Pov Fiona’s:
I was in front of Sakura, but I felt like I was inside her, her Aura wasn’t just around me, her Aura was the reality around me, I created a Territory trapping me inside her.
“What’s this going to be like…?” (I)
“There’s no need to be afraid or feel anxious, you won’t even feel like you’re being tested and in the end we’ll both know what you’re looking for.” (Sakura)
She approached me pulling my hand to walk beside her, but I felt strange the further I walked.
“You know, out of all of Zenos’ Familiars, I’m not the oldest, I’m not the strongest, and I’m not the smartest.” (Sakura)
“Even though my position is among the top 3, my responsibility can also be considered the greatest among all others, do you know the reason for that?” (Sakura)
“I don’t know…” (I)
“Zenos doesn’t choose people the way others do, he’s an idiot who pays attention to things that others don’t.” (Sakura)
“He does things on the fly without almost any thought, but even so he gets almost everything he needs, that’s how he got almost all of his Familiars by accident.” (Sakura)
“(My mind is strange…)” (I)
“Part of Zenos’s charm is that his eyes dismiss the superficial almost immediately, which is something few are capable of, so the things he does pay attention to are always strange.” (Sakura)
“Even with everything I said, I learned to trust him completely, everything he does has a reason and that’s why I can’t stop thinking.” (Sakura)
“(The forest feels strange and my mind feels heavy, my senses are worse than at any time I can remember.)” (I)
“Why did he choose you?” (Sakura)
“There were many choices if you consider compatibility, affinity, worthiness, loyalty and even people close to him, so why did he discard them all to choose you?” (Sakura)
My senses were failing, my mind felt heavy to the point of strongly interfering with my thoughts, my senses are also no longer reliable and yet I heard Sakura’s voice as clearly as at the beginning, but only her.
“He could have chosen one of the children, one of the wives and even other people like Jade, Sapphire, Sophia and many others, but he still chose you… why?” (Sakura)
“I don’t know?” (I)
“But you need to know and I need to be convinced that this power deserves to be with you.” (Sakura)
“So now it’s time to get to the bottom line, let the ordeal begin.” (Sakura)
——————-
When I woke up I checked my body, most of the injuries were healed and I looked at my reflection in the mirror happy with my current life.
It’s been months since I became a Herald of Zenos, even now I can’t believe how I got this power, I never thought I was talented enough to deserve this power and yet he chose me.
“Fiona, they’re here.” (Xagar)
“It’s still very early, Master Zenos will take longer to arrive.” (I)
“How many?” (I)
“There are 10 times the reported number and they seem to know about our trap.” (Xagar)
“Xagar is right, they clearly know about us, I think we were the ones who fell into a trap.” (Irius)
As soon as I left my room I found Xagar running up to me, among everyone in the Dungeon I was only more intimate with him because I’ve known him for longer, even though I forgave him I never said it out loud, that’s because he doesn’t want to be forgiven.
Shortly after Xagar’s bad news about the enemy, Irius and his sister also appear confirming what was going on in our minds.
“Are they mobilizing the troops yet?” (I)
“Yes, I have already activated all the barriers and my brother has mobilized the troops, Hades is taking the lead while Cinthia went to check on the enemies.” (Irina)
“We need to prepare, they will…” (Xagar)
Boommm!!!! BOOM!!! CRACK!!
The ground shook violently as explosion noises and something breaking sounded like explosion.
We all knew the barriers were broken and turned to our last resort.
“Irina, the ritual, activate now!” (I)
——————-
Hours have passed and the last barrier is still standing, the forces of the Church of Light never stop attacking, but they have already realized that ranged attacks are not capable of doing anything against the barrier.
Fighting in the sky, the other Heralds are together with Lady Natasha to prevent the Minor Gods and Divine Beasts from reaching where we are.
The ritual barrier we use is made up of 3 sides, each side has 1 person as a point of strength to maintain the barrier, the only way to pass is to defeat the person, which is why only those most resistant were chosen for this position.
Magnus, being a Dragon, can fight for days and it won’t be easy even for a Minor God to get past him.
The other side is being guarded by Elizabeth and the chances of her being defeated are even lower than Magnus, so their side has fewer enemies in quantity and the two are stuck fighting Minor Gods.
The last side of the barrier was left to me, we had the choice of being me or Veronica who specialized in defense, but she needed to join in the evacuation of the appropriate ones commanded by Athena and Alice.
Inside the barrier are more than 60% of our troops, among them are Zenos’ children, people I know from the Dungeon and even Zenos’ sister who was injured by Divine Weapon, Miss Caitlyn.
The place of the barrier was a fixed point that could not be moved, but it was still safe, so it was used as a shelter for those who could no longer fight.
The Church of Light is not stupid enough to leave this place alone, its objective is to end the war we have been having for months, but the other 2 sides of the barrier will not fall with the forces they have available so easily and for This is focusing on me as the weakest link.
“< Forest of Holy Spears >” (I)
I stick the tip of my spear into the ground, making thousands of giant wooden spears appear all over the battlefield, the enemy troops are injured and dispersed with this area attack, but it’s not the type of attack I can always use.
“< Sword of the Great Sun >” (Divine Templar)
“< Holy Leaf Tornado >” (I)
I was already facing endless enemies for hours without the possibility of leaving that area, this kind of restriction made it difficult for me to avoid area attacks or concentrated attacks from hundreds of individuals, so I wasted a lot of my power until now.
Everything seemed to have been planned when a Divine Templar with glowing wings and Divine armor fell from the sky with his incandescent sword falling towards me, he was being followed by hundreds of Templars in white armor and I met them creating a tornado of leaves as sharp as a Holy Sword.
Our two attacks collided in a stalemate and the other Templars tried to attack me, of course I wasn’t alone, Irius came out from inside the barrier accompanied by Ibuki and some others taking the Templars away from me, but I felt that something was wrong.
Before I could understand what was happening, the shining sword that was previously being hindered by my leaf tornado cut through my attack with great ease and ripped off several fingers from one of my hands.
“Give up and open the barrier now, maybe you’ll survive!” (Divine Templar)
“< Blood Leaf Thrusts >” (I)
“< Courts of Solar Justice >” (Divine Templar)
I tried to launch a new attack, there was no reason to talk to the enemy, they did not attack and it was clear that this had all been planned, I will not allow those behind me to be killed.
Every time I pushed my spear forward at high speed the shadow of a red leaf flew towards the enemy, with my speed I created a rain of leaves that would explode as soon as it hit him or that was what I intended.
He swung his sword with incredible technique creating twice as many sword blades as I had leaves that were all cut away, disappearing, I was not able to keep up with the pace and injuries were accumulating on my body.
“Give up! Leave everything behind and don’t make me waste my time with you!” (Divine Templar)
“!!!” (I)
I continued without responding, my armor was falling apart, the cuts were increasingly brutal and strong, clearly he was increasing the power of his blows little by little, I took out another Spear that I tied to the hand where I had lost several fingers, with two spears I managed to keep him with me for longer.
Several minutes passed and my body was covered in injuries all over, my whites were broken and even then I was manipulating the Ki within my body to move my arms as I wanted, my body was so injured I wasn’t sure how much blood was left there was inside my body, there was a cut on the side of my head and one of my eyes was destroyed leaving a large cut mark on my face.
“< Divine Solar Wave >” (Divine Templar)
Suddenly his wings glowed even brighter and flapped forward releasing a wave of light blinding my only eye, the wave of light threw me back causing burn marks all over my body, even my hair disappeared completely and he was already moving forward with the sword in my direction.
“(Get up!!)” (I)
My body was in pieces and even so I manipulated him using Ki to stand up once again, I used both spears to attack him, but one of them broke allowing him to claim my right arm.
“< Blooded Sacrifice: Spear of Life >” (I)
I ignored the pain and took advantage of this opportunity and opened my mouth where my heart jumped out being pushed by my Ki, the heart exploded creating a wooden Spear burning in Starfire that pierces the enemy’s head.
He fell to the ground and I felt relief, but that didn’t last long when 3 others like him descended from the sky pointing their shining swords and spears towards me, their presence was no weaker than the one that fell to the ground.
“I’m sorry Zenos, it looks like I won’t resist until you arrive… but I’ll buy as much time as possible…” (I)
“(Goodbye Xagar… Hades… Zenos… everyone… I hope you are well…)” (I)
With my last strength I stand up, I mobilize all the Ki and Essence power that I have, going beyond the limits of my body to stay in a battle position when they attack, as soon as they were centimeters away from me, I moved forward, ready to attack, carrying the minus 1 of them with me, then everything disappeared and I fell face down in the grass.
“…” (I)
“My hands, my face, my hair… even my eye!?” (I)
“But what!?” (I)
“Congratulations, you didn’t even think about retreating once, the thought of running away didn’t even cross your mind and you still had the courage to step forward in the face of certain death thinking about those you wanted to protect.” (Sakura)
“You passed the ordeal.” (Sakura)
“Ordeal? What an ordeal!? Where am I…” (I)
Before I could finish speaking my consciousness was gone in a sea of darkness and the last thing I saw was falling into Sakura’s arms as she smiled.
