A New Beginning

Chapter 7

ENTIRELY PERFECT (1)

The moon hung high in the sky, casting a silvery light over the cobblestone streets and thatched roofs. All seemed peaceful, but under the cover of serenity, darkness slowly engulfed the Kasse village.

Behind the village chief’s house, the entire backyard was covered in dark purple vines. And as the night slowly approached its end, purple flowers started to blossom on them.

Simultaneously, releasing dense pollen, which prompted the village chief and the woman accompanying him to cover their faces with a special mask apparatus.

“This is the flower I needed, it finally bloomed.” The woman who also called herself the poison master avidly looked at the flower.

Meticulously collecting samples of its petals, making sure at the same time not to inhale the continuously released pollen from them. Even if they had not ingested that special seed, they were still at risk because of its toxicity.

They could never be sure what this unknown thing might do to them.

“You finally got what you came here for. Now…”

Before the village chief could remind the poison master; she tried to shoot him down and pushed him away so as not to get in her way.

“Yeah. Yeah. I haven’t forgotten. Just make sure to use that dose of medicine on the mother plant, at the right time. And it just might stop her from completely losing reason before turning into a monster. But no guarantees. You should know it’s very difficult to get a hold of that medicine even for my employer.”

She never revealed who her employer was. But the Village chief knew they were just that powerful to isolate this village from the world.

That’s how they were able to conduct these experiments without anyone’s notice here.

“This time I will bring her back. My love…” The village chief said out loud.

“Love huh…” For some reason, the poison master could not help but point out.

“Why what’s wrong?” the village chief angrily called her off, not taking to her attitude nicely.

“I think no normal man, would hand over their lover for an experiment that has now put the entire village at risk. True love either drives us mad or blinds us to our own insanity.” The poison master chuckled.

“What would you know? I tried everything to save Gisla. But nothing worked. She wanted to speak something to me before she fell into a coma. If I bring her back with this, she will be much stronger and even this dying village will finally change for good. Everything will be back to how it was supposed to be.” The village chief asserted.

“Yeah, yeah. It’s all for your own happiness. Now go. Leave me alone. Let me do my work and once it's completed I will be gone for good. So, this will be the last time we see each other.”

While the village chief left for the place where the mother plant existed. The poison master finally found some carefree time to proceed with her work.

Once she had collected all the petals she could get her hands on and mixed them in a vial filled with red fluid. Seeing it turn purple, she knew she had completed her objective.

She put that vial and other vials filled with pollen, leaves, petals, and anything she could get her hands on and put them inside a dimensional bag.

She gave a small glance at the village chief’s house, where she had spent the past few months completing her lifelong project.

Finally deciding to head towards an ancient-looking oak tree. Surprisingly inside its bark, led to an underground passageway that opened on the outskirts of the forest that surrounded the village.

It was made ages ago with the intention in to lead the villagers out of the village in case of an emergency.

But this time, the poison master was using it to escape the village, while the residents' lives were in jeopardy.

Once she entered the passageway after sliding down through a small hole.

It was filled with stagnant water, most probably a water source had made its way into the cave through the small crevices.

Because of the dark, the poison mater had no choice but to stick close to the wall and travel while sliding her hand along the wall to not lose her way.

“I certainly wish I could use a little light magic like that adventurer girl to light up my path. Can’t wish for the impossible. Huh.” The poison master sighed.

The poison master only excelled at poison magic which was of dark attribute. Hence there was no way she would possess the light attribute also.

She still had a long way to go before she could get out of this underground cave, so it was better if she moved slowly and not hit a rock in the dark.

Everything was fine until she heard slow footsteps making waves in the water which clashed with her own with a plop sound.

Wondering a plant monster could be on her tail she ran at full speed. But the steps continued following her until she realized it was a human all along with the rhythmic sound pattern their footsteps produced.

“It can’t be the village chief. Could it… Only the villagers knew about this passageway. So did some villager survive somehow and come here.” The poison master reiterated her thoughts.

‘Maybe I could pretend to be a victim too in this chaos by feigning as the village chief’s daughter and kill them when they let their guard down. I could also collect their blood and use them as a special case sample for the further development of my poison.’ The poison master thought to herself.

As long as I can get out of here and deliver the promised item to my employer, I will be safe.

The poison master this time stopped and looked back once she made sure the footsteps were close enough for the person to hear, “Hello my name is Giselle. I am the village chief’s daughter.”

“I didn’t get to know your name before. Nice to meet you. My name is Alicia.” From the soft voice, the poison master could tell it belonged to a young girl. But it did not feel familiar at all for it to belong to a villager. So, the poison master stood stunned.

“⸺Maybe some light would help.” The voice said.

A small orb of blue light takes form in the air and the damp walls of the tunnel are lit up.

The circling pattern on the water stops with the footsteps.

“How did you get here? Only the villagers should have known about this place.” The poison master could not believe her eyes.

“Oh! I was looking for my companions and got lost on the way. Heh.”

“Seems like a very wrong place for a child to lose her way.” The poison master made fun of the girl but instinctively took a few steps back.

The girl finally stepped into the light to be properly seen by the poison master. Wearing a white healer adventurer uniform and a white mask covering the top of her face. The poison master easily recognized her as one of the adventurers who came to the village to complete their quest.

“What’s wrong with your eyes?” The poison master pointed at the glowing eyes of the girl.

When they first met, she was sure her eyes were red. But now, they flickered between red and blue.

“Oh, this.” The girl put her hand on the mask and felt a burning sensation in her eyes. “It has been a very long time since I got to come out like this. So, it's still trying to resist somewhat. The last time I only got to play a bit and that too in a dream. But this time I plan to stay here for a while. I won’t be needing this anymore.” Saying that the girl removed her white mask.

In an instant, the illusion wore off. Her black hair lengthened and, under the blue light, shone with a white color. The flickering of her eyes stopped, and Alcia’s eyes predominantly started to glow with a prominent blue.

Alicia finally confronted the poison master Giselle.

“Who… What are you? Some princess of sorts...” The poison master could not deny the girl looked too beautiful and delicate to be in a dump like this. It worried her that Alicia wasn’t even fazed in a situation like this where the plant monster could have been wreaking havoc outside.

“Didn’t you sum it up yourself. A foolish green adventurer, who doesn’t know what she is doing.” The young girl in front of her acted out like she was repeating someone else’s words.

“How unsettling? How would you even know that? Were you spying on us? Are they here as well?” the poison master yelled from the frustration of being found out so easily.

“No, my party members are not here, neither they know where I am. I would never do something so silly as spying. But my eyes do see everything.” The girl’s eyes started to glow more fiercely. One could have even said that those eyes were now as they were meant to be.

“This is so absurd. You should have all died with the poison I fed you.” The poison master remembered.

“Oh, don’t worry about that. I purified it with my light magic for them. But I did eat the poison myself. And I should be thanking you for it, that I was able to create this window because of it and got here. And I also got to meet him as well. Huh… who is he again? I think I know him, but also not.” The young girl suddenly lost herself in between and held her head puzzled.

“Did that poison really screw with your brain or what? You talk like you are not yourself. But you must not have been in your right mind even before since you ingested the poison voluntarily. No one has ever lived after eating that poison so I wonder how you are still alive.”

“You must be right; it was such a high-level poison that it must have intoxicated me. Would you like to know what it tasted like?” Alicia rubbed her cheeks making an offer.

“Sure. That would be quite helpful for my research.” The poison master found no reason to refuse for her help.

“I would tell you. But first, tell me what are you going to do with that.” Alicia pointed her finger at the dimensional bag.

“So, your services aren’t free. Why would you even want to know what’s in this bag when you do not even know what’s inside?” The poison master chided pushing the bag to her back.

Even the poison master was not aware from where her employer got their hands on this foreign seed. Except she did learn of the existence of an unknown place in this world that not even history spoke of.

“I do know you tried to cultivate the Wraithvine Seed, You shouldn’t be playing around with things you are not sure about, especially when they belong to the Dark Continent,” Alicia warned the poison master Giselle.

The moment Alicia uttered that forbidden place’s name, Giselle’s body froze.

“How do you even know about that? Just who are you? Who do you work for? The emperor..?” the poison master Giselle couldn’t take this anymore. Not being able to understand just how the little girl in front of her knew so much.

“I don’t know what you are talking about. But it’s nothing new. Just some information from my dad’s huge library. So, are you going to tell me what are you planning to do with it? My offer is still open.” Alicia smiled.

The poison master knew she wouldn’t be able to stall any longer than this. She needed to play her cards right if she wanted to get out of there.

“Fine, I see you want to know why I did all this. It was for research I had been working on for eight years. For the mother plant of this seed to blossom it needs sacrifice of human blood and flesh to turn into nutrients. That’s why I turned all the villagers into monsters. This village was just the start. From what I know the mother plant of this seed, can even feed on an entire nation’s population and still be hungry. I am sure the one out there must be going pretty crazy right now. Knowing that, are you not going to stop that thing up there.” The poison master pointed upwards.

“No. It's not the seed’s fault it came onto this continent. I wasn’t able to save those people. The seed which you sow in them had already deeply merged with their cores. It’s just trying to do what comes naturally to it. That’s why I am not going to interfere until it crosses the line.” Alicia’s firm words were beyond the poison master’s comprehension.

“And how are you going to make sure that? You can’t possibly know how powerful that thing is. Not even an army would stand a chance against one, once it fully matures. I will allow you to go back and escape as long as we pretend we didn’t meet here.” No matter what the poison master did she couldn’t help herself from sounding desperate.

“That’s quite a generous offer. But I can take care of that thing even from here. Like this.” Alicia snapped her fingers and a small black flame lit from the tip of her finger.

Instead of just going out quickly, it travels in an upward line. Not even the poison master could see Alicia’s thinly laid-out webs in the entire cave with her naked eye.

“I see, they already crossed the line they shouldn’t have by trying to hurt him. So, that takes care of them. And there appear to be some unsavory people as well. So, let’s wrap up things here too.”

Alicia’s words were too unbelievable.

The poison master could not believe her ears. And even though she would have taken the words of this child as a joke. The amount of magical energy released just now in the surroundings had left her too numb to move.

Even though she could see Alicia standing in front of her with a smile, the magical density of such capacity was capable of revealing the true intentions of the user. It could not have been simply described as rage or fury; it was an overwhelming force of pure, unbridled power.

The situation the poison master was in prompted her to pull out the vials from her dimensional bag and check them.

“It’s all gone... It’s gone.” The poison master threw the vials on the ground. They broke only to reveal some powdery black substance like ash when they should have contained samples of flowers, leaves, and pollen.

The life source of the mother plant was so strong that even after being separated from it a single leaf could survive and propagate on its own. But once the mother plant was dead, everything else related to it perished as well.

“So will you stop now?” Alicia asked.

“Why would I? I would do this all over again. I will find a new place and raise those plant monsters again and get back the ingredients I need.” The poison master’s eyes turned small and looked like black dots as if they were lost to desperation.

Giselle had all her life studied poison magic and learned about people’s ability to resist. The innate power of resilience of living beings to keep living on even in the harshest conditions always fascinated her.

And when this power evolves to a superhuman level, that’s when people call it a miracle.

So, miracles just don’t exist. That’s what Giselle always believed.

That’s why when Giselle after giving up on everything, when she learnt about the creatures of the dark continent. Their magnificence blinded her sense of reason.

Her job was to raise the seed from its slumber on the human continent. But she ended up desiring further.

Since Alicia was busy with analyzing things on the surface.

And since her attention was removed. It was time for Giselle to reveal her hand.

A snake slithers from Giselle’s hand beneath her sleeves, lunges, and bites Alicia on the arm.

In an instant, the area where the poison entered Alicia’s body, started turning pale black and the color deepened further.

Alicia looked at her fingers and her nails had turned black too. The next second she coughed up blood and fell to the ground.

“Now you see what I had been trying to make all these years. The strongest poison that can ever exist. A poison with the possibility to kill a hero. That’s what I always wanted. Since you survived my first poison I thought, you could become a fine specimen for me to test my poisons on. But not even you can survive this level of toxicity that can kill a hero.” The poison master laughed heartedly.

Just in case, Giselle had prepared a complete dose of the poison she wanted to make.

Heroes who possess the divine light magic attribute are said to be immune to all poison and injuries. That’s an undisputed truth of this world.

So, if something of this world could not kill a hero, then it was logical enough to use a substance foreign to this world itself.

And Giselle’s poison was only the start of it. As she relished in her success.

“Congratulations. I really think this poison can actually kill a hero. It was even able to hurt me and I think mom too would suffer a severe blow from it. Not even the monsters of the labyrinth will be able to fend off against it. I can’t believe I would praise someone this much.” Alicia laughed to herself clapping her hands.

“But how? You were just now dying. You should have been dead.” Giselle repeatedly kept shouting oblivious to Alicia’s applause.

“That’s what only you believed. It was just a simple blood cough I got. Now will you stop making that poison?” Alicia said rubbing off the snake’s bite mark as it vanished from her hands and her nail color restored to normal.

“No that shouldn’t have been possible even with healing magic. You should have suffered an instant death. All those worthless heroes need to die. Why would I stop when I have come so close to my dream? You will be just a stepping stone in the process just like all those others have been. All I need to do is…”

Giselle grabbed the head of the snake, and taking its fangs sunk it deep into the nerves around her neck.

On a closer look, under the long neck piece of her clothing, her neck already had hundreds of snake bite marks.

What made Giselle the greatest in her study of poisons, was to analyze someone’s immunity against any poison by taking in their blood and learning of their weakness.

This ability to analyze blood in Giselle came from the fact that her ancestors once belonged to the noble vampire lineage and this ability had been slowly passed down in her family tree.

“Just you watch and see I am going to kill you first and then all the heroes. They all deserve to die by my hands.”

“Wait! Al stop this quickly.” Alicia called out.

But by that time, the snake’s fangs had already sunk deep into Giselle’s flesh. Her face ecstatic with pain.

But Alicia stood there without reacting as if everything was already over.

Unfortunately, it was too late for Giselle to realize that the snake pet in her hand for some reason was unresponsive.

The snake was already dead.

And with that sole realization Giselle’s heart stopped beating. It was not only her heart but her soul core was corrupted as well.

Her years of experience that made Giselle’s body almost immune to all poisons, meant nothing.

When the snake had bitten Alicia, her blood had entered into the snake’s system as well. And when the same traces of Alicia’s blood was injected through its fangs into Giselle’s body.

It was game over for her.

Gisele’s empty body for a moment stood like a statue and after turning black, fell to the ground like a slug and dispersed into the water. Not even her soul could escape that fate.

[ABYSSAL POISON MAGIC]

Alicia’s entire body fluid could turn into deadly poison with the highest concentration of black matter, which came from the fact that her origin was that of a special spider. And when the snake bit Alicia the skill activated on its own as self-defense.

“Al why didn’t you stop it.” Alicia muttered shrugging her hair up to the top of her forehead.

Consequently, there was no response.

“Fine, so you won’t respond to me when only I am here. Ah! This ended so quickly. I can’t even leave myself here otherwise I will be lost in this dreary cave again.”

***

ELSIE

It was not late for the sun to rise. In fact, it was already shining brightly in the sky.

But I could barely see through my eyes. I was tired and more than that frustrated.

The prince and I had returned back to the now empty village and to our hotel.

On our way we encountered traces of dead plant monster bodies trapped in the cages the prince made through his black metal skill.

Surprisingly we found Alicia standing near the well where I had trapped one of the plant monsters. All she did was stare at the red piece of cloth as if it was lying in wait there for us.

The prince did not question her, neither I had the strength to.

The prince did not reveal that Alicia accompanied us here to the Rogue Hero, but he still hides his true powers from her. And I am now sure Alicia was hiding something from us too.

“Sasha, she is gone…” I repeated taking the red scarf in my hand.

My neck was overwhelmed, finding it too disturbing when it was not even her fault. Nor of any of the villagers who had to suffer through something like this.

I wasn’t able to save anyone here. I wasn’t even able to help the prince.

The situation was so dangerous back there with the Rogue Hero.

What kind of a personal guard I am if I didn’t even know that the prince’s mother was murdered by the Rogue Hero!?

I am sure the prince was holding back even when using his special skill against the Rogue Hero.

Nonetheless, the Rogue Hero was so strong that during the entire fight, he did not even use magic nor reveal his Hero skill. The prince was hurt and overpowered.

And it was all because I held him back by becoming a hostage in that situation.

But the prince did not abandon me, so I am not going to run away either.

“Let’s go back and report this to the guild.”

“Let’s do that.” The prince agreed.

Of course, we would be only reporting what happened in the village and leaving out the encounter with the Rogue Hero. Since it would be a national crisis and attract attention to us.

The prince and I had already discussed the details of it.

Our quest was complete.

And there was no longer any reason for us to stay.

After getting out of the Kasse forest we easily found ourselves a cart on the way and took a lift.

“How long is she planning to sleep like a baby? Just what had she been doing the entire night.” I complained at Alicia whose head now rested on my shoulders as she slept soundly without a care.

”⸺Huh” The prince gave out an odd reaction to my words as he blushed, but I never got to know more.

After a few hours of journey, we reached back at the adventurer guild of the Maybell City to report our findings.

While climbing the stairs I suddenly remembered, “I wonder what was the contents of the bag that we delivered to the village chief since it did not seem to work the way he wanted it to.”

“Now, that is something I would like to know too.”

Both prince and I turned around our heads to look for a half-asleep Alicia.

But she was gone.

***

TATHYA LABYRINTH [80th FLOOR]

Once Caroline felt Alicia's presence back in the mansion, she hurried towards the gate to greet her.

But Alicia who she thought would cheerfully greet her. Suddenly grabbed and hugged Caroline, burying her face.

"Mom, I'm home." Alicia's voice came out weakly.

"You must be exhausted. Why don’t you first come inside, dear, and tell me everything that happened from the beginning." Caroline said softly, brushing Alicia's hair and gently removing her mask to see her face.

“Yes, I am.” This was the last day of the week, after which Alicia had promised Athena that she would come back. So, Alicia wanted to spend all of it with her family now.

“You look so thin, so I will make you something tasty as well.”

“Umu.”

After an hour, Caroline came out of the room alone.

Caroline found Zyl in the kitchen cooking something.

“What brought you to the kitchen?” Caroline asked.

“I thought you would be too busy, so I decided to cook something for her instead.” Zyl laughed. Of course, he didn’t want to see Alicia go down by trying out any of Caroline’s weird recipes, the first thing she wakes up. But he can’t say that.

“Ah! Look at you trying to act so fatherly.” Caroline smiled at the True Demon Lord.

“From what she told me; it looks like what you were most afraid of is starting to come true.” Zyl suddenly pointed out. He couldn’t wait to hear Caroline’s opinion since she has always been the closest to Alicia.

“My duty as a True Hero comes first and foremost. And I have come to accept that. Even when training her I could see my master in her, and sometimes it scared me. Right now, she is like any other normal girl to fall asleep in her bedroom while talking with her mother. But I can’t also turn a blind eye if she becomes a mechanic of the Divine System to bring another Great War.”

“So, will you…”

“And that’s where the difference lies. Because now I also know that she is not perfect like her. I am sure my master would love to hear that.” Caroline had never lost hope.

Zyl had always loved that part of her wife.

“Alright, since you are working so hard, and I planned to cook something. I will make the dinner tonight.” Caroline could not bear to watch her husband do all the work.

“Wait! Why will you trouble yourself with that? Can’t Flora do it?” Zyl put her hands on Caroline’s shoulder to indirectly stop her from trying to enter the kitchen.

“But I heard she had been too busy teaching Hana and her lessons have become more intense.”

“Then, I will cook.” Zyl confidently said hiding his desperation.

“What, then what about my new potato sweet dish, I wanted everyone to try it.” Caroline became sad at a moment’s notice.

“I will try it. So, let me do the cooking for the dinner.” Zyl strained and smiled.

And that’s how the True Demon Lord made another great sacrifice for his family.

***

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