Shattered

Blyss

“What do you want in return for freeing me?” the Fae before me asked, its voice echoing through the infinite darkness I was floating in.

“I… I want power.” I swallowed, my voice shaky.

“Oh?” the Fae sounded amused. “What do you mean by… power, mortal?”

“I want… I want enough power to protect everything I love.” I choked out, my bottom lip trembling. “I want enough power to save my family. My friends. My lover. My people. So… please. Please grant me this wish.”

I bit my lip. Was I being too greedy? Was I asking for too much? But it was worth risking angering this Fae if it meant I had at least the slightest chance of gaining the strength to protect everything I loved. Even if Faes were untrustable, I had no other choice. Only a Fae could grant me the power I needed. I squeezed my eyes shut. Please… please let me save them all.

“What an interesting request. Also an incredibly difficult request to grant,” the Fae chuckled, its bemused laughter rumbling in my head.

I slumped in defeat. What had I been thinking? Of course it was too much to ask.

“Now, now, mortal, before you give up, I said it was a difficult request. Not impossible. Tell me, mortal, is there anything else that you could possibly want?” It asked.

I hesitated before answering. “No. There is nothing else I want besides power. Nothing else is worth anything to me if I can’t protect the people I love.”

“Interesting answer, mortal. I see that your mind is set on this.” It paused slightly before continuing. “I shall grant your wish. However, it takes far more power than you think to protect the people you love. And power comes with a price. Always.”

“I’ll pay whatever price,” I swallowed, determined. “...Even if that price is my life.”

“You are rather entertaining, mortal.” The Fae laughed, its deep laughter rumbling through my mind. “A body as weak as yours couldn’t possibly hold the power necessary to protect those mortals you love so dearly. So… I must make you a demigoddess.”

“If… If that’s what it takes.” I couldn’t possibly find any sort of reason why it would be particularly bad to become a demigoddess. But I was too desperate to question it.

“Then, mortal, go on. I have made you a demigoddess. Return to your lands and protect your beloved mortals. But remember – no matter how much you may regret your decision in the future, you can never revoke it. This will be permanent.” The Fae warned, something ominous about its words. “Are you okay with that?”

I nod, and in an instant, the black void surrounding me began to fade away, and in the back of my mind, I could hear the rumbling laughter of the Fae.

I should have known it was too good to be true.

“Miss, we have obtained the second fragment. Shall we proceed?” the black-masked man, Diego, asked.

“Yes.” I replied. I glanced over to the bloody man chained to the wall, his eyes wide with fear and muffled screams coming from his gagged mouth as I approached. His tortured body writhed pathetically, trying to escape, but unsuccessfully.

I stared down at him. It suddenly reminded me of the first time I tortured someone. It had been an enemy. I had to extract important information from him. But I was scared and squirmish, so I ended up letting him go. Now, hundreds of thousands of years later, I felt nothing as I stared at the man. I scoffed. It was both funny and ironic how I went from swearing to myself that I’d protect the world with my powers forever, to this.

I reached out and ripped the gag from him. He coughed for a moment before starting to scream and cry, until I grabbed his face and asked softly, “where is the third fragment?”

The man fell silent from fear. “I-I-I… w-well–”

I squeezed his face harder. “Tell me, and I might let you live.”

His eyes shone with hope for a moment. I almost pitied him – giving false hope to a man who had to die was something I’d never thought I’d do, thousands of years ago. But he knew too much to live. Far too much.

“W-Well– T-The G-G-Great Labyrinth! It’s in t-the Great Labyrinth!” the man stuttered.

“...Where in the Great Labyrinth?” I asked calmly.

“It’s in–” before he could finish, an arrow suddenly whistled past my face and into the man’s head. I could tell in an instant that he was dead. I sighed and turned around to see a group of invaders standing at the entrance. At the front lines was a bald man in a full suit of armour and a blue coak, and behind him were many demon hunters wielding weapons.

“He’d rather die than tell you anything, demon!” the bald man yelled, drawing the bow he had used to shoot the man, aiming it at me. I recognized the bow – it was the newest invention of the demon hunters. A ‘celestial bow’, I heard they liked to call it.

I stared at the dead body of the man I was just about to extract the information I needed from. He had to die eventually, so as to not give away the location of the third fragment to anyone else, but it would have been more convenient if he had stayed alive long enough to tell me where exactly it was.

Ignoring the bald man, I said to Diego, “see this is why we should have done this at the demon castle. Being interrupted like this is annoying.”

“Hey! Don’t you dare ignore me!” the man tightened his grip on his bow.

“I apologize. I didn’t expect someone to break through the barrier I set up.” Diego bowed slightly, also ignoring the bald man. The bald man shouted orders, and the soldiers rushed toward me, weapons raised.

“Don’t apologize, just don’t let it happen again.” I replied with a sigh.

“Of course.” Diego answered.

My attention shifted to the soldiers charging at me. I held out my hand, and dark wisps of smoke slithered out from behind me, splitting into multiple tentacles that crawled across the ground, reaching for the oncoming attackers.

Fear flashed across their faces as they hesitated, but the smoke crept up their bodies, coiling around their throats, choking them. Most of them dropped their weapons, desperate to claw at the inescapable tendrils, but it was useless. As soon as the smoke wrapped around them, they were as good as dead. The bald man however, despite being choked by the black smoke too, started hurling weak insults my way, his voice laced with frustration.

It was taking too long.

With a sharp flick of my fingers, a collective crack echoed in the air as the soldiers’ necks snapped. The smoke withdrew, leaving their lifeless bodies crumpled at my feet. I glanced over at the bald man – still alive, sputtering and gasping for air after being strangled – but now on the ground, powerless.

I took a couple steps towards him slowly, glaring down at him.

“What was it you said about me?” I asked, my tone light and conversational.

The bald man’s eyes were wide and afraid, yet still held a certain defiance, even when faced with death. It was almost amusing.

“I-I-I–” the bald man stammered as he trembled in fear.

“Was it… a piece of ’unholy trash’?” I deadpanned. The bald man flinched. I continued, “well whatever it was, that wasn’t very nice of you.”

The bald man hesitated for a moment before exploding. “You! You demon! It’s all your fault that the world ended up this way! You should just die! Demons deserve to fucking die!”

“You’re right. I should just die.” I paused for a moment. “If only I could.”

In the blink of an eye, I stabbed him with one of the dead demon hunters’ dagger, killing him instantly. I tossed the dagger to the side, and it clattered loudly in the silence.

“Alright. Let’s wrap it up and go back to the castle.” I sighed, glancing at the lifeless corpses littering the ground. My eyes lingered on the man I had been interrogating earlier. “It’s a shame he died before I could get the information out of him.”

“Yes. But knowing you, it won’t be that big of a problem.” Diego chuckled softly.

I made a non-committal hum and said, “I’ll be headed straight to the Great Labyrinth.”

“Already? Shouldn’t you return to the castle and rest before heading out again?” Diego asked, seemingly concerned.

I glanced towards him. Well, when you’ve lived as long as I have, rest doesn’t make much of a difference anymore. I have all of eternity to do this, but I’d rather get over with it quickly. I kept quiet and turned to the exit. Without looking back at him, I said, “head back. I’ll be gone for maybe two days or so.”

I slipped on my mask and wrapped a black cloak around me. Dark wings of smoke unfolded from my back, and I took off.