Chapter 44 - The Dead (2) (Patreon)

Clarissa felt Viers was interesting.

She was born as Kala’risyah, the sixth daughter of the Lamia Queen. Born at the end of the first millennium. Genesis Advent calendar year 988.

She was born in an age embroiled in war. Gods and devils battle for the right of ruling over creation.

Her race, the lamia was just one insignificant chess piece in that Great War but even a chess piece had a role to play. The lamia fought under the banner of the gods.

Even from a young age, she was raised as a warrior. Fighting ratlings that besieged the lamia’s kingdom. She was a princess so she had no lack of resources. From a powerless lamia, she became a Level 0 and eventually, a Level 5 at the age of 16.

She wanted to protect their home and the ratlings were a plague that consumed everything. At the age of 12, she had stood on the battlefield. From day in to day out she fought, as did her sisters. They had dreams of seeing the beautiful world beyond the horizon, not the wasteland of blood and death right in front of their kingdom’s doorstep.

But the tide of vermins was endless. The years looked increasingly bleak. She’d heard rumors the gods were on the back foot and her own kingdom was tethering on the brink of collapse.

Among the eight sisters, only she was left alive.

On the night before her kingdom’s collapse, her mother the Lamia Queen summoned her.

Kala’risyah had never seen the Lamia Queen. She might have given birth to her but the queen didn’t raise her. She played and had supper together with her sisters but the queen was never there. Kala’risyah didn’t even know the queen’s name.

The lamia princess found her mother was wearing a veil, obscuring her face.

“The kingdom is lost. Daughter, a sacrifice is required of you.”

“Yes, my queen.”

Kala’risyah bowed. She was told to obey and thus obeyed. No lamia defied the will of the queen. The queen’s words were absolute.

The next thing she knew, her soul was already separated from her body. The queen was the same as her, in soul form. Only the queen and she were inside this place. A Biome filled with the riches of their race.

“Our souls are now one. You are me and I am you. This is a place of trial. The Biome will open from time to time across the thousands of years forward. To those who had the fortune of coming here, I shall bestow upon them three trials,” the Lamia Queen spoke. “You shall be the guardian of this place.”

Kala’risyah complied.

“This is your heart,” the queen showed Kala’risyah a ruby. Her blood pumping organ had been turned into a gem. “I’ve infused it with a special power. To the most worthy of the trial takers, I shall bestow upon them a precious boon beyond measure.”

And so began Kala’risyah’s long and lonely guardianship of a tomb.

Mostly she was asleep until someone ‘led by destiny’ stumbled upon this place between the dimensions.

Only eleven people came during her 9000-year-long vigil. By interacting with them during the trials, Kala’risyah learned that the devils had been defeated. Only one goddess remained alive and only seven on the devil’s side. The world was more or less at peace.

She couldn’t deny her desire to see the world. How much beauty was there in a time bereft of war? What happened to the rest of her people? She wanted to know but the queen commanded her to be the guardian of this place and so she would, until the day her soul also died.

And then Viers came.

He was so interesting. He treated her like a living breathing person. Talking to her, asking questions, telling stories, sharing dreams. His idea about freedom was also something foreign to Kala’risyah. She was an instrument of the Lamia Queen’s glory and thus all the lamia’s. She would do what the queen told her to do.

Because the trial required one to be virtuous, Viers failed. The Lamia Queen judged him not worthy.

The Biome would reach its end soon. The eleven before Viers didn’t even dent the riches there. All of those treasures and knowledge would be lost to the void. Such was the Lamia Queen’s decree if the one worthy of her boon didn’t appear.

For the first time ever, Kala’risyah helped Viers in obtaining a treasure fitting for his situation. All those treasures would be void dust soon anyway so Kala’risyah didn’t see the harm of letting one treasure go. After all, Viers had called her a friend, something that she never had. She bid her goodbye, fully aware they might never see each other again since her time was almost over.

Viers soon returned after gaining tier 5 soul affinity using the treasure Kala’risyah bestowed upon him.

Viers barged into the treasury and forcefully took out her ruby heart.

The Lamia Queen showed herself, furious by Viers’ disrespect.

“You cannot judge me! I AM JUSTICE ITSELF!”

It seemed Viers felt it was unacceptable for someone to have the gall to pass judgment upon him. Even now, she remembered his boast to the Lamia Queen very clearly.

Kala’risyah witnessed as Viers bested the Lamia Queen and separated her from the queen. Viers successfully escaped, carrying the lamia princess with him.

Viers persuaded her to help him in his journey. In return, he would resurrect her and show her the world. He promised to show her what it really meant to be 'alive'.

Kala’risyah never saw a person so free-spirited. He refused any kind of chain binding him and his way of life. His answer to problems was to hammer it until it broke. If it didn’t break with a hammer, nuke it. He refused to answer what ‘nuke’ was.

The polar opposite of herself.

Kala’risyah felt no love for the Lamia Queen. She had never understood her. She only did what she was told. Kala’risyah had done her duty to queen and country but their war was over. Viers offered her a new life and Kala’risyah accepted.

She asked Viers for a new name because the lamias had a culture for changing one’s name before beginning a new life. He named her Clarissa.

The fact this usually was the role of a lamia’s husband, was something she didn’t say.

She was born 9000 years ago but most of the time she was asleep and unconscious so her mental age was still that of a teenager’s. Viers sometimes made fun of her by calling her 9000-year-old teenager, much to Clarissa’s dismay.

Her friends had been good to her, Farley and Paina. They were really supportive of her and accepted her warmly despite the racial differences, perhaps because they were all in a similar situation. She also wanted to be friends with the ever-sleeping little Gwen.

Viers’ journey was fun. Full of things she had never seen, filled with many surprises. There was always something happening. They were now journeying to a city, to reunite Paina with her father. To her, the destination didn’t really matter, the journey was more important.

Even when Viers almost died multiple times, against that Freya most recently.

Her ruby heart, the greatest treasure of the lamia, had been used by Viers. She didn’t know what its effect was, Viers never told her but it definitely would make him very powerful. The fact that Viers was not very powerful right now meant its effect was not the simple kind.

When he swore revenge and his lighting of fury filled the sky, Clarissa was afraid Viers might start another war that torched the earth.

For she didn’t know how much stronger Viers would become.

But it turned out it was only another one of his jokes.

Clarissa sighed in relief.

Good grief. What an unpredictable person… but that’s what makes him interesting.

Ah, is this what love feels like?