Prologue

Nekane looked fearfully at what stood before her. It seemed to be some sort of well-built black-skinned creature, and looked almost human. However this calamity was far from human. It was only a few feet taller than the fifteen year-old girl standing in its path, and yet it looked so much more frightening than a human could ever look. This creature had simply barged into their small, stone house by literally breaking through the door and a piece of the wall that held it in place, all without receiving a single scratch.

Nekane's parents had ran to get their weapons from the nearby shed - the family of three lived in a lone house sitting on top of a large hill - which meant they had left their only daughter alone with this thing. The teen's blue eyes had long since widened in shock as they were locked on the creature by a sudden fear, and it had stopped dead in her tracks. Now it seemed to be returning her stare with its glowing red eyes, and the gentle breeze playfully tossed its long, pitch black hair this way and that way.

Nekane suddenly snapped out of her trance at the rhythmic sound of feet. The wooden planks shook ever so slightly as the girl's parents ran over them, the father armed with a rod and the mother with a bow, rushing back to where they had come from. Unfortunately for their daughter, the creature had let out a vicious howl as she had looked back to where her parents were coming from, and she wasn’t at all prepared for what was coming next (if she could ever have been).

It reached forward and grabbed the girl's waist, locking the frightened teen in a vice-like grip, and she screamed as it mercilessly began to crush her from that point. A second later, her parents had arrived in the living room, already charging at the creature that was killing one of the two possessions they loved most. Nekane's mother had long since notched an arrow on her bow, and released it with the speed of a hawk upon seeing her daughter in her situation.

The arrow harmlessly bounced off the calamity's skin and, now angered, it charged at the parents after throwing Nekane into the wall. The wall didn't stop her flight though. Instead, she slammed straight through the stone because of the creature’s strength and rolled down the hill once she had hit the ground. She faintly thought she could hear her parents cry out in pain before their voices were silenced, but then she succumbed to the sudden wave of darkness assaulting her.

Chapter 1

Six years later...

The girl's eyes looked up at the female stranger blocking her way out of her bedroom, slightly widened by fear but mostly out of innocent curiosity. The woman's eyes flickered red for a moment before returning to their usual golden, and took a step toward the girl who, still curious, didn't step back. She took another step, then another to be right in front of the girl, and grinned. Without giving as much of a warning, the grown-up suddenly stepped over to the girl's left side and grabbed her shoulder forcefully. The child let out a shriek of surprise and tried to squirm free, but it was too late. She felt her assaulter overpower her and holding her down, flat on her stomach, and she screamed for help.

Her parents' footsteps almost instantly sounded, along with a shout of response, but just as they opened the door, it was closed again by an unknown force. The sound of fists barging on wood sounded in the poor girl's head as she let out another short, high-pitched scream, and she was about to unleash a third of those when her voice was cut short by a sudden pain erupting from her back and spreading to the rest of her body. The force of the blow knocked the air out of the child's lungs and she stopped struggling, just as she felt something seeping into her body. Her head throbbed and the next moments, there was only a flurry of black...and red.

Nekane let out a distressed cry as she woke with a start. She sat up in her bed abruptly, shivering from the cold; apparently, she had been sleeping so restlessly that she had flung the rough sheets off herself. Looking around, she saw the ever so familiar interior of her bedroom: a simple bed, a cupboard and a chair by the window. She always thought it looked rather plain, but those three things were the only ones that fit in the small space.

Nekane sighed, shaking her head vaguely, and stood from her bed. She wondered who the child in her dream had been before shaking the thought off. She had other things to worry about right now.

Six years ago, that creature had assaulted her home, and had slain her parents…yet it had spared her life. She dimly recalled that it stiffened and hesitated whenever she had made eye contact with the calamity that day, and always tried to link it to the rest of her life. Failing as usual, she sighed again and began to make herself ready; today, she’d venture out of this village and into the outside world. She had vowed to avenge her parents’ death, and she wouldn’t fail. She couldn’t.

These thoughts lingered in her mind as she ran a hand through her short brown hair and got dressed for her journey. Her clothing was white, adorned with light blue outlining, and she finished the look by putting on a white scarf that fell from around her neck down her back and front. She then packed a flask of water, some golden coins and traveling rations – just in case something didn’t go as planned – in a small bag before turning around to exit.

After opening the mahogany door, she strode through the doorway, walking straight into a large temple. Its walls told the tales of old in a foreign language, and already several monks stood by different parts of the stone material, trying to decipher the inscriptions like they did every day. The rest of the building was pretty plain and simple; it had four rooms flanking the main space at two sides, and one back room where the wounded – or traumatized – would be treated. Nekane had been taken under this temple’s wing when she had collapsed near the remote village it was in, and had been living in one of the small side rooms ever since.

Upon arriving in the main space, she was greeted by the cheery smile of a cleric in her mid-twenties. She smiled back briefly before looking away. The girl’s smile faltered as quick as it had come, and she abandoned whatever she was doing, trotting over to Nekane in a worried manner.

“Nekane…” she began, somewhat quietly. The person she had spoken to turned her gaze towards her.

“… Yes, Aylen?”

“Are you all right?”

“Of course I’m fine. Why do you ask?” Aylen was silent for several moments before she spoke slowly.

“You don’t have to do this.” she was speaking in a careful manner, as if she was trying to find suitable words for what she meant.

“What do you mean?” Nekane questioned, her voice having an incredulous edge to it.

“You…won’t bring your parents back by doing this.” She knew that…

“Have you forgotten what information we received just the other day?” Nekane responded, slightly angered, “That…that thing is killing all over Kundayo! How can you expect me to sit by idly while some creature is causing destruction in all parts of these lands?” Her voice had risen an octave. At this sudden outburst, Aylen made a hushing gesture, silently telling her friend to lower her voice.

“But if you die…”

“I don’t care about that.” Aylen sighed in exasperation at this reply. She had known Nekane as a hard-headed person from the day the two had met, and she had only grown more stubborn over the past six years.

“Why can’t you wait it out? Maybe it’ll pass.”

“Wait it out? Aylen, we’ve been waiting this out for years! I won’t allow this monster to destroy people’s lives as it did with mine! It’s destroying the world as we know it, and no one’s taking any action!” Aylen winced noticeably; Nekane had begun to shout. There was no probability of convincing her otherwise now. Despite that, however, she tried one last time.

“Nekane, you witnessed this creature’s powers yourself. You claim the arrow your mother fired didn’t even affect this calamity! How do you hope to stand against it and live?”

At those words, Nekane walked back to her room and emerged again, this time with a scabbard in her hand. As she drew the sword it contained, her friend was greeted by an extraordinary sight; it was a short sword, but there were patterns carved into the blade. The carvings looked like some sort of artwork, consisting of ancient runes. The sheath itself was also adorned with art in the same style.

Aylen blinked at it in awe, her mouth dropping slightly in amazement as the cleric looked at the weapon with wide eyes. Nekane then sheathed it again, and tied it to her left side before turning her gaze back to her cleric friend.

“My father trained me in the arts of the sword from the day I had enough strength to lift this weapon. He always told me it was some sort of a sacred blade that could cut through whatever would block my path of life.” She paused briefly, recalling these unclear words, before continuing, “After the attack, I retrieved it from my house’s ruins and took it with me. I…kept it hidden in my room.” Aylen was silent at this new piece of information, but only for a few seconds.

“And you think this will help you defeat that creature?” Nekane nodded, and Aylen remained silent longer this time, at a loss for words.

Nekane took in the usually cheery cleric in front of her, examining every strand of curly, mid-neck length blonde hair, the exact shade of her azure blue eyes and her plain white robe. She really didn’t want to go and leave her best friend behind – though she didn’t want to admit that – but she felt she had to. Shoving away the inner conflict inside of her, she stared at Aylen in expectance of a final ‘cheery word rant’, as she had so accurately described it. However, her friend kept silent. An agonizing silence lingered between the two, until a man called to Aylen from the back room.

“Aylen, I need your help.” he called simply, briefly poking his head out into the hall.

Nekane recognized it as the voice belonging to Aylen’s father, the bishop of this little village. Then, without saying another, the cleric briefly nodded to Nekane, and then went to the back room, healing staff already in her hand. Her friend watched her as she strode through the doorway, leaving her line of sight. Nekane looked at the doorway for several moments as if mourning a loss, but then turned and exited the temple.

She emerged out of the building, walking straight into the village that had been the only world she knew for the past six years. Hanai was basically a large group of people who had settled down together. Every villager here had lost his or her family because of that calamity that continued to wreak havoc across the lands, and they’d found some solace in each other. This was the village where Nekane had collapsed near, and had been found by none other than Aylen herself. Hanai’s houses were made of wood; actually, the only stone building was the temple, the sanctuary for ‘lost souls’, as the monks called it. Nekane sighed and shook her head.

‘Now isn’t the time to be remembering… I’d better get going.’

People cast glances of both sympathy and irritation her way as she walked down the dirt path. Her hot-headed attitude had made her unpopular with many of the townspeople, but some had also been very understanding of her feelings, which she greatly appreciated. However, she somehow knew everyone wouldn’t be too happy with her behavior at all once they discovered her plans to leave the village, so she simply nodded at anyone with whom she locked eyes briefly, acting as if she wasn’t going to do anything unusual today.

No one even seemed to notice her actions as she slipped out through the village gate, and into the forest that surrounded the place. She racked her brain for a manner of plan.

‘Let’s see… First, I exit this forest, and then I travel to the nearest village, which is…where again? Oh yes, to the north… So I go north from here and keep going in that direction.’

She nodded in approval. It certainly wasn’t the most intelligent of all plans, but it would suffice. It was still dawn, and the sun was still close to the horizon. If she kept her regular pace and didn’t take too many breaks, she could reach the village before nightfall.

Nekane brushed some foliage aside as she began venturing straight through the forest. She could hear a couple of birds chirp a song happily, and then heard the rustling of leaves and the flapping of wings as they suddenly took off, obviously frightened by the figure wandering through the thick forest. Several leaves made a crunching sound as Nekane stepped on them. Yes, the forest was full of sounds, but she didn’t really mind. Her gaze was fixed at what laid before her, determined to get out of the forest as soon as possible and reduce the chances of being found; inhabitants of Hanai hardly dared to go much further than the forest in the fear of being attacked again.

The thick layer of leaves high above Nekane blocked most of the sunlight that shone on it, wrapping the entire forest in a cool shade. The traveler enjoyed the soothing feeling of cool air caressing her, and let out a quiet, comfortable sigh. It wasn’t long before she emerged out of the forest, and was greeted by a sight of grass plains. Hills, some steep and some not, dotted the landscape, accompanied by an occasional tree and bush, but that was it. A bright, blue sky and a fluffy cloud here and there were the only other things to see. Nekane relaxed slightly at this; she was off, free. She could go everywhere she wanted, and there would be no one to stop her. Slowly she started to make her way north.