3 Chapter 2: Shadow of another world

The dreams of a lonely daughter

<Chapter 2> The shadow of another world

A monster: an incomprehensible beast which was neither man nor animal. Dauntingly large and vaguely humanoid, covered entirely in greyish steel fur. It had no head, instead where its head ought to be was a deep, ominous gaping mouth lined with jagged teeth like a nightmare blender. Protruding out of its shoulders were boney spikes thick enough to gorge a fully grown man like a shish-kebab. Long gory arms reached to the floor lined with razor-sharp black claws. At the centre of its chest was one gargantuan blood-shot eye with which it glared at the children.

Held in its right hand was the mutilated corpse of a mangled deer--half eaten and drenched in its own blood. It growled loudly in a disgusting, chilling manner--halfway between gurgling and laughter--and to terrify the children it tossed the remains of the deer into its gaping maw and swallowed it whole. The corpse grotesquely gnashed and broke as chunks of meat flew out of its mouth, and when it was done it let loose a haunting burp that echoed into the forest.

'Monster' was putting it lightly; this was an abomination. Just a slight glimpse of this thing was enough to send chills down Reyleigh's spine and make her weak in the knees. Caught between surprise and horror her breathing became uneven. The creature's abyssal red eye stared deep into her soul and for just that one moment she saw her entire life play out before her. Was she scared? Being 'scared' was a mild way to describe the mired sensation of terror she felt at the moment. She was petrified--unable to take a step forward nor back. Not able to run. Not able to confront it. Only stare. She was sure the other two felt similarly, and in that there was a sort of solace.

"What… what is that thing?" Lute asked as he trembled. Even the boy who wished to become a pillar of justice was still just a child deep down inside. In the first place knights were made only when they're able to overcome fear and stand tall in the face of adversity, so for the young boy who had yet to possess neither courage nor experience this was a valuable lesson. It was natural. This would become the first step to accomplishing his dreams, but right now wasn't the stage for him to act brave.

"Crest, take Lute and run," Reyleigh whispered to the two behind her. Lute was just a child, and while Crest was too, he was mature enough to not completely break down in front of such a nightmarish threat. At the very least, Reyleigh was proud of him for that.

"I can't just leave you here!" he protested, but raising his voice only agitated the monster. It let out a low, echoing growl as it took a step further. Heavy, ominous, and threatening, the ground quaked with just the sheer weight of the abomination's stride. There seemed to be a slight sense of deliberation and purpose behind its movement--and a primitive sort of intelligence too--as it positioned to cut off the children's escape. However, there was still only one of it so running away by splitting its attention would still be possible.

Reyleigh knew this, it's why she asked Crest to take Lute and leave. Even if it was difficult for all three of them, if she could just distract it long enough then the two could escape. She held out her stick forward like a sword and prepared herself both mentally and physically. Yet, how much could she really prepare for when faced against something like this? Reincarnation, knights, heroes, gods, and monsters, it was all a very familiar and cliched setup, but the reality of her situation was much more cruel than those of the stories. She wasn't some hero, nor was she the protagonist to a grand epic--Reyleigh Adele Silverarm was nothing more than just an ordinary 8-year-old girl with no real strength. She didn't receive great powers, nor did she possess some expertise in her former life that could help her in such a situation. For the first time she felt like cursing her previous life's laziness. Why couldn't she have tried more? Why was she so useless when it really mattered?

Lute desperately grabbed at the edge of Reyleigh's clothes. Reflected in his eyes was the visage of a boy who felt all his arrogance crumble before him, yet persisted in his naive courage, "I don't want to leave!"

"What are you talking about? This isn't the time to be arguing! Quickly go!"

"No!" he shook his head and grabbed tighter.

"Damnit, Crest!" she urged her other friend.

A soured expression spread through his face, but ultimately he agreed with Reyleigh's decision. "Lute, please leave!"

"Crest!" Reyleigh herself was becoming slightly annoyed that the two weren't listening to her. She was the adult in this place but none of the children were listening. She wondered if this was what it was like to become a parent. "What are you doing? You both need to leave!"

"Lute, you have to go and get Sir Ark. If it's him we can all survive. Out of the three of us you've trained the most so you can definitely run the fastest."

"But…" Lute was conflicted. He understood in his head that this was a sound plan, but abandoning his friends wasn't something he was capable of. Even as a child… no, precisely because he was a child who grew up on stories of the gallantry of knights he didn't want to become someone who would bring shame to that dream.

Yet, Crest reassured him, "You're not running away, you're the most vital piece in this plan. If you don't go we're all dead. Do you understand?" his voice was quite commanding unlike his usually demure tone. With that Lute was finally able to accept it. Wiping away his hesitation and weakness he returned a confident nod. "Good, now when I give you the signal I want you to run as fast as you can."

"Okay."

Crest himself moved forward next to Reyleigh and placed his hand forward. As he did a small, blue-tinted glimmering circle of magic appeared.

"Magic!" Reyleigh exclaimed in surprise. It wasn't that commoners were incapable of using magic but they didn't have many opportunities to learn it when they were younger. If they were lucky, wandering magicians could visit their villages and teach them, but otherwise they'd have to seek larger cities to find people to learn from. On the other hand affluent families and nobles often taught their children from a young age. Of course, even then affinity and aptitude with magic was just as dependent on the person in the same way height or skin colour was.

"Reyleigh, we'll have to create a diversion for Lute."

She didn't like having to put her friend in danger, but what choice did she have? "All right," she reluctantly agreed. Thankfully the monster didn't seem to want to attack just yet and merely opted to watch how the children reacted. Where did this thing even come from? She's heard many stories about monsters from her father but never one about such a beast. Of course, she realized her father wouldn't know everything there was about this world, but wouldn't he have at least heard about this thing if it was so close to the village? She shook her head to shake off unnecessary thoughts and focus on the situation at hand. Turning to Crest she asked, "how many spells can you use?"

"About six is the limit," he replied.

"Okay, then just hit it one or two times to get its attention then move behind some of the trees for cover. I'll follow suit and try to distract it, so when you see a good opportunity give Lute the signal." Reyleigh cautiously moved to pick up a sizable rock and coordinated with Crest to grab the monster's attention. "Now!" she shouted as she tossed the rock and Crest launched small shards of ice. While it made a clean hit on the beast's large body there didn't seem to be any damage at all. That was to be expected, and the plan was successful regardless in that the monster set its sights squarely on Reyleigh's small frame. It roared loudly and charged straight at her.

Seeing that chance Crest called out to Lute, "run!"

Lute made a mad dash towards the village without looking back.

If there was one advantage for the children in this situation it was their mobility. The abomination's large body was a hindrance in such a confined place with all the trees getting in the way when it wanted to make sweeping movements. It wasn't very dexterous either as all it could do was wildly swing its arms in very telegraphed attacks. If they played it perfectly then it was possible to survive until Reyleigh's father got here.

"At his speed Sir Ark should be here within five minutes. We just need to hold on until then," Crest informed.

"Got it," Reyleigh nodded. "Then can you do me a favour? I need you to start digging a few holes using magic," she said as she wove in between the trees to skillfully avoid the monster's gargantuan swings. That said, even if she was able to evade most of it, the sheer destructive potential behind each lumbering attack was enough to cause large chunks of debris and dust to fly all over the place. There were a few close calls where she was about to get hit by flying rocks. Regaining her footing she continued discussing her plan, "if you use your magic to freeze chunks of the dirt it shouldn't be too hard. The hole should be roughly fifty centimetres in diameter and also about that deep. Can you do it?"

"I can do that, but…" before he could ask what the purpose was, the monster suddenly shifted tactics when it noticed it wasn't going to hit its targets like this. It stood tall and opened its gaping maw to the sky and then gurgled up some kind of vomit. Like a horrendous nightmare fountain, chunks of viscous black liquid shot out of its mouth and started pelting the place. When the vile liquid made contact with the ground or trees it started to make them rot or burn with a highly acidic solution. "What the?!" Crest was forced to move further back to avoid getting hit. "1 minute!" he shouted to Reyleigh who was busy also dodging the black rain. "I can make those holes in 1 minute, so please buy me some time!"

"I got it!" she replied. "Damn, even the smell is horrible," the hail of putrid black liquid continued to decimate the nearby terrain, but like its other attacks it wasn't quite accurate. Rather than physical damage, it had a greater mental effect from the sheer vile nature of it. Attacks like this were better used for area denial and herding enemies into a predefined space, but the monster lacked the intellect to capitalize on that kind of strategy.

Noticing the futility of this skill also, the monster switched back to a more simpler attack pattern. It then dropped onto all fours and bull-rushed at a frighteningly quick speed towards Reyleigh while brute forcing its way through all the trees and obstacles. When she took a good view of how its mouth was formed she instantly regretted it; its mouth was arranged in a circular formation lined up with teeth truly like a meat blender. She didn't even want to know how painful it would be to be crushed and torn apart in that thing. In any case, the monster wasn't perfect either; when it changed tactics it gained new weaknesses that she could exploit. In this case, while it was much faster than when it was running around on two legs, its turning and maneuverability was poor. Timing it right she was able to move out of the way before getting crushed.

She continued to swiftly weave between the trees to confuse its movements and to make sure the creature never fully locked onto her. She used the trees as cover to switch up the direction she ran in a zigzag, back-and-forth manner. The more time the monster spent trying to figure out where she was going meant that she was doing good in stalling for time.

Halfway through the monster made an unexpected move. Instead of rushing at her it leapt into the sky despite its massive frame and weight only to crash near Reyleigh. While not quite hitting her directly, the force of the impact was strong enough to send her flying back several metres and through some small trees.

After a crash landing she became winded. Her vision blurred for a moment as it tried to adjust. There was dust everywhere and breathing became difficult as she began to cough violently.

Perhaps it was due to some visual hallucination caused by the impact, but something strange occurred in Reyleigh's sight. Like a glitched effect from a video game, a holographic text box with incomprehensible words appeared in front of her.

<Welcome to AOP!@$%!>

<Ple1FQ!@ select Primary CJ#RT>

Just as quickly as it appeared it disappeared. "Wait, that's!" It was just a flash, but in that moment she recognized the theme and font. A text box that looked like it was from a video game, one that was very familiar to Reyleigh, or rather to the person she was in her previous life. Back then she was the bottom feeder of society and her only method of escape was by playing online video games--at least then she could pretend to be something greater than herself. She used it to stave off the loneliness and stress of real life. Was it just a hallucination? Or did it really appear?

Even if she was curious about it, this wasn't the time to be distracted. Lightly slapping her own face she tried to refocus her attention on the monster ahead. Having avoided so many of its attacks the monster appears to have gotten enraged. It continued with its straight-forward dash but this time with a vendetta as it destroyed everything in its path to get to her. "Actually no, this is better," she muttered to herself. Since it was enraged and stopped thinking it would be easier to draw it towards the trap she was planning.

As if he had read her mind, Crest called out just in time, "Reyleigh! It's done!"

Without any hesitation, once she heard those words she started to bolt towards the holes while leading the monster. "Crest, move back a bit!" she ordered. As expected, an enraged monster was fearsome but at the same time quite easy to understand and predict. It dove at her, gaping horror-mouth first as if it wanted to so badly grind her down into small chunks of meat. In its blind rage it fell for Reyleigh's trap and lost its footing on the holes. It easily lost balance as it was haphazardly running around while throwing its weight forward and crashed spectacularly just a few inches off from its target. Reyleigh let out a small sigh of relief as she prepared to deal the critical blow.

"What are you going to do?" asked Crest from further back.

"I figured the giant eye in the middle was a weak point. Even if it isn't, at least we'd be able to get rid of its vision, right?" Without giving any time for the monster to recover she struck the stick that she had been tightly holding onto until now and slammed it straight into the beast's great red eye. Having its eyes poked out should cause massive damage… or at least that's what she believed was going to happen but Reyleigh had forgotten to take one thing into account. No matter how much she strategized and got the upperhand, in the end she was still just an eight-year-old girl with matching strength. In her hands wasn't a weapon but a mere stick she found on the ground, and the monster was many times larger and sturdier than she anticipated. Not only did she fail to penetrate the monster's eye but she was now within reaching distance of the monster. "Shit!" she shouted and braced herself. With a great, big swing, it slapped away her tiny, feeble body like a fly--a mere annoyance. She soared for quite a bit before she eventually collided into a thick tree. Excruciating pain shot through her body and she could feel--hear--several of her bones breaking inside her.

Muffled sounds, blurred images, and numbed sensations. She couldn't even feel anything anymore and the only thing she heard was Crest's distressed voice shouting out her name before everything faded to black.

*

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*

When she opened her eyes everything was dark. She was still at the entrance of Karken forest where she had been before she was knocked out but it seemed like several hours had already passed. "The children!" she shouted as she bolted up and surveyed her surroundings. The first thing she noticed was a lack of sound, not even the chitter of bugs or the swaying of wind. Too surreal to be reality but too vivid to be a dream; her immediate thought was that she might have just died on impact and this was the afterlife.

"[You're not dead. Yet.]" A woman spoke out to her. She turned to the voice and finally met the spectre that had been haunting her from the beginning. Looming over her was a woman of average height and built but held herself with the dignity and composure of a giant. Fiery red hair neatly tied behind her in a tasteful manner and dressed in a long white dress. She neither smiled nor frowned, only continually staring her down. The woman's eyes were cold, lifeless, and judging, but at the same time there was something about her face that was familiar to her. She had definitely seen that face somewhere before.

"Oh… you have the same face as me," Reyleigh finally realized what it was. She had seen her face in the mirror each morning for the past eight years in this world. The woman looked older, but it was definitely her face. "What's going on?" was it some kind of future version of her? But the colouration of her hair, complexion of her skin, and eye colour were all different. "No wait," there was something else at the back of her mind which told her this wasn't the correct answer. It wasn't that the woman had the same face as her, it was Reyleigh herself that looked like the woman. "You're Crinoline!"

'Crinoline' was the name of her avatar from the online game she sunk the most amount of time on. A cool, beautiful warrior and the hero of the game. However, this line of thought raised more questions than answers. "Why do I have Crinoline's face?"

"[You've inherited more than just the face.]" Crinoline smirks back showing emotion for the first time. "[But you don't have access to them right now.]"

"What do you mean?"

"[You'll find out in due time; there's no need to rush things. Besides, don't you have more pressing matters to be worried about?]" Crinoline claps her hand once and the darkness around them dissipates revealing the scene to just before Reyleigh lost consciousness. Time was paused; the monster's movement was halted, there was no sound, and Crest was now fighting by himself. "[If you don't wake up immediately your little friend is going to die]."

Reyleigh was speechless. There's nothing she can do against that thing and the only plan she thought had a chance was futile from the beginning. However, if there was one person who could fight against it, perhaps it was Crinoline. "You! You can save Crest!" In the game she was a powerful adventurer who could go toe-to-toe against gods and dragons--she can definitely save Crest. "Please," she begged as she dropped onto all fours and groveled before her. "I don't want to lose the first friends I've ever made in my life."

"[I think you're making a mistake. I'm not real.]"

"What… do you mean? You're right in front of me! Of course you're real! You have to save Crest!"

"[It would be a lie to say I'm completely fabricated, but there is nothing I can do to affect the real world. I exist purely inside your own mind--something like a split personality.]" Crinoline explained in that all-too-calm voice.

"Then what am I supposed to do? Just watch him die?! I can't!"

"[You don't have to. You can still fight back.]"

"No, I can't!" Reyleigh shouted in a volume loud enough to echo through the silent, timeless void. "I just don't have the strength to. If you're really a part of me then you must've seen it for yourself. I'm useless."

"[I think you mean you don't have the strength 'yet'.]" Crinoline corrected.

"What difference does that make?"

"[All of it.]" Crinoline moved her hand forward and through Reyleigh's chest. As nonchalantly as if she were just digging something out of her pocket she moved around in her body and then took something out. At almost two metres, it was a long, ornate silver sword decorated with gold trimmings and precious gems. "[Though I cannot help you, it's possible to call someone who might just be willing to. Someone you know very well.]"

"That sword is," of course Reyleigh was familiar with it. It was something she used very often in the game. "Claiomh Solais?" The moment she called out its name the weapon changed form and took on a more human appearance. A tall man with long black hair and pale complexion, his face covered behind a silky black veil. Dressed in a pure white ceremonial suit lined with gold trims and silver padding. Powerful and magnificent, he exuded an air of divinity about him. This was the spiritual form of the ego weapon 'Claiomh Solais', the <Sword of Light>.

The divine-looking tilt his head and gazed down at Reyleigh with a disappointed sigh. "You've fallen quite low, my master. So much so that you no longer possess the qualifications to summon me."

"S- save Crest!" Despite the sheer fantasy of the situation, her mind was still back in reality. She became desperate enough to beg an inanimate object. Tears began to stream down her pretty face; she cursed her own uselessness.

"I cannot for I am merely a sword. And you, my master, are far too weak to summon me."

"But…"

"However, I shall make one exception this time since you're so desperate. Be warned this will be the first and last time I do this." The man took Reyleigh's hand and cast some sort of magic upon it which made it glimmer with a faint golden light. "I will allow you to invoke my spirit and use me for a brief moment, but after this you must promise that the next time I am called it must be in my proper body."

"O- of course! I promise!"

As the two came to an agreement the time that had stopped slowly began to tick forwards. The pain which had temporarily been suppressed returned to her, but gritting through it she managed to stand back up with the power of pure adrenaline. Her heart beat quickly and her breathing was short and rapid. With the monster mere inches away from Crest she had to act quickly. Concentrating on the power borrowed from her sword she channeled the golden light through the stick she had been so desperately grabbing a hold of. It even surprised herself that she was still holding onto it.

At that moment a small text box appeared before her.

<Ego Skill: [Light of another world] has been activated>

The stick in Reyleigh's hand began to glimmer with the same aureate aura as a faint outline of a sword was projected onto it. She quickly reviewed the ego skill in her mind: <Light of another world> had two components, one was to enhance the ability of the weapon--in this case the stick--and the second part was the use of a long ranged area-wide slash attack using light magic. This was limited to two times.

"Right," without any dawdling, Reyleigh used the second part right away. She made an upwards diagonal slash from a distance and with it a wave of light shot from her stick and pierced through the monster's right shoulder. For the first time it seemed to cry out in pain and panicked. Both it and Crest turned back to see Reyleigh's strange new skill and were surprised. It was unfortunate that she couldn't aim properly with Crest in the way, but the very fact she could pierce through its tough hide was enough proof she needed to continue on. "I can win," she convinced herself.

The monster reacted first and actually retreated a few steps, to which Reyleigh seized the opportunity to rush to Crest's defence. "Are you all right? Hurt anywhere?!"

"N- no," Crest replied in a daze. "What is that?" he asked as he pointed to her sword.

"I'll explain later, for now just stay behind me." That said, even with her new temporary powers it wasn't as though the situation had improved dramatically; she was still badly injured and even with the skill she herself was just an eight-year-old. Giving a child the strongest weapon didn't make the child somehow more skillful.

The monster slowly staked her out and approached with caution. The tension in the air was palpable and thick to swallow. When the two got within sufficient range of the other, the monster raised its arm intending to smash her down like a bug, but before it even got the time to Reyleigh quickly leapt in with all her weight and slashed at its leg. Much more effective than just a stick, the creature had to have felt that one and collapsed onto its knees. This was exactly what Reyleigh had been aiming for.

Eye to eyes, the monster was once more just a few centimetres away from its opponent. There was no fear in the girl's eyes anymore, instead there was power and confidence. She raised the 'sword' up and in a repeat of the earlier situation she stabbed right through the monster's eyes. This time it slid in like a hot knife through butter. The monster recoiled in pain, but that wasn't the end of her onslaught; she still had one more charge of her ego skill. Light of another world's power was unleashed inside the monster's eye and blasted a whole right through to the other side in a glorious golden light.

Surely this time it was the end. The monster collapsed onto the floor, unmoving and heavily bleeding. It was dead.

"Did… did you kill it?" Crest asked as he moved forward to inspect the corpse.

"I think so," Reyleigh replied as she fell to the floor in exhaustion.

"Is that so…" Crest too dropped to the floor. "Haha… I can't believe something like this actually happened. Where did this monster even-" before he could finish that sentence the monster's corpse began to writhe and vibrate. "What the?!" he shot back up in surprise but it was too late.

Eyes. Hundreds of eyes all over the monster's body peeled open as it emerged back to life like a zombie. It gave the children no time to react and slashed at them with its massive claws. Reyleigh reacted on pure instinct as she moved to cover Crest with her own body and as a result suffered a massive wound on her back. Her distressed screams were loud enough to be heard from the village below.

"Reyleigh!" Crest shouted as he dragged her limp body back in a desperate attempt to escape, however the monster ominously stepped forward to and raised its giant arm. "No!" he cried as he tightly embraced her.

"No you fucking don't!" At that moment, like a hero who came in fashionably late, the strongest knight in the country emerged from the horizon wielding a large two-handed greatsword. With one great swing the sword cleaved through the monster's mountainous physique like it was pudding.

Before Reyleigh lost consciousness for the second time, it was the gallant visage of her knightly father coming to save the day that put a smile on her face. In relief she could finally close her eyes.