Kaia the Argent Wing

Once I was done riding that terrifying whirlwind of emotions, I very carefully packed them back into their little Pandora's box and stowed them in my mental freezer for later. I had a task to complete, and having a breakdown over my gender and name was not really all that productive.

From the bedroom I was in, I picked out a pair of thick jeans, another sports bra, a red tank top, and a heavy brown leather jacket. With the exception of the tank top, all of the clothing was a little small for me, but that just made me look hotter, somehow. Which in turn gave me all sorts of strange and conflicted feelings.

The last part of the ensemble came from near the front door. There, I found a pair of chunky work boots that fit me pretty well. You were just asking for trouble if you were going out to do crazy shit without good boots.

In the mirror, I gave myself a long, slow once-over. Damn, I looked good in a proper outfit. The way the jacket didn't quite reach my hips so that my waist was just visible… oh geez. I had to say, I wouldn't have minded one bit if I were born like this.

Once I felt that I was ready, I headed out in search of my stashed gear. I'd only need my axe right now for… I turned around and headed back into the house as an idea hit me. I was really strong now, and the school needed bedding badly, but it wasn't a priority. Inside the house, I began to yeet everything soft and pillowy out the front of the house. It didn't take very long, and once I was done there was a small mountain of stuff to throw over the back fence of the school. I probably lost an hour doing it, but hopefully someone who needed it would be able to sleep better tonight.

When I made it to the shop where I hid my stuff, I saw that the door there had been clawed at, but the marks were small. They almost looked… huh, yeah, those were standard raccoon paw sized. I hoped the little guys were doing okay.

Thankfully, my gear was still there, and I fished my hatchet out of the barrel before covering it again. I considered bringing my camping supplies, but I wanted to save them. If I took them into the school there was very little guarantee I'd get to use them myself.

The streets were somehow even more eerie today, although apart from a few obvious signs of animal and monster activity, nothing was different. I considered heading for Central Avenue, but then thought better. There were two grocery stores and a convenience store there, so the firefighters were sure to be there. I didn’t really feel like getting into any human interaction as Silver right now. It scared the shit out of me.

I would have to cross it eventually, though—both the street, and the metaphorical bridge that was speaking to others in my Silver persona.

I was trekking through the side streets when I turned a corner onto a grisly scene. Human body parts were scattered all over the place, and blood pooled thick and sticky in the gutters.

The people looked like they'd been killed in the night, rather than yesterday. Just like with the cops, my stomach lurched and my heart was leaden, but I cautiously entered the site of carnage and steeled myself.

My footsteps came to an abrupt halt when I noticed that one of the bodies wasn't dead. In the middle of it all, a child was crouched next to the upper torso and head of an older woman. The child wore typical clothing for an elementary schooler, or maybe early middle. Either way, their back was turned and they were just… hunched there with their hands working on something out of view.

Oh, god. Either this was a kid in shock next to their dead mother… or this was something on a different tier of terrifying compared to all the mutated animals.

"Hey… kid? Are you okay?" I called, disliking how much I sounded like a horror movie side character.

The child froze and very slowly turned its head to look at me. I was directly behind it. It didn't move its torso one inch.

I recoiled in horror as the thing turned the rest of its body to face me while maintaining unbroken eye contact. It looked so much like a child in those clothes, but its face was… ugly. It had long, downwards swept pointed ears that bristled with patchy hair. Its nose was long and curved upwards, before it split into two bulbs of flesh. Behind that, two beady black eyes were filled with a deep and malicious intelligence.

Slowly, the creature creased its thin lips into a clown's manic grin. "My, you're pretty. H—here… do you like my hat?"

It lifted the item, a large floppy woman's hat… but absolutely dripping with blood, and roughly stitched around the edge of the brim was a length of human intestine. It looked to have come from the woman on the ground.

The only thing that kept me from vomiting was the lack of food in my stomach and the fear coursing through my veins.

"Did you kill these people?" I asked, ignoring the offered garment.

It waved a hand in a so-so gesture. "Some of them. My brothers killed the rest. It was so much fun! It was like a party!"

Iron resolve locked in place throughout my limbs, and I pulled my hatchet from my belt. I was supposedly an angel, and I decided right then and there that I was the type of angel that avenged the innocent. This thing would die for its moral failings.

A Redcap. Be wary, they are never alone, and they always have a trick up their sleeve. I approve of your mission, however. Kill this thing in my name, and you will be rewarded for your efforts.

"Which name?" I asked under my breath. “Chelu?”

Yes, I would say Chelu, but you have just changed your name, and you are my only true follower currently. Perhaps it is time to reinvent myself? Ah, a reference perhaps, for those who are paying attention. Call me… Cynath, goddess of Luna, war, and beauty. Kill this thing, for it has desecrated the last within the chapel of its merciless heart.

I nodded, and with that agreement came a swell of emotion from my goddess’ mind to mine. Deadly purpose and divine wrath sheathed me like armour. Cynath was sending me her immortal willpower to use as my own, and to steady my hand to fight the mockery of childhood innocence in front of me.

“Redcap. What you have done is wrong, and I see no remorse behind your eyes to give me pause. You will die.”

It almost seemed… confused by my sudden shift in demeanour, and possibly by the overly formal speech I gave. It felt… right to talk like that, though.

Only for a moment, though. Its expression shifted into delight once again and it said, “Oh, goodie! I needed more guts! The others took them all! So rude.”

I rushed forwards as fast as I could go, and with the length of my stride in this body, that was fast. All around me the street began to writhe with redcaps, too many to count in the moment, but I didn’t hesitate. Hesitation would kill me, and I had a lot of courage to spare right then, thanks to Cynath.

Kill it quick. You will gain enough experience from its death to ascend a level. Once you reach four, you will need to quickly unlock Moonbeam. It is a smite skill exclusive to followers of lunar goddesses. The weapon in its hand will be imbued with enough magic to allow you to cast from your off-hand. Cynath explained quickly, careful to speak with intent and meaning behind her words like a layer of subtext that allowed for much faster understanding.

Empowering my attack with silver magic, I dodged the redcap's lightning fast lunge by mere inches and drove the long back point of my hatchet into its stomach. There was a concussive thump as my ability went off, and the redcap was thrown backwards off my weapon to land in a tumbling heap. At its side clattered a rough copper knife, little more than a shard of green-tinged metal with a handle of wrapped leather. I ducked and scooped it off the ground while I desperately navigated the synesthetic UI of the system.

I could sense that my class was at level four, and around it were three choices, waiting to be selected. I didn’t look through them. I just pushed my thoughts into the one that smelled like Cynath and raised the dagger in my hand when it filled instantly with mana.

“Burn!”

My throat ached with the power behind the word, and a beam of concentrated pale light slammed down into the closest charging redcap. Dust billowed out from the point of impact, and the redcap screamed when its stolen clothing melted into its flesh.

Charred and broken, it fell to the side and began to writhe. I ignored it, because it had four friends. The next one rushed me with a kitchen knife, and absently I noticed that it wasn’t metal, but one of those fancy ceramic ones.

Pain lanced down my thigh where the knife parted denim and flesh with awful ease, but high on adrenaline and godly judgement as I was, I pushed past it and drove the dagger into its neck. Pink, frothy blood boiled out of the mortal wound like a grotesque strawberry milkshake, and I jerked away. The movement saved me from getting a child-sized baseball bat to the knee.

Needing an edge, I took the risk of activating my debuff aura and was instantly rewarded with grunts of discomfort from the remaining three murderous redcaps. My empowered strike came off cooldown right as I clumsily caught the bat on the top of my axe, so I shoved at the smaller creature’s weapon to put it off balance and then hewed at its neck like I was felling a tree. Acid and moonlight aided my axe in burning a path through its neck and out the other side. Headless, it dropped to the floor, more pink blood squirting out of the partly cauterised wound in a fountain.

Apparently, losing all but two of their number put a damper on the spirits of the redcaps, because they glanced at each other with mounting fear and turned to flee.

“Nope, not happening,” I growled, and threw my axe. Kinda funny, actually, but something my brother and I used to do when we were bored was practice throwing various weapons. We thought it was cool when we were kids. I had some skill in the area, and was at least hoping for a hit. Instead, the handle caught the redcap I wasn’t aiming at in the arm, and it stumbled. I was so surprised by the weird hit that I forgot to follow up, and they kept running. Fuck.

“Burn!” I cried, and raised the copper shiv once more. White fire reached down from the blue sky again and seared the redcap I’d been originally aiming for. Skin bubbled and hair burst into flame, putting the total number of enemies that escaped down to one. Better than nothing, I suppose.

Here. Cynath said, jolting me out of my post-combat daze. The corpse of the first redcap I hit with the moonbeam pulsed gently with divine light. The second one dropped something. Also, you should probably tend to your wound. It is bleeding quite a lot, and this environment gives the abattoir of Yton a run for its money.