A Step Too Far

Though coherent enough to hold a conversation, the alcohol in her body, along with a day’s worth of fatigue, prevented Lylia from being able to focus enough to truly distinguish each individual in the group confronting her. Even without the impairment of her mental faculties, in the dead of night, cloaked in the shadows of the buildings, it was difficult enough to get an accurate count of them.

She had been trying to maintain some semblance of doctrine, to preserve the image of the Saintess. Hearing the accusation they threw at her, though, and her impatience to get to her bed, the blonde rolled her eyes and waved off the group dismissively. “Children too young to tell the diff’ence between truth and lies should not be indulging in alc’hol.” She said, slurring her words a bit.

“Don’t try ‘n lie ta us! We know da truth, al’ight?”

“Ain’t it a bit convenient that ‘Chrysaor’s Curse’ only started affectin’ the magic in the world after them Divine Artifacts showed up?”

“My grandpa told me they consume Mana Crystals ta use, and ya’ve been usin’ them every day ta go fight some ‘Demon Monarch’, but ain’t no more Mana Crystals ta go around. Grandpa was right!”

“Jus’ shtop using them, and dere’ll be more magic ta go ‘round.”

It wasn’t just the alcohol muddying her perception that made it difficult to focus on who was speaking when. The sheer, unreasonable stupidity of their accusations made Lylia massage her temple and bite her lip, her mind not wanting to waste resources to give any of them identities. The best it supplied her with was its best guess at who was male and who was female, based on the pitch of the voice. How many of each there were, she didn’t care.

Seriously, whoever started that baseless rumor… There’s no reasoning wif fools or drunks. Letting out a deep, heavy sigh, shook her head and turned to walk away. “Oh, is that so? You can believe what you wish, but do try to limit your fantashies to stories and dreams. Now, if you’ll excuse ush.” Thinking her intentions were clearly conveyed and her status as the Saintess would penetrate layers of thick skulls and too many mugs of cheap ale, Lylia walked as steadily as she could away from the confrontational group.

“Now, now, now. Not so fast. Ya can’t expect ush ta keep swallowin’ that sorry excuse.” The apparent leader of the group said, reaching out and grabbing her by the shoulder to turn her around once more. “Think of dis as ush concerned citizens finally takin’ a stand against unfairness.”

The movement carried with it all the delicacy someone who didn’t understand the concept of measured responses would use when intoxicated and antagonizing someone far more powerful than them. Twirling around on feet that struggled to walk a straight line, Lylia stumbled and caught herself on a wall, which wasn’t that much of a concern in and of itself. What did alarm her was the shrunken brunette she was carrying in her cleavage. Essa’s tough, but my boobs would feel tens of times heavier to her! He coulda made me crush her! Her compromised state, making her more emotionally volatile, she glared at the man and his group. Most of them were still little more than indistinct, shadowy blobs reminiscent of a certain irksome Demon Monarch who had gotten closer to her best friend. “You’re all so annoying! Just leave ush alone!” Manifesting her staff, she pointed the head of it at the group and didn’t hesitate. “Use: Micro.”

In an instant, her accosters all vanished from sight. Though lowering her gaze to the cobblestoned alley, she couldn’t so much see them as sense their diminutive presence.

And no sooner than the impulse compelled her to act before thinking, her alcohol-addled mind provided her with the rationale to not act on said impulse. If I do anything to them, it’ll just lead to more headaches than it is worth… Well, too late for that. But I can’t jush leave them–?

“Oi! What’s da big idea, you Impure bitch!”

“Ya can’t go using size-manipulation magic on people like that!”

“Power abuse!”

“Whoa! Whass goin’on? Y’all said we was juss gonna talk ta her!”

“Turn us back, you filthy marked whore! Yer no Saintess.”

“We’re gonna report ya to the church for this!”

“I always knew you were never redeemed! The former Saintess was a fool to select you as her successor!”

“Unworthy! Unworthy!”

“Change us back, or else!”

Even partially drunk, Lylia knew she had crossed a line. Her Divine Artifacts were to be used for humanity, not against them. She was taught better. She tried to be better. She had been better. What in the Corruption came over me? I know I have been wishing I could shrink and crush more annoyances like I do with–?! Instantly spiralling in on herself, Lylia froze when flashes of all the times she shrank Geist came to mind. She still had a few more days before it was her turn to kill him, but she had gotten used to shrinking him to take out her frustrations on him. This is all his fault! I swear on Goddess Lini’s light, when I see him next! Cursing the far too frequently resurrecting Demon Monarch for conditioning her reactions like that, the blonde sighed and prepared to use the golden silk scarf that floated around her arms and behind the back of her head.

“You can’t silence all of us! We’ve all had enough of you and that Otherworlder hoarding all the good magic to yourselves!” Before she could undo her mistake, the ringleader of the far too outspoken civilians joined in with his followers in disparaging her. “You don’t deserve it. You didn’t earn it! This just proves we’ve gotta put our foot down! Such power shouldn’t be given to some bitch from some other world and someone who turned to Corruption because she couldn’t handle bein’ human.”

The insult striking a nerve, Lylia glared down at the ten or so people, shrunken to the size of and as vulnerable and weak as a bug. Even if they were drunk, they didn’t think to apologize for antagonizing her. They didn’t even think to fear for their lives. The fact that the Champion and Saint/Saintess had protected and fought for them for millennia had made them blind to the simple fact that she could, possibly, be as irrational as they were.

Fools shuch as you will be the downfall of our kingdom. Consider this the lesson you so deshperately need. I am already going to be in trouble once the Council hears about thish. Putting the fear of Lini inta them won’t make much of a difference. With a dark, smug grin on her face, the Saintess raised a foot and hovered it over the group. “Is that sho? Well, thish is me putting my foot down!”

Perhaps there was a bit of merit to one of their criticism, as when she slammed her foot towards the ground, her intrusive thoughts wanted to actually do it. To aim true and crush the alcohol-enboldened people under her sole. To finally shut the mouths of those who were unappreciative of what had been taken from Inessa to defend them. To give them the gratification of being right about her, no matter how much they would regret if she truly was as they thought. However, there was a big difference between threatening someone’s life and actually taking it.

Thish will make them think twice about– Aiming to catch the group in the gap between her heel and the toe section of her shoe, thus sparing all of them and proving she had no intention of harming any of them, a deafeningly quiet, squelching pop echoed under the loud clack of her sole hitting stone. H-Huh?

The sensation lasted less than a fraction of a second and was barely noticeable. Something that had the misfortune of being between her foot and the cobblestoned ground, only to collapse and burst under the overwhelming pressure.

N-No… No, no, no… I didn’t… I made sure they were… They shouldn’t have had time to move! The diminished screams and yelling that came from under her foot barely registered in her ears, but were enough to confirm her suspicions.

Someone in the group had had better reflexes than she anticipated. They had tried to run, but in their panic, ran directly into the area of impact.

“I… I did it again…” She whispered to herself, stepping back and seeing the speck of dark, grotesque mush that had been a human moments earlier, staining a stone set in the ground. “N-No, no. This is so much worse. I didn’t mean to–”

“Murder!”

“Showing you’re true colors!”

“By Lini’s Grace! You killed her!”

Before she could fully comprehend her actions, Lylia was brought back to reality by the insults and accusations of the surviving shrunken people. “N-No, I didn’t mean to. Just calm down and let me fix–”

“She’s always been a murderer! This is why Audrey should’ve never chosen her!”

“Desanctify her! Someone who treats people like bugs can’t be the Saintess!”

“How many lives has she crushed like that? We’d never know!”

While realizing she had stepped on and squished someone who couldn’t just come back from it was sobering, hearing the remaining people continue to think the worst of her was grounding. Not one of them tried to apologize, beg for their lives, or entertain the idea that it was an accident. Actually… How do I know they didn’t push that person to make me step on them? Just so they would have more reason to denounce me? As the group continued to lay blame, threaten repercussions, and demand accountability, Lylia’s initial panic evened out to an eerie calm. If this gets out, they’ll try to drag Essa into this. They’ll drag Audrey’s name through the mud for choosing me. My punishment will be so much worse… All because they couldn’t just let me go home in peace.

“If you know what’s good for ya, you’ll change us back before anyone else gets hurt, Miss Impure Saintess.” The man leading them threatened, though, unlike the others, there was a crack in his voice that spoke of fearful awareness. Things had gotten out of hand, yes, but he was hoping her thoughts were still the thoughts a respectable Saintess would have. “Remember. You and that Champion girlie, you serve us people. Ya protect us from the Corrupt–”

Lylia cut him off with a joyless, dark, sinister giggle. “‘People’? My apologies, but I see not people. You barely even qualify as insects. Insects that fester in the corners of society, incapable of being thankful for the peaceful lives Essa and I protect. It is not the Corrupted who threaten the kingdom. Not anymore. It is the ignorant, ungrateful, entitled insects who can’t understand their place.” She said, shifting her foot to cast the remaining shrunken drunks in its shadow. “But worry not. For dealing with such insects,” ignoring the now apologetic and panicked pleas of her accosters, Lylia lowered her shoe before any of them could escape, “is a specialty of mine.”

None of the remaining shrunken people faired any better than the first against Lylia’s sole. The series of pops, cracks, and squelching that marked the silencing of grating voices was… satisfying.

Twisting her weight on the toe of her heels, she ensured there would be nothing recognizable left. Unlike with Geist, none of them would reform and revive. Unlike with Geist, she could feel the remains of their bodies mixed together and creating an area of reduced friction, gliding her foot over the stone. Unlike with Geist, there was no reward in the form of Mana Crystals. It was a purely personal decision, encouraged slightly by her lingering intoxication, but motivated entirely by her spite.

Once she was satisfied with the uniform consistency of the paste beneath her heels, Lylia took a step back, wiped her brow, and took a deep breath. “Come on, Essa. It’s time for bed.” She said, though the shrunken girl was still in an alcohol and food-induced slumber, and thus unable to reply. “I’m sure a little rain will take care of that mess.”

Continuing on her way, she hummed a hymn to herself, paired with her cadence as one shoe left a bloody smear on the stone for a couple steps before even that vanished.