Harbingers of Change

This is a double update so don't forget to check out the Vol 4 epilogue first

Prologue

Just a moment ago, she had been crouched upon a rock, ever-ready to respond to the ever-present chance of an ambush. Now, her surroundings were clad in thick fog, severely limiting even her enhanced vision as shapes indeterminant shifted in and out. Her blade in hand, her sole source of light, shone in the murky depths.

Hinata leaped up, her eyes darting around. 'Another ambush! Come, I'll kill you all!'

Nothing came out of the fog. She stood and waited, gripping Kingslayer's hilt for the inevitable ambush. The shapes continued fading in and out, almost reaching her, but always shifting away in the nick of time.

Something was off. She felt that her mind was clouded, as if…

'Dream! I fell asleep. Dammit! I need to wake up!'

"Your body reached its limit, even if it was quite strong compared to past users. Let it rest, I am always guarding you." The sword's voice vibrated directly from her blade, not in her head as usual, much to her surprise.

"You can speak normally?" Hinata glanced down at the blade in her hands, acknowledging its ever-present voice. She doubted the blade's statements, attempting to shake herself awake, aware she was lucid dreaming, but something intrinsic kept her tied within.

"I can here. Dreams connect mortals to immaterial realms, far beyond what you are familiar with. With this, I can interact with you through a more stable medium compared to material air."

"What am I seeing right now?" Hinata eyed the shadows anxiously.

"A dream of your making. A future you yearn to see. A future we will achieve."

Vaguely reassured of her safety and with no apparent way out, Hinata marched through the fog to witness the sort of future she was destined to bring. Whether her future would be splendid as the world became a utopia or she lay dead fighting the ancient Demon Lords was something she never knew, and something she wished to learn of.

As the fog slowly dissipated, her vision cleared, and a bloody battlefield of proportions she hadn't seen since her ascension to power became apparent. Stretching as far as the eye could see, the gory tableau unfolded—thousands of human bodies lay lifeless, their equipment scattered and broken, amidst the remnants of demihumans and monsters. The men and women she had worked with for up to a decade, her former comrades of the ten saints, had been obliterated in various ways, surrounded to each their own by hundreds of grotesque remains of majins and demon-residual bodies.

The devastation she witnessed was palpable, etched into the torn landscape by battles the world had not witnessed for decades, perhaps centuries. Broken blades embedded within kijin horns, half-constructed magic walls blasted by fiery majin magic bullets. Shields rent into shreds as claws chopped at the base, helmets bashed inward, and spears snapped by their own shadows.

Walking through the gory grasslands, she recognized the lingering effects of various magics. The aftermath told a tragic tale—holy cannons tearing into hills like paper, half-cured holy heals failing their owners, obliterated holy fields crumbling under the remnants of ambient magicules.

'All of them… dead. Is this the price that must be paid for that terrible reptile's death!?' She thought as rivers of blood continued to flow, the sheer mass of death from humans, demihumans, and monsters alike creating marshes as she waded through her dream.

Seemingly hours later, she found the immense corpse of Veldora sprawled on the ground as it flickered its last remains of magic, its ambient abilities still reaching hundreds of meters as lightning occasionally flew out of the beast's massive carcass. She slowly crept closer, finding a massive gash on the dragon's forehead spilling magicules in a flood, the sheer volume and density even giving her dream self troubles, her automatic barriers came flying up to shield her from the magical onslaught. The monstrous lizard, even after death, would destroy those around him as he had done many times before.

'So this is how I kill him.' "You deserve worse for all the harm you've wrought, the destruction you've brought, and the lives you've ended. If only I could make you suffer before killing you, and now that I know how to kill you, I can make the preparations to do so." She spat on the dragon's corpse despite knowing it was just a dream, noticing the sizzle.

There were enough legends that spoke about the unreasonable beast's destructive acts and past reign of terror over the Western Nations. Whatever charade of peaceful ways he played now wouldn't fool anyone even mildly versed in history, knowing he was biding his time for another rampage, and if the scales of Tempest were anything - one of unprecedented size and damage. The current known capabilities of Tempest, from its tens of thousands of undead soldiers to its Charybdis-annihilating leadership, meant that millions would perish if she failed here.

Then the scene shifted, and she found herself within damp catacombs, seemingly forever deep beneath the ground. The long corridors were littered with human bones and remains beyond count, some Hinata recognized as undead, some she recognized as former comrades. The three Battlesages lay dead, almost side by side, as they had taken down veritable thousands of monsters during their final, united last stand despite their differences.

Soon enough, she found a pale white, young woman in a crimson dress, her head sliced clean off. If it was in the dream, it was special, and Hinata paid close attention to the corpse before the sword spoke once more. And it all but roared.

"A prize stolen," the sword declared.

"What do you mean by that?" Hinata asked, unsure. Somehow, despite the two individuals having never met, the sword knew of the - was that a vampire?

"A prize stolen. The usurper stole her," the sword spoke another cryptic line.

Something was off about what the sword was saying, but she could not put her finger on it. Who was the usurper, and how were they connected to Veldora? And how did they steal from her likely god-grade sword?

'Does this sword have its own agenda? Why do I have a feeling I'm getting used.' These suspicions crept up from time to time, but were generally suppressed whenever the blade assisted her in her fights.

"Fear not, my wielder, your goals are mine. You and your mistress wish for this to become reality, do you not?"

"What are you?"

"A force of destruction. A weapon to be wielded. As your goal is fulfilled, so is mine. You know this to be the truth, Hinata. You feel your desire for vengeance burning within your heart. You wish to spill the blood of these monsters." The Sword's voice was smooth and soothing, like a mother encouraging a child.

"And when my vengeance is fulfilled, then what?"

"Then it will be my time to sleep again, waiting for either you or my next wielder to seek my power."

Hinata gave a small nod of acknowledgment, but deep within her heart, her fears refused to fade. This sword was hiding something. Such a weapon couldn't be created as nothing more than a tool; it likely had its own goals.

As she descended through the depths, she located more monster remains, monsters that could have possibly even given her trouble. A pile of magicule-radiating stone, the remains of a massive golem or elemental that had crushed hundreds of men. An insectoid lying in a pool of its own dark blue blood, surrounded by corpses of beautiful robed women, killed by the same gash to the forehead, possibly by her.

Next, she stumbled upon the monster who had killed her sensei, Shizu. The being laid as a semi-melted pile of pinkish slime, half of its stolen face twisted in a forever-permanent expression of fear. Just below her lay two elven demihuman children, bodies shot to pieces as half-formed magic spells sputtered in their palms, killed by the same blow to the back of the head. The entire room was bathed in spiritrons, and the slime, in particular, was all but soaked in it, through dozens of disintegrations littering the area she could only barely tell was a forest of sorts.

'Children? I will kill children?' Her stomach churned.

"Do not be deceived by the mask of innocence. A monster is a monster."

"Those are children, elven children. Their faces…" Hinata took a step back. 'Am I the monster? How can I claim any moral high ground in this indiscriminate slaughter?'

"Sense their power, sense their dark natures. They would kill all of humanity, including you, if need be. Do not stare at their masks of innocence."

"I…" Hinata bit her lip. The sword was telling the truth, but those werent' just masks of innocence. These were corpses of frightened children standing their ground. They would face her, a monster slayer, head-on.

By how the scene was arranged, it seemed that the slime monster calling herself Buku had tried to protect the two children, presumably from her. Only their upper bodies were even remotely saved from the ensuing destruction; the rest were charred from likely sheer spiritron damage.

"You think they would spare humans in similar situations? Decide where you stand and do it now. If you freeze up in such a situation even my power will not save you."

'To rid the world of all monsters requires sacrifices. I wish this wasn't necessary.' Hinata steeled her heart. For the future of humanity, she had to become a monster.

'When it's all done…I will pay for what I need to do. There won't be any place for me among humans.' There was no need to justify her actions. In the end, she would become a monster, and would need to live a life of solitude to atone for her crimes.

She discovered more monsters and majins as she descended deeper into the tomb. A demon with diamonds for eyes surrounded by thousands of those despicable shadow presences, the flames of hell having turned the surroundings from a world of splendor to utter destruction. An avian majin protecting a group of now-dead demihuman and monster women, a shattered bow in hand as his front peppered with stab wounds, the women shot through their heads.

A corridor nearly completely blocked by the leaning body of an elderly human butler, having failed to defend the corridor's near-defenseless human and demihuman maid occupants. The list of atrocities committed only continued to grow as she trudged onward, wading through at times tunnels and rooms flooded from the near-unfathomable amount of monster and demihuman corpses contained within.

Finally, she reached the very heart of this massive dungeon. The one, the sword identified as the usurper, sat upon its throne. At his feet lay a demoness in a splendid white dress slashed into little more than shreds, and the shattered remains of a magnificent angel's statue surrounding the duo. Had Tempest managed to gain the reinforcements of heaven, known for razing the world once every five hundred years?

The master of the tomb himself continued to stare at her, even with his ribcage destroyed and a distinct red orb shattered into fragments. He was slain differently, his entire upper body annihilated as the cracked skull floated through unknown means. After death, the body seemed to radiate power, power which was only rivaled by the sword she held, tainting the entire throne room with enough magicules to suffocate even her past self.

The entire room had been devastated, pillars demolished and ceilings pulverized. Hundreds of undead beings, some even being the monsters she recognized from the failed assassination attempt - but in the dozens - lay scattered across the room and walls. Whatever fight this had been, would be, it would take her all-out, as her famed rapier lay smashed beneath a skeleton's shield.

"The usurper will pay!" The sword growled menacingly.

"The usurper will pay," Hinata agreed, analyzing the broken magic circles scattered across the throne room. She may have to face them later, after all.

Then the scene shifted once again. She stood within a massive circular room with a shattered table, and gruesome corpses littering the room. The staggering amount of magicules within the room stampeded on, threatening to tear apart her sword-empowered barriers.

She recognized them. The detested Demon Lords all lay dead. World-renown lords Frey and Carrion bloodily overlapped, legendary-grade weapons demolished into fragments. The mystical Demon Lord Ramiris, who had been around since the beginning of humanity itself, stabbed through the chest and wings torn off. Demon Lord Leon of majin lands slashed vertically in half, shock still on his halved face. The famed Demon Lord Guy himself was blasted in the chest, slumped within the arms of a beautiful white-haired woman, who radiated raw power overpowering even that of Veldora.

All of them were slain by her, by her hands. And then her heart stopped. On the floor with a stab wound in the back was Luminous, hands sprawled as her untouchable Rose sword snapped in half nearby.

Hinata approached her and turned Luminous around. Her mistress' beautiful face was stained with thick tears, her body burnt from spiritron power rivaling that of dozens of Disintegrations.

"I betray her? No, that can't be!"

"You become unstoppable. Your mistress is the final one to fall by your hand. She cried, not for herself, but for you." A voice she didn't recognize chuckled as a figure stepped out of the shadows, from behind Demon Lord Guy.

An old man with gray hair slowly walked towards her.

"Yuuki?" she gasped. Her friend appeared old and decrepit, barely dragging forward in his spindly form.

"Illusions. Do not pay attention to them!" the sword shouted.

"There is a price to pay for power." The old Yuuki grinned with a toothless mouth, aura flaring as it shattered her barriers, one by one. With a smooth motion, he pulled Kingslayer from its sheath by Hinata's waist.

Frozen in place, Hinata numbly stared at him as the sword screeched for her to snap out of it.

Without hesitation, Yuuki stabbed her through the heart, adding, "We all pay the price for the power!"

Feeling the pang of intense pain, she fell to the ground, immobile. As she lay dying, winged women appeared all around her and devoured her still-living flesh, tearing out chunks of muscle and bone.

'Is this how it ends, with nothing but death and destruction? Has Yuuki truly betrayed me? Is this the price I will pay?'

Thousands of questions swirled in her mind as the dream faded.

Hinata awoke with a jolt, all but jumping from her desk. "What the hell was all that?"

'The manifestation of your fears. Be courageous, my wielder. You will achieve your goals with me in your hands.' The sword spoke in her mind.

'Fear? Maybe I should call this off. If I fail, everyone will die, and if I succeed...' Hinata nervously gulped.

'Be courageous. The time for your vengeance has come.' The sword urged her to stand up.

'I-'

"Commander, the units have been formed. We await your orders." One of the generals had approached her without her noticing.

'My orders? I should… no, it's too late to get cold feet.' "We start marching! In the name of Luminous, we will kill the dragon and cleanse the forest of all monsters!"

Editing by aidan_lo

Proofreading by aidan_lo, Aurodium, athrav, x4x, and FantasyTroll.

AN: Thank you for reading the story, and if you have caught up to the latest chapter, you can check out my other work or join my discord server (https://discord.gg/WmGKVU3XG2) where additional chapters are available or if you are interested in becoming a beta reader (gives access to chapters months ahead of regular readers).