CHAPTER 157(Frankenstein's Monster)

Please read the author's notes. (Examples and explanation of moves and appearance+ Monster Sources)

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CHAPTER START---

"Adrestria...was an artist," Thalie says. A smile on her face as she looks up at the stars. Yang and Welf were laying beside her also enjoying the view.

"Hmm," Yang gives her an uneasy glance.

"What?"

"That's not how most people talk about their abuser," he points out. Welf nods in agreement.

"She wasn't really an abuser...not really, not until I learned how regular people live...before that it was just... my life," Thalie says.

"I'm fourth generation Adrestria familia, my mother was one of her soldiers, when it was time to make the next generation she joined an assault on a fortress city in the south, there she met my father."

"He joined the familia?" Welf asks.

"No, she killed his men, his wife, children, burned his home down...then raped him, for months he was her reluctant plaything, if his spirit broke she would have killed him, then me, then just start over in the next crusade like she did many times before," she says in a casual manner, as if they were discussing the weather.

Both men give her uneasy looks at his, horror written boldly across their faces.

"That was the only way she saw it fit to choose the seed that would grow in her. A trial of blood, fire, and perseverance. And he never broke, not even when I was born and she finally slit his throat, cursing us to his last breath," Thalie says.

"So the crimes against humanity are in your blood huh," Welf points out, shaking his head and giving a pitiful smile, "maybe we should form a club."

"Hm, that's fair, but you're a good man at least. At least when you learned what they made you, something told you to stop... I just loved it more and more. When I was born, all I knew was what they thought me. Blood and violence, they start training you from the time you're 5 years old, the moment you can barely hold a dagger you're expected to learn to use it.

I was a natural, Adrestria took special care to mold me properly, I got the most fights, the hardest tests, and I always won. The first test was where she saw promise, she drops a knife on the floor, locking maybe a hundred of us in a yard. And tells us only one gets out...then everyone starts crying, and begging, just scared children, they were all waiting to starve or freeze to death..."

"And you? What did you do?" Yang asks, scared of the answer but curiosity demands he knows.

"I immediately rushed for the knife, and I killed all my 'friends', then when the guards came in to get me, I tried to kill them too. That cost me a few teeth," she chuckles at the memory.

"That's some childhood, but how'd you end up in Orario?" Welf asks.

"I became, overzealous, fighting every day was one thing, the familia is extremely strict. Fighting to the death wasn't a daily occurrence, not until you want to increase your rank or got ordered into a challenge of some kind. When I was around maybe ten, I started cornering other children anywhere I could, beating them to death. The thrill I felt, knowing I was in control because I was stronger still echoes in me today. But back then, I lived for it so, so much more.

Adrestria thought it was good, until the bodies began piling up too much, until I began punching above my weight, until I began reducing the number of real soldiers she had."

"What did she do?"

"She promoted me, she gave me a falna. We normally receive it on our twelfth year, but I was an early bloomer, she had to get me out of whatever base we were in at the time before I killed her forces completely. So she began sending me out to towns, to... collect resources. Gold, jewels, people, new blood.

After I burnt down the first few, she realized the problem," Thalie releases a deep sigh. "When she looks at people, she sees potential soldiers. When I look at them I see weaklings that need to be culled...and so I did, after the first few villages she sent me off to big cities with adventurers, as a level one I couldn't do as much when we were so common on the streets. But that just made me angry at myself."

"Like a relocated animal," Yang says, earning a confused look from everyone. "Uh, when some animals are relocated they overhunt, just to see where they sit on the food chain. Like you killing everything until you met people with falna," he explains.

"Right...I guess that's one way to put it," she says. "But when I went home, I realized that... everyone else seemed so, different. Adrestria took me under her wing the next year when I turned 14, and pushed me more and more. She told me the same stories again. Great champions who could kill any man, they didn't even need any blessing, just skill. And I always wanted to be just like that, to be the very best.

Within a year I was made one of her higher-ranking soldiers, my tactics were...brash. Straightforward methods that would always cost us more bodies than the battle was worth, but for me, it would be worth it. I'd get to kill more people and push myself more that way. A handful of little skirmishes later... I finally had enough.

A disagreement started in the war room, my mother and I had a falling out, I spoke out of turn to her...my so-called superior. But then the pieces just fell into place in my head. I was trained so much that rank is everything, but nobody ever questions the people in that room, so I did.

Before I knew it I had my hand inside her chest crushing her heart, watching the life leave her eyes...it was beautiful..." she says almost breathlessly. Her hands clenched into tight fists as if she were living the moment out again.

Both Yang and Welf were visibly horrified by the gleeful smile on Thalie's face as she plays with her fingers. As if she could feel the warm blood on her skin and the dying heart in her hands.

"I know what you're thinking," she gives them a half-smile, "what kind of person enjoys killing their own mother, and I knew exactly who she was too... but she was weaker than me, they all were. I cleared out that room with my own hands, the pleasure I felt watching each of those arrogant assholes die was unlike anything I felt before. All they were to me was people weaker than me, didn't matter who, just what."

"So..." Yang takes a deep breath as he looks back up at the night sky. "When did you stop thinking like that?"

"I never did," her words cause his head to whip back over to her. "I embraced it, I aimed it, when I came to Orario for that mission Tsubaki humbled me. Kicked me out of Babel and broke my back, and put the fear of heights into me," she quietly admits.

"Then Hephaestus took you?" Welf asks.

"Yeah, attacking one of Orario's essential familias can get Ganesha's people sent after you. Adrestria knew she couldn't win that fight so she traded me for Hephaestus's silence, they'd exterminate her familia and drag her back to a cell in the guild for eternity," Thalie explains.

"And that would stop her crusade for...the perfect soldier?" Yang asks.

"Right, she can't have that," Thalie confirms.

"So when did you turn?" Welf asks.

"When Hephaestus showed me how regular people lived, when she showed me how they were happy, when she forced me to live among them."

"And you decided to try for a normal life?" Yang asks.

"Nope, that's not on the table for me, she made me into this perfect monster to kill other people. So I doubled down, even now, I'm quick to violence. I enjoy killing people, I enjoy hurting them, I tried to be...normal. But that's just not me, so I decided to point Adrestria's spear back at her and run her through with it," she says.

"Even if it goes against Hephaestus," Welf says.

"That," Thalie frowns. "That was unexpected, I never thought Adrestria would trade me permanently. I'm her best bet at a perfect warrior...at least I think so," she says.

"So maybe she has a new golden child," Yang suggests.

"Mhm, all the more reason to go kill them all, Adrestria robbed thousands of having a normal life by inducting them into her familia over the centuries, who knows how many died so her soldiers could get their blood flowing, and who knows how many more will die for her stupid cause. I can't undo the training and molding she did, but I can stop her from making more monsters like me," Thalie says. Her voice getting angrier and angrier as she speaks.

"You think you'll always be a monster?" Yang asks.

"With the kind of blood that was on my hands, for sport no less. Yeah, I'm a monster, always. I still---" she takes a deep breath, "I still don't even feel any kind of remorse for all the innocent people I killed. I haven't been able to feel anything but pity, not for their death, but for how weak they were in life. I still feel happy when I see the life drain from them, and even better when it was after they put up a good fight. If that's not a monster I don't know what is," she says.

"Hmm, at least you don't kill children...right?" Yang asks.

"No, not for a long long time," Thalie says. "I can tell what's good and bad now...sometimes it's just difficult to care when the bad happens. And sometimes the bad is just more fun," she leans back against the bolder and closes her eyes, raging thoughts crashing in her mind.

Welf chuckles at this, "well...if it makes you feel any better... doubt you killed as many people as my swords," he tries to raise her mood.

"True, but you didn't enjoy it," Thalie says.

"You're both going to hell, we get it," Yang breaks the tension and rolls his eyes at them. "We just need to what? Remove the soldiers and save the kids right?" he asks.

"On paper, yeah, but it's a bit harder than that, we'll just be going to talk at first..." Thalie says.

"What? Are you saying they have something that can stop our level seven?" Welf jokingly asks.

"Her strongest is maybe level three, so not exactly...but, yeah, kind of," Thalie says.

This earns concerned looks from both her allies as they glance toward each other.

"And...what exactly is this weapon?" Yang asks.

"A spear...it's what helps us train, she uses it to even the odds," Thalie says.

"A spear?" Welf raises a brow at this," and how does it work?"

Thalie takes the moment to explain the mythic weapon to her allies, "It's actually pretty simple, all it does is..."

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