2 Awakening

North Kingdom - A gentle wind caressed the pink stained cheeks of the girl under the tree. Her long red hair sprawled on the roots as she snoozed off under the shade. Her whole body is riddled with wounds but the most evident is the large gash on her forehead and shoulder. Her whole metal armor was gone. Small pieces hang loosely on the sides as if her armor had been blown away from her body.

The sun shone brightly upon her closed eyes and as she opened them slowly, she felt the stinging pain all over her like a thousand pins have been prickling to her bones. She winced at the pain and cursed at the sky, "Damn it!" She tried propping herself up to sit down.

"Don't move, idiot." a cold voice sounded from the top of the tree.

Yllana steadied her gaze to focus on the man sitting on a branch above her. His shirt was ripped off and she could see countless scars on his back. She looked up at his head. Since he was facing his back on her, she couldn't see his face. 'That black hair seems familiar. Wait...I'm alive?'

"I'm alive..." she breathed. Tears slowly formed at the corner of her eyes. She didn't know why she felt emotional at the moment but she felt crying at the moment. In all the battles that she have fought, this one is the biggest and the one that brought her an uneasy feeling. She thought that she will die at that cave with that demon. "The demon king! Where is he?" She suddenly stood up with her remaining strength, the pain shot through her veins again and she fell on the ground with a thud. She rolled on her back and took deep breaths while biting her lip.

The man on the branch jumped down and sighed at the sight of her. "You really are an idiot." He raked his black hair and looked at the girl seething in pain.

She looked directly at his face and didn't feel any power emitting from his body. 'He's not a danger to me. Wait...why can't I feel anything around me? Oh, no.' Her eyes widened in her realization. With her last summon of a blessing of power from her last fight, she had consumed her life force and now she is as ordinary as any citizen in the North Kingdom. In short, she's now a good-for-nothing. She smirked at her thought.

"The demon king was killed in that cave." He pointed at an open hole from the ground. The sides of the whole was blackened like a debris of a big explosion from the inside has taken place. His deep black eyes stared at her face. "The war is over. I wonder how you got here, a commoner should not be in this place." She really looked like a commoner without an armor. Tattered shirt and gloves, no belt or weapon, even the metals on her boots are gone - an image of a lowly commoner.

Yllana watched the man's movements and guessed that he was a lower knight that have gone to battle with them. It was normal for her that people won't recognize her when she wasn't wearing her mask. As if he read what she was thinking, he sat down beside her and said, "I'm an aid not a knight in this battle. Close your eyes. I'll heal you."

She did as she was told. "Open your mouth." Since she was lying down, she instantly gulped down the iron-tasting drop he put on her mouth. 'This aid is a mage? It tastes like blood.' she thought. It was common in battlefields to have mages alongside the knights and other forces to assist in battles. Mages have long been using magic spells for heavy damages on their opponents and carry potions for different purposes.

After the drop was absorbed in her body, she felt a stinging pain in all her wounds for a few minutes. She didn't move. She just bit her lip and endured the pain. After some time, she couldn't feel any pain anymore.

When she sat right up, he is already wearing a white shirt which seemed he found on the battlefield. "Thank you. What rank are you?" she asked him.

He stilled for a moment and lowered his head, "Mid-Honored Mage, " then he walked away from her towards the town of the Northern Kingdom.

She stood up and followed him fast. She is defenseless and powerless. She would be going back to the kingdom anyway so she might as well start journeying back now. At least with this mage's current level of power, he could still protect her a little.

A Holy Knight requiring somebody else to protect her? She smirked. She didn't know that she would be stooping down low to this level after sacrificing so much.

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In the Northern Kingdom, different classes of people have the same types of ranks according to the power they hold. Each rank is divided into three levels - low, mid, and high. The citizens who were born ordinary are classified in the Low Common ranks. If they, however, are talented and can gain more power through battles, they go to the next levels as Honors, Imperial, Legendary, Saintly, and Holy. Saints and Holy ranks are almost unreachable to any citizen since it would require too much battle prowess and a huge amount of luck to be blessed when given birth. That is why there are only ten people among hundred thousands of citizens in the Northern Kingdom who achieved the Holy ranks.