Katsurandom

  Seonth, two weeks in.

  —---------------------------------------

  She had do, she had prepared the fourteen valkyries for their [Re:Birth]. She had set the fourteen eggs ea a node point within the tral Spire, eae feeding in a singur mana stream.

  Eae leeg power from the [Shadow Haven]... Eae weakening it…

  Eae taking what wasn’t theirs.

  “I…” Beatrice felt… dirty… she loved this pce, this [World]. It had given her so much, made it so she felt realized, she was happy. She woke up each m invigorated by the mana here…

  Each passing day was a blessing. She felt at all times the spark within her [Core], the [Gift] that had been given to her by Mom, nurtured by Elizabeth… and bloomed within the [Soulscape].

  And now she was stealing from it, all so she could nurture a set of indepe servants that would not follow the orders of the [Owner] of this pce…

  “You may want to prepare yourself, they are about the be born.” A voice suddenly spoke behind her.

  Beatrice reacted before processing who it was. She summoned her full balia, armor, and swords to attack the one who had found out her… sin.

  “Wow, you are a litte jumpy thing aren’t you.” Aura smirked as a pair of bck circles materialized around her, blog her attacks.

  No… It wasn’t as much as a [Block], it felt as if the sword was moving slower, as if it was traversing a long spad as such it wasn’t able to hit the maid.

  “Aura, are you here to mock me? For my betrayal. To ugh at how I fell for your temptation? To take me back to…Elizabeth? To that bitch?” Beatrice said as she let her swords fall onto the floor.

  “You…is this your teenager angst?” Aura suddenly said as she walked towards the [Eggs], as if to ehey were growing correctly. “What is up there, isn’t Elizabeth. We both know that.”

  The purple-haired girl nodded as she moved from oo the other as if they had achieved some kind of metric that only the purple-haired girl knew. “No, I am here to tell you that your time is running out. There is only so much I am willing to do to distract her.”

  The maid’s word made Beatrice’s heart shook, it was thanks to this girl that she had been able to focus on nurturing these eggs, and…she was saying she wouldn’t help her anymore?

  “WHY?!?!?” Beatrice screamed, “WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY?!?!?!?!? I AM DOING THIS BECAUSE YOU SAID IT! BECAUSE YOU SAID YOU WOULD HELP ME!”

  “No.” Aura said turning to look at her, once more her eyes seemed to reflect a steltion of stars, “I gave you an option, if you had decided to gh the rebirth then I would have teleported you to another [Pne] if needed.”

  What?

  “But you decided to stay, it was your choiot mine, not from Rossaline Singh or Watanabe Rena. But the choice of Beatrice Di Starbright.” Aura said as her shadow seemed to increase in size…

  No, it wasn’t her shadow the oo grow, but her…Presence? Her [Authority]?

  What…what was this girl…?

  “I am The Maiden of Spaot the [Maiden Of Miracles], there is only so much I do to help you.” Aura said, the pressure fading away, as if it was hiding once more between the yers of reality.

  “What are you?” Beatrice asked as she fell into the ground, what kind of monster had Elizabeth brought back from the dead?

  “I am Aura Vi Starbright, [The Maiden of Space]. And a loyal [Minion] of Elizabeth Starbright.” Aura said as she extended her arm and a portal materialized at her side, Beatrice could see a group fo armed minions standing guard in front of Mom and Lady Rena.

  “... we even win?” Beatrice asked as she looked at the Knights and Tanks standing at the front.

  She hadn’t mao make the Royal Knights move, the same could be said of the Royal Mages. They had doheir best and sealed themselves, not helping her, but not moving against her.

  Just waiting for the oute, for a future where they would wake up either as [Dragons] or as [Shadon] again.

  “Let’s go the’s see how far has that bitch fallen this time.” Beatrice said as she walked toward the portal, looking behiood fourten shadow eggs.

  They would hatch soon, they didn’t need as muput from her or the [Shadow Haven], they would be indepe entities only tied to her and Mom for now. If Elizabeth ever returned…

  She would be pced in sed pce, first pce would always be Mom.

  She would ensure she lived, even if she had to it the worst possible sins…

  Even if she had to kill her progenitor.

  —----------------------------------------------

  Seonth, Third week.

  —--------------------------------

  “I AM TIRED OF WAITING HATG!” The lizard bitch had turned worse with each passing day.

  Aura had been right, she had been needed here, with each day that came by the [Shadow Haven] was lossing iy, less and less [Shadons] could be born.

  More and more of the pce was deg.

  The atmosphere was starting to turn dangerous to the lower castes, the [Civilian] castes had beeo hibernate, as most of the scouts. Now only the [Knight] and [Tank] castes could survive oside.

  The [Shadow Spire] of course was still livable, if you mao survive the es of this bitch.

  “We have spoken about this, she is not for you to mess around with,” Beatrice said as she summoned once more her twin swords.

  Each time she had summoned and used them, they had lost luster and edge. Each time had been worth it, even if the wounds she had mao make on this bitch disappeared already.

  But eae had giveime.

  “You 't stop me anymore, hatg; I have flushed this pce from the pesky Shadows you use! You will not be able to stop me from enjoying my new mates!” This bitch….She had do herself?

  SHE POISOHE [SHADOW HAVEN] HERSELF!?!?!?

  ONLY SO SHE COULD PLAY AROUND WITH MOM’S BODY?!?!?

  “You bitch…” Beatrice cursed as she extended her senses over the shadow haven, she could feel the streets being starved, the prid was almost dead… And all because this bitch wao take her Mom as a mate?!?!? “Don’t you have shame? Do you even love her?!?!? Or is this another of your rants about wanting to get id?”

  “Me loving her? A puny human? Of course not.” The lizard bitch scoffed, “No, I want her because you love her.”

  The bitch said, as if it was the most natural thing in the world. She had poisoned herself, only to make her suffer? She wao take Mom not because she loved her, not because she missed her…But to make Beatrice suffer?

  Was this…was this who she had pledged her loyalty to? No.

  Elizabeth would never do something like this.

  “Hahahahahahah.” Beatrice ughed as she felt her heart break, she could feel the st threads that joined her to the [Shadow Haven] at the point of breaking, the only thing that kept her tied to this pce was Mom at this point. “Yes, right… You are correct. I love Mom. What kind of Daughter wouldn’t love her Mom.”

  It was the most natural thing in the world, any daughter loved their Mother… Even someone like her, someone who had been born not out of love, but out of y. She of course khat in the heart of Rossaline Singh the number one was not Beatrice Di Starbright, but Elizabeth Starbright.

  She… was not the real Daughter of Rossaline Singh.

  Beatrice may call Rossaline Singh Mom… But Rossaline Singh never actually meant it when she called her Daughter.

  “But even so, what about it.” Beatrice took the st fragments of the thread that joined her to the [Shadow Haven] and pulled. “It matters not what you think of me. What Mom thinks of me, what this [Cursed Dead World] thinks of me…IT DOESN’T MATTER!”

  Beatrice started pulling and pulling, the thread that had wao pull at her, to make her loyal to this bitch, the thread that had pestered so long these st months was finally trying to worm away from her.

  But it could not.

  Beatrice was not a normal minion. Uhe other ones, she wasn’t made up only from Elizabeth Starbright’s mana; she was alson’t made only by using a dead soul from [Terra Invicta].

  She was made using fragments of Rossaline Singh's frayed soul, nurtured by Elizabeth's shadows, and, yes, gestated within the [Shadow Haven].

  But the core of Beatrice Di Starbright was the broken fragments of Rossaline Singh.

  She had been born from the broken parts of [The Saintess of Healing], the st fragments of a soul that strived and fought against the [Fate] that had been assigo her.

  She had been born from the fragments of a [Soul] that should have been broken and turned into a [Sve].

  “You made a mistake.” Beatrice would not be [Ensved], “You should have either goo sleep or try to squish me the first day you became aware.”

  And what could she do instead? She had pulled and pulled at the e to the [Shadow Haven], but what could that achieve?

  “Hah! As if a mere hatg could be a threat to me.” The lizard bitch at least didn’t seem to notice it, “What you do? Pull at my mana? And what of it, it matters not if you use it. I am a [Dragon], a creature at the peak of magic. Whatever you attempt to do with it will not work, you are still bound to me. Nothing you do will harm me.”

  And as if to make her case more obvious this lizard bitch stood, she had ged over the weeks, each week turning more and more dragon-like, at first it was merely the horns and wings…

  Then came the tail…

  Thearted walking around nude and with scales being the only thing that covered her body, as the time went by her human body started shifting more and more to the draic side, and now?

  After almost three months?

  In front of Beatrice stood a majestic dragon, no signs of the [Humao be seen, golden scales covered her body and her azure eyes stared down at her.

  She had four powerful legs and a back covered in silver spikes, a pair of leathery wings at her bad a mighty tail at the back. It was what any [Dragon] wanted, and even at this moment with each breath the dragon took. The amount of [Dragon Mana] that she breathed out was enough that the purifier within Mom’s der was w overtime.

  But even in the face of certaih…Beatrice smiled.

  Why?

  “Do you knoe are called a Legion of Shadons even though the number is quite small?” Beatrice smirked as she started pulling at the Mana she had stolen. She directed it down… Usually, this would mean that she would be feeding the [Shadow Haven], emp it.

  All the [Minions] that could gee mana did this from time to time with their extra [Mana], send some back to the [Shadow Haven] to make it sturdier, stronger, more solid.

  To help Elizabeth grow stronger, better…

  “Why? To make yourself feel better? To create the illusion of beier?” The bitch smirked at her, “It matters not, you will yield to me. And I will feast upon your progenitor entrails.”

  Beatrice couldn’t help herself but ugh at that statement, she liked it if that was true, the idea of this bitch eating herself made Beatrice smile.

  “No, we are a Legion because: Even in the fapendih…We rise.” Beatrice said, and all the mana she had directed down shot in fourteen different dires as spikes.

  Each toward one of her Valkyries.

  Each towards a Shadon Egg, each spike of Mana crag them open, making small little explosions. Was she suddenly regretting her pns of revolt?

  Nay.

  “What did you do?” The Lizard bitch asked fused as she coughed a bck slug-like substance, as if she uking corrupted blood. “What have you done?!?!”

  Beatrice couldn’t help herself, so she ughed.

  “HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH.” She ughed and ughed, even as she felt the very Core of who she was cracked, she… would not live long. A year? Two? Maybe Three? If Elizabeth returned within the month.

  It would not matter. She would never regret what she had done.

  “I helped you do your work,” Beatriswered as she felt the mana blossom within the underbelly of the [Shadow Haven].

  Fourteen eggs cracked simultaneously, and from within, a Valkyrie stood, all armed in shadow armor. Each of them wielding a on, eae of them brimming with power, each of them wanting to roar at the heavens the annou of their arrival.

  And more importantly, eae of them tied to a [Node] from the [Shadow Haven].

  "HOW?!?!?" The lizard bitch roared as the shadows once more started rising within the [Shadow Haven], she roared and howled, but no matter what, the density didn't go down. "WHAT TRICKERY IS THIS?!?!?"

  "There is no trickery here bitch." Beatrice smirked as she threw her ons to the ground, they broke as soon as it touched the floor, "I just summoned a few more [Minions] to help us level the fight."

  As she said that, Beatriapped her fingers, and a magic circle formed under her. With each timeter it expahe dense shadow mana it created increased.

  "*Hisssss*" And as soon as it touched that bitch's mana, it started sizzling.

  "Good," Beatrice said as she noticed how her work had panned out.

  "The readings are stable Mistress." A new Valkyrie said as she rose from the shadows arourice.

  She looked...more like a human than to a Shadon, and she held a weird resembo Beatrice.

  "Don't ever call me that," Beatrice hissed as she turo look at the new [Minion] that had arrived. "Who are you, and what is your mission?"

  "As you and...Master." The Minion said, struggling to e up with a itle for her, "This unworthy one is Sigrun. Leader of the Valkyrie order w under your domain."

  "BLASPHEMY!" The lizard bitch roared as it tried to push into the ward.

  "Captain, the objective is taking more mana than we had expected. Should we move to phase 2?" A new Minion said as it rose from Beatrice's shadow.

  "Our mission is to safeguard the lifeblood of the Moddess of Life and to give you enough time as to deal with...That." The Valkyrie called Sigrun said.

  Beatrice could almost feel the disgust from the minion towards the lizard bitch. She almost felt proud of it... Almost.

  "Start phase two." Beatrianded and turo look at the lizard bitch. "I hope you enjoy every sed of it, I will find a way to wake up Mom. Or I will make sure she has a ce of waking up."

  "Skuld, start the spell." Sigrun said turning to the other Valkyrie, they both o each other and sank once more into the shadows.

  "You win this time hatg." The bitch lizard said as she jumped away from the tower.

  As she flew away, Beatrice felt the mana matrix spread, c the Spire and expanding. The shadow mana started p once more as the pressure from the lizard bitch was no longer p down on them.

  "...we did it, Mom..." Beatrice said as she fell to the ground, tears ing from her eyes. "We did it..."

  She could feel as her [Core] crack grew, and at the same time, the energy from the spell matrix fought to keep her whole.

  "It is done, Master." Sigrun's voice came into her head. It was such a weird feeling—so different from the usual mental unication she did with her former fellow [Minions]. "All the nodes are w within the expected efficy values, and all fourteen Valkyries are ready for your orders."

  "...My orders?" Beatrice asked to no one, suddenly she became aware. Every single [Minion] was looking at her. That wasn't something new, she was used to the Minions ing to her for orders. She had been the oo give them, always looked after.

  But now?

  It was different, as that lizard bitch left, more and more Shadouro the Spire... All were looking at her.

  All seeking for answers, all eyeing her... Judging her... reproag her... All-

  "We await your ands Master." Sigrun said as she materialized once more within the Spire.

  "[We await your ands Master.]" The [Minions] sent their shared thought to her through the [Shadows].

  "And as they say..." Aura teleported into the Spire once again with...something. "Viva revolu."

  She lifted Beatrice, who was still stunned, and sat her in a chair, a raised chair that stood where Elizabeth once had rested, a pce that had been used as a sleeping spot by the lizard bitch.

  "I..." Beatrice was too stuo think properly. She was sitting on a Throne, looking at the sleeping figures of Mom and Lady Rena. "... shore up the defenses, prepare for any intrusion on the [Shadow Haven]!"

  As soon as her words left her mouth the [Minions] darted into a hive of activity, each seeking cil from one of her...minions. Each Valkyrie taking a set amount of the [Minions] uheir wing.

  Each taking a part of [Aqui] uhem... Dividing Aqui into fourteen parts, each taking a part.

  "We begin at any moment, Master." Sigrun kneeled in front of her Throne of Shadows, "We will be ready to Sy the Dragon in approximately four months, within the month, she will no longer have any trol over this pce, and we will offer you this world to you."

  For her?

  No. It was never about her.

  "No, we do this for Mom..." Beatrice said as she pced her little hand against her chest, the pain was there. Her Core would probably st just barely enough... It would o.

  She could no longer afford to wait for Elizabeth to return. She would sy the dragon and prepare to save the princess from the evil Spire...

  Mom would probably hate her, but she would be alive. And with some luck, her Valkyries—fourteen living beings made up from Elizabeth's bloodline—would be enough to soothe her. Fourteen grandaughters.

  It would o be enough.

  She hoped it would be enough... She hoped... That Mom would uand.

  Elizabeth Starbright was dead. And while she hoped for a miracle... She could no longer afford it.

  "...Prepare a sed set of rules for the wards, if..." Beatrice hesitated, should she g to hope? Could she afford it? "...If... someoh this mana signature arrives, pause all our pns. Should this...person arrive, we will ader the premise that it be solved..."

  "As you wish, Master," Sigrun said, taking the sample of Elizabeth's mana, not reag to the readings...at all.

  "[Is that wise? Lady Valkyre?]" One of the Royal Mages asked her.

  "Of course not, but a girl hope. If Elizabeth returns, Mom will not have to suffer anymore, so please... give us a miracle, Elizabeth... For Mom." Beatrice prayed, praying for the return of the person her Mom loved the most.

  For that was the better oute.

  "Return...so I don't have to kill what remains of you," Beatrice whispered as she closed her eyes, she o save as muergy as possible.

  If she was to lead a dragon-sying campaign in a few months, she would need all the power she could use.

  Either Elizabeth Starbright returned...Or she would o kill a dead world.

  Sigrun

  Skuld