Wasn’t This a Night Game

Ruined (Revised)

Erfa felt suffocation creeping in, slow and insidious.

The anaesthetic… her body wouldn’t obey.

And mana wouldn’t gather properly.

A mana suppressor.

And a damn strong anaesthetic, judging by the way things felt.

If she hadn’t kept one secret, unrevealed study hidden from Erfa, she’d probably be headless and dead long ago.

The Trichromatic Research.

Research. Into amplifying magical potency, allowing for spells several times stronger even with meager mana.

It was this that saved her, letting her shield her nerves from the anesthetic and cast spells, despite the minuscule mana available due to the suppressants.

A study not yet shared with Tydeul had, in effect, saved her life.

“Why… why?!”

Erpa, her words slurred by the anesthetic, demanded of Tydeul.

Tydeul was frantically screaming to the onlookers that an Abomination, a Calamity, had appeared.

Watching her shout for the White Order to be contacted, for Holy Knights and Battle Priests to be summoned at once, Erpa couldn’t hold back her tears.

At Erpa’s near-scream, Tydeul gritted her teeth, glaring.

“You were hiding something from me?”

Erpa didn’t answer.

She simply hurled magic at Tydeul.

Tydeul, teeth clenched, focused on intercepting her spells and retaliating.

For a while, the two traded blows fiercely.

But it was Erpa who reached her limit first.

Her body swayed for a moment.

The anesthetic was taking hold, powerfully now.

“Why… why are you trying to kill me?!”

Staggering, Erpa spat the question at Tydeul once more.

“Didn’t I say? I hate you.”

Tydeul hated Erpa.

He hated the understanding that operated on a plane beyond his own.

He hated the intellect that solved in mere hours what tormented him for months.

The monstrous memory, too.

Tüdel loathed and hated all of it about Erpa.

Jealousy.

It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that jealousy had dragged Tüdel to this very place.

And so, he desired a realm beyond Erpa’s.

Yet the only path to surpass Erpa was being blocked by Erpa herself, of all people.

Tüdel couldn’t bear it. Not one bit.

“Die. You revolting abomination. I’ve sucked you dry of everything I needed.”

Amidst the ceaseless cacophony and shockwaves of battle.

A conversation, unspoken aloud, comprehensible only to two, reading the shapes of each other’s lips.

Erpa falters.

The betrayal by Tüdel, whom she trusted, left her reeling, struggling to regain her wits.

And Tüdel didn’t let the opening slip.

“aaargh!”

A deep, ragged wound blooms on Erpa’s thigh.

No matter who Erpa was.

Even with the immense magical amplification of the Three-Primary-Color research.

It was inevitable she couldn’t fight for long, not with a stupendous anesthetic and magic suppressant coursing through her veins.

Erpa’s judgment was swift.

In a flash, she bridged the distance to Tuedel with a short-range teleport.

But Tuedel, he wasn’t about to let her get away.

“Where d’you think you’re going?!”

Tuedel immediately gave chase, raining down offensive magic on her back.

Erpa clearly wanted to widen the gap further, but his interference caused her casting of the movement spell to falter.

Blood splattered, Erpa’s wand clattering to the ground.

And she took a knee.

“Tuedel…”

She spat out his name like a curse, before the drug took full effect and she collapsed onto the paving.

Tuedel, panting, raised his wand at the fallen Erpa, ready to snuff her life out, but fate had other callers, arriving faster than him.

“Those eyes!”

“Worshipper of the foul god!”

“An abomination in the middle of the city center?!”

“Arrest him! Arrest him now!”

The combat clerics and holy knights of the White Order, famous for their dedicated hunting of foul god worshippers and demon cultists, surrounded Erpa a step faster than Tuedel could.

It was as if Tuedel’s yell for the White Order had been answered belatedly.

He had shouted because he didn’t know when Erpa might collapse, and to excuse the mess and fight in the heart of the city. The answer was… less than ideal. But all the same, the situation wasn’t *bad*.

Tuedel would now play the perfect victim.

“I was just trying to relax at home when this… this abomination attacked me! So I had no choice but to use magic… dispatch it! Please, dispatch it quickly!”

Even with Tydell’s demands, the paladins and priests of the White Order, silent, merely laid a miracle of suppression upon Erpa’s body. They didn’t take her life.

“Now that we’ve caught the Abomination, immolation is the final step. Before that, we’ll squeeze out as much information as possible, interrogate her, and *then* execute her. We’ll handle it ourselves.”

At that, Tydell ground his teeth faintly, but retreated, as if knowing there was no choice.

Still, the conclusion was, ultimately, immolation.

No matter how much Erpa insisted on her innocence, screamed, tried to expose Tydell’s misdeeds, she was an Abomination.

What a worshiper of dark gods says couldn’t possibly hold any credibility.

“Dispose of her.”

Though things got twisted because that Erpa-b*tch hid abilities I’d never seen, the conclusion wouldn’t change.

In the end, Erpa would be executed, erased, and everything she left behind would be divided up between Tydell and his faction.

A happy and good ending.

Tydell thought so, silently watching Erpa’s back as she was arrested and dragged away by the priests of the White Order.

“Look! Look! At her arms and legs and eyeballs!”

“Monster! She’s a demon!!”

“A dark god worshiper! That’s what they said! I heard it!!”

The crowd started screaming at the sight of Erpa.

There were so many onlookers gathered that hiding Erpa’s face was impossible.

A lump of filth, launched from somewhere, slammed hard against Erpa’s face.

She still hadn’t fully regained her senses, muddled by the drugs.

But she knew, clearly, that the cacophony of screams and shouts echoing from all directions were directed at her.

“Demon!! Monster!!”

“Disgusting b*tch! Die!! Die!!”

A downpour of jeers and screams.

Erpa wept, hearing the insults and mockeries.

Her most horrific nightmare was becoming reality.

Filth and mud flew towards her without mercy.

“Don’t provoke the Calamity any further!”

“Don’t provoke her!!”

The priests and paladins of the White Order shouted, trying to stop the people, but already, excited to a frenzy by Erpa’s repulsive appearance, they wouldn’t cease.

“Kill her! Kill her!!”

“Get rid of her!!”

Loathing.

Fury.

And a joy mixed in, the thought that a target had appeared, one they could freely mock and pelt with stones.

Taking the continuous hits of mud and filth, Erpa even felt her soul shattering.

This was the end.

Now, there was no salvation left.

*

“Next person, come forward.”

I’m going to die.

I’m really going to die.

The crush of slum folk… treating and treating, felt like it would never end.

So many sick?

You’d almost suspect they were conjuring the afflicted, dragging them here just to be healed. A reasonable suspicion, at this point.

But to say there’s no reward in it…

That wouldn’t be true either.

Amongst those brought for mending, there were so many young ones.

Malnourished.

Children not even three years old, losing fingers to labor.

Folks laden with illnesses they wouldn’t have caught if they’d only eaten properly.

Seeing these souls, broken and bowed, heal before my very eyes, walking away whole… how could I *not* feel something?

“Saint of Healing!!”

“Apostle of Lilia!!”

“Heal us!!”

All well and good, really, if they’d just skip that Lilia nonsense.

No!!

I’m telling you, I’m screwed if I get branded a saint of some specific order!

As if that High Priest Alois, the Sun Church’s troll, hadn’t already stirred up the Grace Order, sending them hunting for me.

I’m sweating bullets here!

The witch needs to find me, and fast.

It’s been three, maybe four days of playing the saint. She should have heard the whispers by now. Should’ve found me already, right?

“Why aren’t they coming! Why!!”

There ain’t a sickness I can’t cure, from all sorts of genetic crap to a simple cold, so why aren’t they coming!!

I could even fix ’em up with four arms and eyes clustered all over the place!

Get here quick, damn it!!

“When will the folks from the Grace Order arrive, do you reckon?”

Between treatments, I casually slipped the question to the Sun Order paladin guarding me.

“The Grace Order’s renowned down south, so they don’t have a temple near the capital. Seems it’s taking ’em a bit to come up. Likely they’ll be here in two days, tops.”

Two days, huh.

Will the witch find me before then?

This is seriously fucking nerve-wracking!!

Where the hell is that witch, anyway!

Should I change my location?

Should I actively start making inquiries?

Looking for a witch with four arms and a whole bunch of eyes.

If I set the Sun Order paladins loose to find her on a grand scale…

Would she come?

If the witch, already hiding tight to conceal her appearance, hears I’m sending folks out to look for her, her suspicion’s only gonna spike, not drop, no way.

I can’t do this, can’t do that.

The Grace Order folks are tryin’ to come up here ASAP to check if I’m a real saint or not.

But I *am* real!

“Lilia’s even *mention*? Never crossed my lips, so why am I suddenly some kind of fake Saint of a specific Order?!”

Didn’t I try to be as vague as possible?

Never even said a word about an Errant of the Grace Order, so *why*!!

Why did it turn out like this, really.

This feels like some seriously fucked-up slander.

“Eh? Over there!……”

“They caught a worshipper of an Evil God, apparently!”

I’m internally screaming ‘shit, shit’ as I’m healing people.

Just then, a murmuring from far off begins to swell.

Picking up keywords passed along via the real-time rumor relay system, it seems they caught a hidden Evil God worshipper.

“Face is a work of art, alright! Fucking disgusting!”

“Four arms and eyes, like a spider, studded all over?”

Someone’s shout reached my ears, and I stood up instantly.

Four arms and multiple eyes?

Hold on a second.

That’s the one I was looking for……

“It’s a witch!! The White Order is taking her away after she fought using magic!”

It *is* the witch! Fucking hell!

Caught, you say?

No, but how did it come to this!!

“Weren’t you hiding away nice and snug?

How in God’s name to the White Order!…”

“They’re all chucking stones and mud, going wild! Let’s go throw some too!”

No, you crazy b*stards!! No!!

I frantically shoved through the throng, rushing toward the scene where they were supposedly escorting the witch.

Hearing the jeers and taunts drawing closer in real time, I tasted the feeling of my gut burning out, piece by piece.

“Saint! Protect the Saint! Move it!!”

As *I* moved, the Holy Knights of the Sun Order and the cops guarding me started running too, all of them.

I dragged them along behind me, running like a madman, running and running.

Please don’t go off.

I’m coming soon!!

I’ll fix your face and arms up all nice and tidy, so please!!

Please don’t go off!!

Don’t go off, please!!