Was it simply ill fortune clinging to her — or the mischief of fate itself?
Yuna dragged her weary body over and sat down on a great boulder by the roadside, knees pressed together. She did not sigh; her expression was merely a little drawn and worn.
It had already been over a week since she had cut her way out of the mist. Fortunately, she had not been pursued by those things from within the mist; unfortunately, in the chaos of that escape she had lost her precious map, and lost her bearings as well.
Relying only on the direction of sunrise and sunset, the Yuna of now could do nothing but press blindly Northward, walking straight ahead in a single line.
"My training still isn't enough..."
After resting briefly, Yuna let down the simple braid she had re-tied in her hand, reached up to take the staff that had been leaning against her shoulder, and nimbly leapt down from the boulder.
"Thud"... "Thud"... "Thud" — the staff struck the ground in echoing thumps. All around was hushed, as though the world held no one but Yuna alone.
"Swish." Shoe soles worn through from violent running; wild grass beaded with dewdrops — Yuna couldn't quite shake the feeling that her walking was never quite at ease.
Another round of sunrise and sunset passed.
Drawing on her Flight Magic, which did not last for long, Yuna once again gazed down at the land below — this stretch of hills was simply too vast.
The far edge of the horizon was still that tender green tinged with the blush of red, gentle undulations rolling on and on, as though without end.
"Nothing for it, then."
After Yuna landed smoothly back to the ground, she gave a light flick of the staff in her hand; Severance Magic cleanly cut a tree beside her clean in two at the trunk, the cut smooth as glass, and a thunderous "crash" broke the silence.
· ·
Stars and moon lit up the night sky, the evening breeze stirring the bonfire. The fire's "crackle" spat out drifting ashes, and within the orange-red glow, the small wooden lean-to revealed Yuna nodding off inside.
"...Lady Nanoda..." the maiden murmured softly in her sleep, clutching the staff tightly in her arms.
As in days past, everything about the night remained still — too still, in fact, and so it had been for several days of travel running.
There were no snakes, insects, birds or beasts shying away from the bonfire — and no terrible monsters lying in wait, either.
But today, the calm was broken.
A faint prickling pain shot through her head; Yuna's eyes snapped open. Almost in the very same instant, her Mana Perception unfurled outward as she readied herself for combat.
The Mana was not particularly powerful — but it was drawing toward her.
The closer one got to the North, the more frequently monsters appeared, and Yuna's first thought was of a monster lying in ambush beneath the cover of night.
However, the moment the "enemy" stepped into the range cast by the firelight, she froze.
"Demon Race?"
"Demon... Race?"
A kind of mimicked echo came back from across the way, the immature voice sounding somewhat slurred and unclear.
A member of the Demon Race with a pair of pointed horns, looking no older than a boy of perhaps ten-odd years, wore only a leather skirt; his somewhat swarthy skin lay exposed in the firelight, and weed-like, tangled hair fell down to cover both of his eyes. He bared a full mouthful of jagged shark-like teeth and, in babbling, baby-talk fashion, said "Demon Race" over and over again.
In the small demon's hand he was carrying a wretchedly slaughtered wild wolf — the poor wolf's abdominal cavity hollowed out and dug clean down to a single thin layer of flesh clinging to its ribs; a trail of blood extended all the way along, smeared in lavish abandon across half the demon's body and the corners of his mouth.
An ordinary person might have been frozen on the spot by the sheer visual shock of it, but not Yuna. What gave her pause was this: this was a member of the Demon Race — in a sense, a member of Lady Nanoda's own kind.
Yuna knew that Lady Nanoda was a special existence among the Demon Race, and could not be measured against your average member of the Demon Race.
"Phew... if you can understand me... would you like to have a chat with this big sister? Big sister won't hurt you."
Communicating with the Demon Race — in the eyes of a normal person, that was the behavior of a madman. Even when the member of the Demon Race could in fact be communicated with, a human of the old era would never have spoken so much as one extra word before going straight into battle.
"A chat?" The small demon halted his steps; this line came out a touch more fluently than the previous one.
Yuna lowered the staff she had been pointing at her opposite, but did not let down her guard. "Yes."
The very next moment, however, the small demon did something that left Yuna astonished.
"Ah, don't kill me, please, I'm begging you." "I was wrong, I'll give you anything, just let me go." "I'll love you forever — in the next life, we'll still be together." "Goddess, watch over us — let him fall into hell." "Help! Somebody save me!"...
A string of emotionless utterances — lines being recited back, word for word.
The small demon quietly set down the prey in his hand, dying words spilling sentence after sentence from between his fangs, and then being chewed up.
The Mana began to rise.
The overlord that roamed this stretch of land — for all that its appearance closely resembled a human's, it was far more akin to a wild beast. Dark red Mana began to seep out from all over the demon's body, sharp claws bursting through his fingertips. The "hunter" was about to begin a new hunt.
"!!"
In a flash, the small demon vanished from Yuna's sight.
The sharpened claws closed in on her neck — but Yuna had already, at unbelievable speed, swung her staff. The staff, which she had been gripping with both hands, traced out a perfect arc — a flash of vivid crimson.
The small demon gave a strange cry as the flat of the staff struck him back to where he had stood; claws sinking into the ground and dragging deep gouges, he just barely managed to stabilize himself.
"So it really won't do, after all?"
Yuna had not delivered a killing blow; had she used Severance Magic, her opponent would already, from that single strike just now, have been split into two halves.
The small demon moved very quickly — but compared to Lady Nanoda, he fell hopelessly short.
"Won't do?" His four limbs began to crawl backwards across the ground; the small demon kept repeating the phrase he had just learned.
Looking at the small demon like this, Yuna hesitated — kill him, or let him go?
It was obviously this small demon who had been slaughtering the creatures in the surrounding area — including, inevitably, the occasional human who passed by. Letting him go would only mean things turned worse and uglier later on.
If she had never met Lady Nanoda, she would surely have cut down this member of the Demon Race without a second thought.
No — without Lady Nanoda, she would never have had any "today" at all.
"Haaah... off you go, then."
Yuna lowered the staff she had been holding up, and turned her back on him.
She had thought, too, about taking this small demon back with her, and educating him a little in the same way Nanoda used to instruct the members of the Demon Race within the Demon Association. But sadly, at present she could not even find the way back home, let alone bring along a little demon who was practically a ticking time bomb.
"Go... go... go..." As Yuna turned away, the small demon slowly retreated, and vanished out beyond the range of the firelight.
After watching for a while the spot where the demon had disappeared, Yuna returned to the small wooden lean-to, sat cross-legged with her back against its side wall, and closed her eyes.
The surroundings once again fell into a brief silence.
The bonfire flickered and swayed.
The sound of the lean-to being shattered, an ear-piercing shriek, and the maiden's sigh — these three rose, all at once, only a few seconds later.
"I'm sorry."
The small demon who had burst into the lean-to from behind — together with the lean-to itself — was cleaved into two halves. Splintered shards of wood flew everywhere, taking several strands of Yuna's hair down along with them.
Mana particles gave off a luminous glow; the small demon, sliced in two, fell to either side of Yuna and gradually faded into nothing.
Over the years, Yuna had used Severance Magic to cut down monsters, and on the battlefield she had cut down enemy soldiers — but this was the very first time she had used this magic to cut down a member of the Demon Race.
"I'm sorry. If Lady Nanoda had been here, she would surely have handled this far better than I did."
Yuna's heart was a tangled, complicated thing.
"Ah... I really do miss you so very much... Lady Nanoda..."
Gazing up at the pure bright moonlight, she unconsciously brushed away the corner of her eye.
____
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🔥 New history: Path of Elation in Warhammer 40K
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