ALL NOVEL Book 3. Chapter 7 “The Mission.”
Book 3. Chapter 7
“The Mission.”
The strong midday sun warmed their faces as several beads of sweat trickled down their foreheads and backs.
With each step Kalysto took deeper into the nature reserve, the stronger the feeling grew that they were approaching something dark and dangerous.
I shouldn’t have brought the girls. She thought with some trepidation. But even though they had encountered only two other monsters besides the first group and physically, she didn’t see any danger, how excited Persephone was to meet whatever was ahead of them made her nervous.
And the bad feeling she had was getting stronger and stronger.
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“Shut the hell up!” She muttered angrily, noticing that it was getting faster and faster for that other part of her to deactivate her ‘mental defense’ skill. “Come on, Kalysto! Focus!”
[The skill ‘Mental Defense’ has been activated.]
“Did you say something, Mrs. Kalysto?” Katia asked with her innocent face bathed in sweat.
“No, little one. Don’t worry," she assured her as they went deeper and just behind the foliage of a leafy group of bushes, they found what until now she had thought was just a possibility.
“A camp," Sakura murmured with surprise as they watched hundreds of goblins going in and out of small huts made of wood while a group of orcs came out with their axes in hand and another pair returned with chopped tree trunks under their arms and entered the clearing they had created. “I can’t believe those monsters created one, and no one noticed this before.”
Kalysto was surprised to see that at opposite ends of the small village, there were several cells also made of wood, in which dozens of children and a few adults were imprisoned.
And in the center of the cluster of handcrafted huts, there was an altar.
Kalysto’s heart swelled at the memory of what happened to Katia, fearing that it was a plan similar to that of King Medhas to increase the mana capacity of an individual in exchange for eating the hearts of their sacrifices. And rage seized her, but before she could do anything, a violet window appeared before her.
[Kalysto, since you have accomplished your first mission much faster than I expected, after you finish your vacation, I want you to prepare for your second mission. I need you to create a second protective barrier around my kingdom with the ability to not only keep the monsters away but also to purify everything that touches it and allow only fairies to pass through. For that you will need to raise your profession to level to one hundred, and also properly raise the glyph inscription profession, so that you can learn runes and other ancient languages so that you can add them to the barrier to give me what I need.]
“Is that even possible?” She worried. Creating a barrier that big is going to take a lot more mana than I’m capable of handling.
[If you do it the right way, it is possible. That’s why you need Artemis to instruct you so you don’t make the same mistakes she did. That way the system won’t block those options for you.]
[Also, I need you to raise your purification, Ezhil purification, dispel and Ezhil dispel skills to level one hundred. The first two will be useful for your second mission, the others for the third. I’ll give you six months to achieve it.]
Kalysto perked up when she heard for the first time a hint about the third mission, despite the short time frame she was being given.
“What is the third mission about?” She asked, full of curiosity. However, the queen seemed almost as unwilling to talk about it as ever.
[...]
[...It is a rescue mission.]
“Who do I have to rescue... And where is this person?” She worried, and a weight settled in her stomach, fearing that her life would be in danger while doing it. If it was something so easy to do, surely the queen or one of her fairies would have done it by now.
[...]
[...She’s not a human, she’s a fairy. And I have no idea where Mhiralla took her. But since, even after all this time, Mhiralla still hasn’t been able to finish copying my system, I figure we have some time. Although I’m beginning to desperate.]
Hearing this alarmed Kalysto.
“You want me to face a goddess and survive?” she exclaimed angrily.
Is she crazy?
[... You were going to die anyway when I found you.]
“And that’s why I’m supposed to go on a suicide mission? Are you crazy?” She became annoyed, and immediately a powerful pressure settled in her chest, preventing her from breathing.
[I’ve tolerated your indiscretion before Kalysto, but make no mistake.]
The saintess’s knees trembled and, unable to support her own weight, she fell to her knees.
In the distance, she could hear the moans of her friends, Katia and Tsuki, but she could do nothing to help them. She could barely breathe.
[I have even tolerated the presence of the monster you carry inside you and despite the danger of having ‘it’ inside my territory, I have given you a place to sleep, fed you and allowed you to walk around my kingdom without any danger. And yet you still dare to insult me?]
“...I’m...sorry boss...queen...please...calm down...it wasn’t my intention...ins...insult you...it’s just a human expression...I was too shocked...it’s just a human way of expressing yourself,” she struggled to answer as she fought to get some air into her desperate lungs.
[...]
[...Humans have such uneducated ways of expressing themselves.]
“I’m sorry," she apologized quickly, taking advantage of the fact that the queen’s manifestation of anger suddenly ceased.
[...]
[I don’t understand why you’re making such a big deal out of this. You’d be dead if it weren’t for me!]
“...” She didn’t want to accept it, but if she looked at it from a totally practical point of view, the queen was absolutely right. “True... but I’m not ready for the third mission.”
[And that’s why I hadn’t told you about it.]
“...” Kalysto didn’t know what to say about it, so she preferred to keep silent.
[...If you succeed with the third mission, I will allow you to heal yourself, but you can never come back to my kingdom and you must leave Elinor forever.]
“...I understand” although she was finally being offered something she had wanted since the beginning of this whole odyssey, now that it was being offered it didn’t seem so important, not when there was a great risk of her dying when facing a goddess.
But even if I complain it won’t do any good... besides from her point of view, it’s true that with the third mission or without it, I was already on the verge of death when we met, she just bought me more time... Shit! How can I survive this?
But that wasn’t the only problem. Since the queen had found out what happened in the city that Persephone destroyed, there was a doubt troubling her mind.
“...Why does the queen care so much about a split personality?” she questioned, needing to know. In all her years of life, her other side had only gotten out of control on two occasions, and both had been to save her life.
That would be three if we counted what happened inside the tower. She thought to herself. But that doesn’t mean she’s so dangerous when my life isn’t at risk.
[And who told you that Persephone was such a thing?]
“What?” Surprise ran cold in her veins. “But the psychologist at the orphanage thought it was a case of split personality... the case was dismissed after I went to therapy and Persephone kept silent during that time,” the words died on her lips as she realized that she had never questioned that theory, she had simply accepted it and lived with it since her mother’s death. Clinging to Persephone as if she were a life preserver in the middle of a storm in the deep sea and hiding her presence from everyone else.
Seeing her confusion, the queen took pity on her.
[Kalysto, I recommend that you take advantage of your visit to Desmond’s kingdom. Aegir is a powerful wizard who specializes in mind magic and he is the one I was thinking of recommending to you before you insisted on that weak elf as your teacher.... Aegir might be able to help you find the answers you seek.]
All color disappeared from her face as she read those words.
“...Thank you..." she replied and her voice failed her as she watched the trembling in her hands.
But if what she says is true and Persephone is not a part of me... All this time I have been living with a stranger? She panicked as her stomach churned and her skin began to itch all over, as if thousands of ants were walking all over her body.
She shook herself immediately, running her hands up and down her arms. Shaking off the unpleasant sensation that walked under her skin.
[... And Kalysto, I would advise you never to trust her... We suspect she has an alliance with him.]
Then she remembered what happened to the destroyed city where she had been taken after being kidnapped and the glorious satisfaction Persephone felt when she recognized the energy of that giant eye inside the tower.
“...Him?” She whispered in confusion as the hairs on the back of her neck and arms stood on end. The saliva felt thick and heavy in her mouth.
[...Our enemy, Kalysto.]
Now she understood all the distrust the queen had against her. Why she never appeared in front of her or why she was never given all the information... only what was strictly necessary.
[He who is conquering all the worlds or destroying all that he cannot conquer...]
[The only remaining male child of Ygaerae the god of darkness...]
[Seth-Mainyu.]