The Girl Raised by the Death God Holds the Sword of Darkness in Her Arms - Volume 6 - Chapter Pr

Prologue: A Light of Determination Dancing in the Night

Far from civilization, in the deepest depths of the mountains, a little girl sat playing alone, surrounded by gray squirrels. Sensing an unknown presence behind her, she turned. Through a gap in the dense thicket of trees, she caught sight of a creature dark as pitch.

There were many creatures that made their home on this mountain, but never before had she encountered this one. At once, the girl’s large eyes lit up with a gleam of curiosity.

“Who are you?” she asked.

The creature made no response.

“You aren’t a ghost, are you?”

Ghosts only came out at night, or so the girl’s father had told her. Still, she didn’t think it seemed so unusual for a ghost to appear in the daytime. There had to be ghosts who liked bright places too, after all.

“You can see me?”

“Of course I can. I’ve got really good eyes.”

She could see clear as day even on a moonless night with the ebony eyes that she had inherited from her mother. Out under the light of the sun? It wasn’t even a question.

The black creature turned toward the girl. “Ah, yes. Now I see...” It drew closer, making not a sound with its footsteps, before sitting down next to the girl as though the two of them did this every day. Now that the creature was so close, the girl saw that it was indeed entirely black. As she gazed in fascination, she was suddenly struck by a sense of déjà vu.

What could it be? she wondered. Try as she might, she couldn’t recall ever having encountered a creature like the one before her now. And if she had ever met such a funny thing before, she definitely would’ve remembered it.

Harboring a sense of discontent, she returned to her original question.

“So was I right? Are you a ghost?”

“There are no Spiritua shells here. Such life-forms only exist in higher planes.”

“Spiri...what?” The girl cocked her head. All this was beyond her.

“What I mean,” said the black creature, watching the gray squirrels darting busily around at their feet, “is that I am not what you refer to as a ghost.”

“You’re not? Really?” It was obvious, not least from its entirely alien appearance, that the creature was not human. Yet at the same time, it was not an animal. It was faceless, and it trailed a black mist along the ground besides. It looked an awful lot like the ghosts from the girl’s picture book.

The girl examined the mysterious creature again from a number of different angles.

Eventually, it said, “I am what you humans would call a God of Death.”

“You’re lying,” the girl replied without hesitation.

“Lying?” The creature turned to face the girl directly for the first time. “How very fascinating. What makes you think so?”

“Well, the God of Death in my picture books is totally different,” she said. “Wait here a minute, okay?”

The girl picked up a blackboard left lying on the ground, then took a stick of white chalk from her pocket and started to scribble on it as she explained.

“A God of Death looks bony, like this. All bones. And then its clothes are all super ragged... Oh, and they have a great big scythe,” she said, adding a scythe to finish off her drawing, then holding out the blackboard proudly to show the creature. “This is a God of Death.”

The self-titled God of Death peered closely at the blackboard. “I see. Indeed, if this is an accurate portrayal of a God of Death, then I must be something rather different,” it acknowledged. The girl, satisfied to be proven right, lost all interest in what the creature really was.

“What’s your name, by the way? I’m Olivia Valedstorm. I’m eight, and I live in a house at the bottom of this mountain. Oh, and this is my little sister, Caroline. She’s five years younger than me. Isn’t she sweet?” She sat the doll her mother had made for her on her knees, then giggled.

“I am called Z,” the creature said at length.

“Z,” said the girl. “All right. That’s a funny sort of name, but I’ll remember it.”

Z reached out and stroked her cheek. “This has been mystifying me...” it began.

“Oh, yes,” said the girl. “There are all sorts of ‘mysterious’ things in this world. Like how I’m not allowed to leave this mountain until I’m older. Why do you think that is, Z?”

The girl had been strictly forbidden from venturing away from the mountain for reasons unknown to her. When she asked why, her parents said only that they would tell her when she was older. Once, the girl had woken up in the night to see her usually kind mother and father discussing something that must’ve been serious, for they wore expressions that scared her. She had quickly burrowed down under her blankets and tried to breathe as quietly as possible. They had been saying that they had to take care not to let her leave the mountain. What followed had been too difficult for her to understand. Since that day, the girl had stopped talking about wanting to leave the mountain. This was in part because she couldn’t forget the looks on her parents’ faces that night. More than that, she knew that if she left, it was sure to break her parents’ hearts.

“Do you not fear me?” asked the creature.

“Huh? No, not at all. I mean, look at how happy they all are.” The girl pointed at the gray squirrels that were scurrying around all over Z. Gray squirrels were extremely timid creatures—they wouldn’t go anywhere near anything they felt in any way threatened by.

“Perhaps there is some meaning in our meeting here a second time,” Z said after a pause.

“Huh? A second time? This is our first time meeting, you know. But enough about that. What do you say to going to the lake?”

“What you say makes no sense. Why do you speak of lakes?”

“Because you can catch lots of the best fish this time of year, of course.” The girl stood up from the log she had been using as a chair, patted off her bottom, then took Z’s hand. Pulling the black creature along with her, she set off cheerfully toward the lake to the north. Neither her mother nor her father knew of the lake. It was her secret place. For a long time now, the girl had resolved that as soon as she made a friend, she would tell them of it.

“There is no purpose in my going,” Z said slowly. “I do not feed upon that which humans consume.”

“Then what do you eat, Z?”

“Do you want to know?”

“I really want to.”

Z gazed at the gray squirrel on its hand, then at last said, “Human souls.”

The girl cocked her head. “‘Souls’?” she repeated, uncomprehending. “Whatever those are, they don’t sound very tasty. The fish in the lake are delicious. So I’ll eat your portion for you. We’re friends now, after all.”

“‘Friends’...?” Z repeated, sounding the word out. “That word is unfamiliar to me. What does it mean?” It leaned forward, clearly interested. Despite knowing so many difficult things, Z didn’t even know what a friend was!

“Well, a friend is someone you hold hands with and play together, like this,” the girl explained, puffing out her chest and forcibly interlocking her fingers with Z’s. “And you should use my name. I’m Olivia. I just told you!”

She turned to Z, a carefree smile on her face as she swung her arms back and forth, while Z stared mystified at their linked hands.

This encounter was a fragment of what the girl remembered of the first time she met Z.

The year was Tempus Fugit 983. Two trees, commonly known as The Twins, stretched unto the heavens as if in a race to see which could reach them first. At the uppermost heights of those branches stood two men, perfectly balanced with their arms folded, both dressed from head to toe in black and their scarves billowing wildly in the gusty northwest wind. One of the men, whose name was Nefer Quan, slowly removed his mask, a black piece adorned with bolts of levin dancing along the surface.

“We have them at last...” he said. “Here, we shall see to it that the Deep Folk meet their end.” He looked down on the cottage hidden among the trees, his mouth stretching in a twisted smile. The other man, one Safiss Troah, followed his companion’s example, licking his lips with a forked tongue. It was not unlike that which might have belonged to the white snake that adorned his own mask as he removed it.

“When do we do it?” he asked.

“The day after tomorrow. When the moon waxes full.”

Safiss’s eyebrow twitched. “The full moon? That’s very cautious for you, Nefer.”

“It’s more trouble for us if they give us the slip.”

“As if we’d let them go. Not to change the subject, but did you hear about Cassael’s boy?”

“With the old master singing his praises to high heaven like he has been, I couldn’t ignore it if I wanted to,” Nefer said with a grimace.

“Isn’t that the truth,” Safiss said, laughing under his breath.

According to what Nefer had heard, Cassael von Sieger’s son Felix not only already possessed Odh in quantities far greater than any child should, but had also learned to control it despite his tender age of only five years old. Some were already saying he had the makings of the most powerful Asura in history. Elder Zebulla Shin, who led the Asura, was chief among those singing the boy’s praises—a fact which proved that the stories had not been distorted.

“In any case,” Safiss went on, “the birth of one with such gifts is cause for celebration. We need not fear for the future of the Asura.”

“Well, I hope not.” A yellowed leaf flew by, carried by the wind. Nefer caught it between two fingers.

“‘You hope not,’” Safiss repeated slowly, giving Nefer a searching look. “Has something given you cause for concern?”

“Everything has its end,” Nefer replied matter-of-factly. “Even the greatest of nations or the wisest of men cannot escape that fate. It would be the height of conceit to think the Asura are the exception to the rule.”

Safiss’s expression turned hard. “You would do well to be careful how you speak. I can turn a deaf ear, but others might well take it as disloyalty to the Asura.”

Nefer brushed his forelock which was being swept to the right by the wind. “It’s because it’s you that I speak so,” he said with a grin. Safiss sighed and rolled his eyes.

“Forget it, then. We do the deed the day after tomorrow, correct?”

“Right,” Nefer said. His eyes were fixed on a man who came out of the cottage with an axe on his shoulder. Their mark followed him out, cradling a baby in her arms as she smiled and waved off the man as though she hadn’t a care in the world.

That much mercy I will show her. I will give her a choice at the last. Nefer laughed, a hollow sound that whirled through the sky with the dead leaves as, quietly, the wheels of fate began to turn.

Elliot returned from his usual outing to buy food, lowering the hemp bag from his back and setting it down on the table before sitting down himself.

“You’re back late today.” Olivia sat opposite him, dandling Caroline on her lap.

“Olivia...” Elliot began, and Olivia, seeing the hard look on his face, smiled sadly. “Ah,” was all she said.

It was while he was shopping that Elliot had felt something amiss. Among the many eyes looking this way and that around the town, he had for a moment sensed someone looking at him in a way that made his hair stand on end. To confirm what he’d felt, he left the center of town, bought what he needed at a shop he did not usually use, then returned again to the town center, glancing nonchalantly as he went at his own footprints. He found another set of prints that appeared to be tailing him. The way they positioned their center of balance and the precise length of the strides, as though they had been measured, showed him that this was no amateur. Elliot, assuming that the location of the cottage had already been exposed, took pains to act as though he hadn’t noticed. The fact that he was being tailed meant that they were waiting for their moment to strike, but if they realized he had caught on, they could well resort to brute force—and that meant Olivia and Caroline back at the cottage would be in danger. Now that they had been found, there was no escaping the danger altogether, but he had to avoid being away from their side at all costs.

“They still don’t know I’m on to them. I want to set off tonight under cover of darkness.”

“All right. Do you know how many there are?”

“I can only guess, but I think there are three or four, including the ones watching us.”

“I agree,” Olivia said at length. “It should be about that many, considering how it was in the past.” She stared off at a fixed point in space as though deep in thought about something. She didn’t respond even when Caroline, standing on her knees, patted her little hand against her mother’s cheek. Elliot rose without a word, coming to stand close to Olivia as he stroked her beautifully arranged black hair. Caroline watched him, then started to stroke Olivia’s hair herself.

“Don’t worry,” Elliot said. “I will never let anything happen to you or Caroline.”

Olivia was quiet for a moment. “Yes, I know,” she said at length. Her lips had been drawn in a hard line, but now they softened in a ghost of a smile as she looked down at Caroline, who still insisted on stroking her hair. She reached for the hemp bag on the table. “In that case, we’ll need to fill our bellies. Prepare yourself, I’m going to utilize every cooking technique I’ve ever learned for this feast.”

“Then I’d better make sure I’m as hungry as possible,” Elliot replied, slapping his belly playfully. Olivia laughed aloud. Caroline, meanwhile, picking up on the word “feast,” bounced up and down, her breathing growing rapid with excitement. Even with danger closing in on them, Elliot couldn’t help but smile as he looked at his beloved daughter.

“We can count on Caroline, that’s for sure,” he said. “I just know she’s going to be someone great in the future.”

“That again...” Olivia said. “But you never know, you might be right. Nothing seems to faze our little girl.” Olivia smiled at Caroline, who had both hands outstretched to try and grab at an earth pumpkin that peeked out of the bag. Her eyes were without question those of a mother, brimming with boundless love.

“Of course, it’d be enough for me if she grows up well.”

“And for me. I couldn’t ask for more than to see her grow up healthy...”

The pair lapsed into silence. Then, donning an apron, Olivia put her hands on her hips and declared, “Let’s get to it!” As she laid out the different ingredients in the kitchen, Caroline watched her, clapping her hands, her ebony eyes aglow.

It was the dead of night. Several shadowy figures raced through the trees of the forest, all blue in the dark. These were the Asura, pursuing the other shadows who had slipped from the cottage under cover of darkness. They had not managed to draw even an inch closer to their mark, for no other reason than the traps that covered the forest, stopping them in their tracks at every turn. Safiss, running beside Nefer, clicked his tongue in frustration.

“This is all because he noticed the tail!”

“It was a mistake to try and give our younger members some exper—?!”

Nefer dived low to the ground to avoid the great log that came hurtling at him out of nowhere. Meanwhile, Safiss’s twin blades flashed as he drew them from his back to save himself from being caught in the net that flew up from beneath them. The other two Asura who had been assigned to tail Elliot, as it happened, had quickly ended up snared in a trap, and Nefer and Safiss had yet to detect any sign of their catching up. The pair turned back, then sighed and resumed their pursuit.

“These are no ordinary traps,” Safiss said, tearing a scrap of netting from where it had caught on his shoulder.

“That’s right... Who’d have thought he’d even be able to deceive us Asura...” Nefer replied. “I think that man must be a Boundary Master.”

“A Boundary Master? Like they had in the Kingdom of Silquedo?”

“Well, I don’t claim to know everything, but I don’t know of anyone else who can set these kinds of traps.”

Back in the mists of Duvedirica’s distant past, or so it was written in some ancient texts, the Kingdom of Silquedo had dominated the continent. The warriors of that country were supposed to have excelled in the creation of traps. The traps set by the best among them reached the level of “boundaries,” winning them much praise from the king of Silquedo. These great warriors came to be known throughout the continent as the Boundary Masters. It was said that the ancestors of the Asura too had crossed swords with these Boundary Masters, who, according to remaining records, had proved formidable adversaries. In the end, the Kingdom of Silquedo had been trampled into ruination by the class three dangerous beast known by some as the Bringer of Calamity and by others simply as “The Maw,” and faded from existence.

“But from the stories I heard, The Maw came back and wiped out all the survivors, though what they did to earn a grudge like that I don’t know.”

“I wouldn’t be so surprised if one or two had escaped.” Nefer knocked aside an arrow that came shooting toward him with a knife hand strike while beside him Safiss tossed aside the arrow clasped in his fist with an air of irritation.

“It matters not. The moment that man decided to put himself in our way, his death was assured.” They slipped past trap after trap that sprang up as though in prediction of their movements, until Safiss pointed triumphantly up at the sky.

“Look, the clouds have parted just enough. What do you say we begin?”

“I suppose.” Nefer had wanted to spend some more time closely observing the traps of a Boundary Master for future reference, but Safiss, who had a tendency toward impatience, appeared unusually hungry to get going. Nefer stopped, removing his mask, and looked up at the perfect silver circle of the moon. Before a minute had passed, the power of his Odh coursed through his body. All his muscles bulged, his nails growing sharp as knives. Even among the Asura, Nefer’s ability was extraordinary. It was a technique only he could use—Odic physical hyperactivation.

“You know, it’s been a while since I saw you do that, but—”

“Don’t say another word,” Nefer cut in. “I’m going ahead.” Without waiting for Safiss to reply, he kicked off, breaking his way through the traps with elegance—and occasionally with brute force—as he drew inevitably closer to his mark.

This game of hide-and-seek has been fun, but now that I’ve taken this form, it’s almost over. It wasn’t long before Nefer had the Deep Folk woman and the Boundary Master in his sights. Sharp and bestial fangs glinted between his lips.

Elliot turned, sensing the power unleashed behind him, and saw a man closing in on them with the savagery of a wild animal. They were very nearly out of the forest now. Before them lay only an open field.

I miscalculated. I never imagined he would make it this far through my traps. This one far outclasses the other Asura we’ve shaken off. He had exhausted all his traps already. The rest would all come down to how fast they could run. And yet their pursuer was gaining on them with uncanny speed. It was only a matter of time before he caught them.

“All we can do now is fight.” Olivia’s voice was flat as she dashed along ahead of him. Caroline clung to her back gurgling with laughter, apparently mistaking what was happening for some sort of game.

“It would seem so,” Elliot replied, steeling himself. But then Olivia called out to him again.

“I don’t think you understood me properly, so let me clarify. I’m going to fight. Alone.”

Elliot stared at her. “What are you talking about?”

Olivia had come to a stop just beyond the tree line. “I’m going to fight alone,” she repeated without turning around. It was obvious this was neither swagger nor whimsy. And so there was no way Elliot could allow it.

“I swore I would always protect you and Caroline.”

“Yes...” Olivia said. “You did.” She undid the strings that fastened Caroline to her, then turned back to him with the little girl in her arms. She smiled down at Caroline’s happy face; then, with loving tenderness, she rubbed her cheeks against her daughter’s.

“Then let me keep my vow.”

“The truth is,” Olivia said, “you’ve already kept it.”

“Already—?!” Elliot began, but Olivia reached out and, with the utmost gentleness, stroked his face. It was as though she was treating him like a child who wouldn’t listen.

“This time, it’s my turn to protect you and Caroline. And besides, unless I finish this feud between the Asura and the Deep Folk myself, those of my people who have died will be angry with me.”

“From the start...” Elliot said slowly. “You meant to do this from the start.”

“I’m sorry. I thought if I said anything, you’d be against it. You’re so full of goodness.” She pressed Caroline into his arms. Her eyes were fixed on a point in the forest.

“Wait!” Elliot shouted. “I never said I accepted—”

“Give this to Caroline...” Olivia cut him off, taking off her necklace before fastening it gently around Caroline’s neck. Its glittering red jewel was shaped like a diamond and, Elliot knew, had been passed down as a treasure in the Valedstorm family for generations.

Olivia pointed northwest and said, “That way lies the Forest of No Return. Even the Asura won’t be able to make it out if they enter.”

Elliot and Olivia had been hiding in the Holy Land of Mekia, which meant that indeed, if he pushed on northwest, he would arrive at the Forest of No Return. But true to its name, that forest was a fearful place from which none who entered ever emerged. Olivia was now telling them to flee into it. As Elliot was understandably baffled, Olivia went on.

“There’s a saying that’s been passed down since long ago in the Valedstorm family: ‘If ye be in true need of aid, seek thee then the Gate to the Land of the Dead. The ray of shining crimson shall be thy guide...’”

“I don’t know what that means,” Elliot said. “But I assume this Gate to the Land of the Dead is in the Forest of No Return?”

“Yes.”

“And this gem will lead me there.” He looked down at the great gemstone in Caroline’s hand with doubt in his eyes. It looked like it could easily fetch a spectacular price if sold to someone with refined enough taste. At the same time, however, it didn’t look like anything more than that.

“Trust me, Elliot,” Olivia said. “That gem will lead you to them, I know it will.”

“‘Them’? Is there someone at the Gate to the Land of the Dead?”

Olivia hesitated for a moment. “The god that watches over the House of Valedstorm. It called itself a God of Death.”

“A God of Death...?”

“I am entirely in my right mind. Our first meeting was when I was eight years old. It was entirely black, without a face, with black mist always coiling around it...” she said. “I should absolutely have been scared. But strangely, I felt no fear whatsoever. If anything—” A small smile tugged at Olivia’s lips, as though she had remembered something. Elliot honestly had no idea what she was talking about. But if there was one thing he knew for sure, it was that Olivia never lied.

“All right,” he said. “So for now all I have to do is go to the Forest of No Return and find this God of Death?”

“Right...” Olivia said. “Thank you. For trusting me.”

“I would trust you to the ends of the world, Olivia,” he replied, and she gave him a radiant smile. He pulled her close. The icy wind blew around them, robbing Elliot of the chance to breathe in her comforting scent.

“You must go. I’ll come after you, surely as the sun will rise.”

“Right. Caroline and I will be waiting,” Elliot said, betraying what lay in his heart as he stepped away from Olivia. Just like that, he turned, and set off running like the wind toward the Forest of No Return. At his chest, Caroline gazed at the gem in her hands with a smile of perfect innocence.

No sooner had Elliot and Caroline disappeared from her sight than, appearing as though riding on the wind, the Asura came to a halt before her.

“Is this game of chase over, then? I have to say, it was highly entertaining. If only we hadn’t been Asura, your schemes might have succeeded quite quickly...” The Asura went on. “Do you plan on acting as a shield to allow the Silquedo man and the babe to escape?”

Olivia gave no reply. Instead, she reached up and released the fastener on her black cloak, revealing her raven-colored armor as she drew a shining silver knife from its scabbard. She placed one foot slightly behind her and lowered her weight.

Seeing Olivia preparing for battle, the Asura with the wolflike face put his hands on his hips and gave a sneering laugh. “It appears you don’t fear me nearly as much as you should. What do you think you’re going to do after bringing out that toy now? Were you so busy escaping that you left your real weapon back at that hut?”

“I wonder which one of us is really underestimating the other,” Olivia said slowly. Her Odh was all prepared; now, she sent it out into her knife. Around where the blade met the hilt, a sword appeared, glowing pale gold. The Asura let out a whistle of appreciation.

“Now that’s a surprise,” he said. “Your ability to corporealize your Odh is incredible. Even among the Asura, there aren’t many who could match that. Allow me to apologize for what I said earlier. I should have expected nothing less from the Valedstorms, when in your veins flows the blood of Gracia, once mightiest among the Deep Folk. By the way,” he said abruptly, “how shall we do this? Shall I start with the Silquedo man? Or the Deep Folk baby?”

“What are you talking about?”

“You might not think it to look at me, but I’m known among the Asura for my bountiful mercy. Attending to their final moments will mean you can die free from worry.” The Asura’s mouth stretched in a thin smile that gave Olivia an excellent look at his pointed teeth. She felt a surge of fury, as though all the blood in her body was boiling.

“I will not allow you to touch a single hair on their heads! Not that of the man I love, nor of our beloved child!” She slashed at the ground with the blade of light, drawing a boundary line between herself and the Asura. It was a statement of Olivia’s ironclad determination not to let the man come any further. The Asura gazed at the deep gouge in the earth as though mystified.

“You mean your wish is to go on first, without being there for either of their final moments? It matters not to me, if that is what you choose.” His eyes slid away. “Here at last...”

Olivia followed his gaze and saw another masked Asura bearing down on them at terrific speed.

“You still haven’t started? Quite the leisurely pace you’re setting.”

“I didn’t expect to enjoy my chat with the Deep Folk woman so much. Got carried away.”

The other Asura snorted behind his mask, then his eyes went to Olivia’s hands. “What’s this? So she can corporealize. Well, I never...”

“Well? This really looks like it’ll be quite fun, doesn’t it?”

The masked Asura scratched his head. “This is a bad habit of yours, Nefer. All we need to think about is fulfilling the contract,” he said. “Oh, and I suppose the Silquedo man and the baby are still fleeing?”

“As you can see.”

“Then I’ll leave this one to you. It’s still Deep Folk, even if it is only a baby.”

The masked Asura made to run straight past Olivia. She slashed out at him with her blade of light, but he twisted, leaping away to easily avoid her strike.

“Weren’t you listening to what I said? I’m not your opponent here,” he said. No sooner had he hit the ground than he took off running. Olivia changed the blade into a whip that flew out to coil around the man’s ankles. She threw him hard up into the air, then finally brought him slamming down into the ground.

“I told you! I will not let you lay a finger on them!” she shouted. From within the billowing dust, she heard soft laughter mixed with sneering voices.

“I wasn’t told anything like that.”

“She did say something along those lines, come to think of it... But more importantly, she can change the form of her Odh at will? This just gets more and more interesting.”

“Allow me to amend what I said earlier. She’s trouble. Let’s deal with her together.”

“You got it.”

The two Asura began to advance slowly toward Olivia, one on each side.

Elliot, Caroline, give me strength! All the clouds had now cleared, and the moon bathed the land in its enchanting silver light. Olivia leapt into the sky, as though she might pluck out the glittering stars...