A tall young woman walks through the Spectabile forest. She’s wearing a suit of light armour padded with some insulating clothing in order to brave against tonight’s cold air. A long, black cloak drapes her back and gives her a more imposing atmosphere.

Her blonde hair is restricted by a helmet and her face is mostly covered. Her pale blue eyes peer through and observe the oddly beautiful forest around her. It sparkles quite amazingly. She’s out here tonight because she wants answers… and because she made a promise to herself.

Her name is Tori Blentare.

Sigh… I wish I could get more used to this new armour… I miss my old outfit, this is just too heavy. I’m glad they bought this for me but… it’s nothing like the Mithril I used to have. Even normal night silver would have been better. Well… they did let me get celestial iron armour, I really shouldn’t be ungrateful. They even got me gauntlets made of black star ore like I wanted… I have a lot to pay them back for.

Tori continues walking slowly. She understands well the positions of the sentries located around the forest. She understands what tonight is supposed to be. The blood festival. She didn’t know the exact date but she learned where Shaula and Ajax were going tonight from Claris, her new beastkin friend and roommate.

She was meant to keep tonight's activities secret from the rest of the people in their home but she trusted Tori a lot. Since Tori had been living there, the girls naturally started to gravitate towards her.

Her noble bearing, her wisdom, and the motherly way she treated Lanov, the young beastkin boy saved by the woman named Shaula, all endeared her to everyone else in the home. She is the oldest woman in the house at thirty years old and one of the few humans there as well.

Claris had confided with her about how Ajax and Shaula were going to deal with a very ugly event, an event that was a stain to Tori’s own humanity. An event that she had never attended before and which her family despised. Tori understood that Ajax and Shaula were going there… But, Tori is worried about them. The methods that the nobility have access to…

Even with the strength at their disposal, which Tori has seen a few times… there are ones here that even Tori couldn’t deal with herself. However, this is not the only reason why Tori is out right now. She herself needs information. Information that the gang of fellow nobles and wealthy socialites at this event could give to her–

“Hm, who are you now?”

Tori leaps back from the voice she hears, turning quickly to look at their faces. It looks like one of them found her. Or three of them more like it…

“Sir, those gauntlets… black star ore?”

“Expensive… Pretty big tits too, sir.”

“Shut up, you moron, we’re here to do a job, go to a brothel on your own time.”

“...Sorry, sir.”

Tori scoffs at her own stupidity. She hasn’t been out in the field often enough. As a noble, she had undergone battle training on her own time but she wasn’t allowed to take the path of a holy knight, an occupation reserved for human males. As a result, she allowed a group to sneak up on her.

If this group of three were more efficient, she could have been killed before she recognized them in her surroundings. Of course, at this point, it’s too late. They missed their chance to kill her and they won’t be able to get it back.

The men in front of her have perceived that she is a threat. They raise their arms. Each of them have a weapon that they will use to carve her up. One of the lackeys and the leader are wielding spears. The other lackey, the one who made that comment about her breasts, is wielding a long halberd.

As armed men outside on this night who were doing the guarding for an event like the bloodshed, she didn’t have any qualms about dispatching the three of them. Her eyes coldly glance at the man with the halberd who disrespected her so easily.

He’ll be first.

Tori raises her left hand towards the tall, iron armored man running towards her with his shining weapon raised. He intends to close the distance and cut her in half from his stance. He’s a professional after all, unconcerned with the fact that she was someone she had met for the first time out in this forest.

From her hand spawns a very small, blue coloured, bright light. The man doesn’t even notice it. Tori watches his movement in slow motion. However, the man’s squad leader–

“!!! Wait, stop!!”

Tori smiles. She fires the spell at the tall, halberd-wielding man. The man hears his commander’s words and backs away quickly; however, it’s too late. Using the confusion, Tori fires two consecutive attacks at the other two as well. Both of them are hit by a small, bright-blue mass traveling at the speed of sound that dissipated upon impact.

This attack might not work if the men were wearing mana neutralizing armor or at least heavy knight armor. It might fail if their affinities for magic were very high as well. But, Tori can tell this isn’t the case for any of these three.

Tori looks at the leader. She can see in his eyes recognition. He tries to speak. He opens his mouth–

“Sentinin.”

The light in each of their eyes dissipates. Any ongoing movement in their bodies terminates and the three of them fall. Their armor clatters somewhat loudly as they do so and Tori considers any possible reinforcements showing up. She watches the surroundings carefully. Luckily for her, the three of them weren’t smart enough to call for reinforcements upon seeing her.

Why wouldn’t you call out? What was stopping you? Arrogance? Well, you’re dead now. Your lives ended so easily… pathetic.

She activates a sensory magic to allow her to magnify her hearing. It is an odd application of wind magic that allows for sound to permeate more sharply. She had to train in order to use this sense properly however.

She doesn’t understand why those three so easily underestimated her. Well… not really. After all, she’s been underestimated as a woman her whole life. She is a noble whose family, the Blentare Baron family, owned and controlled small swathes of farmland within Therea, the easternmost province of the Holy Sapioran Federation, closest to the demon empire.

Former noble.

After Therea fell to the demons at the start of their genocide campaign, her family prudently took their treasure from their barony at the start of the war to the western corner of the Holy Sapioran Federation, the province of Enkel. There, they quickly used their wealth and education to ingratiate themselves with a marquess family.

The head of her family, her father, managed to secure for Tori a spot as concubine to the heir to the marquess title, since her noble position was not high enough to earn the spot of legal wife of the heir. Her life should have been planned out for her…

Now, she finds herself devoted to the wishes of a young man and woman who saved her from a cruel and ugly death. They have given her everything and she has no noble ties any longer. She cannot even use her real name in public–

Krackow!!

Tori perks up her ears, her senses still magnified. She hears a cracking sound in the distance. The sound of a scattering of electric sparks, like a dull lightning. Within half a second, many sounds of screaming invade her ears.

Sh-Shit! What… Did Ajax and Shaula do something already? I need to move quickly before I lose my chance! Ok, let’s use that!

Tori prepares herself to use a complicated magic. She gathers up the necessary magic power and releases a mana field in her immediate surroundings. This is a detection tool that allows her to sense presences with even a little bit of mana in their bodies. All lifeforms in this world have a mana signature whether they are human or not.

This spell behaves to Tori how three dimensional radar behaves on Ajax and Shaula’s homeworld, providing her a mental layout of every mana signature and its shape within a limited radius.

She didn’t want to use it earlier because those individual humans with strong mana signatures (the most proficient mages in the area) would be able to reverse track her approximate location through even one use of the spell. It’s best that she use it only in crises.

There! Someone is… moving at a really fast speed. And… a mana gap! It’s got to be one of them!

Tori senses someone with mana travelling at a really high speed. Furthermore, she senses that this person is in the constant presence of a mana gap, an odd spot where seemingly no mana is present. In this world where even boulders and solid rock mountains are permeated with mana, there were no mana gaps. Only those two, Ajax and Shaula… only they were gaps.

“Aspallan Dirma!”

Tori activates a body strengthening magic in order to catch up to the two of them. Regrouping with either Ajax or Shaula would be in her best interest right now and it is what she wishes to do. They are beings who are nothing less than truly divine, possessing less human qualities than any human she’s ever met.

Bodies that don’t need to eat, sleep, excrete waste, senses far greater than any human and healing abilities that humans could never be able to possess. They say they’re young but she didn’t really believe that to be the case, they were more likely much older than her. Or at least that’s what she would have thought if she didn’t notice their natural aversion to human cruelty.

They behave like children, fighting constantly for their justice, wielding their power for whatever they wish, unused to the exhibition of human depravity common in this world, perhaps in all worlds, and so… it’s obvious that they are quite young.

Tori runs but either Ajax or Shaula are far faster. Her spell couldn’t give her a precise enough understanding of the mana gap to know if it belongs to a man or a woman. She activates her three dimensional radar spell again (an unsightly three minute cooldown prevents continuous use) and senses that the person with the mana signature has stopped moving already.

There is no mana gap near them at the moment.

…Where are they? I guess they took the person they were with to safety and went back to the fight? Shit, they’re already outside my range? Monsters…

Tori can no longer sense the mana gap in her vicinity. Her three dimensional radar spell has a range of approximately one and a half kilometers and the mana gap is already outside this range.

…Fine, let’s go see who this person is. Let’s just check if they’re ok. Shit… already, I’m too fucking slow. If Claris had given me an earlier heads-up, I could have done more training in preparation for this… Sigh, if only they trusted me more, they could have come to me for help.

Tori arrives near the last known location of the person derived from her magic radar. They shouldn’t have moved too far from here. She walks around and finds the person who was brought here by the mana gap has not moved at all, choosing to remain in this location instead of walking anywhere else.

She soon sees why. The person, a pregnant woman, is breathing slowly. Her eyes are closed but she’s not asleep. The woman, hearing Tori’s footsteps, opens her eyes.

“Wh-Who are you?”

“...What a truly ‘small world’, it’s just like they’ve said before. A useful phrase.”

“Please don’t… Are… Are you here to… to take me back?”

“...No, Tahira, I’m not.”

“...”

“What’s with that face?”

“I just… I wasn’t expecting you to… I mean…”

The pregnant noble woman, Tahira, is recognized by Tori who calls her by name. Tahira meanwhile identifies Tori’s voice. They have been at the same functions, they have talked to each other a few times already. Though they never became good friends, they recognize each other.

At this moment however, Tahira would never have expected Tori to come to her. Tonight is full of surprises. Tahira opens her mouth to speak.

“I-I heard that you were dead… wasn’t… wasn’t your entire family wiped out by… How are you alive, Tori?”

~

They’re all fucking dead. I have to get there as quickly as possible. The minute I allow even one of those fucking cunts to survive, I allow more demihumans to die in their place. I have to find them, I have to find anyone who was brought here as a guest, I have to find every single guard here too, every last piece of goddamn shit who decided to be here and execute them. No one else can do it, no one. Only you can do it, Shaula, only you. Can you do it? Why the fuck no? You’ve done it before, and you’ll do it again, many many more times. No one else can do it, no one else has the strength and force of will to get rid of this scum. No one. Not Ajax. Not Jelli, not Claris, not Hila… Jelli… what would have happened if I wasn’t there for her on that day… What if she had run into that guard by herself… she’d just be raped by him, wouldn’t she? Claris would be dead if not for Ajax and I. Tori… Lanov… Every one of them was saved for someone I had to kill. I’m not going to stop now. I’m not going to stop now. I’m not going to stop now. I’m not going to stop now. Never. Never. Never. Never. Never. Never. Never. Never!

Shaula’s mind races. She feels frenzied by the emotions of what tonight represents. For a long time, she has lived and killed and felt no displeasure from it. She has taken the lives of many who needed to be killed. Tonight, she will undertake the same task. Like garbage collection or janitorial work, she’ll dispose of the people here who deserve to be annihilated.

But, tonight… she might be responsible for deaths in the double or triple digits. A lot of her past slaughters have been personal. People who have wronged her, people who she has stared at and interrogated before killing them. People who she has killed for Ajax, or someone she met in this world. Tonight… she doesn’t have the same luxury or the same guarantee.

She has to kill scores of people, people who have been brought out to this forest, all of them human, in order to celebrate a night of unholy ritual. A night where humans round up dozens of demihumans who disobey the taboos of humanity in order to celebrate their god.

It feels different tonight. She has been having thoughts about whether she’s doing things the right way. She feels like killing these people at this event is correct but… she can recognize even unconsciously the depths of her bloodlust. She feels… like her bloodlust is dictating things. As if her bloodlust is simply looking for someone to be fed to it.

This contradiction within her heart is creating a manic emotional state at the moment.

Would she have left a pregnant woman alone in the forest so easily if not for this bloodlust? Why didn’t she hesitate? Even when the woman, Tahira, tried to ask if Shaula would spare… someone that was important to her, Shaula simply cut her off and flat out refused. Tonight, she has surrendered to her blood lust almost completely.

Wait… !?

Shaula hears an odd sound. It is a quite loud sound at a very high pitched frequency. It’s far louder than it should be, its intensity having a higher impact on Shaula because of her own enhanced hearing. It causes her to pause her movement forward.

What… What was that? I don’t think it came from nearby either, it just has a massive range.

Shaula disregards it for now and continues running. She doesn’t truly expect a difficult battle ahead of her. Even men of high magic potential barely hold a candle to her. She has tested it out based on magic instruction from Tori and her strength currently is at least on the level of Sapioran Cardinals. At the very least…

Some magic warriors might have a greater advantage against her because of things like peculiar magic or battle sense and experience but… her healing factor, physical strength, sensory prowess as well as her fire and lightning control is something quite difficult to overcome for individuals.

So long as she attacks her opponents one on one, tonight should go smoothly for her. Even against groups of opponents, she has no fear.

Rooooooaaaaaaaarrrrr!!!

Shaula hears a lone roar. Soon it is followed by a few more in different areas up ahead. A group of beasts are a bit ahead of her, perhaps a kilometer away. The roar isn’t one she recognizes, but it is most similar to the sound of a lion. If she had Ajax’s sensory control, perhaps she could have a better understanding of what it is up ahead but…

…Wait. It’s moving. Shit, it’s really fast!

Shaula hears the trampling of soil and branches underfoot the beasts as they race towards her current location. Are they after her? How many?

Ok, at least four of them, fucking fast as shit. One of them though is… where’s it going?

Shaula can sense one of them running around her location and heading even farther in the direction that Shaula had been running from. It starts to run faster and faster. There should be nothing in that direction.

Is it… is it going towards Tahira? How could it sense her though… no, it’s definitely fucking going there! Ok, let’s see what the fuck this thing is.

Shaula immediately starts running towards the direction of the fast thing that went past her. The other ones are chasing after Shaula from her guess but this lone beast is going too close to where Tahira is, straight in her direction too. She sprints in a desperate attempt to quickly intercept it.

Shaula jumps out from behind the trees and strikes the thing with her fist. Ironically, she goes a bit easy because this creature is definitely not a human. She’s not quite used to fighting against animals yet. She’s hardly ever needed to before. Animals, generally through instinct, acknowledged Shaula’s strength and kept their distance.

The beast, a furred creature, loses its stride and is knocked into a tree. It yelps. A yelp that’s almost like a struck dog… Shaula feels a bit sick hearing it.

The beast gets up in surprise towards Shaula. Instant animosity and killing intent pervade her surroundings, emanating from this creature.

It is a large creature about the size of a large bull hippo. It is covered by fur. It has a mane like a male lion as well as pointed ears and snouts that were more bear-like in origin perhaps? Its body is quite lithe, spectacularly muscled, a splendid physical specimen. It has long, thick, black claws as well as… four eyes where two should be.

She’s never seen an animal like this before. It stares at Shaula with all four eyes for just a moment… before–

“...What?”

Shaula falls backwards. She looks up at the sky. Quite a beautiful night sky, unmarred by the light pollution that comes from proximity to large 21st century metropolises. How did she fall just now? She barely noticed movement from the beast. She feels liquid where she fell. She lifts her right hand to her face. It is covered in a red liquid… blood…

With such a delay, perhaps in a state of temporary physical shock, Shaula feels an immense pain. She tries to use her arms to lift herself to a sitting posture but her legs… She can already feel the healing taking place but… this is…

Shaula sees an unrecognizable clump of meat where her belly should be. She doesn’t see her hips or her legs because her belly isn’t connected to her lower body at the moment. She notices in a corner in front of her, next to a Spectabile tree which creates a glittering darkness, the beast is eating something. Her.

Shaula smiles, slightly dumbfounded at how the creature ignored her so easily to feast on her hip and legs.

“...How presumptuous.”