Sharon went back inside, Anon following eagerly behind her into the guest bedroom. He got into a comfortable position and closed his eyes.
Sharon left the room, waiting nervously for Anon to fall asleep. She had never done anything this big before. What if she hurt him? She wouldn't be able to live with her mistake if that happened.
After about thirty minutes she slowly creaked the door open, and seeing that Anon was asleep, walked over the bed and stood over him. Her horn began to shine, and she moved her hands over Anon's head. Sharon was shooting blind, physical injuries would stick out and she'd know where to heal but Anon's physical health was perfectly fine, despite his amnesia. Bits of light emerged from her horn and floated into his head. She quickly sent a prayer to Eros that this would work.
Anon awakened. He tried to think about his past, only to not remember anything. He cursed angrily, startling Sharon and causing her to step back a few feet. Anon leaned against the headboard, sighing in disappointment.
"I take it my healing didn't work…" Sharon whispered despondently. "I'm sorry Anon. I tried my best; I really did."
"It's fine, I know." Anon groaned.
"Umm… In the meantime, I'm willing to keep you here until whatever monster you're married to finds you." The unicorn walked over to the window beside the bed, looking out at the forest.
"You mean that claustrophyte? She said she's not interested in me." Anon responded, confused.
"Well, either way, someone's probably looking for you right now." Sharon spoke while still staring out the window.
"I wonder who…"
Chapter 1b: Deportation
Aperia
The Matriarch of Aperia, Ophelia, stared out the window of her luxurious room in her castle, located in the center of the large city. The beautiful, six-winged seraph was proud of what she had created. While observing the citizens go about their days, Ophelia thought about her past.
The current Chief God had given her the task of watching over what were supposedly the strongest cities of the Order, a task that she quickly grew to hate. She watched the Order fight amongst themselves over corruption. Ophelia watched people die. She observed families being torn apart. She looked on helplessly as people who were supposed to help the populace used their authority for their own selfish gain. A deep-seated hatred towards the Order began growing inside of her. She asked her god to do something, anything to help.
"I don't know how to fix this, Ophelia. I'm sorry." The Chief God had ended up telling her. Just thinking about the god's response made Ophelia clench her fists in anger.
"How could you not know what to do? You're supposed to be the one who helps them…" Ophelia whispered to herself.
Her anger towards the Chief God's indecisiveness was shared amongst thousands upon thousands of angels in heaven. And they all looked up to the strongest, highest-ranking angel besides the Chief God. Her. So, she did as her fellow divinities expected. One day, she rallied her compatriots, and left heaven without a word to the Chief God. All with a single goal in mind, to tear the Order apart and rebuild it from the ground up to be better than it was right now.
The late king and queen of Aperia had welcomed her and her followers with open arms, the three of them sharing a common hatred towards the Order. Together, they had created one of the strongest factions in the world. Tragically, only seventeen years later, the king and queen of Aperia had both been assassinated during a surprise attack by the Order. Ophelia assumed the throne and began plotting the downfall of the Order.
Naturally, monsters were welcomed into the city with open arms by both the human citizens and Ophelia's followers. Relatively relaxed rules on monsters were put in place, ensuring that if they behaved themselves they could live in the city and have the same rights as humans. Ophelia came to love them as she loved the human citizens of Aperia, being able to look past their flaws. She saw no point in destroying them like the Chief God was so adamant on doing. It was a hopeless battle even for someone of her power.
She was alive to see the Mamono Lord, and her husband send the Chief God and all the gods that served her back to heaven with their tails between their legs. It was an awe-inspiring sight for the seraph, even if the Chief God was inexperienced and incompetent. Gods weren't supposed to leave heaven to personally deal with threats to the cycle the original Chief God had set up, they were supposed to send heroes and maybe the occasional angel or valkyrie to deal with the threat. It was the first sign for Ophelia that the new Chief God was not the best candidate for the job.
The seraph sighed, gathering her magic and teleporting to her throne room, a circular chamber with a portion of the floor that held the actual throne elevated over everything else. It was an angular yet elegant looking chair with bits of blue and white cloth covering the sides and the backboard, lined with bits of gold. She flew over, being careful not to step on the many pieces of broken glass surrounding the throne in a semicircle.
Any other ruler would've been livid at the hazard so close to their throne, but it was a crucial part of Ophelia's rule. With a wave of her hand, all the glass pieces flew up in the air. All of them began reflecting images of the citizens of Aperia going about their lives, without them knowing. She only used the glass to survey for any potential threats to the city.
"Hmmm…" Ophelia mumbled to herself as she shuffled the random pieces of glasses around, looking for any major problems that would need to be solved. Right now, there was nothing wrong. Out of boredom, she began observing random people.
This restaurant's food tastes amazing. Do you guys use ingredients from mamono realms or something?
Tell Alex to wake up early tomorrow…
Our Matriarch has really made Aperia better, but I miss the old king and queen still. It's a damn shame we couldn't find their bodies, otherwise we would just be able to get a Lich to revive them. It's sad.
Ophelia immediately tossed the shard of glass to the side, her mood soured. Thinking about what happened to the old king and queen always angered her. The moment she had gotten the news of their death, she immediately hid their prince away from the public eye for his safety, not knowing who to trust. The Order's spies could be anywhere, she told herself. Ultimately, it had been for nothing, as at one point they had got into a huge argument over something. Ophelia had cast a teleportation spell on him to send him back to his room, only for him to vanish and never be seen ever again. They had searched for five months, never finding him. As far as she knew, he was dead.
Speaking of vanishing, a memory of one of the only other people she had been able to connect with beyond a subordinate-overseer relationship surfaced. A poor, naïve man that had dreams of marrying a high-ranking angel, so he had contacted some random Sabbath to use their Sphere of Tryst, a tool that would allow him to find rare species to marry. He had traveled countless miles to Aperia, and upon encountering Ophelia, had begun trying to flirt with her.
Ophelia chuckled to herself. It was flattering, at first. To know that there were people who would go to such insane lengths just to get a glimpse of a seraph. It was so flattering that she decided to give him permanent citizenship in Aperia. The two of them met somewhat regularly, talking about their daily lives. To a celestial being that had spent much of her life in heaven and the rest ruling, it was interesting to hear about the life of an average human.
Then, at some point, he proposed to her. He had gotten down on one knee and presented a ring to her. Ophelia knew she couldn't take the risk of marrying a human, lest a certain god attempt to use him to corrupt her. So, she said no. Ophelia never saw him ever again after that. Part of her missed him and his friendly banter, but she knew what she did was necessary and convinced herself that he would find someone else that loved him. Doppelgangers existed to comfort the rejected, after all. But would a doppelganger be able to mimic someone as powerful as her?
The seraph refused to go down that rabbit hole. She began shuffling through the floating shards of glass, until something caught her eye. Outside the walls of Aperia, a dark valkyrie was holding hands with what looked to be one of Aperia's heroes. Ophelia immediately waved her hands around. The glass shards immediately reformed into a single large, rectangular piece of glass, showing the dark valkyrie and her hero walking up to the frontal gate.
"Are you sure this is a good idea? You know how Ophelia reacts to angels that get corrupted. She isn't going to be happy at all. She might even lose her temper, like she did with the prince." Ophelia's hands gripped the side of her throne so hard that she left indents in the armrest.
"You're not making yourself look any better…" Ophelia growled at the two. She gathered her magic once more and began sending out telepathic commands to several important military officials. A few minutes later, she looked on as a group of knights and heroes surrounded the dark valkyrie and her husband.
"Drop your weapons, now!" One of them yelled at the pair.
The dark valkyrie and her hero silently complied, both pulling out their swords and dropping them on the ground, the weapons being picked up by one of the knights and stored away in a special container. The pair took out their knives too, dropping them as well.
"We aren't here to fight." The dark valkyrie pulled out a medallion from her pocket and held it up into the air. "My name is Milner, and this is Danik. Take us to Ophelia, please. We wish to talk to her."
"Why should the Matriarch waste her precious time talking to corrupted angels like you? We ought to just process you and dump you far away from Aperia." Danik shuddered slightly at the mention of being processed.
He quickly regained his posture. "There's no need for that, I assure you. All we want is to talk to Ophelia."
"Fine, I'll hear you out just this once." From the throne room, Ophelia sent a telepathic command to the captain of the knights, ordering him to take them to her. This was interesting for her. In the event of a valkyrie or angel being corrupted, they would usually just steal a man and disappear into the night, and that would be the last she would ever see of them. A freshly corrupted valkyrie returning to Aperia and surrendering was something she rarely saw.
The knight captain paused for a second, then ushered Milner and Danik into the city, albeit keeping a fair distance away from the dark valkyrie.
Ophelia watched as the two walked through the streets of Aperia. All the citizens stopped what they were doing to stare at the two visitors, eyes full of distrust, skepticism and hatred. Some of the Aperians began to hurl insults towards the two, expressing their disgust. Other Aperians took a more physical approach, hurling rotten food and trash at the two. Danik began holding Milner tightly, while Milner tried to shield the two of them with their wings.
"This is your fault, you let this happen." Ophelia whispered at the projection. She watched as the two of them spent a few more minutes walking to the castle of Aperia, then disassembled the glass, dropping all the glass shards on the ground once more. She leaned back on her throne, waiting for the two of them to arrive.
Eventually, she heard the door to her throne room open. She looked up and saw Milner and Danik enter the room, looks of anxiety and fear on their faces as they looked up at their former leader.
"Kneel." Ophelia ordered the pair, looking down at them judgmentally. Both did what they were told. A tense moment of silence followed.
"Tell me exactly how this happened. I would like to prevent further incidents like this from happening." Ophelia pointed at the dark valkyrie. "Do not lie."
The dark valkyrie gulped and began to speak. "I saw my hero without his helmet during training. I… was immediately attracted to him. I couldn't get the image of his face out of my head. Later, I began hearing your voice in my head."
"That's quite enough." Ophelia knew what was coming next. She was in no mood to listen to how she supposedly ordered one of her valkyries to have sex with their hero. "Milner, are you aware that romantic relationships with your hero-in-training are strictly against the law? Do you not respect what I do to protect you from the Fallen God? She seeks to ruin this city."
"Making me hide my face constantly and making her refer to me using a number instead of my actual name made me miserable. Don't you understand?" Danik complained. Ophelia shook her head in disappointment.
"Ninety-eight percent of valkyries and their heroes-in-training make it through training without being corrupted. I would somewhat understand if you had encountered an agent of the Fallen God, but to fall this early in training?" Danik stood still. This was his fault after all.
"Listen. This has been our home since I came with you from heaven. Can't we just stay here? We promise we have no intentions of corrupting Aperia. We just want somewhere to live." The dark valkyrie begged. "Please, Matriarch."
"No! The law states that corrupted angels are to be deported from the country, and all Aperian territories." Ophelia shouted at the two. "If the two of you recall, during the beginning of your training, you signed a contract stating that you would be relocated to a mamono realm far away from Aperia. You are to report to the outside of the city for relocation, effective immediately."
Both Milner and Danik looked up at her, shocked, then looked back down at the ground in acceptance.
"Dismissed."
"Fine… Come on, Danik. Let's go." The two of them shuffled out the room, and the throne room was silent once more.
Something in the back of Ophelia's mind whispered that she was being too harsh, that they were being sincere when they requested that they continue living in Aperia. But she knew what she was doing was right. Ophelia refused to take risks. The seraph sighed and went back to looking out the window.