Unyielding Smile

10 years after the unexplainable demise of the Unholy Beast Zergish, the Wandering Storm, on an unclaimed grassland before the purple fog. 3 humanoid figures were standing while looking at the ebbing smog with different attitudes. The first voice to break the silence came from a lady.

"So this is it, right? The plaguing fog that popped out one day without a warning and mutated every single living organisms it touches... Gotta admit, it does look creepy and also disgusting.”

She spoke that with an excited tone and a confident smile on her face. The young vigorous lady was no other than Lucianna Heralith, whose title was the Unyielding Smile, and she was the 5th strongest human of this world according to the ranking book written by the Scholar Organization.

She was tall and athletic, her skin was fair and flawless, her auburn hair fluttered gently even in the absence of wind. Her silver eyes glittered like sparkling stars, and they seemed to be able to pierce through the insidious purple fog.

She wore a full-body silvery armor, which was shining dimly with a hint of mysterious divine energy. Her saber was the same, it was a fair and elegant saber, and from the blade to the hilt, faint yet potent aura was slowly seeping out. It was no doubt that both her armor and weapon was blessed with the purest energy that only her could be worthy enough to be bestowed. And that was the power of the Moon.

"Indeed, dear Lucianna, that was the corrupting fog which has been causing headaches to the Church. Be careful, Oma was almost corrupted by it just by merely dipping her hand into it...”

The voice was from an old man who looked like a kind grandpa. He wore a white religious robe, and holding a golden staff with a circle surrounding a cross on top. His aura was subtle and everyone felt it could immediately feel at peace. He was His Excellency Aaron van Malheim, the highest ranking grand cardinal of the Church, and his title was Benevolent Judgement.

Although the Church and Lucianna had kind of a bad relationship in the past, since she was originally a devout believer and a potential paladin before she swore eternal devotion to the Moon. However, they had already exiled her for centuries, and most of the Church’s member from that time had already gone. His Excellency was only a poor child when Lucianna was still in the Church, so he had little to no past with her.

Before the fateful raid of Zergish occurred a decade ago, there had already been an attempt to cleanse the fog which was covering multiple cities of different countries. The fog was so vast that its curtaining area was approximately more than a hundred kilometers square.

The cleansing attempt only had 3 individuals like this time, and they were all grand cardinals. Her Excellency Oma, His Excellency David and His Excellency Aaron were chosen to purge the fog of a small city first. That time, Her Excellency Oma underestimated the potency of the purple haze and tried to dip her hand into it to measure the corruption rate. As soon as her hand completed dipped into the insidious cloud, it immediately became rotten. Spiky vines started to growing from her fingers with a frightening speed.

She had no choice but pulled the hand out and cast her best cleansing spells. Even with the help of the other 2 grand cardinals, they could barely held back the mutation and retreated back to Mekkan Cathedral, where Pope Alexander I successfully healed her hand. Divine energy was known to be the bane of corruption and mutation, yet it could hardly counter such scary corruption.

"More than a decade has passed, and Oma still hasn’t recovered from her shock. She now denies any excursion and only stay in Mekkan Cathedral. Therefore, please be extra careful dear Lucianna.”

Aaron said with a caring and worried voice.

"Listen to what the old man say Lady Lucianna, the fog is not something to be underestimated. I wouldn’t say that my magic is the most powerful, but I could vouch for its effectiveness against dark-type magic. And yet, this fog has already crept me out, and I wouldn’t want to begin imagine who would be horrible enough to spread it.”

The hoarse voice came from another old man. Although he didn’t look as much as a grandpa like Aaron, his face had already been crisscrossed with wrinkles. His hair was in a dark magenta color, and it was bowl-cut. He wore a deep purple magician robe with insidious patterns of Darkness. That was the 11th strongest powerhouse of Ergosia, The King of Darkness, Rozier Sulyvahn.

Rozier had this gloomy atmosphere wherever he went, it was so bad that people either felt pity for him or they also got affected by the gloom. Rumors said that his only daughter, Teresa was kidnapped and he had tried to find her for so many years, but to this day, no good news had ever came to him.

"Hey everyone! Sorry for being late!”

From afar, a young boy was sprinting towards the party. He had brown short hair and a clear yellow pair of eyes. He wore a blue magician robe with herbs and apothecary patterns. His name was Orin, Orin Petegrim, and his title was Joyous Life. And he was the only disciple of Uderia Macrion, the most powerful apothecary ever in the history of this world.

Orin was the last member of this party. Meeting the 3 other members, he bowed and greeted them one by one.

"Took you long enough, kid. No worries, we haven’t started yet,” Lucianna patted on Orin’s shoulder and told him with her shiny smile.

"Al-alright, let’s get started shall we?” Little Orin blushed and rushed everyone to begin the operation.

The operation was really simple, Lucianna herself would run pass the fog as fast as she could and reach the normal, healthy forest in the middle of the cloud. While the 3 others enhanced her with as much defensive and anti-corruption magic as possible.

First, His Excellency Aaron drew a circle with angelic patterns and told Unyielding Smile to step in the middle. Then he started chanting holy sentences which sounded more like hymns and choir than incantations. The circle periodically glowed in different shades of ivory light, cast various protective divine spells onto the heroine.

Finished, the circle simply vanished into thin air. Aaron came by Lucianna and gave her a necklace, whose pendant was a cross encircled by a golden ring. Inside of the pendant contained several more safety measures to ensure the success of this operation.

The same went with Rozier. He cast multiple dark spells on the female warrior, but this time Lucianna was given a black ring with intricate mysterious patterns that emanated both the sense of insidiousness and tranquility. It also contained a small subspace inside.

Orin didn’t do anything special, at least comparing to the seniors. He did some cleansing and health enhancement for Lucianna. Then gave her small bottles which contained liquids and powders in different colors. And finally, he gave her a special device, which looked like a simple ball of green yarn. “Your life line, my lady. Only use it in the most dangerous situation,” He spoke with a grim tone, unlike his usual joyful manner at all.

"Fine fine, as if I was that easy to take down!” Unyielding Smile once again placated her party with her unwavering confidence.

All was set, and Lucianna put on her silver helmet, her hand held the moonlit sword firmly. Before departing, she looked at Orin one last question “Any news of your master, kid?”

"No...” Orin shook his head and replied with a low sorrowful voice.

"Alright! Here I go now!”

Her sweet, confident voice was swallowed by the strong dash of her.

Bang!

With a single push, Lucianna of the Unyielding Smile was no where to be seen again, only a deep gorge on the earth could be seen trailing into the fog. Even with such force, the outer layer of the fog didn’t even part and kept on ebbing stubbornly.