Alliyana Etheria's Perspective
Spring, finally.
The air no longer bit with every breath. The snow beneath my boots had lost its razor edge, softening into crusty, half-melted shells that cracked with each step. It was the month of Thawn—though I still called it March in my head. I'd be turning nine soon. Strange how quickly the body adapts to a hostile world, if you ask it to.
I'd never hiked this far before. The mountains west of the Duchy had always loomed like teeth in the distance—jagged, impassable and corrupt.. But the Duke had tightened security since the last incident. Patrols tripled. Gate access restricted. No one was allowed out.
Except me.
The soldiers didn't stop me anymore. They pretended not to see me. Worked just fine. I can freely enjoy my morning walks.
I pressed my foot against a slab of stone, adjusted my balance, and climbed a narrow ledge. Loose shale gave way beneath my heel. I shifted and kept moving. The cold here was cleaner. Less burdened by the stench of rot. A few demonic rabbits scattered ahead, eyes glowing faintly before they disappeared into brush.
The ecology fascinated me. Even corrupted beasts followed some order. Wolves preyed on hares. Bears on wolves. Even slimes—colorful little globs that wobbled like children's toys—ate the discarded scraps. Scavengers. Harmless, mostly. Tainted by corruption, like everything else, but non-aggressive.
How demonic beasts spawned was still a mystery. And how humans—especially those living near the corrupted north—avoided mutation entirely while the dark elves did not?
The answer was simple. Gods.
Every human born has their body blessed by the paternal deity. They watch over us. Or so they say.
Every human has divine residue from their blessing nearly a millennia ago. Immunity to corruption. Including me.
I heard a sound. A low, guttural roar. A bear. I moved.
Snow kicked behind me as I sprinted across the incline. My legs, reinforced with mana, moved in clean arcs. I passed a tree with bark torn fresh, and then—
A corpse. Male. Soldier. Uniform I don't recognize. Days old. Jaw slack. One leg twisted beneath him.
I didn't stop. The bear came into view—massive, black-furred, writhing.
Choking?
I drew my knife and leapt. One breath. One strike. The blade—edge reinforced by a hexagonal lattice of barrier magic—slid into the base of its neck with a crisp, wet snap. Like slicing cartilage wrapped in silk.
It didn't scream. It buckled—a wet, spasmic twitch as its spine lost communication with its limbs.
Cleaner than before. My form was sharper. Controlled. Three months of unrestricted training in a world of magic gave me this much power.
The gods are next
A ridiculous idea.
Then I saw it. A shape pushed its way out from behind the bear's slack tongue. A slime. But not any kind I knew. It glistened like oil, pitch-dark and lightless—no shimmer, no color, no transparency.
A thick, tar-colored mass that moved with unsettling smoothness.
I froze.
Black slimes didn't exist. Not in the books. Not in the field.
Even corrupted slimes retained color. This one… felt wrong. Not aggressive. But wrong.
Still, I felt it—the same flicker of excitement as pulling a rare creature from a gacha roll decades ago
I should leave it alone.
But I didn't. I knelt and coaxed it into my satchel. It didn't resist.
It was getting dark. I'd wandered too far west. My usual path was long behind me. Then—
A voice. Male. Close.
I crouched low, eyes scanning. At the cliff's edge below me was a narrow ledge—and a cave mouth. The voice had come from there.
I jumped. The drop wasn't far. I landed without sound.
Inside the cave, a man—gaunt, wrapped in a tattered coat—looked up in disbelief.
"A kid? What the hell is a little girl doing this far north?"
I tilted my head. "What's a grown man doing stuck in a cave beside a cliff?"
He didn't laugh. Just stared. Hollow-eyed.
I softened my tone. "How long?"
"Four days. Bear had me trapped. Thought I'd freeze, but there's a vent back there. Warmth."
"It's dead," I said.
He blinked. "No it's not. I heard it just now."
"I killed it."
He stared.
I nodded toward the mouth. "Was that your friend outside?"
He sat up, trembling. "They survived?"
I frowned. "They?"
He blinked. I clarified.
"Single corpse. Same uniform."
He slumped again. "Then they're dead. All of them."
"You want to eat together?"
He perked up. "You have rations?"
"No."
"…Then why ask?"
"I'll be right back."
I climbed out, grabbed the bear by its fur, and pushed. It slid down the slope with a crunch.
I heard him scream.
When I returned with firewood, he was still pacing, half-crazed, near the corpse.
I dropped beside it, landing on the haunch.
"Relax," I said.
"You know eating that will kill you."
I didn't answer.
I set the wood. Stacked it. Sparked it.
He watched, wide-eyed.
He was asking the wrong question.
"Who did it?"
Ignored him. He didn't ask again.
I drew my knife.
He snorted. "That little thing won't scratch it."
I formed the lattice—hexagonal, glowing faintly—and sliced. Clean. Effortless. I cooked the meat. It sizzled. Greasy, rough-smelling, but edible.
He stared. Starved. I tasted it first. Chewed. Swallowed.
"You're a demon," he said.
I smiled. "If I were a demon, you'd have felt it when we met."
I let the slime out. It squirmed near the carcass, feeding.
He kept staring.
"I'm two hours late for my shift," I said. "If you won't eat, I'll throw it off the cliff."
He wavered. "Don't tell anyone."
"I won't."
He ate. I cast simple healing as he did—gentle, slow pulses.
He chewed, then spoke.
"We were six. Scouts from Orell March. Sent to chart mountain growth. Reports of bears traveling in packs. The Marquise said they were being displaced. Something bigger's moving up north."
I listened.
He swallowed. "This isn't the first time. Last time it happened, a High Demon appeared. Duke's father died killing it. House Orell and Aurellia united forces just to slay the damn thing."
"Are you done?" I asked.
He nodded. "Why rush me?"
"Never mind." I wouldn't make it back on time anyway.
"It's dark. Stay till sunrise."
I stood up. "I don't need light."
"What?"
"Mana pulses. I bounce them through the terrain. Like sonar. Improvised magic"
He blinked. I didn't explain.
"You're on your own now."
I tucked the slime back in my satchel and left. Surely we won't see each other again.