Tenebrosia's consciousness drifted through a limbo of darkness. Her physical body was gone, or was it? This was neither the end of her life. If she was, she would've been pulled away to Hades by the very demons she has made a pact with. It was in the contract after all, but the infernal hands of hell haven't dragged Tenebrosia down. Tenebrosia could not speak, hear, or speak, but rather, experience the flowing ebb of time and space wrapping her around. Her form was simply of pure 'being.' Everywhere was simply a void: the interdimensions. Then streaks of light begin to appear out of nowhere, and from them unravel a spew of colors everywhere, forming physical dimensions. Her senses seem to have returned in this space. Memories, it must be.
The nothingness became a physical plane where Tenebrosia's abstract form touched the grassy ground. She looked and observed her surroundings, and could only see endless lines of trees. She looked up, and the moon was shining upon the place with its light. Tenebrosia then heard yelling, roaring– the sounds of battle emanating at the ruins ahead. It was no ordinary ruin, but the ruins that seemingly belonged to the Maidens of Darkness. Tenebrosia walked– more so, she was dreamily hopping each step she takes. Strange. As the abstract Tenebrosia climbed the mossy, rubbled staircase, she could see two hooded women fighting a tall and lanky yet powerful being of darkness. It was a Feldgeist.
—
THE SCROLLS OF REVELATIONS
[Feldgeist; plural Feldgeister.]
Feldgeister are not demons nor angels, rather, it is an umbrella term referring to powerful condensations of extremely focused remnant magic that gained consciousness. The creation of a Feldgeist is incredibly complex and almost inconsistent, however, scholars have theorized their creation is similar to magic being forcibly pressurized to form a singularity of magic, thus creating a Feldgeist.
Feldgeister could be beings of either light, darkness, fire, water– and the rest of the elements itself, however, they only appear incredibly rare, rumored to create illusions to hide its domain and seldom to meet one in an ordinary lifetime. Due to how unique mana fluctuations are in Galamona, Feldgeister only appear in this nation. Otherwise, they will dissipate into fragments of themselves if they do cross Galamona's borders.
They hold no allegiance to anyone, and they cannot be bargained with, seemingly bearing hatred towards intelligent lifeforms. They are dangerous to any mortal they come close contact with, triggering severe headaches, illnesses, and even temporary omens. Additionally, they possess powers beyond any ordinary mage, capable of ransacking an entire fortified settlement by themselves. Feldgeister, however, has an affinity with the elements itself, sparing creatures of the natural world.
—
The Feldgeist swung its giant lanky hands at one of the Maidens, in which she blocked. At the same time, the Feldgeist extended its arms and fired a blast of dark magic at the other Maiden, blocking the last minute and being thrown back. The creature releases these horrifying guttural noises, like a creaking door but in octaves unnaturally low. The battle seems to have been that long already, as Tenebrosia could observe by the pants and inhales and exhales of the two women. However, the Maidens in a last attempt, joined in unison and performed their gorgeous rituals in the form of dances and chants, summoning the demons they had formed pacts with and assaulted the flanks of the Feldergeist. As an elemental being, slicing it off to pieces normally just means it would reform itself back sooner or later. One of the Maidens sliced half of it, and the other sliced its other half, before they immediately sealed the Feldergeist's remnants with a powerful spell, locking it away at the deepest part of hell.
The two Maidens removed their hoods to wipe their sweaty faces with the back of their arm; it was a younger Ragena and Taralon. What they were doing in these ruins was still unclear to Tenebrosia, but the two young Maidens spoke to each other before she could figure out why. "Are you certain this is Musa's Tomb?" Taralon asked Ragena. "To be honest, I wasn't sure at first. But our intel said this unmarked location was the resting place of a powerful elder who held the great one's essence. Besides, the Feldgeist appeared here for a reason; you must feel it, sister? The intense reservoir of remnant magic surrounding this place." Ragena replied, and continued: "We must thread carefully. More Feldgeister may appear." In this memory, the two Maidens walked to the massive mausoleum that was dozens of feet in front of them. As Ragena destroys the seal of the catacomb, Taralon summons a lantern with purple flame inside and soon, they begin to descend. Tenebrosia soon followed after, still confused why her mentor and a future-tyrant would want to desecrate the resting place of an important person by the name of Musa. As the two Maidens walked and their boots echoing through the eerie emptiness of the catacomb. There was a plaque of stone written at the interior of the catacomb, written in ancient runes. Through Tenebrosia's newfound powers, she could easily translate this lost language to something she could understand: "ᛏᚺᛁᛊ ᛒᛖᛚᛟᚢᛖᛞ ᚱᛟᛊᛖ ᚾᛟᚹ ᚱᛖᛊᛏᛊ ᛖᛏᛖᚱᚾᚨᛚᛚᛁ." (This beloved rose now rests eternally.)" "I've got a good feeling we're right on the track, sister," Ragena said to the silent Taralon.
Who was Masu exactly? And why were Ragena and Taralon looking for her final resting place? Tenebrosia followed the two Maidens who continued to descend down this place. The mana beyond the first flight of stairs began growing stronger, and the further the descent was, the more the mana felt more concentrated, and it felt denser the deeper they ventured into the labyrinth. After a few moments of following the source of the strong mana's electrifying feel, the younger Ragena and Taralon, alongside a trailing Tenebrosia, they've found the chamber. At the center of the dusting room was barely lit from two hanging lanterns of Maliflames eternally illuminating a standing sarcophagus, leaning over a pillar of obsidian. It was wrapped with the white silks of gleipnir with the femur of giants with powerful runes carved into them surrounding it. "Whatever is inside of this thing must be incredibly volatile," Taralon murmured before approaching the sarcophagus with the lantern in hand.
As the sarcophagus was illuminated further with the lantern's purple glow, it revealed a sigil of the Maidens of Darkness. "The intel wasn't wrong," Ragena said, as she approached closer and stood just a few feet to the right behind Taralon. "The legend of Elder Masu was true. Not only was she a great member of our clan, but she was also a former Champion of Darkness. A Maiden who migrated from Eradicia into the lands of Galamona thousands of years ago, carrying a blessing of a god passed down by many bearers, yet she remained the same valiant woman as she was before. The woman who bore the Unenlightened Seer's essence." The revelation intrigued Tenebrosia, but she wasn't entirely taken aback. The plaque implied it as such. "Ragena, do you truly think this is… right? Desecrating the eternal rest of a powerful Maiden…just for the sake of having a chance to win against a system that hates us already? We have a chance to turn back. We could just go back to Eradicia, despite the situation that's happening there." Taralon refuted as she turned her head to look at Ragena. The latter didn't reply for a while, looking at the ground. After a moment of silence, Ragena said her verdict: "No," she said. "We must do this. To prove to the Conjuration Parliament for a change in Maiden-kind. This power being held by a peaceful cohort like us in their lands would prove to them that we aren't merely Maidens seeking asylum, but archivists of powerful artifacts capable of standing shoulder-to-shoulder with them." Taralon sighed, and she was still reluctant proceeding through the destruction of the sealing. "Please, sister," Ragena approached Taralon and placed a hand on her shoulder. "We must do this… to restore our dignity without violence. I promise we'd only use such power responsibly." Taralon looked at Ragena, and finally nodded despite being hesitant.
Then, the two women began to reverse the sealing runes carved into the giant femurs, weakening the sealing. Next, it came to the silk of gleipnir that was tightly wrapped around Masu's sarcophagus. The silk was laced with powerful dark magic, trying to break it simply bounces the force back. But as the Maidens realized, low rumblings were suddenly felt. The hanging lanterns of Maliflames began swinging gently, debris shaking– then it became more violent: the source was from beneath the floor. The second the quake became its strongest, the two Maidens jumped in unison and sprouted their magical wings: Ragena sprouted gargantuan wings of a butterfly, while Taralon sprouted the great wings of a moth. From the floor pierced a giant deformed Feldgeist. Its face was drooping and it had uneven arms: 4 exact, and it had many eyes on its warped head, its body looked like stars swirled from within it. The sarcophagus fell and the Feldgeist ate it whole, sealing it within itself. Beneath the Feldgeist was a bottomless pit, and from what it seems to be, its lower half was missing as if it was cleanly sliced. Tenebrosia stood behind the archway leading to the now destroyed chamber where the sarcophagus was held, where there was still a floor while the two women were flying. The giant Feldgeist roared, and began reaching for Ragena and Taralon with its many arms, but the two were quick enough to react and summoned the fists of the demons they made a pact with. This caused the Feldgeist to groan and its grip on the walls loosened, making it slip a few meters down. "CORAXO!" Ragena yelled, and from a floating ritual circle in the air behind her, out came the head of an infernal giant, in the form of a ram but the mouth of a dragon. The demon unhinged and opened its pharyngeal jaw, firing purple flames from its maw. Taralon joined in, and chanted: "ILONON!" From a portal beside her sprawled a mass of giant black tentacles as the creature within screeched. The many-appendages swirled their arms as they formed orbs of energy, thrown at the Feldgeist. As the orbs traveled at great speeds, they turned into sharp crescents that were meant to slice.
The great Feldgeist groaned in pain as the attacks of the two Maidens landed on its skin. Cuts, holes, and other deep wounds were inflicted on the creature. From those injuries, extremely bright streaks of light came from within it. The injuries it sustained were immediately regenerated and its skin quickly stitched itself together. Quickly, it freed one of its four limbs from gripping the sides of the cylinder-shaped chamber's walls, and was about to retaliate with its own powers. It conjured a sphere of dark energy with its free palm and threw it to the two Maidens. The sphere traveled at a thunderous speed, even making a sonic boom as it was fired. Ragena and Taralon went on the defensive, as their respective demons created their own form of shields, defending both their summoners. As the sphere of dark energy hit the protected Maidens, their summoned shields immediately were destroyed, and their demons retreated to their rifts before those portals closed too, proving how absolutely powerful this Feldgeist is. "We need to take it down fast and quickly!" Ragena said and looked at Taralon. "But how? The thing's massive! We cannot seal it entirely with our own spells! Even if we sliced it into pieces, we saw how quickly it regenerates!" Taralon replied. The Feldgeist reached one of its hands to crush both of them, and the Maidens quickly flew down, dodging the attempt to splatter their bodies. "Distract it, and I'll get the sarcophagus. I'll absorb whatever is inside it, hopefully that'll help us seal this Feldgeist!" Ragena commanded. "Ragena, ugh!" Taralon grunted in hesitation, but due to the situation, it might be the only idea to defeat the giant entity that's going to collapse the catacombs if they do not hurry. Swaying off her reluctance, Taralon yelled her chant: "ILONON!" and a rift appeared above the great Feldgeist. Once more, the sprawl of giant tentacles came and some of its appendages took a hold of the demon's head while some of them constricted four of its limbs, as well as some of the tentacles attempting to penetrate the eyes of the giant entity. In retaliation, the Feldgeist opened its uncanny mouth and began to charge an attack from its mouth. Before it could even execute its attempt to strike back, Ragena summoned the claw of her pact demon and pierced right through its throat, causing the Feldgeist to choke and throw its head backwards as it fired a beam from its mouth. The assault barely avoided Taralon who was flying above the giant, but the attack hit some of the tentacles that wrapped the Feldgeist, causing some of the tentacles to be sliced. Taralon's demon let out a screech in pain, however, this left the demon to enter an enraged state to have its grip tighten on the great Feldgeist, before assuming control of its arms and immediately started to have them violently punching its face.
As Taralon kept the entity distracted, Ragena pulled the claw of her demon from the Feldgeist's throat, she immediately dived down and had her demon's claws pierce the entity's left side wide open, and a bright burst of light . The demon gripped both the sides of the hole to keep it open and prevent it from stitching together and regenerating. As the light within the Feldgeist blinded Ragena, she saw a quick glimpse of the sarcophagus just floating at the center within the whiteness within the entity. Ragena quickly flew inside despite the burning sensation of the boiling heat from the intense light. She summoned an aura of darkness that surrounded Ragena entirely, only reducing the heat around her but never fully. Ragena sweated and risked burning herself, or even being turned to ash as she moved further to the center of the creature's insides, it got hotter. Finally, as she quickly reached for the sarcophagus, her fingertips were burned; it felt like a thousand degrees touching it. Forcing through it, Ragena grabbed the sarcophagus by her calves and quickly flew out through the hole. The heat of the sarcophagus burned through her clothes and then her skin. Ragena screamed from the pain as she flew towards the archway, where the invisible Tenebrosia stood and continued to observe everything with a poker face. Ragena's demon continued to grip the sides of the hole in the Feldgeist's left before letting go and retreating back to its rift. Taralon noticed Ragena badly injured with burned marks all over her legs and hands. "Sister!" Taralon yelled and tried to move. "I'm fine!" yelled back Ragena. "Try to distract it while I open this thing, I'll come and help you once I'm done!" Taralon grumbled in frustration regarding how the situation is. Suddenly, large debris and chunks of stone came falling down as the Feldgeist groaned loudly. The catacomb is going to collapse if the Feldgeist isn't stopped. Taralon, with all her might, shook off the hesitation once more and went head on. As she descended, moth wings flapping loudly, Taralon summoned her weapon of choice: a set of sharp claws that radiated dark magic and began attacking the giant Feldgeist alongside her demon, giving Ragena time to do whatever she could to unbound the seals of the sarcophagus.
Ragena was now trying to destroy the silk of gleipnir that still bound the sarcophagus altogether. However, the dark magic of the silk was too strong. "Damn it!" she exclaimed under her breath. When she tried burning it with her own magic, the gleipnir simply refused to be scorched. Then she remembered: the Maliflames that hung above the sarcophagus earlier. The gleipnir may be only strong if the mana that surrounds the place is thin, and when the veil is thinning, magic becomes more rawer and more powerful. If it was brought to some place where the veil of mana was dense and suppressed, then shall the gleipnir's magic be weakened. "Taralon!" yelled Ragena, "We must get this sarcophagus outside of the catacomb when the Veil is more stabilized!" "Finally! The catacomb is about to collapse anyway! Let's go!" Taralon replied back. With a fierce command to her demon, the tentacles suddenly let go of its grip on the Feldgeist, and quickly slammed the giant on its head with all its appendages, causing the Feldgeist to scream– a sound as if a thousand souls were trapped inside it, and fell down the darkness. Ragena quickly acted and sprouted her own butterfly wings once more, picking up the now-cooled sarcophagus with her hands and bolted across the long hallway and intending to fly above the spiral staircase. Taralon soon followed, her moth wings flapping as she tailed behind Ragena, as well as Tenebrosia who floated and chased them. From behind them, the giant Feldgeist screamed as it was now on the pursuit. It seemed to be in a panicked state, as if it didn't want the sarcophagus of Masu taken away. Its body was too big to fit through the archway, yet it didn't care. It simply bashed through the archway and chased after the Maidens in a crazed space. It gurgled and managed to form words, albeit screaming it in several voices at once. "MASU!" It bellowed as it continued to crawl at a monstrous speed chasing after Ragena and Taralon. The halls collapsed under the crushing force and movement of the giant Feldgeist. As the two women ascended to the spiral staircase, the Feldgeist quickly latched onto the walls and began climbing faster. "What is this thing?!" Taralon exclaimed. Focused on getting the sarcophagus out, Ragena didn't reply and continued to escape, the stone coffin in hand.
As the Maidens zoomed through the labyrinth of endless halls of stones, the giant Feldgeist continued its pursuit. It destroyed its surroundings where it couldn't fit, eager to catch the two women who had Masu's sarcophagus. Finally, as they breached the surface and finally exited Masu's Tomb, so did the giant, who destroyed the mausoleum into pieces. Its size was enough to completely dwarf a four-story building even without its lower torso. It released a groaning voice and screamed "MASU!" once more. It tried to reach for Ragena who still had the sarcophagus in hand. However, the appendages of Taralon's demon appeared once more and began to constrict the Feldgeist. "Hurry with whatever you have to do, I'll give you time." Taralon said before jumping towards the gigantic entity.
With the Feldgeist at bay, Ragena began warping a localized space from her palm trying to detect where the veil is most stable. The more the space was less warped, the stronger the veil was. She took to her feet and frantically followed where the veil was strongest, sarcophagus in one hand. At last, she found where the veil was most stable. Ragena placed the sarcophagus down and began tearing the silk of gleipnir apart with her sword. It was difficult to cut through, but her theory was correct: the silk was finally broken and Ragena quickly cut through the last wrapping. The sarcophagus was finally unbounded from its final seal, and so Ragena slowly pushed its stone lid and inside was the skeletal remains of Masu, clothed in a dark flowing robe. She held a peony made of silver that glowed pink, with both her hands firmly rested on her chest. "A flower of romance…" Ragena muttered under her breath. However, she immediately felt the pulsating power within the flower. It seemed to hold the essence. When Ragena reached out and touched the peony, the giant Feldgeist groaned loudly and screamed once more: "Masu!" It entered an enraged state and began overpowering Taralon. "Ragena, hurry! I don't think I could hold this thing for long!" Taralon yelled as the great Feldgeist ignored Taralon's attacks and went straight to Ragena who was on her knees in front of the sarcophagus. She gasped and immediately reached for the peony, pulling it out of Masu's skeletal hands. Once the silver peony was in her hands, a glowing essence drew out of it and was absorbed. Ragena screamed in pain as the immense power was being processed by her body. At the same time, the magic within Ragena released a powerful aura that it was able to fend off the Feldgeist, causing it to stumble backwards. She continued to scream in pain, and fearing for her 'sister's' safety, Taralon immediately pinned down the giant with her demon to secure more time for Ragena to process the power. The Feldgeist was only restrained momentarily until it escaped Taralon's grasp, pulling away from the appendages and rushed at Ragena while continuing to scream Masu's name. Suddenly, Ragena stood up slowly and raised her palm to the air. She conjured gargantuan needles in the sky and pinned the Feldgeist to the ground. She felt something within the giant entity now pinned to the earth. Something familiar.
Ragena reached out her hand and touched the Feldgeist's head, and began absorbing its power rather than sealing it. "Ragena! What're you doing?!" Taralon exclaimed. "We can't seal it, Taralon… even if we sliced it to pieces, its concentration of mana is too dense to even seal properly." Ragena calmly replied as she closed her eyes and continued to absorb the Feldgeist's power. "Something is inside it too." "Are you alright in the head, Ragena?! I detect something incredibly alien within that thing. It would poison you!" Taralon immediately refuted. However, Ragena did not listen and continued to take more of the mana within the Feldgeist. The giant got smaller the further its mana was taken by the Maiden. A few moments later, the Feldgeist turned into nothing but a few ashes in the end, leaving behind only a golden rose. As Ragena finished, the veins in her bare hand glowed pink and caused her to be slightly nauseous. "Ragena," Taralon said as she walked towards Ragena and examined her hand. "What have you done– "Don't mind it, sister," Ragena groaned. "It seems like it's stuck with me… but, as long as it sticks within me, it remains bound to me," she murmured before standing up and stumbled to the golden rose. Taralon saw it too, and accompanied Ragena to get it. "The peony and the rose," Ragena silently said. "Whatever the Feldgeist used to be, must've been romantically involved with Masu." Silence befell the surroundings, and when Ragena picked the golden rose that laid on the ground, a specter appeared from the rose and floated in the air. It spoke incomprehensibly, in a language both Maidens couldn't recognize. Ragena reached out and used her newfound powers to surround herself and Taralon to understand the specter together. Then, its language became clearer. "Who are you…?" The specter said in the voice of a well-mannared man albeit his voice was weak and struggling to even speak, as if he was out of breath. "Forgive us, o spirit. We were looking for the essence in our quest to restore the honor that the Maidens of Darkness once held. I assume you were the Feldgeist that… wasn't so friendly with us." Ragena replied. "That the Maidens once held…? What do you mean…?" The specter asked in confusion. "History has gone for the worst; our magic is viewed with much taboo and prejudice due to the nature of our magic over the dead and dark. We seek the essence of the great Masu to use it and help restore our image as Maidens, as it was once thousands of years ago, like your time." The spectre fell silent. Then he said, "I've never heard of such a thing… how long has it been…?" Curious by the sudden question, "The legend of the great Masu became folklore for the Maidens for at least a millennia and a half now." Once more silence filled the conversation. Then, the spirit named itself: "It has been a while… indeed. My name is… Beowulf, a former Knight of the Cardinals… and the lover of Masu." This revelation surprised the Maidens. The tales never mentioned Masu having any lovers, let alone that of someone belonging to the Cardinals. "A lover? But you were never mentioned in Masu's Legend, nor the different versions of it." Taralon jumped into the conversation. "Due to… circumstances with the Crown… I may tell you, but most things… I forgot." "Forgot, how?" asked Ragena. "Perhaps… it is the swirling amount of mana that made me lose my memories…" Beowulf replied. "Then what do you know about yourself?" boldly asked Taralon.
"My memories are fragmented… but… I remembered I was a private agent of the Crown… who specialized in dangerous tasks involving the arcane. I knew I was… cursed by something… though I forgot about it too. But, in one of my missions… I met Masu, who was… wandering an observatory in the northern parts of Galamona… to do… something. After that… she agreed to come back with me to… Windstrew, and then I showed her… things she didn't know about Galamona. Then… by one fateful day, we fell in love. I remembered… I was extremely devoted to her." Beowulf reminisced about the days he could vividly remember. "So, how did you turn into… this?" Ragena asked. Beowulf sighed, and spoke. "Well… when Masu and I shared our deepest vulnerabilities, I knew she had… the power of a god, and I… possessed a curse that would put me in a very early grave. She wanted to help, whatever she could… but the curse was… cosmic. Regardless… when she attempted to do so, she only removed a large part of the curse, but a piece… was still inside me. She merely… absorbed the curse, with the power of a god within her… acting as an equalizer in her body to prevent her from being poisoned like me. But… one day, she rapidly aged… it was… the distortion in mana as the consequence of taking away my curse, and soon… she died, but… not without giving half of the essence towards me first, so that even with the curse inside me, it wouldn't cause me any physical agony. So… I built… the hidden mausoleum and the catacombs below these hidden grounds to bury her peacefully. Unlike Masu… I grew old normally, but… the pain of being alone must've made me follow her sooner into the afterlife. I… drank a bottle of a high concentrated amount of poison somewhere… in the catacomb… but my soul must've been tethered to Masu's grave, and my duty… to protect her." Ragena and Taralon began to theorize what had happened given Beowulf's explanation. Based on what they knew, they looked at the specter with a glimpse of empathy and theorized what had likely happened. "Your soul must've been trapped under all that mana, seeing you now. As a Cardinal, you possess the power of light yet you absorb a true source of darkness. When you died, light and dark could've intersected and never knew what to categorize you as, and so you were trapped to be labelled under the laws of the human world and not pass on to the world of angels. That must've been why you turned to a giant Feldgeist; your soul couldn't pass either heaven or hell, and so you were forced to be trapped underneath the chamber of the sarcophagus, collecting all that mana while having the instinct to protect your love." Ragena spoke, still holding the golden rose and silver peony at hand.
"I… suppose so," Beowulf weakly replied. "The other half must still be inside of this golden rose, isn't it?" Ragena asked the specter, who seemed to be saddened by the memories he just spoke of. "Yes, indeed…" he weakly replied. "Oh, Masu…" he murmured. "You are free to pass on, Beowulf." Taralon said. "But… I must guard Masu…" "Masu passed on to Hades a long time ago, you may likely never see her again," Taralon continued. The specter jittered in sadness, that her sarcophagus and her dead remains are the only semblance he could ever see of Masu eternally. "But, given how she gave up her life for you, her devotion for you must reach beyond what everyone could possibly do for their beloved." Beowulf remained in silence, then Ragena continued where Taralon left off, and said: "Do not lose any hope, Beowulf. Though spirits instinctively belonging to Elysium and Hades may never see each other normally, when the veil is thin, it's possible you may one day see her spirit once more." "… Whatever time I have left in the world of mortals… I'm not going to seek Masu… but I do have a better idea…" Beowulf replied; a glimmer of hope shined in his eyes. "We'll continue to carry both your legacies on our backs with the full power of the Seer, ensuring your name will never be forgotten alongside Masu's history." Ragena said. Soon, Beowulf slowly lifted himself further in the air, drifting away from the two Maidens. "You'd be able to… find the other half of the essence within that rose…" "Thank you for letting us acquire this treasure you once held dear, Beowulf." Ragena said. "No… it is I that should thank you… Maidens… I find peace with your words." Beowulf weakly replied. "You know… I vividly remembered happy fragments of the memories I hold… of Masu and I sharing our moments… may it be joy… arguments with each other… or simple days of just being together, I never once… did regret any of those days being with my beloved. I hope your goals come to fruition… and one day… may you be able to restore the honor… of Maidenkind…" Beowulf said, as he slowly dissipated into the air into a scatter of beautiful smaller orbs of light that began to sprawl to the night sky. The specter looked into the sky as he floated higher and higher. "I shall be… part of the starry skies itself, and stay there… for as long as I can… so that at least… one day, Masu's spirit would be able to look at the skies and admire me one more time… just as I admire her… till the boundaries of heaven and hell separate us forever…"
The spirit of Beowulf transformed into a scatter of light across the sky, like beautiful veins that stretched beyond the darkness in search for his love; like stardust that drifted to the heavens. "May he now rest in peace too, as did Masu…" Ragena whispered. The two Maidens continued to stare at the poignant and bittersweet action of the specter.
What seemed hours after that, the Maidens turned their attention to the rose that Beowulf left them. It still glowed of that pulsating power within. Ragena reached out within, and pulled the other half of it into herself, completing the essence within her as Taralon observed with a slight, worried frown. Ragena once more screamed in pain, however, this one was worse as her body began to adjust to the completed power. A weak pillar of light began to shine upon Ragena, before it suddenly blasted into a blinding light. Everything went white.
As everything was blinded by this light, the memory immediately shifted to a new one.
—
This seems to be further into the timeline. The place looked familiar. She looked through the windows of this cramped cabin, and outside was the same place of the Maidens' house that Tenebrosia and the other children stayed in back then. Seems like the housing situation hasn't been upgraded in this timeline. Ragena was sitting at the edge of a bed situated at the furthest corner, and Taralon was at the opposite end, sitting at a desk with piles of books and quill in hand.
"Ragena, how are you feeling?" Taralon asked. "Better…" she weakly replied, getting out of bed and stretching. "You've been passed out since last night, I had to drag you here." Taralon stood up and turned to face Ragena. "What time is it?" The latter replied. "It's half past three in the afternoon."
"What happened after that?" Ragena asked while examining her arms; the glow in her veins were gone. "You created a crater so large you pulverized the entire site after that blast. You were alright, physically, of course– but being near you felt so heavy due to the mana concentration radiating from you. I had to wait 'till dawn just for your body to stabilize, and I carried you all the way from the west to here. In your sleep, you were muttering about Beowulf and Masu… barely could understand even a half of it. " "Ah," is all Ragena could muster. "Well, I did find out about the tragic memories between Beowulf and Masu. Turns out, the tales we know about Masu are only scratching the surface." She continued. "Pray tell?" Taralon asked. "Perhaps another day, sister, we must focus on our plans. But before that, what did you find out about my body as I slept?" Ragena replied.
"Your body stabilized as your body adjusted to the godly amount of powers within you. Fortunately, as a Champion yourself, your body already was at the peak of what a mortal could ever wield of mana. As for whatever matter you observed from Beowulf, that curse is still embedded within you. But, as Beowulf said, the power you wield now acts as an equalizer that prevents you from even feeling its toll. The tools and gadgets I used confirmed it's still in there, though your enhanced magic is actively suppressing it from even doing anything." Taralon walked to her desk, and held a book in her right hand. "However," her tone is much more serious, "as noted, the curse is alien. It is not… from this world. From the research I've covered so far, the way the curse behaves doesn't appear from any written recorded text. It… actively eats your own cells with an unknown matter, and it forms a microscopic lifeform that becomes sentient. From the looks of it, your magic seems to be killing them off quickly before it gets even worse."
Silence fell on the room, but Ragena remained optimistic. "A small price to pay for our goals to restore the honor of the Maide–" "Ragena, your naivety blinds you. What if it suddenly gets worse, like what it did to Masu, or Beowulf?" Taralon interrupted. "We don't even know how this 'curse' fully works, other than it is actively eating you from the inside out!" "Taralon!" Ragena yelled, "When I vowed to the world as a young girl that I'd restore the reputation of the Maidens of what it once was thousands of years ago, I never backed down! Even with everyone, even of our own clan, turning their backs on us after we were demonized, I never stopped trying! Even if it kills me, Taralon, I'll never back down!" Ragena panted.
Suddenly, space began shifting again, and everything was like geometrics that began to spin to form a new memory.
—
Tenebrosia was transported into the same familiar place, however, this was now the large house she stayed in before… seems like this wasn't far from the moment Ragena adopted the younger Tenebrosia before. The house was empty of people except for Ragena and Taralon sitting across from each other, separated by a wooden table in the kitchen. The place was illuminated by equipment to test for the arcana, and pile after pile of books as the shelves were already packed with them. Despite the maximalist approach to the storage, it was somewhat still neat. The house was gently illuminated by faintly glowing contraptions, candles, and lamps. "Word has it, several migrated Maidens were spotted across the outskirts of Windstrew." Ragena spoke as she wrote on a scroll. "How'd you hear this?" Taralon asked, as she read a book. "Bad mouthing from the locals," Ragena bluntly said. "We already made improvements with the house anyway, and we need an entourage anyway. Might as well invite them into our little cohort!" Ragena joked. "Not a bad idea." Taralon simply said.
The memories then shifted again, and afterwards, several Maidens were already at the house. Most notable Malika was there. They were given a short summary of Ragena and Taralon's plan to restore the honor of the Maidens throughout Agmadoren, by peacefully climbing the ranks up to a seat of Director inside the Conjuration Parliament. All of them agreed to help the two of them and formed an established cohort, optimistic about their own shared goals of restoring hope and respect for Maidenkind and their own future.
Then, the memories began shifting once more…