VioletPenfrost

  A small light shaft broke into the dark room and draped over the two resting lovers. This light symbolized the start of a new day, a dawn of hope for the people of the resistance, and a hope they prayed would continue for many dawns to come. For Lucia and Sophie, however, it was little more than an annoyance. It was a war they could not lose, for they were immortal in this world. It was also a war they had no attachment to. Sophie's continued compliance was for only two reasons:

  The first was to not be held in contempt and possibly chased by the people she aided, and the second, pcing Lucia on the throne simply gave her peace of mind. To contrast Sophie's more complex emotions, the purple Fairy's reasons for fighting could be summarized in a mundane collection of words, "her lover told her to do so." And so, while strong, these soldiers had no motivation to speak of. It was with these feelings in their hearts that they roused from bed and readied themselves for the oncoming chaos.

  “Attention my winged allies, I require you in the war chamber for final preparations.”

  Without knocking, Gabriel had opened the door and witnessed Lucia in only her underwear.

  "Ahhhm, what are you doing? GET OUT!"

  Lucia rebuked him with a screech while attempting to cover herself with a sheet.

  “I’m sorry if I’ve seen something I shouldn’t have, Sophie. However, I expect to see you in a few minutes.”

  “I’ll forgive you this time since you showed me such a cute side of her.”

  Lucia gred at her lover as the regal-looking man exited the room.

  "Whatttt, you need to lighten up a little you know."

  The Sylvan threw her hands in the air as if to outwardly ponder what she had done wrong. After their pyful back and forth, the two finished dressing and headed towards the war room. Before they even arrived, they could hear the echoing Gabriel’s thunderous voice. Its resounding melody no doubt steeling his followers for battle. Sophie clicked her tongue.

  "Ugh, I can't wait to listen to this guy go on another tangent about his revenge; you'd think after a thousand years, he would lose interest."

  The audience and Gabriel grew uncomfortably silent as soon as the couple entered the vast chamber.

  “You're te… You missed the adjustments to our strategy and...”

  "Alright, I get it. Just tell me what I need to know."

  "Alfnor will be accompanying you directly instead of staying behind with me. This leaves Maxwell, Holtheir's second in command, as the communicator between squads that will stay with me. As you know, each squad will have a member of Holthei-"

  "You've told me this already, you old Grandpa; let's go avenge your parents already."

  Lucia shuddered at her lover's nonchant lies as she observed the entire exchange. Even back on Earth, the purple Fairy had not seen this side of her.

  “...Very well. We move now. ”

  ???

  Gabriel's strategy was rather simplistic; it involved splitting his army into multiple smaller forces so as not to arouse suspicion. Then, the Fairies disguised as civilians and the Fairies as regur city guards would slowly inch their way toward the pace. A simple yet effective pn to ambush the enemy's core and kill Louis.

  Just two others traveled in Lucia's group: Her lover and Alfnor. Alfnor's meek demeanor left the conversation feeling rather dull. In fact, the only discussions that occurred were about his betrayal of Gabriel and his homend. Apparently, a mady had struck the Heavenswood and its surrounding areas, causing Fairies and Ferefolk alike to be whisked away. One day, the illness would present itself as a common cold; the next day, a person's entire existence would be erased as if they had simply fallen off the face of the pnet.

  Sounds spooky.

  Suddenly, Alfnor interrupted the dull dialogue.

  “H-hold on, it’s about time for me to report our position to Gabriel…”

  The Sylvan pressed his fingers against a device on his ear.

  "We're following Staple Street to the pace grounds; we just passed the Blue Swallow Inn."

  Neither Lucia nor Sophie could hear Gabriel over the receiver, so they paused any discussion until he addressed them. As they waited, they passed underneath an overpass, exposing the crowns of their heads to the sunlight. Lucia noticed Alfnor's silver hair glowing iridecently in the midday sun.

  I guess I've been a little too uptight recently. I should remember to take in my surroundings more; it's a beautiful day out, and I have nothing to worry about… So why does everything feel so off?

  In the pit of her stomach, a dark feeling swelled. Before she could voice these concerns to Sophie, however, Alfnor spoke up once again.

  “O-okay, everything is proceeding as pnned. We must simply continue this road until we reach the pace.”

  Then, Sophie questioned out of curiosity.

  “So what did our good friend Gabriel say?”

  It took a few moments for him to mount a response.

  “He gave me a brief o-overview of our current situation. None of the other squads have been discovered yet, so as I said, everything is as pnned.”

  His characteristic stutter seasoned his words.

  "Well, not that it matters."

  Sophie dismissed his answer, and then the group fell into silence.

  With each step, the neat stone path below Lucia's feet began to create patterns in her mind. Her attempt to redirect her mind backfired horribly. Something was definitely wrong; she was sure of it, but she was again interrupted when they came across a less busy area of Valeria.

  In a seemingly spontaneous fashion, Alfnor leaped into the sky and flew forward.

  “Hey, where do you think you’re going?”

  Sophie shouted out to him. She was met with no response. Instead, five individuals revealed themselves from the surrounding rooftops and overpasses. All wore hooded cloaks except one with messy bck hair and a grim demeanor.

  “LUCIA! MY DARLING, LONG TIME NO SEEE!”

  His face rotated at an unnatural angle as his entire body trembled with fury.

  What is happening, what is happening, what is happening.

  Lucia’s entire body froze with fear as Sophie muttered a few words under her mouth.

  “It seems Alfnor was a triple agent.”

  “LUCIA! I MUST APOLOGIZE FOR WHAT I’M ABOUT TO DO, BUT I’M AFRAID I’M GOING TO HAVE TO KILL YOUR LITTLE DYKE OVER THERE. YOU SEE, A CONSPIRACY OF RAVENS MOURN THEIR BEFALLEN WITH THE UTMOST DEDICATION.”

  He's coming back for revenge. I knew it.

  Seeing Lucia’s visible tremors, Sophie attempted to comfort her.

  "Rex, Lucia. I'm at a much higher level, and even if we somehow lose, we will respawn, remember? You just have to rex."

  At this point, Sirius began to calm, though his abrupt rexation was accompanied by an unsettling cacophony of ughter.

  "Unfortunately, my dear Lucia, you will not be able to rex; you see, your filthy broad is not the only one with a Fairysyer."

  In an astonishingly elegant motion, Sirius revealed a scythe with the same red glow as Sophie's sword. It seemed Sirius had also acquired a new css in addition to his powerful new weapon. Genuine fear did not settle in Lucia's heart until she checked his status window: Name: Sirius Bck, Css: Mirror Harbinger Replicana, Race: Gaian, Level: 217.

  How is he the same level as Sophie? He was only level 10 when we st met. Two weeks wouldn't be enough to-.

  "I know what you are thinking; you see, many high-level Fairies have asked that same question of me. Too bad for you, I'm not the type of vilin to just expin my secrets."

  Without warning, Sirius expanded his wings and flew toward the duo, who were standing awestruck in the street. Shortly after, his four acquaintances revealed daggers from their bck coats and followed their leader.

  Rapidly, Sophie's mind began to race. She wanted to keep Lucia safe first and foremost, so she ended up crafting a rather blunt statement.

  "Lucia, leave now! It's not just Sirius. All of them are level 217 somehow."

  WHAT.

  Lucia momentarily looked over the status of one of her robed enemies while Sirius and Sophie began exchanging blows.

  Name: Bine Oz, Css: Copycat, Race: Gaian, Level: 217.

  Sophie is going to die permanently; she can't fight off five Fairies.

  Instead of escaping as advised, Lucia began shivering in pce. Not fighting, just watching in terror as Sophie endeavored to fight off Mourning Raven. For every attack the bck-haired Sylvan deflected, three more followed and exploited openings in her guard. At one moment, she was able to activate Demonshift and reduce one of the robed assaints to quarter health, but then they would simply retreat and have the other four take over. There was no method for her to obtain Demon Hearts; therefore, she could not unleash the true power of her Overture Css.

  "Lucia, I think I've figured out how I can beat them. Hear me out because this pn is a long shot: I believe that these sorts of level copying abilities are only temporary. If I can survive long enough, they'll probably revert to their low-level status.

  So Lucia, leave me here, I want you to survive, I love you too much to witness your death.”

  While being battered by an onsught of attacks, Sophie delivered this speech to Lucia. Unfortunately for her, Lucia continued to disobey her heartfelt wish.

  If Sophie's not with me, this life is not worth living. I don't care anymore. I'd rather die here with her. I also love her; I love her too much.

  With newfound resolve, the Rune Fencer pnted her rapier deep into the back of a Mourning Raven grunt. The robed figure’s health barely decreased, yet Lucia did not falter. She evaded a thrust from his dagger and fired off a Runebolt. The distraction created by Lucia allowed Sophie a brief respite from one of her assaints.

  Still, her health only continued to fall. Another Demonshift allowed her to dish out significant damage, but then Mourning Raven surrounded her again with relentless strikes. Every time the bck-haired Sylvan made ground, she was encircled and quickly subjugated.

  "Well, well, WELL, it seems like this is the end of the road for the both of you!"

  The grim man twirled his scythe and rested it on Sophie’s neck. He then brought his arm back and prepared to swing.

  Yeah, that’s not happening.

  And so, without thinking, Lucia leaped in front of Sophie, then the massive scythe hooked into her body—reducing her health to zero.

  I sometimes wonder how the Quinn on Earth is doing. Did he finally figure out what he wanted to do? Did he simply settle for leeching off Alice?

  The world doesn't wait till you're ready: nobody asks if you are ready for school or if you are ready for a job. And guess what? Some people are never ready, and they are seen as lesser than dirt by society.

  So yeah, sometimes stuff doesn't just “work out.” Some people live horrible lives and die achieving nothing, without forming a single happy memory.

  But there is something worse than the people who are never ready to meet societal expectations. There is even something worse than the people who look down on those less successful than them.

  The worst type of person is someone who is given every opportunity to succeed, but fails, not because they were incapable of something greater—but simply because they were terrified of failing.

  Someone who is scared of the outside world and takes refuge in books, video games, and web novels. Only doing the bare minimum to survive. Maybe it's because I consider myself that type of person that I feel this way. If I could create my own world, I'd think I'd like to create it for that type of person: the type of person who could succeed but chooses not to.

  Unfortunately, it seems that I will never be able to create that world.

  “Sophie… I love you.”

  With her hand outstretched towards her emerald star, Lucia Irisvale died.