Carving New Path

Solara was pretty much the weakest soldier from her homeland back in the ancient times.

Hard work alone does not change anything on her fighting abilities; all she could do was transport supplies to other soldiers who are more capable of fighting.

The Adventurers in the past could be counted with a pair of hands; they were so rare that various continents of the world have no choice but to establish their own military forces.

The reason for Adventurers' rarity is that no one could explain how these certain individuals have become Adventurers; all they knew of them was that they constantly trained to grow stronger.

No one understood the importance of magic crystals; they just used it as some form of currency equal to gold.

Solara, a frail girl who strived to be an Adventurer and lead her own country into the top always gets laughed at in the training grounds.

She could barely lift a sack full of food for the frontline soldiers.

Even if this sad life of hers constantly pressured her, she did not give up and stop dreaming, at most, it even inspired her to do more.

However, one day, Solara's town was attacked by massive monsters wielding fire attacks and weapons.

Buildings crumbled, the people were in mass panic as they all tried to save themselves.

Solara hurried back to her home where her mother and father are staying, but as she bust opened the doors, she found a small monster that brutally killed her parents.

The eyes of Solara blacked out and turned deathly, she could not process the loss of her lovely parents.

She regretted forcing herself to train when it was supposed to be her break today, if she only did not leave their house, she could have at least fought for her parents.

However, when she remembered that she is extremely weak, she blamed herself even more.

It was not because of her desire to train that killed her parents, no, it was her own weakness.

Her eyes could not even produce a single tear anymore; she is just a lifeless puppet waiting in the front of death.

The monster, however, did not kill the girl. Instead, the monster carried the girl back on their den.

[…]

The king of the flaming monsters, sporting a huge tattoo of the sun on its back, was greatly satisfied with the harvest.

They found the perfect sacrifice for the Sun God, a young girl with nonexistent strength to resist the infestation.

Their goal was to awaken the Sun God and take this young girl as its vessel, a weaker the vessel is, the more chance to succeed in taking over.

When the king and its subordinates started some form of ritual with drums and loud hums, the cave's temperature gradually rise up.

This trance continued for half a day, even the king is showing exhaustion, however, it did not stop when the temperature of the cave is starting to melt their own flesh.

Some of the flaming monsters only had bones, one by one collapsing on the ground.

Before the sun could fully set, the king finished the ritual by stabbing its own chest; the blood sprayed out and rained down on the unconscious girl in the middle of the ritual.

All the heat in the cave condensates as it slowly permeated the girl's body.

Various tattoos appeared on the girl's palms and around the eyes, she now looked like a higher being.

She unconsciously floats with her body upright; the phantom of the Sun God then appeared before her.

["I shall bestow you my blessings as per the ritual's sacrifices, you are not worthy enough to be my vessel. How you use these powers are up to your sheer willpower."]

Vuiiiiing!

A blinding ray of light came out of the Sun God's phantom before disappearing; it hit the massive sun tattoo on the girl's back.

The girl then slowly fell back down on the floor as the atmosphere of the cave returned to normal.

When Solara wakes up, she found herself in an unfamiliar cave, however, when she moved her body about, she instantly felt some changes.

Her muscles have grown firmer, she also felt taller and a power within her soul pulsates.

She then immediately jumped away from the cave near a cliff; however, she did not see the distance in the ground to the fall.

Just when she thought she will die from falling, she found herself flying subconsciously.

She smiled excitedly as she darted around before going back to her home.

However, she was reminded of what happened: no one in the city survived from the attack, all she could see in the city she grew up in is ruins.

While she prepared a carriage for her parents and prepare a burial for them, a bunch of strong-looking soldiers arrived.

After Solara informed what happened, she buried her parents on a nearby hill as the soldiers accompanied her.

She also found out that these soldiers are not a country's army, but instead, the rumored Adventurers that slay monsters to grow stronger.

With a new mission in mind, Solara went on various quests with these Adventurers.

After almost a decade of training and monster hunting, she polished her miraculous abilities, every now and then, she would hear the voices of the Sun God whenever the sun sets and rises.

Their days of happily hunting monsters and saving cities one after another ended when the Great War began.

The entire Terra's cities simultaneously get attacked by various evil forces which unified monsters.

The Adventurers with Solara proposed to split up to each city as much as possible to spread out their strength.

They are without a doubt the strongest combatants of the entire world.

This Great War erupted and grew fiercer stretching for decades, later centuries.

Solara's grew lifeless every season that passes upon her, she never aged and she retained her youth throughout the war.

This is something she only discovered belatedly, when she found out that every other person she ventured with perished in old age.

The war soon turned to a thousand-year bloodbath, when Solara meet more Adventurers known as Heroes.

They similarly never age, they were considered the chosen ones with the Gods' will.

Even if these Gods could not interfere with the world to save them from the brink of destruction, these Gods could share their powers to worthy individuals.

They could also give up their divine state to infest a human as their vessel, and then they could recover their powers slowly.

No one among the Gods are willing to part with their current positions just to meddle with the worldly affairs, they do not care if the world is destroyed anyways, there are other countless planets capable of giving life.

But still, they each chose their own individuals to bless with their powers, to end the Great War.

After fighting for another decade, the Heroes finally wiped the evil forces leading the monsters, while they sent the remaining monsters on a new realm which later became the Middle Realm.

The thousand-year Great War was then remembered as the Ancient War, spanning for more than a whole millennia.

From then on, thousands of years have passed; new life has been born in Terra.

The individuals once known as Heroes either transferred their bloodline to give birth to a whole new race, while some disappeared forever.

Solara was the only Hero who remained in the world; she searched for the hill where she left her parents, but to no avail.

The terrain has changed over the long course of time; she would never be able to see her parents ever again.

When she prayed in the Heavens for days, she was finally answered, albeit, by a totally unexpected entity.

He is a higher Archangel instead of a God, which he introduced himself as Zarall.

Zarall is apparently one of the Pentagram, a council of five strongest Archangels, on par with Azazel the librarian.

Zarall proposed to Solara that she visits the Underworld, an alternate world within the core of the planet similarly capable of life.

However, when she goes into the Underworld, she will lose partial memories and a fraction of her current powers.

To maintain balance of powers, he says.

Solara hesitated before finally giving in, she specifically asked Zarall to erase her memories killing.

She never trained herself to destroy life; instead, she wanted to grow powerful to protect life.

Zarall then made a gate filled with green lightning swirling around despite some struggle.

Solara then bid goodbye as she enters with a new resolve.

[…]

Through more periods of time, she found herself on the top yet again among the Adventurers of the Underworld.

She reached the Administrator state as she was informed by a group of unknown entities.

With nothing else to do with this Administrator thing, she strolls around in the form of light, looking for a new goal to work hard for, but she just could not satisfy herself anymore.

Until one day, she heard members of Tyrant Warriors have been assassinated by a single enemy.

She could not believe any of it, she knew just how strong these Adventurers are just to be assassinated.

She even gave a new kind of power to Tiberius, the leader of Tyrant Warriors; he was also even a Tier C Adventurer.

Now, today, she discovered face to face the assassin who single-handedly halved the Tyrant Warriors, forcing them to disband and be absorbed into other large guilds.

With this, she now has a newfound goal and renewed her visions for herself, instead of making an enemy out of the girl; she wants to form a negotiation.

After sleeping and recuperating for a total of 3 days, Veil regained her strength to begin her journey again; she would want a rematch against the Administrator Solara.

Just as she was readying herself, Solara greeted her from behind "You are awake. State your name, we have something to discuss."

Veil did not react hostile, she knew the gap between their abilities, and she also feels like Solara has not gone all-out against her in their recent duel.

"My name is Veil; I am from Terra, the world above." Veil briefly introduced herself, revealing that she is from Terra.

"Hmmm, so you are similarly from Terra, why have you come here then?" Solara asked interestingly.

"Let's just say that I am here to attain a higher power to change something in the world above and recover my ruined identity." Veil did not reveal the full reason.

"Who sent you here?" Solara inquired in a serious tone.

"She is known as Azazel, the librarian of Qua'ar." Veil answered after deliberating shortly.

"!!!"

Solara showed a shocked expression; it seems that this girl in front of her is not as simple as she looks.

If she was sent by another Seraphim, it means she has earned some form of recognition as well.

"Are you perhaps a Hero?" Solara asked after staying quiet for a while.

"Mhm." Veil nodded.

"Were you given a title?" Solara inquired again.

"…" Veil stayed quiet.

"Every Hero was given a title by a King or higher, why won't you state yours?" Solara reminded due to the long silence.

Veil looked up in the night sky, she briefly remembered Lauron who she keeps missing all this time.

She then slightly smiled and turned towards Solara.

"I was titled as the Shadowcarver." Veil finally spoke.

Shadowcarver, the wielder of shadows and its darkness, carving a path for fellowmen to comfortably walk through.

Enduring the pain and suffering of being bathed by the cold darkness, the Shadowcarver remained warm towards everyone.

The Shadowcarver walks the silent path, never showering herself with glory or honor from triumphant battles that she won.

With the bestowed title of the Shadowcarver, Veil was also forgotten by everyone whom she previously saved.

"With your Shadowcarver's darkness and my Helios Dancer's light, would you come with me and uncover the hidden secrets of the Underworld?" Solara stretched out her hand towards the solemn Veil.