Wraith

''Dear Fae

I hope this letter finds you well, I wished to thank you for being kind to a stranger like me that nobody would seeing on how terrifying I must have looked in plated armor bathed in blood, I apologize if I have made you uncomfortable in our short journey together with my lack of words, it is for personal reasons.

I have no recollection of what has transpired before losing my consciousness but I have you to thank for leaving that forest unscathed, thank you

Apart from that I wish you safe travels to where ever you might go, I hope our paths cross once again in much favorable circumstances

Sincerely, yours truly

Claude"

"Claude huh?" Fae muttered to herself as she gently placed the letter she found on the nightstand of her room back down, sitting on the edge of the bed she let out a long exhale, she then nervously laughed as she realized that he doesn't know the reason he lost consciousness in that forest was because of the same person he was thanking

"Anyway..." Putting her backpack on the bed, she opened it to make a mental note of the things at hand

A water bottle, a Scarf, text books and note books, a self defense flashlight, two packs of cigarettes with one half empty and her pink plastic lighter

But also, Archard's dagger that was on Fae's lap, it looked beautiful with its engraving and silver sheathe, a coin pouch on the nightstand that Claude left for her and the one Archard gave her

In total she had 14 silver coins and 2 gold coins

She had no idea whether that was a lot or not, but it was a start in this new journey of hers and she had more important things to do...

....

Taking the hood of the cloak that Ulfgan gave her off her head, Fae looked up at the sign that was two swords clashing against each other and pursed her lips, it was the building she was looking for

Pushing the doors open, Fae got in as the same doors closed behind her, she looked around what seemed like a lobby with few adventurers dispersed around, most had leather armor while others wore robs and had staffs in their hands

"Ulfgan wasn't joking about magic huh" Taking a deep breath in she approached the receptionist that met the description he gave Fae, Dark eyes and brown short hair

"Excuse me miss, would you happen to be Maria?" Fae asked as she attracted the receptionist's attention

"Why yes, do we know each other?" Fae smiled as she brought out a small letter out of her backpocket

"Not yet" She then handed it to Maria with a small smile, the latter opened it with curiosity and started reading the content, but quickly looked up with a guilty expression

"A-ah, I'm so sorry miss..." She looked back to the letter to read Fae's name

"I'm sorry miss Fae but we are under strict orders to stop recruitments for now" Fae, disheartened, raised an eyebrow

"May I know for what reason?" She inquired her

"A dormant dungeon is active again and many new reckless adventurers have lost their lives in it, the guild master has ceased all recruitment because of the increasing death toll" Maria stated as she saw Fae let out a sigh

"Why cease all recruitments why not just forbid adventurers to enter that dungeon" Fae said with slight anger as she put her hands on the counter

"Well that's the thing, adventurers don't really listen to warnings very well" Maria said with a nervous chuckle as Fae clicked her tongue

"Maria, is there a problem?" A voice was heard behind Fae who slowly turned around to be met with a woman of her height, wearing a white button shirt, black pants, with a thin and long sword attached to her waist, black bangs reaching her eyebrows and her hair tied in a ponytail

"Yeah there is" Fae exclaimed with how frustrated she was

"This stupid guild master whatever is being a rock in my shoes that's what" The woman crossed her arms and tilted her head to the side

"And why is that exactly?" She asked Fae

"For some reason she stopped all recruitments and now I can't register even though I desperately need this" The woman in front of her stepped closer to Fae with her hands crossed, leaning over to get a good look at her face

"You? you want to be an adventurer?" She asked Fae with words dipped in a mocking tone, that Fae didn't take lightly as she stared right into the eyes of the woman

"Fine then" Stepping away, she grabbed the sword of an adventurer at random as he seemed to have no objection when he saw who pulled his sword

"Miss Yulia please stop" Maria pleaded but the woman didn't even pay attention to her

Tossing it to Fae who barely grabbed it, the woman unsheathed her own sword, pointing it towards her

"Hey what the hell are you doing?!" Fae exclaimed with the surprisingly heavy sword in her hand

Before she could even get her footing right, Yulia stepped with one foot close to her and slashed at Fae who widened her eyes and almost didn't block the strike, though even with blocking it her grasp was way too uneven and weak as the sword was knocked out of her shivering hands, and before she could do anything, the tip of the adversary's sword was already close to Fae's throat

"You think it's a joke don't you?" Yulia asked the shocked Fae who could barely get a word out

"This is why I ceased recruitment, because of people like you" Sheathing her sword, the woman gave Fae a borderline disgusted look with narrowed eyes and a poisonous tone

"As long as I'm here you can forget about being an adventurer in this town" With seemingly no more words to give, Yulia walked away leaving Fae in a a mixture of shock from striking swords with the guild master herself and embarrassment for being handled and ridiculed in such a way, doing her best to ignore the chatter around her that came to life because of what just happened and with the little pride she had remaining she got herself up and left...

....

A loud sigh left Fae as she flipped Archard's dagger in the air, she wanted to do anything to keep her mind occupied and away from the anxiety that came after losing her only road to making money

"Hey there" Putting the flipping dagger to a stop by holding it straight, Fae looked to her right as she saw a man that looked around her age in leather armor with a sword attached to his right waist and a shield to his back, his hair was of a charcoal color and was brushed to the side, the man seeing Fae so disgruntled and irritated decided to continue the conversation with a nervous chuckle

"I saw what happened earlier, our guild master is very hot headed huh?" He asked her while leaning against the wall she was leaned on, Fae didn't know if she was getting scammed or hit on but decided to play along anyways

"Uh-huh but what does that have to do with you?" She asked back swaying the dagger she had in her hand

"Ahaaa no need to get so defensive friend, I only came to give you a helping hand" She raised an eyebrow at what he said

"I'm listening" The young man cleared his throat before speaking

"So basically I'm a new adventurer and I got a quest to hunt some goblins, I thought that you might be interested since you also needed money" Fae pondered the offer, it seemed a bit too generous

"Don't worry, we'll be splitting the rewards equally" She scoffed

"And how can I trust that you'd do just that?" The man smiled at her before he answered

"I already told miss Maria that I'll help you so if I do anything shady you can just report me and my guild license would be in danger" Fae was a bit surprised by his kindness, he didn't seem like a bad person from his face and he went so far and beyond to give her something to do for the day

"And what's your name?" He smiled warmly and shook the hand Fae gave him

"Gunther, nice to meet you Fae!" His overjoyed and overexcited expression was a beam that could almost blind Fae's eyes

"Wait, how do you know my name?" She asked him with a confused expression and slightly furrowed eyebrows

"Miss Maria told me" The answer brought Fae to scoff, sounds like Maria was the type to talk a lot

"Alright Gunther, when will we get going?" She asked him as she put one hand on her waist

"At sunset, if us two play our card rights we can kill them without the need of making too much of a ruckus, sounds good to you?" Expressing his desire to know Fae's opinion on things even though he knew that she was worse than a rookie showed that he was a good kid, she smiled and crossed her arms

"I'm onboard, where will we meet?" Fae inquired

"By the northern gates, it'll be easier for us to go to the marked place through those ones" He answered, getting a slow nod back

"Fine by me, I'll meet you there at dawn, see you by then" Both of them waved goodbyes to each other and went on to make their separate preparations

....

"Good afternoon" Fae uttered as she closed the door behind her, weapons from knives, swords, spears, morning stars and Warhammers were displayed around the shop, and also armor ranging from leather to plate armor were scattered around

She saw a small figure inside a room behind the counter, peeking through it she could see a Dwarf that looked over his shoulder, noticing Fae

"I'm coming..." Even with his small size his voice was as deep as a man in his late fifties

"What might you be looking for young lady" He inquired with a raised eyebrow as he looked up into Fae's eyes

"Uh yeah I was looking for a blade to buy but I honestly don't know what's best for me, I thought that asking you would give me some guidance" She told him, bringing him to rub his scruffy beard as he looked at her up and down

"You're pretty polite aren't you" He replied

"And a bit too honest..." He continued under his breath before he looked away and around his store

"How strong are you?" he asked her, receiving a nervous chuckle as a reply that he understood as 'not very'

"Do you have any skills? or magic spells?" He asked her again

"Uh, not yet!" She exclaimed to at least give a shot at protecting her pride, yet hearing the dwarf sigh she knew she did a terrible job at it

"Short-sword" The dwarf muttered

"Pardon?"

"SHORT-SWORD!" he exclaimed loudly, Fae nervously chuckled as she followed the dwarf around

"A longsword might be too long for you to handle with your strength, and a Morningstar or Warhammer too heavy..." He brought out a sword from a barrel, unsheathing it and looking at the reflecting blade

Fae could see that this dwarf takes good care of his products, might be the reason as to why a lot of racks were empty, loving your work and putting effort into it virtually always results in a good product

"Try it" Sheathing it back and handing it to Fae, the dwarf looked at her with attentive eyes

"Uhm, alright" Grabbing the sheath with her left hand and the handle with her other, Fae slowly unsheathed the blade as she raised it sideways to stare at the blade, staring at her face she could see her short black hair that barely reached her shoulders, brown eyes with black bags under them and her thin pink lips, it was more than a clean blade

"I SAID GRIP IT NOT ADMIRE YOURSELF!"

"CHRIST ALRIGHT!" Fae jumped at the sudden yell as she automatically did what was told to her, gripping it tightly with both hands, the dwarf came in front of her and gently kicked her right leg away from her left

"Have a better footing lass!" She fixed it

"And don't grip it so tightly you'll tire your hands before doing anything!" She did

"Don't grip it too lightly or it'll fly right off your hands!" She corrected it

"Uhh... is this good?" She asked, making sure her footing was correct to not lose her balance when defending against strikes and having a tight enough grip on her sword, Humming to himself the dwarf looked at her posture

"Well that's a start, that'll be 10 Silver coins, don't hit the door on your way out" Fae chuckled at how unfriendly he was being but she knew that he probably wasn't used to people, so not deciding to take it the wrong way she handed him the coins with a smile

"Thank you very much, have a nice day sir!" Watching her leave, the dwarf then slowly gazed back at the coins deposited on the counter and sighed

....

"There they are" Gunther muttered, crouched down in the shadows the tree presented to them to shelter the duo away from the revealing moonlight

"They can make campfires?" Fae asked under her breath, seeing a campfire with what seemed to be 4 goblins, green skin with their height not going beyond 1 meter, their faces were filled with wrinkles and pimples and their nose was pointy and long

Not the most beautiful creatures to say the least, and with how they acted around the campfire not the most civilized either

"The smarter ones can, anyway, you got a plan?" He turned his gaze towards her, her brown eyes were focused on the four goblins to see if they could stealthily pacify one of them

"Follow me" She whispered as she crouched even lower and approached the campfire, Archard's dagger at hand held in a reverse grip

Two of the goblins were brutally smashing bones against the ground in a barbaric fashion suddenly however a song started playing outside of their little campfire and deeper into the woods, they screeched and went on to examine the source of the sound

Under leaves and branches they picked them up and threw them away to find a light under it, they curiously picked up the phone, and it was the last thing they ever did pick up as both Fae and Gunther put their arms around each of their targets' necks and slammed them on the ground face first before slicing their throat with their blades

Fae's goblin kept squirming around fighting for its life while the former stabbed it at the bottom of its throat and twisted the dagger

Breathing heavily, Fae slowly let go of the goblin with her shivering hands, falling back on the soil before wiping her mouth with her forearm

"Are you okay?" Gunther asked, seemingly unphased by the life he has just taken, his expression telling that he had done this countless times

"Y-yeah yeah don't worry" Fae on the other side had difficulties with doing so, but it wasn't the blood that made her uncomfortable it was more of the squirming and whimpering of the goblin she just had killed, the mere concept of taking a life was hard for her to digest

"Fuck..." Wiping her face from up and down with one hand, she decided that she really had to get used to this, she'll be doing a lot of this kind of contracts if she wished to gain enough money to continue her journey

"The other two are getting agitated" Gunther remarked as he looked past Fae and back into the goblin's campfire

"Alright alright... same tactic, let's finish this already..."

And so the same tactic they used, Fae's phone proved to be a much needed distraction and with it they didn't have to face the goblins directly, sparing them the hassle and any slight chance that things go sour

"Good job Fae, you did great for your first time" He told her, giving her a comforting pat on the back of the quickly breathing pale woman that just chuckled and crouched down

"So what now?" She asked him, seeing Gunther unsheathe his knife

"We'll be needing proof that we actually completed the quest, so we'll have to cut their ears and bring them with us" Fae put her hand on her mouth as her body felt the intense desire to show Gunther what she had for lunch

"Right... " Taking in a deep breath to calm both her mind and body, Fae let out a long exhale before grabbing her dagger wet with the goblin's blood, she had to learn how to do things in this world no matter how disgusting or brutal they were, and so following Gunther's lead she did just that

Suddenly however, she felt the cold winds embrace her from behind making her body shudder, but for some reason she didn't shiver in cold, but fear

Slowly turning her head with wide eyes, Fae could see a two gigantic orange eyes gazing right into her soul, and then two others were above the previous ones, and another two appeared above

"G-gunther..." Fae gently muttered, terrified to move but unable to keep her silence, the man with a raised eyebrow slowly looked at the huge Lion come out of it's shadowy refuge, mouth frothing at the sight of the two, mixed with it's body was a goat, and it's tail was a living snake

Fae gave Gunther a look asking for advice, but as she gazed at him he had the face of fear and a petrified body to add on that

If she didn't do something, both of them will die right here, and right now

"Gunther, I'll need you to run..." Gently sliding her hand into her pocket, Fae could see the monster not cease his approach towards the two of them

And with that she he took that opportunity to clutch her flashlight in a reverse grip and as tight as she could, setting it to maximum brightness and flashing it right into the eyes of the beast

"GO! RUN!" The lion growled as it recoiled, sheltering its eyes with its paws while it's snake tail flew towards both Fae and Gunther like a spear thrown, but they were already running away with all the energy they had in their body

Jumping over fallen branches, pushing leaves and vines aside, both of them ran as fast they could towards what they hoped was the path back to the town, but compared to what was chasing them any path was a better path

Yelping, Fae felt the sensation of the ground under her feet seemingly disappearing, she grabbed into the edge as hard as she could, cursing loudly as she looked down to see a black abyss

"F-Fae!" Gunther exclaimed when he saw her hanging out from death with one hand, but as he went to help her he stopped in it's tracks as he could see the beast catching up to both of them

"GUNTHER! HELP ME!" but no matter her pleading, her partner ran away and left her to deal with the monster that was right behind her, hearing it slowly step towards made her shiver in fear, and hearing it growl softly was telling of what fate it reserved for the woman

To die mauled by a lion, or by falling down, she slowly looked behind her and saw the beast with saliva dripping down from it's maw, she knew what to do...

She let go

....

As her eyes slowly opened to see a blurry world, Fae's body felt like it was burning in eternal hell with the pain she was feeling, breathing shallow and wheezing

Getting herself to sit down with the strength she had left, she tried to move her legs and arms to see if she had any broken limbs

"At least there's that to smile at" She said to comfort herself and to shoo away the thought that she was left to die by her first partner, wiping her teary eyes with her forearm before gently and slowly getting herself on her feet she took another breath in

It was dark, she realized she was in some sort of cave with the moonlight that enlightened a bit of her surroundings through the hole she fell from

Gulping hard, she wiped the dust off her face and pulled out her flashlight, no reason to keep on being here, setting it to medium setting she lit up the way forward as there was no time to give up

Holding her aching left side, Fae did her best to catch her breath in her slow walk throughout the caves that she was within, the air smelled bad and the pressure around her was suffocating, she had to leave at all costs

Meeting a dead end Fae sighed

"Gotta be kiddin'..." Disheartened, she approached the wall blocking her way forward, looking around it with pursed lips and sadness that slowly turned into anger

She tried her best to help him escape that beast, pushing him out of his frozen state and giving him enough courage to run for his life, and now that it was his turn to help he left her to die, it wasn't fair...

"God damn it!" Punching the wall, Fae immediately lost her balance as her fist went through it, her whole body did actually

Falling on all fours with a confused expression, she looked behind her to see the wall slowly evaporate from sight

"Hah, who said anger can't solve problems" one obstacle down, she smiled and got herself up again, wincing at the pain coming from her stomach yet doing her best to push through it, she continued on with her hand clutched tightly around her flashlight

Noticing a faint light at the end of the path that kept going deeper and deeper, Fae saw a torch, and stone walls around the cave showing that finally she reached a place that at least were occupied at some point

Turning off her flashlight, she walked deeper and deeper into what seemed to her like it was ruins, or maybe a dungeon, Maria did talk about there being a new active dungeon around these part

Fae put her hand on her heart to calm her anxiety down, if she was indeed in the dungeon that so many adventurers met their ends in and that caused the whole guild to cease recruitment, then she's in real danger

Eyes widened and ears rose at attention at the sound of swords clanking against each other away from her and coming from within a room that she noticed just now, blood splattered on the ground that didn't calm her one bit

Crouching down and not making more noise than necessary Fae approached the entryway and peeked inside, eyes widening at what she could see

Bodies of goblins that seemed far stronger, taller and healthier than the ones she fought previously were all around the floor of the room, crimson blood splattered from the ground to the ceiling and on the walls as well

One goblin was standing, facing a woman that Fae recognized, it was the guild master herself, Observing intently, and Fae came to the conclusion that this was her doing with how much blood was running down the blade of her sword

But with all the scene that proved her strength, Fae saw Yulia breathe heavily from her mouth with her sword barely held tightly in her hands, both her and her enemy were in a state ill advised for a duel alike of this

But they did anyway, lunging towards her the goblin's strike with his machete got blocked by Yulia's sword as she let his blade slid down her own, but longing for a counterattack Yulia suddenly felt to the ground, it was as if her legs gave up on her, and the goblin took that moment with excitement as he towered over her with his blade raised to strike down

"HEY ASSHOLE!" Attracting his attention the goblin turned his head at the sound of the voice, milliseconds before a sheathed sword hit him right in his face, stunned and in disarray Yulia took the time to push herself towards the goblin with her hand against the ground, stabbing him right in the heart and pushing him down to get on top of him

Stepping on his arm with her right feet, Yulia twisted her blade and kept it inside the goblin until life left him

"You... what are you doing here?!" Yulia screamed at Fae's dusty and cut face, Fae taking it as an offense to yell at her savior only raised her voice further

"Wha-! Is that how you say thank you in these parts?!" She answered loudly before clicking her tongue and going to pick up her short sword

"You need to leave this dungeon right now!" Yulia yelled at her, seeing her attach her sword back to her waist before she looked down at her

"You say that but without me you would've been in a much worse situation" Fae asserted her position, making Yulia purse her lips tightly into a thin line as she let out a sigh

"Anyway let's get out of here and then argue in safety" She told Yulia, putting one hand on the pummel of her shortsword and cocking her head to the side at the sight of Yulia not following her

"Well? do you need a hand to get up?" She asked her

Yulia sighed and looked at her right in the eyes

"I can't walk" Raising an eyebrow in confusion, Fae looked down at her legs and realized something was a miss

"W-wait... where's you left leg?!" She exclaimed in confusion seeing on how Yulia's left boot was on the ground, the bottom left of her pants displaying no silhouette of a leg but that didn't make sense seeing on how she was just fighting and standing on both legs, she even fought Fae herself standing on both legs with no problem whatsoever

"I lost my leg years ago, now I use mana to form one" As Yulia finished talking Fae could see a translucent blue leg slowly form in the place of the missing one, though quickly vanishing away in mere seconds

"My mana ran out, so I can't really use it..." Yulia said with a tone mixed in guilt and regret as she looked at Fae's eyes

"I-..." Not knowing what to say at the mere thought of losing a limb forever, Fae gulped and stepped towards Yulia deciding not to pry further and leave the curiosity for another day

"It's alright, let's just get out of here first" She said, presenting an open palm as a helping hand, Yulia on the other side eyed her from down and then up

"I'm fine with staying here, you get some help first" Fae raised an eyebrow in shock at the words she was met with

"What? hell no! we're going to get help toge-" Her unyielding desire to help Yulia only made her more frustrated

"For fuck's sake you can't even defend yourself!" She yelled at Fae, but both being as stubborn as the other resulted in none of them winning for now

"So that means I'll let you fucking die here?!" Fae yelled, offended by the words Yulia spew at her that made her scream louder and get closer to her

"Do you even know why I'm in this stupid dungeon in the first place?!" Adding on as she looked down at Yulia

"Because I was left to die by somebody that I was on a contract with! how the hell do you expect me to do the same to you five fucking minutes later?!" Seeing on how her adversary didn't have anything to say after that only a stare with pursed lips, Fae decided to grab Yulia's arm and put it around her own neck with Fae's arm around Yulia's waist

"You can be a cunt to me when we're out of here" Yulia looked at Fae for a couple of seconds before letting out a sigh

"If something happens please run away" She told her, Fae clicked her tongue and rolled her eyes

"Yeah yeah, not like anybody would realize I went missing so just quiet down already" Yulia unknowing whether to argue more or to thank Fae only went silence, with her eyes slowly looking away

....

"Your sword is beautiful" Fae said, eyes on the thin and sharp looking blade and the complex yet attractive form of the cross guard

"Thank you, it's a rapier" Yulia replied to her, Fae deciding to take her eyes off the blade to look at the barely lit path ahead

"Yours look nice too, where did you get it?" Fae smiled as she noticed that Yulia was actually trying to get a conversation going

"A blacksmith dwarf in town, he sold it to me for 10 silvers if I remember correctly" Fae answered her, seeing Yulia raise an eyebrow in curiosity

"Ten silvers for a blade like that..." Fae slightly furrowed her eyebrows from her tone

"Did I get scammed?" Yulia chuckled

"No, on the contrary that's really cheap" Fae smiled and looked away as she remembered how stern the dwarf was with her, just like a grumpy yet caring grand father

"Stop stop!" Whispering as loudly as she could Yulia got Fae to a halt as the latter could see a carcass in front of them surrounded by what seemed like grey wolves

"Let's backtrack, we're in no shape to get into a fight" Yulia muttered with Fae nodding in agreement quickly after, and so they did exactly that, going back into the shadows and falling back and away from the beast

"I... are we going deeper or is it just me?" She asked Yulia with a slightly anxious tone, their surroundings were only stone walls and torches over and over and over again

Looped back for them to get lost in, whether it was just the same design for all places, or was it all just a single place they were stuck in, like a spell casted on them

"I really don't know, but anything is better than fighting wolves in this tight corridor" Yulia replied, taking in a deep breath as she looked at Fae's face for a couple of seconds, before Fae raised an eyebrow

"You're staring a bit too hard" Fae muttered soon before the other apologized

"Sorry, you just remind me of somebody" Fae looked at Yulia for a split second before slowly looking away, she couldn't tell whether her remembering that somebody brought good memories or bad ones

All of a sudden however, the sound of a woman crying got the duo by surprise as both of them looked around them for any clues

"You think somebody's stuck like us?" Fae asked, Yulia pursing her lips as she saw Fae's expression that was set on doing only what she wanted

Fae with her arm around Yulia's waist slowly approached the source of the crying, the corridor kept getting bigger and bigger until it presented two huge doors for the two of them

"It's behind these" Yulia remarked, Fae realized it too as she put one hand on the right door, helped by Yulia that put her own

"Heave ho!" Fae let out as they pushed one of the doors open

As it was open and the light lit the giant room, they laid their eyes on the ancient graveyard that was inside, swords thrusted on the ground and skeletons wearing medieval armor were scattered around the room for the eyes to gaze on the weapons were rusted and the skeletons old and tangled with spiderwebs, this place was more than just ancient

"Hey, what's that?" Fae asked as she pointed at the end of the room that seemingly had a beaming gem the size of a soccerball on a pedestal

"Where's the crying coming from though?" The other inquired, around them only skeletons that Fae doubted could make noise anymore

Then suddenly the beaming gem only shone brighter as it forced Both Yulia and Fae to cover their eyes for a couple of seconds, their eyes listening to the ever increasing sound of crying, until it felt like the crying woman was right in front of them

The light stopped harassing the two letting them slowly put their arms down, both widening their eyes at the sight of a woman donned in the same armor that covered the skeletons on the ground of the room

One thing made the woman different though, was that she was see through the likes of a spirit with a slight blue color

"Fae... I have a bad feeling about this" Yulia muttered, Fae nervously chuckled

"Me and you both buddy" The spirit slowly turned to face the duo, Yulia winced while Fae squinted her eyes

The face of the spirit woman seemed as if it wasn't there, a black abyss for the both of them to stare at it's nothingness

"You..." a soft yet deep voice immitted from the mouthless spirit, Yulia and Fae slowly backed away in cautiousness

"YOU!" Both bodies of the women shuddered at the booming voice of the spirit who got up, gripping the handle of the curved sword

"MOVE AWAY!" Yulia yelled as she pushed Fae to the ground while she fell to the ground herself seconds before the spirit slashed downwards between them, closing the distance in what seemed like a blink of an eye to Fae

"Finally, haha..." Their enemy whispered, her voice seemingly in a state of ecstacy as she slowly turned to face Yulia crawling away from her the best she could

"Finally... finally I can have a taste at revenge!" Towering over the fallen Yulia who could do nothing but clutch her Rapier tightly, staring at the dark face of the spirit as she aimed her curved sword at Yulia's throat, and then struck downwards with her ethereal blade that fortunately for the guild master was blocked by the latter

"Do you know how long have I waited this moment?!" Pushing down her blade and overpowering Yulia, the spirit laugh's echoed in the large room as the former could barely push back with her rapier

"CHARGE!" What seemed like a million voices behind the spirit startled her into jumping back and turning around to meet what sounded like an army behind her, only finding Fae's phone on the ground, that was emitting the voices

Growling she looked back at Yulia, finding her being dragged away by Fae, being noticed so quickly Fae cursed under her breath

"Try to get away from here" She whispered to Yulia, who slightly opened her sharp eyes at the words given to her

"Damn it Fae you're too weak to fi-" Fae clicked her tongue before gently kicking Yulia to her side

"Shut up already you're throwing me off my game" She then gave her a small smile before turning to face the evil spirit in front of her not being able to look at her facial expression didn't let Fae read the spirit's emotions

Well, she sounded too crazy to have any emotions to begin with

Disappearing in a flash to appear right in front of Fae, the spirit slashed horizontally aimed for Fae's stomach luckily for the woman she was able to block the strike with her short sword's tip aimed to the ground, closing one eye in pain she felt like a truck hit her as her hands immediately started shivering

"Murderer... betrayer..." Whispering started invading Fae's ears as she did her best to grip the handle of her blade and to not let it fall from her weary hands

Her feet apart from each other and her grip as even as she could she slowly stepped to the side with her sword raised as she saw the spirit charge at her with her curved sword aimed at her chest

Fae stepped backwards and cut the air, striking the curved sword and knocking it off it's path to kill, she took then the opportunity to step forward and go for the woman's head, cutting it right off

But the sword felt like it cut air than flesh as it seemingly didn't affect the spirit at all, cursing under her breath as she felt beads of sweat slowly roll from her forehead and down, cleaning their path from the dust and slight blood that was on Fae's face

Eyes on the curved blade of the spirit, Fae's anxiety started mounting as she imagined that the blade would be the thing taking her life away

No time for panic though as that blade moved immediately up and ready to smite down, and it did

Fae raised her blade to block the strike, saving herself but at the cost of her blade knocked right on the ground and off her hands, the spirit gave her no time to catch her breath as it already slashed towards Fae's face

Seeing the otherworldly steel fly towards her she immediately gasped and fell back trying to retreat

"No redemption... no forgiveness..." The voices whispered into her head as she saw the spirit slowly walk towards her, blade raised in the air

"God fuckin' damn it" She cursed under her breath as she clumsily crawled back to save herself

"Fae!" A scream on her right that made her turn to that direction, she saw Yulia holding a broken in half curved sword alike the one the spirit was holding, sliding it towards Fae who pounced on it, grabbing it as tightly as she could before turning back to face the now towering over her spirit that slashed the air down as she raised her newly acquired blade to defend herself, wincing and gritting her teeth as she readied herself for the impact

But there was none...

Slowly opening her eyes, Fae found the spirit with her sword still raised in the air behind her head ready to strike down, her hands shivering while Fae's eyes slowly widened

The black veil slowly dispersed from the spirit's face leaving the woman's face and her watery eyes to be seen

"Brother...?" Fae stuttered on her words with what the spirit said, but then she realized that the spirit wasn't looking at Fae but at the broken sword she was holding, looking at it too Fae noticed a small engraving on the surface of the blade, and so putting the sword gently on the ground, Fae crawled back and away

With tears leaving her eyes to drown her face the spirit fell on her knees as she tried to pick up her sword, but she couldn't, her hands just passed through the handle of the sword as her eyes only produced more tears

"Fae are you okay?!" Yulia, now standing on both of her feet dragged Fae away who could notice the blue left feet of the guild master that she made with her mana, she presumed that she finally got enough energy to fight again, but it looked as if the fight already ended as Fae slowly looked back at the crying spirit bent over the sword on the ground as she sobbed and grieved for reasons the otherworlder didn't know

"Y-yeah, I am" Fae replied to Yulia who gave her a relieved nod as she could see that Fae immediately looked away from Yulia, her gaze laid down on the weeping spirit, eyes widening as she noticed a faint string of what seemed like magical energy coming from the spirit and travelling all the way into the gem

Appearing enamored by it, Yulia saw Fae walk right towards the gem

"Hey what are you doing?! we need to go!" Yulia said as she grabbed Fae by her shoulder to dissuade her from walking towards that gem

"Wait... just wait..." Fae said, The beaming gem reflecting in her wide eyes as she walked towards it

"That's the core of the dungeon Fae, it's most probably dangerous" Yulia exclaimed with furrowed eyebrows, but Fae continued walking towards it

"Then let's destroy it" She retorted, Yulia tightened her grip on her shoulder and made her stop right in her tracks

"Nobody can destroy it we've already tried with multiple dungeons, we can't do anything let's just go!" She replied back to Fae, who pursed her lips and pushed Yulia's hand off her

"I can..." Eyes telling that she was in the like of a hypnotized state, Fae walked over the huge gem with the reluctant Yulia following her steps, as she arrived she slowly lifted her right hand and pressed it on the gem

"Kill them all!"

She heard a man's voice scream at the top of his lungs, the sounds of yelling and swords clashing against each other could be heard muffling those same screams, Fae's eyes could barely see anymore with how blurry her surroundings felt, feeling drowned in the screams around her

"They're turning against us! be wary of your brothers!"

Another one yelled behind Fae, the grunts and yells of despair muffling the words that were said around her, and suddenly she felt a deep hatred grew inside her, a burning desire to hurt, but it wasn't her own

"I'll kill you... all of you, mark my words... one day I'll get every single one of you...On my honor I'll have my revenge before my soul dies, I'll have it..."

And then it came back, like a snap her sight came back to her, a slight sting felt on her finger and as she looked down, the gem was cracking in countless pieces with one shard stabbing her in her finger while she could see Yulia's shocked expression looking at her

When Fae wanted to open her mouth however she could feel her tongue being drowned, a warm liquid slowly coming out of her mouth and falling on the ground as Yulia seemed as she was yelling, but Fae heard no words, only looking down to see the string the liquid left from her mouth to be crimson red

"Fuck..."