Isceth stopped laughing and said, "I like that you're so direct. The people in this place tend to speak in metaphors or similar bullshit. So tell me…" She paused and then continued in a serious tone: "Are you interested in naturally becoming an Ascended? I see potential in you…"
Sylvie blinked.
"What."
The General uncrossed and recrossed her legs, then replied, "You heard me. Don't make me repeat it."
Sylvie shifted in the bed, her brows furrowing slightly as her gaze drifted off.
'Naturally Ascend? Did I hear that correctly? Is that even possible?'
Sylvie didn't know if it was possible. Nowadays, everything revolved around the Spell. Trying to ascend using a method outside of it made no sense. However… in ancient times, there were people like them—Awakened.
Thanks to Arthur's memories and her own research after she returned, she knew the history of the world. The history of the Doom War and the Realms.
It was "public" knowledge that the Spell hadn't existed in ancient times. But knowledge about how they rose in ranks without it did not exist…
Furthermore, something caught her attention: the General's choice of words.
She had said: "Are you interested in naturally becoming an Ascended?" The key word was "naturally."
Why would someone who only knows one way of doing something make a distinction between the natural and the artificial? This meant that they also had the Spell…
Sylvie didn't know that was possible. However… did that change anything for her? Whether they had the Spell or not, she and the other girls would still have to overcome the Nightmare.
Thinking precisely about the Nightmare… wasn't the opportunity to naturally Ascend perfect for her?
She knew that in the future, she would have to fight the General—against a Saint—while being merely an Awakened. Wouldn't the opportunity to do so as a Master be better? Either way, defeating her would still be impossible as just an Ascended.
For that very reason, she already knew she would have to find powerful allies who could face Isceth. Perhaps even the King was a Saint as well… though she doubted it.
The only bad thing was that she still hadn't been able to think of or devise a plan to figure out when what she saw in the vision at the beginning of the Nightmare would happen. They already had a deadline—one they didn't know.
It could perfectly be tomorrow… or it could perfectly be in three months. But regardless of the time they had, the best thing they could do was be prepared. Become stronger.
Sylvie focused on the figure sitting at the foot of her bed and asked, "How long do you think it would take me?"
"Decades? Years? Months?" The General replied quickly, then shrugged. "Who knows? It's a long process… unless you use one of the other two methods, which are faster."
'I don't have decades, nor years, and I don't know if I'll have months…'
"What are those other methods?" Sylvie asked.
Isceth rose from the armchair and headed to the door. Once there, she spoke to one of the guards on the other side, and moments later, one of them brought her a cup of hot tea. Returning to the armchair, she sat back down with her legs crossed, sipping the tea.
After a few small sips, she lowered the drink and asked, "Not even interested in the slow and steady method?"
"I don't have time to go slow and steady."
The General grinned. "Well, too bad for you because I still have time for that, but first…you are interesting… I can tell you are a Noble Creature, yet at the same time, you are human." She took another sip of tea. "What are you, Sylvie?"
Sylvie clenched her teeth and decided to let what she said at the beginning and the fact that she knew her name slide, she focused on the question… what was she?
It was something that had been eating at her head ever since she read her Aspect's description and her Attributes.
Aspect Description: [You are a being born not from the world, but into it. The world recognizes you as a beginning after an end. However, that which is born without a past cannot fully understand itself. Your origin is obscured, and the world will never reflect what you once were.]
There was so much she didn't understand in that description that her head threatened to explode every time she tried to analyze it. To be a being born into the world but not *from* the world? For the world to recognize her as a beginning after an end? For her origin to be obscured, and for the world to never reflect what she once was?
Didn't the second sentence nullify the others? How could the world recognize her if she wasn't born from it, and it would never reflect what she once was?
Finishing with her origin being obscured… why would it be obscured? Could it be because of that business about being a Noble Creature and a human at the same time? What did it mean to be a Noble Creature?
She had two Attributes that, in theory, described what she was, but at the same time, they didn't give much information either.
The first being: [Dreamspawn]
Description: [You are born of two worlds, belonging to both, but welcomed in neither. Your soul exists on the edge between nightmare and reality.]
This one actually didn't tell her much, because she knew that Nephis was also a Dreamspawn. So it shouldn't be related to her obscured origin…
The next was: [Draconic Form]
Description: [You possess a draconic form. By will alone, you may transform your body into that of a dragon.]
That Attribute didn't speak of her origin at all—it just told her she could transform into a dragon. It could be interpreted as her being a dragon? Surely, but at the same time, it might not necessarily mean that…
Were Dragons considered Noble Creatures?
If that was the case, and she was actually a Dragon and a Human at the same time… how the hell could she be a Dragon and a human simultaneously!? And how the hell did that answer the question of what she was!?
She was lost. Her origin still seemed like an impossible mystery to solve, even with the concept of being a Noble Creature—which, in fact, was the first time she had ever heard the term.
Sylvie shook her head. "I don't know, but… perhaps you could help me find out?"
"How could I help you know what you are?" the General asked, raising an eyebrow.
She was silent for a few seconds, eventually asking,
"What are Noble Creatures?"
Isceth took another sip of tea while thinking about how to respond, eventually saying, "Noble Creatures are creatures that have not succumbed to corruption. Once they do, they become mere Corrupted Creatures." She took another sip. "Noble Creatures were created by the gods themselves, while humans were not. Humans weren't created by anyone, and instead just appeared from the same stuff the gods were born from. It's just that... if the gods were the flame, then we—humans—were tiny sparks that shot out as the bonfire was dying out. Nevertheless, we come from the same source."
Sylvie fell silent, processing the words, because they carried real weight behind them. This was literally how the gods, humans, and Noble Creatures were created…
It also meant that if the General had identified her as a Noble Creature, then she definitely must be one—or had been one. In fact, she had once been a Dragon.
Now she was a human with the ability to transform into a Dragon, therefore being half-human and half-Noble Creature.
"What else can you tell me about Noble Creatures?"
The General lifted her face slightly—thinking. After a few seconds, she said, "I don't know much about them. Only that, being creations of the gods, they don't have Aspects. Some of the Noble Creatures can possess multiple soul cores and walk the path of Ascension more naturally." A pause. "But I would say there are very few left alive or not corrupted."
At the mention that some of these creatures could possess multiple soul cores, Sylvie's eyes widened completely, and a shiver ran through her entire body.
'Th-that means… I could fo-form more cores?'
Following the logic and what the General had mentioned, in theory, she could form more soul cores because she was half-Noble Creature.
This would be perfect for her. Moreover, ever since she returned, she had desired the strength to fight alongside Arthur—the reason she decided to challenge the Nightmare—but she also knew that the moment Arthur formed his seven cores and matched her in rank, she would fall far behind.
In fact, the further Arthur advanced, the further behind she would fall.
So the possibility of having more soul cores—thereby becoming much stronger and perhaps even matching Arthur without needing a Divine Aspect—brought a level of happiness to her body that was difficult to explain in words.
It was as if all the weight and guilt had been lifted from her shoulders in an instant, making a sensation similar to butterflies fluttering in her stomach appear.
Returning to reality with a different energy, she asked, "Are Dragons creations of the gods? And therefore Noble Creatures? And if so… which god do they belong to?"
The General tilted her head slightly while looking at her with half-closed eyes. Then she set the now-empty tea cup aside.
"So you're a Dragon," she commented. "Yes, they were creations of the gods, but it's not known which specific one… it's not as if each god claimed a type of creature and the others couldn't create specimens of them."
Sylvie tried to recall everything she knew about the gods and their titles, but the General continued.
"My suspicion is that they were creations of the Storm God or the War God. The first because she is the goddess of the dark skies, making you a creature of the night. The latter because one of her vessels was precisely a dragon—I suppose that's enough to claim she created them?"
'So Storm God or War God… I don't know why, but I hope it's the latter, so it's another thing I have in common with Arthur.'
Sylvie nodded.
"How do Noble Creatures form more soul cores?"
"I can't help you with that. As you can see, I am perfectly human," the General said in a playful tone.
Sylvie focused on the woman sitting in front of her, and immediately, her eyes went directly to the General's chest area, where she had a somewhat tight neckline…
She blinked and forced herself to look away quickly, before her cheeks could betray her. Even so, discreetly, she lowered her gaze and looked at her own chest.
'It's not fair…'
The body she was inhabiting within the Nightmare had the same proportions as her body outside of it. The only changes were the color of her eyes—now black—and her hair, which had a brownish hue.
The sound of the General speaking pulled her out of her spiral of intrusive thoughts.
"So, what do you say to my offer?"
She still didn't understand why the General wanted her to Ascend. It brought no benefit to her—or so Sylvie believed.
"I accept the offer, but I don't understand what you gain by helping me Ascend? Also, I assume my companion will do so as well?"
Isceth stood up from the armchair and began walking toward the door. "It's simple. If I take it upon myself to train you, you'll become stronger. Therefore, in the future, you'll be a more interesting rival for me." Then she stopped and turned to look at her with a completely cold face. "I'm not doing this out of kindness, nor for any stupid reason like that. I just want to find a rival at my level. That's why I came to the only kingdom that didn't remain empty after the war."
Then her expression changed, and Sylvie noticed something akin to regret. She let out a sigh, saying more to herself than to Sylvie: "I should have gone to that stupid war."
Sylvie remained still in the bed, understanding that the General's motivation for helping her become stronger was simply to kill her later in a more entertaining fight.
Her eyes tried to harden, while her jaw clenched slightly.
"As for your companion," Isceth continued, "I don't really care about her. You were the one who caught my attention. The other just came in the same package." Then she continued toward the door, and before leaving, said in a completely dry and emotionless voice, "Your training starts in ten minutes. If you don't want your companion to lose a few fingers for being late, I recommend you hurry."
Now Sylvie's eyes truly hardened as she watched the General leave, closing the door behind her—leaving her with a feeling of disgust and rage throughout her entire body.