Galatea's mind throbbed with an acute pain as if being crushed against an anvil and hammered repeatedly as images and thoughts she couldn't possibly remember or accept flashed through her mind.
'Is this a dream...?'
The setting was familiar, the familiar burning pyre, the tables and wine prepared for Luka gaining his father's title.
However, there were no smiles, only grim, mournful stares watching the fire as two coffins burned silently. One for the previous Lord and the second... 'How?' The second coffin was Luka's coffin.
'This is wrong, move! Luka is just fine!' Her heart screamed.
In this strange dream, Galatea sat frozen in place, unable to move.
The dream continued until the same situation happened, a knight rushed to the mournful banquet, and brought Iris and the Amol Highland warriors.
Alas, without a Lord to greet them, the task fell upon Old Levi as Luka's steward.
Without his master's youthful confidence and the fear of losing another precious knight, townsman or lord, he decided to send a large force...
Galatea watched everything, the death of Levi, her grandfather being overwhelmed at the same outpost Luka took with ease... In this vision, they didn't have any archers, and so the goblins managed to kill four knights with their ranged assault.
Then...
Everything collapsed.
Babylon fell to a wave of invading monsters that washed over the fertile lands, destroying, ravaging, and erecting a black tower that brought everlasting darkness to the land.
'No... this cannot be, why do I have to see this?!'
Galatea suffered immensely at the hands of the goblins.
Even though a mystical system known as the Destiny System appeared, allowing people to grow stronger through combat or training...
It mattered nought.
After losing their final recapture attempt, a blade marred her face, leaving a deep scar. Then, living off scraps, her honour as a knight disgraced, she became nothing more than a blade for hire, struggling, desperate to reach the rank of a High-Tier Knight.
Eventually, the dream's pace slowed, and the rushed, blurry surroundings became vibrant and crisp, and she came to realise she stood before a mirror.
'I'm older...'
Her ash-blonde hair was now dull and lifeless, like straw, and her face was covered in multiple wounds, one extending from her right eye to her chin. A wound she could never forget... one that injured her very soul.
From behind, a rough woman's voice called out. "Captain Galatea!"
'Eh? Captain?!'
Galatea in the dream turned around, her body dull and lethargic, aching from their previous defeat. She glanced at the woman and smiled, "Did he really come?" Then her eyes shifted to the entrance, "an Angel really chose us? I can't believe it."
"Me neither, Captain!"
That's when she stepped towards the window, and her face shone.
As if bathed in a nostalgic morning sunlight, she momentarily returned to the days when Babylon still prospered, and she dreamed of becoming a true knight like her father.
"He cannot be human...! Such radiance, like a star has fallen to Eden. He's like the long lost summer's morn' finally returned to us...."
"Captain, I didn't know ya were so fancy with yer words."
'...Is this truly me if Luka died?'
Galatea raised her hand before whispering, "Destiny System." The next moment, the Galatea watching within the dream gasped at the sight.
[Destiny Record]
Name: Galatea
Title: Heaven's Dawn - (Creator/Captain)
Age: 35
Race: Human
Tier: 2
Class: Knight
Talent: Quick Learner (Rare),
Skill: Advanced Horse Riding, Alverain Swordsmanship, Leadership
She'd lost her noble name soon after the fall of Babylon.
The short green panel buzzed before she turned her gaze to the beautiful man with golden hair and eyes, standing quietly with his pure white wings curled behind his back. He didn't rush or force them out, just waited with a smile.
"What about him, Captain?"
"Won't it be rude?"
"Heh, a hottie like that? Isn't it worth the risk?"
"Tsk..."
Galatea shook her head, unable to scold the thirsty women in her mercenary group and with a simple gesture, she tried to open the angel's Destiny Record.
[Destiny Record]
Name: ???
Title: ???
Age: ???
Race: Archangel
Tier: XI
Skill: ????
"Figures..." The mature woman placed a hand on her wide hips, unable to shake the shock of seeing someone who broke the rules. "I thought the rank limit for the Destiny System was ten. To think this man matches the demon lords..."
As if he sensed something, the angel's eyes met hers.
Galatea froze, like her entire body was shocked... a mixture of comfort, warmth and sexual pleasure flooded her mind like a dam broke down.
'W-What's this feeling...'
"Fuck..." Galatea grunted as she gripped the wall to remain standing. Her legs felt like jelly, her muscles contracted randomly, and her mind became blank as she panted against the shoddy wall.
A single gaze and she almost made a fool of herself.
"I'm soaking..."
Moments later, she managed to adjust herself and her underwear while the angel outside finally approached their base.
The Angel stepped through the door, bringing a sense of light, freshness and purity to the room, causing many of the gruff, female mercenaries to react.
Some offered lewd and tasteless invitations.
Others shied away while taking secret glances at him from the corners.
Galatea stood beside the wall as his tall figure approached, each step like a hammer striking her chest, driving her pulse faster and faster.
'Who is this man and why do I feel such intense emotions?!'
He stopped a few steps from Galatea and glanced up and down, then extended his hand with the brightest, pearly white smile she'd ever seen.
"You are Galatea, Leader of the Heaven's Dawn Mercenaries?"
She struggled to breathe, let alone speak; her throat tightened, gulping down the excess saliva that gathered due to her body's natural reaction. 'He isn't human, this isn't the kind of charm a human can have!'
If someone said he was an incubus, she would accept it!
He remained still, hand extended.
"Come, fight with me, and I will grant your every wish. My Knight."
Galatea still hesitated, the other mercenaries made quiet jokes about money, spending the night with him and other disgusting things... but Galatea thought of one thing, both the woman facing the man, and the girl watching a possible future.
Babylon.
Her beautiful homeland, stained in corruption and darkness.
The chance to retake it was too strong.
She took his hand, glancing him in the eye for the first time after almost climaxing. "We don't fight on promises, only cold, hard cash."
The angel's face looks bewildered, before he breaks into a loud chuckle. He took out a sack of gold and handed it to her.
"I like your spirit, human." He took another step, into their dirty abode, and spread his arms wide. He appeared different, less uptight and cold... but the coiling heat in her abdomen only increased, as if his smile boosted his charms tenfold.
"I am Lucifer, the star which will guide you from this moment onward," and once again, he offered his hand to her and asked a final time. "Fight with me, Galatea."
Galatea took his hand, her mind melted in a pleasant mix of white noise and sexual excitement as the scene began to blur.
.
.
.
"W-What?!"
Galatea shot up from the messy bedroll, shivering as she hugged her shoulders, wind blowing through the open entrance. Her delicate lace nightgown flung on the table beside the bed, while she lay under a small woollen blanket.
Naked and confused, the outside became noisier.
"What the hell happened to me?!"
"MY LORD! IT'S AN ENEMY ATTACK, THEY'VE BROUGHT WOLF RIDERS!" Zack called out with a dramatic tone. This jolted Luka from his slumber, as he rose from the bed with a sharp glare, his eyes glowing dark red, while being stark naked.
Her eyes widened as the thick rod bounced right in front of her face, almost touching her lips. Yet she felt a strange tingle in her abdomen, the heat and familiar dampness identical to her dream when she met eyes with that angel.
Luka began to stretch his muscles, while Galatea's eyes followed the objects' slow, heavy movements as she subconscoiusly swallowed at the sight.
Unable to forget the lust from her dream, she bit her lip, dragging it back slightly.
That's when Luka turned to face her, offering his hand.
"Galatea, come fight with me. I will do anything you wish if you keep fighting beside me!"
She felt Deja Vu.
In that moment, the figures of Lucifer and Luka overlapped.
His tone, his posture, the way he spoke and his slight intonation when saying the last letters of her name.
Everything was identical.
Even that smile that made her body melt with a desire she'd long sealed.
There was a moment she imagined the mature Galatea watching this scene. Much like she had watched her earlier, egging her on, to accept and take his hand... to take everything.
In this world, Babylon is still green, still standing!
She hesitated for a few seconds before shaking her head and taking his hand.
"Gladly..."
Memories of the dream resurfaced, and her mind shifted...
'But this time, I want more than just money...' She glanced at his body, then shook her head. 'W-What kind of improper thoughts am I having?! He still hasn't fully explained everything to me...'
However... she held a sort of feeling, a sliver of hope.
Because the memories of Luka dying were too vivid and real, she found herself considering that Luka might have truly passed away.
Then the body, which was now alive and standing before her, could be a divine being... and the only divine being she knew was the angel from her dreams. If it were him that stood before her...
Well.
Only her heart and body knew that answer.