Hellishness Comes

I couldn't help but sigh a little at what I was about to do. The American was on the chopping block, and I didn't intend to bring along a rather difficult person just for the sole purpose of being a live test subject and punching bag.

That was inefficient, and the lass knew it as well. I untied the bastard, who's skin was already getting melded into the very wire that was stuck to him. Whatever arse he had at that point was rotten, nothing more than dark bone and stinking macabre.

I didn't really need to say how bad it was. But I had to give the poor little bastard some respect in his final moments. From how often he'd been muttering, this was the betrayal cherry on top of the sundae of hell he was made to undergo.

I looked at the cottage one last time, grabbed my axe, and hummed an old song. A song from a saga, of a Viking.

"If you're here to get rid of me, just know, that on the day that we meet once more, you'll regret killing me earlier."

"That's funny lad, if it's any consolation, your presence and my actions have garnered some very interesting individuals to begin monitoring us. I leave the imagination to you."

He didn't say anything more as I dragged him over to the same chopping stump that I used for carving up wood for fire. I hefted the serrated blade of the axe overhead, and closed my eyes as I swung down, hoping that it was a true cut.

Thankfully, it was. It was a good, and true cut right through the man's neck, and thus his head fell off. I needed to clear out the area quickly. The deer was loaded with any extra gear as I was the one who made sure to keep all of the bags.

I beckoned the little one over to me, only to see her still on the table, where I etched in an eight by eight grid which we made use of to play chess. She was looking at the wooden pieces, the ones that weren't turned into artifacts.

"Lass, it's time."

"I know."

I sighed as I patted her on the shoulder as she stood from it, bringing one of the pieces along with her.

"Which one did you miss the most?"

"What?"

I stared at her, while getting on my knee to see her eye to eye.

"Out of all of those pieces, which of them, did you miss the most? Because lass, I know you brought one that wasn't important, but it's not like you'll be getting heavier because of it.

What I'm trying to tell you, is that these are attachments. Attachments are something that come a dime a dozen. There are memories to be made, more to be forgotten, and many to keep to heart.

You have a good heart lass. The only thing that I regret was making you part of the hell that I begun, a hell that would be far from over."

She just looked at me as she opened up her palm and gave me a little insight to which of them did she bring. And I couldn't help but smile a little. The white knight. What a lass. She already got the idea already, huh?

I shook my head and led her over to the deer, which despite it getting nearly covered completely in bags and luggage, was more than capable of handling such thanks to the magic that it was governing over.

'Is it time, oh Foreigner and Caretaker to the Monarch?'

"Yes. Let's leave."

I took point as we began our way out of this forest after all of this time. Finally, finally things were starting to move again. Finally we were going to see the end of this place.

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/??? POV/

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/Era of the `×¥=®✓^}|¶¢=®¢✓`/

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Father was calling for me again. He wouldn't really end things off without his blessing after all. I watched as the little ones came prancing through the halls, making merry as I couldn't help but smile.

I was more than content with being within this little convent and orphanage, where we needn't concern ourselves with much and even the little things. And yet, I felt it in my heart. It was time for me to face the destiny which had been written for me all so long ago, by the will of Gods.

I took a deep breath, properly putting in my posture, as I opened the door and was made to bear witness witness to the heroes of this era. The heroes that I would accompany to attempt to battle.

It had been more than five hundred eras when we were finally made aware of the existence of the heroes, and yet for the first era, the era that we all felt. The Era of the For'eign. The First of the Demon Lords. The Enemy.

And I was made to be a companion to any of the groups, or better yet, a single hero. All of the heroes were beings that were capable of either rending out lands asunder or melding them back together.

My name is, or was, Nataleya Karainta, but now, I was made to accompany the "Asian" heroes to battles and "adventures". I couldn't help but sigh. There were tales and legends of the brutality of this class, with most of the tragedies within our ballads of the failures and misnomers that had been brought along by their actions.

I suppose that I am lucky enough that the current heroes were all females, but I was still readying myself, both in mind and body.

I bowed with as much poise as I could muster before the heroes.

"My respects to the will of those that toil for our sake. Greetings, oh heroes, I am the nun Nataleya Karainta. And I have been summoned to accompany thee in your quest against the Demon Lo-"

"KYAAA, oh my gosh! She's so cute!!!! Hey hey, Yumiko, can you see this nun right now? She's got such a great outfit on right now! Will we be getting these sorts of clothes as well when we go and have an adventure?"

"Oh be silent, Hibiki. Sorry about that Karainta-san, Hibiki isn't that smart when it comes to socializing, that, or she's way too happy. I'm still confused on which one is that she makes use of more often."

I simply nodded, there were no inherent things that seemed off when it came to the hero Hibiki. I have no full knowledge on her yet, but it will slowly but surely come to me, as a proper companion to them all.

The other two girls then introduced themselves as twins, Yuka and Mika. I had no real qualms when it came to the pair of heroes. And finally, the last hero, who didn't even look to me as she went off to the other classes, trying to bring up conversation with them.

We then escorted the heroes of our respective classes and headed to the throne room via the teleportation sigil that one of the local hedge mages had remembered.

It was concerning that we were to try and use a sigil from a hedge mage instead of one of the proper mages that the Scholastica would have sent, but I still had faith, if they were allowed to make the sigil that transports the heroes, then that means that they checked the mage as best as they can.

I looked over my shoulder, and saw the other classes that had their own nuns to accompany them. It's rather auspicious yet suspicious that every single hero that had been summoned this time around were all females, but I held my tongue.

I and the class that were to go to the capital city were to go first and there were no real issues with what the decision was. The sooner we began the quest, the sooner the heroes can garner the necessary strength to fight against the For'eign.

I walked onto the sigil as I beckoned for the others to come onto it as well. The five of the heroes then followed my lead, except for the last one, who seemed to scoff at me being the one leading us to the capital city and the king.

"Oi! Why's this nun the one that's bringing us to their kingdom huh? And why were we summoned so supposedly far away from their capital city if we needed to be there."

I bowed my head as I did my best to give off a feel of respectfulness and regret in my voice.

"Forgive me, Hero-"

"Ayame, my name's Ayame."

"Hero Ayame, I regret to inform of the issues that plague us ever since the first Demon Lord had revealed himself. The magic within the capital is strengthened to such an extreme degree that it would prove difficult to gather strength for all of you, should you have been summoned there."

"Hah? What sort of bullcrap is that? Isn't it good if we get summoned strong?"

"Indeed, but it would be at the cost of you gathering more strength. Forgive me for this, but we need you all weak. When a hero is weak, they can achieve higher strength with a little effort and time, instead of singlehandedly bringing them in from high-mana areas.

As one of the last heroes had once said "Levelling is a bitch when the XP gains are so difficult to get to.". We need you to be able to gather higher strength, in spite of the fact that making things easier for you would likely be good early on."

The hero in front of me clicked her tongue and huffed as she stepped onto the sigil as well. This would prove difficult to be able to properly make them into a strong enough force to kill the Demon Lord.

I looked off to the knight that had been posted within the room and nodded to them to begin the teleportation.

The heroes seemed to be clamoring in awe at the sight that they were witnessing. I myself felt a little pride at the work of this hedge mage. It was rare for a hedge mage to be of this caliber, and even rarer still one that was versed within sigils.

I waited for the sigil to properly release and bring us to the capital city, to see the very lord of these lands, when all of a sudden the color of the sigil turned from a light blue to a dark gray.

My eyes shot wide open as I tried to run out of the sigil to save myself. Heroes? They told us that they were a disposable bunch.

The church and even the state itself had told us that they were simply weapons that needed the proper nudging to get them to do whatever it was that we needed.

But this? This wasn't within the plan. The sigil created a dome around us as I did my best to hammer at it. Whenever sigils changed colors from their original, it generally meant something very very bad.

If a red sigil became orange, things were going to explode. If it was green and became yellow, it was going to fizzle out of existence, wasting the time, effort, and materials it took to try and create a sigil for that specific purpose.

But there is always one color that said the exact same thing, no matter what sort of sigil you make, no matter what intent you try to implant. Whenever you see a sigil turn dark gray, that meant that it was being tampered.

The very essence of mana and material that was supplying and maintaining it was being made inactive, or worse, changed by the will of a being that even mana itself would have rejected.

The Demon Lord of Desperation had just caught five of the heroes, including their nun that would have been brought alongside of them.

And I didn't want to be in this situation in the first place. The Oracles? The Grand Mage himself? They foretold that nothing would have gone wrong with this batch of heroes. That if we were to be captured, the Demon Lord would let the nuns go.

...by the gods, he lied didn't he? He swore under risk of punishment from the gods themselves, that can't be possible. I heard footsteps as the heroes and I were shown a sight that we'd never be able to see again.

There were metal constructs and automatons all around us, surrounding us as they continued to toil and create whatever it is that they needed. They showed themselves to be nothing more than uncaring when they performed their duties.

And right above it all, in what seemed to be a stage, was a man masked with rotting wood and steel. His hands different, with one laden in gold and blue light, the other with cragged skin like a volcano itself.

"Oi! Where the hell are you stupid bitch?! This doesn't look like your capital cit-"

The hero who spoke out, Hero Ayame, was suddenly stopped by a bipedal construct that let out a jet of hot air as she and the rest of us got down. It then moved itself over to the being in the stage as they soon set their sights upon us.

"Females? And from what I see, Asian?"

He then touched the air as the stage lowered itself, while he was flanked by two other constructs. The Heroes Ayame, Hibiki and Yumiko took a step back as the man walked over to us with his hands firmly behind his back.

"Ahh, now I get it. The sleeper agent finally came into use. I guess that a couple years of training and conditioning really did serve a purpose after all."

I held myself back from running away. I can feel it in the air, the grace of the System is scared of this place. It fears to try and tread these grounds. The For'eigner himself was right in front of us.

"Oh forgive me lassies, me manners have all but up and left eh? Me name is..... well I can't really say it, but I can say who I am. I'm the guy that got people trying to hunt me down.

You girls are supposed to be part of that little hunting troop. But I'm here, and ready to get into some bad trouble again. I could say that I've been, just the tiniest bits busy."

The constructs all halted at the words of the Demon Lord as he continued to study us. Gods I don't want to die here. I don't want to have to deal with an enemy that could tear away all of our strength.

"We're not scared of you, old man! Hah! They said that you were really weak when it came down to it, and those gods might have given us some fun little toys to play with!"

Hero Ayame, were we not within the grasp of the Demon Lord himself, I would've let those words slide. But I'm beginning to believe that you and the rest of your class might be biting off more than you could chew.

"Oh, you've got some artifacts from the gods as well? That's really good. Good for you kid. I've got a couple toys in this little workshop of mine as well. After all, you're right smack dab within my territory."

....We're dead, there's nothing that we could do.