Chapter 38: Dorina
Dorina is one of the younger members of the Royal Guard, being born 19 years ago, being the younger sister of the Wild Hunt Member, Cosmina who was 22 years old before to her physical death. This was before Dorian became an Akujin.
Cosmina and Dorina used to live in the Western Country of Berli and Dorina could manipulate people with her voice, which was out of her control, but because of that, she branded by the people of the town and being called a witch. This also led to her family's house being set on fire and killing them. Cosmina was the only survivor of her family, and her loss and trauma drove her into insanity. However, Dorina survived and became an Akujin to avenge her losses against the world.
This is how it occurred-
Cosmina was a young woman with a pink bob-style haircut while Dorina was a bespectacled teenage woman wearing square glasses with pink rims and long dark vermillion hair braided into a ponytail that reached her ankles. Both had unusual dark pink iris eyes with yellow cross-shaped pupils denoting a special origin.
Cosmina was a theatrical, carefree person who had a cheerful, caring side that cared for her loved ones before losing her mind. Dorina is rather flirtatious, and commonly uses her charm and body to get others to do what she wants while having a loveable personality, she isn't afraid to be ruthless to her enemies. Their parents were relatively normal in comparison. They lived in a normal house and had a normal relationship with the people prior to the incident.
One fateful evening, a group of villagers, spurred by fear and superstition, surrounded the family's house. They were chanting, waving torches, and shouting accusations of witchcraft. Cosmina, with her untamed power, had unintentionally whispered a melody that lulled the local children to sleep during the town's festival. The adults had misinterpreted this act of kindness as something sinister. Their mother, a soft-spoken woman with gentle eyes, pleaded with the villagers to see reason, but their cries fell on deaf ears.
The flames grew closer, and the heat from the burning village began to scorch the wooden beams of their home. Their father, a robust man with a heart of gold, tried to fight back, but the overwhelming number of attackers overpowered him. Through the smoke and chaos, Dorina's eyes met Cosmina's, her voice, usually a tool of persuasion, now silent with terror. The fire consumed the house, and Dorina felt the searing heat on her skin as she tried to escape, her voice a mere whimper amidst the crackling flames.
Cosmina awoke amongst the debris, crying as her mind cracked from the betrayal. She was then picked up by a group of psychos called the Wild Hunt, who eventually went back to the Center Continent where they all almost died to assassins of Night Raid representing the Revolutionary Army with one dying to a member of the Jaegers.
Dorina herself awoke in a dark cave. She saw a cloaked figure with a bandaged face with one red iris eye and one blue iris eye respectively. This figure had long shaggy black hair that hit the floor and a prominent bust.
"Where's my sister? My famiy? Where am I?," asked Dorina, her voice shaky and filled with fear as she stared at the enigmatic figure before her.
The figure's personality was apparent from how they replied- an extreme stoic who has an obsession with being as miserable as possible, believing that hardship is the root of all genius.
"Your sister has been claimed by the Wild Hunt. As for your family, they are no more. And you, my dear, are in the realm of the Akujin," the cloaked figure intoned, their voice a mix of the eerie and the comforting.
"You're quite the comedian. Now where am I?," asked Dorina again.
The figure didn't laugh or even crack a smile. "You're in the liminal space between life and death. The Akujin King, Nefarious, has seen potential in you. He wishes to offer you a chance at vengeance."
"Can I talk to this so-called King of yours?" asked Dorina.
"Technically, he's comatose, but we feel his will. It's really a nasty weed that's in charge called Solar-Flor. He's the one who had your family killed. They were related to a prominent wizard during the 1000 year period. The Wizard helped to undermine us by aiding people with annoying weapons called Teigu. These Teigu forced the Akujin of the Center to go into the West to hide for the sake of living. He's disappeared from the public eye, but he left descendants in you. I hope you're not Jizenjin like him.," the figure added.
"Akujin? Jizenjin? Sounds like a bad light novel.," Dorina noted before noticing her teeth were sharper and she then felt her ears as they were now pointed. This alarmed Dorina.
"What did you do?," asked Dorina.
"Nothing. It's your bloodline, which has skipped countless generations finally kicking in. You're an Akujin. I am Aome the Black Undead Heir of the Black Faction Akujin. Nice to meet you, Dorina, responded the figure.
Dorina felt a strange energy surging through her veins, and the pain from her injuries began to subside. She looked down at her hands, noticing the pointed nails and the faint glow of power emanating from her fingertips. "What does this mean? What am I supposed to do now?" she asked, her voice filled with a mix of awe and fear.
"You're likely wanting karma for what you did.," said Aome as Dorina remembered the fire and her family's screams. "But Nefarious does not offer such a simple deal. You will become one of his heir's 14 Royal Guards, serving him. In return, he will grant you the power to seek vengeance against those who wronged you."
Dorina's heart raced as she processed the gravity of the situation. "Serve Nefarious? What does that entail?" she questioned, skepticism lacing her voice.
"Just kill people we don't like and restore nature to its natural state. Then we can eventually retrieve the heirs and overthrow the weed. And we move back to the Center continent to re-establish our nation of Akujin.," Aome replied candidly.
Dorina took a deep breath, the acrid smell of the charred remains of her home still lingering in the air. She clenched her fists, feeling the power in her hands grow stronger. "Vengeance. That's all I want. Tell your King I'll serve, but I want to find my sister and make sure she's okay," she declared with determination.
"She's dead. I told you this. The best way to get back is to get back at those bumpkins.," Aome replied coldly, watching Dorina's reaction with a single visible red eye.
Dorina felt a pang of grief, but it was quickly replaced by anger. "Those villagers will pay. I'll show them the true face of fear," she snarled, her fists clenched so tightly that her nails pierced the palms of her hands, drawing blood.
Dorina's naked body transformed as plates burst of her body, forming over her flesh- her attire being a part of her body as runes also began to appear on her skin. She now wore black fingerless gloves and a small bikini that barely covered her breasts and revealed her curved, womanly body that had tattoos of ancient runes adorning it. She wore baggy pants that ended in knee-length black biomechanical stockings that ended in pointed witch boots. She wielded a long black sorceress' staff that was biomechanical in design, with a trident with a single eye at one end and an elderly wizard's face engraved on the other half as it just jutted out of her wrist and was now wielded in her hands.
"The power of the Akujin flows through you now, Dorina. With it, you shall become a harbinger of vengeance," Aome said, a hint of excitement in their voice. "You're also a descendant of the Black Sorcerer Akujin King through your parentage. It's a long story, but it's your birthright. So the current heir will step down the moment you win a bout with them following your catharsis."
Dorina looked down at her transformed body, the pain of the transformation already forgotten. "What do I do next?" she asked, eager to embrace her new destiny.
"You know what to do already.," Aome said Dorina zoomed out of the cave and headed to the town that killed her family. She felt a burning rage in her heart and the power of the Akujin surging through her veins. As she approached the village, she saw the charred remains of her family's house, the sight of it fueling her anger even further.
"What's with the getup?," asked a random bar bum as he approached her.
Dorina, not in the mood for questions, glared at him with her new crimson eyes. "You don't wanna know," she spat, the words coated with the echo of a hundred whispers, a power that she hadn't quite figured out yet. The man stumbled back, his face pale with fear.
Instinctively, Dorina was now a master of sorcery, capable of creating force-fields, reflecting attacks, regeneration/healing, energy absorption, object animation, necromantic resurrection, invocation, detection, invisibility, portal creation, replication, telepathy, flight, telekinesis, teleportation, transmutation, shapeshifting, reality warping, summoning, banishment, conjuration, divination, enchantment, illusion casting, precognition, with her Trump Card being the manipulation of Logic.
"Hey. Hey. Wanna see some magic tricks?," Dorina said as a crowd gathered around her, a wicked smile playing on her lips. The townsfolk of Berli had always been suspicious of the unusual, and now they had a real spectacle in their midst.
The first to fall was the man who had led the mob that burned her family alive. She whispered sweet nothings into his ear, her voice now a weapon of mass persuasion. His eyes glazed over, and he stumbled into the crowd, muttering incoherently. Within moments, the villagers turned on each other, driven by the whispers of doubt and fear that Dorina had planted in their minds. The town square erupted into chaos as friend fought friend, the very fabric of their community unraveled by the power of an Akujin.
The screams grew louder as Dorina's control over the villagers tightened. They danced to the tune of her malicious symphony, the flaming torches in their hands now used to set each other alight. The stench of burning flesh filled the air, a macabre counterpoint to the cacophony of panic. She watched the carnage unfold, her heart cold and detached from the scene she had orchestrated. It was a grim sight, yet she felt no remorse. Only a deep, satisfying sense of vengeance.
As the bodies piled up, Dorina felt satisfied as she went back to the cave to see Aome with 12 other obscured figures.
"They're here to welcome a new friend.," Aome said, referring to Dorina as she said this.
The figures, who had been obscured by the shadows of the cave, began to step forward, revealing themselves to be other members of the 14 Royal Guard. Each one bore the same stoic expression as Aome, but Dorina could sense the power radiating from them, a power that matched her own. They were all dressed in various forms of biomechanical armor.
"Guess this is my new gig now.," Dorina said as she joined them.
Dorina's Daily Life
It has been a few months since both the Empire and Tenrou had fallen. Dorina had adjusted to her new way of life. The Black Akujin were welcoming of her, especially her ancestor, Wiseman, a long-bearded sage with diamond-shaped pupils within dark pink irises and bunny ear-like hair antennae on top of his long silver hair that shot out from the barbute helmet that obscured most of his face; he wore black bio-mechanical ancient robes and wielded an ancient wizard staff made of black wood covered in purple runes.
While mysterious, he treated her favorably. And the Black Faction saw her as an equal.
The White Faction were all annoyed by her antics, mainly because her own witty nature riled up their usually unflappable attitudes that got under the skins of the more honest Black Faction.
Solar-Flor especially didn't like how she survived and seemed to be aware of his true nature, so he kept away from her at all times.
She finally had a new place and she would do missions to eliminate bastards like the villagers who harmed her family.
Life was good.
Dorina Mission No. 77
This is one of the many missions she undertook.
Dorina managed to defeat a cult that offered human sacrifice for Akujin. As an Akujin, she was appalled of getting food without fighting for it and if she were still human, human sacrifice would be appalling to her.
She hadn't found Cosmina in Hell- the cave where the Akujin resided in, much to her disappointment. It was said that Cosmina had become a serial rapist and a lunatic, unrecognizable to her previous self, so it wasn't worth looking for her, much to her pity.
As she was about to leave, she encountered a surviving cultist walking away, Dorina prepared to fight, but then the woman with swirly curled beige brown hair asked,
"I'm giving up. I want to lose. Why don't you turn a blind eye?"
Dorina didn't buy it as she saw the hidden blade in the woman's bosom.
"A good magician-," Dorina said before she was slashed from behind, she then turned to see the woman pieced apart into puzzle pieces as the wielder revealed themselves-
A small boy with short cyan curly hair wore round glasses, and a stage magician-style attire with a top hat. He wielded a weird sphere that seemed to be made of puzzle pieces. His name was Houdini and his Majinbutsu is Craft, a sphere that can take on the shape of anything he wants.
"Never reveals their tricks. You've built quite the reputation. I'd fight you, but intel says getting a description of your looks is more important. Bye.," he said as he vanished.
Dorina gritted in annoyance, being tricked by the boy.
Next Chapter: Weava and Arbor
Author Notes: Dorina's past is very traumatic, but she ended up finding a new home. It also sets up a potential rivalry with Houdini.
Next up is Weava and Arbor- with the latter being unique compared to the previously explored Black Akujin heirs so far
