Victims of the Time Paradox

Link to the mission here

This was by far one of the happiest cities in Fiore. Or at the very least, whenever Levinia found herself in Magnolia, everyone seemed to be in a festive mood. At first, she had thought it was the holidays, but even on days that did not fall in any hallowed seasons or commemorations, the people were one cheerful bunch. It could be for any reason, but Levinia was not too bothered with such. At least, she was sure there wasn't some evil, nefarious purpose behind the gaiety... like an illusion cast over an already dead city with shuffling corpses to make it seem bubbling and full of life. Instinctively, she shuddered, but pushed the thought away. It was not even remotely possible. And if somehow, it was, then there was nothing she could do about it.

Laughing at herself for entertaining such macabre thoughts when even the sun encouraged one to feel optimistic, Levinia put her thoughts more towards what she had come to Magnolia to do. Okay, that was not very accurate, because she was not currently involved in any of the original business that had brought her to the city. This sunny day met her in a fruit market, sampling plant produce like any normal consumer, with no hint of the fact that about two weeks ago, she could not afford to do this without being looked at like she was a monster. Not to mention that from around that time, up to this point, repeated attacks had been made on her life, some subtle, but many glaringly obvious.

She reckoned that the major reason she was still alive was because of her mentor. She was, and would be eternally grateful to Beira who had no surname beyond the title of being from Utgardr. She was still making her theories about the older woman, but she assumed that like herself, this Utgardr rested on a plane different from Earthland, much like her place of birth. So that made Beira an extraplanar creature of sorts, like herself. She expected to meet her here; she had invited her to come over to Magnolia after all. However, Levinia was starting to suspect that perhaps the reason for the invitation was not exactly what she had mentioned.

You see, she had asked Beira over to help her with trying to fish out where the attacks were coming from. It was always wiser to uncover a hidden enemy as the first step in defeating them. Unfortunately, this enemy had proved time and again to be very evasive. Just when she thought she had a lead, a metal door would slam shut in her face, and she would be back to square one, with only speculations and hunches to go by. On the flip side, the breaking of Levinia's curse had unlocked some interesting magics and placed them at her disposal, and with these newfound powers, she was optimistic that finding her attackers was just a matter of time. Still, it wouldn't hurt to have another brain to think with, the perspective of another that was older than she.

She had invited Beira to help her hunt, but today, the mission would be mostly about picking and sampling fruits. Hospitality demanded that a visitor was first entertained before business matters were attended to, unless the matters were very pressing and required the utmost alacrity. Levinia was not racing to deactivate any time bomb, so she felt the both of them could stretch their limbs a little, before all the head spinning action began.

She idly inspected an oval fruit, while the vendor praised all its good qualities to her. She held back from bursting into laughter; most of what the woman said were anecdotal at best, and outrageous at worst. Being a polite person demanded that she showed no amusement at the other's ignorance, so she just engaged in small talk that focused on fruits. A part of her was ready to spring into action, though. Perhaps it was for the best; give a sense of lacking vigilance, so that if her enemy was watching her, they might be inspired to strike. But that raised the issue of collateral damage...

An attack here was unlikely. It was daytime, anyway. Her assailants seemed to prefer the cover of night.

Magnolia. Beira had never been here before, but she had heard a great deal about the place. It was a very colorful city, with very happy people, who spent most of their time jumping from one celebration or event and onto another. Beira didn't know whether all that energy spent on celebrations was as a result of these people being overtly optimistic, or having absolutely nothing to do with their time and energy. In any event, the God Slayer was almost certain that whichever of the two was the reason for the too many celebrations, it was probably a bad reason. It was necessary to have space and time to deal with serious issues, and serious issues could never be handled when all people were doing was frolicking in the sun and throwing flowers all over the place. Beira felt a twang of pity for the people who were responsible for cleaning up after the party goers and merrymakers. Humans were not known to celebrate and be decorous while at it.

If one wanted to look more closely at Magnolia though, perhaps it would be worrisome to discover that for a city that seemed so joyful and celebratory had a guild as savage as Fairy Tail in it. Although the guild was not a dark guild, and was safely on the right side of the law, it was certainly not under the Magic Council, and that meant that it was guided by its own rules. Even though Fairy Tail seemed to imbibe the spirit of comradeship and brotherhood, the guild was a family of mercenaries, and mercenaries only ever responded to those who had the money, which meant that they certainly had dirty little skeletons in the closet... or maybe even dirty big ones. Long story short, it was weird that a city such as Magnolia, with so many positive vibes, was watched over by the mercenary Fairy Tail, as opposed to some guild that worshiped dainty curly-haired ponies that had horns and pooped rainbows.

In any case, Beira made sure to just idly watch the jovial people of Magnolia as she sought the reason for being here. She was supposed to meet her protege, Levinia, in some fruit market. That made it seem like some sort of vacation. Beira was quite willing, at any rate, to see the inquisitive gearhead again. Ever since Levinia's curse had been lifted, Beira couldn't help but feel proud that she had been part of the successful integration of Levinia into more normal social circles. Then, Levinia always wore a mask. Now, without the mask and bandages, it was almost as though Beira's ward had transformed into an entirely different person. But despite the God Slayer's delight at seeing her ward enjoy her newfound life, Beira suspected that Levinia was not totally out of the woods. And as she had suspected, it was for this reason she had been summoned to Magnolia.

She caught sight of Levinia's orange locks, and came over, as her sharp ears picked the conversation between the fruit seller and the Godling. "That fruit in particular does have a uniquely impressive taste," she stated, revealing herself to her friend and protege. "I do not know about its ability to extend the longevity of its eater, but I do believe it has a lot of merit, as far as nutrition is concerned." As expected, she held a stoic expression on her face, but anyone who knew the God Slayer would know that she was quite pleased to meet with Levinia again. It looked like a perfect day for a reunion and catching up and other social activities. Beira had a feeling though, that before quite some time had passed ended, there would be a lot of action to be had. After all, the two girls together always seemed to be the recipe of some waiting disaster.


WC: 645 words
Total: 1360/22000

Levinia's interest in the juicy item was borne more out of curiosity, than whatever the vendor was saying about the fruit. In fact, Levinia was sure that her veneration of the commodity had long since wandered into the realm of incredulous. Still, it would serve as a nice snack as she wandered about the marketplace. She was dipping her hand into a pocket to retrieve payment for the fruit, when a voice behind her gave a more honest opinion about the yellow-orange munchy in her hand. If the voice did not give the identity of its owner away, that stoic, more-or-less formal way of speaking did. Levinia whirled round with a squeal of delight.

She knew that Beira often seemed uncomfortable with embracing and other outward shows of affection, but since her mentor had not ever mentioned to her to stop it, she would act all innocent and pretend she didn't notice the stiffness. As she turned, she saw her mentor, covered in her traveling cloak, as usual, with that impassive calm that often reminded Levinia of Beira's Godslayer element: ice. Perhaps it was the elemental power that made her expressions phlegmatic, or perhaps it was her serenity that had drawn the powers of frost to her. She extended both hands and attempted to wrap Beira in a powerful bear hug, so very obviously delighted to see her.

"Beira! There you are! It's such a pleasure, as always."

Whether Beira opted to dodge the 'attack', or she decided to endure it, Levinia stepped backwards, her ear to ear grin still on her face. Then the smile broke, replaced by a look of surprised recollection. She spun back to the vendor, drawing out enough jewels for the price of not one fruit, but two. "I'll buy two of these," she said to the vendor (who had watched her all this while with a patient smile on her face), handing her the jewels and picking up another fruit. This second fruit she offered to Beira.

"I've never tasted this type of fruit before, but I'll take your word for it any day. Want some?" She then studied the fruit in her hand. "I think it's from Pergrande or something; I've never been there myself, so..." She shrugged and nibbled at the fruit, then took a healthy bite, obviously satisfied with what she had tasted. "River date plum, is it? Oh, methinks I've found a new friend..." she cooed, as she relished the sweet taste of the fruit.

"Okay, so here you are, right? Um, we're supposed to be hunting for the guys that waylaid us at Andhaft's Keep, yes? But, uh..." she suddenly groaned and clapped her hands to her face. "... and she's staring at meeeeee...." Then she gave a nervous giggle, peeking out at Beira through her fingers. "Sorry. It's just... I feel so awkward. You're the first person I'm really talking to, like an extended conversation, without that mask on my face. Maybe I should still keep it on..." her voice trailed off.

Moments later, Levinia was able to continue speaking more calmly, having gotten control of the butterflies in her stomach. "Alright, that was a bit awkward. Down to business. As you know, I've been trying to gain more information on who attacked us at the Keep, and why, beyond the annoying 'she is a destroyer, die' narrative. I haven't really found much, frustratingly, though all I could figure out was that at some point after I found Andhaft, Merise and Dorn were in Magnolia."

She ushered Beira away from the crowd of the market as she filled her mentor in on what had been going on with her over the past few days. "The good news is, I haven't been attacked since that bittersweet night, but in itself, it's a bit of bad news, too. If I'm not attacked by anyone, I might not get any headway. I need a lead of sorts, somewhere I can back track from."

Speaking of the leads she had tried to follow reminded her of her magic. She had realized that the changes her body had undergone that night were more than just physical. Remembering the conversation she had had with Beira on the afternoon of that fateful day, she felt pleased that she had guessed that breaking the curse was likely to affect her magic. And it had, in ways she was just finding out about. She suddenly paused, then looked at Beira, her eyes twinkling with excitement. "You know, I was right! It's interesting to discover that my body underwent a super jumble, as far as my magic is concerned. I've got new abilities, and I think they might be really cool, but I've not really had an opportunity to test them."

She was so excited, and maybe a little nervous, she had just been jumping from idea to idea and concept to concept. She had to slow down, otherwise her mentor might not even know how to respond to her. Levinia had opened at least three different avenues of discussion, and then had zipped away from them almost as immediately as she had brought them up. It was best to slow down, and maybe pick something concrete they could both talk about. Otherwise, she feared she would end up rambling the day away, and perhaps making a fool of herself in front of Beira.

By this time, they had walked out of the major market, and they were close to a small park, where various benches and rests had been constructed for those who wanted to take a break from the rigors of shopping, or just wanted to enjoy some peace and quiet. She sat on a bench and looked up at Beira.

"If you weren't able to follow all I've been saying, I apologize. I seem so ditzy right now, right? So, I'm just going to zip my lips after asking one last question, before I disgrace myself and shatter whatever last dregs of self esteem I still think I have.

So, what have you been up to, Beira?"

The God Slayer was, for her part, not totally averse to outward shows of affection, but she had been conditioned to see them as… relatively unseemly for someone of her status. Being of the royal house of Utgardr, she, as well as many others before her, had been conditioned to accept that too much outward expression was somehow a failure on the part of one to show a regal bearing. That in itself begged the question: which was more important, the bloodline to which royalty was accorded, or the behavior which was expected of royalty? In many places (Beira had long since realized that Utgardr was not the only one), people believed that some peculiar people had the right to rule others solely by the aspects of their heritages. Yet, to show that they were of royal stock, they had to be groomed to act as such, to behave like royalty. This meant that a low born peasant could be trained to act as royalty, and a born king might be trained to act as a peasant, and people would bow to the peasant and disregard the king by birth. Such mortal hypocrisy. It was one of those things that Beira regarded with bland aloofness, having never really decided whether to be irritated or amused by the foolishness of the matter.

As Levinia ‘attacked’ Beira with the hug, Beira did not proffer any evident gesture by means of reciprocation, instead only opting to crank her left eyebrow up, though the edges of her lips barely twitched into an amused expression. Utgardians were not particularly familiar with hugging. Someone who initiated what physically appeared to be a hug upon another person in Utgardian society was probably asking the other for a wrestling match, or some other form of rough physical activity that would leave one or both participants with their fair share of bruises. ”The pleasure is mine, Levinia,” she replied, unconsciously allowing herself a slightly larger smile as she observed the expressions of a number of passers-by who looked quizzically at her, confused at her apparently cold response to such a bubbly greeting by her friend. They wouldn’t understand. They were mostly plebs. And Beira was probably being hypocritical judging them just by their behaviors, having just a few seconds ago considered whether behavior was sufficient to establish someone as royalty or peasant. ”Now, if you’re done trying to cave in my ribcage, I’ll be thankful to not have a full grown woman assaulting me like this.” Her smile was evident now, even if unlike Levinia’s, it wasn’t ear splitting. That would have to do.

Beira chuckled at Levinia’s antics, as the latter realized that Beira’s paying attention to her translated into a focused stare. ”What?” the God Slayer asked with a chuckle, as she shook her head. ”It’s not like I’m going to start kissing your face or something. And no, don’t even think about getting that mask to put on your face again.  It’s like, in my opinion, turning back to the past, after you’ve managed to get that nasty bit behind you. Instead, look to the future with confidence. At least no one can look at your face and call you a freak anymore. Take that with delight.” With what her protégé had endured and survived, Beira was of the opinion that she had every right to go around with a spring in her step and the joy of living that came with having survived what you knew would have killed you. Levinia would have to get very used to not having masks on her face. Besides, her face was no longer one that required a mask over it.

Fortunately, Levinia soon overcame her shyness and began talking freely. The three denizens of Andhaft’s keep had been in Magnolia in the recent past, though their reasons for being there were still a mystery to Beira and her ward. Hopefully, there would be a reason to be discovered soon. The Utgardian despised being kept in the dark for any reason. It did sound frustrating to know that presently there weren’t any proper leads which the two mages could readily follow to get to the bottom of the whole matter, but Beira was hopeful that in time, something would come up. After all, whatever had attacked Andhaft’s keep had been apparently unwilling to have the Godling survive the events of that night. And since Levinia had, unless whatever was antagonizing her had chickened out, there was a very great likelihood that it would try to correct what had been not done properly that night, which was the elimination of the Godling. And like that night, Beira hoped she wuld be there to kick some butts and take no names while doing so. In any case, finding something or someone to lay hands on, literally and figuratively, would be a great step forward as far as this quest to discover more about Levinia’s past was concerned.

Beira was interested to discover that Levinia had developed a new set of powers, ones which she obviously had no idea that she had. It was very likely that before the end of the day, or maybe not so long after that, Levinia would get the chance to see what her new magics were capable of. It was great to see that her protégé was really growing. By now, the two young women had left the market and were headed towards a small park. Less people, more shade and more quiet. These were things Beira always appreciated. The God Slayer sat down beside her friend and smiled at Levinia’s apology. ”It is quite normal to speak a lot, especially when one has passed through a lot in such little time,” the Utgardian maiden responded, ”so there really is nothing to forgive here. I think I was able to follow most of what you talked about, and if I wasn’t, I have a feeling that things will be made clearer before long. As to what I’ve been up to, well, not much, except that by some stroke of chance, for the first time since I arrived in Fiore, I was able to return to Utgardr, or at least what was left of it, while fighting an enemy from my past. The results were interesting. I think I have improved in my abilities, and I may have learned a new trick or two.”


WC: 1067 words
Total: 3439/22000

Beira did not approve of Levinia's thinking about wearing the mask she had used to cover her face for many years. Her mentor had a good point: the major reason for wearing the mask was in the past now, a past that Levie was happy to be rid of. What would she be telling herself by picking up that relic of things gone by again? No, she had to become surer of herself, become more... how did people put it? Assertive, that was the word. Still, she wondered how people just became assertive so easily. All the lachryma vids she had watched had made her think that once she had a reason to be bold, it would come naturally. Alas, it was quite much more difficult than she had anticipated. Perhaps she would ask Beira for pointers, one of these days. Her mentor was so cool, calm and collected.

Nibbling off the last edible part of her midday snack, Levinia looked around for some sort of waste disposal agency, and noticed a bin not so far off. As she considered throwing the stone of her fruit at the open bin, the runes that circled her body instinctively made a ring of sigils, probably to serve as some sort of visual targeting cue. Throwing the stone through her 'ring', the projectile sailed through the air and plopped into the bin neatly. Levinia gave a low whistle and grinned, impressed with her self. As she turned back to her mentor, the runes broke away and resumed their revolutions around her wrists.

In answer to Levinia's inquiry, Beira had been telling her some things that had happened to her, and she mentioned her homeland, Utgardr. Levinia realized that she had no idea what Beira's world was like, and knew next to nothing about her mentor's origins. Since there was no hurry today, as at least six hours of sunlight remained before nightfall, and the park felt like a very good place to chat, perhaps this was a good time to know more about her mentor. Hopefully, Beira would regale her with a nice story, after which they could get back to searching for leads about the assailants on Andhaft's Keep. And come to think of it, perhaps there might just be a lead, but that could come later. It involved powers that Levinia was just getting a grasp on, which was why she had not considered it earlier. But first, she wanted to know more about Beira.

"Hmmm... Utgardr... Now that you mentioned it, I don't know anything about the place, except that it's definitely not around these parts. Would you mind telling me a little about Utgardr, your homeland?"

She did not know what had caused Beira to settle down in Fiore; maybe like herself, Beira had enemies back home she was escaping from. Or, there was no more home for Beira to go to. She mentioned that she had returned to what was left of Utgardr. Perhaps something cataclysmic was also involved. Many questions Levinia had, but she knew that it would be impolite and uncomfortable to barrage anyone with many personal questions, so she would settle for Beira's description of Utgardr. And if her mentor felt unwilling to discuss it, she would not push further.

It was interesting that, like herself, Beira "may have learned a new trick or two". That was a modest way of saying that she had gotten some new spells, perhaps a new magic in her repertoire of skills. Magic was so vast and unique, it would be impossible for Levinia to attempt making any guesses as to what Beira's new tricks were.

Unknown to either of the two women, they were being watched. A hooded person, draped in black, stood in a tower, watching them with a bronze and black telescope. Behind him, several others stood, similarly dressed, covered from head to toe and wearing masks of polished bronze. Only by careful scrutiny could someone even determine whether they were men or women, but it would seem that this company comprised of both. Obviously, these people did not want, or intend to be seen, as the room they occupied in the tower was empty, and they had taken very powerful measures to ensure that they would not be disturbed any time soon.

The figure dropped the telescope and gestured with its head, and another came forward and retrieved it with a bow. As it stepped back into position, yet another figure stepped forward, this one taller than most of the others, and if body proportions were anything to go by, rather lean. It stood beside the one who had used the telescope, and for a moment of silence, they stared out across the wide vista that hosted the market, towards the park where Beira and Levinia sat and discussed. Then, in a monotone robotic voice, the tall one asked:

"Have our marks been identified?"

Without a word, the shorter figure nodded.

"The shadows are strong, for the sun is high in the sky. We can use them to our advantage."

Now, the shorter one looked at the taller one, then slowly shook its head. "We must exercise caution, and that requires patience," it replied, speaking slowly as though weighing its words, its voice of similar quality to the taller one, but with a distinct slur. "The Godslayer is quite powerful, and if possible, it would be in our best interests not to engage her."

There was a scoff from the tall figure. "I can probably take her."

"I do not doubt your ability, Third Finger, but I prefer a quick job, with as little bloodshed as possible."

The taller one made a sudden sound, a little like a constant light hacking, while its shoulders bobbed up and down rapidly. The shorter one cocked its head, obviously quizzical. "You laugh?" it asked, the voice giving away no emotion. "Only because our First Finger, with a record of uncountable grisly deaths, suddenly sounds like a pacifist."

Now, it was the turn of the shorter one to laugh. "Maybe I am a hypocrite. And perhaps you are right. The sooner we do this, the better for everyone." It looked over its shoulder. "You all know what to do. You know your positions. Move like the night, strike like the razor, dissolve like the mist. The Godslayer is not a target; she may be collateral damage, although I suspect that a simple assassination strike may not be sufficient to neutralize her. Our primary objective is the redhead. Once she is dead, it does not matter. If the fingers are cut off, others will grow in their place."

The figures made a saluting gesture, then stepped into the shadows. Without the sound of a door opening, the room was suddenly empty. "Let us draw closer, First. There may be... complications."

The First Finger nodded, and suddenly, the two figures were gone.

It was something of a spectacle for Beira to watch as her friend lined up a shot at the waste disposal container, using the seed of the consumed fruit in her hand. Normally, the sight would not be surprising, but seeing some of the runes around Levinia detach from revolving round her to create a ring that would probably serve as a target guide for the projectile in the redhead's hand, now that was not something to be seen everyday. As Beira watched, Levinia threw the river date plum seed through the ring of runes which floated before her, and as was expected, the seed sailed through the air, directly into the waiting dust bin. Seeing the set up before the throw, Beira surmised such an outcome was expected, but it was still very much impressive. The fact that Levinia appeared rather impressed with the shot suggested to Beira that before her transformation, she was probably not as capable of making such an accurate shot as she was now. Well, at least the floating runes weren't there before.

"Ah, now that was quite the shot," the Utgardian said, clapping a few times to indicate that she had been quite impressed by the throw. "Speaking of which, those runes which you have revolving round yourself, they are an interesting visual addition to your being. I shall take the liberties of assuming that they are a side effect of one of the new powers releasing your true nature has caused you to acquire, am I right?" Having runes flying around one's self was quite commanding of attention, and Beira hoped that Levinia had some way to deactivate the flying runes, or at least keep them from drawing visual attention to herself when the time and event called for furtive actions. Seeing as the runes appeared to be totally under Levinia's control, Beira decided she had nothing to worry about as concerned how much attention they drew to Levinia.

Beira's interest in the runes floating round Levinia was placed on hold, as she was asked about Utgardr, her place of birth. She smiled slightly, realizing that Levinia had been the first to ask her about her homeland. Well, that was probably because Beira was a relatively hermitic person, mostly due to the severe culture shock which she experienced when relating to people of the present age. Initially, she had thought it was a Fiorean thing, but slowly the God Slayer had come to realize that even though most regions had their own unique cultures and traditions, her own culture seemed rather different from all the ones she had interacted with so far. And being the traditional person that she was, Beira was not one bit inclined to change her ways to adapt to those of the present day. She would of course adjust the ones that were fatally incompatible with the ways of the present age. The rest she would ignore.

"Where do I start?" the God Slayer asked, a faraway expression coming to her eyes. "Well, everything relating to Utgardr is probably past tense now, except myself, because Utgardr seems to have existed thousands, perhaps millions of miles, and years, away from here. It's not even in Earthland. I ended up here after having my mind ejected from my body, causing me to... sleep, I suppose, for thousands, if not millions of years, as my body was transported probably by some interdimensional means of travel to Pergrande. That's the reason for my accent, I suppose. I was supposed to be a sacrifice for some impostor deity who wished to use my body as its own. To do so, it struggled with my will for quite a long time, and by the time I had defeated it, I found out that I was so many miles and years away from home.Oh, but I digress. You asked me about Utgardr, not how I got here."

Beira looked up at the sky. "For all intents and purposes, Utgardr is quite similar to Earthland in that they both have a sun, moon, stars, water, a blue sky by day, and the general works. It was a land of perpetual winter, though, and it was quite harsh, as far as climate was concerned. We had managed to adapt to the cold and came to view clothes as more of an identifier of age classes than protection from the weather. I can't imagine how you Fioreans wear so many clothes in such a warm climate, and keep staring at me like my dress sense is... faulty." The God Slayer laughed, amused at her reminiscence of episodes of people who tried to 'correct' her on her style of dressing. "Do you know that if I were to attempt to evaluate your age based on how dressed up you are, though of course many of the things you wear are quite strange to us Utgardians, I would probably assume you to be say, forty-something?"

The Utgardian reached out to attempt to touch one of Levinia's runes. "So tell me, Levinia, what do these do? I suppose they are somehow related to the new abilities you mentioned earlier."


WC: 857 words
Total: 5447/22000

Levinia nodded as Beira asked about the existence of her runes. They had manifested immediately she had awakened from her potion induced slumber, though they had been few, flickering and very easy to miss on that night. As the days went by, and she got a clearer understanding of her magic, the runes had imprinted themselves more clearly in the space and time in which she existed. Many people considered them outlandish and a bit weird, but Levinia always though of their presence as reassuring... calming, even. Perhaps it was because it reminded her of the battle she had fought against her curse and won, or perhaps it was a reminder that she was only getting more powerful by the day. While she didn't really care for the reason she liked them around, she was not ready to keep them hidden, unless the situation demanded it.

Levie discovered that she was only partially right about Utgardr. She had assumed that it was in a different plane or dimension from Earthland, and she was right up until that point. What she found surprising was that Utgardr had existed many, many years ago, and was currently a topic for history books. It had been a while she herself had returned to the lands of her birth, but she was sure that they would still be in existence, unlike Beira's, which was lost to the ages. To ask how Utgardr had fallen was probably going to stir up feelings that Beira may not have wanted to awaken, or would draw the both of them down paths of long history and tales. It would be interesting and enlightening for Levinia, but today was meant for other things. She would ask Beira for the story later, if her mentor was up for it.

When Beira talked about how Levinia's dressing would be considered by Utgardians to be descriptive of a middle aged person, the girl gasped, her eyes wide, as she struggled to resolve why people would want to think of her as that old, in spite of the clothes she was wearing. As it were, Levinia's outfit was not something any Fioran would consider for a forty-something year old woman. For one, her denim pants were rather form fitting, and her top was not necessarily short, although it exposed a few inches of skin above her pants if she raised her hands. That was not certainly the kind of fashion that middle aged Fiorans would adopt... Or maybe Levinia felt a little scandalized considering all the amount of exposed flesh that young Utgardians would be comfortable sauntering around in, especially when she considered the kind of outfits her mentor wore. That, in related news, would put Beira in the age bracket of "young woman", what with the lack of coverage her clothes offered. A slight flush colored her cheeks, as she wondered whether she would be able to 'cope' in Utgardian culture, or if it would not be too overwhelming if she found herself in such a place. Well, Utgardr was gone, so unless she had to travel back through time, she was safe from such fashion ordeals. And hopefully, her mentor had not noticed her blush; Beira sometimes had a teasing nature, and Lev did not want to give her any ideas.

When Beira asked about her runes, Levinia forgot all about ancient extinct humans and their outrageous dress sense. This was something she was more familiar with, and got her excited when she talked about it. "They're not just related to the 'new abilities' I mentioned earlier. They are the new abilities!" she said, beaming, as she got to her feet. Beira would notice that the runes were more or less intangible, like trying to touch light. Some of them danced away from her finger, others remained floating where they were, while some others revolved round her finger for a while, as if inquisitive, then rejoined their companions in dancing around Levinia. "They seem to be kind of alive," she said, as she watched them move in their constant circular route. Some of the runes, seemingly aware of her focusing on them, gathered together between herself and Beira, although they seemed incapable of sitting still. "They do their own thing for the most part, and I think I heard someone mention that they can take certain patterns dependent on my mood, but whenever I need them to cast a spell, they eagerly pitch in." She gestured beyond the fruit market, towards the main hub of the city. "Maybe I can give you a demonstration? I've been considering using this ability, because I don't know how accurate it is, but I think it can read the past. With another pair of eyes, and another mind, we could discuss whatever we see and determine for ourselves whether it's just a series of images, or an accurate retelling of past events. Or maybe it's just part of my being a godling or something."

Just as Levinia made to start walking, there was a glint of light flashing off metal, in the peripheral vision of both mages. In an instant, a flurry of throwing knives flew from the trees beyond, at both of them. They were nothing too serious, easy to dodge or deflect, unless they were very many in number. And there were currently twenty four of these throwing daggers flying at Beira and Levinia.

Levinia skipped to the other side of the bench she had previously sat on, using its form to deflect most of the daggers, while she slapped one that was heading directly for her face out of the air with her lachryma powered prosthetic arm. "Well, what do you know? Looks like there's always somebody trying to kill us, nowadays. At least, this could be the beginning of the lead I've been so desperately looking for."

From the trees, six figures, clad in black, emerged silently and ran towards the two mages, drawing short, wicked looking swords. From their movement, they were fast, even for the average mage, but Beira and Levinia were not necessarily average now, were they?

As always, it was quite amusing to see the responses of present day people to the standards of decent clothing worn by the people of Utgardian culture. Beira could see that her protege was, like almost every other person who got to understand the clothing culture of her people, visibly scandalized, the easy giveaway sign being the light pink coloration on the girl's cheeks. The Utgardian smiled, an ironically innocent expression, as she said, "it's really quite interesting to see people tend to look uncomfortable or blush, when I explain to them the standards of my people's dressing. Oddly, what seems to come to people's minds, when they get to know that I'm dressed well enough for someone my age in Utgardr, is that my homeland must be some place full of improper people with improper behaviors. I was once told that Utgardian dressing is-- what was the word used, ah yes-- rather indecent, by a well-meaning Fiorean, but she became surprisingly cold and reticent when I pointed out to her, and truthfully too, that the level of interest in salacious matters here in Fiore is still shocking to me, although I've gotten used to it. Back then, I was quite incensed by the grossly lewd behavior of people of a culture who dressed like old people. Good times."

When Beira tried to touch one of Levinia's runes, her fingers had passed through it, as though the object was made of some intangible material. Or that seemed to be the case: it was made of light. The information that these glowing symbols in the air were actually Levinia's new ability naturally made Beira quite curious to understand the workings of whatever this strange magic was all about. Perhaps it was some sort of script-related magic, seeing as these runes were probably fragments of some obscure language's writing alphabet. It was also quite curious to hear Levinia talk about them as though they seemed to have a will of their own. If she was not in absolute control of them, having said that they seemed to be alive, and were capable of engaging in their own devices, was there not the possibility that their wills might clash against hers? And even if Levinia could force them into 'obedience', such synergy between mage and magic appeared dangerous, as control was often lowest when one was weakest, and something with a will aside that of its mistress could betray her when she needed it most. Perhaps the magic was still safe as far as Levinia was concerned, as the flying runes were said to be eager to lend their aid when Levinia wished them to. That would have to be enough for Beira.

"Oh, I am very much interested in seeing a demonstration of your magic," the Utgardian maiden said eagerly, her eyes lighting up as she put her hands together in pleased anticipation. Having been made curious about the workings of her friend's magic, being invited to see a demonstration was exactly what Beira was looking forward to. Te fact that Levinia's magic could reenact past events even made her magic a much greater curiosity. "Your new ability can read the past? Just what exactly is the nature of this ability?" Beira asked, unable to keep the excitement from showing in her voice. "What other wonders does it do, Levinia?" While Beira's magic allowed her to psychically glean the history of an object by touching it, the way Levinia had worded her statement made it seem that she could create a display that could be viewed by the public. That was different, worthy of interest. Or maybe it was just a side effect of one of Beira's souls, the Aberrant, that made her curious, almost to an unnatural degree, especially when magic, or forbidden knowledge, was involved.

The sudden appearance of flying knives in the air made Beira snap her head up, eyes wide in surprise, before her brows furrowed, and she growled with disgust. Here she was, eager to enjoy the display of an interesting magic, and they had been rudely interrupted. "That would be a blessing," Beira replied to her friend's statement, as she also vacated where she had been sitting, allowing the knives to thud into the bench or bounce harmlessly off the ground. "But I have enough reason to feel irritated by what I see to be a pattern. First it was Dorn, now this. I'm beginning to wonder why everyone seems to have the habit of throwing knives at us. Can't they throw something else? I know I wouldn't dodge if someone threw gold at me. In any case, the first thing I have deduced from this whole case is that you, my dear girl, seem to have pissed some people off who seem to have a lot of knives."

There were six assassins, it seemed. Beira put some distance between herself and Levinia, so that the six killers would not be able to attack them as a group. As she hoped, three of them homed in on her, brandishing their wicked-looking shortswords. Judging by their motions, they seemed to be well trained as far as combat entailed, but their movements indicated that they were not on Beira's level, martially or strength-wise. Still, it would be best to not take anyone for granted. Beira just stood and watched them as they came, as though she was unsure of what to do. The first lunged in, thrusting at her with both swords. As he came in, she noticed the second and third had positioned themselves so that they could attack her when she was attempting to respond to the first's attack. A decent strategy, but these fellows were still way out of their league. As most people her age were larger than she was, Beira didn't have the advantage of reach, so she twisted to the right, out of the way of the lunging shortswords, and into the path of the second assassin, who was already making a slash at her. The third could not attack yet, being on the other side of the first assassin.

With a strength that belied her short frame, Beira grabbed the first assassin and swung him into the way of the second's coming blade, suddenly creating access between herself and the third assassin, who wasn't expecting this. The third assassin also wasn't expecting a devastating kick to the head, while the first screamed, as the second's blade cut into his flesh. Snatching one of the shortswords of the first assassin, Beira threw it at almost point blank range into the head of the second assassin. A quick grapple later, and the sound of snapping bone declared that the first assassin was also permanently out of the game called life, as Beira released his limp body which fell to the ground, neck twisted unnaturally. The third assassin had recovered from the blow of Beira's kick, but not quickly enough to interrupt Beira from finishing the first two off. The assassin threw a knife at Beira, who caught the knife in mid-air as she charged her attacker, and sliced the assassin's throat as she passed. The assassin staggered forward, life ebbing away, but was prevented from falling by Beira, as she grabbed his head from behind with both hands, which were glowing in an ominous blue flame. Then she released the corpse as it fell to the ground, her expression being one of irritated displeasure.

"Just hired killers? That's frankly disappointing."


WC: 1247 words
Total: 7712/22000

As the blade-wielding enemies approached, they split into two small groups of equal numbers: three went for Beira, while the other three targeted Levinia. That was a sound strategy, but if they had made such a decision, it implied that they were mostly in the dark concerning their targets. Naturally, having any knowledge of the two women would suggest that more assets be deployed against Beira, as she was more powerful and more dangerous, as a result. It was actually to the mages' advantage, because ignorance or lack of knowledge was always a limitation. That had been the situation Levinia had been in, as far as tracking down her hidden enemies were concerned, but perhaps these attacks would reveal something to the pair, a thread that could be held and unraveled to the end.

If these guys did not seem to know anything about Beira and herself, Levinia was not going to start using her magic immediately. She would try to assess their power by close quarter combat, and identify whether it was necessary for her to expend her magical power. In a heartbeat, she considered her options: if she charged them, it might denote a pride in her physical power, or generally a sort of confidence in some other ability. She would not go all out on the offensive, yet. She took a step backwards, as though she was unsure of what to do or how to react, a slightly worried expression on her face. One of the three assassins seemed to notice, because he put in an extra effort and charged ahead of the rest. Seeing this, Levinia backed away even further, trying to put as much distance between herself and the assassins, without turning and running away outright. The foremost assassin, put a foot on the bench and propelled himself (let's assume they were all male) forward and through the air, one hand raised above his head, aiming to bring his short sword in a downward slash.

Levinia stepped aside nimbly as he came down, though her eye was not so much on the sword as much as it was on his second arm. He only attacked with one hand, so his second might be priming for another attack, especially since she had no visible shield or weapon that could deflect his other bladed attack. As he missed the attack, she drew back her left arm and took a step towards him, evidently aiming a punch at his face. There was a flurry of clothes, as his other arm whipped up at nearly point-blank range, a dagger now visible and aiming at her stomach. The premise behind this attack was sound: if she avoided the overhead blow and made an attack of her own, she would find the hilt of the dagger protruding out of her belly. She might still be able to avoid a fatal blow, but she would still end up with a nasty gash in her arm, or whichever part of her body she chose to deflect the blow.

There was the tell-tale clang of metal ringing against hard material, followed by the dull thud of a blunt weapon striking another object. Levinia's blow had hit true, colliding with the side of his head, lifting him off his feet and sending him back first into the bench, which shattered beneath the impact. The force of the blow was powerful enough to keep him moving, even after the bench had attempted to interfere with his travel path, and he continued tumbling violently a good many meters, till he returned to the forest from whence he came.

The other two stopped short, exchanged glances, and decided to be a bit more prudent with their attacks. It was certain that they had taken note of her monstrous strength, and Levinia actually wished she could see the expressions on their faces at her demonstration of such insane brute force. Well, she couldn't pat herself on the back. Only one was down, two more were to go.

Raising her hands to assume a kick-boxing stance, Levinia waited for the remaining two assassins to attack. Her prosthetic arm had taken the brunt of the dagger attack that had been performed by the assassin she had just defeated, and she was pleased to note that the armored part of her arm was barely scratched. Still, perhaps she could make its material more durable, and even weaponize the limb to better aid in combat. The two assassins began circling her slowly, most likely trying to position themselves so that one of them would be beyond her line of sight. It was one of the oldest tricks in the book, to attack from a blind spot. These assassins knew their marbles, as expected; they were no run of the mill thugs who had been paid a few jewels to shank a troublesome target. Still, Levinia had an advantage, and they did not seem to know about it.

When their positions were satisfactory to them, the one she had her eyes on, lurched forward, his weapon wielding arm drawn back for a straight thrust. Instinctively, through her Gaze of the Hierophant, she could discern that the other one waited for a few moments to watch her actions, before he counteracted accordingly. She took some steps of her own towards the foe before her, pretending to ignore the one behind, as she shifted her head just out of the way of his thrust. Swiftly, with a deft hand movement, the assassin re-positioned his weapon, so that while it was still adjacent to her head, the blade was horizontally aligned, so that it was facing her neck. Then he swung sideways, everything done in fluid motion, so as to slice her head clean off her shoulders. Levinia pulled her head down and forward in the nick of time, the blade chopping off a few strands of hair that were in the way due to her sudden motion. He had made his attack, and he was open. Her turn.

She struck him full in the chest with her Alchemy Arm, just as he made the almost decapitating slash, causing him to double over. Her foot suddenly kicked out at an upward angle, catching the assassin in her blind spot in the jaw, as he tried to take advantage of his ally's attacks to catch her unawares. The kick sent him straight into the air, as she grabbed the one she had just punched, and flung him at the airborne assassin. Their bodies collided in mid-air, and as they fell to the earth, a tangle of clothes and limbs, Levinia was upon them in an instant. A blow to the torso of the one on top caused a small crater beneath the two, putting them out of commission.

"Well, that was something," she said, as she turned to see how her mentor was faring, not that she expected Beira to have a hard time, seeing as she managed to take out her assailants without breaking much of a sweat. She just noticed Beira drop one of the assassins, a spectral blue flame on her hands flickering away.

"Was that some sort of psychic spell you just cast?" Levinia asked, gesturing towards the strange flames as she walked over to observe the corpse. As expected, Beira had been ruthlessly effective in dispatching the assassins. Levie was more interested, however, in what her mentor had just said about them. She remembered that Beira had been interested in seeing her ability to read the past. Perhaps such powers would be put to very good use, if Beira had identified a location from whatever it was she did to the dying assassin. At the right spot, Levinia's powers might just give them an insight into what it was they were dealing with.

Beira had been hoping that using her Psychic Reave would actually result in her gaining sufficient information about the motivations, and perhaps to a lesser extent, identities, of these violent persons that had decided to jump the two young women and attack without any apparent provocation. Unfortunately, there was just a little that she could glean, and so far, it had just been that these unfortunate idiots had thrown their lives away, and all that over a sum of money paid to ensure the demise of the redhead named Levinia. Beira had just been supposed to be an unfortunate person who had the bad luck of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. That almost made her chuckle. She was supposed to have been collateral damage, as Levinia was the main event. Well, that would teach whoever was stupid to hire these fellows to do their comprehensive research on whatever enemies they had, as well as allies and potential assets of their target.

It was interesting to note that whoever had paid for the assassination of Levinia Arx Creuset seemed to have a great deal of assets, or somehow knew someone who did, judging by the prices paid to these cutthroat fellows to get rid of her. Motives were always the most important thing to deduce in every circumstance, for they would not only inform the quester of what could be done to solve the quest (for instance, how to mollify an offended opponent, or intimidate an offended inferior), but they would also allow a sound thinker to be able to project the possible responses of the most important foe in the quest, and use this knowledge to their advantage. The fact that whoever was responsible for this attack was still unrevealed and within the shadows of obscurity was not in the least irritating to the Winter Goddess, but for now, she would attempt to watch the proceedings and see if there were clues to be extracted from the evolving circumstances.

By the time Beira turned to see how her protege was doing, she noticed that Levinia was already rounding up with her fight, although Beira had, using her Cosmic Resonance, she had followed with interest, her friend's own battle. She had decided it would be interesting to 'watch' Levinia's fight, when Beira noticed that only two assassins were facing Levinia and the third was nowhere to be found, although the loud crash Beira had heard earlier, as well as the shattered bench, and the scuff marks on the ground which led to the forest actually painted a likely picture of what had happened. It seemed that Levinia had sent the unfortunate fellow who had attacked her first sailing into the forest. That indicated that her protege actually possessed an impressive level of strength, for one of her size and stature. Of course, Beira was a very similar case, if looks were anything to go by. And the beautiful advantage that this deceptive strength possessed was that too often, people would underestimate them, until the 'underestimators' had found themselves beaten into a messy pulp on the sidewalk. Standard Utgardian tactics pushed for hiding one's full strength until the last moment, unless you were weaker than your impressionable opponent, in which case you would show your full strength and pretend as though it was just a fraction of your might.

Like herself, when dealing with the assassins, Levinia had chosen not to use her magical powers, opting instead to take on them in close quarter combat. As the Utgardian 'watched' while attending to her own matters, she noticed, with a good deal of pleasure, that Levinia was quite a capable fighter, and one very aware of her environment; she probably had some sort of sixth sense as did Beira, seeing as she was able to account for her opponent within her blind area, without having to evidently keep tabs on that foe, while effectively dodging all the attacks of the opponent facing her and retaliating with a powerful counterattack of her own. Then as though to prove, without a doubt, the extent of her physical strength, Levinia had tossed the assassin facing her like a rag doll, to collide with the other one who had just been sent flying. Hardly had the two assassins hit the ground when Levinia closed the distance between herself and them in record time, finishing the battle with a final blow.

"Well, that was impressive," Beira replied to her friend with a smile, nodding at her. "And yes, it was a psychic spell of sorts. I intended to use it to figure out who was responsible for setting these loons on us, but I was only able to discover that they had been employed, and that by a proxy; I was able to get that some seedy bartender gave them this quest, but unless we want to start traveling halfway across Fiore to find this bartender, it might be better to attempt to use what we have here to uncover as many clues as we can. And that gives me an idea...." Kneeling beside the unmoving corpse, Beira's hands lit up once more with the ominous flame, but this time, the color was a pale lilac color. "I can discover the history of this corpse... not his ancestry, mind you, but where he's been, what he was doing, and so on." She paused to concentrate on her spell. "Funny. They came from the forest... yes, having been told to rendezvous with someone back there, after the job had been done." She looked up at Levinia, a slow smile growing on her face. "I think we've found a warm lead."

The God Slayer rose to her feet, before sweeping a silver lock of hair from before her eyes. "I have a mental awareness of where the meeting point is supposed to be. Come on, let's get there and find out who was responsible for handling these fellows after their ill-fated mission. And we can leave the bodies here. If the law in these parts follows our trail, they might, perhaps for the first time in my life, prove themselves to be of some use." So saying, Beira began following the psychic path her Psychometry had revealed to her, leading the two mages into the forest. In time, having delved deep within the trees, they came to a small clearing. "Here we are, Levinia," Beira announced, "though I sense no one. Has the trail gone cold so suddenly?"


WC: 1082 words
Total: 10094/22000

Levinia tapped a finger of her prosthetic limb against her chin as she mulled over what Beira had just told her. It was somewhat expected, according to Levie, that whoever had put a bounty on her head had a lot of resources at their disposal. She was of the opinion that such a person would have ties to her homeland also, because she could not think of any reason someone would be so desperate to kill her. Without a doubt, it had to do with all the stuff about not letting her advance her powers, and all the prophetic codswallop that came with it. She remembered the words she had heard from Merise, that night, back at Andhaft's Keep. What she did not like was why anybody would just buy such stuff without verifying their facts, and then try to assist in killing an innocent soul just because someone said somewhere that she would destroy the world. It was even preposterous to think that she was capable of such a deed. She neither had the heart not the power for it.

"A bar tender gave them the job to off me?" She laughed at how incredulous it sounded, although she was sure Beira was correct in assuming that this bar tender was a proxy client, and not the one pulling the strings. It was somewhat good news to learn that he was quite far from Magnolia at this time; that meant they could focus their sleuthing and interrogation methods on fewer targets. If he had been around, Levinia would have been behooved to pay him a courtesy call. And it probably would not have ended well for him, knowing Beira... not to mention that Levinia wasn't sure she wouldn't be rather rough with him herself. Come to think of it, if she knew where exactly in Earthland this bar tender was, she could get herself to his location in an instant. That might just complicate matters, however, so she decided against it.

Her brows creasing slightly in curiosity, Levinia watched as Beira's hands were engulfed in another series of strange flames, this time of a purplish color. It was another sort of investigative spell, according to Beira. With the physical aesthetics of this magic, Levie would have almost believed that Beira was also capable of using elemental fire, but it was obviously something else. Of course, she wanted to ask questions, but she waited for Beira to explain the spell's capabilities. This one, according to her mentor, was something that could glean where someone had gone or been, kind of like her own power. It was a bit more akin to psychometry, Levinia reasoned, as opposed to hers which was almost like a sort of psychic travel back through time. Beira would make a very good huntress with these new abilities she had acquired.

"So, these guys were supposed to rendezvous with some contact, after doing us in? Yeah, let's pay this whoever a visit." Beira was right; they could be onto something. Levinia let her lead the way, apprehension and excitement clutching at her heart as she tagged along. Perhaps they could lay an ambush for the person, even, if they made it in time. Obtaining information the way Beira had was quite unlikely to be expected, so it was not probable that they were walking into a trap. She wondered why her mentor had made that comment about law enforcement; Levinia felt they were doing a good job as much as was possible. She did not bother asking what Beira meant, though; her thoughts were fully preoccupied with what they were going to find in the woods.

Paying much attention to her Gaze of the Hierophant, Levinia watched to see if they were being monitored or followed. As far as she could tell, they were not being secretly observed, nor was anyone tailing them. If there was a trap to be sprung, she was confident that Beira and herself would not be at the receiving end of it. The tracks they followed led deep into the forest, until they arrived at a clearing. And it was empty. Levinia did not detect that anyone had been spooked at their coming and had hightailed it into the woods. Was this going to be another dead end? No. This was where she would put her scrying to good use. If anyone had been here before, she would find them.

"Okay, I guess it's time for me to use my magic," Levinia said as she stepped into the middle of the clearing. "There's nobody around for a good distance. At least, I can't sense anyone. But if someone was here, I'll find out." So saying, she sat on the ground and crossed her legs, then closed her eyes when she was comfortable enough. Her runes spread out to form three concentric rings, with herself at the center, as she connected with the flow of Time to scry out the past. For Beira's sake, she projected whatever her mind saw, using her Phantasmagoria, so that Beira would see ghostly visages as the past revealed itself. For a while, the only change in the clearing was the falling of leaves, then in a rewind format, four hooded figures dropped into the circle.

And at that moment, there was a rustle in the trees above, and it was no illusion magic.

Levinia noticed them as they appeared. They had not quietly sneaked in, otherwise she would have detected them as they approached. No, it was some powerful sort of teleportation, without any sound whatsoever. Immediately, she leaped to her feet, her hand pointing upwards as she prepared for the next fight. These ones were most likely more powerful than the assassins they had met before, and better coordinated, too. In an instant, throwing daggers rained down on the two women.

Levinia leaped away, making a mental note that these folk really liked their thrown weapons. Not willing to begin using her magic, she hoped to evade their attacks, so as to prompt them to descend and attack at closer range. Then one of them ceased to be, just as another flurry of daggers caused her to change location once again.

Her feet had barely touched the ground when she realized, to her shock and horror, that the one who had vanished was directly behind her, so close that if they breathed, she would feel their breath against her skin. There was a blur of movement, and Levinia's eyes grew wide with pain and terror, as a fountain of crimson mist sprayed out violently from her neck. She grasped at the gaping gash on her neck in a futile attempt to stem the violent bleeding, then dropped to her knees, her eyes on Beira as though she was silently appealing to her not to let her die. Then the girl fell on her face, and the runes that surrounded her which had surged about in a haphazard riot, blinked feebly and went out. A pool of blood slowly spread out from her limp body.

The four assassins stopped their assault and watched Beira. "We mean you no offense, Godslayer," one of them said. "She is already dead, for even if she could stop the blood flow, our blades are laced with a potent poison. We have no quarrel with you, but inasmuch as it sounds bizarre, we would have the girl's body... or at least, a token of her demise. Please, be reasonable, Godslayer."

With the absence of anyone within the clearing of the expected rendezvous point, Beira was delighted to hear that Levinia wanted to use her magic to attempt to discover whether anyone had been in this clearing for a while. Seeing as the orange-haired girl had mentioned that she had not detected anyone in the forest, Beira could safely confirm that Levinia had similar powers to the Cosmic Resonance which she possessed, a psychic sense capable of detecting activity in a radius around the God Slayer. While Beira took note of the possible similarities of her magic with that of her friend's it was not too surprising to come across someone else with some form of psychic ability, that was, if Levinia's magic was even based on mental powers to begin with. After all, mindflayers were not the only creatures blessed with psychic powers, and from the little she had learned about her friend, Beira knew that Levinia, like herself, was not particularly human.

The God Slayer watched with increasing interest as Levinia seated herself, and began the visible display of lighting effects. As the Godling's runes began making glowing runes around her, Beira watched intently, though she was not so foolish as to keep all her attention on the demonstration of Levinia's magic. After all, the two women had not come into this clearing to educate each other on the workings of their magics. They had come here to find possibly dangerous people, and that was the foremost thing. Watching magical displays was secondary, but there was no point in wasting the moment in the name of being extra vigilant.

As the Utgardian watched, she noticed spectral leaves rising from the ground into the canopy above. At first, she wondered what was going on, but it didn't take too long for Beira to realize that the reason leaves were rising and not falling as they normally were expected to was because what she was seeing was a reversal of the passing of time. Which meant that things which moved forward naturally would recede in this rendition, and that which fell would appear to rise. For a moment, it all seemed that the two mages would be entertained by leaves apparently rising against the natural order of things, when all of a sudden, four cloaked and hooded figures jumped, in a strange fashion, into the clearing, which meant that they had actually leaped upwards out of the clearing and into the trees. Being not very used to the magic whose effects she was viewing, Beira could not tell how much time had passed between when the cloaked people leaped into the trees, and now.

It became impossible to see what the shadowy figures would do next, as Beira suddenly detected actual and corporeal forms in the tree branches above. That was really bothersome, seeing as the two mages were about to uncover more evidence to put them on a freshly created trail. As was expected, these new arrivals did not seem willing to have them continue with their investigations, as they showered the clearing with throwing knives even as Levinia took notice of them, rising and pointing upwards as she prepared herself to meet the new attack. Beira, for her part, retreated quickly towards the tree line; if she needed to avoid more flying knives, she could easily get behind the thick woody barrier of a tree trunk. Unless there was some serious magic involved, a knife with such a small blade was not meant to be able to cut clean through the stem of a perennial woody tree with a stout frame.

It appeared that the thrown knives were most likely meant to separate the two mages from each other, as the Winter Goddess was beginning to feel her patience at having knives thrown at her reaching a swift end. Just within that month, how many times had she had someone throwing knives at her, as though that had become the newest way of greeting? A figure appeared in front of her, and Beira prepared to make her stand, but the assassin did not move, choosing to merely maintain a ready stance as though waiting for something. And too late Beira realized what it was. Another of the assassins appeared in Levinia's shadow, just as the other girl was herded away by another barrage of thrown knives. To the horror of the God Slayer, she saw her friend and protege get her throat cut by another of the assassins. Beira tried to move to her, but was cut off by the assassin facing her.

Rage began to swell inside the God Slayer as the assassins regrouped and told her not to take the whole event personal, and to let them go with a token of her death. "Take her head," Beira said, her voice even and devoid of emotion. "It is after all the best proof of your job well done. In the meantime, I shall do as you have asked and be reasonable. And going by the voice of reason, I shall let you have her head, as I said, but all your heads are deemed forfeit to me. Do you think that because you were paid to take a life, you have every reason to, and the price on her head is justification for your crime? You have killed my sister, and it is not acceptable to let you go. Here, I shall advise you," as she said this, a blizzard suddenly kicked into existence, very strange because blizzards didn't just spring up in the middle of forests, "flee if, and while you can, but remember, I will find you, and Winter's grip round your throat shall be the last thing you shall feel, unless you allow me to kill you here and now, which would be wise."

Beira felt a movement, and one of the assassins was behind her. Wise of them to figure that taking her out would deal with the blizzard. But unlike Levinia, she knew they could teleport, and she was ready. Spinning suddenly, the God Slayer grabbed the assassin's hand and guided the curved dagger in his grip into his throat.She sensed another form appear close by, and swung the dying assassin in the way of that one's attack, similar to what she had done earlier. This one wasn't so fooled as the less experienced assassins she'd fought earlier, and he moved so that the dead assassin was between him and Beira. Not waiting for him to execute any other maneuver, Beira punched through the corpse, freezing it in nether rime, as she smashed her fist into the other assassin's chest, cracking his sternum and freezing him as well.

All the while, she kept her senses alert for the other two. Unless they chose to run away without any token of Levinia's death, there would be more to die today. Mercy would be scarce.


WC: 1151 words
Total: 12493/20000 (following the new WC rules for 10 year missions)

Levinia's eyes stared outwards, focused on nothing, as her breathing stopped. She could feel her body valiantly fighting against the toxin that was laced on the dagger, which now ravaged her body with burning pain. These assassins knew how to do their work. Mages would often rely on a healing ability or technique to get them out of the woods when injured (no pun intended, seeing her current location), but the poison was meant to ensure that healing magics would have no effect. Of course, that meant she would be unable to close up the slash in her throat, and she would suffocate to death, if she didn't bleed out first.

She was a little bit surprised at the calm acuity with which she considered her fatal situation, as her life ebbed away. The sound of battle seemed near, but yet far away, and as though she was in a different body, she was aware of what Beira was doing. Perhaps it was her White Augural Grimoire in effect, but she realized that Beira was fighting, most likely to avenge her. Beira. Such a strange person, and yet, she had been the most human person Levinia ever knew. And Beira had always struggled to protect her, fought to keep her safe, while she had always been too weak to do anything. And now, Beira was still fighting, even though Levinia was past hope. She really had to be fair to her mentor and stop relying on her all the time for protection. After all, she was no longer the weak, diseased child Beira had saved from bullies on that festive winter day.

Time seemed to crawl to a halt, then begin to rewind itself, well, as far as Levinia's body tissues were concerned. For all intents and purposes, the girl still looked dead, but for as long as she was conscious, even if it was on a different plane of existence, Levinia was not going to give up. Besides, if she died, all those that had hounded her unnecessarily would not be brought to justice, because unless Beira was very fortunate, all connections to finding these people ended with Levinia. No, she would not be protected by her friend and mentor. It was time to become a protector herself, and prove that she was capable of not only taking care of herself, but also helping Beira if and when she needed it.

The thought that Beira had traveled to Utgardr and braved some dangers suddenly came back to Levinia. She was sure that Beira had not called on her to help face the evil, because she had wanted to keep her safe. Levinia had to return the favor to Beira one day, for all the Winter Godslayer had done for her. And if she died today, that hope would be lost. This thought filled her with some sense of righteous anger... perhaps some sort of zeal, to be more precise. And her magic picked up the fervor and ran with it.

The fatal wound on Levinia's throat suddenly reacted as magic energy surged through her body and into it, and the runes reappeared around her fallen body in concentric circles. She felt vitality return to her, as her body drew on her magical power to live again. Well, actually, she did not die at all, though she came really close. She rose to her feet, her neck covered with blood so much that it was not easy to tell whether she was alive and healed, or her body was simply being animated. Besides, her head was bowed, so her neck was obscured from view.

Then she exhaled, and raised her head. Some locks of hair had been matted with blood, but from her eyes, and a pretty much intact neck, it was obvious Levinia was very much alive and well. And as was to be expected, pissed.

Her eyes narrowed as they focused on the two assassins that had not engaged Beira. They obviously had been attempting to retrieve her body, but now had stopped in shock, and stared as though they had seen a ghost... at least, that would be the assumption, seeing as their faces were concealed. Maybe they had seen an apparition alright, and if she was not boiling, she would have laughed at their reactions. Instead, her already irate mien darkened further, and a sudden almost invisible explosion suddenly blasted out from in front of her and towards the assassins. The one further away was more fortunate, because he managed to get out of harm's way at the last second. The one closer was not as lucky, as he was flung through the air like a cloak in a whirlwind. He was blasted clean out of the circle, as the 60th Augural Grimoire uprooted a few trees in its path, even as it made short work of the cutthroat.

Then she turned to fix the second with a baleful glare.

He disappeared into shadow as she looked at him, and she realized that he was using one of those teleporting techniques they had introduced themselves with. The ability to get very close to an enemy was very useful, but every ability had a weakness, and if she considered it well enough, it was just a matter of time before she figured it out.

There! He had resurfaced, apparently hidden in the shadows of some overhead canopy, and then he vanished again. As he vanished, she made her move: stretching out her arm, a silver flash manifested in her palm, which coalesced into a well crafted black revolver pistol with golden designs. She had noticed that these assassins often teleported into dark places, or directly behind a target. If they could transport themselves anywhere they wished, one of them should have teleported to her body, picked it up, and moved off. But they hadn't. If she considered that the sun was almost overhead, therefore not giving her previously prone body any serious shadow to take advantage of, perhaps she had figured out the flaw in their silent teleporting ability.

They needed shadows to teleport.

Her elbow bent as she pointed her revolver a little off to the side, just as the assassin materialized silently. These people seemed to be very persistent, and it was less likely that the enemy would go for Beira. Levinia was the primary target, after all. As she expected, the cutthroat found the revolver pointed right at his abdomen, and she squeezed the trigger. There was a loud report as he dropped his dagger and doubled over, and she followed up with her attack by planting a solid uppercut into his presented jaw. The strength of her punch took him about eight meters straight up into the air, and as he came down, she planted a vicious spinning back heel kick into his body, sending him blasting into a tree with a solid crunch which couldn't bode well for him.

Exhaling slowly, she turned to Beira, her expression softening to a slightly tired but relieved look.

"Sorry if I frightened you, Beira. I was scared, myself. For a moment, I thought I was done for. I don't think they expected my healing properties to be that powerful, huh?"

"Yes. It is both interesting and intriguing," came a raspy voice a bit off to the side. Two figures, of similar apparel to the other assassins revealed themselves. They were, however, a little distinct as they wore ornate bronze pauldrons on their right shoulders, an embellishment the other assassins did not have. Clearly, these ones were of a higher, more dignified sort. And that meant more powerful.

"This is the First Finger," the one who spoke continued, gesturing at the shorter one, "and I am the Third. You both seem to be quite powerful, a thrill we have not experienced in a while." From its cloak, the tall speaker revealed a gauntlet-ed fist that burned in an ominous black flame. "Tell you what, if you defeat us, our clan will never bother you again."

Levinia shook her head, frowning. "No. I want answers..."

"You are in no position to choose, Levinia Arx Creuset," the tall assassin interjected. "Be satisfied that the Black Hands have offered you this amnesty... if you can survive long enough to enjoy it."

"How delightful. They know my name..." Levinia said to Beira, as she prepared herself for a fight. Then, to the Black Hands, she said curtly, "I'm getting my answers from you, with or without your consent. Since you want a fight, bring it on."

While Beira fought with the cloaked assassins, she had only a single thought on her mind: vengeance. Her friend had died too quickly, and it felt like a big shame to her that after all this, she could not protect Levinia. Despite the fact that she had a number of spells which she could use to heal her allies, it was quite unfortunate that none of these had availed Levinia in the critical moment. Maybe it was this revelation of her apparent helplessness to alter every situation to her will that had made Beira quite irate. The fact that she was titled as a goddess didn't change the greater truth that she was not as powerful as she most desired to be. This reminder, and with so costly a price, drove the God Slayer to an almost manic vindictiveness, although those who did not know Beira well would have imagined that she was being rather stoic for someone who had lost the person closest to her.

It was however, not in Beira's nature to shout. Actions would speak for her instead, which was what they were doing now. Beira had been known to be nothing near soft, and her association with the dark guild Errings Rising only served to entrench the image of a severe, if not callous person, in the eyes of the public. But today, even Beira, or at least the rational side of her that seemed to detach itself to consider situations and make it easier for her to make more level-headed judgments, had to admit that ever since she had arrived in Fiore, never had she demonstrated so great a level of viciousness as she did in her assault on the murderers of her protege. And not a single part of her regretted this. This was the expression of her fury, and never had she been this angry and sad at the same time. In every other case, it was mostly a single emotion that dominated; today, it was a dangerous cocktail of sorrow and rage perfectly mixed to create death, cold, bitter death.

So, if Levinia was dead, why did her magic still seem operative? As Beira dispatched her opponents, she realized that her Cosmic Resonance had picked on her protege's pet runes making designs on the ground around her fallen form. The girl had mentioned earlier that the runes seemed to have a mind of their own, though their will was in total consonance with Levinia's. If that was the case, maybe they were performing a rescue attempt. Before Beira could even hope that this was the case, she saw Levinia's dead form rising to her feet. The other assassins had not made to attack the God Slayer even as she took out their fellows, most definitely because they too had seen the moving body, and that was totally unexpected by everyone in the clearing. A part of her wanted to scream necromancy, but it didn't feel like it; having accommodated necromantically flavored magic before, with her nether rime being a testimony of this, Beira could say she had an idea of what the powers of death felt like.

To Beira's surprise and delight, Levinia was alright, and quite pissed. That was only natural. She watched quietly as her protege took out the two remaining assassins, noting with interest that the orange-haired girl seemed to summon a weapon to attack. As Levinia turned to apologize to Beira, the God Slayer said, "Don't ever do that to me again." Sadly, there was no time for near-death-experience hugs, as two more assassins appeared, their looks alone revealing that these were a cut above the regular one's they had been fighting. They offered to leave the two mages entirely alone, if the girls survived this encounter. Beira smirked at Levinia's comment about the assassins knowing her name. "You're even wanted by an entire clan. That's, how do you word it, hardcore." Turning to the assassins, Beira said, "We shall take your amnesty, and whatever else remains of you if we win. That seems fair enough. I'll make sure there's something left of you to bury."

The shorter figure, the one referred to as the First Finger, vanished and reappeared close by, behind the God Slayer. By now, Beira had surmised, like Levinia, that these people used magic to jump between shadows. "The first trick they're all taught, no doubt," the God Slayer mused quietly, as she twisted out of the way of a swipe of the clawed gauntlet of the First Finger. This would be a fast paced battle. Creating two curved knives from nether rime, Beira blocked a second attack and thrust at the First Finger. The assassin exploded in a puff of smoke, the smoke definitely a distraction. As Beira jumped backwards to avoid the smoke, the First Finger attacked again. Beira blocked the swipe, only to realize that the First Finger was behind her, and she had hit a log of wood. As she twisted to face the assassin, intense pain shot into her side, proof that the First Finger had scored the first hit. This was quickly followed by a kick that sent the God Slayer flying before her body had even adjusted to the pain. As Beira looked up from her supine position, she saw the First Finger already descending for the killer blow.

In a feat that generally defied gravity, Beira kicked upwards with her two feet, using her arms and head as props on the ground, while her powerful legs wrapped round the First Finger's neck and gauntleted arm. Then she twisted violently, pulling her legs down and slamming the assassin, head first, into the ground. The assassin's body burst into smoke, and he rematerialized some meters away. Beira rose quickly to face him. As she did, she made a mental note to be careful about being hit by that gauntlet again. The pain she had experienced was totally inflicted by something magical. One of the poisoned weapons of the recently killed assassins lay close by. An idea came to Beira's mind, and she picked the weapon, before throwing it at the First Finger. He charged Beira, dodging it as he approached. Thrusting at her with his four fingers held out, the First Finger tried to stab Beira with his clawed gauntlet, his speed suddenly being augmented by some magic. Unable to dodge, Beira grabbed the gauntlet with both hands, feeling the nasty pain again, but this time, she didn't let go. Realizing he had the advantage, as Beira was in contact with the gauntlet, the First Finger began pressing forward, attempting to get to her torso with the gauntlet.

Meanwhile, the dagger just thrown by Beira suddenly rose into the air and returned with unerring aim, lodging itself in the back of the First Finger's neck. As the assassin staggered away in his death throes, Beira considered her fortune for having just mastered the powers of the Demiurge of Primal matter, allowing her to remotely pick the dagger and return it while the assassin was too occupied to realize he was in danger. She heaved a sigh of relief and paused to catch her breath, before seeing how Levinia was occupied.


WC: 1202 words
Total: 15121/20000

As the one called the First Finger attacked Beira, Levinia mentally and physically prepared herself for this battle. Normally, confident enemies implied that they were quite powerful, and boasted of abilities that were better than the run-of-the-mill mage, or they were just really stupid. Judging from the assassins Beira and herself had dispatched, these two assassins were going to be a bit of work. Fortunately for Levinia, she had a few aces up her sleeve. Now was the time to use her magic.

First things first, she had to improve her speed. Assassins tended to strike really fast, and so she needed all she could muster to keep up. A tiny flash of silver light manifested on her hand, and a little, ornate black ring coalesced on her finger. Instantly, she felt the power of the ring surging through her veins, giving her an assurance that this battle wouldn't be over in a matter of seconds with her back to the ground. The Third Finger seemed to wait for her to attack for a moment, but when she did not make any moves, he made a chuckling sound, which was more akin to rubbing sandpaper on wood, and vanished into inky shadows.

Teleportation again. Levinia didn't have to look around to know where the attack was coming from.  Her White Augural Grimoire would inform her, while she would act as though she was clueless. That might give her a sense of carelessness which the Third Finger would want to exploit. But she would be ready for him...

He came, not from behind, but a little off to the side, his hand armed with the gauntlet open, fingers splayed out, aiming to grasp her head. He was surprisingly fast, even with the boost she enjoyed from her Ring of Velocity. She managed to pull her head out of the way at the last instant, but having long tresses of hair could be a disadvantage in close quarter combat. The Third Finger's grasp missed her by mere inches, but managed to close on a copious amount of her hair. Levinia felt a sharp pain as the assassin gave a vicious jerk, planning to drag her to the ground. If she resisted, she might get some serious scalp injury, depending on how much hair he yanked away. Even though she was super-humanly strong, and she was resistant against damage to a degree, she preferred to avoid unnecessary pain... not to mention that she was not ready to lose the beautiful hair she was proud of, after so many years of not having any at all.

She fell along with him, mitigating the damage that his hair pulling would cause. Of course, it would put her in a very unfortunate situation, seeing that she would be on the ground, and he would be looming over her. But perhaps she could turn this to her favor. She grabbed his wrist with one hand, so that it would be both easier for her to prevent her head from striking the forest floor with a lot of momentum, and she could have a grip on him. Then she pointed Jet, her revolver at his face and fired off two shots, just before she hit the ground.

She found herself alone as she impacted the solid earth. The Third Finger had somehow extricated himself at the nick of time, and although she was disappointed that she had not injured him with her bullets, his letting go of her allowed her to have a much more comfortable landing than she would have originally had to deal with. His teleportation was very handy if it could enable him to dissociate himself from a lock. That meant that she would have to rely less on grappling him, and focus more on just getting some very decisive hits home.

As she got to her feet, she noticed him perched on a low branch. A portion of his mask had been blown off, and a trickle of blood ran its way down his face from a bruise over his eyebrow. A reptilian eye glared back at her, even though the skin surrounding it was relatively human. "That was a close one," he rasped. "You have impressive reflexes." Levinia smiled to herself. Her attack had caught him off guard, and she had probably hit him with the first bullet. His mask had protected him from most of the damage, but her bullet was still powerful enough to injure him. His teleport had saved him from the second.

Levinia got to her feet and tossed Jet over her shoulder. The gun faded into a silver outline, then vanished entirely. "I could say the same about you, but I'm not so keen on praising someone who wants me dead before supper tonight." Her clothes suddenly seemed to glow silver, then transformed into form-fitting black battle armor. "I'm going all out. Let's end this quickly. I can't wait to enjoy my freedom from knife throwing cutthroats."

The Third Finger made the raspy laugh again and vanished into shadows. From an angle behind her, a poisoned knife sailed in her direction. She shifted her shoulder and evaded it. The Alchemy Armor she had just put on now enabled her to much more easily respond to his attacks, but it seemed he wanted to play a long ranged game, this time. As she turned in his direction, he had vanished again, this time appearing and disappearing almost immediately as he slugged another blade in her direction. In a flicker, he had repeated the act three more times, so that Levinia found four knives sailing in her direction. He was good, but she could still avoid his projectiles if she performed a very good jump.

So, jump she did. The projectiles missed, but at that moment, she realized why he had forced her to make that maneuver. To jump meant that unless one could fly, an attribute which was rare even for mages, one was unable to evade easily in mid-air. Levinia's jump was quite the feat, though, taking her much higher than the average person could jump. That put some good distance between herself and her shadow, which of course was on the ground. He would not be able to teleport there for a very quick attack, like the assassin who almost killed her.

"You missed..." she started to say triumphantly, but then he was gone, again. The smile froze on her face as he appeared above her, wielding a wicked looking sword that glowed with a sickly light. There was no mistaking it: he wanted her in this position, and she was now at his mercy. Her eyes widened as he aimed the sword at her face. The exultant light was evident in his eye.

"Die!"

The Third Finger swatted through empty space and a series of runes. His expression, for a moment, mirrored Levinia's just moments ago, then was replaced with shock and pain, as she crashed into his back from above, dealing him a solid, earth-shattering blow with a bat which looked to be made of blue glass. The shock wave resulting from the blow to his back kicked up no small amount of dust and leaves, and he collided with the ground with enough force to leave a small crater. Levinia dropped onto him, twisting the sword out of his hand and plunging it into his chest.

The assassin screamed and grabbed her leg with his gauntlet. A terrible pain shot up through her body, threatening to numb her brain and render her useless. She knew that if she did not break free, it would be the end of her. Somehow, she was sure that trying to pull free might not afford her much, so she did what her panicking mind thought of first. As the bat named Everime dropped from her hands, she summoned Aldebaran, aimed it at his face, and fired the Nutcracker at point blank range. The crater in which their mortal struggle played out was engulfed in luminous smoke from the Aldebaran.

The pain receded as his lifeless hand fell to the ground. The battle was over. Unless he could regenerate his head, which she had blown into next week, he had a chance of coming back. Exhaling in a loud, long sigh, Levinia sank to her knees, leaning on Aldebaran for support.

"I could do with a long break right about now. But I guess we don't have to worry about being hounded by these assassins anymore." Drawing her strength together, she pulled herself to her feet and stepped out of the crater. Smiling at Beira, she opened her mouth to speak, when a sudden space-time rift cut her short. As she stared, a translucent being floated through the portal. It was dressed in long flowing robes, which were designed with different types of runes that indicated numbers and time. Instead of a head, a circular orb burning with a golden flame floated a few inches above the shoulders.

"What now?" Levinia groaned, almost at her wits end.

The apparition turned to Beira, then shifted again to face Levinia. It pointed a bony, grey finger at her. "Levinia Arx Creuset, thou hast committed grave sins against the Flow of Time. Thou hast created anomalies which do threaten the Cosmos. Thou shalt answer for thy crimes with but one penalty: Death!"

The poor girl stared at the apparition as though she was going to faint. Then all she could say in reply was, "Wait... what?"

Fortunately for Beira, fighting against the First Finger was not enough to have her put out of commission, or be too wrecked to continue fighting. All the same, it was, in Beira’s opinion, for the best that she would not interfere with her protégé’s battle, as it was often best for one to improve by one’s self, especially when it came to combat and other martial endeavors. Of course, this was totally Beira’s point of view; there were most probably others who thought it was necessary to always protect those dear to you, and keep them from harm as well as possible. But that was for a culture that did not value personal strength and the personal ability of each member of a team to contribute to the success of the team. In Utgardr, everyone was trained to be strong personally, and still be able to work with others in battle units. A strong unit was one in which every member was strong, and even in places where one was stronger than others, it was always still preferable for the strong one to draw back and let the others do some fighting of their own. If they were finding it hard to cope with the fighting, then the stronger one could step up and help out.

Which was exactly what Beira planned on doing. As she caught her breath, she watched the proceedings of Levinia’s battle against the Third Finger. And speaking of anatomical matters, wasn’t the third finger supposed to be the middle one? Beira was vaguely aware of a rather offensive insult which involved the use of that finger, though she was not quite certain of the gesture itself. Still, the interest in this vulgar gesture was merely a passing curiosity; royalty never (ah, okay, rarely) stooped to insults. They ignored the source of irritation, until it could not be tolerated anymore, and then the gnat got swatted out of the air. Choosing to bandy words with someone else was a way of elevating said person to one’s social position, so insults had never been necessary for Beira to learn. She had to admit, though, her sharp tongue had contrived a few choice barbs that, despite their lack of coarse language, had hit their targets where it hurt most. Despite being raised to believe that the giving of insults was a petty thing, Beira looked on her moments of well-aimed verbal barbs as achievements, even if trivial.

As the God Slayer watched her protégé, she began to make a few speculations of her own concerning the magic Levinia was capable of using. She had not followed the battle intensely, as she had been occupied with matters of her own, matters which had been solved by the presence of one extra dead body, and less people to throw knives at her. But having now vanquished her own opponent, Beira could watch and offer help, if it was needed. After all, the assassins, when offering their sick idea of amnesty, had not mentioned that this was some sort of honor battle, and that someone interfering with the battle of another meant that the amnesty offer would be made moot. If the clan of assassins sent after Levinia was willing to allow the two mages to go, after slaughtering their own, they either had some sort of outlandish honor code, or they were not so impressive. Personally, Beira was not the kind to forgive if one of her own had been killed, but then again, she was not in charge of an assassination ring. As the popular saying went, to each their own.

Levinia and her opponent had just finished a grappling session, with the assassin perched on a branch, looking down at her. Beira noticed his strange eyes, which had been revealed by some previous attack that had hit home. Were these assassins human? Perhaps she would be wiser if she examined the corpse of the one she had killed. After second thoughts, the God Slayer decided against it. There was no point in messing with dead bodies, and as far as Utgardian culture was concerned, the only thing to be done to a dead body was to cremate it, and in the absence of a fire, commit it to the earth, or the sea. Beira also noticed how Levinia disposed of the firearm she had just used. So, it was established, one of her friend’s powers involved summoning of weapons. Perhaps she had a dimension like Beira’s Deep Atheneum, wherein these items were stored. As if to prove the point, Levinia’s clothes transformed into black, sleek armor. Beira guessed that the new getup was magical in nature, and improved the fighting prowess of whoever was wearing it. The assassin went into action again, forcing Levinia into the air, and following up, although things didn’t turn out exactly as the assassin had hoped, because the Godling revealed yet another ability: a teleport in the nick of time. Beira had to say she was quite impressed at Levinia’s new capabilities. The teleport had saved the orange-haired mage from certain death, and had saved Beira from having to interrupt the battle to prevent serious harm coming to her friend. Next thing, Levinia had appeared above the assassin, and slammed him into the earth with a strange club. The impact of the assassin hitting the ground was enough for Beira to feel the tremor, even in her boots. Sure enough, he was left lying in a crater, though he refused to give up, still attacking after Levinia had turned his weapon on him. Beira took a step forward, but realized it was unnecessary, as another firearm appeared in Levinia’s arms. Judging by its size, it was probably meant for rather long range engagements, but the Godling trained the weapon on her target and shot him at almost point blank range. That would have to be decisive. A huge gout of luminous smoke rose from the point of the bullet’s impact, obscuring the combatants, though Beira didn’t need her eyes to know that the assassin was dead.

”My people would say, a great axe to kill an earthworm, as far as that last move of yours was oncerned,” the God Slayer said with a tone of relief in her voice, as she walked towards Levinia. ”Still, you think quite quickly in battle, and your new powers are most impressive. I must say that I am very proud of you.” As Levinia stepped out of the crater, a distortion in space time caught the attention of the two mages. This was becoming rather irritating. The God Slayer took a battle ready stance, her eyes focused on the dimensional rift in the air. From it issued a sort of ghost, with billowing robes, floating above the ground, and having a rather unconventional head. It turned to face the God Slayer, then turned to Levinia and addressed her in archaic Fiorean, condemning her for crimes against time and being worthy of death.

”On the flip side, I’m quite delighted that you didn’t come out throwing knives at us,” Beira said in a deadpan voice, her irritation evident on her face, ”but could you explain exactly what you mean by these sins against the Flow of Time?” The Utgardian momentarily looked confused. ”You have not been breaking clocks, have you, Levinia?”

”Enough time has passed. Thou shalt now die, Sinner against Time!” cried the ghost, as it sailed towards Levinia. Beira created a wall of nether rime between her protege and the ghost, but the ghost simply passed through the wall as though it wasn’t there. Beira charged at the ghost, a sword of nether rime forming in her hands, which she swung at the specter. There was a strange ripple in the air, and the sword vanished. Growling in surprise and anger, the Winter Goddess refused to let this sudden loss of her weapon take her totally by surprise, adjusting her attack as she twisted, shifting her forward momentum into a kick, which sailed through the ghost as though it were made of light. The ghost retaliated by sweeping its hand, and sending one of the knives lying about flying at Beira by some means of telekinesis. She leaped out of the way, and homed in on the ghost, only for the knife to appear just before her once more, flying at her. Unable to dodge the suddenly appearing knife, Beira twisted again, taking the knife in her left shoulder, as opposed to her upper chest, if she had not moved. The weapon was poisoned. She could tell by the pain that shot through her arm and numbed it. Pulling the weapon out, she attempted to heal herself, and stop the blood flow, but the strange creature gesticulated at her again, and the closing wound opened as though it had not been healed. Realization struck Beira, as she figured out what the ghost had done.

”Levinia, whatever being this is, it possesses time altering sorceries!” she yelled. Of course, it was also intangible, which meant that physical attacks were wasted on it. She would not have to mention that to Levinia; the girl had working eyes. Fortunately for Beira, the God Slayer had a lot of experiences with intangible matters, and could attack intangible forms, courtesy of one of her magics. She would just have to try and see whether that aspect of her magic would work. Rising to her feet, the God Slayer froze her wound over and charged the ghost again. The creature gestured, and the ice that covered her wound began receding just as it had been formed. Ignoring this, Beira leaped into the air and aimed a kick at the golden ball that served as its head. Just before her foot passed through the orb, the limb suddenly caught a bright green flame, and with a satisfying ‘thwack’, Beira’s foot connected with the golden ball, sending it sailing off into the forest. Without stopping to see what the creature would do, or hesitating to attend to her bleeding shoulder, the Winter Goddess plowed into the ghost, her hands burning bright with the same spectral flame that coated her leg just before she delivered the award winning punt to the specter’s head. With every swing, the God Slayer felt her attacks strike the headless ghost. It felt light and airy, but she could feel she was doing damage. She flung a particularly heavy blow, but struck only air. The ghost was back at the position it had been when it had come out of the dimensional rift, and it had its pretty golden head back on.

This was unlike all the other enemies they had fought so far. And what correlation had this being with the assassins that currently lay dead in the forest? Well, the time for talking was over; the ghost seemed unwilling to make conversation. It raised a hand, and Beira completely stopped moving. Everything in a small radius around her seemed to have stopped. The creature had stopped time for her, it seemed. How long that would be, she had no idea. But she could not stay here. The Winter Goddess reached for the energies of the Deep Atheneum, and teleported, appearing some distance away from the space within which time had stopped. A lot of things seemed a bit different, like she had spent quite a number of seconds stuck in the time-paused space. How long had she spent in there?


WC: 1912 words
Total: 18617/20000

Quite honestly, Levinia was just tired. The day had started with a lot of promise, and even though she had hoped to uncover something about the nature of the enemies who desperately sought her life, she had not expected it to go so quickly up that certain creek, and without a paddle, too. One could say that she had gotten a lot more than she had bargained for, what with each enemy being defeated, only for a stronger one to take their place. It was a maddening gauntlet, and Levinia was tired of it. She was tired of how many people wanted her dead, and for no fault of hers that she was aware of. Okay, even if they did want to kill her, at least, it was polite to tell her just what her crime was, wasn't it?

Like the ghost of freaky future here. All it had said was that she had committed felonies against Time, and for that, she was going to die. Was her mere existence an affront to Time? And if it was, why? As expected, the ghost did not bother to tell her what her specific sin was; everyone seemed to have that annoying habit when they wanted her head. Honestly, she wanted to scream as loud as she could, and destroy something, but it would hardly help matters beyond the slight catharsis it offered.

Beira tried to get some answers from the ghost, but it did not bother to grace her with a response, aside the fact that it was impatient to kill Levinia. "Can someone at least tell me what I did wrong?" Levinia groaned, as the robed specter approached menacingly. She had barely concluded a hectic battle, and would have liked a few moments to take a breather before having to wrestle for her life against this thing. Fortunately for her, Beira was there. Levinia watched as Beira's first attack was somehow negated; the creature had some sort of ability to dispel magical attacks? Levinia tried to watch as keenly as possible as she readied herself for another fight, so that she could fight smart and not just throw herself at the ghost. As she watched, Beira had tried to kick it, but she passed harmlessly through it.

"Intangible... I should have guessed as much. It's not translucent for nothing. So, if it's an apparition, that means that it must be projecting this thing from somewhere else. The question is, where?"

She watched, surprised and full of apprehension, as she watched the ghost perform that nifty trick with the dagger. It was like the dagger had come at Beira, then had been taken back through time to resume its attack. Of course, it could have been item transportation, even though it had been so fluid in its orchestration that Beira could not avoid it, but only lessen the damage it would cause. Levinia's eyes narrowed slowly. If it was incorporeal, and this powerful, how were they supposed to deal with it? The next thing that happened informed Levinia, without a doubt, what this wraith's powers were. Beira had tried to heal her injury, but the ghost simply reversed the time of her injury, not permitting her to restore her vitality.

This thing was controlling time as easily as a master puppeteer would play with his puppet.

Beira got the idea about the same time Levinia did, and warned her about it. Crap, she had to throw herself into this fight, whether she was well rested or not. But just as she was about to move, the tides seemed to turn in their favor. Beira activated an ability that allowed her to strike the intangible, and her blows hit home. As she began to deal damage to the ghost, it suddenly disappeared, returning back to the original spot where it had appeared, with the head that Beira had kicked off having returned to its shoulders.

"Ugh! This time reversal trick might be quite the problem."

The ghost had obviously decided that Beira would be too much of a pest to handle while trying to kill Levinia, so it simply froze her in time. Levinia's eyes widened with horror. Her mentor was open to attack like she was presenting her head to be cut off. Levinia charged, drawing on her Royal Arms Grimoire to summon her trusty katana, the Songblade, and uttering its name: "Utagatana!". As her fingers closed over the hilt and scabbard, the time ghost gestured in her direction, and she felt time slow down... slow down but not stop. Thanks to her Royal Arms Grimoire, it was almost impossible for her to be held down by anything... even time. Levinia managed a grin.

"Your time stopping trick isn't going to work on me..."

Another sleight of hand by the creature, and the entire scenery around her exploded into a hazard of blurred lines and colors. Levinia cried out in pain as her body was buffeted by destructive time magics, which threatened to rip her out of the timeline and into oblivion. She fell to her knees, her weapon clattering to the ground before her, as she struggled with the overwhelming pain.

"Struggle thou not, Levinia Arx Creuset. Let thy pain be eased; give thou thyself into the embrace of Time, whom thou hast so ignominiously slighted."

The creature drifted closer, as Levinia gasped for breath, perspiration dropping from her forehead onto the forest floor. She gritted her teeth, her hands which were holding up her body from the ground slowly clenched into fists. Then she shrieked, pouring all her pain, all her rage, all her frustration into one surge of power. Her sigils expanded outwards from her body, causing everything caught in their circumference to slow down. The time ghost seemed to slow down also for a moment, but then it clapped its hands together, creating a bubble around itself which defended it from the powers of her Time's Slow March. Still, there was an advantage. Creating that bubble caused the powers of Time which had been unleashed against her to dwindle, and Levinia took advantage of the opportunity.

In a heartbeat, Levie grabbed the sheathed katana from the ground, pushed to her feet, and in one fluid motion, drew the sword in a powerful and swift slash attack. As usual, the ghost did not bother to avoid the attack, and there was a ripple of air that rushed right through it. The ghost seemed to observe her for a moment, then its lower arms fell off from its body as a clean line bifurcated its body just below the diaphragm. The trees behind and beyond the ghost also suddenly cut along that smooth line, all victims of the Banshōgiri.

The time ghost made a strange sound as it muttered in an indecipherable language, then tore open a portal in space and time, much like the one it had come from. As it pulled itself through, Levinia leaped forward after it, but her hands only passed through the space time energy as the portal slowly closed. Obviously, she was unable to follow it through, which was why it was in no hurry to close the portal... but Levinia was not necessarily interested in following it on its own terms. Her White Augural Grimoire had gotten a 'taste' of the aura of the portal, and she had a fleeting idea of where it was headed.

Desperation and anger probably were the emotions that determined Levinia's next actions, but she clapped her hands together, summoning a hemispherical grimoire zone that surrounded her, and the suddenly reappearing Beira. She was pleased to see that Beira had escaped from the prison in which the time ghost had trapped her, ad quite frankly, she needed all the help she could get in taking on this thing. If they followed the portal before Levie forgot its aura signature, they could take the battle to the ghost's real body, and defeat it once and for all.

"Come on, Beira. I think I can follow that thing to wherever it's fled. If we can locate its real form, I think we'll be able to defeat it."

The grimoires revolved rapidly, till a large pulsating ball of light filled the clearing, and then it resolved in on itself and disappeared, leaving an empty clearing, defiled with blood, corpses and fallen trees.