Chapter 27: A Monster In The Depths Pt.1

"What you did with the girl, can it be reproduced?"

Lauren asked as she stared at Harper, who could only take cover behind Ira.

"No, It was only a one-time use."

Ira responded brightly.

"I see."

Lauren held an expression of deep thought as she looked at Harper. Currently, Ira, Harper, Avery, Casey, and Lauren were all at the white pagoda behind the Thynne Family Manor.

To her, It seemed giving that single chance for power would be far more useful for one of her own kin, but it wasn't her choice and it seemed that the little girl had some form of familial bond with Ira so it couldn't be helped.

"Avery, take care when training her."

Lauren said indifferently, a small, almost undetectable change in tone happened while she was speaking. It indicated to Avery to train Harper as hard as possible. Just because she accepted that Harper gained power from Ira, didn't mean she had to like it. She saw Harper as unfit of using it, she would have to suffer in her training to grow to an acceptable standard.

"It will be done, Grandmother."

Avery responded as she looked at Harper and guided her inside the manor.

"Ira, for the first week, my mother will train you. Next week I will."

Casey spoke up as she prepared to fly away.

"Ok."

Ira grinned and turned to Lauren, who in response made a faint smile.

"Shall we begin?"

She said elegantly.

.......................................................

Deep within the woods at the foot of the Mountain range the Valkyries used, there was a stone platform. In the middle stood Ira and Lauren. Lauren had a sword sheathed on her hip, over her black dress, she stood and watched Ira silently.

"Uh...What are we starting with-"

Ira began to talk but was cut short by Lauren. Quite literally, in fact, he saw her move to draw her sword but was powerless to react as she swung in a precise and mechanical manner, cutting his arms and legs off. All he could do was watch with a surprised expression as he fell to the ground with a thump.

"Wait-"

He tried to shout, but Lauren waved her hand and he was hit with a blast of spirit magic sending him off the stone stage.

"That concludes training for today, grow new limbs. I'll be back in two days."

Lauren said emotionlessly as she flew away.

Silence rained in on the forest as Ira sat, well more accurate to say, laid there with a confused expression. He examined his freshly amputated body and the limbs that sat on the stage.

"Well...Fuck."

Ira said to himself in a self-mocking manner.

"...My nose itches."

He added on with a small chuckle.

..................................................

Harper fared no better, as her current condition reflected.

"Weak. Again."

Avery said plainly. Her words summed up the first hour of Harper's training perfectly. Harper's attacks were too weak and every time she was knocked down she would have to get up again.

Well, it needed to be corrected that she fared no better than Ira. At least Avery didn't use sharpened weapons and instead used a wooden training sword. Though it still hurt nonetheless.

"Haah."

Harper crawled up from the ground with a long breath and wipe the blood from her lip. In her hands was a wooden staff, it was a lightweight weapon that was simple to use in theory, but required a lot of practice. She charged forward and swung the staff in a sloppy manner.

Thwack!

Avery smacked her to the ground with the back of her hand.

"Idiotic and weak."

Avery said indifferently. "Idiotic" was a new edition added to the berating words used against Harper.

"You can create spectral objects, right?"

Avery asked as she recalled how Ira described Harper's power.

"...yes."

Harper said as she climbed up from the wooden floor.

Avery nodded and grabbed a metal chain and dagger.

"Recreate that."

She said as she tossed it, Harper.

"Ok..."

Harper said dejectedly, three more months of abuse did not sound appealing to her but she had no choice to carry on.

...................................

The first month of training ended uneventfully.

Ira managed to grow new limbs within a few hours of losing, showing an increase of his regeneration factor, and he could dodge a few of Lauren's and Casey's attacks, so his reflexes were improving. The strange thing is when he grew new limbs the wolf sigil would reappear on his left hand, and the old limbs would turn into black dust.

Both Lauren and Casey stood on the stone platform and looked at Ira. Currently, all he had were black tights and a black leather tasset belt covering his lower body. For preservation's sake, he removed his shirt and shoes. Lauren and Casey remained unbothered by his lack of clothing and both stared at him.

"Now we move on to something, more difficult."

Lauren drew her sword and closed her eyes.

"I would like to see how far your regeneration goes."

She continued as her dark purple wings slowly emerged.

She opened her eyes and flew straight towards Ira, her speed was incomprehensible as she arrived almost as soon as her wings finished fluttering.

Shuk!

She stabbed Ira in the heart and channeled spirit magic through the length of the sword, completely obliterating his heart and sending him into the woods once again.

"aeugh..."

Ira groaned as blood poured from his mouth, he began to suspect the Valkyries wanted to kill him. Slowly life drained from his body as he stared up at the forest canopy. A bitter feeling arose within him, a familiar and disgusting feeling. He felt weak, so weak that he couldn't help but be powerless when he faced his death and as a result, certain memories slowly crawled their way into his mind.

"heuargh..."

Ira made a stubborn and garbled grunt as blood filled his throat, not only was his heart destroyed but most of his internal organs were ruptured. Slowly his vision began turning black.

'nOt...lOoKinG...sO...gOOd...'

Speaking of familiarity, a child-like guttural voice made itself known as Ira fell unconscious.

..................................

Inside of a dark restaurant, mostly empty. Its current occupants were Ira, who sat at a table with a confused look. His dinner partner was a young boy with black hair and red eyes that seemed to alternate between red and yellow.

"Hypocrisy."

The boy said as he cut into a steak that appeared from nowhere.

"What-"

Ira tried to ask but he was cut off by the boy.

"Hesitation."

The boy said while he took a bite of the steak, that could only be described as raw. Ira decided to let the boy finish and stayed silent.

"Complacency."

The boy finished chewing the steak and said with a smile.

"All things you're guilty of."

He chuckled as he wiped the blood from his lips with a napkin.

"How?"

Ira asked.

"It's almost been more than a quarter of a year since you were dropped into this world and just look at you."

The boy laughed, as Ira stared at him, his usual smile seemed to be completely gone.

"You're holding onto something...Scared to become a monster? Or maybe you're hesitating because you're unsure of what will become of you?"

The boy's tone changed to a serious one as his eyes continued to alternate.

"I'm sorry to say, but you're no more. That last remnant of 'Siegfried', you cling to, whether subconsciously or not. It's nothing but a corrupted echo of a fearful and pitiful child."

The boy's face contorted when he said "Siegfried", illustrating his extreme dislike. Ira's expression darkened as he listened.

"I've taken off one shackle, so to speak, but you seem to be resisting."

The boy cut another piece of the bloody steak and ate it, While Ira thought back to the first time he was in this place if it could be called that.

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"...Do you know what the void is?"

The boy asked suddenly, his tone indicated it was a rhetorical question so Ira refrained from answering.

"It's everything. It's nothing. It's there, but it isn't. It's a paradox. A thing which defies the laws that govern all beings, it shouldn't exist but it does."

The boy said with an undisguised look of admiration.

"You've been given a gift, from this place, and look what you've done. Kill some bandits, capture some criminals, and kill those dirty replicants made from your own blood. It's really mundane. If it were up to me you'd be dead already, and someone more fitting would be given a chance. That boy, Clark, for example. I'm sure that would be more interesting than watching you sit around and be appeased by simple things."

The boy pushed the empty plate with blood stains to the side and interlaced his fingers.

"No worries though. All mistakes can be corrected."

He laughed cheerfully as raised his hands toward Ira.

"Since removing the first restriction didn't seem to motivate you, I'll remove the second one too. It'll be a bit more...forcefully this time. I'll even give you the name of a few skills since this world seems to have regressed. Anyway, I hope to see you shake things up, though you are always free to do as you wish."

He said with a harmless smile.

A tingling sensation emerged from Ira's hand. He looked to see two of the four wolves fading away and the remaining two looked to be chasing the tails of the other.

Then the pain.

His screams failed to come out as his whole body began breaking apart, turning into black mist.

"Here's a funny story. There used to be three moons, you know?"

The boy spoke as if he didn't notice Ira being reduced to a dark mist-like state.

"Then one day, a greedy wolf ate one, causing the dismay of more than a few Gods..."

He trailed off as Ira , .

"...So he ate them too."

He finished as the restaurant went dark.

....................................

Ira stood on a platform with a dagger in hand and looked at a boy with brown hair and brown eyes chained onto a sacrificial altar.

"...Why?"

The boy looked at Ira and asked in a pitiful tone, voicing his uncertainty.

"...For power."

Ira said with a miserable chuckle. The irony of the situation wasn't lost on him at all. He raised the dagger and stabbed the reflection of himself. He swing was rhythmic, almost like a heartbeat.

Shlik. Shlik.

The ordered sound the dagger made when entering and leaving the, perfectly replicated the rhythm of a heart. Surprisingly, the brown-haired didn't scream. He just watched. An empty expression on his face, absent of all emotion.

"..."

He didn't say anything as blood splattered everywhere, covering both of them.

Shlik. Shlik.

The rhythm of the dagger increased, mirroring a rapid heartbeat. Slowly the boy began fading away, as he stared at Ira.

Shlik. Shlik.

The dagger replicated the beating heart once more before the body was gone.

Thump-Thump. Thump-Thump. Thump-Thump.

Now the echo of an actual heart could be heard.

.....................................

"HAAAAAAAH!"

Ira sat up and took a deep breath. His wounds were more or less healed by the time he woke up.

"One hour."

The voice of a woman shook him from his stupor as she looked at him with eyes showing praise. It was Lauren Thynne and next to her stood Casey who looked at him with wide eyes.

"You've changed."

She said as she looked at him closely. His yellow eyes seemed to be brighter than before, to the point where it would be safe to say they were glowing, and his black hair seemed to have grown a few shades darker, which was hard to describe but easy to notice if anyone had seen its previous state.

Lauren reached out her hand to help Ira up, he accepted it with a smile as he stood up and stretched.

"What's next."

He said as he rotated his shoulders.

"Hahahaha."

Lauren laughed in a satisfied manner.

"Show me what's different."

She said as she drew her sword, Ira laughed in response and took a fighting stance.

..................................

The end of the third month arrived quickly for Harper, who was now a shell of her former self. She'd probably revert back into laughter when she could see Ira, but as of now, she held a cold expression, similar to Avery's.

Harper held a partial spectral physique, meaning she should be able to go without some of the things humans need. Or at least that was the train of thought Avery had when training her. Suffocation, starvation, burning, beating, cutting, and sleep-deprivation. Those things became regular occurrences in her daily training. As a result, Harper grew noticeably colder, similar to Avery. Though it wasn't without any benefit. Currently, Harper stood with a steel baton on her hip and a seven-foot tall phantom with a female figure, in front of her. The phantom had six, very elongated arms, each of them holding a weapon. The translucent blue weapons went accordingly: Two kukuris, A halberd it held with two hands that were almost the size of its body, A great axe, and a great sword.

"Go!"

Harper ordered emotionlessly. On her command the Phantom ran towards Avery, who wasn't alone. A dozen other females that looked similar to Avery were all standing with weapons ready. Since the second month, Avery would add another female as an opponent for Harper. Since today was the end of the third month, she decided to have Harper face everyone.

The phantom closed the distance and bore down on the closest female with is Kukris, while it swung the Halberd to keep a few of the other females at distance, it's greatsword and great axe worked to protect its flanks. Four Valkyries, including Avery, slipped past the Phantom pretty easily and went straight towards Harper.

Harper grabbed the metal baton and created a long blue chain on one end, with a curved dagger on the end.

Whoosh!

Harper began swinging the chained dagger skillfully, her feet seemed to glide on the floor as she spun and twisted. The chained dagger went towards the females as if it were alive, it managed to wrap around two of them and slow them down, but Avery and one other were already on Harper.

"Phase Shift."

Harper broke off the chain from the baton and moved backward incredibly fast, she slowed down and gripped the baton with two hands.

Click.

As she twisted the baton it extended into a staff, which she rotated in her hands while waiting for Avery and the other female to arrive.

Avery was the first to arrive and swung quickly. Harper twirled the staff and blocked, but the attack was a feint and she was met with a kick to the chest sending her stumbling a few feet. The other female held a training sword and thrust towards Harper's chest.

Thump!

Harper managed to move just enough to negate some of the force behind the thrust. She swung her steel staff toward Avery and the other female, but they constantly blocked or dodged. Eventually, the other two females, who were tied up by the chains, got free. The females who were blocked by the phantom slowly destroyed it, as it only held two kukris with it's remaining arms. The steel staff was knocked from Harper's hand, but Harper didn't panic and did a few backward handsprings. She landed and took up a fighting position as, pale blue, translucent gauntlets covered her hand. Avery ran towards her and swung downwards, Harper crossed the gauntlets and blocked the attack, two other females ran towards Harper while she was busy blocking Avery. Harper wanted to use her powers to create two shields on either side of but she was kicked again by Avery.

Thwack!

She fell backward and as she tried to get up she was met with a kick to the side.

Thwack!

She rolled over and once again tried to stand up, but was kicked in the face.

Thwack!

She laid sprawled out on her back as she looked at the ceiling. Blood dripped over the three black dots on her forehead.

"This sucks."

She whispered under her breath.

"Weak, but you should be alright against normal enemies."

Avery said coldly as she turned to leave the room.

"Wash up, It's time for you to leave soon."

She added on as her and the other females left the room.

Harper wordlessly stood up and walked over to pick up her staff.

Click.

She shortened it back into a metal baton and placed it on her hip.

"I wonder what Ira's doing?"

Harper said to what formerly was the phantom she summoned. It currently had no legs and only one arm that was missing a hand.

"..."

Although it wasn't under Harper's control it's intelligence was slightly less than that of a dog, it could only follow orders.

"Yeah, well who asked you?"

Harper said as she kicked the phantom in its head.

............................................................

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