CHAPTER 6 - Screwup

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She turned around, to see what she did while she was moving unconsciously while dreaming, and sure enough there was a lot of damage.

"Shit …"

Like, a lot lot.

Malthan palace guards...or what used to be Malthan palace guards, formerly riddled with pride and prestige, now riddled with blood and their own organs, now lay motionless on the cold marble floor.

A few splatters of red liquid dyed the floor on some cracks. It oddly smelled like rusted iron and sulphur. It was obviously the smell of human blood.

Some of the corpses' necks and other bones were bent the wrong way, some of their torso or head parts were even caved in, The armour didn't help at all to reduce the damage dealt. Some of the corpses' helmets had blood dripping down from them, the sign of accurately stabbing between the gaps with a knife, or maybe it was due to them coughing or vomiting blood and their lunch after having their stomachs caved in.

Rei stared at her left hand, which was holding a bloodied knife, and then her right hand which was also covered in blood, indeed this was the result of her moving unconsciously.

"Shit …" She said so again, not being able to think of anything else to say in such a position.

Clenching her fist, feeling the fresh and warm blood on her hands, Rei strokes her hair, ignoring the blood, with annoyance.a

"I screwed up …" Rei, gritting her teeth before calming herself down.

'That's right, you're not what you were before, analyze the situation, don't screw up even more …' Rei gulped, very much annoyed by the whole situation as she approached one of the bodies for a closer look.

However, by then, it happened.

Her stomach became hot, as if wanting something as she salivated, much to her … newfound uncontrollable urges.

Her breaths increase in frequency rapidly, and her heart beating wildly, invigorating her, although just a tiny bit much.

"Khurrk!" Rei held her stomach, holding her nose.

What could have caused her to be like that?

Well, when you put two and two together, with her being now titled as something as ominous as 'Vessel of Gluttony', and how she couldn't stare away from the corpses while her stomach aches wildly, there was really only one thing anyone could point to.

The whiff of human flesh.

[The Goddess of Purity has stopped watching you, turning her head away.]

[Many Gods follow, not a big fan of what they expect is going to happen next.]

[The God of War is somewhat disgusted, but nods head in understanding.]

[Only a few Gods look eagerly, awaiting your choice.]

'Shit, shit shit shit shit …!' Rei thought, as she found herself unable to control her body as it neared one of the corpses, her expression completely mimicking that of a vulture who had just found meat lying around.

Indeed, she screw up.

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The proud Second Princess of Maltha, Vitorja Gasciulli, a shining figure of the Malthan royalty, and the pride of all Maltha itself.

Esteemed as a lady, she seemed like she was set to become even greater in the future, albeit lesser than her elder brother, whose name was quickly becoming more widespread on mainland Yuropa, despite Traveller influence.

However, underneath all those layers of glamour, lies a dark history.

A bastard daughter of the King from when his prime, she was the unintentional product of a mistake made in the heat of passion.

Whenever she was seen by her older siblings they would look at her in disgust, being reminded of their father's unfaithfulness.

Even the servants looked down on her when she was at a young age, they considered the yellow hair which Vitorja inherited from her mother to be unsightly and an abomination, they tormented her day and night.

She was first intended to be disposed of to prevent a royal scandal, however being told by the former Malthan Oracle that Vitorja was born with a special ability the order was quickly pulled back at a frightening speed.

The bastard was something special, who could have thought? Well, it certainly wasn't the King himself.

Bearing the class named [Oracle], she could see the distant future of anyone she touched, although it takes quite a toll on her body, depending on how big of a scale the person would have on the world as a whole.

Thus, with this ability she was welcomed into the castle, her older siblings who used to ignore her when she was suffering quickly changed attitude, and the servants of the palace who insulted her were now trying to curry favour with her through flattery.

It really was a very quick change.

Vitorja was made to see the future of high nobles and other important people from other countries on a regular basis, because of her ability the Kingdom of Maltha had managed to win many wars, by all odds managing to stay independent despite encroachment of the Ispagnan and Osmanyi Empires, and even the schemes of Traveller Guilds.

As a result, she had seen many futures, coming to know of even secret projects by other countries, each one changing more and more as a result with constant meddling and new variables who would contribute to the future.

However, even with all of what she had seen through her visions of the future, it was not until recently that she had seen something so groundbreaking, so devastating, and frankly, so bloody.

What completely terrified her was a Great War a few years into the future, it devastated every corner of the continent, with fire and steel becoming the main export along with violence and blood.

The one responsible, a figure in black, a Demon Lord swallowed the human kingdoms one by one, her army of monsters and demons trampling on all life, desecrating everything on sight, Listicia called it an 'unavoidable calamity' that could not be solved by any of this world's military assets.

Not the Travellers, not the Frankish, not the Ispagnans, and not even the Russiyans with their vast resources and numbers would be able to cope with such a force.

As such, she proposed an idea to the King.

Countless years ago, one talks about the fairytale of the Seven Great Heroes who defeated a great threat.

Representatives from the Enlightened Races gathered together, and united all of the Enlightened against the Demon threat.

Though, for the representatives of the humans, there was one little thing that was off about them.

To put it simply: They were not from her own world, Gaiya, but were instead of an alien world, one that they were summoned from and made to fight in the name of the Enlightened.

Takahashi Kira, Seo Yoon-Hwa, among others, were all not of Gaiyan origin, instead were called upon by the Gods.

So that was where Vitorja's idea had sprung from.

'If nothing in our world can stop it, then we could bring in something not from our world to solve it for us.'

After all, it wasn't like influences from other worlds have not already been all over Yuropa.

From the cultural, technological, and magical blessings of the otherworldly heroes, to the ideas of equality, liberty, and freedom of thought brought by the Travellers, adding a few more non-Gaiyan humans wouldn't be all that bad.

And so, the idea was quickly accepted, and much resources went into acquiring the necessary, yet dubious knowledge of how to rip a hole into space, and steal humans from Earth.

After four long years, the project had been completed, and they had enough resources to summon two heroes.

The two … three? Heroes were summoned into the throne room, each one carrying an air and aura of might to them.

The First Hero, named Hiro, had the undeniable energy of a Hero that would carry and wield the Holy Sword.

The Second Hero, named Uruka, filled the air with her overflowing amount of mana swirling around her. It was no doubt that she was the mage fated to stand alongside the Hero.

However …

'Who … is that?' Vitorja thought, looking at the unexpected Third Hero.

Unlike the first and second heroes, the third hero did not have the aura of anything surrounding her.

No mana.

'This is … quite strange …' Vitorja thought, even thinking that the Third Hero, although one of great beauty, had an undeniable amount of mystery wrapping around her instead.

'If she didn't have the tattoo under her left eye, one might say she would have a beauty that could eventually woo any man … though that's somewhat of an exaggeration …' Vitorja thought, somewhat disapproving of the mark underneath her eye, resembling vertical lines arranged horizontally.

Becoming able to speak fluent Malthan, and not using translation magic instead while conversing, she could not help but be impressed, though somewhat doubting of her.

From the medical patches on her head, it seemed as though as she had injured herself, however as she looked closer, observing her faulty movement, although quite well-hidden, was something she could tell as injuries that were gained from battle, although she couldn't tell for sure as it was hidden by her clothes.

The fact that she did not have magic did not bother her much, as she knew of plenty of individuals all throughout history of the Forsaken, people who were born unable to use magic, who were able to shake the world with physical might alone.

Though it was a rare case, the fact that a hero like her was without mana simply meant that she was one of those special individuals who would be able to make a name for themselves even without magic.

'Right, do not falter Vitorja, the fact that there was a third hero who was summoned is frankly surprising, but a welcome one nonetheless.' Vitorja thought, introducing herself to the hero who called herself 'Yuusha', and then extending her hand, hopeful about discreetly looking into her future.

It was at that moment that her ability to predict the future struck her like a bullet, unlike anything she had experienced before.

Fierce and severe pain assaulted Listicia's body, making her faint as she saw not only the future of Yuusha, or Rei as she was more accurately called.

Vitorja saw Rei's figure standing atop of a mountain piled up with the corpses of every race. It was her who was the Demon Lord, the one who was responsible for the burning future, the one responsible for the multiple tragedies, and the one who sought to turn the world upside down as the result of her own selfishness.

She was the one who the project aimed to eliminate.

'She's not even human, demon, or a monster, she's a mistake.'

'She's a vile thing wearing human skin, it should not be allowed to exist.'

The summoning magic that was used to summon souls from another world into Gaiya required much more mana than the Malthan authorities had anticipated, and from nothing less, if even the tiniest speck of mana was missing, the summoned 'hero' could already be dead before they even arrived.

Throughout all the years, the Kingdom of Maltha had only gathered enough resources to be able to summon only two souls, yet three humans were present?

A soul is the proof that a creature lives, it is believed that all living creatures have it, be they human, demon, monster, or animal. It is proof that they were born through an ancestor.

In human terms, it was proof that one had parents, or simply underwent the natural process of being given birth to.

From what Vitorja had deducted, that could only mean one thing.

That Yuusha … or rather Rei, was literally a vessel with no soul, a complete Forsaken, one who wouldn't be able to use mana completely, as opposed to the average Forsaken who at least had enough mana to open their status.

A mistake, a large torrent of evil that was dragged along, that's what Rei was.

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Vitorja woke up with a haggard expression, her body aching, and with dark circles around her eyes, it's clear that this was the most tired she's ever looked.

'And they say sleep was supposed to get rid of fatigue …' Vitorja thought, as she looked at her surroundings.

Needless to say, she was without a doubt in her own room.

A bedroom truly fit for royalty, she slept on a fluffy bed that could fit a family of four with ease and still have some room left over for the family dog. A large mirror at the side of her room was hung, obviously so she could have no issue when letting her personal servants attend to her appearance.

The carpet the floor was covered with consisted entirely of the finest wool, which sheep farmers would shed blood, sweat, and tears just to produce a steady supply for it every year.

The other side of her bedroom held a stained glass door to the balcony, the moonlight flowed in with a slightly whiter colour, it's light having been affected by shining through the magic stained glass.

However Vitorja was already used to this, and took her luxuries for granted, however when she woke up she once again cherished her possessions, for just from her dream alone, which made her see the future in which she possessed nothing and made her treasure everything she ever owned.

Wiping her face with her hands in cold sweat, thinking about her own fate, she cussed.

"Holy fuuuuck …"

Staring into the stained glass which thoroughly depicted the night city, Vitorja's father, who was apparently there the whole time, asked.

"Vitorja." His voice was stern, and one that had the tone of authority.

"Father …" Vitorja looked at her father, who was sitting on the chair across her room.

"What did you see?" A simple question, and one with a simple answer.

'We screwed up.' She only needed to say that alone.

However Vitorja didn't answer, no … she couldn't answer, how could she tell her father that the hero they thought they were going to save them was actually responsible for the future where all perished?

Guilt welled up within her, and silenced her as well.

Vitorja didn't say anything, however from her pale and grim expression alone Valentin could already tell.

"Sebastian."

At that moment, a butler who had been silently staring at the situation spoke after being called out.

An assassin high ranker, Sebastian who was one of the Travellers all over Yuropa had developed his skill to its limit until he became so good at blending in with the environment they could actually build a career on the game hide and seek.

But as to why he became a butler of all things? Nobody really knew, and not that it mattered.

"You know what to do." Valentin said coldly.

"Yes … my liege." and the butler replied indifferently, afterwards exiting the room, carrying his rather vague orders.

"O Goddess … please have mercy on us." Valentin said, looking outside the window and onto the moon.

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Just before Vitorja woke up, and the castle guard was alerted, a certain grey-haired knight … Lionel stared at a certain corpse inside the royal library.

'Zaren …' He thought, staring closely.

The corpse, formerly Zaren, lay motionlessly on the floor of the royal library, his blood smeared the floor and his eyes which were unfocused seemed to be looking straight at Lionel as if saying 'Why didn't you protect me? You said you would make me into a great knight didn't you? Was that all just a lie?'

Zaren did indeed have a bright future ahead of him, being Level 2 at that age meant that he had promising talent as a knight, even surpassing the palace guards … yet he died in within a library, a place for gaining and studying upon knowledge and inside the royal palace no less, and Lionel couldn't have been more enraged at this fact, as everything he taught his squire, everything he had cultivated was now nothing more than a dead and cold piece of flesh.

"I'm so sorry Zaren ..."

Lionel gripped the handle of his sheathed rapier, almost damaging it, his eyes burned with the expression of fury for his murdered squire.

He stared at the trail of bodies leading inside the royal library's hidden passage, and within a hair's breadth, kicked the ground and ran at full speed following the path of the blood of his comrades in arms.

With tears flowing down his eyes, Lionel said quietly, however with a heart which felt as heavy as lead …

"You will pay dearly."