Chapter 4: Bakemono

Ishi's eyes fluttered open. Her eyelids still felt heavy from the sheer exhaustion of conjuring that massive spell to trap the Doku Ryū. Her body ached, her limbs felt weak, but slowly, her consciousness was returning.

"Finally awake."

Li-Jua’s voice reached her ears, carrying its usual mix of amusement and mischief.

"I was starting to worry a little. But, well… if you had died, I would’ve just eaten you. I haven’t had a proper meal in four days, you know, been too busy watching over you. You should be grateful, princess."

She was clearly joking, but the casual way she said it made Ishi shudder for a second.

It was nighttime.

The two girls were sitting around a small campfire, built from a few sturdy logs. The flickering flames cast warm shadows over their tired faces. Ishi realized she was wrapped in Li-Jua’s cloak, shielding her from the cold night air.

"Wait… four days?" Ishi asked, her mind still groggy. "If I’ve been sleeping for four days, that means…"

A cold realization struck her.

"That means we won’t make it out of the forest before your purification spell wears off!"

Panic crept into her voice.

Li-Jua waved a hand dismissively.

"Relax. The spell should last at least two or three more days. Even though I hate using White Magic, I’m actually pretty good at it." She smirked. "Besides, we’re already close to the exit."

Ishi blinked. "Close? But we still had more than half the journey left before I passed out."

Li-Jua tilted her head, confused by Ishi’s reaction.

"Yeah, we had more than half left. And you’ve been unconscious for four days. What exactly aren’t you getting? I carried you the whole way."

Ishi’s brain momentarily shut down.

"Wait… you what?!"

She sat up suddenly, staring at Li-Jua as if she had grown a second head.

"What kind of stamina do you even have?! You’ve been carrying me for four days straight, after using up all your mana, after fighting a Rafflesia, after not eating properly, are you even human?!"

Li-Jua gave a nonchalant shrug.

"Maybe not." She chuckled. "Wouldn’t be the first time someone called me a monster."

Ishi was still processing when Li-Jua continued.

"If you want to quantify my power as a healer, you could say I’m somewhere between a high B-rank or a low A-rank. But that’s just my healing ability. My resistance to poisons, curses, and spells? The highest ever recorded for a healer class. My natural regeneration alone surpasses even S-rank tanks and paladins."

She stretched her arms, as if none of this was particularly impressive.

"And when you add my White Magic into the mix? You could say I’m pretty damn close to being immortal when it comes to physical injuries or blunt force trauma."

Ishi swallowed. "That… that still doesn’t explain everything else."

Li-Jua smirked. "Oh, I know. See, besides all that, my physical strength is on par with an S-rank warrior. My endurance is so high that it’s impossible to properly measure. My speed and reflexes? Faster than even high-level thieves and assassins. On top of that, my White Magic specializes in buffing allies, meaning I’m constantly stacked with passive enhancements that multiply my already ridiculous stats to numbers that no one has ever reached before."

Ishi’s jaw nearly hit the ground.

"So… that’s why you were able to find me when I was hiding."

Li-Jua snorted.

"Oh, that? No, that wasn’t my speed or instincts. I also have a permanent auto-cast Dispel aura. Any concealment magic or enemy spell gets instantly negated the moment it comes near me."

Ishi gaped at her.

"What kind of joke is this…?" she muttered in disbelief. Then, she suddenly burst into laughter. "You really are a monster!"

Li-Jua grinned, leaning forward slightly.

"Well… maybe I’m not the only monster around here, lady."

Her voice dropped into a more serious tone.

"Enough games. It’s time for you to start talking. Who the hell are you?"

"Me?" Ishi tilted her head innocently, feigning ignorance. "I’m just a simple mage with an affinity for Earth magic. You’ve seen it yourself."

Li-Jua let out a sharp exhale, folding her arms.

"Yeah, I’ve seen what you wanted me to see." Her emerald eyes gleamed with scrutiny. "From the moment we met, you’ve been carefully crafting that image. Your name, ‘Ishi,’ which literally means ‘stone,’ that peculiar little gem you keep in your pocket, and of course, that monstrous avalanche of boulders you unleashed. I’ll admit it, even I would’ve struggled to survive that."

Ishi smirked but said nothing, letting Li-Jua continue.

"But here’s the thing, that wasn’t Earth magic."

Her tone sharpened.

"I’m a White Mage, but that doesn’t mean I only heal. I have access to various Green Magic spells, many of which stem from wind, earth, and water elements. I know exactly what Earth magic feels like, the way the air shifts, the color of the aura, the scent in the air when a spell is cast. Your magic? It was nothing like that."

Li-Jua leaned forward, eyes locked onto Ishi.

"And let’s not forget that Earth magic is mostly defensive. It has very few offensive spells, and even those don’t hold nearly as much destructive power as what you pulled off. No… your magic is something else entirely. Something I’ve only ever heard of in old legends, a type of Dark Magic so ancient and powerful that it’s not even classified as ‘dark’ anymore."

A tense silence settled between them.

Then, Li-Jua said it.

"You’re using Gravitational and Space-Time Magic, aren’t you?"

A slow grin spread across Ishi’s lips, her eyes glinting mischievously.

"What gave me away?"

Li-Jua scoffed.

"Oh, where do I start? First, the staff you gave me, it came from your stone. You didn’t transform it, you didn’t summon it, and you definitely didn’t use any transmutation spell. It just… appeared. That’s Space-Time Magic, clear as day. I’d wager that your little stone functions as some kind of portal or storage dimension."

Ishi listened in silence, her smirk widening as Li-Jua continued her analysis.

"But here’s where it gets even more interesting. I’ve seen you use at least two different portals so far. That means your stone isn’t bound to a single space. If I had to guess, I’d say you can connect to multiple different dimensions at will. And if that’s true… then this is a completely unregistered magic. Probably an innate ability unique to you."

Ishi chuckled.

"Go on."

Li-Jua smirked back.

"Then we have your avalanche spell. At first glance, it looked like raw Earth magic, just a storm of flying boulders. But it wasn’t. If it were true Earth magic, you would’ve created the rocks from the ground around you or manipulated existing ones."

She pointed at Ishi’s pocket.

"Instead, you pulled thousands of boulders from your stone, from an entirely different space. You didn’t summon them, you released them. That alone proves you’ve got a massive storage dimension linked to your magic."

Ishi gave her a slow clap. "Impressive. But what about the attack itself?"

Li-Jua grinned.

"Simple. The rocks weren’t just falling, they were moving with insane speed and force. That means you didn’t just drop them. You manipulated their trajectory by combining your Space-Time Magic with Gravitational Magic. You increased their mass, their speed, and directed them straight at the Doku Ryū."

Ishi’s smile widened.

"You got everything right."

Li-Jua leaned back, hands behind her head, satisfied.

"And I also figured out that you can use Dual-Cast. Maybe even Tri-Cast or Quad-Cast. Hell, not even S-Class mages can pull that off consistently."

Then, with a knowing smirk, she added.

"So, as far as I’m concerned… you’re a monster just like me. So, I’ll ask you again, who the hell are you?" Li-Jua's voice was sharp, demanding.

Ishi let out a soft sigh, leaning back slightly against a fallen log.

"Alright," she admitted. "My real name is Li-Rei. But since it’s so close to yours, and I’ve grown to like the name Ishi, just keep calling me that."

Li-Jua narrowed her eyes but said nothing, waiting for her to continue.

Ishi took a deep breath before speaking again, her voice steady but laced with an undeniable bitterness.

"I am the third daughter of Duchess Li-Khang of the Veo-Liss Duchy. Which means, yes, I am the niece of the Emperor of Mugen."

Li-Jua’s expression darkened slightly, though she remained silent. That was… unexpected.

Ishi continued, her tone colder now.

"My abilities, my Gravitational and Space-Time Magic, are tied to my royal bloodline. These powers were once common among my ancestors, but for generations, no one had been born with them. So, to ensure that the bloodline remained strong, my fate was decided before I even understood what it meant."

She clenched her fists.

"The plan was simple: I was to be married off to the Emperor himself and forced to bear his children until my body gave out. All so that my magic would pass on to the next generation."

Li-Jua’s hands twitched slightly at those words. Her gut twisted with something she couldn't quite place, anger? Disgust?

Ishi let out a humorless laugh.

"The problem?" she continued, her smirk bitter. "That old bastard is at least fifty years older than me. So my mother tried to intervene, she argued that I would be better suited for the Emperor’s son instead."

Her voice dropped lower, her tone dripping with venom.

"But the Emperor doesn’t had a son. He only had daughters, fourteen of them, to be exact."

Li-Jua inhaled sharply. She had heard whispers of Mugen’s twisted court politics before, but hearing it firsthand was something else entirely.

"And so," Ishi pressed on, her voice now trembling with restrained fury, "my mother came up with a different plan, one far worse."

Her gaze darkened as she spoke the next words.

"She offered herself to her own brother, the Emperor. She promised to bear him a male heir, hoping that he would inherit my magic. And if he didn’t? Then they would marry him to me instead."

Li-Jua's stomach churned.

"The Emperor, of course, agreed. That vile old man raped my mother, again and again, until she finally became pregnant."

She exhaled shakily.

"And so, the prince of the empire was born, my half-brother Akio. But my mother..."

Her voice cracked, just for a second.

"She died in childbirth."

Silence settled between them, thick and suffocating.

Li-Jua didn't say anything. What was there to say?

"With my mother gone," Ishi continued, "I lost the only protection I had within the Imperial Court. I was immediately taken from Veo-Liss and locked away in the imperial palace’s inner chambers to ensure I wouldn’t escape."

Her fingers dug into the fabric of Li-Jua’s cloak.

"Akio is seven years younger than me, which means he isn’t old enough to marry yet. The prince has shown immense magical potential, as is expected of the royal bloodline. But at the end of the day, it’s nothing more than ordinary magic. And because of that, that disgusting old man won’t wait much longer, he’ll force me to bear his child soon enough."

She exhaled sharply, her crystal blue eyes glinting like snowflakes in a winter storm.

"For years, I carefully played the role of the obedient little girl, the perfect daughter, the perfect niece, the perfect pawn. I made them believe I accepted my fate, that I understood my place. But in reality?"

Her voice dropped into a low whisper, filled with venom.

"I hate them. I hate them more than anything in this world. And my one and only dream is to reduce them all to ashes, to burn this rotten empire and my cursed bloodline to the ground until nothing remains but dust and ruin."

Silence followed her words, heavy and suffocating.

Li-Jua stared at her for a moment, then suddenly…

She burst out laughing.

Not a chuckle, not a snicker, full-blown, uncontrollable laughter that echoed through the forest, shaking her shoulders and bringing tears to her eyes.

Ishi’s face twisted in offense.

"What the hell are you laughing at, you lunatic?!" she snapped.

Li-Jua wiped away a tear, barely managing to contain herself.

"You, little princess! You’re the one who’s going to entertain me!" she said between laughs, her grin widening.

Then, with a flick of her wrist, she extended a hand toward Ishi.

Her voice dropped into something far darker, a dangerous gleam in her emerald eyes.

"What are the odds? You and I, we share the same goal."

Her lips curled into a wicked smile.

"To destroy it all. To bring everything to ruin."

The flames from their makeshift campfire flickered, casting long shadows against their faces.

Ishi’s own smirk twisted into something malicious, something unnervingly satisfied.

She reached out and gripped Li-Jua’s hand firmly.

"For chaos," she whispered.

Li-Jua grinned even wider, tightening her grip.

"For chaos."