Raeyn:
There was a reason children born in the presence of a Blue Valley Orchid are cursed and hated.
When they are born, any good that was present, and luck that was promised…
Is no longer.
Back then, I always wondered why my father hated me so much. He blamed me for Ophelia's suffering in the womb simply because I arrived first. And he blamed me for our mother's death.
For a while, I blamed myself, too.
Because why else would such things happen had it not been for me.
It wasn't until later that I found out that during my birth, there was a Blue Valley Orchid in a vase near our mother's bed.
Our parents had entered the Rain Kingdom from another jurisdiction in the Mountain during the war, and they found refuge there.
They were weak. Poor. And had no resources. No friends to help them.
And then they found out they were pregnant with us.
Ophelia had always been my saving grace.
The sun that came through my clouds.
Even when I would believe the words of our father, how he would call me the bane of his existence, a curse to the family, a worthless girl… she would always be there after the storm, and shine on me.
Raeynie! Shall we pick flowers today?
So long as they're not Blue Valley Orchids…
And what if they are? They're so pretty!
Father says they're a curse.
Father also says he's a great mage knight, but he's a scrap mage for a bottom Guild that's stationed in the Rain Kingdom where nothing happens. What else did he tell you?
That I'm also a curse…
See, that's just something I can't accept. Father is a jerk, and you shouldn't believe a single word he says.
But what if it's true? Because of me, you suffered in the womb… Because of me, mother—
Do not, young, sweet Ophelia said with such stern. Do not ever say that it was because of you. You were a baby… What choice did you have? All these dumb adults who get a choice like to blame children who never had it!
She would always look at me that way. Like I had no right to blame myself. Like it wasn't an option.
It was because of her that I became the way I am. It was because of her… that I finally found the courage to accept myself.
***
**Present**
When my eyes opened, I could feel the cool air rush into me like I had been flayed open.
And when I looked down, my chest was slashed all the way down to my abdomen; blood drenched my clothes and legs below.
Though I could reverse any wound, when it was received first by Ophelia, and I was switched over, I could not reverse what was previously dealt to her—to us.
My blood spilled profusely and I could hardly breathe, and yet…
I could not feel it at all.
That woman… who was she? And why had I not been aware of anything that happened up until now? Was she the one who did this… to her?
My vision blurred due to blood loss, but I rose anyway and walked over to her. She didn't even notice. It was as if my presence was erased by the fabrics of space.
And when I arrived, I had already held my scythe over her head as I said, like a haunting whisper, "Are you the one… who cut down my sister?"
She rotated her head in a horrified manner, like she was beholding an ungodly thing.
Looking at me with eyes trembling in a tempest of fear and hate.
Just like our father when he would choke me to near death for the mere pleasure of it.
"What the fuck… are you?" she asked with a shuddering voice. She had probably meant 'who' but no who looks the way I did in this moment.
No. That phrasing only works for a person. And right now, I was anything but that.
I looked at her with an expressionless dead calm. One that would unnerve the roughest of men, and replied, "The rain."
When my scythe swung, the sound of severing between her breasts was blocked out by a memory that forced its way to my head.
Ophelia's voice that fateful day…
Let's run away, Raeyn.
Followed by my response.
Yes… I promise I'll take you away. Let's go on an adventure.
The blood from the woman sprayed endlessly on my face and body, our crimsons mixing as her knees slammed to the ground.
"What the fuck, you useless Conjured Spirit…" she spoke to the thing behind her.
It whirred and said nothing as she continued to bully it, even in her state.
"What good are you if you can't protect me! How dare you let this bitch strike me! I, Evalyn, leader of the Bloodtusks—Head Officer of Riot Gang! You're supposed to keep me safe, always!"
It whirred more intensely now. Like a trapped deity within a body that was not its own.
It kept a pair of its hands in place—a spell perhaps to prevent something.
But I only felt more enabled. And it was because of my magic.
It was then she said words that struck me to the core. Words that I did not expect to hear from this enemy. And it wasn't even directed at me.
"You promised!"
My eyes widened as if it were Ophelia who was talking to me.
You promised… young Ophelia said, grabbing her small legs.
"Yes," I said out loud, and Evalyn's eyes darted to me like I had the nerve to interrupt her scolding to the poor creature behind her. "Yes, I did."
Just like that day…
"I wasn't talking to you, you bitch! Fuck off!"
I only stared at her with no expression. And then I looked over to the creature behind her.
It had no face, but for some reason, it carried more expression than I could ever hope to muster.
In its blank canvas, I only saw pain…
But not physical pain. Pain of the heart.
"That thing behind you," I said, ignoring her scourging. "That's your sister, isn't it?"
She trembled so hard I saw the rage flare in her eyes, as if I had just insulted her.
"I told you," she muttered to a scream. "I told you to fuck off! Fuck off, fuck off, fuck off!"
The thing behind her also trembled, like it was crying tears it could not shed.
And the more I stared at it, the more I saw a reflection of myself.
"If anyone has the right to scold the other, it's my sister," I said amidst her tantrum.
In that moment, another memory came. It was the time when our father was choking me. The look of sheer hate trembling in his eyes. And then when Ophelia came to save me, our father struck her from uncontrolled rage, sending her to the table where she broke the vase of Blue Valley Orchids, and a piece of the shattered vase had pierced her right eye…
"If anyone did not protect the other," I placed a hand on the gaping wound across my chest. "It's me."
The look of confusion found Evalyn's face. I was clearly speaking on a deeper level than she could comprehend.
Tears formed from her eyes, but they were not tears of sadness.
"What part of fuck off do you not understand!?" She grabbed the creature and forced it to kneel along with her. Though much larger than herself, it knelt like it had no choice. "Once a failure, always a failure," she spoke to no one in particular, but I knew that was meant for the creature by her side.
It also meant something to me, too.
Because those were the words that my father had always drummed into me.
"All this useless cunt was ever good for, was sacrificing herself for my magic ability."
I noticed Alice shuddering in my peripheral from Evalyn's words. Now that I was here, she no longer needed to worry. She fought well, it seemed. But something else had struck her nerves.
This was no longer a fight.
"Do you know what people in the Mountain do to those who don't have magic?" Evalyn asked. "They skin them alive and burn them at the stake."
I said nothing.
"And between my sister and I. I was the one who didn't have a magic ability."
The creature stopped trembling. I only sensed sadness from it now.
"But my sister… She was always so meek and fragile… How come she got to be the one with magic and not me!?" Evalyn grunted as she held her open wound, blood spilling like rivers into her hand while she still gripped the creature beside her. "In this world, the strong always trample on the weak. So one day, when the villagers came to get me, I told them, 'There she is.'"
She looked at the creature with animosity drenched in her violet eyes.
The creature did nothing. Still, as if it knew this story well.
"Because we were twins, they couldn't tell the difference. I was just lucky those fools couldn't sense mana. But then something glorious happened as they stuck her fleshless stake into the fire. Because after she died, I had regained this ability. Spirit Grace." She gripped the creature tighter and said, "You're lucky I kept your name."
Still. It was so still.
"Because this was the only useful thing you've ever done."
It shuddered faintly. Like after one has cried for so long, and they have no more tears to shed.
"You stupid, worthless sister—"
The sound of a slap echoed this empty space, reverberating all the way up to the large bell above us, and then back down like a wave.
Evalyn's face had whipped to the side, her eyes wide like she had no idea what hit her.
And there I stood, with the hand that had done the deed.
"How dare you," I said, my toneless voice broke as the words came out. "How can you talk to her that way and still look yourself in the mirror?"
My eyes darted to them both.
When I tried to put myself in her shoes, I just could not understand. Rather. I refused to.
"I don't understand how one can treat their own sister with such cruelty. Twins especially. You're all each other have… and yet you…" I bit my lip, saying nothing more.
Evalyn didn't respond, still in shock from that mere slap. Or perhaps it was something else…
It was then that the creature spoke at last. And when it did, it felt like the air grew even more still and ever silent.
"B-Bond Pact…" it uttered with a sweet, tired voice.
Evalyn's eyes trembled at the words; it was as if it had triggered a core memory that she had long since forgotten.
***
**Evalyn and Grace**
When Evalyn recalled that day when the village skinned her sister alive and stuck her fleshless body on a stake to burn, she witnessed Grace's face that day.
"After everything… how?" Evalyn said. "How, can you still smile?"
Though she had the look of ruthlessness etched on her face, inside it was a different feeling.
And when she read the lips of her sister's inaudible words before they burned her, it finally made sense.
How she received her magic ability the next day, and why it came with the Conjured Spirit of her sister, Grace.
"Bond Pact," Grace said with a drained smile. Her last words before she was swallowed by the blaze.
***
Raeyn:
I watched her as tears fell down her face. I don't even think she knew she was crying, or why for that matter.
But the words that the creature, her sister, spoke had definitely struck a chord.
"Grace…" Evalyn said as she released her harsh grip and raised her hands to the faceless creature's head.
When she placed her hands on it gently, she only said, "I'm sorry."
Then the sound of a snap entered my ears.
It took me a moment to realize what the sound was, even though it had happened right in front of me.
Evalyn had snapped the creature's neck.
"Spirit Grace Magic: Death Pact."
Heartless was a word reserved for those who truly did not understand the love of others. Especially when that love was given right to them. Or conceivably, they did understand… and they just did not care.
How far gone did one have to be to think in such a way… Truly, I will never understand.
In a breath, I thought of his face for some reason… Perhaps to soothe the rage I now felt in my heart.
The surge of mana died down, but then another eerie one came in its place. It reminded me of him as well. Someone whom I…
Evalyn roared as a new wave of power surfaced within her. It felt overwhelming, but yet nothing at the same time.
I knew this presence well.
"So this is how Master Wrath feels…" Evalyn uttered as she rose to her feet, somehow managing to stop the bleeding from her chest. Her arms dangled in front of her as she dragged her head up. "This… is Tantra!"
***
An empty blast of aura pulsed, sending me backward. I covered my face from the sheer force of it.
Impossible! I thought as I beheld her now. She awakened Tantra?
"Sacrifice. That is the key element to my magic. The more you sacrifice, the more you gain. A logical outcome rather than what the world deals you." She looked at her hand, at her newfound untapped power. "I had always wondered if this would happen had I done this sooner. Had released myself of the burden of my dead sister."
I see… Death Pact lets you gain something from the death of something else. In her case, her magic—her sister. And because she was the one with no mana originally, the Pact must have given her a higher affinity to achieve Tantra, thus…
"This feeling"—she said as she made a fist—"it feels fucking amazing!"
Faster than I could follow, she bolted over to me with a fist mid-swing.
I blocked it with the snath of my scythe, but it sent me flying to the nearest pillar.
I dragged my feet on the ground, and I repositioned myself, but she was already there, in the air with a kick heading to the side of my face.
It connected, sending me flying across to the other side of this wide space.
I swung down, dragging my scythe on the ground to reduce the momentum.
Evalyn dashed, but I was ready to counter as she came.
We engaged in fierce close combat. Fist to snath. Kick to blade. Over and over again.
Around us the sky had seemed to gain an orange undertow, like fire burning within the clouds.
I noticed Alice watching. Though her magic had finally been freed from Evalyn's earlier spell, the space now was filled with another aura that rejected it.
This is the power of Tantra… this is Greed's power…
Evalyn threw a fist in the air and sent it flying my way; eyes white and sadistic smile plastered like she was drunk on power.
I dodged as the ground beneath me shattered and rippled across the entire space.
"Alice!" I shouted, but she had managed just barely somehow.
"I almost forgot about you, little sheep," Evalyn said eerily.
I blinked and she bolted over to her at an insane speed.
She swung a fist, as Alice's face became pale from shock.
Before she could swing, the blade of my scythe wrapped around her waist, and I shifted her to the side while pushing Alice behind me.
When Evalyn was a good distance away, I twirled my scythe and went for a wide, horizontal slash that managed to push her back a few yards.
"You can't use your magic?" I asked Alice.
"J-Just barely, but it's worse than before! I can't even conjure anything larger than my hand!" she panicked.
"Don't worry. This is beyond your current level. Just be proud of what you accomplished prior to this." I focused on Evalyn, refusing to let her out of my sight. "Just try to find safety. I will handle the rest."
Her eyes gleamed at the sound of my words.
"Go," I spoke with a calm command.
She nodded, heading away as I bolted toward Evalyn, who did the same. We met again in a vicious back and forth as her combos had become more precise, forcing me to block and dodge in awkward angles.
It seemed that prior to this she already knew how to fight in hand-to-hand combat—though not the best, now that she was enhanced with Tantra, regardless of her reckless form, if I let her hit me the wrong way, it could pose deadly.
However, because this was still a new power for her, she was just barely controlling it. And because it was imperfect, that was my edge.
I didn't know too much about Tantra, but after witnessing how Greed uses it, even Tantra had its own caveats. One just had to find them…
Whenever he trained with Asura, Greed still lost.
And if there was anyone with absolute zero affinity for Tantra, it was that man.
So how… how could Asura—a man of magic with no Tantra—beat Greed, a man who fully wielded the very thing meant to counter him, every single time?
Fist to blade. Spin kick to the side. Block. Haymaker to the head. Duck. Swing. Jump.
This was now a battle of attrition.
For if anyone could hold out for long, I was high on that list. But against someone like this… Someone who had tossed her values to the gutter…
When one was left with nothing, they also had nothing to lose.
Her fist met my blade once again, and we pushed against each other. The aura blasted, shattering the pillars and the stone roof above us as the bell suspended in air like the Keeper had caught it.
But then it began to fall, its shadow growing over us as we ignored its descent.
She cracked her neck and I twirled my scythe, pulling the snath back, and holding the blade ahead of me with my other hand.
The bell's shadow grew ever larger; cubes of stone rained all around.
Alice had finally escaped. It seemed Evalyn's Tantra had rejected the Nullifying barrier that was placed around this place by some magic item of some kind.
Good.
No more distractions. Just us and our wills.
The bell was finally a foot over our heads as we bolted toward each other at last.
We clashed under its fall, close combat piling in with every second before its massive impact.
My scythe was an S rank weapon with the same magic ability as myself. So when I pushed slightly against it toward my opponent, the outcome on the other end becomes the opposite, even if the action wasn't magically enhanced. It was why my blows were so powerful against her Tantra. For Tantra did not reject sheer force.
But the more powerful the Tantra, the more powerful its resistances become.
Attrition or not, this battle had to end.
The bell finally landed over us, gonging as it covered us within its shadows.
Our clashes sparked the darkness as we went on like nothing happened.
Strike after strike, clash after clash. We brawled.
Then she arrived with fist to the snath of my scythe once again, but when she struck it, there was no wielder.
And from behind, I arrived with a side kick to her waist.
She attempted to block, but I feinted, and shifted my leg further upward toward her head.
The scythe she earlier struck flew back, and recoiled from the wall of the bell, flying back to her now.
When she had struck it, she had rejected its magic, but when the scythe struck the wall, it activated again, with an opposite force ready to unleash unbeknownst to her. And because we were in the dark, it was sure to be a surprise attack.
That's how… I thought as I recalled watching Asura and Greed spar. That's how he beat him.
My kick connected to her head just as she was ready to block from below, and simultaneously, my scythe had made it to her side with a devastating, readied blow.
The pressure from the dual strikes caused our combined auras to burst the bell, sending it upward in a mangled mess.
The orange skies found us as I had managed to catch Evalyn off guard, spinning her in place as I droned over to my suspended scythe, and swung upward from under her.
My blade connected to her thickened abs, sending her upward toward the bell, and it gonged upon her upward crash.
Quickly, I dashed away from its second crashlanding, finding a broken pillar to run up, and leaped from it in the air over the bell.
"This is the end."
I plunged atop the bell, rushing it downward, leading it into a mighty crash upon this pyramid tower.
The bell gonged again, louder than its other times as I stood crouched above it.
I waited to see if she would somehow escape, but after some time, all that was left was me and the zephyr.
Recalling her sister, I began to think of how similar our situations were. Bound to our twin by magic. But it would be unethical to compare Evalyn to Ophelia. At least Grace and I were on the same page.
For we would give our lives to protect our sisters.
"For all your kindness, I'm sorry you had to meet that kind of end," I spoke as I slowly rose at last, long scythe dangling from my right.
"From one curse to another, I hope you may rest in peace… Grace."