Revolutionaries — Maribelle

I stare at the billboard on which the bounties are posted. Maribelle Silverleaf is worth five million gold bits. Cynthia Dawnsmith is worth one million.

“I could pay my tuition if I turned you in,” I say.

I am still annoyed that she made me wear a hood to hide my face.

“Good luck with that. Anyway, let’s get going. Someone is going to recognize you if you keep standing next to your own wanted poster,” she says quietly.

“Fine.”

We turn to walk away.

“Hey!”

It is a guard. He is approaching us.

“Shit,” Cynthia says under her breath.

“Pull down your hood,” the guard says to me.

With a sigh, I do as he asks.

“First fucking thing you do when we leave the cave is to get us found by a guard,” Cynthia mutters.

The guard’s eyes go wide and he draws his sword, pointing it at me.

“You’re under arrest!” He says.

I snort in laughter at his hilarious joke. With a pulse of my magic, his sword turns to dust, his armor turns to dust, and his clothes turn to dust too. Out of pure generosity, I leave him with his underpants. I can, of course, already see what’s inside with my spatial sense, but he doesn’t need to know that. I should at least leave him a little bit of dignity.

He gapes at me as he realizes how utterly outclassed he is.

“Kneel.”

He drops to his knees, helpless against the pressure of my voice.

I calmly walk over to my wanted poster and pull it off of the billboard. A crowd of people have stopped in their tracks to watch the scene. I hold my poster up in the air. Cynthia pinches the bridge of her nose.

“First of all, my name is Maribelle Ellis, not Maribelle Silverleaf. Samuel Silverleaf is not my father. I am the daughter of an innkeeper from a town in the southern mountains.”

There are quiet gasps of shock from the crowd. Is this really that surprising?

“Second of all, I am the empress of Salsvale. Five million gold seems a bit low, doesn’t it?”

I look down at the kneeling guard, rolling up my wanted poster and handing it to him.

“Finally, since I’m the empress, and you’re a guard, you take your orders from me. Go tell whoever is in charge of the bounties to make the necessary changes.”

I put my hood back up, grab Cynthia by the wrist, and teleport us a couple blocks away.

“Gods, Maribelle, why have I been cursed by your existence?”

“Come on, weren’t we going to go meet the revolutionary army?”

“Yes. Good. Follow me.”

She teleports away, and I follow. With a series of teleports, she takes me into the slums of the city. We jump through basements and deserted alleys, avoiding people. Eventually, we end up at the unassuming dead end of a narrow alleyway. Cynthia places her hand on the wall.

“May the dawn cometh,” she says.

The wall melts away, revealing a stairway down into the ground. My eyes go wide. My spatial sense does not detect anything other than solid stone where my eyes see stairs.

Cynthia smiles at me. She turns away, leading me down the tunnel.

Once I step inside, my spatial sense opens up and I can see a large underground base. There are several powerful people here.

We enter a big room. The walls are covered in books and weapons, and there are tables and sofas laid out. Several people are here, lounging and talking. It smells like sweat and alcohol.

A man with a magnificent beard and bright blue eyes turns towards us.

“Grant,” Cynthia says.

“Cynthia! So you’re safe. Looks like you brought someone interesting,” Grant says.

I lower my hood, and offer my hand for a shake.

“I’m Maribelle,” I say.

Grant does not shake my hand.

“I heard about what happened, but I didn’t see it myself. Everyone says you used your magic inside Theonius’s domain. Is this true?”

He stares into my eyes and his magic stirs. I immediately recognize it as an assimilated manifestation. His power starts scanning me on a spiritual level. It’s uncomfortable.

“Stop that. It’s rude.” I say.

His eyes widen as his magic is pushed out of my spirit by the force of my voice.

“The answer to your question is yes. Theonius’s domain does not affect me because I have the same power that Zenath used to grant him that ability, albeit at a much weaker level.”

“You’re a hero of the gods too,” he says.

I am somewhat surprised that he knows about the heroes, but my irritation towards his ridiculous deduction is the stronger response.

“No. Definitely not.”

He seems confused. I cross my arms.

“I am the mortal enemy of the divine heroes. It is not just Theonius, but also Zenath himself that I aim to defeat. I intend to one day overthrow the whole white pantheon, surpass the calamity, and become the first being in cosmic history to obtain absolute omnipotence.”

He lets out a boisterous laugh. He thinks I am joking. I’m not sure I like this guy.

“She also can’t lie,” Cynthia says with an amused grin.

Grant laughs harder.

“Girlie, you talk big, but you’re still a child. You do have some strange magic, but your mouth is a hell of a lot bigger than you are. I’ve seen where overconfidence leads. It’s not pretty.”

This ass is treating me like a child with delusions of grandeur. That might be a somewhat accurate assessment of me, but aren’t I also a child wielding a dangerous amount of power?Just based on that, I should definitely be taken seriously.

Cynthia giggles, her hand against her lips. She was clearly looking forward to this meeting.

I suddenly realize why Grant might be looking down on me. My aura is noticeably weaker than his, and he probably doesn’t know that I am stronger than my aura suggests.

Grant’s aura is only around as strong as Parson’s was.

“Grant. Are you in charge here?” I ask.

“I shouldn’t be, but I am,” he says.

“Good. I would like to offer you a position as my subordinate. Your group will cease to be the revolutionary army. It will become the official Salsvale military under my reign.”

He starts laughing his ass off again. Cynthia is unable to contain her amusement. She looks like she’s about to pop.

“I’m serous!” I shout.

It comes out way too childish for my liking.

Fortunately, every problem can be solved with violence.

I search through the base with my spatial sense. Good. There is a warded sparring room right beneath us.

I grab Grant’s wrist. He raises an eyebrow at me. When I try to form a spatial bridge between his body and the sparring room, I meet some resistance.

“Come with me.”

My voice surges, barely managing to push through whatever was stopping my teleportation.

Yikes, I almost hurt myself there. Maybe I should be a little more careful in the future.

Grant and I appear in the sparring hall. He looks around in mild bewilderment. He clearly wasn’t expecting me to actually manage to teleport him. He touches a medallion on his chest and his eyes widen when he notices that it’s broken. That must have been what was blocking me.

With the hand that I still have clamped around his wrist, I throw him across the room.

Grant smashes into the wall. When he climbs back up to his feet, he releases his aura, scowling at me. I think he’s trying to intimidate me. Cute.

“Your aura is a little weaker than Parson’s was. I had a good fight against him, but he disappointed me in the end. He died too easily.”

I summon my blade. With my empty hand, I gesture for Grant to come at me.

“I hope you can impress me more than he did,” I say.

“You killed Parson,” he says, not moving an inch.

His voice is neutral but I can sense some level of realization behind it.

“You have three options,” I say.

He furrows his brow.

“One: You can tell me to leave, that you want nothing to do with me. If you do that, I will respect your wishes. Two: You can agree right now to be my subordinate. We don’t have to fight at all. Three: We cooperate after having a spar to establish dominance, which I will win. However, I won’t make any promises about not killing you by accident.”

I point my sword at him.

“So, what will it be?” I ask

He laughs again. It’s different this time. There is a ferocity in his voice.

“Seems like I need to beat some sense into you,” he says.

He lowers his body into a fighting stance. I do the same.

Cynthia appears in the room with us.

“Good gods, you’re fighting already. Well, I did expect something like this to happen. I’ll be in the lounge watching with spatiomancy. The others will want a play-by-play, as being in this room with you two is obviously a terrible idea. Enjoy yourselves!”

She disappears.

I release my aura. Then, I suddenly realize that the powerful defensive enchantments on the walls and floor put me at a disadvantage. They will make it harder to push out damage.

Grant, apparently noticing that I was distracted by something, takes the opportunity to dash towards me. He is fast.

I teleport out of the way. Grant changes direction before my teleport even activates, and he is already in front of me when I appear on the opposite side of the room. He punches me in the face, smashing my head into the wall.

The impact of his fist smashes my skull, but unfortunately for him, he decided not to pull his arm back. He is opening his mouth to say something as he pins me against the wall with his fist, but I push the damage out into his hand, amplifying it for good measure.

He cries out in surprise as his hand pops, becoming little more than a mangled piece of flesh.

“Hmm. I should figure out how to do that faster. That way, when people punch me in the face, the damage will just be reflected,” I say to myself.

He jumps back.

“Punch me in the face with your other hand. I want to try it.”

“Cocky little shit,” he says.

“You chicken?” I ask.

He pulls out a healing potion. I let him drink it. His damaged hand is repaired.

“You’re asking for trouble, girl.”

“That’s what I’m best at.”

He moves towards me in a blur, throwing a vicious left hook. I politely turn my head a bit, offering up my cheek to him with a sweet smile.

His fist impacts my face hard. I try my best to push all the damage into his hand, but sadly there is currently a limit to how fast I can expel it. I only manage to push out around half of the damage before I am sent flying.

It is still enough to leave his hand a mangled mess. He left a bruise on my cheek and broke my jaw, but that’s no big deal.

“I didn’t quite manage it. Well, practice makes perfect. Wanna hit me again?”

“I don’t feel like playing games, girl,” he says, downing another potion.

I frown.

“You haven’t been fighting seriously either,” I point out.

He narrows his eyes.

“It’s good sense to get information on your opponent before showing your cards,” he says.

“You know, you could’ve just asked me about my abilities. I’d be happy to tell you.”

He chuckles.

“Alright. Tell me about this mysterious power that lets you resist Theonius’s domain.”

“Sure, but fair warning, it’s an eldritch secret. The gods will probably smite you if I tell you too much about it. Still want to know?”

Grant scowls at me.

“Don’t joke about things like that. My brother died because of an eldritch artifact.”

“I’m not joking. Cynthia already told you I can’t lie.”

“Everyone can lie.”

“No. Only mortals can lie freely. Not gods or dragons, nor krakens, nor demons.”

“Are you implying that you are not mortal?”

“Yes.”

“You truly intend to surpass the gods,” he says.

“I do.”

He glares at me with his piercing eyes. I feel his magic stirring. Power surges within him.

“I will fight you seriously. If you die here, it is merely fate.”

I smile, spreading my arms to welcome his power.

He pushes forward with his hand, releasing a manifestation more powerful than anything Parson had thrown at me.

‘Final Sword Palm!’

My body is diced into pieces, cut into many chunks by a thousand blades of invisible force.

My spirit’s well-trained instincts cause it to immediately activate my manifestation in the instant before I pass away. Grant’s manifestation was not quite enough to kill me instantly.

‘Divine Retribution!’

In the moment that my brain comes back together, I remember with a cold shock that I should probably avoid killing Grant. I frantically divert my destructive lightning away from his torso and head, targeting everything else instead, his limbs, his clothes, his beard and hair. His arms and legs are vaporized instantly, becoming nothing but fine dust and a bloody mist.

“We’re gonna need a healer!” I shout.

I certainly can’t put his atomized limbs back together. Not yet, at least.

Somebody appears with Cynthia next to the naked, shaved, and limbless grant.

The healer is an older woman with white hair. Her magic surges.

‘Rebirth of Spring.’

Illusory flower petals swirl around Grant’s wounded body. His arms and legs grow back, but not his beard.

How sad. It was a magnificent beard. Now he’s bald everywhere. Oops.

He groans, slowly sitting up. I teleport on top of him and stomp down on his chest, pinning him to the ground as I point my blade at his neck. Cynthia and the healer nervously take a step back from us.

“Am I your empress?”

He glares at me.

“There’s a possibility you’ll be as bad as Theonius when put in power.”

“So?”

“Yes, in the end, we’ll still need you to kill him.”

“So am I your empress?”

He groans in irritation. His humiliation is overflowing. When he answers, he speaks slowly.

“Fine. You’re my childish, arrogant, obnoxious, and shitty empress.”

“Good enough,” I say, sending my blade back into my flower.

I step off of him, offering my hand to help him up. He grabs it, and I pull him to his feet.

His eyes widen, then he touches his chin and his eyes widen more. Cynthia giggles.

He points at me.

“You little imp! This is unforgivable!”

He slashes with an open hand, and I am surprised to find that a huge gash is being cut across my torso by invisible cutting force. I recognize the power as another assimilated manifestation.

“Hey!” I shout.

I teleport forward, quickly grabbing his wrist and pushing the damage into his body. His arm becomes a mangled mess.

“Is the spar not over?” The healer lady asks, stepping further back.

“Apparently not,” I say.

Grant squints at me.

“What’s the cooldown time on that manifestation of yours?” He asks.

“Under a minute. I’m going to try to assimilate it before I fight Theonius in a few days.”

He lets out an irritated snort.

“She wins,” he says.

“Does that mean she’s officially our leader now?” Cynthia asks with an amused expression.

“This is fucking ridiculous,” Grant says.

“Well?” She asks, her smile growing wider.

“I already said it once,” he says.

Cynthia bites her lip and snickers.

“Alright then, introduce me to my army,” I say.

“Heal my arm first,” Grant says.

The healer obliges him. When she’s done, we return to the lounge. Cynthia introduces me to the group.

“Grant, we cannot instate this girl as empress! It’s precisely to stop violent people like her from being in charge of the city that we’re revolutionaries in the first place!”

The speaker is fairly young, with long curly brown hair. He wears fine clothes and glasses, giving off the vibe of a scholar. He is sitting in an armchair in the corner of the room. His aura is not particularly strong.

Grant frowns, squinting at me. He doesn’t seem to disagree with the man. Fortunately, Cynthia vouches for me.

“She’s not that bad, Charles. More importantly, we need her. Tell me, how to you propose we deal with Theonius? We’ve been hiding like rats ever since he became a divine hero. We’re helpless against him, but Maribelle can defeat him,” she says.

“If she can defeat him, and that’s a big ‘if,’ what happens then? We just end up with another tyrant who lords over the city, bullying people however they want. She’s just the type.”

Charles says these words while staring me straight in the eyes. At least he has guts.

“So what? Just do nothing?” Cynthia asks.

“Yes, for now. We now know that it’s possible to withstand Theonius’s domain. Whatever power she has, it should be possible to replicate it with enough research.”

It’s starting to irritate me that he’s talking about me in the third person when I’m right here.

“Charles. What’s your problem with me, exactly?”

He glares at me.

“Your first instinct when you came here was to beat up the strongest person in the room. Did it even cross your mind that we might not operate by right of strength? Did you even consider trying to show us that you deserve power, rather than that you already have it?”

“Huh, I never really thought about whether I deserve my power or not.”

I rub my chin as I ponder the mystery, for all of three seconds.

“Yeah, I think I deserve my power.”

Charles scoffs at me.

“I earned a lot of my strength through hard work, so in that sense I deserve it.”

He wrinkles up his nose with distaste.

“Also, much of my power comes from being trained by an immortal being, but she did decide to train me, so I probably deserve what she gave me.”

That elicits a more surprised reaction.

“Mostly I was just born with abnormal talent and had some really rare opportunities, but that’s just luck. You can’t say someone doesn’t deserve something they obtained by chance.”

“You completely missed the point,” Charles says.

“Yeah, in the end it’s not important. I have my power one way or the other.”

Charles ignores me, addressing the other revolutionaries.

“See? This child has no understanding of responsibility. She has no mind for ethics. Those of us who truly want to reform society cannot ally ourselves with her!”

I address the crowd as well, spreading my arms wide.

“And for the rest of you, those who want to see Theonius get his ass kicked, please join me!”

Cynthia laughs. Stepping over to stand by my side.

“I can’t believe I’m doing this,” Grant mutters, placing himself next to me too.

“Sorry Charles, but I’m tired of waiting,” a tall blond man says, stepping beside me.

“I’m Vincent,” he says, offering his hand. I shake it. His aura is strong.

With Cynthia, Grant, and Vincent having made up their minds to follow me, most of the revolutionaries join me on my side of the room. Charles and a few others refuse to move, unwilling to accept my sudden takeover.

“Charles, there is something else that might convince you,” Cynthia says.

Charles raises his eyebrows. Cynthia looks at me.

“Maribelle, you aren’t really interested in politics, are you? Do you care about Salsvale’s laws? Do you care at all about diplomatic matters, wealth, or political connections?” She asks.

She already knows the answer to this question, but she is clearly asking it for dramatic effect, so I humor her.

“Not really. The only reason I came to Salsvale in the first place was to study archeology. I only decided to become empress because Theonius pissed me off too much.”

Charles gives me an incredulous look when I mention studying archeology, which becomes doubly incredulous when I say why I decided to take over the city.

Cynthia continues.

“So, all the things an empress usually spends her time with, like lawmaking, budgeting, diplomacy, and even military matters, are you going to do these things yourself, or delegate them to others?”

“I’ll probably put you or my brother in charge of most of it,” I say.

Cynthia smiles at Charles.

“Charles, I hear you are a fan of Claudius Vermillion. He is one of the biggest inspirations for your work in political philosophy, is he not?”

“Where are you going with this, Cynthia?” He asks.

Cynthia looks at me questioningly, probably to ask if she can tell him about Ferris. I shrug.

“Maribelle’s adopted brother is Ferris Vermillion. As far as I know, he is the only surviving member of the Elania royal family. There could be no better choice for regent.”

Charles widens his eyes in surprise. He leans forward.

“He’s alive? Where is he now?”

“He was in the city recently. He’s an adventurer. He departed on a mission a couple days ago,” Cynthia says.

“Ah, so that was him. That makes sense. I was wondering why Elise recognized him,” Grant mumbles to himself.

Charles opens his mouth as if to say something, then closes it. He purses his lips and furrows his brow.

“If this is true, why did Maribelle develop a nature so antagonistic to the philosophies of the Elanian enlightenment?” He eventually asks.

I don’t quite understand his question, so it’s good that Cynthia immediately answers for me.

“I believe Maribelle’s last two years were spent under the influence of one of the dark exiles.”

“I see,” he says.

Charles looks at me with a thoughtful, considering stare.

“Maribelle, do you trust your brother? Will you yield to his judgement on political matters?”

“Only if he isn’t being an idiot.”

Charles seems deeply unsatisfied by my response, but he sighs, accepting it anyway.

“At the very least, I will concede that your relationship with the former crown prince of Elania makes you preferable to Theonius as the ruler of Salsvale. For the time being, I will acknowledge your authority, Maribelle.”

I smile.

“I look forward to working with you,” I say.

He leans back in his chair. He crosses his arms and eyes me challengingly.

“What’s your plan then, empress Maribelle?”

“I plan to fight and kill Theonius before the royal tournament.”

He raises his eyebrows.

“There are a few things I want to accomplish before attempting to fight him. First of all, I want to prepare for the coming battles. I will need purging charms, and maybe an aura concealing bracelet. Secondly, I want to fight and defeat all of the remaining royal guards. This is intended as combat training for me, and also to ensure that I will be fighting Theonius alone. Finally, I want to assimilate my manifestation, which I am fairly certain is necessary for me to become capable of defeating Theonius.”

“I would also suggest that we spread Maribelle’s name throughout the city. We must make it clear that she is not a mere criminal, but an actual claimant to the throne,” Cynthia adds.

“I’ll steal purging charms and a concealment bracelet from the adventurers guild,” Grant says.

“I’ll handle Cynthia’s suggested propaganda campaign," Vincent says.

“What about fighting the Royal guards? Do we know what they’re doing right now? Ideally, I would like to find a way to fight them alone,” I say.

“That won’t be difficult. Theonius has tasked them all with finding and killing you. He said he would have all of them tortured, and only the one that kills you will be exempt,” Charles says.

“How convenient. They’re even in competition with each other, then?” I ask.

“Probably, though they’re all close friends, and Dickson and Vanessa are in a romantic relationship, so the competition between them might be somewhat half-hearted,” he says.

“Any competition will likely end when they discover how quickly you are growing in power. They might already need to team up in order to have a chance of killing you,” Cynthia says.

“In that case, I should fight Vanessa as soon as possible, while I’m still being underestimated.”

“I can arrange for an anonymous tip to be sent to her about a time and place where you’ll be,” Charles says.

I smile.

“Fantastic. Let’s get started. I’ll leave the details to you. In the meantime, I’ll be in Wilson’s cave training my manifestation. Cynthia, come get me when it’s time to meet Vanessa.”

My new subordinates get started on their tasks. I teleport away to go train, not that I expect to make too much progress. Power blooms in battle, after all.