It's over (Citrinas POV)

The stink of blood and poison woke Citrinas up as she groaned, her head throbbing as she tried to recollect what had happened prior to falling asleep. She remembered vaguely being in the alchemy guild and chatting with Verdi. Aside from that, it was just a blur to her. Opening her eyes, she found herself in a foggy street devoid of people. It was vaguely familiar to her, but she couldn't put her finger on it, her mind still dazed. As she got up she looked down and squeaked, shocked at the thing lying right next to her.

It was a bloodied torso that had been torn apart by some ravenous animal and was covered in some sort of toxic sludge. It was missing one arm, while the rest of its limbs were frozen solid and completely desiccated, as though somebody had drained the moisture straight out of it. It was lying on its back, exposing a horrifically maimed face that was nothing more than a gaping hole leading straight to its throat. It should have been dead 20 times over from both the injuries and the severe amounts of poison saturating it, yet it was still somehow breathing, strained gurgles emanating from its face hole every few seconds. Standing up, Citrinas looked around, hoping to find Verdi and scold him for his latest practical joke. Digging up somebody's corpse and leaving her on the street next to it was far too mean of a joke. Somebody was going to have to put that body back, and she knew he wasn't going to be that somebody. She yelped again to find a pair of glowing eyes staring her down within the fog, the figure towering over her by a full foot in height.

Falling on her behind, she expected the thing in the fog to walk to her and **** her. Instead, the figure just stood there in a strange position, one arm raised as though somebody froze it in place mid-attack, its eyes focused on the mangled corpse in front of it. Gathering her courage, Citrinas casted a water spell, shifting the fog away to display a tall, olive skinned woman that was almost completely naked despite the frigid temperatures. She looked familiar, but she still couldn't quite place her finger on where she'd seen that face before. Looking into her eyes, Citrinas could see that both eyes were dried out, the woman refusing to blink despite the discomfort of her dried out eyeballs.

Citrinas gagged again, smelling the stink of poison waft from the woman's body as a breeze blew past, the smell concentrated on her thighs, throat, and heart as though somebody had been stabbing her with poisoned needles. She could smell concentrated paralytic toxins of no less than 20 monster species and alchemical concoctions on the woman, the content enough to put down a dragon let alone a human. The density of the poison was dwarfed only by the ravaged corpse lying next to her, the brown sludge coating it stinking of even higher concentrations of poison. Both of these things should be dead, yet she could see they were still breathing despite the pair being immobilized.

"Ah. This is another nightmare." Citrinas deduced, sitting on the sidewalk and calming herself down. If this was the worst her night terrors could do, she was sorely unimpressed. It had been years. Furthermore, she changed since the war. She'd gotten stronger, she could brew better potions, and she even made friends who made sure she'd never have to see such horrors again. As she sat on the sidewalk waiting to wake up she saw a vague figure emerge from the mist, the outline undoubtedly that of a mage wearing a tall, pointed hat. As she saw the person's face, Citrinas realized it wasn't a nightmare, but a pleasant dream.

"Triss! I missed you!" She said, running forward and giving her sister a hug. It didn't matter if this was a dream. She was just happy to see her sister again after so long. Her sister seemed startled by her sudden hug before returning it, equally overjoyed to see her.

"I missed you too." Tristiana said, the two embracing tightly in the foggy streets.

"I... I'm sorry I never said goodbye. I have so much I want to tell you. I became an arch-imago, I made a new friend, I learned how to cast your old ice golem spell-" Citrinas said, speaking her piece as the pair separated. Taking Citrinas by the hand, Tristiana walked towards the green eyed woman.

"I'm sorry I took so long to get back. We can talk in a bit. We're a bit strapped for time." She said, pulling a bottle of antidote from her inventory and pouring into the tall lady's mouth. "Seems the hero of the hunt wasn't as competent as I thought. What airhead accidentally poisons themselves?" She mumbled as the green eyed lady twitched, the antidote taking effect instantly as she squatted down and reached towards the mangled corpse while shutting her eyes to wet them before opening them again. The green glow in her eyes dimmed for a second as the mangled corpse twitched slightly, cocking its head half a millimeter towards Tristiana. The brown haired woman smiled a toothy grin, the green light in her eyes dulling as though the corpse had told her a particularly funny joke.

"But... But I have so much I want to say to you. I missed you." Citrinas said as Tristiana nodded, smiling at her as the green eyed woman picked the corpse up and presented it to Tristiana.

"We can talk later. For now let's go with your little friend, I have a lot to-what happened here!?" Tristiana screamed abruptly, now face to empty socket with the mangled corpse from earlier as the green eyed woman held it up to her face, presenting it like a trophy. Tristiana took a step backwards, her eyes focused on the hole staring back at her. She suddenly leapt back as the corpse twitched, its face hole fixated on her as a shard of frozen blood shot out from its body.

The speed was beyond comprehension as the blood shard hit her in the chest, cutting her shirt as it harmlessly shattered upon impacting her skin. Had the corpse not been so weak in magic, there was no doubt it would have claimed Tristiana's heart at that moment. Sadly, it lacked the attack power to penetrate her defense, unable to bypass the sheer level difference between the two. After the attack, the corpse went slack as its head slumped forward, now dormant as Tristiana panted, looking down at the ice shard that shattered on her skin and then at the corpse. The green eyed woman had a blank expression on her face, the green glow in her eyes flickering as she trembled, holding the corpse tightly in her arms as though something had gone horribly wrong. What a strange dream.

"Ignore the dead body. It's just a bad memory." Citrinas answered with a shrug. Rather than reassure her sister, her words seemed to just disturb her even further. Without warning, Tristiana took several steps to the side and began throwing up. Citrinas just tilted her head, puzzled at her sister's overblown response. Sure, the corpse tried to kill her, but that was a common enough sight in her nightmares. At least this corpse wasn't screaming all the time and begging her to kill it or questioning why she killed them. As far as her usual night terrors went, this one was quite tame.

"Is something wrong?" Citrinas asked as her sister walked over to the corpse and pulled a bottle from her inventory and uncorked it. The scent of an elixir. This was a top level potion. It would be a waste on someone like this.

"N-nothing. Just-just close your eyes. I can fix this." Tristiana said, walking to the corpse and pouring the potion on the wounds. Despite the mutilated body still breathing, the recovery potion did nothing to heal it, merely dribbling worthlessly on the floor while its wounds remained. This was a common enough event in her memories. She could dump gallons of healing potions on the body and it wouldn't heal. During the war they had to water down her potions to distribute them to troopers. Sometimes it was too watered down. She didn't want to think about the past anymore.

As if on cue, one of the corpse's legs outright snapped off like a twig, the mere act of being treated causing it to break off. She could see her sister's eyes grow wide in horror, pulling out another bottle of elixir from her inventory and preparing to pour it on the corpse. Before she could repeat the futile process, Citrinas grabbed her hand, stopping her sister dead in her tracks. Even in a dream, the lessons drilled into her held strong.

"Don't bother wasting your potion on them. It doesn't deserve it." She said, still remembering her lessons from the war. Potions were a precious and rare commodity, while priests were even rarer. They had to prioritize the stronger soldiers who would be of value later or nobility whose deaths would impact the nation. Using a potion on a faceless corpse they didn't even know was a waste. After hearing Citrinas' logical explanation of why the potion would be wasted on this corpse, a tear ran down Tristiana's cheek. Without warning, she hugged Citranas again, now breaking down into tears.

"I-I'm so sorry. I should've been th-I shouldn't have let them send you out to there when you were so young-we-we can- I'm sorry, I didn't think your friend would-I can fix this. I can fix everything." Her words just came out as a stream of consciousness, alternating between apologizing for something that wasn't her fault and promising to fix everything. Citrinas just hugged her back, confused as to just what her sister was talking about. What was broken? What did she do wrong? Who was that corpse?

Just as Citrinas was ready to tell Tristiana that everything was fine, Tristiana suddenly grabbed her and leapt to the side as a silver blade flew past them, embedding itself in the stone behind them as a man sized blur shifted next to them. Citrinas blinked once as the green eyed woman and the corpse disappeared from sight. They reappeared a half second later, both of them **** and clutched tightly in one arm by Harvin. Citrinas felt chills as she took a step backwards, the aged butler showing an emotion she'd never seen on the melancholic old man's face.

Hate.

"I would like to ask kindly that you unhand the arch-imago. Immediately." He spoke in his usual dry tone, yet Citrinas could feel the fury in the old man's voice as he took a step forward. Her sister in turn took a step backwards, her hands trembling as she gripped Citrinas' hand tightly. As strong as her sister was, this was a terrible match up. A speed type fighter like Harvin was the natural predator of a mage like her sister. The second a mage had someone attacking them in close combat without a knight, they were dead.

"Harvin, let me explain, I didn't do-I didn't mean to do this. Let me fix this." Tristiana stumbled out as the old man shook his head.

"Don't concern yourself. This isn't your fault. It's my fault." He chided himself while giving a sorrowful sigh filled with shame. "The duty of the house keeping staff is to keep the vermin out of his master's domain and to keep his guests safe. I've failed spectacularly in both duties on this day." He said with a voice of self derision while looking down at the mangled corpse in his arms.

"Harvin? You're dead too?" Citrinas asked, still feeling dazed as Harvin stared at her, sniffing the air before looking to Tristiana.

"Tesrakim gas? Seems you wanted her to be taken as unharmed as possible. Shame you didn't reserve that same luxury for everyone else." He said as Citrinas tried to think. Tesrakim gas was a potent gas that would knock someone out and leave them disoriented even after waking up. It had a characteristic purple color. Why was he talking about that? Her mind still felt fuzzy as she tried to keep up with the conversation, the dream incomprehensible to her.

"Harvin, please, let me fix this!" Tristiana as her face sank, her words interrupted by an audible clang of metal on stone. It echoed through the empty road, slowly making its way to them and growing in volume with each passing second. It thumped rhythmically like a heartbeat, the source of the noise accompanied by a soft dripping of water and a barely audible squish, as though somebody were stomping through mud. Citrinas had never heard this noise in person, but she knew of the stories as a person emerged from around the corner.

THUNK

Drip

THUNK

Drip

THUNK

Drip

He wasn't a very tall person, being roughly Citrinas' height. He wore red armor that covered every inch of his skin and carried a short sword and a knife at his waist. A soft dripping noise could be heard as a trail of red followed in his footsteps, marking his trail with gore. As he drew closer, Citrinas could see faint streaks of silver beneath the red fluid coating the knight, crimson droplets falling away from him with each step he took. A breeze blew past the figure, the stink of iron and **** filling the streets as the knight halted in place at the end of the road, situating Tristiana between itself and Harvin.

A pair of blue eyes could be seen from within the slit of the helm, the moonlight reflecting off them to make a soft glow as the figure gazed down at the hero of magic. Citrinas recognized him, yet she couldn't at the same time. Fear gripped her heart as she saw a person many would only see once in their lives. This wasn't the Captain of the Kolderia guard, Verdi's drinking buddy, or the lovestruck fool who chased Alka around reciting poetry. There was only one title for him now.

The Scarlet Knight.

Humanity's strongest.

"I see the distraction I made for you was less effective than I thought." Tristiana said as Mathias took another step forward, the scent clinging to his body something Citrinas couldn't comprehend. It stank of a devil and of the sea, yet there was something off about it. It was wholly foreign to her, yet she somehow knew one thing as her mind processed the scent clinging to him, a primal sense coming alive at that moment. This blood, this scent, it wasn't something that should be in her world. What did he kill before coming here?

"... Did you really think that thing you summoned outside of the city would stop me?" His voice was soft, yet it seemed to travel across the world itself as Tristiana looked between Harvin and Mathias, unsure which one was worse.

"I was hoping it could distract you for at least 20 minutes. I guess that was optimistic of me." She admitted, no longer taking steps back as the two closed in on her. They didn't run, they didn't unsheathe their weapons, they didn't even speak rudely. They just walked forward, as though they were strolling down the street to greet an old friend. Considering the hero of magic and the hero of the hearth were friends, they really were walking towards an old friend.

"I would advise you to surrender and drop the disguise. Now." There was no outward hostility in Mathias' voice despite the boiling hate he had, his eyes fixated on the corpse Harvin was cradling. Citrinas couldn't help but wonder why was everyone so fixated on that dead body. "Justice may be blind, but I am not. I don't take kindly to those mocking a dead friend."

"Mathias, I know this looks bad, but it's really me, and I didn't mean to-" Tristiana started, only to go silent as she began shivering.

"If you wish to speak to me, I ask that you do it without that cheap illusion." Mathias warned as Citrinas watched her sister's appearance distort at his words. She could see Tristania gritting her teeth, trying to stay focused as her body began changing ever so slightly. She knew her sister was second to none in magical capacity during her tenure as the hero of magic, but that was 6 years ago. As Mathias continued pumping magic power into the air to forcibly cancel any magic in the vicinity, her sister's appearance finally stabilized, the light spell she was using forcibly destroyed. At that moment, everyone went silent trying to grasp just what they were seeing. Even Citrinas was shocked at what stood before her.

This was her sister's face.

She had her mannerisms.

From the hug, she knew this was her sister without a doubt.

So why did she look like this?

One of her eyes changed color, going from the usual blue to a golden amber while her hair underwent a similar change, shifting from blue to silver in the blink of an eye. A pair of matching fox ears appeared on her head, the features adorably complimenting her natural appearance. Most notably were the kitsune tails she now sported, the ivory white tails almost blending in with the ambient fog surrounding her. The number of tails exceeded the rational limit of kitsune. Just to be sure, she counted them again and again and again.

1... 2... 3... 4... 5... 6... 7... 8... 9... 10... 11.... 12... 13...

13 kitsune tails. Citrinas wanted to congratulate her sister for achieving so many tails. For a kitsune, the amount of tails they had corresponded with their magic power, with the amount of magic to grow another tail increasing exponentially. The highest recorded number of tails in the world was 9, so she was proud to know her sister had 13 tails. That easily placed her as the single strongest kitsune in the world. She blinked and realized something as her pride turned to confusion. Why was her sister a kitsune? She was human. Why was she dreaming her sister was a monster now?

This was an odd dream.

"...Is that really you Lady Tristiana?" Harvin asked, the stone faced butler agape at the kitsune. She swallowed and looked down, releasing Citrinas' hand as everyone just stared at her.

"Yes. It's really me." She answered with a solemn voice.

"... What happened to you?" Mathias asked, both he and Harvin startled at her sister's current appearance. She looked at Mathias as he softly gave her a warning. "I would advise you not utter a single number. Stand down, and we can talk. You have my word, you will not be harmed if you surrender now." He warned as her sister smiled at both his offer and his threat, both of them dead serious.

"I've stopped needing to chant ever since I became this." She said as a series of equations appeared midair. At first Citrinas thought she was hallucinating from her dream becoming stranger, then her subconscious deduced what was happening. Her sister was using instinctive light magic to write the equations midair. Instinctive magic was something humans had trouble using freely, but her sister could easily manipulate light as easily as her own limbs now that she was a kitsune. In her current state, she could calculate spells faster than any human mage, bypassing the need to speak or write spells. As soon as Citrinas even grasped what the equations were, it was too late as both Mathias and Harvin both disappeared from sight, both of them realizing what her sister had done.

She wasn't firing one large spell to repel them.

She was firing 30 medium scale spells, each one targeting different sectors of the city.

Citrinas could tell Mathias was only able to spot the general location of each spell and when they'd hit before the equations faded away. Unless he personally ran to the sector and responded to them, millions would be hit. It was the only possible way to keep him distracted, each spell designed to be delayed for a random time and attacking in a wholly different method to ensure he couldn't just deal with them all at once. As for Harvin...

3 silver dinner knives appeared in Tristiana's thigh, another set of knives appearing in her shoulder. It was as though somebody was teleporting the knives into her body as she continued to get cut, an invisible **** summoning knife after knife in her body. None of them hit any vital arteries or organs, instead focused on disabling her rather than killing. Tristiana didn't even react at first for the first second before she finally fell to a knee, unable to even stand from the high speed attacks.

Suddenly, the attacks stopped as Harvin appeared next to a building, his face worried as both the corpse he was cradling and the woman he was carrying began coughing out blood. As he set them down, Tristiana pulled the knives from her body with an instinctive wind spell while casting an odd spell Citrinas had never seen her use before, a green light cloaking her body as the wounds she suffered healed over. It was a basic monster healing spell restricted to kitsune called recover, the monster version of a priest's heal. How could she use that spell? As she healed, she focused on the two corpses Harvin was focused on, conjuring another equation midair. A large scale attack. Light magic. It would scorch everything in a 1 kilometer radius.

"Harvin, don't move." She warned, the spells around her steadily increasing as the aged butler removed a salve from his coat and began treating both corpses. He did not heed her threat, the old man, merely continuing to administer treatment in silence. Rather than appearing like a man being threatened, he looked like a mad dog barely restrained by the chains of reason. He could dodge her attacks and kill her here and now, but he couldn't protect both of those corpses at the same time. Their bodies just couldn't handle his speed, and would break down if he tried to dodge while carrying them. Citrinas couldn't help but think her sister was acting strange at the sight of the threat, unsure what her mind was doing by giving her sister such an odd character trait.

Tristiana never did sneaky things like take hostages, make decoys, or create long term plans. She'd usually just go for frontal attacks that wiped out everything in her path. The main complaint everyone had was that she was too aggressive and never thought things through. It was almost like she really was a kitsune wearing her sister's appearance. As Citrinas tried to understand what this dream meant, Tristiana tossed a smoke bomb in front of her, filling the area with an acrid purple smoke.

"I'm sorry. I'll come back and I'll explain everything. Don't trust anyone. Don't tell anyone about me. They'll kill you if you know too much." She said, shifting the light around her body as Citrinas' eyelids grew heavy. Before she knew it Harvin had her in his arms as she grew drowsier, a single thought lingering in her mind as she passed out.

What an odd dream.