The Girl Raised by the Death God Holds the Sword of Darkness in Her Arms - Volume 1 - Chapter Pr

Prologue: The Girl Death Raised

“Grandma, read this book to me today!” said the little boy, taking a picture book from the shelf and holding it out to his grandmother Camilla, who sat reclined in her chair with her knitting. The hearth flickered with warm light, casting a soft glow onto the boy’s smiling face.

Camilla put down her knitting and took the book from the boy’s small hands.

“This one again? You really do love this tale, don’t you, Mikhail?”

The book was Mikhail’s favorite, and she had read it to him hundreds of times over—evident in its large patches of wear and tear. The damage to the picture on the cover was particularly severe, and it had long since worn away completely. Despite this, Camilla still remembered it well: a lone figure with an ebony sword planted before them, staring out into the distance from the top of a hill. The book was called The Chronicles of Duvedirica.

“Yeah, it’s the best! ’Cause the main character is the strongest out of all my books!” said Mikhail, huffing as he waved his little hands and feet excitedly about in an imitation of the hero from the book. Camilla couldn’t help but smile at his charming antics. No matter the era, little boys would always love heroes.

“Very well. Come over here, then,” said Camilla, gesturing for him to come and sit on her lap. Mikhail plopped himself down with a grin. She felt the youthful warmth of his body when he leaned back against her.

“Come on, read!” he said, swinging his feet as he looked up at her expectantly. Camilla gently stroked his silvery hair, and opened to the first page.

“Once upon a time, there lived a little girl who was raised by a god of death.”

This is a tale from long, long ago—the tale of the girl they once called the Ebony Hero.

***

It had small beginnings, as most things do.

Far from civilization, there was a forest. Further still into its depths, many great trees stood tall enough to pierce the sky, their canopies so dense that it was always dark as night beneath their boughs. What was more, a thick mist hung over the forest in perpetuity, as though to conceal its very existence. For as long as anyone could remember, people had spoken its name with fear: The Forest of No Return. No matter how sharp their sense of direction, there was no hope of escape for anyone who lost their way inside. On rare occasions, some daring soul who had heard the rumors would venture in, but there were no stories of anyone returning alive. Now, none dared to go anywhere near the place.

Secreted away at the center of the forest, there stood a tower built from glittering black stone. Despite being covered in moss and vines, an air of grandeur hung about it. Six great black pillars carved with complex designs loomed around it, though three of them were half in ruins. It was clear that a long time had passed since their collapse. The remaining pillars were also badly damaged, with cracks spidering across every surface that made it look as though they might crumble at any moment. This long-forgotten place was a temple, known by the people of ancient times as the gateway to the land of the dead.

Near its entrance lay, inexplicably, a sleeping baby wrapped in a bloodstained cloth. Beside it, a man lay slumped against one of the pillars, splattered head to toe with blood. Even in death, he still clung fast to the bladeless hilt of a sword.

Beasts ruled in the forest, and the sweet-smelling infant and the foul-smelling human corpse were easy pickings. By all rights, they should have been devoured already. But not only did no beasts appear, not even the chirping of birds could be heard amongst the trees. The area immediately surrounding the temple was silent as the grave. It was as though every nearby creature had fallen into slumber. At best, one could describe it as tranquil; at worst, the silence that enveloped the place was downright eerie.

Into the unearthly atmosphere hanging over the temple, there entered three shadows that shimmered like the air above a flame. They stopped abruptly, their gazes falling upon the man and the infant.

We came to see what had lost its way here—and if it isn’t humans, one of the shadows whispered. The tongue it spoke was foreign to any mortal ears. They did well to make it to the temple. It seems the babe still lives, though the man is dead. His soul’s vessel is already empty. It sounded bored as it inspected the child and the corpse in turn.

A babe... whispered the second shadow. Such a vulnerable soul will do little to sate my hunger. But it shouldn’t put up any resistance if we harvest it now.

The second shadow raised an uncanny, shimmering scythe it hadn’t held a moment ago, and without a flicker of hesitation, swung it down towards the child’s heart. Suddenly, the third shadow threw out a hand into the scythe’s path to deflect it. An instant before making contact, the scythe dissolved as quickly as it had appeared.

Why are you interfering? Do you wish to devour it yourself? asked the second shadow.

No, it’s not that. I wish but to observe it for a time, said the third.

Observe it? Old habits die hard.

I don’t know what you find so interesting about them, added the first shadow. But no matter. Do as you please.

With this, the first two shadows melted away together into the earth, leaving the third one alone. It approached the infant in silence, lifting the babe up into its shimmering arms. As though in anticipation of this very moment, the child’s eyes blinked open, and the shadow saw itself reflected in their clear, ebony depths. For a little while, the infant stared curiously at the shadow, then smiled.

Yes, this will be well worth observing, whispered the shadow to no one in particular, looking from the baby’s smiling face to the scarlet jewel that hung around its neck.

Ten years had passed since the shadow had taken the child into its keeping.

The girl lived in the temple, its dark, gleaming walls the only home she knew. Though the shadow that called itself Z technically resided there alongside her, it did not eat, nor did it sleep, or play with her. It would not. Z hardly spared the girl the time of day outside of its observation of her.

And right now, it was observation time.

Z and the girl traded blow for blow in the training ground outside the temple. The girl wielded a blade that shone pure white against Z’s great scythe, black as ebony and shrouded in a dark mist. Her strikes were easily knocked aside over and over again by the scythe, and after struggling for a time the girl leapt back, putting distance between herself and Z. She wiped the sweat that dripped from her brow with her sleeve, her shoulders rising and falling with her heaving breaths.

Thirty minutes had passed since observation began.

The girl was reaching the limit of her endurance, and she knew it. Z rested the scythe on its shoulder.

What is the matter? Are you tired already? it asked, its tone flat with disinterest. This wasn’t meant as sarcasm—Z was never sarcastic. It simply stated what it observed of the girl’s condition, nothing more.

Even so...

The girl took a deep breath and kicked hard off the ground. The landscape streaked past her in a blur as she closed in on Z, sweeping her sword up towards its side. But the white blade never met its mark—despite the fact that she’d put all her strength behind the blow, the scythe flicked up and batted her blade away, driving the sword’s tip into the ground.

Good. Your Swift Step was acceptable, but your movements are too direct, murmured Z, more to itself than to the girl. With incredible speed, it flung a dagger at the girl. She seized the sword from the ground and shielded herself with it. As the fierce blow struck the blade, the air contracted into a gale and, unable to withstand it, she was flung up into the sky.

Gah!

A jolt of numbness wracked her senses, and for a second, she began to black out. She quickly bit down on her tongue and just managed to hold on to consciousness as she spun through the air and plummeted back to the ground.

The girl slowly brought her breathing under control, roughly wiping away the blood that trickled from the corner of her mouth. She realized then that both of her arms were twitching violently.

I’m fine, she insisted. I can... I can still fight. She gripped her sword tight to control her trembling as she swung it up in a wide arc above her head in a protective stance. Z had taught her this technique. From this stance, she could react to attacks coming from any direction.

Are you ready? asked Z, swinging its scythe as effortlessly as it would a twig. The girl did not reply, only gripped the hilt of her sword tighter still.

It appears you are. As Z spoke again, the girl felt an uneasy sensation creep down her spine. She flung herself to the side, avoiding by a hair’s breadth the blow that fell a split second later where she had stood. In response, she moved behind Z, raising her sword—then she stopped. She had no choice but to stop. Leaving an afterimage in its place, Z in turn had come around behind, and was now resting the tip of its scythe against her throat. Cold sweat dripped from her forehead.

Your ability to keep up with my movement has greatly improved. We will leave things here for today, said Z, and melted away into the ground. The oppressive aura that had hung around them dispersed immediately, and the temple returned to its usual silence.

The tension leaving her shoulders, the girl looked towards the ground into which Z had vanished. Thank you, she said.

The girl’s days went like this, every day, without fail:

She had lessons where Z taught her about a great many things: the state of the continent, language, military strategy, magic, swordcraft, and martial arts, to name a few. Occasionally, when they went into the forest together, it even taught her how to hunt and prepare wild game. Z called all of this observation, but to her it was education and training.

One day, shortly after said observation had begun in earnest, Z taught her that she was an animal called a human, creatures that fell under the complicated category that Z called group three intelligent life forms. The girl, curious about what kind of creature Z was given how different its form was from her own, then asked it exactly that. What are you, then?

Me? What indeed... The humans of this world might consider me a god of death, it replied. The girl’s eyes shone in amazement. Amongst the many books Z had given her, there had been one about death gods. It described them as terrifying entities that harvested human souls indiscriminately. The book concluded with the line:

All creatures are equal in death.

She asked if Z would harvest her soul too.

That is a misconception, it said. We can only harvest a soul when sentience has not yet emerged or in the moments following death. You are already sentient; therefore, I cannot harvest your soul.

Now that she thought about it, the illustrations of gods of death in the book had depicted a skeleton cloaked in rags. She compared this to Z—the shadow shimmering before her like the air over a flame. If she had to choose between trusting Z or the book, she would, of course, trust Z. And that meant, she concluded, that sometimes books contained lies.

On another day, sometime later, they had just finished sword training when the girl asked Z a question. Why was Z teaching her swordcraft and martial arts—skills for killing humans? Humans, Z answered, were cruel creatures that loved violence, killing each other as much for sport as for survival. But it felt like something was missing from that answer; she herself was the only human at the temple, so why did she need to train to kill people who weren’t there?

You will understand soon enough, was the only answer Z had reluctantly given her. Z’s physical form was essentially a corporeal shadow, making it impossible for her to decipher what, if any, sort of emotion lay behind its answer.

And yet, inexplicably, the girl felt sure that at that moment, Z had ever so slightly smiled.

It was around that time that she and Z began to converse in human language. She didn’t understand why, but it was what Z told her to do, so she diligently obeyed. Z’s observation of her continued every day, unrelenting. Seasons came and went, and Z and the girl continued their peculiar life together.

“Z, my head feels funny, and my back hurts. I think there’s something wrong with me,” said the girl after the day’s lessons had finished. Z lay a shimmering hand against her forehead.

Hmm... You have a temperature. I believe this is what they call “a cold,” it replied.

“What’s that?”

What indeed... Imagine there are bugs inside your body causing mischief and putting it out of balance.

“Bugs? Is it because I ate ants yesterday?” said the girl, now regretting the ants she had eaten instead of her snack.

I have told you not to eat ants. I also believe I said the bugs were imaginary, said Z, sounding exasperated.

“Well, what should I do? Am I going to die? If I die, will you gobble up my soul?”

The human body is not so feebly constructed that such a minor thing will kill you. That being said, we will forgo the rest of today’s training. Return to your room and go to bed. You will recover soon with proper rest.

“Okay.”

The girl tottered back to her room and dove right into bed. She slept for a while, only waking when she felt a faint presence. Turning her head, she saw Z’s wavering figure before her and did a double take—this was the first time Z had ever come into her room.

“Z? Have you come to eat my soul after all?”

I made you some soup, it said. Eat.

Z was, in fact, holding a tray with a bowl on it.

“I’m not hungry,” she said.

That is because when you catch a cold, you also lose your appetite. Even if you are not hungry, you need to eat. You will get better faster, said Z. It sat down on the bed, gently helping her sit up. Then, it scooped up a spoonful of soup and held it up to her mouth. The girl stared.

Is something wrong? Come on, open your mouth.

“No, um...” mumbled the girl. She felt awkward and confused, but she opened her mouth as instructed. Z tilted the spoon slowly so that the soup ran down her throat. She felt the warmth spreading through her body.

How is it? I kept the flavors plain so that it would not upset your stomach.

“I-It’s nice,” said the girl, stifling a giggle.

Was there something wrong with it?

“No, ummm...”

Well, there does not appear to be any problem.

Z proceeded to shovel spoonful after spoonful into her mouth at an alarming pace, and before ten minutes had gone by, the bowl was empty.

“Thank you.”

Well done. You ate it all. Now drink this, said Z, placing a silver cup in the girl’s hands. A thick, green liquid sloshed around inside it; it brought to mind a monster from one of her picture books.

“This? It’s goopy and it smells weird. Is it really okay to drink?”

This is called “medicine.” If you drink it, you will get better even faster.

“You mean it?”

Have you ever known me to lie?

“No, never,” she said. She pinched her nose and downed the green liquid in one gulp. Even so, the bitter flavor spread through her mouth, wiping out all trace of the delicious soup.

“Z, it’s really bitter!”

Medicine is like that, by and large. Not that I have tried it, said Z, pulling a chair up beside the bed and sitting down. It casually drew a book from the shadows around where its chest might have been and began to flick through the pages.

“Are you... Are you going to stay with me?”

Hm? Oh, this is part of my observation. When next you wake, you should be well again. Now, if you are quite satisfied, go to sleep.

“Okay,” said the girl, giggling again. “Good night, Z.”

Good night, said Z, after a moment’s pause.

The next morning, the girl woke with the sense that she’d had a wonderful dream.

It had been fifteen years since Z and the girl had met.

The girl’s life continued as it always had. If anything had changed, it was the difficulty of her education and training. Z had also given her a name, saying it was to avoid future inconvenience.

The girl had just turned fifteen, however, and her body had changed a lot. Her physique, hardened by Z’s training, called to mind that of some lithe and ferocious beast. But she was still very clearly a fifteen-year-old girl—her lovely, slender figure and ample breasts both attested to that. Her features were beautifully proportioned, not unlike a doll, and had she lived in town, she’d likely have turned heads. She had grown into a beautiful, young woman.

The girl rose early, as she did every morning.

Rising with the sun, she jumped out of her canopy bed, yawning widely and feeling the satisfying crack of her joints as she stretched. She hung the towel from the wall around her neck, then wandered out from her room and down the dimly lit corridor. She loved the tranquility of dawn so much that she got up early just to experience it.

Eventually, she arrived at the courtyard, where dappled light filtered in through the canopy of lush, green leaves. Narrowing her eyes slightly against the glare, she headed for the well with a bucket in hand. Once she had a decent amount of water, she washed her face over the bucket, swallowing a mouthful. The water made her smile as it filled her empty stomach.

“Ahh, delicious,” she murmured in contentment. Next, she headed for the kitchen and dining room. It was a simple affair—just a brick oven and a small table. With practiced motions, she tossed some logs on the fire, then concentrated power into the index finger of her right hand.

This was the magic power that slept inside her.

She imagined herself binding together the trace magical elements in the air. A moment later, particles of blue-white light gathered at her fingertips, the mark of a successful binding. When the light converged to a single point, it morphed into a tiny ball of flame the size of a pea.

“Success.” She smiled at the fireball she had created, then tossed it at the logs. Blue-white flames sprang up around them, and she took a poker down from the wall and used it to stoke the fire.

Back when she’d first started learning how to make a fireball, she hadn’t been able to control its strength. She’d lost track of how many times she had ended up destroying the oven. It had always reappeared soon enough, though, fixed up good as new. At first, the girl had thought that this mysterious phenomenon was the work of a mischief-loving fairy called Comet, who showed up in one of her books. In the tale, the cowardly Comet came up with all kinds of schemes so that it could secretly laugh at the surprise of the humans who fell for its tricks.

The girl thought she’d surprise the fairy back, and spent the whole night hidden in a corner of her room keeping watch for the fairy. Eventually morning rolled around with no sign of Comet, and with education time approaching, the girl had no choice but to reluctantly leave the kitchen. When she returned at lunchtime, the oven sat there, good as new. The girl, getting stubborn, spent the next several days staking out the kitchen, but to no avail. Much to her disappointment, she later spotted Z using its magic to repair the oven.

The girl shook her head at these youthful memories, wiping the sweat from her brow. She put a pot of soup leftover from the previous day on top of the oven to reheat, and soon enough, the pot began to bubble and release a delicious aroma. She ate alone, then said her thanks for the food, quickly tidied up her dishes, and left for the education room.

There were a number of rooms in the temple besides the girl’s bedroom, but most were in a state of total disrepair. It was only natural, with no one looking after them. The education room was no different. The girl pushed open the familiar door, adorned with magical designs—only for it to suddenly fall to the ground with a dramatic thud, apparently rotted so badly that it had fallen right off its hinges. She didn’t pay this any special attention, treading on the fallen door as she went and sat down at the single, ramshackle desk that stood in the center of the room. Now all there was to do was wait for Z to materialize out of nothing as it always did. She didn’t suspect anything.

Not at first.

“Z’s running late...” she mumbled to herself. She waited, and waited, and waited some more, but Z made no sign of appearing. This had never happened before. This is odd, she thought. Then she noticed a number of items sitting on Z’s teacher’s desk: an ebony sword she hadn’t seen before, something that looked like a letter, and a scarlet jewel. She went up to the desk, and reached for the parchment. Sure enough, it was a letter—one addressed to her. She read it from start to finish once, then again, and again, then she snatched up the sword and dashed out of the temple.

“Z!” she cried as she ran. “Z! Z!”

It took her by surprise, the moment she realized the voice calling out for Z so loudly was her own. But Z did not answer the girl’s call. Her voice merely echoed into the emptiness. Still she kept calling, desperate and pleading, until her voice grew hoarse. But Z did not appear.

“Z... Z... Z...” she murmured, over and over. Something warm was overflowing from her eyes, blurring her vision, and as her fingers touched the damp tracks running down her cheeks, she understood that she was “crying,” something that happened when you felt sad. What she didn’t understand was this crushing pain in her chest. It was unlike any she’d ever felt during her training, and none of her books had ever mentioned it.

How much time passed, she couldn’t say.

It was when the girl reached to wipe away her tears with her sleeve that she noticed something. A black mist drifted around the blade of the ebony sword she still clutched in her left hand.

This is...

Its shape had changed, but this was unmistakably Z’s great scythe. The girl held it close to her, and looked down in silence.

That day, the girl left the temple, never to return.