How beautiful.
A four-winged, rainbow butterfly. That was the insignia engraved on the party bracelet Tasianna possessed in her fairy form. It was the symbol most would associate with the Origin Goddess of Wind and Patron Goddess of the Fairies, Zephira. Made with elven craftsmanship, the emblem enchanted me when I first saw it on Tasianna’s bracelet.
So, what about the real-life version? Well, she was, without a doubt, breathtaking. Numerous little butterflies flew inside a small, weak twister, flapping their radiant wings around as they swarmed around a lime green haired elven woman. Igniculus, the small light elemental, playfully followed these butterflies like a duckling following its mother.
Silva, the woman in question, currently had rainbow glowing eyes and her hair shined like a small torch. Her clothes might be in tatters and blood smeared on her face and hands, but, at this moment, she looked as graceful as a blooming flower.
“Findul-silik, Silva,” Silva spoke, no, the person possessing Silva spoke. “Findul-silik, Tasianna irre Saori. Thank you.”
“Urrgh!” Tasianna and I groaned in pain. Some stinging pain reverbed through my body; a pain I couldn’t tell what was causing it.
The possess Silva walked over to me, placing her hand on my head. The pain vanished as I felt my body feeling lighter. The damage on my legs weren’t gone, but I somehow didn’t think it was a problem any longer. I felt … freed from my body.
“Divine voice. Soul. Hurt,” she said, reminding us how gods couldn’t speak with mortals since their voice could harm our souls. “[Hestia’s Retainer]. Defend. Soul.”
Hestia’s title is helping us? But how? However, she didn’t answer, believing it wasn’t necessary to answer.
The voice was unquestionably Silva’s, but the aura and charisma radiating from her was somebody else’s. After defeating the zombie garms, Silva performed the “Rite of the Fading Winds” and permitted Zephira to use her body as a vessel in order to descend to the mortal plane. Which meant, the person addressing us right now was the Goddess of Wind, Zephira.
Now that we realized who was talking to us, Tasianna quickly bowed as the butterflies began to flutter around her, while I gave a respectful bow before sitting down.
Tasianna was bowing still, making Zephira smile wryly before placing her hand on Tasianna’s chin, raising the fairy’s head to reveal the tears dropping from her face.
“I-I am so sorry. I am so sorry,” Tasianna apologized, anguish clear on her face. “I couldn’t protect her, hic, it was my fault for being a failure of an attendant. I could have been stricter, I could have stopped her from going, I could have given her more comfort and care when we were imprisoned. I could have done something; I know I could have. Neither protected nor attended. I am a failure.”
Tasianna was breaking down emotionally. Although the subject of Princess Schuri, Tasianna’s previous mistress, has been brought up a lot since we started traveling together, she never cried this much until now. This sudden meeting with Zephira probably reopened her past wounds. The floodgates wouldn’t close.
“I gave up on you. I gave up on my race. I ran away from all of it because I lost faith … and hated myself,” Tasianna confessed. “… Why did it happen that day; what did we do to deserve it? It should have been me! Princess Schuri didn’t deserve to die. Somebody as young as she was shouldn’t have lost her life there …”
No, don’t say that! Saying any of that will only shame the memories of your loved one. Live. Live for them and continue their memories in their stead, I wanted to shout out, but stopped when Silva’s mouth let out Zephira’s words.
“No,” she shook her head, a sorrowful expression clear to see. Although her sentences were short, her every word felt mesmerizing to listen to, like the whistling of the wind. “Freedom of faith. Your soul calls for Plesia; longing for stability. Goddess, yes, but the laws. Forbidden. Intervention.”
However, Tasianna shook her head vehemently, clenching her hands into fist. “But what does stability do when everything goes wrong? I could have said ‘no’ to Princess Schuri’s request to go out of the castle, I could have brought her home earlier, I could have been more vigilant and called for escorts, I could have taken care of her instead of letting out my anger on the situation. So many mistakes. I fled from your gaze, Wind Mother, because I was ashamed of myself, going towards Goddess Plesia because … B-because I couldn’t bear staying unpunished!”
“Freedom of faith,” Zephira said. Like the wind, the goddess governing it was fleeting and showed no ill will towards Tasianna despite her lacking faith. Zephira was the patron goddess of the faefolk, and one of them admitted fleeing from her.
She wasn’t angry. Zephira stayed silent and listened to Tasianna’s confession intently like a caring mother.
“I despise how fairies always hide their negative emotions away by ignoring the evils in the world—staying inside their little fairy tale, like every day is just a festival. I despise it so much. I hate being part of their race,” she admitted with a disgusted face. “How could they forget Princess Schuri so easily? How could they forgive me so easily? How can they not be angry at me? Do I not deserve punishment for what I did? I wish one of them would just say, ‘Princess Schuri should have lived, instead of you.’”
“Now that is enough!” Unable to hold it in anymore, I stood up despite the pain in my legs and walked over to Tasianna. “I know you believe your life is less valuable than your previous mistress, but you are wrong, Tasianna! Never, ever say that you wish to die in front of me, ever again! Your words not only hurt me, but they will crush Hestia if she ever finds out about it.”
“Miss Saori …”
“Every life is precious, Tasianna. It’s a tragedy about Princess Schuri, and I can relate to the loss you felt for losing somebody precious to you. Every pain is different, I know, but it doesn’t mean we can’t sympathize with each other,” I said, holding my hand against my chest as I remembered my father and mother. “However, cherish your life, Tasianna. Neither your previous nor your current mistress would enjoy seeing you so crushed by all this baggage. Do you understand?”
“B-but—” Tears continued to flow from her eyes, but I ignored them. I couldn’t help but speak my mind.
“The people you leave behind are the ones suffering the most!” I bluntly expressed. “You know this too well, right? So do I. So does Hestia. We miss our lives on Earth. If you were to disappear too, we would 100% grieve for you. Hestia … she wouldn’t be able to take it well. I know that, because I wouldn’t either. I told you about it back when we escaped the Belzac forest, how you can still grow. Relearn to love yourself.”
I embraced her, tightening my grip as the thought of losing either Tasianna or Hestia was causing my heart to crack. The pain of even thinking about it was causing my own eyes to wetten. “I’ve only known you and Hestia for a year, but you aren’t just my friends! You are my family in this world!”
“M-Miss Saori?! Sa-Saori! Waaaaaaaaaah!” Burying her face on my chest, Tasianna’s wailing was ceaseless. It felt like a river of tears was flowing down, soaking my clothes.
Just like the rest of our party, Tasianna was also someone with personal issues caused by her past. Well, it wasn’t like nobody had any problems. It wasn’t like the three of us were the only ones with trauma weighing on our consciousness in the world, but it still meant we had to do our best to support each other.
Patting her back, I smiled as I let her cry out her sorrow.
“… Happiness,” Zephira smiled as she looked at us, before turning her back to us. “… jAsjiJISKklOPmsPASasS”
Urgh! I grimaced as I suddenly heard that static coming from Zephira, almost as if she was speaking in some unintelligible accent. In fact, even if I strained to listen to her, I just couldn’t. What was that?
“Staaaaaayyy baaaacckkk!” However, my confusion grew even further as I saw her approach the onnikai boss. For the first time since we fought, it spoke. How considerate of it.
She shook her head. “Reborn through the ‘Rite of the Fading Winds,’ or Aurena’s Champion fire. One but not the other. Purify, Silva chose.”
“Aggggrh! Stooop speeeaking! I caaaaanno—paaaain!” the onnikai screamed as if it was in agony. So, even a mana being like a faefolk couldn’t listen to a god’s voice for too long. This sounded like torture.
Admittedly, as the patron goddess of fairies, I always imagined Zephira to be more the fun-loving, carefree type, similar to how Tasianna described fairies. It made sense for me that a god would be similar to their supported race, especially if I took the saurian, Mister Kushlek’zar, as an example.
Maybe she was more whimsical in private, and she was merely putting up the façade of a serious and competent goddess due to the situation. Hestia and I had two personas for our private and professional lives, after all. Most people did.
“Youuuuuu! Haaaaveeee abaaaaadonneedddd usss. Fooorssaaakeeeened! Usss damnnneedddd! Haaateeeeee …” the onnikai continued speaking in defiance. “Gooddeeeesss Illsssaaaaaphooneee gaaveee usss neeeeewww liveesss. Poooweeerrr! Hoooopeeee! Weee can geet veeeeengeaaaance. Goooddeessss Zeeeeephiraaaa … leeeftt usss …”
Without being swayed by its words, Zephira raised Silva’s staff, commanding her butterflies to swarm around the orb containing the onnikai. “… Apologize. Protect. Unable. Goddess failure; laws of Plesia. Only blessed …”
Even if I couldn’t understand her fully, I understood what she wanted to say. She couldn’t do anything to save her patreon race aside from sending her Saints and Champions. As a goddess, she was unable to meddle in mortal issues due to the laws they established. It seemed like the “Rite of the Fading Winds” was actually the few methods Zephira could even interact with her followers.
Just as Silva wanted, she would now perform the rite.
The wind began to move. Like a smooth breeze, it moved past us, merely touching my hair for a moment, before it accelerated around Zephira. A green aura surrounded Silva’s staff, probably due to Zephira empowering the wind around her. The aura then flowed towards the orb and attached itself to the butterflies like a banner.
The onnikai kept shrieking and crying out in desperation for Zephira to stop, but she didn’t blink an eye as she continued using her powers. The butterflies then shined like a rainbow as the wind began to turn into a small vortex. The black slime surrounding the pedestal slowly disappeared and a dark-red haze slowly escaped the orb, clearing it from its previous black color.
It lasted for a couple of seconds more until the green wind-dispersed and gathered around the zombie garms like flies. It was quick compared to the onnikai boss, but the wind eventually moved away from the garms to escape the room. With my sensitive hearing, I heard the wind rushing through the hallway and up to the stairs. It was like an echo. “Where was it going?” I wondered.
The onnikai, on the other hand, slowly lost its hazy form. The black tint disappeared and, similar to how Silva purified the onnikais, the onnikai boss vanished for a moment before returning in a yellow form. This was unlike the other onnikais who were invisible to my eyes.
“Purification. Reborn onnikai. All spirits,” Zephira stated with broken sentences. If only we had Hestia around, we probably could use her as our translator.
At this moment, Tasianna had already stopped crying and watched the whole event first-hand. She saw the former onnikai boss in its new form. Compared to its mist-like form from before, it now looked like a ball with wings attached to it. I wasn’t sure how to describe it outside of that.
[“… Thank you.”] Its voice entered our head with [Telapathy]. [“I…I feel light-headed … in a good sense. It’s like … I can think properly again. Thank you … Wind Mother. Thank you for saving us.”]
Zephira gave a small smile before speaking. “You were a gnome, now spirit. No, now elemental … Intelligence. Sense. Form.”
I remembered Silva mentioning gnomes—earth spirits, essentially. However, an elemental? Was this former onnikai now an elemental? Wasn’t they similar to Igniculus?
While I was deep in thought at this magical sight, I started to frown when I saw Zephira looking saddened.
“Your desire?” she asked the former onnikai.
[“…Vengeance.”]
Huh?!
[“I … I still feel hatred towards humans. The anger and uncontrollable rage inside me is gone. I don’t want to destroy everything anymore, but I cannot get rid of this feeling of seeing the one who did this to me—who did this to us—pay! I need vengeance before I can find peace,”] the former onnikai boss admitted.
“Frightening. Faefolk evolution. But, fascinating.” Zephira showed a wry smile before pointing at us. “Do?”
Do? At this point, I had no idea what was going on. I could understand some parts, but this was impossible.
Understanding this, Zephira turned her gaze to us, no, she wasn’t looking at us but at something behind us. Curiously, Tasianna and I did the same, just to witness the four zombie garms approaching us. Their bodies were still in terrible shape from my attacks, as their wounds haven’t healed yet. The black slime was gone, so how could they move?
Understanding what she was asking, the former onnikai began its explanation, “This is Goddess Ilsaphone’s gift to us. The ability to solidify our mana into an ooze to control a corpse. More efficient than our normal body control, and it allows us to heal the body! Make it our own! … Ahhh, I can feel it disappearing. My condensed mana dispersed; the gift only works as an onnikai. We have lost.”
Aside from the onnikai beast, I bet it also mentioned the rest of the zombies. I was sure Hestia would be alright, but I couldn’t help but be worried about her.
Noticing me looking up, Zephira spoke to ease my worries, “Quest completed. Message sent. She; castle.”
Understanding that last part, I couldn’t help but giggle. “That girl is such a hero.”
I wonder how the castle is holding up. They should be alright with Hestia’s bombs, and once she arrives, her healing, too … Huh?
[“Pack … Le … ader.”] A man’s voice entered my head. I snapped my head around, before resting it at the group of zombie garms as a new System message appeared in my mind.
WHAT?!
[“P … ack Le … ader.”]
[“Anc … estor’s … Success … or.”]
[“F … enrir. Pack … Leade … r.”]
More voices—two women and another man—appeared, sending a chill down my spine as the zombie garms approached closer to me. I took a step back, unnerved and confused by the situation.
“hJijJIKnnkKASLS!” My ears grated as I heard Zephira speak, noticing she was actually laughing. Her voice did not enter my head correctly. “Unconventional; creative. Ilsaphone wants patron race; just like sisters. Did; finalize her spell’s formula?”
“Goddess Zephira, what is going on here? I wondered this when we fought, but how are these onnikai—I mean, spirits able to use the [Telepathy] from these dead garms?” I asked, still flustered from the voices in my head.
[“It would be better if I explained it,”] the onnikai suddenly suggested, reminding us that as mortals, we couldn’t fully listen to a god’s words. Even if she tried to explain it in the best way possible to not accidentally crush our souls, it would take us more time to decipher what she wanted to say than to just listen to the former onnikai’s explanation.
It began explaining the special circumstances concerning these onnikais. ‘Faefolk adapt to their surroundings’ was what Silva had originally explained to me, and supposedly, Ilsaphone, the Goddess of Death, put this theory to the test by granting the onnikai here with a bit of her power.
Aside from the neutral spirits, most lesser faefolk could possess objects concerning their “alighnment.” Gnomes possess earthen constructs, the lesser water faefolk—undines—could take over underwater plants, and so on. Onnikais could take over corpses, but they always had to switch vessels since they would rot.
With this slime, they could heal their possessed body and even control it like a nervous system. By staying inside a body, these onnikai were supposed to adapt to their body and “acquire the body’s memories through their soul,” or whatever that meant. They were supposed to become the corpse.
“Ilsaphone wants patron race. This; her attempt. Look.” Zephira pointed at the garms.
[“P … ack Le … ader.”]
[“W … e … follow, Alpha.”]
[“They are imperfect,”] the former onnikai boss answered in Zephira’s stead.
Due to what I did to them—with my ruthless attacks and Hestia’s venom—the bodies of the onnikai were severely damaged and, as Zephira turned these onnikai back into spirits, they lost their ability to produce the black slime. This meant the garms couldn’t heal their bodies without Hestia’s healing magic.
[“No healing magic can help them. The bodies aren’t alive. Without the slime, these rotting bodies would turn back to how we found them close to the Belzac forest, after we were abandoned here …”] the former onnikai stated. [“According to what I heard from the onnikais possessing them, these corpses are seven years old and were withering away when we found them. It took us ten months to bring them to this state.”]
And they still looked more like zombies than living beings. Flesh and fur were missing, and I could see their bones. With my actions, I’ve set their efforts back nearly a year.
Seven years old, huh? That can’t be a coincidence that it aligned with the garm subjugation Quest, right?
Through the process Ilsaphone worked on to create a new race, the onnikais “inherited” the dead garm’s skills and spells. That was why they were able to use spells and [Telepathy] during our fight. This process also brought the onnikai closer to their garm body’s memories, and they were slowly influenced to believe they were the garm’s original “soul” or “ego,” which explained why they were acting like I was a pack leader or something.
What a frightening ability by the Goddess of Death and Necromany, Ilsaphone. The ability to turn zombies into a new “living race” by having faefolk possess corpses. Strangely, when I asked Zephira if this wasn’t “meddling in human affairs,” she shook her head. She then mentioned “Blessed. Wind elves. Dark elves,” prompting me to understand this fell into those categories.
It was all indirect. The race didn’t exist yet, but Ilsaphone was nudging it ahead with these onnikais.
This also explained why my wolf side went wild when they shamed me. The pride of being [Belzac’s Successor] made me angry at them … even if it was against my will.
“Then what should we do for them?” I asked, worried that these onnikai might have wasted all their efforts due to me. The damage was warranted as we were fighting, but I felt a bit saddened, as I valued hard work leading to well-earned rewards.
That was when the garms spoke up.
[“P … ack Leader.”]
[“You … r spe … ll. Vessel … for us.”]
[“We … follow Alpha … everywhere.”]
[“We … hunt together. Ancestor’s descendants hunt … together.”]
The garms then struck a pose as if they were howling, but whether they were missing a head or had their lungs and windpipe destroyed by me, no voice escaped. They were energetic despite being … well, zombies. But … what were they trying to say?
“Workaround,” Zephira mentioned, looking at me as if I was a cute puppy or something. “Shadow wolf. Silva’s eyes. Spell golem. Try?”
… I think her true personality just shined there, even if I can barely understand her.
At that moment, everybody’s eyes focused on me. Well, real and imaginary eyes. It didn’t take me long after Zephira mentioned the “shadow wolf” to understand what she meant.
…
Truth be told, I didn’t like the idea. Until now, I’ve been trying to reject anything to do with my bloodline as a wolf. Yes, I was a child of a garm, but I didn’t want it to influence my life. And now, a quartet of garms was asking to follow me around as their “Alpha.” It was beyond crazy.
I felt if I accepted and they succeeded somehow to possess my [Shadow Pack]—the spell in question as [Shadow Clone] only created a clone of myself, not an actual shadow wolf—then they would be the catalyst to drive me to learn more about Belzac and what happened seven years ago. My intuition was telling me this. I didn’t want to know anything about my garm mother, father, siblings, and family. Nothing! I wanted to deny Belzac …
How embarrassing of me, frankly. I was a grown woman, but I was currently fighting over something so … insignificant. However, I wanted to be selfish and childish. I was fucking zero years old! I had the right to throw a tantrum.
… But I wouldn’t. Whether it was because of Hestia’s disposition influencing me or my wish to see their efforts see fruit, or maybe I was seeing my students in these garms, I considered Zephira’s words. That was what a “good” person should be doing, right?
I had no reason to decline the attempt. We weren’t enemies any longer. Helping wasn’t a crime.
“… On one condition,” I stated. “Before I can even answer this request, I want to know more about you. Onnikai, why are you here, and who placed you inside these ruins? For what reason are you in this place?”
Well, I wasn’t that naive to do things for free. My curiosity was telling me the past and secrets of these onnikai had to be solved. The plot behind their existence in this ruin. I wanted to learn the truth.
AbyssRaven This is what happens when a normal persona gets to speak with a god. Well, mostly normal. Saori and Tasianna have [Hestia's Retainer], after all! Well, hope it was clear to you guys.
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Thank you for reading this chapter.
How beautiful.
A four-winged, rainbow butterfly. That was the insignia engraved on the party bracelet Tasianna possessed in her fairy form. It was the symbol most would associate with the Origin Goddess of Wind and Patron Goddess of the Fairies, Zephira. Made with elven craftsmanship, the emblem enchanted me when I first saw it on Tasianna’s bracelet.
So, what about the real-life version? Well, she was, without a doubt, breathtaking. Numerous little butterflies flew inside a small, weak twister, flapping their radiant wings around as they swarmed around a lime green haired elven woman. Igniculus, the small light elemental, playfully followed these butterflies like a duckling following its mother.
Silva, the woman in question, currently had rainbow glowing eyes and her hair shined like a small torch. Her clothes might be in tatters and blood smeared on her face and hands, but, at this moment, she looked as graceful as a blooming flower.
“Findul-silik, Silva,” Silva spoke, no, the person possessing Silva spoke. “Findul-silik, Tasianna irre Saori. Thank you.”
“Urrgh!” Tasianna and I groaned in pain. Some stinging pain reverbed through my body; a pain I couldn’t tell what was causing it.
The possess Silva walked over to me, placing her hand on my head. The pain vanished as I felt my body feeling lighter. The damage on my legs weren’t gone, but I somehow didn’t think it was a problem any longer. I felt … freed from my body.
“Divine voice. Soul. Hurt,” she said, reminding us how gods couldn’t speak with mortals since their voice could harm our souls. “[Hestia’s Retainer]. Defend. Soul.”
Hestia’s title is helping us? But how? However, she didn’t answer, believing it wasn’t necessary to answer.
The voice was unquestionably Silva’s, but the aura and charisma radiating from her was somebody else’s. After defeating the zombie garms, Silva performed the “Rite of the Fading Winds” and permitted Zephira to use her body as a vessel in order to descend to the mortal plane. Which meant, the person addressing us right now was the Goddess of Wind, Zephira.
Now that we realized who was talking to us, Tasianna quickly bowed as the butterflies began to flutter around her, while I gave a respectful bow before sitting down.
Tasianna was bowing still, making Zephira smile wryly before placing her hand on Tasianna’s chin, raising the fairy’s head to reveal the tears dropping from her face.
“I-I am so sorry. I am so sorry,” Tasianna apologized, anguish clear on her face. “I couldn’t protect her, hic, it was my fault for being a failure of an attendant. I could have been stricter, I could have stopped her from going, I could have given her more comfort and care when we were imprisoned. I could have done something; I know I could have. Neither protected nor attended. I am a failure.”
Tasianna was breaking down emotionally. Although the subject of Princess Schuri, Tasianna’s previous mistress, has been brought up a lot since we started traveling together, she never cried this much until now. This sudden meeting with Zephira probably reopened her past wounds. The floodgates wouldn’t close.
“I gave up on you. I gave up on my race. I ran away from all of it because I lost faith … and hated myself,” Tasianna confessed. “… Why did it happen that day; what did we do to deserve it? It should have been me! Princess Schuri didn’t deserve to die. Somebody as young as she was shouldn’t have lost her life there …”
No, don’t say that! Saying any of that will only shame the memories of your loved one. Live. Live for them and continue their memories in their stead, I wanted to shout out, but stopped when Silva’s mouth let out Zephira’s words.
“No,” she shook her head, a sorrowful expression clear to see. Although her sentences were short, her every word felt mesmerizing to listen to, like the whistling of the wind. “Freedom of faith. Your soul calls for Plesia; longing for stability. Goddess, yes, but the laws. Forbidden. Intervention.”
However, Tasianna shook her head vehemently, clenching her hands into fist. “But what does stability do when everything goes wrong? I could have said ‘no’ to Princess Schuri’s request to go out of the castle, I could have brought her home earlier, I could have been more vigilant and called for escorts, I could have taken care of her instead of letting out my anger on the situation. So many mistakes. I fled from your gaze, Wind Mother, because I was ashamed of myself, going towards Goddess Plesia because … B-because I couldn’t bear staying unpunished!”
“Freedom of faith,” Zephira said. Like the wind, the goddess governing it was fleeting and showed no ill will towards Tasianna despite her lacking faith. Zephira was the patron goddess of the faefolk, and one of them admitted fleeing from her.
She wasn’t angry. Zephira stayed silent and listened to Tasianna’s confession intently like a caring mother.
“I despise how fairies always hide their negative emotions away by ignoring the evils in the world—staying inside their little fairy tale, like every day is just a festival. I despise it so much. I hate being part of their race,” she admitted with a disgusted face. “How could they forget Princess Schuri so easily? How could they forgive me so easily? How can they not be angry at me? Do I not deserve punishment for what I did? I wish one of them would just say, ‘Princess Schuri should have lived, instead of you.’”
“Now that is enough!” Unable to hold it in anymore, I stood up despite the pain in my legs and walked over to Tasianna. “I know you believe your life is less valuable than your previous mistress, but you are wrong, Tasianna! Never, ever say that you wish to die in front of me, ever again! Your words not only hurt me, but they will crush Hestia if she ever finds out about it.”
“Miss Saori …”
“Every life is precious, Tasianna. It’s a tragedy about Princess Schuri, and I can relate to the loss you felt for losing somebody precious to you. Every pain is different, I know, but it doesn’t mean we can’t sympathize with each other,” I said, holding my hand against my chest as I remembered my father and mother. “However, cherish your life, Tasianna. Neither your previous nor your current mistress would enjoy seeing you so crushed by all this baggage. Do you understand?”
“B-but—” Tears continued to flow from her eyes, but I ignored them. I couldn’t help but speak my mind.
“The people you leave behind are the ones suffering the most!” I bluntly expressed. “You know this too well, right? So do I. So does Hestia. We miss our lives on Earth. If you were to disappear too, we would 100% grieve for you. Hestia … she wouldn’t be able to take it well. I know that, because I wouldn’t either. I told you about it back when we escaped the Belzac forest, how you can still grow. Relearn to love yourself.”
I embraced her, tightening my grip as the thought of losing either Tasianna or Hestia was causing my heart to crack. The pain of even thinking about it was causing my own eyes to wetten. “I’ve only known you and Hestia for a year, but you aren’t just my friends! You are my family in this world!”
“M-Miss Saori?! Sa-Saori! Waaaaaaaaaah!” Burying her face on my chest, Tasianna’s wailing was ceaseless. It felt like a river of tears was flowing down, soaking my clothes.
Just like the rest of our party, Tasianna was also someone with personal issues caused by her past. Well, it wasn’t like nobody had any problems. It wasn’t like the three of us were the only ones with trauma weighing on our consciousness in the world, but it still meant we had to do our best to support each other.
Patting her back, I smiled as I let her cry out her sorrow.
“… Happiness,” Zephira smiled as she looked at us, before turning her back to us. “… jAsjiJISKklOPmsPASasS”
Urgh! I grimaced as I suddenly heard that static coming from Zephira, almost as if she was speaking in some unintelligible accent. In fact, even if I strained to listen to her, I just couldn’t. What was that?
“Staaaaaayyy baaaacckkk!” However, my confusion grew even further as I saw her approach the onnikai boss. For the first time since we fought, it spoke. How considerate of it.
She shook her head. “Reborn through the ‘Rite of the Fading Winds,’ or Aurena’s Champion fire. One but not the other. Purify, Silva chose.”
“Aggggrh! Stooop speeeaking! I caaaaanno—paaaain!” the onnikai screamed as if it was in agony. So, even a mana being like a faefolk couldn’t listen to a god’s voice for too long. This sounded like torture.
Admittedly, as the patron goddess of fairies, I always imagined Zephira to be more the fun-loving, carefree type, similar to how Tasianna described fairies. It made sense for me that a god would be similar to their supported race, especially if I took the saurian, Mister Kushlek’zar, as an example.
Maybe she was more whimsical in private, and she was merely putting up the façade of a serious and competent goddess due to the situation. Hestia and I had two personas for our private and professional lives, after all. Most people did.
“Youuuuuu! Haaaaveeee abaaaaadonneedddd usss. Fooorssaaakeeeened! Usss damnnneedddd! Haaateeeeee …” the onnikai continued speaking in defiance. “Gooddeeeesss Illsssaaaaaphooneee gaaveee usss neeeeewww liveesss. Poooweeerrr! Hoooopeeee! Weee can geet veeeeengeaaaance. Goooddeessss Zeeeeephiraaaa … leeeftt usss …”
Without being swayed by its words, Zephira raised Silva’s staff, commanding her butterflies to swarm around the orb containing the onnikai. “… Apologize. Protect. Unable. Goddess failure; laws of Plesia. Only blessed …”
Even if I couldn’t understand her fully, I understood what she wanted to say. She couldn’t do anything to save her patreon race aside from sending her Saints and Champions. As a goddess, she was unable to meddle in mortal issues due to the laws they established. It seemed like the “Rite of the Fading Winds” was actually the few methods Zephira could even interact with her followers.
Just as Silva wanted, she would now perform the rite.
The wind began to move. Like a smooth breeze, it moved past us, merely touching my hair for a moment, before it accelerated around Zephira. A green aura surrounded Silva’s staff, probably due to Zephira empowering the wind around her. The aura then flowed towards the orb and attached itself to the butterflies like a banner.
The onnikai kept shrieking and crying out in desperation for Zephira to stop, but she didn’t blink an eye as she continued using her powers. The butterflies then shined like a rainbow as the wind began to turn into a small vortex. The black slime surrounding the pedestal slowly disappeared and a dark-red haze slowly escaped the orb, clearing it from its previous black color.
It lasted for a couple of seconds more until the green wind-dispersed and gathered around the zombie garms like flies. It was quick compared to the onnikai boss, but the wind eventually moved away from the garms to escape the room. With my sensitive hearing, I heard the wind rushing through the hallway and up to the stairs. It was like an echo. “Where was it going?” I wondered.
The onnikai, on the other hand, slowly lost its hazy form. The black tint disappeared and, similar to how Silva purified the onnikais, the onnikai boss vanished for a moment before returning in a yellow form. This was unlike the other onnikais who were invisible to my eyes.
“Purification. Reborn onnikai. All spirits,” Zephira stated with broken sentences. If only we had Hestia around, we probably could use her as our translator.
At this moment, Tasianna had already stopped crying and watched the whole event first-hand. She saw the former onnikai boss in its new form. Compared to its mist-like form from before, it now looked like a ball with wings attached to it. I wasn’t sure how to describe it outside of that.
[“… Thank you.”] Its voice entered our head with [Telapathy]. [“I…I feel light-headed … in a good sense. It’s like … I can think properly again. Thank you … Wind Mother. Thank you for saving us.”]
Zephira gave a small smile before speaking. “You were a gnome, now spirit. No, now elemental … Intelligence. Sense. Form.”
I remembered Silva mentioning gnomes—earth spirits, essentially. However, an elemental? Was this former onnikai now an elemental? Wasn’t they similar to Igniculus?
While I was deep in thought at this magical sight, I started to frown when I saw Zephira looking saddened.
“Your desire?” she asked the former onnikai.
[“…Vengeance.”]
Huh?!
[“I … I still feel hatred towards humans. The anger and uncontrollable rage inside me is gone. I don’t want to destroy everything anymore, but I cannot get rid of this feeling of seeing the one who did this to me—who did this to us—pay! I need vengeance before I can find peace,”] the former onnikai boss admitted.
“Frightening. Faefolk evolution. But, fascinating.” Zephira showed a wry smile before pointing at us. “Do?”
Do? At this point, I had no idea what was going on. I could understand some parts, but this was impossible.
Understanding this, Zephira turned her gaze to us, no, she wasn’t looking at us but at something behind us. Curiously, Tasianna and I did the same, just to witness the four zombie garms approaching us. Their bodies were still in terrible shape from my attacks, as their wounds haven’t healed yet. The black slime was gone, so how could they move?
Understanding what she was asking, the former onnikai began its explanation, “This is Goddess Ilsaphone’s gift to us. The ability to solidify our mana into an ooze to control a corpse. More efficient than our normal body control, and it allows us to heal the body! Make it our own! … Ahhh, I can feel it disappearing. My condensed mana dispersed; the gift only works as an onnikai. We have lost.”
Aside from the onnikai beast, I bet it also mentioned the rest of the zombies. I was sure Hestia would be alright, but I couldn’t help but be worried about her.
Noticing me looking up, Zephira spoke to ease my worries, “Quest completed. Message sent. She; castle.”
Understanding that last part, I couldn’t help but giggle. “That girl is such a hero.”
I wonder how the castle is holding up. They should be alright with Hestia’s bombs, and once she arrives, her healing, too … Huh?
[“Pack … Le … ader.”] A man’s voice entered my head. I snapped my head around, before resting it at the group of zombie garms as a new System message appeared in my mind.
WHAT?!
[“P … ack Le … ader.”]
[“Anc … estor’s … Success … or.”]
[“F … enrir. Pack … Leade … r.”]
More voices—two women and another man—appeared, sending a chill down my spine as the zombie garms approached closer to me. I took a step back, unnerved and confused by the situation.
“hJijJIKnnkKASLS!” My ears grated as I heard Zephira speak, noticing she was actually laughing. Her voice did not enter my head correctly. “Unconventional; creative. Ilsaphone wants patron race; just like sisters. Did; finalize her spell’s formula?”
“Goddess Zephira, what is going on here? I wondered this when we fought, but how are these onnikai—I mean, spirits able to use the [Telepathy] from these dead garms?” I asked, still flustered from the voices in my head.
[“It would be better if I explained it,”] the onnikai suddenly suggested, reminding us that as mortals, we couldn’t fully listen to a god’s words. Even if she tried to explain it in the best way possible to not accidentally crush our souls, it would take us more time to decipher what she wanted to say than to just listen to the former onnikai’s explanation.
It began explaining the special circumstances concerning these onnikais. ‘Faefolk adapt to their surroundings’ was what Silva had originally explained to me, and supposedly, Ilsaphone, the Goddess of Death, put this theory to the test by granting the onnikai here with a bit of her power.
Aside from the neutral spirits, most lesser faefolk could possess objects concerning their “alighnment.” Gnomes possess earthen constructs, the lesser water faefolk—undines—could take over underwater plants, and so on. Onnikais could take over corpses, but they always had to switch vessels since they would rot.
With this slime, they could heal their possessed body and even control it like a nervous system. By staying inside a body, these onnikai were supposed to adapt to their body and “acquire the body’s memories through their soul,” or whatever that meant. They were supposed to become the corpse.
“Ilsaphone wants patron race. This; her attempt. Look.” Zephira pointed at the garms.
[“P … ack Le … ader.”]
[“W … e … follow, Alpha.”]
[“They are imperfect,”] the former onnikai boss answered in Zephira’s stead.
Due to what I did to them—with my ruthless attacks and Hestia’s venom—the bodies of the onnikai were severely damaged and, as Zephira turned these onnikai back into spirits, they lost their ability to produce the black slime. This meant the garms couldn’t heal their bodies without Hestia’s healing magic.
[“No healing magic can help them. The bodies aren’t alive. Without the slime, these rotting bodies would turn back to how we found them close to the Belzac forest, after we were abandoned here …”] the former onnikai stated. [“According to what I heard from the onnikais possessing them, these corpses are seven years old and were withering away when we found them. It took us ten months to bring them to this state.”]
And they still looked more like zombies than living beings. Flesh and fur were missing, and I could see their bones. With my actions, I’ve set their efforts back nearly a year.
Seven years old, huh? That can’t be a coincidence that it aligned with the garm subjugation Quest, right?
Through the process Ilsaphone worked on to create a new race, the onnikais “inherited” the dead garm’s skills and spells. That was why they were able to use spells and [Telepathy] during our fight. This process also brought the onnikai closer to their garm body’s memories, and they were slowly influenced to believe they were the garm’s original “soul” or “ego,” which explained why they were acting like I was a pack leader or something.
What a frightening ability by the Goddess of Death and Necromany, Ilsaphone. The ability to turn zombies into a new “living race” by having faefolk possess corpses. Strangely, when I asked Zephira if this wasn’t “meddling in human affairs,” she shook her head. She then mentioned “Blessed. Wind elves. Dark elves,” prompting me to understand this fell into those categories.
It was all indirect. The race didn’t exist yet, but Ilsaphone was nudging it ahead with these onnikais.
This also explained why my wolf side went wild when they shamed me. The pride of being [Belzac’s Successor] made me angry at them … even if it was against my will.
“Then what should we do for them?” I asked, worried that these onnikai might have wasted all their efforts due to me. The damage was warranted as we were fighting, but I felt a bit saddened, as I valued hard work leading to well-earned rewards.
That was when the garms spoke up.
[“P … ack Leader.”]
[“You … r spe … ll. Vessel … for us.”]
[“We … follow Alpha … everywhere.”]
[“We … hunt together. Ancestor’s descendants hunt … together.”]
The garms then struck a pose as if they were howling, but whether they were missing a head or had their lungs and windpipe destroyed by me, no voice escaped. They were energetic despite being … well, zombies. But … what were they trying to say?
“Workaround,” Zephira mentioned, looking at me as if I was a cute puppy or something. “Shadow wolf. Silva’s eyes. Spell golem. Try?”
… I think her true personality just shined there, even if I can barely understand her.
At that moment, everybody’s eyes focused on me. Well, real and imaginary eyes. It didn’t take me long after Zephira mentioned the “shadow wolf” to understand what she meant.
…
Truth be told, I didn’t like the idea. Until now, I’ve been trying to reject anything to do with my bloodline as a wolf. Yes, I was a child of a garm, but I didn’t want it to influence my life. And now, a quartet of garms was asking to follow me around as their “Alpha.” It was beyond crazy.
I felt if I accepted and they succeeded somehow to possess my [Shadow Pack]—the spell in question as [Shadow Clone] only created a clone of myself, not an actual shadow wolf—then they would be the catalyst to drive me to learn more about Belzac and what happened seven years ago. My intuition was telling me this. I didn’t want to know anything about my garm mother, father, siblings, and family. Nothing! I wanted to deny Belzac …
How embarrassing of me, frankly. I was a grown woman, but I was currently fighting over something so … insignificant. However, I wanted to be selfish and childish. I was fucking zero years old! I had the right to throw a tantrum.
… But I wouldn’t. Whether it was because of Hestia’s disposition influencing me or my wish to see their efforts see fruit, or maybe I was seeing my students in these garms, I considered Zephira’s words. That was what a “good” person should be doing, right?
I had no reason to decline the attempt. We weren’t enemies any longer. Helping wasn’t a crime.
“… On one condition,” I stated. “Before I can even answer this request, I want to know more about you. Onnikai, why are you here, and who placed you inside these ruins? For what reason are you in this place?”
Well, I wasn’t that naive to do things for free. My curiosity was telling me the past and secrets of these onnikai had to be solved. The plot behind their existence in this ruin. I wanted to learn the truth.
AbyssRaven This is what happens when a normal persona gets to speak with a god. Well, mostly normal. Saori and Tasianna have [Hestia's Retainer], after all! Well, hope it was clear to you guys.
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