章 30: Crucible (2)

Turning time back a bit.

"W-what….. Do… You…. M-mean.. Painful p-part..?"

With great difficulty, Terra managed to ask and was answered with action as her fading consciousness barely managed to pick up a confusing explanation coming from Dax

(What the hell is he talking about?)

"[-all systems go~]"

"A!! AAAAHHHHH!!! AAAAaaAAAAaAAAA!!!!!!!"

As some foreign presence invaded Terra's mind, she screamed out in pain and suffering filled her mind.

(It hurts! It hurts! It hurts! It hurts! It hurts! It hurts! It hurts! It hurts! It hurts! It hurts! It hurts! It hurts!!!! MOM HELP ME!!)

Her mind being dominated by pain and suffering, Terra screamed for her deceased mother. But the pain persisted and as her mind turned hazy it returned to that forest, on that day. That time was the first time Terra was sure she was going to die, first when she engaged in combat with the demonkin, then descending to kill herself and the demonkin, and finally waking up in that accused forest without her sight. At that time Terra didn't really care about dying and she still really didn't to be honest, but she hated the pain. It was not until after the incident that she felt the effects of her own mortality, she hated the pain but she hated how the people around her started treating her. Growing up as the only child of two skilled Rangers, and later the leader of the entire Ranger core in town, Terra loved training with her dad and mom, and that eventually lead to her joining the core herself. Even after her mother died from injuries she suffered as a Ranger, Terra still joined the core, even when her dad was against it, quickly proving herself Terra started rising the ranks she was finally promoted to a high enough rank to begin solo patrols, and it was at that point she made that life altering mistake. In all the nightmares Terra had in recovery as Russell spend countless large gold coins for her treatment the central part was always with the demonkin. For some reason she kept obsessing about her, what was her name? Why did she become a slave? But the most important part of her dreams was that she failed to spot her, and allowed herself to be taken by surprise, and Terra wowed to herself to never be taken by surprise again.

The following year she spent in recovery, Terra secretly trained her senses, she honed the sensitivity of her skin to such an extreme level that she could feel people moving about in her room, she leaned herself to breathe almost completely silently and slow her own heartbeat so much that she started hearing sounds all around her. After the first few months she started hearing the sounds from her room speak out about the world, the floorboards quietly spoke about maids coming and going, the doors below and above her announced people going about their day and so on. The following months after that it was the sounds of people she started to pick up, first it was the speech in the building, she caught small pieces of conversation and loud noises from the kitchen, but she gradually improved. Her improvement fell on deaf ears, however, as her dad refused her to even go out into the garden without supervision and she was more or less confined to her own room as she slowly wasted away, that is until Dax arrived. The strange demonkin that didn't seem to mind losing an arm or his eye in his daily life, and spoke to her as he saw through her entire being, she quite frankly hated him. But hate eventually tuned to curiosity, even as she still found him hard to handle and generally annoying, but more and more mystery still surrounded him. Dax didn't seem to have a heartbeat, and the noises that came from his chest was extremely strange, sometimes it even sounded like there was some sort of mechanism entirely replaced one of his lungs. Even when Elise had gotten mad at him and tried to stab him Terra's expectations had betrayed her, as it sounded like his skin was made of some sort of metal as it repelled the maid's blade. When Terra was unnecessary helped to the storage room Dax had borrowed her interest and curiosity spiked, as Dax was surrounded by strange machinery that Elise had talked about and as she laid down on the strange operating table her mind returned to that forest.

As Terra felt her skin and flesh was slowly and systematically cut down and she felt holes being drilled into her bones she mind returned once more to the forest. Her mind went over every detail. Every. Single. Detail. The sounds of leaves, of the trees and all her failures. As she remembered it Terra had made a total of 21 lethal mistakes, and as the operation send shocks of agony through her body she came to a cruel realisation.

(Walking through the forest today no one would properly be able to sneak up on me now…)

"ha!"

(The gods sure are cruel, why grant me sight after taking away my ability to use it!?)

"-AHA! HAHAHAHA!!-"

(FINE! I ACCEPT THIS! BRING ME SUFFERING, BRING ME PAIN, I ENJOY IT WHILE I RISE! BRING IT ON! PAIN IS MY REWARD! I WILL CHANGE! I! WILL! RISE!)

Passing out with a smile on her face, Terra accepted her realty for the first time since the forest, and wowed- no promised to rise above, whatever the cost and humiliation she would endure. Pain was an old friend at this point, and she gladly welcomed it in exchange for strength.

Waking up sometime later, Terra slowly regained her senses, but something was new.

(Is this my new arm?)

Stretching her body Terra discovered some sensations she had not felt in a while.

(It's unlike my old one, and feels metallic… wait, it can feel?)

First touching her own body, then her imitate surroundings, Terra felt a smile forming on her face, that is until she remembered who installed it.

(Why the fuck did it have to be HIM of all people! Aw, shit)

punching the machine Terra laid on with her new arm in frustration, finding it had pain reception. While pain pulsed through her body as she grasped it in pain, Terra realized that she also had both legs now, and quickly stood up

"Aha!"

(I can stand!)

Taking a bit to find her balance, a smile slowly appeared on her face.

(That means I can do this!)

With a child like smile on her face, Terra briefly danced around in blindness with great joy as she felt both her legs and arms with all the sensations involved, before remembering that she was currently in her underwear.

"Ah."

Feeling her face heat up, Terra couched down in shame and felt one of Dax's drones walking up to her.

"Dax?"

[NEGATIVE. PRIMARY DESIGNATION: INTEGRATED COMBAT INTELLIGENCE, PLEASE WEAR THIS.]

Being handed some kind of dress, Terra quickly put it on with a face in full bloom and starting to pick up the sounds around her, first one was the sound of Dax talking to someone.

"Now I know you're pissed-"

"And why the fuck do you think that!!?"

(That's dad and his signature temper alright… well, of course, he would be mad, I did scream a lot)

"Just hear me out! The operation was successful, Terra now has temporary prothesis, and getting her flesh and blood limbs will be easy from this point."

"And the continued screaming from my daughter?"

Barely keeping calm, Russell managed to ask that question without trying to rip Dax's head off.

(Whoa dad your heartbeat is all over the place, watch your blood pressure… Even though

hearing Dax getting ripped apart by dad would be nice, I guess I should clear this up..)

"All at her continued request. She asked me repeatedly not to sedate her"

After completing Terra's operation, Dax went outside to see Russell, and a whole slew of armed and blood thirsty maids, leading to his current of trying to calm down Russell.

"Give me a single reason for me not to sever your head right now!!!"

"While there are several, the only Satisfactory being, well… That"

Pointing to the door of the storehouse behind him, Russell turned his head to see Terra, standing on two feet wearing a simple one piece dress in the same fabric as Dax's black t shirt. Being barefoot, her new mechanical leg was clearly visible, and along with her arm, it was of the same dull black carbon fibre as Dax's arm.

"Terra! Y-your arm!! And leg too!"

Running over to his daughter for a loving embrace, Terra held up her hand to stop him.

"T-Terra?"

"Get my sword."

"What?"

"GET. MY. SWORD. NOW!"

Stunning Russell and the surrounding maids with her outburst.

"P-perhaps you should take a rest, Elise can you help her?"

"Don't fucking touch me!"

"M-miss Terra?"

"Get me my sword now."

Receiving a command from her other master, Elise looked extremely confused as she looked back and forth between her two masters.

"O-okay, excuse me"

Judging that she would not survive ignoring Terra's bloodlust, but could survive being fired by Russell for insubordination. Leaving quickly to grab her master's sword, Elise returned not even a minute after carrying a one handed short sword in an embroidered leather scabbard. After being handed the sword, Terra gave it a few quick swings before walking to the practice field.

"Are you really sure you want to do this Terra, you still don't have your sight and all that screaming-"

"Please just save it dad, ever since the incident, you have been treating me like some kind of degrade child, so I'll say this only once more, even if I lost my eyes I can still see. A month after I could see my room, after a few months the whole mansion, and then I noticed that you never even look at me when we're talking!"

Not able to answer his daughter, Russell collapsed to his knees.

"That's what I thought. Now please watch me with your own eyes, or don't, I don't really care anymore. Now Dax please get a weapon"

"Don't need one"

"Really? I'll make you regret that"

"Dax, will you please stop this?"

"You asked me to heal your daughter, this is part of it. ICI I will treat this as a traditional Qiton duel, make the adjustments"

[A TRADITIONAL DUEL IS NOT RECOMMENDED]

"Override, command code 044587356420"

[OVERRIDE CONFIRMED. DISABLING ALL VISUAL INPUT, MUSCLE OUTPUT LIMITED TO 10.05449%. ICI OFFLINE, ALL EXTERNAL CONNECTIONS SEVERED]

"Good, whenever you're ready miss Terra~"

"What the fuck did you just do?"

"In Qiton society we pride ourselves in everything related to combat, mostly 1 on 1 or team duels, but finding that hard to do with other races as they are considerably weaker than us we came up with a system now referred to as traditional Qiton duels. In a nutshell, it's a system that limits our performance to that of our opponents so we can study their techniques and display our superiority."

"What do you mean 'limits our performance to that of our opponents'? did you just go blind?"

"That's exactly what I mean~ Russell can confirm that. Moreover, my strength has been limited to yours and I won't get any help from ICI~"

Exactly as Dax explained his remaining eye had turned black as he was robbed of its vision and his strength had been limited to that of Terra's.

"So you're saying you just went blind for the sake of a single duel? That's so stu-"

"Please don't disrespect my traditions or you'll come to regret it~ And I've spent more time blind doing my training than you have been alive so watch your tongue~ Now Elise could you give us the starting signal?"

Standing about 8 meters from Terra swinging her sword, Dax asked Elise to give a starting signal to the duel.

"This will be a non lethal duel right?"

"I'll make sure to not hurt my patient too much~ And if Terra is actually able to hurt me with that stance I'll most likely survive it"

"Hoooo? I'll be sure to take your head then."

"I'll look forward to your futile attempt~ Now the countdown please~"

Felling the camouflaged and dense bloodlust in Dax's speech and Terra's intense and unrestrained beast like bloodlust could no longer be contained, (or turned on her if it came to it) Elise resolved herself as she started the countdown.

"O-okay then… 3. 2. 1. Begin!"