In a world replete with unbelievable marvels, the White Star Mountain Range was still the most miraculous and mysterious of them. However, those who truly knew the real meaning of that place were fewer than few, mostly because it had been so long since the last time the world had faced a truly apocalyptic catastrophe.

However, even without knowing of the truth, it was easy to see that the Mountain Range was no ordinary location. All around it was an astoundingly powerful magical barrier, which prevented any being above a certain level of power from entering.

This included all sorts of tyrannical demons, invincible heroes and terrifying gods, who were completely helpless in face of such a barrier. The only ones who could pass were true commoners, the sort of people who could be found literally anywhere, living normal lives.

Even if they could in fact enter, though, those people would probably not gain anything. The mountain range was extremely dangerous, with uncountable treacherous paths, awful weather, and a complete lack of resources needed for living, like water and food.

It was said that for one to traverse to the center of the range, they would have to be a person with boundless determination, someone who could brave overwhelming odds without cowering, the kind of person who could become legendary.

There were many rumors about the center of the range, and the most preeminent were those saying that someone who could reach that point would be able to have their wishes fulfilled. Those rumors caused tons of people to attempt the challenge every year, even though they knew that death would be the most likely outcome.

There was a thread of truth to those rumors, in which it was indeed possible for someone to change their entire lives if they managed to overcome the trial. But it wasn't as simple as a wish.

It was an otherwise unremarkable day when someone got to have a first hand experience of that. A woman managed to reach the center. Her appearance wasn't very remarkable. She had dark hair and brown eyes, and appeared to be around thirty to thirty-five years old.

She was wearing ragged clothing, and her body was filled with small injuries. She carried a bundle of cloth in one arm, while the other dangled uselessly, obviously broken. One look at her would make it clear that she wasn't long for this world, not because of the injuries, but simply because she gave the impression of a spent candle, as if her very spirit had been consumed on the journey. Only her eyes revealed traces of life.

After finally overcoming the last obstacle, that woman set foot onto an impossible place. It was a plain but big house with a garden. After going through such a lifeless environment, seeing that kind of scene was so jarring as to be unbelievable.

Soon after, a youthful female voice reached the woman.

“Oh. It looks like someone is here.”

After that, eighteen figures appeared from the house and the surroundings. Some were human, others were goblin... there were all sorts of species, wearing all sorts of clothing, but they all had one thing in common: They all looked like little girls.

“What do you want?” One of them asked, in a curious voice. She didn't know the woman's language, but her words carried meaning directly.

In truth, those little girls were the most powerful existences in the world, the Transcendents. Each and every one of them had enough power to easily overcome any of the powerful empires, tribes and clans that held the highest influence in the world. However, none of them were interested in ruling.

They were not gods, dragons or other types of powerful species. In fact, they had been born as completely normal members of their own species, but had gained power and fought in mythical battles, surviving impossible situations until they reached their current standard. Even over the countless years of the world, only those eighteen had achieved it.

They had become immortal and eternally young very early in their lives, so they had no system of seniority. Each one of them had risen up in a different era, but they all shared one ideal. With their power, there were only two things that they desired: One was to live freely, and the other was to have other members added to their group.

For the first thing, they simply shut themselves off from the outside world, only leaving a minuscule chance of anyone being able to meet them. For the second thing, they could not simply make new members, as only through a journey unhindered would someone be able to achieve such a level of power, and being guided by them would prevent anyone from such a journey. Instead, they acted as Guardians of the world, only appearing when it was truly necessary to keep the world safe, as without a world, there would be no people, and thus no chance of anyone else reaching their level.

Of course, a truly apocalyptic threat wasn't the sort of thing that appeared often, which was why most people had forgotten about their existence. That suited them just fine, though. Those supreme existences spent their eternity in fraternal intimacy and pursuing simple activities. That was their happiness.

So, if someone wanted to obtain something from them, that would truly depend on their mood, not that the woman knew it.

She laid the bundle of cloth on the ground and opened it up to reveal a baby inside, but that baby seemed even worse off than her. It was abnormally tiny, almost like a newborn, and its skin had become blackened and cracked in several places. It was almost impossible to tell that it was still alive.

“My daughter... Please... Help her...” The woman spoke.

Similarly, the girls didn't understand her language, but they could hear the meaning straight from her soul.

The girls looked at the woman for a moment, and then at the baby. One of them, who looked like a human but with blue scales all around her body, walked forward and touched the small being.

That baby was suffering from an extremely rare condition that would leave almost everyone helpless. It was a mixture of a curse and a disease, the sort of thing that only existed due to a series of mistakes.

The girl touched the baby with a single finger, and in an instant, she recovered. It was almost like her previous self had been an illusion. Her skin was healthy, her eyes were clear and she even seemed to have regained her weight.

The woman sat on the ground and touched her daughter's face.

“Elise... My dear Elise...” She smiled. Then she raised her face to look at the girls and thanked them.

With that, she expired.

The girl who had cured the baby raised her up and took a look at the recently named Elise. The group of transcendents started discussing what to do. That woman would be buried on their land, in recognition of her astonishing feat, but the baby was another question entirely.

It would be simplicity itself for one of them to bring the baby girl to be raised in a human community. With their capabilities, it wouldn't be hard even finding guardians that would be trustworthy. So there was no reason why they should take responsibility for Elise.

However, in the end, they decided to do it, and raise her themselves. Perhaps it had been destiny that had led Elise to them, and also... it could be interesting. They wondered who that girl would grow into.

+0+

Elise grew up surrounded by older sisters. They all had some similarities, in which they held a sort of serenity and confidence, as well as their eyes full of wisdom. But they also had their differences, which she got to know as the years passed.

Amanda (a goblin girl with green skin and red hair) was the one she spent the most time with. The girl loved to teach, and was the one who explained to Elise about the world outside. She talked at length about beings and beasts, about weather and biomes, and about anything that Elise cared enough to ask.

Lieira (a plant girl born from a science experiment) told her a lot about the nature of life and death, as well as how to understand people. She was the one who explained to Elise about her mother, and the reason why the girl frequently went up to talk with her mother's grave (only identified by a gravure of her eyes, since they didn't know her name).

Zelana (an Undergrounder who grew flowers on her hair) taught her all sorts of arts and crafts, as well as quite a lot of games of strategy, which she served as Elise's opponent in. She was also the one who Elise dragged along to play the most often.

There were also Carolina, who loved to tell tales about her “glorious ascendance”. Dilira, who had a collection of a ridiculous number of books. Nova, who was a skilled dancer... Elise truly had an unusual childhood, getting to know on a personal level those being who very few people had the opportunity to even meet. Or perhaps it wasn't that unusual. They were people like anyone else, after all.

However, there were indeed a few things about the way she was brought up that could definitely be considered unusual.

+0+

“How did you get so strong?” Was the question Elise asked her older sisters when she was six “Did you all learn magic?”

They had been pretty open with her about their status as transcendents, and how no being was born as one of them, so Elise was curious about that. She didn't quite understand exactly what that entailed, except for the fact that they could do several things she couldn't, but Elise still wanted to know more about it.

At that time, Elise was in the living room of the shared house, together with seven of her sisters. It was a bigger group gathering than usual, so she felt that it was a good time to ask.

“Nah.” Nova was the one to answer “You just have to get strong enough, no matter what path you take. After you get to a certain level, you can go through transcendence, where your body is remade into a True Body, which can perfectly accommodate your soul, causing it to have no more restraints.”

“What does 'strong enough' mean?” Elise didn't let up.

“The power of the soul.” Nova clarified “You know what it means. Obtaining power means harnessing the unlimited potential of the soul, regardless of the path you follow. One path is all paths.”

Elise still didn't seem to quite understand it.

“Let me give you an example: Dilira here-” She pointed to said girl, the same one who had healed Elise all those years before “Used to be an alchemist. To gather materials, she had to go inside dangerous places, so she had people protecting her during those expeditions.

“However, she didn't want to simply be a burden, so Dilira did her best as an alchemist to help the others. Creating weapons and potions, and eventually developing her own methods of battle. However, eventually she got so much stronger that she didn't need any help to go into dangerous locations, and in fact she could go to places where none of them could survive.” She continued.

“And to make a long story short, eventually she was fighting the apocalypse dragon of that era because she wanted his scales for a synthesis.” Nova summarized “She barely survived, but it was a victory, and turned out to be enough for her to break through into the transcendence level.”

“Don't make it sound like it was just for the materials.” Dilira complained “That guy was going around destroying countries and making trouble for everyone.”

“Well, that's what apocalypse dragons are like.” Nova shrugged.

“Ohh...” Elise reacted “And how about you?”

“I was a jet fighter pilot.” She said “I fought for my country and I was pretty good at it. Maybe a little too good.” She giggled “I was part of an elite group of pilots of jets equipped with idea engines, special mechanisms capable of transmitting the power of the soul into the jets.

“Eventually, I ended up outpacing the rest of the team, slowly making my jet stronger through battle after battle, and the higher ups of the army started getting nervous, so they set up an ambush to try and capture me to be brainwashed. After I lightly dissuaded them of that notion-” She was interrupted.

“By which she means 'avoided hurting anyone but crippled their military infrastructure'.” Zelana said with a smirk.

“After that I became tired of the whole 'endless war' thing and went on a trip around the world.” She shook her head “And there was no end of people who wanted to use me for their own ends, or people who wanted to steal the technology of the jet, so I had no choice but to keep fighting until there was nothing left that could threaten me.

“After transcendence, I pretty much fused with the jet, which is now more like a transformation, and things became a lot more peaceful.” She finished.

“Hmm...” Elise muttered.

This conversation was one of the turning points of her life.

+0+

Another one of those conversations happened when she was reading one of Dilira's books, an adventure story based on real events. Those events had actually happened during her childhood, so needless to say it was an astonishingly old book. Elise had fun with the older girl constantly pointing out the minor mistakes in research of the author.

However, there was something else that caught Elise's attention. A certain character who wasn't one of the main ones, but still had a high level of importance. Specifically, she became interested in the skills that character showed.

“'Artoria released her three strongest contract monsters: The dragon Alerua, the fairy Coltrana and the Alraune Regina. They appeared from the depths of her mental world, their combined power shaking the earth.' Is that really how it works?” Elise asked, since that was the first time Artoria had truly unleashed her full power.

“Pretty much.” Dilira confirmed “The type of contract used for her style of monster taming is based around creating worlds inside the tamer's own mind to serve as a home for them.”

“But how did she get such strong beings to serve her?” Elise asked.

“Well, first of all, the most successful monster tamers are usually the ones who make contracts with beings that had similar levels of strength as them, and help those beings grow and evolve throughout their contract.” Dilira started “Alerua started out as a chicken, for example.

“And second of all, they also tend to have another thing in common: Their contractors don't 'serve' them as such. Their relationship is more equal than that. Friends, family... It varies, really.” She said “I think they considered her as their big sister.”

“Big sister, huh...” Elise considered “Then I want to become a monster tamer as well!”

“So... you want to become a big sister too?” Dilira asked, as she knew the other girl well.

“Yep!” Elise nodded firmly.

“Then I guess I should try to look for some nice books to help you learn.” Dilira said, and proceeded to start floating the books around and taking a look at them.

That was another difference Elise had from a normal childhood. There was no asking whether she was serious, or asking for her to wait until she was older, which would definitely be pretty hypocritical, considering how young they were when they themselves started.

+0+

Years passed, and Elise's determination grew greater and greater. She eventually realized the fact of her own limited lifespan, and that only through achieving transcendence herself would she be able to remain with her sisters. That only served as additional motivation for her dream.

The powerful girls helped where they could. They knew that the journey towards true power could not be taken while depending on others. So they taught Elise a few practical skills to live off the land, hand to hand combat, soul-speak (what they used to communicate, a necessity for beings who spent most of the time isolated from the world and its rapidly changing languages), as well as a few other minor things.

The most direct help they gave was providing her with tons of information about all sorts of beings she could form contracts with (technically, contracts could be formed with any sentient beings, even other humans, but there were quite a few problems that made it difficult for a few of them, so the more orthodox contractors were preferred).

That led to a revelation that made Elise even more certain about the feasibility of her path. It occurred while she was looking at images of famous contract monsters, some of them being pictures, others being paintings, and even a few videos.

The young girl had been feeling on the verge of something throughout the entire day, but it finally came to a head once she laid eyes on a painting of a griffin. Seemingly without thought, she started to talk in a tone of recitation.

“Windswept Griffon. Living in the highest peaks where there was little air and plenty of cold, those types of griffon took the power of wind manipulation to the limits in order to save as much energy as possible to survive in such harsh conditions. Their specialties are extreme speed, with the strongest being able to break the sound barrier, and wind manipulation, with groups of six being able to generate tornadoes.”

Carolina, who was next to her, was confused “Huh? Where did that come from?” She asked.

Elise herself was even more confused “I don't know... Those words just appeared in my head.”

Carolina pondered “Hmm... I wonder if...” She stopped “Let me check the background of this painting first.”

Saying that, Carolina raised a finger, making a large scroll appear from thin air. She took a look at it, muttering “interesting...” once in a while, while Elise calmly waited.

Carolina made the scroll disappear again and started to speak “This really is interesting. That's Matheos, one of the most famous fighting beasts raised by the Aria Colosseum. He was famous for his extreme speed and wind manipulation, just like you said, but as a Colosseum beast, he wasn't raised even close to a mountain.”

Elise tried to think about what that meant. She was a smart girl, but not yet having reached the age of nine, Elise simply didn't have enough experience to understand such a matter.

Carolina was different, however, and she already had a few thoughts of her own “First, let's see if you can do that again.” She proposed.

From there, Elise looked over images and video of several other contractors, and the result turned out to be the same every time: She could accurately point out their best skills, including the non-obvious ones (like the tiny fairy who was a siege breaker wielding ultra-heavy weapons), but the backgrounds she would give them were mostly disconnected from reality.

“I think I know what this is about.” Carolina said after all of that “You must have achieved a Gift.”

“Gift?” Elise asked, not knowing what that meant.

“Those are special abilities that people can unlock after fulfilling certain requirements.” Carolina explained “Few people know about them, because they are often confused with other forms of power. They are connected with the very nature of existence itself, and even transcendents like us are unable to interfere with their system in any fashion.”

“Ohh...” Elise nodded, listening intently.

“Your Gift must be to classify contractors. You can see through their strengths, which would make it easier to choose.” She nodded, and then put a finger on her chin “About the backgrounds, I'm not entirely sure. Maybe they are just a way for your ability to classify them more easily. Perhaps the ability actually brings knowledge from other worlds where there are similar beings. It's difficult to tell.”

“Hmm...” Elise considered that “Could I make that ability stronger? Like... It would be good if I could see the weaknesses as well.”

Carolina smiled widely “Of course. Those abilities may come from somewhere else, but they are connected to your soul even so. They will develop along with you.”

Elise smiled back, before going back to her previous task of looking through the images, trying to learn as much as possible, now that she had a way.

+0+

That discovery was met with a perhaps excessive amount of joy from the transcendents. They really cherished their little sister after all. But soon after that, Elise had basically prepared as much as she could for her upcoming journey, and eventually she made a decision: She would leave after her ninth birthday.

Those last days before Elise's departure were busy. Each of the older sisters was determined to make the most out of the time they had left. Considering their power, it would be an easy task to keep an eye on her or even visit wherever she went, but...

“We decided between ourselves. We are not going to interfere, or even watch you.” Amanda explained when Elise asked about it “Even if one of us gets tempted to look, the others will stop her. We don't want to smother you, since that would ruin your chance for transcendence.”

“But couldn't you just watch without interfering?” Elise asked.

Amanda looked at Elise with eyes full of care, then hugged her.

“In your journey, you will go through many desperate situations of life and death.” She started speaking “We know that. It's necessary to overcome those things in order to reach the peak, as all of us did. But if we saw you like that, we would help you before even having time to think about it.”

Hearing that, Elise felt tears forming in her eyes. She hugged Amanda back and carved that feeling into her heart. She would not fail them.

+0+

The day of the birthday came, and the celebration was a hodgepodge of all sorts of cultures and traditions that the transcendents had picked up over the ages. For those as old as them, simple time wasn't enough to give something significance, so only those bits that they felt matched their values would stick.

One of those traditions was a complicated rune that was drawn on Elise's forehead. That rune was known as Eye of Purpose. The culture it came from gave the rune to members who had found their paths in life. Each rune was unique, but they all shared a common language, so one versed on it would be able to understand the goals and drive of anyone who had one of those.

It was very complex, and full of subtleties, but a decent translation of Elise's rune would be Big Sister (Contractor of Strength) Reaching Towards Ascendance.

That was a reminder of Elise's determination that she would take everywhere. Another tradition was when each one of the eighteen transcendents did a braid on her hair. That was a vow for sisters who would be separated, a vow promising that they would meet again.

There were many more of those, but the main point of the birthday was to cherish their moments together. They sang, danced, played all sorts of games... And at the end of the day, the older sisters tucked their youngest member into bed and kept her company with a bedtime story until Elise finally slept.

+0+

The following day, Elise was greeted with a delicious breakfast before receiving her gifts. That was another tradition, in which gifts were given a day after the birthday, since the main point of it was celebration and family connection, instead of material gains.

What she received were a few rings, a necklace, a few pieces of clothing and a pair of boots. None of them could be considered extravagant, but for the supreme existences who had nearly unlimited power, those handmade gifts expressed their feelings better than anything else.

Elise stored them all on her bag together with the rest of her preparations, and then there was just one last thing to do. She went to sit in front of her mother's grave. She spoke about the birthday and the presents she had gotten, before finally getting to her main point.

“Years ago, you brought me here to save my life, mother.” She started “It will take a while, but I will eventually come back here under my own power. I hope you're proud of me.”

And then Elise simply smiled at the grave for a while before standing up and walking back to the congregation of sisters. She grabbed her bag and looked at Isadora, the sister who had decided to help with the trip.

“I'm ready.” She said.

Isadora nodded, and cast a single spell that sent Elise away. That was the last help she would receive. That spell would take her to a good place to find her first contract, but she didn't have any idea where exactly that place would be.

That was the start of her first adventure.