...
Far away, in the other half of the continent stood a large castle atop an hill.
Its once white walls had been dyed dark red from countless bloody clashes against the terrifying Eldritch horrors. Down the slope, trenches that had been dug were now filled with rotten flesh and blood.
The moon hung across the sky, casting its pale crimson light on the raging battle at the gates of the castle.
Down below the castle, deep within a dark pit, a figure slowly stirred awake, eyebrow slowly flickering open.
The surrounding was vague and unsettling dark.
The figure soon realised their vision was slightly blurry.
"Ughhh... how did I end up here?:
Part of the light from the moon fell upon the figure, revealing a feminine body with a wave of ruffled platinum blonde hair.
Her armour was in tatters with blood pooling underneath her. Not only that, her sides seemed to be on fire, pain shooting through her body with any slight movement.
Slowly getting her bearing, that's when she finally could hear the sound of slurping as if someone was eating something nearby.
"No..." a cold sensation flared across her body as she shot up, ignoring the agonizing pain.
Her hand whipped the blood blocking her vision, and finally, she could see it.
An ugly looking creature with eyes all over its body was the thing snacking close to her...
Worse... it was feeding on... her.
As a matter of fact, it was the cause of the shooting pain she felt at her hip.
She felt the urge to throw up the sickening sensation she was passing through, yet held it in.
The creature seemed to look at her for a moment before furiously continuing in its job... feeding on her.
She caught sight of her weapon lying a few inches away from her from the corner of her eyes and, without hesitation, forced her wrecked body to pick it up.
Taking one final sickened look at the creature, she swung her sword, cleanly cutting through the creature's head.
"Urgghh..." She collapsed back to the ground with a pained expression. Just that slight movement had drained quite a lot of her energy.
She gazed at the distant hole, trying to rearrange her fuzzy memories.
Just then, she heard a whisper with runes igniting before her eyes.
[You've slain a Voyklis...]
[Your soul force has increased...]
She felt a warm rush of energy invade her body and at the same time activate something within her body.
Soon, she felt her body slowly knitting itself back together. Lying still, she decided to wait till she was good enough before attempting to move.
During that time, she finally pieced her memories back, eyes shining with a fierce glow.
'That damn bastard!'
Feeling she had gained quite the strength, she slowly rose to her feet, gently clutching her ribs.
"Ughhh. Dammit." She grimaced using her sword as a support.
The injury hadn't fully healed, but it had stopped bleeding at least.
She looked at the dead creature that had been feeding on her with a flicker of surprise.
The lower part of its body had been crushed by a boulder yet its mad desire for flesh and human soul before it was enough for it to strain its body to its maximum and feed on the part of her body closest to it.
How he ended in that state she didn't know, but she realized one thing.
How wish the boulder didn't crush the creature in place. She would have been long dead by now.
"Seems you're still protecting me even from up there... mother." She muttered, staring at the dark sky through the hole.
The healing had finally stopped with most of her wounds partially healed.
"This will do." She thought, gripping her sword tightly for a moment. Then uttered softly, "Show me my profile."
Name: [Maya Everhart]
Race: Human
Rank: Unranked
Talent: [SSS+]
Innate Traits: [Dark Seraph], [Luck]
Grade: [Ex]
Soul force: Nil
Title: Nil
Attributes: [War god's imprint], [Seraphim]
~Abilities~
– Dark flame manipulation
– Seraphic Constitution
Relics: [Crimson conquest], [Solaris]
The lady was, of course, Maya Everhart. The princess of the Everhart family.
...
When Maya had passed through the portal, she felt her vision darkened. The darkness finally cleared, revealing she was in a pool with a couple of guards surrounding her.
At first, her instinct flared up as she sprung from the swimming pool, easily charging towards one of the guards.
Only for a lady to storm through the large double doors with a tower in hand.
"What are you doing, my lady!"
Maya stopped in her tracks, confusion settling in her dark eyes.
Staring down, she realized she was half naked, her assets barely covered by the swimming suit clinging to her body.
The guard before her was visibly affected by her figure but maintained his position with an unwavering mind as a knight of the order was expected.
Later on, she came to realise she was the daughter of the Duke ruling the castle.
She couldn't help but feel a deep sickening churn in the pit of her stomach.
"Not this again."
She expected to escape that kind of life when entering the tower and be free for once from all the pressure and burden pressing down on her.
But as usual, she had taken her role quite easily. With her position, she was able to find out the situation of the world she was in.
Invaded by the same Eldritch horrors and not only that. They were also at war with a neighbouring kingdom.
Humans really were crazy beings. At a time like this were their world was on the verge of collapse. They ought to have come together and face the bigger threat.
"So, is this the trial? To ensure the world doesn't get destroyed by those eldritch monsters?"
The days went by with Maya perfectly playing the role as the daughter of the powerful Duke, while secretly beginning to meet up with aspirants just like her, in the bid of working together to conquer the trial.
Though she didn't know how many had been pulled to this trial, one thing she was sure of was the other kingdom was going to have its fair share of aspirants, too.
The best possible plan is to meet up with the other, form a truce between both kingdoms, and gather enough force to rid their continent free from the eldritch creatures.
But it was easier said than done.
The land was ravaged by these eldritch creatures outnumbering the humans in both numbers and strength.
Still her resolve didn't falter one bit. "This is gonna be easy."
She would soon come to realise how wrong she was, though.
The next day, the kingdom had been attacked by a horde of eldritch creatures, and during the siege, that was where she met a human monster much worse than the eldritch creatures.
And with power strong enough to shift the trial into pure disaster…