Chapter XXVIII: Daughter

A Chapter by Oran

Look, I know that Solis is supposed to be dead, but come on! You don’t really wanna make our main character die, right? This isn't [1]Akame ga Kiru! The writer is really soft-hearted and he doesn't like it when the thing he uses to portray him suffers death. He even went as far as giving me this cliché reason on how Solis would survive a stab to the midsection. Naturally, spider fluid is actually-

Wait.

Did you hear that?

Someone’s knocking at the wooden door leading to the entrance of a cave. It looks like he’s a soldier from Berial Magus. There’s five of them, actually, armed with some sort of curved spear. It’s probably a raid.

“Open up! We know you’re in there!”, he demands.

“She’s not in a talking mood right now”, says what seemed to be a young boy, “How about you guys come back later?”

“Come out now or I’ll break the door down!”, the soldier threatens.

“I really insist you come back later”, he reasons, “She’s taking a nap right now-“

Before he could finish, the door was already broken off from its hinges. They rush in and see the young fourteen year old washing somebody’s clothes. Inside the cave, well, nothing really except for a dusty sofa and a round coffee table in front of it. The girl they were talking about was sitting on the sofa with her legs up on the table. Her gray hair was really long and messy, and it covered up her face while she’s positioned in such a way. She had a long coat, similar to Luno’s, except hers was dark and red. It seems as if she’s wearing the suit Dante had in Devil May Cry 3, but her chest wasn't bare, unfortunately. She had this tank top on along with a… pair of gym shorts? Do these things still even exist in this timeline?

“Osiris Yvaine”, he points his weapon at her, “You’re under arrest for thievery and mischief.”

At hearing this, she haughtily flips her hair, unveiling her alluring violet gaze. Her skin was tan and it left an unsettling feeling to the soldier when it hit the mark and turned him on a little.

“What can I do for you gentlemen?”, she says with a voice so seductive, it causes even me to tingle.

“D-Didn’t you hear what I just said?” Oh my, he’s tripping. “There are charges against you-“

“Oh, I heard what you said…” She puts her feet down, and her boots tap at the floor.

“In that case-“

“But did you listen to what he said earlier?”, she points at her servant.

“That’s not the problem here!” He fires ray of destructive energy from the end of his pole-arm but he intentionally misses his target and instead hits the wall on the cave, causing the dust to puff up. “That was a warning shot. Now, do you give yourself up or not?”

“My, my. Such a rough player…” She fixates her eyes onto him and flirtatiously licks her lips. “That’s adorable!”

“Weapons free!”, he gives the order and they let out their weapons.

A bolt of lightning strikes her and she disappears in a flash, but before the soldier could defend himself, another surge sparks, and he sees all of his backup down and she appears directly in front of him. She grabs his spear and electrocutes him by holding onto it and conducting electricity from her body, making him let go of it.

“Whoa!”, he falls on his back and crawls away from her with his elbows.

She walks toward him until she’s able to stomp her right foot on his chain vest with an arrogant smirk on her face.

“Well… this is embarrassing…”

“You lowlife…”, he mutters.

She snaps her fingers toward the kid and he tosses a silver handgun toward her. She catches it with her left hand and points it right between his eyes.

“Did His Highness, Dagon, send you?”

“Elemental…”

“What did you say?”

“You're an Elemental… His brother asked him to find you…”, he spills.

“Really, now…”

She changes the trajectory of her shot and instead points at his chest.

“I’ll let you live then.”

A shot of low voltage electricity fires from the gun and hits his armor, causing excruciating pain and knocking him out-cold.

“Wasteful”, says another cat-like creature with wings and a green aura surrounding it that flew from under the table. “We could’ve asked more.”

“No time”, she places the gun on her back pocket. “Sticky, is all my stuff ready?”

“Yes”, answers the kid.

“Then what’s that thing you’re washing right now?”

“It’s mine; it’s a shirt”, he holds it up to her to show a t-shirt with [2]three stars and a sun.

“Throw that away; you don't need it.”

He sighs, “Fine.”

“I’ll buy you a new one when we get to Berial Magus”, she tries to compensate.

“Really? Cool!”

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Two days ago.

The rain was falling really hard. Medallion’s hooves splashed against the puddle on the ground as Naiya rides her. They are currently navigating their way through the eroded cliffs that surround Stone Haven. The former inhabitants weren't there anymore due to the fact that their religion was dissolved a long time ago, about a month after the Elemental Incident.

Looking for shelter, Naiya finds a large tree right above the cliff, so she turns the horse around and heads there. As they climb up, Maria pops from under her cloak and notices a large hole on the bottom part of the trunk.

“Maybe we could hide there.”

They enter the hollow entrance and they find that the tree had former inhabitants because of all the markings engraved on the walls. After she dismounts her horse, the young Elemental undoes the knots on her cloak and hangs it on one of the rhizomes poking out from the inner trunk. She begins to remove her doll shoes and knee socks as well and wrings out her skirt. Too bad she didn't have a change of clothes.

“Unfavorable”, she tells herself.

“I found some twigs”, said Maria, walking on her hind legs while carrying a load of dry twigs.

She takes the twigs and sets it in the middle of the hollow.

“Incendium.”

At her utterance, a flame sparked on the twigs and it began burning up into a fire and lighting up the hollow, revealing a mysterious figure sleeping in the corner. It might look oddly familiar to you, dear reader. It seems like we've seen this before…

“A girl?”

“A naked girl…”, Maria follows up.

The girl’s eyes slowly open as she felt the change of temperature. She wipes her face with the back of her hand while sitting up and yawning, until she notices Naiya.

“Where am I?”, she wonders, looking around the hollow. She looks to her left and finds a small stuffed toy bear. “Oh, there you are Mr. Hastur.”

Naiya stands up and approaches the girl while taking her partly dry cloak with her. She sits beside her while the child was playing with her bear.

“What’s his name?”, she asks to start a conversation.

“His name is Secret Agent #7”, she holds it up to Naiya, “But his real name is Mr. Hastur! I’m the only one who can call him that, though.”

“And… where does Secret Agent #7 live?”

“He lives in dad’s basement at Borealis City”, she makes a childish grin then whispers, “It’s supposed to be a secret, but daddy’s basement is actually his base of operations.”

Borealis City, Berial Magus, Naiya thinks to herself.

“What’s your name?”, she asks while putting her cloak on the girl to cover her.

The girl stands up straight, causing the cloak to fall over, while holding the bear to her chest. She bows and introduces herself: “Princess Cebuana of Berial Magus, eleven years-old, my friends call me Cebu, pleased to meet you.”

Wait a minute… I've seen that face before - Oh, crap! I remember now! This kid is from Issei’s Blood Well! How’d she get here from Albion Marsh?

The Void Elemental does roughly the same: “Naiya, a scholar from Fortuna’s Citadel, it is an honor to meet you, your highness.”

“I’m Maria”, the Anima suddenly reappears next to them. “That horse over there is Medallion.”

“Greetings, Maria- *cough*”, her words fall short as she lets out a cough and covers her mouth.

“Are you alright, princess-“ She stops when she suddenly notices the droplets of blood on Cebu’s palms.

“Sorry about that, *cough* It’s a medical condition. I have to take my shot at least once a year.”

“Why haven’t you taken your shot?”

“I… don’t remember…” She suddenly collapses and drops Mr. Hastur.

But I remember! You were about to be pried upon by that god damn lolicon! You were holed up in his Blood Well for almost a year!

Once the kid falls down, Naiya immediately reacts and catches her in her arms.

“Princess Cebu!”

Cebu was a little too weak to talk, but she was able to mutter something.

“I’m cold…”

When Naiya hears this, she blankets Cebu with her cloak and lies her down to warm next to the fireplace.

“Will she be fine?”, Maria asks.

“She’ll live, but she needs to be transported to her home.”

“That means-“

“We’ll have to reschedule our meeting with my brother. It may take a day or two from here.”

“That’s really… unfavorable, isn’t it?”

“I greatly disagree”, she sits next to the fire.

If it had not rained so hard, we would not have taken shelter in this tree and she would have died alone in here. It may be unfavorable to me, but if it means to save someone, I will gladly bear the burden.

However, I am still unsatisfied of myself, because being someone’s hero might just be… the only thing that’s there for me. When will it be my turn to be saved?

She’s in a state of contemplation of what she wants to become in this world. After doing what she was born to do, what’s next? The world will always need a hero, but is that the only thing she can do? Is there no other meaning to her existence? Will she end up like [3]Archer and be consumed in her ideal to save people like he did in [3]Unlimited Blade Works?

But most importantly, will I ever stop with these damn rhetorical questions just to make things more enticing to you, dear reader?

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1. Anime/Manga where most of the main characters die. Sorry about that, fanboys.

2. Emblem of the Philippines.

3. Archer is a character from "Fate: Unlimited Blade Works".

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