Why "Phina"?!

"You good?" Jack looked towards the unbalanced Seraphina. "You've been walking weirdly for a while."

"I...I'm good." Seraphina said through gritted teeth.

"If you say so." Jack shrugged and continued on the road. He had tried making small talk, but Seraphina's answer to every question he asked was either 'I do not know' or 'I can't remember'.

Seraphina took a breathe of pain. She felt an incredible pain from her stomach. They've been walking for a long time now, almost four hours. After the first few minutes of walking, she calmed down, and with calming down came the horrible feeling of hunger.

She suddenly heard a loud whistle from the back. It was from Fardo. She grabbed the handle of her sword as the flashing image rushed to her head. The combination of the horrible image, smell, sound, feeling and taste in her mouth as well as the unending hunger caused her to collapse.

"What the hell is going on?" all 20 soldiers looked at the collapsed Seraphina. Fardo walked forward as he looked at Jack, "What happened?"

"I don't know, she just fell down. She was walking all wobbly and then suddenly turned around when she heard the break whistle. After that, she just fell." Jack shrugged.

"I...you...oh my god." Fardo looked at Jack with a sigh. He then turned to Seraphina, "What's wrong?"

"Nothing!" Seraphina said in a muffle voice. But her stomach betrayed her. It started churning from hunger.

Fardo's jaw dropped. She's obviously at the Intermediate-rank which means she went through the Peak Adult-rank. Her Life Energy should be optimized! She wouldn't feel even the slightest bit of hunger for at least a month!!

"Alright, everyone! Settle down, we'll take a break and then we'll continue." Fardo said to the group. He then turned to one of the women who hanged around Marrow. She was a short woman with long black hair tied in a perking bun on the back of her head, her bangs covered her forehead. "Babe, can we make an exception? Can you please make some food for her? I'll go patrol the area, I won't be long."

"Do I have to?" Kara, Fardo's wife, said with an uncomfortable look in her eyes. "She's obviously more powerful than you and her memory's gone. She's too dangerous."

She then slightly blushed, "Plus I thought you wanted my cooking for yourself."

"She's just being jealous of Seraphina, Fardo. You go on ahead." Marrow smirked at his daughter.

"Daddy!" Kara looked at Marrow with a blush. Her obvious anger and puffed cheeks caused a smile to appear on Fardo's face. Everything about this woman was just too cute in his eyes. From her eyes...her hair...her smile...her laug-

"AAHHHH!!" Seraphina couldn't take the pain any longer and started to shout in pain.

'For fuck's sake.' Fardo thought as he turned around to patrol.

"Be careful, honey!" Kara said with a wave. She then sighed and whispered to herself, "Off to cooking I guess."

"Hey, give her some water to quiet her down until I'm done!!" Kara shouted at some people just watching Seraphina scream in pain.

"Alright...what to cook?" Kara asked herself. "Hmm...curry it is. Hey, Jack! Get me some water, so I can start cooking."

Jack's eyes turned round. He then laughed slightly in disbelief. "YOU are going to cook? For US?"

"No, dumbass." Kara rolled her eyes, then nodded her head pointing at Seraphina on the ground clutching her stomach. "Her."

"That makes even less sense!" Jack laughed.

"Just go!" Kara slapped his head. Jack grabbed the cleaning water and some pots and other utensils.

Kara started cooking immediately. Seraphina's occasional grunt made her uncomfortable. She didn't like the idea that a person so much more powerful than her was grunting pain. Kara liked the idea that power is everything, but the fact that someone so much more powerful than her was unable to move properly because of mere food went against her ideology. By the time she finished, Seraphina was given a cloth to bite on since her gums started bleeding.

Kara handed the plate to Seraphina with a polite smile. "Here you go, Miss Seraphina."

Seraphina immediately got up from her laying down position into a cross-legged one. She started devouring the food like she was a black hole. She had plate after plate. Kara looked at her with amazement. 'God damn, she just ate enough for five people and she is still hungry?'

Seraphina gulped, then looked at Kara with a smile. "More please!"

Kara gave her the last of the food she had cooked. She cooked a lot since she heard how much stronger people ate, but even then she underestimated Seraphina. She looked at Seraphina and said, "Miss Seraphina, this is the last plate, so I advice you to enjoy the taste a little more."

Kara was a little offended that Seraphina wasn't enjoying her cooking properly. Her agreement with her husband was that she only cooked for him and he only cooked for her, with some exclusions. She cooked for her father on some occasions and Fardo cooked for his brother on some occasions. Fardo always praised his wife with every bite, meanwhile Seraphina was eating so much without even looking at her.

"Sorry I'm not giving some small talk, it's just that," Seraphina kept trying to speak after every bite as apposed to not speaking at all before she knew it was her last plate. "I enjoy the food so much that I can't even speak to you while I eat! You're a great fucking cook!"

"O-Oh." Kara was taken aback. She thought stronger fighters were too proud to talk to her let alone praise her. She quickly smiled, "T-Thank you."

"I'm Seraphina Ender! What's your name?" Seraphina said as she laid back with an almost full stomach.

"Oh! Where are my manners?" Kara stood up. "I'm Kara Sanvi Link, Early Adult-rank. What is your rank, Miss Seraphina?"

"Rank?" Seraphina looked at Kara with confusion. "What's that?"

Kara's eyes widened in shock as her jaw dropped. She shook her head and looked at Seraphina with pity. It was not easy for someone to get to the Adult stage without knowing effort. This poor woman lost all her knowledge about ranking.

"What's with the look?" Seraphina raised her eyebrows. Kara looked like she's about to cry.

Kara cleared her throat, "Let me explain to you what ranking is. It's the level of strength that your body possesses. You can go through the first 3 stages: (Starter, Infant, and Young) simply by training and maintaining your body. The next one is the one I'm at, the (Adult) stage. In this stage, you start learning to control your Life Energy, beginning with sensing Life Energy and ending with optimizing it. After that is the (Beginner) stage. In this stage, you are introduced to World Energy, beginning with vaguely sensing it exists all the way to clearly seeing it with your eyes. That's the stage my husband, Fardo, is at. Then, you have the stage you're in! The (Intermediate) stage! This is the stage where you start controlling World Energy, and you looked quite proficient too. I'd estimate you're at either the High or Peak level of the Intermediate-rank. Afterwards is the last stage, the (Advanced) stage. In the Advanced stage, you start to create a permanent vortex that will forever pull World Energy towards you. The levels in this stage are dictated by how much World Energy you can actually fit in your vortex."

Seraphina took all this knowledge in. She was desperate to learn anything about herself, as she knew nothing. It seemed like she was a very powerful person. She then raised her hand. Kara looked at her with confusion. "What are you doing?"

"Raising my hand for permission to ask a question." Seraphina looked Kara with an even more confused look.

"You're asking ME for permission??" Kara was even more confused, but she quickly shrugged off. "Go ahead."

"What's Life Energy and what's Word Energy?" Seraphina asked with a slight embarrassment. By the way Kara was speaking, these things were common knowledge. "Also, what's up with the weird thing with the sword?"

"What weird thing?" Kara looked to Seraphina's sword. It was a normal sword.

"I don't know." Seraphina said earnestly. "Whenever I touch this sword, I start seeing a scene. I see rivers of blood and corpses stacked below my feet. I hear blood dripping from a sword in my left hand. I feel comfortable like I'm in a hot bath. I smell rotting corpses and the stench of blood. I taste the sweat that's covering my body, including my lips. I enter this scene for an instant then it vanishes."

"A Life Flash?!" Kara realized quickly. "It's something that happens to people sometimes. It's never been actually solved, but it's said that it is the great Laws predicting your future!"

"My future?" Seraphina started thinking. "Alright, what about World Energy and Life Energy then?"

"Well...how do I explain this?" Kara started thinking to herself. "Well, Life Energy is a type of Energy that helps living things...well...live. If something has no Life Energy, then it's not alive. World Energy is the power produced of the great Laws interacting and the Higher Beings fighting. It can be used for other things when you're proficient in using it later on!"

"Higher B-" Seraphina cut herself off with a sigh. 'Everything will answer itself with time...I think.'

"Anything else, Miss Seraphina?" Kara left her previous thoughts behind. This poor girl can't consciously control Life Energy, let alone harm them.

"No, not really. Thanks for the talk." Seraphina said as she closed her eyes, preparing for a nap.

"No problem, Miss Seraphina." Kara smiled as she stood.

"Oh, and Kara." Seraphina said to Kara before she left. Kara looked at her. "Drop the 'Miss', it's a mouthful...hell, even my name's a mouthful."

"How about I call you 'Phina' then?" Kara said. Seraphina immediately cringed.

"That has to be the weirdest thing I've ever heard." Seraphina said. She then smiled, "But...I like it, better than saying Seraphina every time someone calls me."

"Great! I'll wake you up when we're ready to leave. Okay, Phina?" Kara smile.

Phina cringed as she smiled awkwardly, "Yeah, that's alright."

She then closed her eyes as Kara was leaving. She had her first ounce of sleep since losing her memory.