1 The Destined Enemies of God

- "Are all humans born equal?"

- "No they are indeed not"

- "Are all humans given the same opportunity?"

- "No, and they will never be"

- "Can I bring change to this cruel world?"

- "No -said the white haired young girl whilst looking me straight into my eyes- you won't be able to change anything."

- "Are... -my voice died out under the pressure of this sad truth."

- "But there is one thing I'm certain about - declared the young girl whilst smiling widely - You are going to have a first line seat to see how the systems you despise so much are toppled!!"

The moment she said that my senses got hazy and I was lost in darkness.

- "Princess."

Someone called to me from a faraway place.

- "Princess."

Again, and I could hear this one stronger than the last one.

- "Princess Isla, hello!???? Earth to Princess Isla!???! Fufufufu... Don't mind me if I help myself to your body."

I woke up from my slumber when I felt a certain girl's perversion in my back, causing me to rapidly turn around to the origin of the sound and grab the incoming perpetrator's head.

- "Try and die Anna. Try and die - I said whilst increasing the force in my hand which held my best friend's head."

- "Uahhh! Princess stop, please stop something is breaking!!"

- As cruel as always aren't you Your Highness? For a moment there I thought that my skull was going to break – expressed Anna in a teary and dissatisfied voice.

- That's what you get for being a pervert Anna or are you saying that You. Are. Not. Satisfied ?!!?

- "Hiiii!!!!! Stop looking at me with so much killing intent Isla, stop smiling so creepily!!! Please I'm sorry I'm not doing it again. Ok please?"

Anna made the sound of clapping hear hands together and then started begging me with very repented voice. She sounded like she reflected on her actions so I let her previous feat slip.

- "Ok, I forgive you."

- "Yes!!! I'm Safe!!!"

- "But if you try to do it again…"

- "YES SIR YES, this loyal subject of yours won't do it again (I said subject, but I never said that I wouldn't do it as a friend tehee…)"

I still felt some lingering sense of perversion in Anna's thoughts but I let it be and instead deliberate on what I just dreamt about. I never told it to anyone, but I started having this dreams a couple of months ago at the beginning of February. It began as a weekly occurrence but now, these dreams happened almost daily, and what was creepier about it was the fact that it always had the same young girl, with the same colour as my hair, speaking about different things every night. It must have been just a dream as I would never have been allowed to use these eyes of mine to see the world. For not by the fact that my other senses worked and the fact that I could feel mana so strongly, I would have thought that I was dead.

- "Ok, where are we now Anna" –I said whilst directing my face at her.

- "Uhhm, let me see" –stated Anna whilst she when through some sort of papers- "Yeah, here we are, we are halfway to the Neutral Kingdom of Libra and if we keep going at this pace with the carriage…we'll arrive there before sunset!!!"

There were a couple of seconds of awkward silence but as I felt that Anna wanted to tell me something I waited for her to speak.

- "Princess, no, Isla, I'm going to say this not as your maid but as your companion and friend" –I could feel the unease, seriousness and worry in her voice – "Are you okay with this, being used as a pawn to make the country stronger? Didn't you tell me you had things to do, places you wanted to go? Didn't you also tell me that you wanted to try falling in love?"

- "Anna, I can't do that anymore, it's true that I have the power and bloodline to acquire almost everything I desire, but it's also these qualities that turn into my shackles and bind me to one place, and after all the thinking I did, I arrived that there was no going out of this. I understand your frustration Anna and I really appreciate it but this, this was it for my free…"

I suddenly felt a sudden increase in the mana in the surroundings. Not good.

- "Get down!!" –I shouted whilst to getting my Anna to crouch.

Swiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiishhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!. A sharp blade like wind passed over my head and cut the carriage that me and Anna were riding at such a speed that the cut didn't have an effect on the carriage until seconds later. Snow and hail hit my face as soon as the ceiling was taken off, the icy winds hit my face, freezing my features, threatening to take all the warmth in my body, and further remembering me what kind of world I was living in. The kind of world where only the strong survive, or how the church would put it, the world where only those chosen by God were allowed to survive.

I pushed my previous thoughts in the back of my head and tried to check with my senses what was happening outside.

Not good, almost all the troops have been killed by the previous wind blade. Only 10 human allies were alive in the vicinity. The origin of the spell, I should be able to trace back the roots of it by making use of the lingering mana that it left. There they are….

The moment I felt the numbers of the assailants and their mana quality I felt cold sweat running through my back. I didn't know if I wanted to laugh or cry.

30, all of them humans, all of them with an insane amount of mana. We were clearly outnumbered. The situation was enough for me to think that it was all part of a complot to kill me. Or else, do you expect this number of talented individuals in the middle of nowhere?

- "Isla, how bad is the situation?"

- "10 people in our side including us 2, the other 8 being your average foot soldiers. As for the other side, 30, all humans, all of them being possibly chosen ones and all heavily armoured"

- "The Inquisitors then. It's not every day that you see so many chosen ones in one place waiting for us" –said Anna coquettishly- "It seems that they finally considered you as an obstruction to them."

- "Well, if a blind princess, whose existence defies all the teachings they spread to the populace, started accumulating merits then I would also be in a hurry to dispose of that girl off" –declared I with the most sarcastic voice I could pull of in that moment.

Yes, I am as the church would describe, as someone abandoned by God. I was born blind and in this world that would have been enough for people to start considering you an abomination. If not for the fact that I was talented with both weapons and magic apart from being royalty, I would have led a harsher life.

My talents and position though made the monotheist religion in this world to start considering me as an eyesore. It was mainly due to these people being the ones that spread that black haired people, magicless people, invalid people and more were tempted by evil in their past life and as a consequence received God's punishment.

Well, returning to the present, the Church saw my voyage to the neutral Kingdom as a perfect opportunity to dispose of me without any witnesses.

So the question is: How am I going to get us out of this alive? The last thing I want is for us to have a full scale battle where our probabilities of surviving are less than the 40% if I consider the soldier's lives.

Whilst I was thinking about our next course of action our enemies revealed themselves to the remaining soldiers and offered them a choice:

- "We are the Inquisitors from the Church. We have come here today to deal with the demon known as Isla Shiro in the name of God. Give her to us and we and God shall be merciful –declared the guy with a confident voice- But, ally yourself with the demon, and you shall receive, divine punishment!!"

- "(A demon…It doesn't sound as bad when you think about it)"

- "(Now it's not the time to be saying that Isla c'mon we have to get you out of here)"

- "Now, citizens of Shiro Kingdom, choose with caution."

All of that happened whilst me and Anna sneaked our way around by using the carriage and all the debris that have been destroyed due to the combined efforts of the wind blade and the blizzard.

When we were at a considerable distance, we concealed ourselves behind a pair of rocks and waited for the Inquisitors next move. We were not able to move too much for they would have seen us running away.

The soldiers started talking among them and quickly arrived to the conclusion that they didn't want to offend God, add in the fear of dying and the soldiers choice would be as clear as water.

- "Permit us to join you on your quest of eliminating the pest our Grace" –declared one soldier that looked like the appointed spokesperson of the group.

- "Very well, very, very, well. A nice level headed election" –declared the leader of the inquisitors whilst slowly clapping- You shall all receive God's mercy. Now, where is this demon?

- "If you allow us to speak your Grace, the demon was sleeping inside that ornamented carriage accompanied by her maid over there the last time I saw her. Be careful your Grace as the demon is known to be sly and powerful. If we were talking about a normal princess then she should be dead by now. But then we are talking about the "Blind saint", sorry, "demon" and her companion the "Human fortress" aren't we?

- "Good, a nice line of thinking, would you do me the honour then of revising the carriage?"

- "Whatever you may wish your Grace."

After he declared so, the spokesperson of the soldiers started walking towards the carriage.

The moment he looked inside his face retorted and he hurriedly shouted that no one was inside. This was met with the displeasure of many of the Inquisitors, including their leader, but then he rapidly recovered his composure.

- "Don't worry guys. Goole, use "God's eyesight" and ascertain their location" –then he shouted to his surroundings- "I know you are there girls, stop this useless struggle and give yourselves in. All effort is futile. You will not be able to escape from justice!"

Not good. "God's eyesight" is an advanced spell that gives its user the ability to oversee an area from above at different angles and as if that wasn't bad enough it also gives them the ability to look back on time depending on their skill and amount of mana.

Ok, I give up, the only way of getting out of here alive is by fighting

- Ok. Mikael. Behind that rock north of east from us. God revealed so to me –muttered the guy known as Goole.

I directed my face towards Anna and then she touched my shoulder as a sign of approval. I trust her she trusts me, no need for words or plans. If we are going to die, then we are not going to fall before taking some of them with us.

I looked for an opportunity for our enemies to lose focus and when I saw an instant to exploit, I used "ground shrinker" with all my power and landed in front of the leader in a low stance with my right feet forward and my right hand on top of the hilt of my sword. With all my power, whilst still maintaining a low stance, I unsheathed my blade from its scabbard and slashed in the direction of their leader's head. The slash had been so fast that the moment the inquisitor's and the soldier's noticed my presence, all they could see was a beheaded corpse.

There's an unspoken rule in the battlefield that people unconsciously follow and it goes like this: if the leader of the opposing group dies then their camp will fall in utter disorder.

- Take her head!!!

- Avenge Mikael!!!

- Demon!!!

- Etc.

This… doesn't seem to be the case for this time though. It couldn't have been easier could it??

I stepped backwards by putting power onto my right leg and recovered my posture.

3 of them attacking me from the front, some, as I felt, occupied with dealing with Anna at my right, and the rest of them chanting a spell of various elements.

I parried the sword of one of my assailants by slightly inclining my sword when meeting his downward blow making him lose balance, the moment he did so, I slashed his throat.

I started an incantation and the moment I did the next people that assaulted me tried to do so in succession so I dodged the first guy's stab by side stepping to the left side and as I didn't have enough time, I stopped the other guy's side slash by hitting his arm with the hilt of my sword now in my left arm. This caused him to drop his sword which I then proceeded to grab with my right arm to stab him on his chest.

- Demon –he muttered with his last breath- you will not get out of here alive.

I rapidly stepped back and stabbed the guy that had fallen down before in the neck.

The moment I did, I felt a surge of magic energy coming from the people who started chanting when the battle began. As if by reflex my body rapidly grabbed one of the swords below me and threw it towards one of the spell casters. The sword pierced into one of the inquisitor's chest, killing him on the spot.

At the same time, I dashed in front of another of them by using "ground shrinker" and hacked my sword in the thinnest part of his armour all whilst using the weight of my sword and force to step forward and turn around at the same time to dodge claymore of a guy that had been waiting for me to stop my movement.

I then with my left leg threw a roundhouse to the inquisitor in front of me before he had any chance to deal with the weight of his claymore, sending him flying away.

The instant I kicked that guy's head my right side was wide open. The caster's released their spell at that moment.

- In the name of God!! Hellblaze

- For our companions!! Orion's arrow

- Die!!....

All of them threw different spells at me; all of them could kill me instantly, there was not enough time for me to escape, I couldn't do anything to stop them from hitting me.

But I didn't panic. Say, is there anything to be afraid of?

Anna rapidly ran in front of me and put her shield in front. A normal shield would have been destroyed if put under the pressure of so many spells, but Anna is not called the "human fortress" for nothing.

The moment she put her shield in front of us, a myriad of defensive and buff spells have already been put in both Anna and her shield.

She received all the attacks head on and somehow managed to budge only a couple of inches. The attack though left her gravely injured, but her sacrifice made a couple of extra seconds for me to use. When the barrage of spells finished I casted the spell I delayed since the beginning of the battle "light" to blind all of them.

This allowed me to move around swiftly finishing my enemies with ease. 1,2,3 fell down. 4,5,6 more people dealt with. This left us with 16 people to finish if we add the number Anna got on her side.

I started thinking we had an opportunity to get out of here alive, and then… a sudden pressure assaulted my body causing me to use my sword as a support to counter the force that urged my body to go down.

Then all the mana that I felt moments ago, both enemies and Anna dissipated; it felt as if they were never there in the first place. I was… alone.

**Change in perspective from Isla to Anna**

- "Noooo!!!!!" –Isla screamed- "Please don't abandon me, I don't like it when it's dark… Anna, anyone, please!!!"

Isla was fine until a few moments ago. What happened to her?

Does it have something to do with the sudden drop of mana in my body and surroundings?

I started scanning the area, looking for some clues as to what happened. The guy that the inquisitor's dead leader called Goole uncovered the mystery for me.

- "Incredible, isn't it" –stated Goole whilst clapping his hands and looking at me- "What a simple device can do to such a powerful person?"

- "What did you to her you bastard?" –my voice sounding the angriest I've ever been.

- "Well, you know. We might have slightly interfered with your Highness senses, you know, forcibly cutting off her connection to her own mana and the air's."

- "Impossible. Isla would have felt the activation of such spell miles away if we consider its magnitude."

- "And that's why we altered it so that it was activated when a certain threshold of people died in the area"

- You don't mean…..

- Yes, we've been guiding you like dogs since the start of the fight –declared Goole triumphantly.

- "Never thought it was going to be so effective. No, I can't contain it, hahahaha!!! Isn't it awful, among all the things she could have had a trauma on and she had to pick mana. Isn't it ironic for a demon to fear being cut off of God's gift?!?!"

- NO!! Isla!!!

I was desperate. I have to do something to help her. I've been with her since we were just little kids so I know what kind of agony she's experiencing right now

- So, overall, enjoy the view of your best friend being killed in agony. Engrave this in your memory and remember the pain of not being able of doing anything to stop us from killing the girl you swore to shield in front of your eyes..

Goole patted my back with a smile and then slowly walked towards Isla whilst wearing a disgusting look on his face, no, all of them did.

- Don't you dare!!! –declared I for everyone around me to hear- you guys touch even one of hair hers and I swear I will tear off all your limbs before killing you!! Noo!!! Don't touch her with your filthy hands you bastards!!!

My body refused to move due to my injuries and excess mana deprivation. I couldn't move. I couldn't do anything to stop them from killing my best friend.

I was at my wits end right now. Tears started falling from my eyes as I pictured Isla's cold body in front of me.

I begged.

Prayed.

For the first time in my life, not to God, but for someone to save us from this predicament.

This was my last resort.

Then when Isla was about to be stabbed I heard the humming and footsteps of what was possibly a man, and it was getting louder and louder per second.

Obviously, I wasn't the only one to notice this and the inquisitors and soldiers also looked towards that direction.

There after a couple of seconds appeared a normal looking black haired young man with sharp brown eyes, possibly of our age or older, dressed with a set of a black sweater, black jacket with touches of blue, black jeans and a black pair of boots. He also carried a black backpack on his back and a strange looking slightly curved sword on his waist.

The inquisitors and soldiers were wary of him at first but then started ignoring him once they saw the colour of his hair.

But for me, for me.

I couldn't stop looking at him, for he exuded an air of solidity, purposefulness and nobility, qualities that you didn't expect either from a boy his age nor a black haired human.

When he noticed us, he slowly approached us, attracting the despise of several of the inquisitors.

- "What do you want you abomination" –said one of them to the boy with a sneer.

- "I was wondering if you guys were by any chance connected to the Shiro Kingdom" –replied the boy in an amicable voice.

- "Yes, we are knights from said kingdom. Now go away from here if you don't want to die abomination."

The men around him laughed this off and continued looking at Isla's direction.

I thought that after that, the boy would lose interest and run out of here.

But at the surprise of all of us the boy took his bag off, left it on the floor and then assumed a stance with his right hand over the hilt of his sword whilst his left hand was holding its scabbard.

The moment he pulled the sword a bit out of its scabbard, killing intent poured out in massive amounts from the boy's body.

- Well then that only means that I just don't have to contain myself anymore when taking care of all of you do I? –declared the boy in a cold voice.

My sixth sense hit bullseye. This boy was not as normal as he initially looked after all.