Luna: Rewrite (Chapter 7)

She sighed, placing a hand on Jasmine's shoulder and gazed out to the atmosphere, the sigh was not out of irritation; but of a welcoming nature, there was no other place they'd rather be than where they were now. There the two watched as the autumn leaves fell on that amber, midyear day. They stood atop of a distant hill not too far off from their village. Jasmine smiled as she was completely taken by the serene, insurmountable scene before her. "It's things like this that makes you forget about the world's problems, huh?" She questioned, taking in whatever she could with bright smile. "I mean-- such a wondrous sky, under a beautiful world, tarnished by such cruel people." She rested her chin upon the very palm of her hand feigning a vague boredom.

The girl next to her smiled sweetly in response, her moonlight silver hair flowed with the autumn wind, she ran her fingers through it and sighed once more, her voice was like an angel, fabricating this facade of the barbaric world they lived in, syncing with the moment-- a moment such as this, could not possibly have been ruined.

"We should head back, your folks should be worrying for you.... It's a shame though, all this time and nothing to do with it, surely one would tire of it." Jasmine said as she double backed towards the village, but then she turned back to the girl. "Right, Luna?"

Luna flipped her lengthy hair from her face, revealing her magnificent bloody pupils, followed by another sweet smile; her pale untouched lips stretched to each ear as she did. "Right." She responded before following suit.


"So what do you want to do once you leave home, Luna?" is a question one often would ask her. Any self respecting person would respond with an "I don't know" or would follow in their family's footsteps and become either a farmer or a servant-- Luna and Jasmine were a special case; they aimed to join the Cursed military within the village of Eisenrock with the surefire thought they would venture what secrets and sights the world had to offer. As children, the two have gotten a kick out of watching the soldiers return home from a battle, they would be gone for days, even longer possibly and they would be go there, watching them in their magnificence therefore sparking the desire.

Others would discourage the two, and bombard them with warnings that would never in an eternity, sway their hearts, even if it was sure that death was imminent. The two were stubborn indeed, they would usually hold up in a barn, utilize it as a makeshift hang out spot and often scheme together. Though it wasn't that they were ignorant of the warnings-- no, they knew full well that they would have it rough in Eisenrock's branch military, the two had made a promise to each other that they would stick together, even if things were too dire. One day the two sat down in their meeting area to plan for when they sign up for the military.

"Would anyone really care if we left?" Asked Jasmine, leaning back on a bale of hay.

"For you I'd imagine not. My grandparents however, they're different story." Replied Luna.

"I figured, I'd rather not face another lecture from them either." Jasmine then ran a hand through her magnificent green hair in contemplation, she would occasionally made a humming sound as she did. "Why not just get your stuff and leave?"

"It's not as easy as you think." Luna replied, she frowned a little at Jasmine's unthinkable suggestion. "There's the emotional thought of leaving your loved ones behind over your own personal desires."

Jasmine shrugged, "Not that I would know anything about that type of thing."

"Oh, right. Sorry." Luna replied, completely dismissing that Jasmine had lost her family in a fire at a very young age, she had no idea what their faces looked like to begin with, so her grieving was for nothing in a way. Luna finally stood up and paced around the barn for a moment before coming up with a conclusion to her own problem, she was unsure of it but it was better than nothing. "I'll just tell them straight out, if they refuse then we'll meet here to go as planned in the morning." Luna declared.

Jasmine stood up as well, she shook her head showing her obvious lack of faith in the girl, she never was the best at confronting her grandparents, though at the same time Luna was always soft spoken, so much that she'd end up being timid. "Well, it's a date then; meanwhile I got things to do." She said as she turned her back to the girl. "See you later, Luna."

While Jasmine departed Luna caught sight of something-- something she herself was unable to explain-- all eight sides of Jasmine's behind and curves, plain as day, she flushed a little, not expecting to . It was obvious that Luna possessed feelings for the girl. She froze a bit, knowing full well that these were feelings that were meant to be suppressed, not a lot of people in Eisenrock would accept a woman's alternative fancy to a man's. Though, this would be a story saved for a later date; Luna had something to do as this point.

Later that same day, the sky darkened and the villagers had turned in for the day after an arduous day of work. Torches were lit around the village, animals were being herded into their respective barns, and Luna was on her way home. She reached the front door and took a deep breath and swallowed saliva before easing a hand to the wooden board, however, she paused-- she heard a noise from behind it-- weeping? With haste Luna swung the door open to see both her grandparents, though the sight was the complete opposite of what to expect. Her house was in shambles; pictures torn, furniture flipped from their respective areas and her grandparents harmed, she could only assume that a few of the local guards paid them a visit. Luna ran towards the bereaved couple and leaned over, "What happened here, who did this?!"

Luna's grandmother, Hana, looked up at the girl. "Sir Aldo was here...he's a madman! He barged in here asking for a 'contribution to the army', and when we refused he wrecked the house and hurt Teo..." Luna clenched her teeth in shivering anger having hear that name. Her grandfather, Teo, stood up, holding his head.

"Is this what the Cursed Army had reduced itself to over the years? I remember a time when they were an omnipotent sort." He said easing his way to a chair that wasn't flipped over. "If they are going to shake down the poor, at least have respect for the elderly." Teo complained.

Luna clenched her fist and stood up. "Teo, Hana, you two won't have to worry about that son of a bitch anymore. I'm planning on joining the Cursed Army tomorrow."

The words that came from Luna’s lips hit the old couple hard, after what they had just experienced joining such a destitute military. "Luna, no!" They both said in unison. "It's filled with criminals and miscreants alike, you are a nice girl, why would you want to join them, especially since you're a young woman?" Hana scolded.

"I figured you all would want me to go and make something of myself! I want to get out and go travel; I want to go meet people; I'm just plain bored of living on a farm; It's better than sitting in here on our asses waiting for people like Aldo to rob and kill us!" Luna turned to the direction of her room and stormed out, leaving the two in contemplation. Teo sighed and stood from his chair.

"The girl's too reckless...do you think it was a mistake taking her in?" Said Teo.

Hana was taken aback by the question. "Why would you say something like that, she was only a baby! So what, we leave her to die in the cold?!"

"That's not what I'm saying, I'm saying it would be a burden to deal with a girl who hosts these thoughts. I told you eighteen years ago, that we should let her go before we get attached, and look what happened-- she wants to join that military and we got attached."

Hana sighed in defeat. "Well her real parents aren't a factor anymore...why us, of all the people in cursed lands...?" Teo then hugged her and held her close.

"I don't know hon, I don't know."

What the two didn't count on was Luna peeking from her room door slightly ajar, she wasn't sad or anything, just disappointed and shocked that she wasn't notified of her true origins, but what were they? She was too deprived of thought to even find out. Feigning anger, Luna climbed out of her bedroom window. There, she ran through the night village air aimlessly, tears running down her cheeks. Luna felt betrayed, her so-called grandparents have neglected to tell her who she truly was, where she was from or if the name, Luna Marcell was even her originally given name. She ran on, bearing the aura of a betrayed woman.

The next morning, Jasmine entered the girls’ barn house and saw a figure knelt over inside. Squinting her eyes she managed to make the figure out to be her one and only friend, Luna, tears dried on her cheek. It almost as if she came there to cry for the rest of the night. Rushing over to the girl Jasmine held the silver-haired girl in her hands. “Luna, what’s wrong? What happened to you?” Questioned Jasmine highly concerned. Luna merely shook her head in an attempt not to squeeze more tears from the lids of her eyes. The girl was still in shock at the moment, and to be fair, she had the right to be! Her “grandparents” had the audacity to keep her true origins hidden from her view deliberately, and then expect her to stay planted in that waste of space village. Truly, it was ridiculous to say the least.

“They’re not real, Jas’, they were just playing me-- leading me to believe that I could have a real, loving family….” Luna said, a grim expression colored the girl’s pale face.

Jasmine wore a grim expression, same as Luna upon realization of whom she may have been talking about. She grabbed the crestfallen girl and brought her close for a hug; Luna was taken aback from this however, seeing that Jasmine was never one for showing her feelings, let alone comforting someone in the first place. Feeling this, she blushed a little. Jasmine’s milky skin felt smooth on Luna’s. She even manage to get a feel of her green hair, so long, so majestic, and soft to the touch. Her personality was no joke either, in every way, she fit the description of Luna’s preference: ditzy, tough, and just plain happy. Though there was the possibility that Jasmine did not share Luna’s sentiment, or her preference in gender for that matter. Could Luna have been gaining feelings for her best friend? Before getting into this thought further, she tossed it aside. Releasing the girl, Luna was reeled back into the thought of her betrayal and why her grandparents neglected to tell her of it. She smiled with a hint of melancholy on her face.

“So what are you gonna do, then?” asked Jasmine curiously. Luna ran a hand through her hair to compose a viable answer, unsure of herself. The original plan was to leave at that very moment, however due to certain circumstances leaving Luna in her current state, the two had no choice but to extend their time of departure. Luna grit her teeth at this, feeling guilty that the two would have to postpone everything because of something trivial. Jasmine saw this and sighed. “Gotcha. Well, don’t keep me waiting, alright? This world needs explorin’!” said Jasmine as she walked out of the barn raising her fist for effect. She made sure she was completely out of Luna’s view before smiling melancholically. She stopped in her tracks and clenched her fist, it was as if the girl was dumbfounded by the sadness. “What am I doing…?” Jasmine said before walking away.

Luna took a seat on the nearest pile of hay she could find and covered her face in embarrassment. The word guilty was only an understatement for how she felt as a whole, but why would she feel this way? These thoughts were interrupted as she heard a set of footsteps enter the barn with the thought of it being Jasmine. "What're you doing back her--" Looking up to greet her supposed friend, Luna paused a moment and glared at her visitor. "You have balls showing your face, Aldo." She grit her teeth as the spiked haired knight approached.

"Now, why are you looking at me with such an abysmal gaze, Marcell? I've done nothing wrong to you, have I?" Aldo questioned, his voice was on the note and concise and struck like and arrow as he hit every syllable. For a so-called knight, he wouldn't have the exterior of a noble's son and the interior of a small rat.

"Tch, don't bullshit me you bastard. You know exactly what you did, and don't think for one second that I believe you." Luna snarled, referring to wrecking her house and hurting her family; though she was unsure why she would even care about them any longer...

She shook this thought aside and shot him a cold gaze to match his wry smirk. The two had been at each other's throats for years on end; destroying Luna’s was only the tip of the iceberg, as Aldo had lost sight of what it meant to be a knight. With this, he began to approach Luna, closing the distance between the two. Luna backed into a wall as Aldo finally reached her, he took a moment to admire her beauty, her figure, everything. Although it was strange to be attracted to a woman who was this abnormally pale any other place, but they were all cursed so it was a given. He smiled, placing his hand on Luna’s cheek. "Such a beautiful woman using such brutish language, it's not befitting of you, Luna; though should I expect any less from a Marcell farmer?" He said with a wry smile, and Luna, ruthlessly held onto herself as she clenched her fist in attempt not to belt the man, she'd rather not spend a night in a dungeon.

Aldo looked downward and took notice to Luna’s lazily buttoned shirt, leaving her cleavage ajar. He swallowed a bit of saliva before continuing. "Luna, I...you truly are stunning, you know that?" He said easing his hand onto her shoulder, moving in closer to the woman’s cold gaze, breathing heavily. "You and I could really make a great couple, all you have to do is say yes and I could make your life the ascendant. You don't have to live among these village savages, and that bitch Jasmine, any longer, I--"

"Sorry, I don't date guys with vaginas." Luna scoffed coldly, unable to hold in her anger any longer. "I prefer them on women, mind you... Hmph, even if you were a woman, I still wouldn't ease my fingers anywhere near yours." Aldo was taken aback by this, he knew there was some tension between he and Luna, but he had no clue she did not share the same fancy in gender. Even then the man was too dense to know that a woman wouldn’t care for him if he destroyed their house. The very qualities of an over privileged man, everyone.

"I see..." Aldo only said as he meekly backed away from Luna, taking the rejection hard.

"Yeah, are you done? If so, get the fuck out. I got things to get ready for, if you don’t mind."

"R-Right...we'll be in touch, Luna..." he said as he stumbled out of the barn. "Sooner than you think..." As Aldo weakly walked through the town he pushed passed a few villagers, feigning anger. A stroke of fury had come over him as he held himself up on the side of a building after punching a wall. Clearly, he really wanted Luna. Usually Aldo was a level headed person; this was possibly the very first thing to get him riled up. "You have rejected me for the last time, Marcell..." with this, he walked back to to a group of men awaiting his return to plot his next move.

The established date had finally come, Luna and Jasmine walked together to the enlistment corps. The two felt many things: nervousness, grimace, exasperation; but nervousness being the most overwhelming. Jasmine put a hand on Luna’s shoulder, smiling at her in a verbal way to say, "It's going to be all right." and Luna only nodded. Along the way, the two took notice to a couple of soldiers laughing as they knocked over a man's stand.

"Please, I paid you for the week just leave me alone!" pleaded the man.

"You paid us half of what you owe, fee is two-thousand coins." Said a soldier looking on at the carnage. The man grabbed onto his arm and begged once more.

"B-But you said it was one-thousand every mon-- kuh... !" he was interrupted by the soldier as he punched him in the stomach. "Pay doubled! Get offa me you fucking plebeian!" Yelled the soldier pushing the man the ground, with this the group of men kicked and stomped the owner as he reeled.

Luna and Jasmine looked on at the scene before them, outraged, Luna being the most impacted by this. She clenched her fist, feeling the unwavering feeling to help that man, seeing this Jasmine forcefully grabbed her by the shoulders and led her out of sight. Pushing her into a wall, Jasmine frowned at Luna sternly. Luna rubbed the back of her head and looked over at her friend. "What the hell is your problem?" She questioned, still feeling the sting of the wall.

"I should be asking you that; you can't suddenly go attacking the guards because of what that man did."

Luna returned the frown at this, if joining the military meant attacking the villagers for a quick coin would be detrimental to her benefactor. Aldo trashing her house would be the food for this outrage. "But that man did nothing wrong! They just thought of any random crime on the fly for an excuse to steal his money, they were robbing him!" Said Luna clenching her fist.

"Even so, I think neither of us would want to join him." She stressed, putting both her hands on Luna’s shoulders and moved in close to her face, there she lowered her voice down to a whisper. "Just trust me, alright?" Luna stared emptily at Jasmine, face red.

"R-Right." She said, coming to her senses, though she looked grim, her eyes becoming half lidded. "Though, I feel guilty for leaving them--my grandparents." Jasmine smiled melancholically and brought Luna in for a hug, rubbing her back wholeheartedly. This girl was indeed attached to them, despite the secrets.

"It's going to be fine Luna, just move on. Don't back out on me after having your sights set on this for so long; you promised we'd see the rest of the world together, that we would grow as famous warriors together. I can’t go through it without you." Jasmine stressed. They both released from their hug, Luna looked down at the ground and then at Jasmine. Swallowing her anguish, she nodded.

"You're right, we'll do it together." She smiled sweetly, feeling something more for Jasmine, much more than the feelings of friendship-- her heart got heavy each time she was around her, feeling the urge to confess every detail of her feelings to Jasmine without hesitation, yes indeed, Luna was finally able to confirm that she had feelings for this girl. "Well, we spent enough time here; let's go, Grass Hair." She joked as she walked in the direction. Jasmine snorted at this as she followed suit.

Finally reaching the area of enlistment, the two looked on at a massive crowd of people lined up to sign for the Cursed Army, they saw men being seen off by their family, screaming drill sergeants, and weeping mothers in that order, it was only natural however, it was jarring leaving your family to a life of protecting the sanctity of your country. It was as if the weight of the citizens, your family, your friends-- all have been placed on you. Take that away and the natural order of the world would be dashed.

"Honey, I promise I will come back someday, I promise I'll come back and see you," said a newly recruited to his sobbing daughter.

"But dad, what if you never come back?" Asked the daughter. The man hastily hugged his daughter to hush her.

"That's not going to happen, I promise you..." he said, sobbing as well, completely broken by this enlistment. "I want you to promise me something, it's extremely important, alright?"

The tear stricken daughter looked up. "What?"

"...To take good care of your mother, I'll be back soon." he said as he kissed her on the cheek. And waved to his wife as he walked away to join a few soldiers. Jasmine noted this, attempting to hold in tears, unfortunately not knowing the feeling of someone missing her, to love her, to care for her. At least Luna knew this feeling before completely tossing them aside. Something she would consider selfish, if she weren’t following the same ambition, of course.

"Jas, are you alright?" Asked Luna, concerned.

"Y-Yeah...I'm good." She said turning to where one of the lengthy lines stood, riddled with civilians waiting for their turn to sign up...

Hours passed.

The two finally reached the very front of the desk, both annoyed by the amount of time it took to get there. Luna and Jasmine stood in front of the enlistment counter, awaiting the woman stationed there to take notice of them. She was under the table, as if she was picking something up muttering something. “Ugh, damn it...Why did I take this job?” Luna nervously knocked on the table attempting to get her attention. “Uhh, 'scuse me?” The shock made her jolt upward and bump her head under the table.

“Oww… ow...ow…”

Jasmine snickered lightly at the woman's negligence, placing a hand over her mouth to hide her shame. The woman was insecure at the very most. Though, tossing this aside, she eventually said something. “Umm...are you okay…?” Jasmine spoke up. The woman finally perked up and acknowledged the two.

“S-Sorry for the wait! Were you two waiting a long time?” Before either of the two could respond, the got tense and freaked out. “You must think I'm irresponsible! I’m so sorry!” She said as she bowed.

Luna waved her hand to reassure the high strung woman, “Its fine, could we just sign up?” She fumbled to gather everything they needed, it seemed like an eternity before rising from under the table and suddenly two massive stacks of paper were slammed on the table, the two girls cringed slightly. “So, what are all these for…? Jasmine asked.
The woman pushed her glasses up to her face and wore an accomplished smirk before responding. “Well, there’s the weapon consent form, armor, living quarters, food, and…” The girls fidgeted as the woman continued, in their heads the woman was speaking all but English. The woman finished listing the requirements and responded. “Any questions, you two?” They weakly shook their heads, both unsure what to do in this predicament.

“Good.” Said the woman as she piled the stacks on both girls. “Next!” She shouted, awaiting her next victims. After signing, the two were directed towards carriages to the recruit training camp.

Later that same day...

Horns blared, footsteps trampled throughout the autumn grounds, the sound of leaves crunching under the running boots of the newly recruited soldiers were heard throughout the day, giving no room for silence. A man-- large in stature and nothing less than a brutish sort sat in a highly decorated hut within the camp. Portraits hung along the walls as well as souvenirs of other countries. A soldier entered the room almost reluctant, knowing what he might be dealing with.

"Err...sir?" The soldier began. The large, sitting man's eyes darted to his so suddenly, which left him taken aback. "Ahh, the recruits finally arrive--"

"Well it's about time!" interrupted the man, his voice bellowed through the hut as he used a hand to push past the man and exit the building to a lengthy line of soldiers awaiting his arrival, including both Luna and Jasmine. The man scanned through the lines as he approached, walking adjacent to the recruits. And they all stood in attention, frozen as statues in a long and cold winter, mentally preparing for whatever he had in store. With this, he introduced himself.

"Good morning, turkeys! I am Drill Sergeant Mayer, your ruler, your master, your mother fucking tormentor!" he yelled, his voice echoed through the camp leaving the vicinity silent. He gave the line another go-around and scanned the recruits before continuing. "For the next eight months, you will see nothing but my face, so you better get used to it!" he approached a recruit, he was about the average height of an ordinary male though Mayer still towered over him. "What is your name and why are you in my line, boy?!" he yelled. Nervously the recruit paused for a moment as if he had forgotten his own name and needed to think about it.

"I-I'm Cameron K-K-Kalona and I w-want to serve the--"

"Well sweet Mother Teresa on the hood of a Mercedes Benz, you sound like a majestic fucking eagle!" Mayer belittled, making fun if the man's high pitched voice. "Well mister Kalona, you ain't getting anywhere in my army with an abysmal disposition such as that! Just tell me HOW you plan to strike fear into your enemies, stuttering like a cracked record!?"

"I...I have no idea what those things are, sir." Said Kalona, shoulders slumped as he heard this belittlement, he was then headbutted by Mayer. The man slumped down to his knees and held his forehead in agony. Mayer continued on and spotted a child-- he was no younger than seven or eight years old, though there he was, how he was even admitted to train in the first place was a mystery. Goes to show how the Cursed Army do not discriminate against it's citizens; be it positive or negative.

“I am Colin McGarry from Eisenrock, sir!” He responded loud but sheepish. "I wish to fight under the flag of our noble king-- Cain, sir!” Mayer admired the kid’s ambition but crushed it swiftly as he scolded him. He leaned down towards the child and let him have it.

"Look around you, kid. Majority of these fresh turkeys have likely been through hell before deciding to come down here, while you...you're just some selfish runt who likely ran away from home in search of action and adventure with no regard for their family, right? I can't tell you how many of THOSE I've gotten over the years, then when shit hits the fan and they get hurt, they scurry on back to their piece of shit villages!” Luna poked her head from inside the line to get a peek at the brutish man screaming at the kid from the top of his lungs, how monstrous! The boy hardly could hold a sword on his own by the look, and is already being pushed hard. The boy had hints of tears well up in his eyes as he glared at the man. Noticing this, Mayer scolded the boy more.

“Hey, do you hate me? Do you resent me? That’s exactly what we need in this army; keep these emotions to heart and someday, you may yet be fit to serve under Cain." he said, a mix of a stern yet understanding tone coming from him as he tussled the boy's hair before walking away. Luna was saddened by this, it was almost as if Mayer knew exactly what her plans were-- to leave home, join the military, and travel the world. Though what he said was true, it was selfish to pull a stunt like that. Luna had not even considered how Teo and Hana would have felt...no, it's not the time to be thinking about them, focus on graduating, become a soldier, achieve your dream-- that was the goal. The Sergeant was on the move once more, this time moving towards the girls. Fearing that she might be next, Jasmine vaguely held onto Luna’s hand, she was trembling. Had Jasmine felt fear from this man? That was unusual given her happy-go-lucky, kick ass first, ask questions later attitude. Luna playfully chopped the woman in the forehead and shot her a look, something that would likely say "It's going to be alright."; same as the one Jasmine did earlier, ironic given the amount of confidence the girl was spouting.
The two's fears were dashed as Mayer walked past them for a moment, leaving everything as well as the day began-- that is, until the girl’s lengthy, multicolored hair blew in the breeze, running passed a small corner in his eye. Turning around slowly, the man's stern expression turned into something much more annoyed as he darted eyes to the two girls before him, the other soldiers moved away from their positions; as long as they weren’t near the area the sergeant had his sights set on. He lowered himself just enough to see both Luna and Jasmine in their own manmade spotlight.

"...You two wanna let me know why your hair is the length of my prize horses' manes combined?" Mayer began. "Clearly you didn't get the memo that you must cut your hair before coming all the way out here, with hair like that you won't even see your limbs fly off when your enemy close in on you!" The two looked up at the Sergeant to pay heed, though their hair obstructed their view from above. They ended up having to push through the bangs with their hands. "...Which proves my point exactly." he said clapping a hand to his forehead. "I want your names; both of you." Mayer said sternly.

"Luna Marcell."

"J-Jasmine Riess..." they both said at the same time, though Jasmine had a slight trip up with her introduction. Mayer first stared at them for a moment, his blue pupils digging into the girl's faces but then laughed heartily, rumbling the entire camp with his roar, causing the other soldiers to flinch.
"Well first offence on the first day, this is always my favorite part!" Mayer bellowed. "For that, you two will get to pick which one of you gets the punishment. Decide quickly, I don't have all day." The man smiled, as if he took pride in causing recruits pain. The duo looked at each other, shocked that they would have to decide one or the other. There would definitely be some foul play between the two if one of them decided against each other. All because of hair that went well over the collar length. Jasmine sighed before speaking up.

"I nominate myself," Jasmine offered, Luna looked over at her friend, dumbfounded that she'd sacrifice herself for her sake. "Luna is a fine woman, I rather her not have to face your bullshit." Mayer laughed heartily once more then pointed a finger at Luna, he obviously had something in store for her in the long run. Luna glared at him, feeling like she had been taken for a ride.

"Haha sorry lass, but I already decided for you while you were more concerned of your friendship, and I decided Snow White here." he said. "Having friends in the battlefield would only cripple you, death being your final crutch. This is war, you will not make it far relying on each other, remember that." he scolded as he walked away, signaling a soldier from afar to join the group.

From their distance the soldier couldn’t have possibly been made out, but Luna saw him clearly from that half stumble, half proud walk, occasionally tripping over himself in his dimwittedness. Luna knew exactly who this clumsy man, she grit her teeth and uttered, "Shit..." before burying her face into her hand as the man finally closed gap between him and the group.

“Marcell and Riess! It’s so good to see you again!” Aldo yelled ecstatically. Both girls glared at him with high distaste, almost as if they wanted him to drop dead right there. Mayer looked on surprised, what were their history? He would wonder. “Oh? You know these two, corporal?” Mayer questioned.

“Indeed I do, they were my...friends, back in Eisenrock. Especially Luna here.” He said, looking down on her with a glare to match her’s. Mayer smiled at this and put a hand on Aldo’s shoulder.

“Well, to cut to the chase, Marcell here has gotten her first punishment; that†˜s where you come in. For the remainder of training, you shall be her mentor.” he declared, Jasmine’s eyes widened at this while Aldo wore an accomplished smirk as if a plan had come together.

“Tch.” Luna cursed under her breath at the man, she truly hated Aldo from the very marrow of her bones, thick and thin. The thought of Aldo having any authority over Luna sickened her to the highest degree. Why her, of all people to have face such an obscene individual? Outwardly, Aldo claimed to be an upstanding person and a choice soldier for the army-- Luna would call bullshit on the matter, he was nothing but a vile pig who pestered women wherever he went and threw tantrums in the lowest way possible to get his way; and Luna just happened to be in his sights.

Truly, a disgusting individual.

"Let this be a lesson to you all," Mayer bellowed to the rest of the recruits. "You fuck up, you're getting the same exact fate as this one, got it!?"

"Yes sir!"

Later that same day,

Luna sat with Jasmine in the camp's mess hall after a long day of drills, there she absentmindedly eyed down Aldo with great distaste from across the room. "Of all people..." Luna said to no one, pinching the very bridge of her nose in exasperation.

Jasmine poked the girl in the cheek, retrieving her from her trance. "Oi, Luna you still alive?" She asked. Luna looked around, popping from her absentminded state and turned her gaze to Jasmine. Truly, the girl had let Aldo cloud her mind that she could not enjoy simple pleasures any longer. "Sheesh kid, I haven't seen you so out of it." is what she said, it was a surprise she wasn't feeling as worried as Luna was in terms of having Aldo around. Better her than Jasmine, right?

"That was a foul move Mayer pulled, to put you with that Aldo guy. I heard stories about him, none of them pleasant-- or sanitary for that matter." commented a recruit that sat next to the girls.

"Whatever you heard was probably true," responded Jasmine, she rested her face on the pit of her palm. "He didn’t exactly have the best reputation back home."

Luna glared at the man in his own self importance as he spoke with his own group of men, deviants at the like, the type of people you would be skeptical of if they walked about in your hometown. They looked to be planning something but Luna could not make out their conversation as well to decipher their lips. "Bastards." Luna snarled, she scoffed at them as they posed no threat to her, if Aldo had wanted to try something, he would have already done it only to be shot down the next second. Aldo, basking in his own self important dribbles clicked the heels of his boots as he made his way to Luna and Jasmine's table, smiling all the way. Approaching the table, he towered over Luna as if he accomplished something over the woman.

“What do you want? Can’t you see I’m grieving over my life, right now?” said Luna, exaggerating the situation. Jasmine stood, rather, sat at a defensive stance next to Luna, ensuring that the bastard wouldn’t try anything to provoke the woman in her time of frailty, he had always been known to gloat over the small things. In his case, a victory over Luna meant a victory over life apparently.

“Just coming to welcome my new protege to the military, is all.” Aldo said simply, he shrugged his shoulders but with a vague grin on his face. Those green eyes, that always-smiling face, that over superior attitude shrouded by his happy-go-lucky mannerisms, all in which irritated Luna to the highest degree, the way he walked, the way he talked, they way he carried himself over everyone as if he held the vile delusion of supremacy truly disgusted Luna. The thing was, he wanted a reaction out of Luna. The whole reason why he destroyed her house was so he could get close to her-- not the most ideal method, but it worked somehow. The man leaned in towards Luna, reaching his face past her’s in order to whisper into the woman’s ear, doing this, he repeated himself from what he said back in the barn that day. “Didn’t I tell you we’ll be in touch sooner than you think, Marcell?” with this, he ran a hand through a lock of her magnificent, moonlight silver hair and proceeded to sniff it’s aroma. “Strange,” he thought. “For a tomboy, she smells just like an angel…” Luna however, interrupted this thought with a swift jab to Aldo’s ribs, causing him to reel and fall to the ground.

“Bitch!” he yelled at the top of his lungs. Hearing this, Aldo’s men ran for their leader’s sake, staring daggers at Luna, ready to put the woman down. Jasmine stood up next to Luna, joining the commotion. The other soldiers looked on at the situation in excitement, enticing the confrontation. Struggling to his feet, Aldo was ready to let the girls have it until he saw Sergeant Mayer, watching from afar, that bald head of his could have been seen from a mile away. “Tch...I don’t have time for this!” yelled Aldo as he walked away, his group followed suit, leaving the two girls alone.

“Boss, you’re just gonna take that?!” questioned one of the men, catching up to the rushing Aldo. He stayed silent as he walked however, and his men tried their best to get any reaction from the man. Suddenly he stopped in dead silence, clenching his fist and teeth.

“...No. No, I’m not gonna take that.” he said simply. “C’mon, that bitch is gonna get her’s, tonight.” he said, beckoning his soldiers in his direction. They walked off, away from the mess hall to scheme.

Back inside the mess hall, everything seemed to settled down, and Luna sat with Jasmine for counsel. “Hey,” Jasmine said, patting Luna’s back. “Almost got in a fight for you, let’s have none of that until graduation, you hear?” she smirked. Luna smiled back to the girl and nodded.

“Sure, †˜till graduation.”

Later that night, all was silent. Most were dead asleep in their cabins to await the next day in training while some snuck out for a time in the town for their nightly crusades in search of women, alcohol and merriment. Luna did the latter, as she was serious about becoming a highly respected soldier. Some guards ventured the camp on patrol of anyone in the wrong, while some lazily cruised around, not paying any mind at all. Though, something was indeed bumbling about within the camp, multiple footsteps were heard, passing the guards in quick succession. These illusive suspects were no enemy of Cursed-- rather, an enemy of Luna herself. Aldo and his men stood outside of Luna’s cabin in the dead of night. “You sure you wanna do this, boss?” asked a soldier. Aldo merely glared at him as if he asked a stupid question, but turned back to the door of the cabin, he smiled for a moment.

“Of course, Marcell’s been a prick in my side for a while now; I need to show her who’s running things around here.” he said, still feeling the pain from the jab Luna gave him earlier. “You see anyone in there?” he asked a soldier who peaked inside the window for the woman, he saw her, fast asleep in her bed.

“Yeah…” he whispered. “She’s completely out. In all honesty, I hope we don’t get caught…” he hastily scanned the camp in search of any guards.

“Oh please, we’ll be fine. With the boss here, we can do what we want.” said another soldier proudly. He pat the worried man on the back and smiled confidently.

“In any case, let’s get this show on the road; night’s burning.” said Aldo as he turned the knob on the door and carefully, pushed it open in mind of Luna’s state of slumber. In the group came in, boots creaking on the hard wooden floor as they all crept through the cabin. It was dark, whatever the men could see from outside was gone now, though for Aldo, he did not care; whatever he and his men planned for tonight, had adrenaline run through his veins, getting him riled up. They saw the woman in question, already asleep on her hay bed. She was hidden under her covers and slept quietly. Swiftly ripping her covers off the woman and the bed, Aldo had finally got what he wanted after all-- an audience of Luna’s body in plain view. She wore her grey tank top as well as grey panties over her hourglass shaped body.

Aldo’s heart was in his throat, his jaw dropped at the sight of the woman’s body in display, he was at a loss of words while the other’s giggled to no end, and Luna was was still sound asleep, somehow.

“Woah, look at that body!” said a soldier, admiring her physique.

“Hey, don’t touch her. I get first dibs.” Said Aldo as he climbed onto the bed. He lied on all fours as he hovered over the woman, it was as if he was an eagle spying it’s prey before swooping down and lifting it from it’s natural life-- in a way, he was doing the same. “We’ll see what happens when you cross Aldo Heinrich…” he mumbled, lifting the tank top from Luna’s body, revealing her breasts. They weren’t the biggest out there, but they were of considerable size. Promptly, he fondled them with high zest. “Yeah, this is a great body you have, Marcell…” he began to suck on them, running his tongue through her nipples eagerly. She began to fidget a little from the sensation of this man’s tongue. With this he grew restless, Aldo removed Luna’s under and gazed at her vagina for what seemed like an eternity in complete and utter awe.

He stuck his fingers inside to see just how versatile the woman was, he felt that her hymen was still attached. “Oh? Still a virgin, are we? Guess you are just a simple dyke after all.” he said surprised. “This may hurt a bit Luna...but you’re a strong girl, you can handle it…nothing can hurt you, right? Your attitude makes it seem that way...the way you resist me...” Aldo mumbled as he unlatched his trousers, pulling out his penis. Without hesitation he forced himself inside of Luna, the great pain almost waking her. A bit of blood oozed from the opening and onto the bed. He laughed at the display, completely surprised the woman was still asleep.

“Boss, be careful man!” whispered a soldier from across the cabin, almost certain Luna was going to wake up from that.

Aldo began to thrust, moaning as he ruthlessly pushed into Luna’s lifeless body, kissing her on the side of her neck as he did. Luna made sounds as well, murmuring as her eyes struggled open-- seeing Aldo on top of her. It took her a moment to take hold of the situation before her eyes shot open in shock to a smiling Aldo. “W-What...the hell? WHAT THE HEL--” her mouth was then covered by Aldo, his men then came to his aid holding the woman’s arms and legs down onto the bed as he continued thrusting into her. Tears ran down the poor woman’s cheeks as she struggled to be released from the miscreants’ grip, though it was no use, they were too strong. “I wish I was never born a woman…” Luna thought, grimacing. It was understandable, of course, she would have never have to experience such a high injustice had she been the latter gender.

Moments passed the man was still at it; and Luna reduced to silence. Her blank, broken expression had showed that the girl had exhausted her ever-waning will as her bed drank her tears. This got Aldo even more riled up. He leaned over and kissed the woman on the lips, forcibly moving her tongue around his. "Oi, Luna...are you enjoying this, hmm? I sure am. I'll be sure by the end of tonight, you'll remember us...physically and mentally!" Aldo yelled as a surmounting sensation came over him-- he was close to his limit. Soon, his breathing grew more vocal as his hips moved to a higher tempo, while Luna’s weeping was much more stifled. Without a second more, Aldo’s body stiffened, along with a final roar which shook the cabin, and poor Luna, looked on in sheer disbelief.

No way, did he just...!

At that moment semen seeped passed her labia and onto her bed sheets. Luna lied, exhausted and transfixed, relieved that the ordeal was over-- that is, until Aldo said, "She's all yours, boys. I've had my fill...for tonight." he chuckled as he rose from Luna’s body and simply walked out of the cabin, putting his clothes back on as he did.

"N-No...please..." Luna pleaded as the soldiers crowded over her, all wearing despicable smiles on their faces. They pounced her all at once, ravaging her petite, frail body for the rest of the night.

Walking away from the cabin, Aldo heard the commotion all the way from his position, listening to the sound of Luna’s pained cries from afar. He smiled smugly before running a hand through his hair and walked on.

The morning sun had finally risen, the chirping birds' call out to nature was interrupted as the wake up call horn blared throughout the camp. The sounds of soldiers' boots crunching along the dry leaves on another simple autumn day-- for most perhaps. Crowds of soldiers moved through the yards and stood in lines to await their drill for the day. Jasmine stood in attention, though, she stood alone. Her silver-haired friend was missing from the pack. Where is she? Jasmine wondered, slightly worried. She listened in on passerby recruits conversations as she waited, though she ended up hearing something peculiar.

"Yeah, that Marcell girl's cabin was live as hell last night-- yeah the dainty, silver-haired one. I don’t even know what was going on in there, but none of it good. Couldn't get any sleep at all, from the screaming. " Said a soldier Jasmine overheard. Yep, Marcell-- Luna’s given last name, the way they described her too, and screaming? Just what happened last night? There was no doubt about it, something happened to her friend.

"Sergeant Mayer, sir! Permission to ask a favor of you?" Yelled Jasmine as she raised her hand. Mayer came around to her side of the line, boots crunching the very dirt in it's path. He gave Jasmine one over and raised a brow.

"You were that grass-haired one with Marcell yesterday." he pointed out sternly after a moment to admire her shortened hairstyle. "Granted. What do you need, recruit?"

"I need you to help me find Luna, I have reason to believe something's happened to her." She said.

He thought for a moment, it was his job to mold the recruits into fearless soldiers, as well as letting them solve their own troubles. However the way Jasmine described the situation disturbed him slightly, therefore adding her to his benefactor. "Alright, alright. Just show me her cabin, I'll take care of the rest."

Meanwhile in the dark, dreary cabin that is Luna’s.

Drill sergeants shouting. An unpalatable taste in her mouth. The floor creaked, the old wooden boards erupted with hints of sunlight as it shined through, causing a projection of the sun onto the walls and the face of this crestfallen girl. She winced at the golden star, putting a hand over her eyes to shield herself from it's beams. Raising herself from her state of slumber she noted a troop of men, about six or seven, hastily exit. Rubbing her eyes out of human reflex her hands gave way to a clear, sticky substance, which resided throughout her entire body, it had only taken her but a moment's notice to realize that she was completely void of clothing. Yes... yes, she was indeed in Eisenrock.

The frail and broken woman struggled to her feet, only to falter once more. Her vision was left blurry as she struggled to take hold of herself. Was she injured? She felt a sharp, body crumbling pain in the pit of her ribs, as well as a few bruises along her face. She felt for her pelvis, which mocked the sensation of a vice, the pain itself was unbearable. That night between her, Aldo, and his men, left the woman perplexed, mental images of each painful detail of the other night came pouring through, invading the inner thoughts of her mind, causing Luna to wince once more. Aldo, that bastard, must have socked her a couple of times and she didn’t realize it until now. Luna did not weep anymore, her tears were surmounted by fits of repression and fatigue. She was thirsty, she needed a drink. She was stuck, unable to walk, too stricken with trauma to speak, her only option was to sit in her essent covered state in painstaking silence.

Sheesh kid, you're a mess. said a voice. It's tone was straight to the point and concise through each word, though they came out lazily. It's voice rang into Luna’s head like a bell, knocking her from her absentminded state. The voice seemed so close that Luna could hear it up to her very ear. The girl darted her eyes left and right; around the cabin but saw no source of the voice.

“Huh...?” Luna asked to no one.

Oi, you alive? C'mon, I just woke up and you wanna die now? Hmph, that's no way to treat a spirit. said the voice half-heartedly. Luna’s eyes widened at this. She had only heard tales of spirits from her grandparents, even then the stories got much more interesting each time they were told. The voice finally gained a physical form, though not quite solid; she was almost as pale as Luna, wearing a red dress and brandishing a harp with a large black wing on the architecture.

I'm Sonata. introduced the spirit, she floated around Luna mischievously, stretching out her arms and legs as if she had been trapped in a small space, unable to move for all time. Luna looked on in amazement at the spirit-- her spirit, and wondered why she would neglect to show herself until now. If memory serves, spirits are with you from the beginning to end of your life, was there a process to awaken them? Luna thought.

Luna was at a loss for words, more so than now. Sonata flew around her in lazy circles, playing a few practice notes on her harp while contemplating on something to say to the girl, occasionally playing sour notes. Well? Anything to say? Thoughts? Reflections?[/b] She questioned, japely poking Luna in the cheek but reeled back, taking notice to the clear, sticky substance on her fingers. The girl struggled to part her lips and give the spirit the benefit of the doubt, but was instantly stopped in her tracks each time she thought back to that traumatic night. With this, she slumped her shoulders and held a blank expression on her face, her pupils like spots of dimmed, solid coloring as she sat, merely mystified by the unholy quandary before her.

As her spirit, Sonata could feel absolutely everything Luna felt, as they then shared an unbending bond with each other. Hatred, sadness, a broken will; all shrouded by a blank expression and unwavering aloofness. These were the very qualities that chilled Sonata's skin, she vocally cooed with approval of these feelings, smiling visibly at the girl. [i]That Aldo guy though...I have a feeling he's gonna get his soon enough. She purposefully said aloud, her smile widened taking on a curved shape across her face; lips moistened at what was to come. With a flash of energy, Sonata dimmed until she completely vanished into Luna’s mind where she would make herself at home, so to speak. With this, Luna relinquished all hope she had remaining and collapsed onto the floor, writhing in her anguish.

Outside of the cabin, a set of footsteps were heard, they seemed to be moving at a brisk pace as each boot collided with wood in a crescendo, approaching the woman’s cabin. With a creak of the door, Jasmine and Sergeant Mayer burst in, likely looking for the bereaved girl. They noted Luna and we're taken aback by her messy, dreary-eyed state. With this, Jasmine rushed to the girl's aid, holding her close in her arms, defiant of whatever wandered onto her own clothes. "Luna, what happened!? Who did this to you!?" shouted Jasmine in deep concern for her friend, she was near tears as she urged Luna to answer her. Mayer paced the cabin in deep thought, keeping a straight face as he pushed the sight of the nude woman aside. He placed a hand on Jasmine's shoulder and shook his head to her.

"It's no use, poor girl is traumatized. Can't even find it in herself to speak..." he concluded. "In any case, it's best to take her to the infirmary for now; see if she won't stay mum until then." He cast a look of slight concern to the two, in complete wonder of who might have committed such a heinous crime to this woman. He had a faint idea but dismissed it entirely, he figured Aldo was a gentleman externally but was ignorant to his true nature as a person. As he reached the door, Mayer paused. "Get her cleaned, clothed and brought to the infirmary as soon as you are able... and Riess, good work looking out for your friend, I was wrong about what I said yesterday. " he then nodded to the woman to ensure his words sunk in before exiting.

Jasmine promptly tore a sleeve from her shirt and began to wipe Luna clean, all the while imagining what the girl could have gone through overnight. "On her first night too. Will I be next...?" She wondered to herself. With this, Jasmine brought Luna close to her face and merely wept silently for her friend. She wasn't sure if she would be able to see this girl smile without a thought turned to this incident any longer, now that her innocence had been purged from her body. Jasmine felt for this girl, her best friend since childhood, anything that this girl stood for proudly, was gone now.

A week had passed, Luna had been all but vocal about her experience. In any case, she was more than aloof, hosting a newfound blank expression across her face. It was impossible for Jasmine or anyone else to get a smile out of her, let alone a response at all; Aldo relished in this however, and Luna merely accepted his advances at this point as a broken woman, accepting her fate of becoming something for this man to use at will, her hopes of becoming a soldier waning ever so slightly. Jasmine stood from the sidelines, searching for any leads as to who could do something so foul, so despicable to an innocent girl, all the while staying on track in training. She sniffed around nearly every soldier that that had bat an eye to Luna since their first day through the following week. So far, her track had run cold.

The following morning, the recruits were to choose their poison, so to speak. They stood in the outskirts of the campsite, taking position in a wide open area in the middle of the forest that surrounded them. The midyear weather had wilted the trees and changed the leaves to a light orange; this surmounted the entirety of wherever they stood, shrouding the area in leaves as they fell. Mayer stood in front of a large group of recruits, to his left and right directions were racks, all stacked to the brink with iron and steel. Some of the recruits looked on, blood boiled to finally get some experience with a blade after a week of basic training. Were people that eager to see some blood? One would expect that from a few villagers who ran from home.

"Alright turkeys, time to pick your poison!" Yelled Mayer, he seemed much more riled up than usual. Today was the day that every last soldier would begin their rites in combat. "Be careful with what you pick however, because you're gonna be stuck with 'em! Don't even think of coming to me, asking for a switch because if you do, I'll be sure to make it seem like you walked through the very gates of Hell by mistake!" this is what got the other's paranoid, in thought of what the man could do if that were the case.

Luna had finally lightened up for a moment to peruse what those racks had to offer. She had her eyes planted to a broadsword and shield from afar; it was exactly what she had hoped for the moment she enlisted. She could tell, even from afar that the sword was majestic in it's own right; a sleek, steel blade, it's hilt decorated with black and gold iron; this was perfect for Luna. She weakly eased herself to that marked rack, every second seemed to be set in reverse for each step she took. She finally closed the distance between her and the sword, carefully, she eased her hand towards the blade but was interrupted so suddenly as Aldo came behind her, yawning. "Morning, Marcell." he said, putting his hands over her shoulders. There, he leaned in close to the girl's ear, smiling. "Choosing your weapon, I see."

Luna remained silent, still remembering the pain this man caused her on occasion, she still couldn't believe it either; that Aldo would stoop so low as to pull something like that. If anything, Luna had never experienced a pain so mentally diminishing that it would trigger her aloof and void attitude.Tch, asshole. Sonata scoffed, playing a sour note on her harp, causing the girl to wince a little. Aldo eyed the sword Luna was ready to choose and got a snide idea-- he was still rather bitter from the girl's rejection and he wanted to milk this as much as possible-- he darted eyes towards a rack where the larger recruits stood. Claymore, axes, hammers-- all weapons no lightweight would dare lay hands on, let alone lift at all.

"Hey Marcell," said Aldo. "Get a weapon from that rack." Luna looked up to the man, wearing a face of protest. Given her small, dainty stature, her experience would damn well drive her to exhaustion. She looked as if she wanted to say something, but couldn’t help to part her lips at all; Aldo saw this and pat her on the back. "It's fine, I'll just notify Mayer and tell him you refuse to follow orders; he's not so merciful as I am though, he'll end up kicking you out. Your choice though~." he stressed Luna. The girl's face lit up for a moment then shifted to a painting of defeat. Meekly, she stumbled to the heavy weapons rack and paused as she looked the tools over in disappointment. "Pick that one." Aldo pointed to the biggest weapon he could find-- Zweihander, a large two handed blade which surpassed the size of an ordinary claymore; a blade truly built for one with the stature of a monster. The blade stretched well over Luna’s base height-- about seven feet to boot and wasn’t as decorated compared to the broadsword.

Luna slumped her shoulders and planted hands on the hilt of the blade, tightening her grip upon grasping it. She made no progress in lifting it, however, veins popped from her neck as she strained to hoist the blade up, though it was no use. She gave up, panting as she slumped over. Jasmine watched from afar and shook her head out of pity for Luna. Why was she pushing herself so much, especially picking a weapon she would have no business using? One of the more heavy set recruits stepped in to assist the girl; simply, he lifted the sword and handed it to Luna. Weakly, the girl walked away without acknowledging the man for his help, dragging the large, ample sword along with her. "Poor girl," the recruit said, taking notice to Aldo’s torment toward her.

Mayer bat an eye to the crestfallen Luna dragging her new sword along the ground, as well as her build. "This girl's either got a death wish or she's just plain foolish...I wonder if it has anything to do with before...It's admirable at the very most, wanting to become stronger after that, however." he said to himself. He then tossed the thought aside then turned back to the squadron. "Alright you meat tossers, spread out into groups you're gonna be using your weapons against your comrades here, no holds barred!" he bellowed, giving the soldiers a chance to sate their bloodthirsty tendencies. It wasn't long before a bit of blood was shed among the group, whenever someone was hit they were to be stopped before anyone was mortally wounded. Aldo squared up with Luna, as helpless as she was with her mountainous blade, she stood tall, straining to keep the sword upright. She could feel her arms get tired each second she held Zweihander, her arms were screaming at her to drop the blade and give up, but for some reason, she refused.

Aldo charged the girl with his rapier, contacting each blow with her sword as she turtled behind it. She had no other option but to hold the blade in front of her and hope for the best; there was no possible way Luna could lift this. The other soldiers cheered Aldo on, completely yelling his name all in a harmonious melody to completely strike the young woman low, and Jasmine could only watch closely as the one-sided fight unfold. "C'mon Marcell, step it up!" The man said as he used his foot to push the blade and Luna herself onto the ground. She squirmed in both pain and embarrassment under that massive sword it's sheer force nearly killed her. Mayer stepped in and stopped the fight, declaring Aldo the victor.

A few soldiers came by to help Luna from under her sword, as she struggled to her feet, she held her side, wincing from the pain. She likely broke a few ribs if anything. Jasmine ran up passed the commotion to check on her. "Luna, are you alright!? I--" her hand was suddenly slapped away, followed by a face of fury.

"Don't touch me!" Luna snapped before turning away, walking off, angrily dragging her sword back to the camp. Jasmine stood, transfixed, not that this was the first thing Luna had said in over a week, but it was the first thing Luna said to her best and only friend in a week. Could this be detrimental to Luna’s health? She would think. Ever since the girls had enlisted Luna had gotten the most distress out of everyone; Jasmine's experience was not a walk in the park either, but Luna had been coming up with bruises along her face and body-- this was not any effect in training either. Jasmine was ready to run after the girl but was stopped by a large hand over her shoulder, it was Mayer.

"Let her cool down for a bit, she's been through a lot." he said, a stern look on his face, eyeing the stumbling girl limp through the forest.

Later that night...

Luna secured herself in one of the stables of the camp, sure that none of Aldo’s men would find her, not tonight...She had work to do, there was no time for shenanigans. Luna stripped down to her tank top, still feeling the pain from the impact of the fall. She wrapped bandages around her hands, as well as her side to dim the pain. She said for a moment, glaring at the sword stuck into the ground, awaiting her to wield it. "Just you wait..." Luna said, the words hissed through her teeth as she feigned deep anger.

Two months had passed, Luna had gone through nothing but extensive and gut wrenching training non stop, slowly drifting away from Jasmine in the process. Luna's meekness had been replaced with skepticism and begrudge, and a glare that would frighten any man. Her figure had also changed, her hourglass like physique had been replaced with a slowly developing muscular body after two months of pushing herself to the brink of exhaustion-- at that point, she was finally able to wield the blade, though it was not enough, she still faltered after a minute of holding it.

Morning had come, the subtle winter breeze knocking everyone from their slumber before the wake up call could sound. The orange leaves were replaced with trickles of snow in small intervals along the ground, the trees were completely void of them as well. The other recruits weren’t training at all, rather, they were preparing for something. Decorations were being put up and the camp was swept clean. Aldo was in charge of supervising these soldiers so this gave Luna some downtime for time being.

Jasmine wandered around the stables with the means to clean them but encountered something more than a few horses, she bore witness to her friend, covered in sweat as she swung her sword in short bursts. Turning eyes to her slowly developing body, Jasmine had noticed some change, that the Luna she knew was gone the day they enlisted, she grimaced having to bear this sight, hated it. She lost her friend through a barbaric crime and whoever did it was to blame-- no, she knew exactly who caused this...Aldo. It was obvious, the man grew tired of waiting for Luna to even bat an eye towards him and decided to take it upon himself to relieve himself of her-- in more ways than one. Jasmine was hurt, angry, bewildered and wanted nothing more than her friend back. She felt the burning urge to turn back to camp, completely purging Luna from her list of priorities. “Hah!” Luna yelled as she swung her Zweihander one last time. A loud thump was heard as Luna dropped the blade onto the ground, as well as her own knees, panting heavily.

“Luna!” Jasmine screamed as she rushed to her friend’s aid. The girl’s heart rate had skyrocketed, and she worked herself to the very verge of passing out. Jasmine was ready to lay hands on the girl but her thoughts led her back to that day, causing her to lay off...no, this is her best friend, no one could stress that enough to boot. Jasmine hugged Luna, halfway to tears. “Luna, you need to be more careful, I’m worried about you!” she stressed, squeezing Luna tighter in her arms, holding her closer.

“Jas? I…” at this point the two were so close to each other they were able to smell each other’s breath, eyes blurred by the cold air. Luna finally got a good look at her best friend, after two months of not even turning an eye to her. Her short green hair, her sea blue pupils, showing her reflection, she even slimmed down a lot more than before. The feeling was mutual for Jasmine, getting a closer look at the girl, Luna’s developing muscles, her moonlight silver hair cut short, dim scars danced in small scribbles around her body, her bloody pupils showing the girl’s reflection. The two sat staring at he each other’s faces in amazement for what seemed like an eternity, completely void of any sound. “You look...different…” Luna said, easing her face closer.

“You...too…” For some reason, Jasmine did the same, their pink lips puckered as they closed the distance between each other, the tension grew to a seismic level as they eased a few more inches to each other. They closed their eyes, with puckered lips as they connected for their first passionate kiss. A slight shivering sensation was felt as they could feel their saliva mix. What was happening? These two were the best of friends and this suddenly happened. Jasmine pulled from the kiss, a strand of saliva lingering from both their lips. She paused and stared at the girl, mystified. “Have I gone insane…?”

“We do a lot of things that would make us seem that way, no?” Luna replied as if something of this caliber was natural to her. She thought of what it would be like to have Jasmine as her lover in the military; tongues would be flapping; she knew that much. It would also be dangerous, as Aldo may target her as his next victim as well. Sighing long windedly, Luna decided to cut her losses. “Hey, we just need some rest is all. We’ve been at it for quite a while now.” she said, forcefully dismissing the kiss, her false blank expression helped in this case. The two rose to their feet, Luna avoided eye contact to save face that the feelings from the kiss in fact, were real; she wanted to be more than friends with the girl, but granted their circumstances that would never happen. Luna hugged the girl, mending everything that had been broken between them in an instant. “This military’s made us all crazy.” she whispered into the girl’s ear.

However their heartfelt moment was interrupted by a deafening siren from afar, from there, multiple soldiers were were seen rushing past the stables, getting themselves in check for the guest of honor whom they had been preparing for. The girls looked at each other and decided it would be best to follow suit. Luna got dressed and sheathed the sword into her scabbard almost pulled backwards by the weight; she managed to level herself, however. The girls were led to a large gate connected to a lengthy wall which surrounded the entire camp. The soldiers all formed up in a large laine, adjacent to the gate in a welcoming position.

“What’s going on?” Asked Jasmine to another soldier. He raised a brow, looking at the girl as if she were crazy.

"...You didn't hear? A highly respected general is coming to evaluate us and stay here for the time being. Mayer told us about it, hence the reason why we were busting our asses." he said grunting at the thought.

Another soldier nudged him to quiet down as the massive gate opened, making way to a sizeable troop of men on horseback. They all wore nondescript red and black armor, their weapons were decorated and much more incandescent compared to the recruits. Luna and Jasmine looked on at the scene, amazed. It was a brief reminder of what they hoped for when they first joined; a delusion become real. In front of the entire entourage on horseback was a large, gruff looking man in gold and red armor. He was out of place compared to the soldiers behind him. Must be the big hat… thought Luna, eyeing him carefully. The sound of carriage wheels rolling over the ground were heard from a distance, and above all, it seemed to have more soldiers guarding it than the one leading the charge. The entire group came to a full stop and all dismounted from their horses, their armor clanked meticulously as they stretched their tired and aching bones. The recruits all then saluted suddenly as the gruff soldier bat an eye towards them.

“Who’s that?” Luna asked to herself. A recruit stepped in to explain.

“That, is General Joseph Hammond-- a fairly decorated General within the Cursed Army.” he said, crossing his arms.

Before Luna could even respond, the carriage doors flew open so suddenly. A foot stepped out and contacted the ground daintily, the pearlescent silver shoes touching that ground, as if gracing it with it’s own divine beauty. At first glance, Luna did not expect whomever stepped out of that carriage was merely the very thing that defined her life. The girl was stunning; grey hair, blue eyes, milky white skin, a comely smile sweet enough to reduce anyone down to their knees, and a curved figure in which, belonged to an angel. Luna was taken aback by this, as she had never seen a woman other than Jasmine that would match her set preference.

There were worthwhile women in Eisenrock but none of them could stack up, even to this woman, they were mere ants compared to her, Luna felt the unwavering need to lose control and completely throw herself at this goddess of a woman. "Holy hell..." She whispered as the girl walked by, eying her figure from under her dress. For a moment she bat an eye to the gawking woman, smiling sweetly before turning and being led away by her entourage of guards. Who was she smiling at? Luna would think. The woman was of a higher class than she, and was leagues over her; it was foolish of her to think of something so unrealistic. She likely turned her attention to a commanding officer, paying her respects to the militant atmosphere. Luna smiled melancholically and shook her head, slightly disappointed to the absurdity of the situation.

There, the man known as Hammond approached the young girl and placed his rough, scarred hands on her shoulders and smiled sweetly; the girl pouted in protest. "Clevene," he called out. "I know you don't care for soldiers and the like, but this is for the good of the army, you'll see." he advised, thinking that showing off his daughter would give him more face value as a general if anything.

"Good of the army? You mean good for you." The girl known as Clevene scoffed in mockery to her father's benefactor. Her eyebrows furrowed to the smallest ounce of skin as she frowned. "In any case, we will need a place to lodge in this musty encampment if I am willed to stay. Like as not, I have no other place to go. Why not?" The girl said in sheer sarcasm, her eyes narrowed to a scowl as she turned away from her father's gaze.

Hammond merely sighed, turning to the direction of his colleagues, he walked. Walking past Sergeant Mayer, the heels of Hammond's boots made a sharp and precise clacking sound as he stopped abruptly, staring the man in his eyes. "Mayer...walk with me." he said, the large man hurriedly followed suit. "Now, as you know I will be staying in Eisenrock for quite sometime and we have yet to be accommodated a room..."

"I...I see." Mayer only said, wiping a multitude of beads from his forehead, gulping spit in response. Despite the massive gap in size between the two, Hammond truly frightened the Sergeant. "I-Is there any place you have in mind? I will be sure to have any room for you to your liking." he meekly proposed. Hammond did not exactly look directly at the Sergeant but it was certain that he was aware of every move he made; Mayer was frozen in time, afraid that a single fidget he made would be rewarded with a swift stab in the gut.

"Oh? In that case I shall be staying in your house then." Hammond simply said. Mayer's heart dropped at this, he looked as if he wanted to protest but was abruptly stopped in his tracks as the general's gleaming, sky blue pupils came into view, his gaze was like a vice, like two snakes were ready to slither in and swiftly snatch the life right out of someone without as so much as a second thought. "...That wouldn't be a problem, would it?" The man said, his expression unmoved as he stared upward to the transfixed Sergeant.

"N-No sir, not at all. By all means..." Mayer replied in defeat. Hammond's frighteningly stern expression returned to his ordinary gruff expression and nodded in response, waving his hand as if granting him permission to leave; Mayer gladly compiled. Walking away, Mayer exhaled heavily as if he had been holding his breath in for the remainder of the conversation. Damn, what’s come over me...? I would never falter like that in in the sight of a man! thought Mayer. He clenched his fist for a moment but forced himself to release. It wasn't worth it to confront a general, especially in the Cursed Army.

Jasmine tapped Luna on the shoulder, as she was lost in thought and smiled at her. Luna merely returned the se it was as if the girls had forgotten the kiss from before completely. In any case, Luna knew it wasn’t meant to be between the two and decided to drop it. "Hey Jas, let's go eat. I'm starving." Luna said as she hooked an arm around the girl and dragged her along.

A day had passed since the guests of honor had arrived to the encampment, they were paired in separate rooms in different part of the camp. Clevene was led into her room by a guard, the guard stumbled in after her, surmounted in luggage. She might as well had taken the spoils of this experience if running away weren’t an option. She smiled at this particular soldier’s anguish as she hunched over, intending to make this girl’s experience as miserable as she could. It wasn’t aimed towards her directly, but merely directed towards her occupation as a soldier. Whilst dropping the luggage onto the floor, Clevene furrowed her brows. “Hey, hey, hey, careful now.” said Clevene to the silver haired woman with a devious smile. “Can’t have you destroying my entire wardrobe.” she cast a judging glare down at the woman as she knelt down to pick her luggage up.

“Hmph. Attached to our clothes are we, princess?” Sonata mumbled, Luna snickered at this. Clevene looked upward and glared at the girl, her sky blue pupils buried into the girl’s very soul, something similar to that of her father. She approached the recruit and roughly poked her chest. “You got a name, soldier?”

“Luna.” the recruit said simply.. She turned away, completely flustered by the girl’s touch, although she made a feeble attempt to maintain her cold nature. Clevene noted the girl’s uneasiness and smirked vaguely, possibly seeing a window of opportunity in due time. “I suppose you’re going to tell your father on me for dropping your stuff, yeah?” she said defiantly, her eyes went half lidded followed by a smirk.

“No, instead I’m gonna keep you around. You seem interesting enough...” Clevene replied simply, smiling seductively into Luna’s eyes. Luna looked away, blushing slightly, unsure of what the nature of that smile would be. As Luna turned away, the girl took notice to an immense, beaten blade hanging from her back. A woman of this stature carrying a weapon such as this? Clevene would think she spent less time in the books and more in training, but dismissed it entirely. The girl seemed to have at least something in between the ears compared to the other soldiers; they would have made an inbred animal seem more intelligent. “Hey, how do you manage to lift that thing?” Clevene dared to ask. Luna only fell silent for a moment, her mind went blank, her breathing stopped, all in thought to that night before...

Before Luna could come up with a feasible answer Clevene interrupted. "Man, you must've done a lot of training for that!" she said, amazed.

"Yeah..."

Something was looming about in the outskirts of the military encampment, the trees and bushes ruffled slightly from movement of passerby figures, sprinting through the forest. The rising sun shined a pinkish orange hue, dispersing the surrounding shadows throughout the area, revealing the illusive prowlers in question. With this, they ran with eye arresting speed, as fast as their spirits would allow. Whoever these men were, they were clearly out for blood. Three soldiers stood outside of the camp gates, working their way for the next feasible payment of coin. They patrolled the very outskirts as if they were gullible sheep awaiting their experience in slaughter. A sound was made within a bush next to one of the clueless guards-- of course, he would go to investigate. Before he had a chance to take a step near the structure of foliage, a knife was quickly plunged into his throat. Blood sprayed from the new hole that used to be the poor guards neck-- like a rock, he dropped to the floor.

The other two weren’t very fortunate either, one of them were greeted with an arrow to the eye and the other managed to get cleaved in half by a massive blade--All in a matter of seconds.

The three mystery prowlers gathered; a tall slender male, brandishing an impressive arsenal of knives on his belt. An average sized female, carrying a bow and a rather queer quill of arrows-- metal arrows which would cause their victims an insurmountable amount of agony. And lastly a heavily built man, holding onto his back was a massive blade which could be comparable to Luna’s, one would go through an extensive amount of training to be able able to lift something like that. They were all shrouded in black masks, their grey and brown uniforms had a curious crest imprinted upon the breastplates, symbolizing a lion

“Do it.” Said the slender male, nodding to one of his cohorts-- both of them emanated with spirit energy. With this, dim sparkles were seen across the forest. Clearly, the trio brought an army with them. Archers stood in towering podiums above the camp took note of all this, it didn’t take them a simple shine of a torch to know that they were being attacked.

“Sound the alarm and alert General Hammond!” yelled the guard to a patrolling group. Shortly, an unsettling cacophony was heard throughout the camp, soldiers were awoken by the racket of stomping boots through wood, the loud clanking sound of arming being strapped on and constant yelling from the other sergeants for the soldiers to get themselves in gear and remember their training...their first battle, one would think it would go south granted they had not finished their training. Some soldiers were cowering, coming in terms with themselves that they were not ready for this, that they might die before even tasting the pleasure of becoming a knight under the king. Without a second thought, the entire army of men stormed into the camp, slaughtering whoever got in their way. Buildings were set ablaze by firebombs thrown by the men of this mysterious faction, men were easily cut down left and right-- while the defeated women were either taken as prisoner or outright raped in the midst of the battle; it was a bloodbath weaved not only by a goddess of destruction, if anything.

Hammond looked on at the horror from above, his men crowded him, ensuring that he would remain unharmed. “Damn it,” he mumbled. “Just who are these men…?”

“Band of the Lion,” said a voice from across where Hammond and his men stood. It was one among these soldiers. He smiled wryly as he gaze at the chaos that had befallen the camp within the process of a few minutes. “It’s a wondrous sight indeed, no?” Hammond placed a hand on his sword, reflexes urging him to draw it.

“I take it you’re the leader of this little ensemble?” Asked Hammond, scowling defiantly, though maintaining his level-headed mannerism.

“The one and only. Emilio Vitrines at your service.” The man’s hand swung his over his torso, going into a bow.

“Hmph, I won’t even accept a bow from someone as low as yourself....” Hammond gestured his guards to move aside, with this he drew his sword; it sang as the serrated, black blade ripped from it’s scabbard. “Have at you.”

“Gladly…” The man drew from his bow and pulled a multitude of knives from his belt and held each of them in each finger, on each hand. Suddenly they charged each other.

Luna and Clevene’s conversation was interrupted by sounds of pained yells from the other soldiers from the outside. Luna immediately knew from the racket that it was about time to get set and ready. Luna drew her sword with ease and held it over her shoulder, not caring in the matter that she was unarmored. It was her first battle, who is to say the girl would even need armor anyhow? “Hey,” Luna began. “You’d best get yourself hid, shit’s gonna get messy…” her voice hinted with excitement but was shrouded by monotone.

“I’d sooner be gutted than take orders from a soldier.” Clevene protested.

“Don’t argue with me, just do it. I’ll protect you.” At this point, Luna wouldn’t give an ounce of concern for a naive girl with a superiority complex but there was something about her that made her think otherwise, if not mentioned before. "You've got a real fuckin' problem to choose death over following a simple order."

"And you're in no position to be handing those out, are you?" retorted Clevene. She defiantly folded her arms. Luna pinched the bridge of her nose to the stubborn girl. What was her reason for hating the military anyway? The two stood and bickered for a moment until the knob to Clevene's room jiggled slightly. Having no other choice, Luna pushed Clevene into her open wardrobe closet and jumped inside with her, closing it behind them. The two were squished together, lying in wait for their assailants. Luna blushed heavily as her breasts pushed up against the girl’s while they stood in the awkward and uncomfortable position. "H-Hey...watch yourself." said Clevene, struggling to adjust herself.

"Q-Quiet, they might hear you..."

The armed men in wait each poured into Clevene's room. "Spread out and find her. Her father is preoccupied fighting Emilio, we could likely put up a hefty price for her." said a large soldier, gesturing each of the men to move about the room with his sword which took just about most of the space in there. He was the same masked soldier involved with the incident before, thus the reason this chaos even unfolded in the first place. As they all scanned the entirety of the room, the final place was the sole wardrobe sitting in the center of the room, smiles came across all their faces as they eased towards it.

Luna and Clevene stood in thought that the men had dispersed, though Sonata did not believe that for one second. Oi Luna, hate to break up your little moment but those guys are still there. Sonata warned. Luna paid heed to this, shuffling past Clevene to grab her sword, having significant trouble getting it out of the closet. So suddenly a hand burst in, grabbing Luna by her shirt and pulling her and the sword from the closet, her blade made a large diagonal cut around it-- nearly hitting Clevene. Luna jumped to her feet and assumed a fighting stance, she gripped the blade's hilt tightly, eyes darted left and right to each soldier surrounding her in the room.

"Who's this lass?" Said a soldier.

"I dunno but look at the sword she's totin'! She's out to do some serious damage with that thing!" Said another soldier, having half a mind to turn back and run. The large soldier dismissed all this, bringing his own blade into view as if trying to compete with the woman.

"In any case, she's just one woman." The man smiled arrogantly under his mask. "Kill her." he said.

Without a second further, the men grew excited, their lips moistened heavily as they received the order, their eyes grew widely as they took off in a dash towards Luna. Clevene averted her eyes, in fear that the girl would not survive an ordeal such as this.
Luna clenched her teeth, time slowed down as she tactically took note of each soldier that rushed her. "I count three-- no, four charging my rear, two in front of me, and one to my side; then there's this giant bastard..." She thought.

Her red pupils darted back and forth as if marking each target; she needed to take them down quickly. Her only hope of making it out of this unscathed would be to avoid any mistakes in her form and keeping her weight leveled. Yes...She could do this.

As a soldier to her rear made his first step, the vibrations rang through Luna’s head like a bell-- he would be the first to go. With her results locked into her head, Luna clenched her blade, cocking it backward for the first swing. Adrenaline shot through her spine as she successfully cut into the man's side, cleaving him in half, the blade followed through and sliced into the other three men with ease-- like a knife through butter.

"Three more..."

Luna shifted her weight, a furious, exhilarated glare fixed across her face as she slayed two other men, missing the third one. Petrified and knocked onto the floor, the man gazed into Marcell’s blood soaked face, her body washed with the guts of his comrades. The soldier was no younger than Luna; why would he join a raid if he was going to run anyway? His body screamed at him to flee the scene, go back home to his family and live his life without the burden of death, but...he would not will it-- he drew a knife from his belt and charged Luna-- and without mercy, like a flash of light, the girl simply beheaded him. His separated body took its last remaining steps before falling stagnant to the ground like a rock in deep water. Luna rose, completely mystified by the death of the boy, and the men among him, by how she snatched their lives away from them in an instant; she had not realized such a concept had existed-- death, it simply moved her, excited her. Having experienced this first hand; the thought was enticing. She wasn't sure whether this feeling was good. Like as not, she cracked a smile, her eyes went solid.

"Ha...haha..."

The girl's thoughts were interrupted by the heavily built soldier behind her, he held his blade over his shoulder as he looked on at the carnage Luna had caused-- a fairly well decorated room painted red. "First kill? Heh, we all remember our first." The man said, cracking a smile. He took a fighting stance. "Who's to say I won't be added to your kill count, hmm?"

Meanwhile...

Jasmine and Aldo were entangled In battle with the archer woman from before, her blinding speed was arresting at the very most. The two hid, avoiding any incursion from her-- behind a wooden crate however. She primed two arrows along her bow and loosed them at the two. There was something rather curious about these arrows however-- they managed to make contact with the crate but they managed to break through, nearly hitting them. Jasmine examined these arrows closely.

"Metal? How is that even possible?" She said aloud. Aldo stepped in to ensure what the girl said was true, his mouth hung open in amazement. Jasmine winced, feeling a searing sting along her arm-- the woman had grazed Jasmine with that last arrow.

"Shit..."

Aldo began to lose his mind, despite his rank, he had not expected to see any battle-- instead he sought to work as a guard in the capital. Dying here would obviously deprive him of his cushy fantasies. "Hey Grass-Hair, where's Marcell? She ain't skippin' out on this battle, is she?"

"What do you care, huh? So you can take advantage of her again?" retorted Jasmine with a less than approving gaze over her face; she hated Aldo for what he done, Luna didn't even have to tell her that the man had done those things, she knew plain as day that the man wanted Luna; and he was desperate to have her no matter the consequence.

"No clue what you're talking about, Riess." Aldo smirked, not doing a very good job at keeping his malevolence hidden; purposefully of course. The crate was once more assaulted by the steel arrows, Aldo even jumped in fear of being the next one to be hit. "In any case-- we should end this before we end up being skewered." Agreeing begrudgingly, Jasmine nodded. Although the man was scum, he was still an ally for the time being. The two rose from their hiding spot. Aldo held his rapier at the ready while Jasmine drew her sword. The woman raised an eyebrow, seeing futility in their baseless plan.

"Come now, what do you expect to do from way over there?" The woman questioned.

"You'll see." Jasmine said, spirit energy welled up in her body as she mentally called out to her spirit. "Minerva..." She thought.

Yes, mistress.

The spiritual essence began to overflow and began to become visible, Jasmine emanated an aggressive green, the ground around her began to shake, small pebbles levitated lightly as if being pushed along by an unknown vibration. Jasmine had not used her spirit in quite a while after awakening it all those months ago; who is to say she couldn’t put it to good use now? With a swing of her blade, Jasmine sent a large shockwave in an arc across the gap that separated the woman and the two. With this, the shock wave followed through, thus missing the woman and having an unholy marriage with a hut behind the woman. Wreckage, debris and the bodies of stray soldiers unfortunate enough to get in the way rained down from the area of effect.

“Tch…” Jasmine straightened herself from the wreck, clicking her tongue at her botched attack. Aldo stood stunned at how much power the girl’s spirit could muster up; that was in no way comparable to his. Hell, he wasn’t even capable of making his spirit energy visible. Then there’s Luna-- the damnable girl managed to lift and wield one of the largest weapons in the military, his arms ached whenever he eased near it. Perhaps Aldo had finally come in terms with himself that he underestimated the two.

“H-Hey, you missed her!” he snapped, trembling in his boots.

“How troublesome, I never expected a newly recruited Cursed to be so in synch with her spirit." the woman said. "You Cursed aren't the most adept when it comes to control and compromise." the woman ran a hand through her jet black hair and primed another couple of arrows into her bow; she wore an intrigued smile and responded with "Hmm, this has gotten interesting. I'll just snuff you out just like the rest." like a spark of lightning, her hand recoiled back and forth in swift intervals from her quiver back to her bow, she loosed the metal rods in quick succession at Jasmine, so fast that her eye could not keep track of each one. Jasmine managed to evade a couple but was sooner impaled by the rest-- one in her leg, and the others in her arm.

Unmoved, Jasmine fell to a knee so abruptly, she breathed heavily as she glared at the woman. Aldo was too shaken to even emerge from his hiding spot to willingly take one of those arrows himself. The woman smiled, accomplished that she managed to bring down someone considerably strong within the Cursed Army and relished in the moment. She walked towards Jasmine, pulling a knife from her belt in hopes to finish the job. Execution though? If only one could truly be so dramatic. Jasmine gritted her teeth and gripped her sword with her non dominant hand in a futile attempt to keep herself in the fight. This was laughable to the woman as she eased closer and closer to Jasmine, her heart palpitated endlessly with each step she took-- until she was stopped in her tracks by a lamentable sight-- a woman, painted from head to toe in blood carrying an immense blade in one hand-- and the head of her fallen comrade in the other.

"L-Luna...?" Jasmine could hardly recognize the girl in her state; Luna wore a blank expression as if she was run dry of emotion. She tossed the head of the heavy set soldier to the woman who stood, hexed by the sight, with haste she caught the disembodied head and gazed into it's empty and bloodsoaked eyes. She grit her teeth for a moment but then let go, she was not ready to grieve yet; there were enemies before her. She shot Luna a stern glare before dropping the head onto the ground like dead weight.

Luna looked to the injured Jasmine and put a hand onto her shoulder, leaving a bloody palm print on the cloth of her shirt. "You did good, Jas. Let me do the rest..." She said almost glad she's taking the weight off the girl’s shoulders. She turned backward to Aldo who remained behind the crates, he looked mystifyingly into Luna’s eyes, the eyes of the hot tempered, happy go lucky young woman he once knew, the woman whose innocence he took with force were gone and replaced by the blank eyes of a monster-- indeed, this woman changed, drastically. Clevene managed to catch up with Luna, she was shaken, almost as if she were traumatized. Her bones were stricken with the reaction to tremble. Luna looked regretful for a moment but shook her head, dismissing everything before her. She turned back to the woman and stepped forward. "Clevene, get Aldo and Jasmine out of here." Luna suddenly said, nudging the girl from her trance. “I said I would protect you, didn’t I?”

She stood in confusion for a moment, holding both her hate for the military and her desire to live in hand. Luna stood to protect her despite pushing her away; she had reason to believe Luna felt Clevene was much more to her than an item for her next pay in coin, that determined look to guard the girl no matter the outcome spoke to her. Luna turned back to Clevene and merely stared at her, a look that would say "Got it?". Clevene nodded, grabbing Jasmine by her uninjured arm, dragging her away. Aldo painstakingly followed, keeping his gaze planted on the picture before him: flames engulfing the buildings, an insurmountable amount of corpses decorating the area, and at the center of it all-- a blood bathed woman with a loss of innocence-- a truly hexing sight indeed.

Luna smirked and turned back to the archer woman, she gripped her bloodsoaked sword tightly with both hands and hung it over her shoulder arrogantly. The archer woman primed an arrow, prepared to put the woman down quickly. "You've caused quite a bit of trouble, even for poor Thomas-- the one you decapitated? Have you no mercy?" The woman questioned sternly.

Then that word... "mercy", came to mind. It hit Luna like a large hammer to her head.

"Mercy...?" Luna began. Her blood boiled at the question. It was as if the woman had struck a massive nerve and had no means to reconcile for it. She grit her teeth roughly before letting the girl have it. "Did mercy come into the equation when you barged in here to kill fathers, mothers, other people's runaway children? Did mercy come into the equation when you have taken those women and raped them remorselessly? ...Did mercy come into the equation from what they did to me...?" Luna's voice came to an abrupt stop, as she spat out that last sentence; a shiver lingered from her lips. "You bastards know nothing about mercy!" She expressed coldly. "C'mon, you're fighting me now..."

Luna began to emanate a faint cloudy red aura from her body, as her anger grew. She was well over her limit of self-control. At that, she was just about ready to give this woman the same fate as the other soldiers. She swung her Zweihander in a circular motion and held it in a battle ready stance, slowly walking towards the woman.

"Hmph, fine then..." The woman then loosed an arrow at Luna, they recoiled as Luna deflected it off her sword. Luna then hastened her pace, her boots clacked with each step, next thing she knew, she was at a full sprint towards the woman, sword in hand primed to strike. She was eager to close the distance between the two; it would be an unfair fight if she didn't, after all.

Luna licked her lips in anticipation to even get close to this woman, her heartbeat increased as she eased closer, and closer up until she was close to her face. Stunned and transfixed, the woman was amazed at how this lowly village girl could carry this slab of steel called a sword, and move at arresting speeds while doing so; the very thought was jarring. Luna finally closed in on the woman and without hesitation she swung her sword; the woman’s left arm was unfortunate enough to be caught in the blade's path. Blood sprayed from her socket wildly, like Satan had a broken fountain in Hell, followed by the blood curdling screams of the woman as she suddenly fell to the ground. Stupefied, she hastily grabbed her disembodied limb and in her madness, held it close, attempting to reattach it in some futile way. Luna cast a look of pity down at the woman, seeing her writhe in her own pool of blood on the brink of insanity would give anyone shivers

Luna held her blade at the crestfallen woman before her, she had already gone into shock and turned a ghostly pale, her screams ceased, she began to shiver all around and her vision began to blur. Luna wasn’t going to let this woman bleed out was she? Did she lose that much of her sanity that she would be so cruel to do something like that? No, Luna saw enough. She held Zweihander in both hands and raised it over the woman’s stomach, without hesitation she plunged it through her abdomen, dulling the pain. The woman’s death rattle was something to remember also. Her voice cracked, that arrogant demeanor had disappeared and was replaced by something of an ordinary woman who merely wanted a life of peace; a loving husband, a son to care for and a sizeable house would often be the topic of her dreams-- something she probably gave up long ago.

“When you get to Hell, tell all your friends my definition of mercy.” Luna coldly advised, smiling darkly down at the slowly fading woman, her cheeks stretched to each ear as her eyes grew wide. The woman was gone, her pupils were blank and blood dripped slowly from her throat, her lifeless corpse was partly red from the pool of her own blood that puddled into the ground. Luna yanked the malignant blade from her body and swung it sideways, cleaning the blood from it. With an expressionless gaze, she sheathed Zweihander onto her back and walked back to Clevene and the others, scoffing all the way.

The battle was near over, the number of casualties grew to a crippling number for both parties. Hammond still managed to gold his own against the faction's leader but his will to fight slowly dwindled; he needed to end this quickly. Calling out to his spirit, a wavelength of energy flowed throughout the man's body, he stared Emilio down smugly as if the battle was already over. With a flash of light, something grabbed over his chest what seemed like arms of a woman embracing him from behind, the arms then reached inside his chest, completely burrowing inside of his body until another flash of light. General Hammond was encased in armor much different compared to the set he arrived in; this armor was all black, it had what seemed like two goats on each shoulder and had a black, horned helmet to top it all off. Metal arms wrapped around his chest same as the mysterious one's from before. Could it had been his spirit? Hammond's sword changed as well, the decorated broadsword shifted to a fairly large blade, it's hilt wrapped around his hand like a snake constricting someone.

Emilio was amazed, as this was his first experience of witnessing a Spirit Synchronization first hand. He stood, petrified that the man's spirit possessed this type of power. Could it be that Emilio had underestimated him? He tossed a knife at Hammond however it was futile, the knife snapped in half upon making contact with Hammond's armor.

"Now before I kill you, what was your purpose here? Why would you cause something like this?" Asked Hammond, he pointed his blade towards Emilio's throat, prepared to cut the man down at any moment. He was on the brink of anger seeing his army falter like this, although it was a surprise attack, this made him have half a mind to think of something grueling for the soldiers to do after this.

Emilio painstakingly surrendered, he dropped his knives and parted his lips to answer. "You see, when our sources heard that you and your daughter were coming to a recruit training camp, we saw that as a perfect opportunity to strike." he said. "Our mission was to kill you and kidnap your daughter too, I mean-- these are recruits, we didn't expect them to give us this much trouble." Hammond thought for a second, that plan was despicable, desperate, but admittedly admirable.

"Hmm, you know what?" Hammond said, shifting from his spirit form, the armor peeled from his skin and dissolved the next second. He appeared to be smiling sweetly to the man, his smile was that of a kind and considerate man as his cheeks stretched ear to ear before saying. "That was a good plan, indeed." after saying this however, Hammond's sword plunged through the man's throat so suddenly. Emilio fell lifeless to the ground after this. Hammond turned to one of his guards with a stern gaze. "Find my daughter and get these fires under control, this battle is ours."

"Yes sir." Said the men in unison, they dispersed into separate directions to follow each of their orders efficiently.

The rest of the Lions were driven out upon their leader's death, leaving every surviving cursed recruit to be dumbfounded or injured in that particular order. Jasmine, Luna and Clevene met at the infirmary while Aldo went off to tend to his soldiers-- not that he would want to be anywhere near the girl after that. Several soldiers writhed in pain in the hospital beds, some bled were left to bleed out as other doctors hurriedly tended to the other injured. Jasmine sat on the table as her leg was examined by the medic, she was pretty banged up after that fight while Luna only sustained a few cuts and bruises; nothing to make a fuss about-- apart from her bloodstained body.

"Well, you're a very lucky girl, you know that?" Said the medic, colored surprised. "The arrow missed an artery in your leg, you might have bled out quickly if it did. Your spirit just may be looking out for you." Jasmine smiled, mentally thanking Minerva for her help, though her spirit did not require any thanks, Jasmine keeping her life made her content enough.

"Well that's a relief." Luna only said, she did not smile but she was glad internally. Her medic dabbed a bit of alcohol on her cuts causing her to wince a little.

"Hey now, no crying. Not from the girl who may have just saved us." the medic said smiling.

“It’s crazy...how this girl could do so much damage but flinch from a little alcohol on a wound.” Clevene thought, she stared into space for a moment until was interrupted by Luna’s sharp voice, she looked concerned.

“Hey,” Luna spoke up. “You didn’t get hurt, did you?” her face scowled as she said this. Could it be that she hid her true feelings for Clevene under a shroud of an expressionless gaze and heartless words. Why she did it, especially when she was so eager to meet her at first was a mystery. Clevene could see this as well, perhaps that time when she first arrived-- she really did smile at Luna. She tried her best to convince herself that she didn’t, but this series of unlikely events said otherwise. Clevene nodded her head, smiling heavily.

“That’s good, kiddo.” Luna said, sighing in relief.Suddenly a troop of guards barged into the room, their almost luminescent armor spoke to Luna that they may be of Hammond’s posse. “Where is Clevene? Is she safe?” asked a guard sternly to one of the nurses, she pointed to the now calmed girl hanging on Luna’s arm. The guard calmed himself knowing that his head wouldn’t be on a stake by Hammond’s hand, at least; watching the agonized soldiers didn’t do him any favors, however. “Young miss, it’s good to see that you are unharmed. Your father was worried of your safety.” the guard said obediently.

“Bah,” Clevene casually waved her hand in dismissal. “He would have come looking for me himself if that were the case; instead one of his recruits had to do his dirty work.” she replied, she glared at the thought of her father not coming around sooner to help her, it was jarring thinking what would have happened if Luna weren’t there with her…

“Let him worry, Luna here was the only protection I needed.” Clevene scoffed at her so-called “bodyguard’s” effort at keeping her safe. Luna merely snorted at that notion, if adding this girl to her benefactor would speed up the process of her becoming a knight, she’d take it-- that’s what she would think, anyway. Truly, she did care for the woman, it was hard for Luna to convince herself otherwise, but she did. The fling with Jasmine was forced and couldn’t be helped at this point; Luna would have to get close to her however. “Hmph it’s nothing, I will go.” Clevene frowned. She walked to the door the guards stood, feeling bitter from this experience. “I’ll be sure to put in a good word for you, Luna.” she said as she turned back to the bland, blood drenched girl, smiling, her rosy cheeks glowed a bright, luminescent red on her milky skin before exiting with the guards. Luna smirked back at this and continued to watch as the medics worked on Jasmine.

The two nurses looked at each other, glaring as if in urgency. “I’d watch myself if I were you, miss.” said a medic. “That’s the daughter of General Hammond you’re screwing with. You know there’s something wrong if she were to cling to a soldier like that.”

“Don’t flatter yourself, would you like it if that were the case?” replied Luna smugly. Jasmine snickered softly from the quip. The nurse flushed heavily in thought of a scenario where the two would be together and turned away back to her business. Luna stood from her seat and stretched widely, her arms throbbed a bit from the prolonged use of Zweihander, any longer and she probably would have collapsed, herself. At any rate, she sought to use the weapon to it’s fullest extent. “Anyways...If there’s nothing else, I’m gonna go rest. Take care of yourself, Jas.” said Luna, Jasmine nodded. Luna turned to the door and exited, whistling a tune as she did.

In the following week prior to the last battle, the camp had undergone a lengthy reconstruction. The many fallen soldiers were all buried in one singular grave and were given a swift funeral while the corpses of the enemy were all burned, generating a foul stench across the camp. After finding out about the Wolves' motive of attack, Hammond and Clevene cut their stay short from the camp for safety reasons; Luna was seemingly unaffected by this, however. Though, Clevene's words from the day before did not go unnoticed.

Luna did not take responsibility for killing those men either, she had no intention to be in the limelight of the army, not anymore. Instead Aldo stepped up to the plate, stealing what Luna had sought for from the beginning: fame. Indeed, the man was compensated heavily for this, he was promoted to Sergeant and was given authority over the other superiors, even Mayer, no doubt. It made Luna wonder if Clevene put a good word for her at all.

Jasmine had not recovered from her injury at all, the medics told her that she might remain on crutches for the remainder of her life. She felt dole, as she was approached by Cursed recruitment officers and was told that she was far too inadequate to fight for the army and said that she would be discharged the next day. Luna didn’t know what to think, having to progress the ranks on her own would be taxing, though for some reason above all that’s happened, she did not feel anything on the matter.

Despite the battle and number of casualties, Aldo thought it would be best for the remaining recruits to have some experience in fighting a live enemy, clearly battling combat dummies did not help, even he knew that much. However, he wasn’t so sure about Luna, that blood covered image of the woman, that nondescript expression...it was a wonder to him if killing that woman was a fluke. The recruits all stood in a rather infertile part of the camp, watching each fight unfold. Mayer probably would not allow something like this, but then again he was in no position to object against Aldo. It was almost as if he had started a fight club in between the cursed recruits. As the day went on, each fight got even more awry.

It was finally Luna’s turn, having to see the woman in action from a few recruits, word spread around the camp about her brute strength and how it came to be over the course of a few months. Evidently, no one wanted to step up to the plate in fear for their lives. Seeing this, Aldo grimaced, painstakingly deciding it would be best to disprove all the rumors. “Are you all kidding me? I’ll fight her then!” snapped Aldo. Luna shrugged and stepped into the manmade circle of peering recruits. Jasmine spectated the scene as her final act of being enlisted, she wanted to at least see her friend in action before letting her off on her own.

The recruits whooped and cheered as they all watched the two square each other up. Luna, wearing her blank expression as usual, scoffed and promptly drew her sword while Aldo sheepishly pulled his rapier; it was clear that the man still had that bloody image of Luna to mind that he was starting to have second thoughts. The last time they fought, Luna was still in the midst of mastering the sword itself. Who knows what might happen to him now that she can wield it properly?

“Make your move.” Luna practically ordered, taking a battle stance.

Aldo was damn near shaking in his boots at this point. He stares restlessly a the woman down from across the circle, fighting himself not to remove them from their places. Tightly shutting his eyes, Aldo took a headlong charge for Luna. Seeing this, the girl’s arms pulsated, she put everything she could into lifting her Zweihander in one go. To counter Aldo’s hastily stolen attacks, Luna began to effortlessly strike away his rapier with a few well placed strikes. The recoil of the blade kicked him backwards, causing him to nearly fall on his ass.

"Shit..." Aldo cursed under his teeth. He may had put on too much of a front to look good in front of his men to challenge Luna, the real hero, to a duel. The girl didn’t attack back though, just merely swatting his own attacks back at him. The question remained: why? Judging by how quickly she killed the attackers from last night, Aldo would be a bug compared to them. Did the man take that big of a toll on Luna that she couldn't bring herself to fight back? Possibly. "C'mon Marcell, whaddaya holdin' back for!? I thought you were strong?" he purposefully taunted to get a reaction out of Luna. It didn't do much of anything, really. The girl ignored him and kept her guard up.

Jasmine could only watch closely as Aldo did everything he could to get Luna riled up, but why? He saw what happened the other night, the girl had clearly lost her mind when she killed for the first time. It was only a matter of time before Luna would come swinging for Aldo’s head in the future.

A spectating recruit stepped in. "Hey Luna, you think you should use a smaller sword? Like one around your siz--"

"No!" Luna snapped before letting the man finish his sentence. She took her eyes off Aldo for a moment, giving him a chance to harshly push her backwards. Luna remained on the defensive and continued to parry Aldo in a convoluted attempt to keep her composure. Both their strikes ended up coinciding with each other, evidently. Luna’s sword cut through the rapier, instantly snapped it in half, the sword followed through and grazed Aldo’s cheek, causing him to reel. Although the cut was small, through the overwhelming immensity of Zweihander, the cut ended up deeper than it should have been.

“Bitch!” Aldo screamed, feeling the sheer sting from the blade. He then dropped whatever remained of his spear and in his anger, struck Luna, thus leaving a large bruise across her face. She fell to the ground and wore a face of transfix and shock, she stared only to the ground as she had no more willpower to even project her composure any longer. Jasmine came limping by on her crutches and painstakingly knelt down next to the stricken Luna, feeling the bruise on her cheek. She grit her teeth seeing the girl like this, Luna was never one to be hit by a man and take it lying down. As she heard some of the peering recruits laugh and joke at the display, Jasmine had enough.

“Aldo, you bastard!” she snapped looking to the scoundrel with high distaste. Luna merely stayed silent in the matter.

“What? She nearly took my head off, what was I supposed to--” Aldo was interrupted by Jasmine as she gripped him by the shirt. Yanking the man close to her face, she glared deeply into the man’s eyes and looked almost ready to belt him as hard as she could. Instead she made sure to get her message across. Aldo’s men came running up to their leader’s position to likely jump the girl, however they were stopped in their tracks as Aldo put his hand up. “Let her talk, I wanna hear this for myself.” he said.

“If you ever touch Luna again, EVER...I’ll kill you myself!” she practically yelled into his ear.

“Noted,” Aldo replied, wearing a smug grin on his face. “Tch, I was bored anyways!” replied Aldo as he smacked Jasmine’s hand from his person. He departed from the slowly dispersing crowd and signaled for his group of miscreants to follow suit. They all looked as if waiting for their leader to part his lips. He suddenly wore a large smirk on his face, eyes practically burning with excitement. “She’s next.” Aldo simply said. The group then wore devious expressions on their faces, knowing they finally have a new plaything for tonight.

Back with the girls, Jasmine cast a look of concern to Luna as she remained knelt on the ground. Jasmine looked as if she wanted to say something to the girl, her lips fidgeted because of it. Luna was weeping, tears fell from her cheeks and coincided with the dirt ground below her. The salty liquid burned her eyes, as well as the bruise that lied on her cheek as the tears made contact with her milky pale skin, causing the bereaved girl to wince in her heart-wrenching sob. Jasmine bit her lower lip, infatuated by how long she could manage to keep this facade up-- as if nothing was wrong. No, everything was wrong with this scenario. Luna took abuses from a man she hated and didn’t do a damned thing about it; that was not the girl she knew at all. “Luna...I--”

“Why?” Luna finally responded, her head remained planted low on the ground, she didn’t even attempt to look at Jasmine at all. “Why did you step in…?” she asked in between sobs. Jasmine was taken aback from this, that Luna would let this happen and then proceed to push the girl away the next second.

“You know why I did it, that man has done things to you and you’re sitting back and letting it happen.” Jasmine stressed, she wore a stern scowl as she said this. “You’re not the Luna I knew as a kid: the same Luna that would knock out a man if he would do so much as touch her, you’ve changed.” she continued. “Hiding behind that mask of a blank face isn’t fooling me, something happened to you that night-- you were raped and you’re too dense to accept it.”

“I know I was raped!” snapped Luna, she rose to her feet and stared Jasmine in the face as if she struck a very sensitive nerve. Recalling that night was hell for Luna, the immense pain, the unbearable amount of times she was struck by those men, and the midnight flashbacks of it; she wanted it all to end. Jasmine attempted to put a hand on Luna’s shoulder. "Don't touch me!” Luna yelled as she slapped Jasmine’s hand away. “You call yourself helping me when all you've done was sit on the sidelines and let me take the hits."

“Are you kidding me? You’ve been nothing but distant these last few months; I tried to help you, Luna!” Replied Jasmine, before they even knew it, they were in a heated argument. Voices attempting to overlap each other, slowly raising and echoing through the atmosphere. Luna had enough, the girl pushed the crippled Jasmine onto the dirt ground, mildly harming her upon impact. Jasmine looked up at Luna in disbelief, at a loss for words for what she had done, she didn’t even want to get back up; their friendship seemed to be torn far enough.

"Just do me a favor and stay outta my life! I don't care what Aldo does to you anymore!" Luna snarled before turning away, departing from her friend, leaving a fairly large gap between the sign that used to be their friendship. Jasmine was left, transfixed by her words, standing in that same spot for what seemed like an eternity. A single tear eased itself down her cheek . She wanted to call back for Luna but naught exited her lungs but hot air sapped with adrenaline. Jasmine’s childhood friend was gone, surmounted by hatred. She vanished past a miasma of passerby soldiers, few who stumbled upon their argument, vaguely showing concern but ignored her regardless.

Night consumed the camp like a cloud of darkness, the atmosphere was much more tense compared to earlier. For whatever reason, this particular night was comparable to the night where Luna was raped. The winter wind blew through the camp roughly, as if a beast were unleashing its power unto the world, blighting it in darkness. The winter snow grew that day, almost to the point where it blocked a few paths along the camp.

Jasmine sat inside of her cabin, as if lying in wait. With her, she had a lit lantern that sat next to her, illuminating the entire room. In her hand was her broadsword, readied to cut someone down, her eyes planted onto her cabin door. The girl was tense, shivering and jumping to the slightest creak of wood, the slightest peep. Her mindset lied frail, her awareness waning as the harsh night slowly burned with each second. It was late, everyone probably would have turned in for the night, and Jasmine had yet to do the same. She was tired, eyelids practically screaming at her to close, even for a second-- she refused however, wary of what would happen if she dared to get even a moment’s rest. Jasmine fought over and over again to beat back her state of repose but it was no use, her eyes grew heavy, almost ready to fall along with the girl herself. Mistress, you seem distressed. Would a night’s rest suffice? asked Minerva. Jasmine jumped at the sound of her voice so suddenly, but appeased herself realizing that it was her spirit’s.

“No, Minerva...but thank you for your concern…” answered Jasmine, smiling melancholically. “I have to stay awake...otherwise I’ll end up like Luna…” the girl slurred her sentences heavily, her yawns didn’t seem to help douse the fire at all, either. Jasmine could not take her internal clock’s abuse any longer, she felt herself waning rapidly, eyes shutting periodically-- finally, she fell to the hard wooden floor, dead asleep. Suddenly she stirred back to her restlessness, tired eyes swiftly scanning through the cabin. She heard a harsh wave of foot steps and voices. The girl stumbled to her blade at the ready for whomever may come through that door.

“Another great day of training, guys! Drinks are on me!” said a recruit happily, he and his group walked passed Jasmine’s cabin with no mind payed to it, laughing and joking all the way.

Jasmine sighed, feeling silly thinking that tonight of all nights would be the time Aldo would attack. The cold wind blew roughly and snow damn near surmounted the entire camp. “Aldo would want to come out here tonight...?” thought Jasmine. The cyclical shutting of her eyes had returned, and Jasmine had just about given up on Aldo. The girl sheathed her blade, setting it down onto the wooden floor next to her. Her leg injury prevented her from getting up and lying onto her bed; it would be best to sleep on the floor, she thought. She lied down, allowing the punishing, but rewarding mistress of slumber embrace her tightly. “At least someone’s enjoying themselves…” Jasmine finally uttered before shutting her eyes for good.

But wait…

Jasmine was stirred from her slumber once more from a loud creak, it was completely different from the recurrent sounds of ambience the camp had to offer-- no, it was coming from the inside of her cabin. She opened her eyes to the damning sight of Aldo and his lackeys creeping towards her. The girl jumped up suddenly and turned over and crawled as she fought to reach for her broadsword, however taking advantage of her injury, Aldo stepped onto Jasmine’s leg, stopping the girl in her own tracks. She screamed in agony but did not let the pain halt her completely, she turned back over scratching and clawing at Aldo as his men harshly ripped off most of Jasmine’s clothes, divulging her body.

“Hahaha, you have an even nicer body than Luna!” yelled Aldo, groping the girl’s fragile breasts roughly, possibly leaving a large hand print there. Jasmine held fear in her eyes, as well as anger, she would much rather die than suffer the same fate as Luna. Aldo thought he had Jasmine on the ropes but what he didn’t count on-- was the knife hidden in Jasmine’s pants. She swiftly unsheathed it and rammed the blade for Aldo’s throat, but given the struggle, she missed, impaling it into his shoulder.

“Bitch!” Aldo screamed at the top of his longs, reeling from from the knife. Almost swiftly, the man immediately pulled the bloody blade from his shoulder-- and in his anger stabbed it into Jasmine’s abdomen. Aldo paused, as well as his group, realizing what he had done. Jasmine had a deep look of bereavement in her eyes, unable to process what had happened. She was transfixed, all the while shivering; she grew cold as blood oozed from her wound and cascaded the floor with a red, rosey color. Aldo and his men were reduced to silence as they watched the girl writhe and gag in her own blood. Tears ran their ways down Jasmine’s face as her eyes slowly fell and her body slowly went limp, her spirit lying stagnantly for her master to respond, however all fell silent.

No.... she wasn’t finished.

In a lapse of adrenaline, Jasmine grabbed Aldo by his shirt, then his face, slowly scratching and clawing on the very skin. The girl grit her teeth and scowled deeply into the man’s eyes, almost as if she were to bring him down along with her. She brought Aldo's face close to her own, straining to part her lips, the blinding look of fury in her eyes. Blood drooling from the side of her mouth. Jasmine clenched her teeth as she held on for dear life, attempting to hold her eyes open, trying to keep herself alive for these last few words to the man. Blood, tears, anguish, and hate all rolled up into one moment and Jasmine’s spirit grew wild, she began to emanate a dark purple in her deep seated fury. “I hope...Luna kills you...slowly.” spat Jasmine in her final moments of life. She then spat into the man’s eye with her last remaining strength before fading away completely.

Aldo reeled and upon reflex, struck Jasmine in the side of her face--however it would be too late to get a reaction from her, she was already gone. Her eyes fell solid, the spiritual aura faded, her body went limp, and blood painted her once green hair, along with Aldo’s hands-- red. He stood in silence, breathing heavily, thinking of the consequences if anyone were to find out about this.

"My god, boss...I think you killed her." said a soldier completely frightened out of his mind. Aldo's group began to have second thoughts about ever partaking in his decrepit activities, as they were merely over privileged rich kids searching for a cheap thrill. Why Luna and Jasmine of all people, though? It was a mystery at the very most.

"I don't give a shit!" spat Aldo, turning to his men so suddenly. He held a depraved look in his eyes as he stared down the distraught soldiers, almost as if these two girls he tried his utmost best to usurp constantly had driven him off the proverbial edge of sanity. “You idiots said you’d follow me with this †˜till the very end. We were ready for something like this, right? Don’t even try to flake on me now!” Turning back to Jasmine, Aldo proceeded to unbutton her trousers, as well as his own-- forcefully entering the now deceased woman’s vagina, same as he would do Luna. Aldo’s men reeled from the lamentable and deplorable display, looking on at the desperate man in disgust. At this point, they had lost all respect for their leader, completely unaware that he would stoop this low.

“B-Boss, what the hell?!” said a soldier, on the verge of vomiting. Aldo halted for a moment and glared fiercely at the man as if hinting he was going to die next, the soldier knew well what his leader was capable of at this point and decided to quiet down. Aldo turned back to Jasmine and continued his heinous act of depravity, tossing her lifeless corpse back and forth across the wooden floor, grunting and breathing heavily. Aldo’s men backed away out of the cabin to await their feral leader to finish, all wearing distraught and despairing expressions. The youngest of the group became so shocked that he was reduced to tears and abruptly fell to his knees. Was he in thought that Aldo would kill them next? Apparently the beginning phrase “it was all fun and games until…” plays into this, only the punchline was “until someone dies and their corpse gets raped in the dead of night.”.

Hours passed, the day had come, though the sun refused to shine into the camp. As the wake up call sounded, the recruits thought it was still night time. It was rather cloudy that day, almost like despair itself had hung over the camp like a bad omen, giving way to a gloomy atmosphere; it was much different compared to a few days ago.

Luna walked through the camp in deep thought about yesterday; what she said to Jasmine was unforgivable. “She was only trying to help…” Luna admitted aloud, working up the courage to swallow her pride. She sighed, realizing that what she did was wrong, begrudgingly making her way towards the path to Jasmine’s cabin. “I should apologize.”

Luna was met with a queer sight, a crowd of recruits standing in a large bunch in front of the cabin. Curiously, Luna walked forth to investigate, pushing and easing passed the peering recruits with haste, though from the corner of her ear, she could hear the stifled whispers from the recruits she fought past, her and Jasmine’s names being called out in swift intervals. She reached the door and swung it open to two men standing in the middle of the room, towering over a tarp-- which seemed to have volume over it. The men wore Cursed Army officer armor and were tapping casually on clipboards. Like Hammond, they seemed like bigshots in the army, it was a mystery why they would come back down here after that incident from before. Luna would likely think they would come back down for her after Clevene put in a good word for her like she said she would. Of course, she was wrong about that too.

“...Yeah, we should probably jot her down as suicide.” said one of the men. nonchalantly writing the words “suicide” onto his slip of paper in cursive writing. Luna overheard this and announced herself. She coughed loudly, startling the two men from their work. The two glared at Luna but their eyes simultaneously widened at the girl. The next moment they flipped the papers of their clipboards in unison, turning to a page with Luna and Jasmine’s faces on it-- a file from the look of it. “Luna Marcell, I take it?” said the first soldier.

“...What’s going on? Why’re you guys just crowded up in Jasmine’s cabin like this? Where’s Jasmine?” asked Luna curiously. She peeked passed the two soldiers to peer at the tarp once more, she saw a hand peek it’s way out onto the floor. “W-What…?” the second soldier stepped in front of Luna, staring down a stern but in some way, apologetic expression at her. “Hey, didn’tcha hear me? I said where’s Jasmine?” asked Luna once more, sterner this time the soldiers grew silent and looked down at the ground, as they did not have the courage to look the woman in the face at all. Luna grew angry at the so-called soldier’s state of mum, why were they so resistant to the question? The girl mentally inquired for Sonata to search for any semblance of Minerva...Sonata returned with no results, Minerva’s life signs, as well as Jasmine’s, had gone cold.

In a stroke of fury, Luna then hurriedly pushed passed the men and lifted the tarp from the ground-- revealing it to be Jasmine’s corpse. Dried blood lingered from her knife wound and from her mouth, her half lidded still-opened eyes were like two dimmed light blue beads of light. Luna lied in silence as she bore this sight, her shoulders slumped and her face dropped, it was almost as if she was being taken for a ride, a simple joke. One of the men put a hand onto her shoulder, attempting to counsel her. "I'm sorry, she...your Sergeant said it was her knife. It's clear that she killed herself. " he said. Sonata flew around Luna, lightly rubbing against the girl’s face, smiling visibly at the soldiers; however granted they didn't see her, Spirits are invisible to the human eye. A heavy amount of tears fell from Luna’s eyes, her entire body was shaking with quivering anger, before she knew it, she was weeping, a faint red aura danced around Luna, fading in and out from her body.

Those two bloody pupils stared down the two men fiercely, however Luna turned away. It was unmistakable that they weren’t to blame for this in fact, she was. The things Luna said to Jasmine, her physical appearance, her mannerisms, how easily she could bring herself to kill, these were all visible to Luna’s new self. Her eyes glimmered as she took one last look at Jasmine’s corpse and rushed out of her cabin, violently pushing past her fellow recruits, at the same time, pushing away Sonata’s influence in the process. “It’s all my fault…” she thought. No matter how much she tried to repress it, Luna knew, plain as day, that she was the cause for Jasmine’s alleged suicide. She pushed her away up to this very day and at the same time, repressed her true feelings for her childhood friend. Truly, Luna had gone off the deep end.


Days later, Luna was told that Jasmine was denied a proper funeral because of her suicide and would be sent off by fire. It rained, the sky remained in it’s unholy state, the wind blew roughly, repeatedly beating down on the soldiers of the event-- a fitting setting for a display such as this. Not many soldiers sat in at the so-called “funeral”, only the ones who possessed any authority in the army. Mayer, a few high ranking guardsmen, and Luna. Aldo didn’t bother to make the festivities at all, in fact he practically vanished from the camp as a whole, not even his men had seen him.

Mayer stood at a pedestal next to a large mound of logs, on top of it lied Jasmine’s kept corpse, lying peacefully in her eternal slumber.

“Today...we lost one of own,” began Mayer. “She was a prized soldier in this army and despite what the girl did, she will always be in my books as one of the more respectable recruits. Salute!” the minuscule company of soldiers obeyed, all simultaneously saluting for Jasmine, however begrudgingly. They knew suicide was looked down upon in the Cursed Army, above all, these salutes were not honest. Mayer lit a torch and handed it to Luna, who stood at his side. She walked to the logs and stared into the girl’s pale face, she looked so serene as she slept, so at peace. Luna began to tear up all over again seeing her friend go so soon, but she wiped them abruptly, not intending to look like a charity case in front of her peers.

Luna heard a set footsteps from her side, an unfamiliar set. Looking to the culprit the sound made himself out to be one of Aldo’s men, the youngest one-- wearing an apologetic look on his face. Luna merely glared passively at this man and turned back to Jasmine, ignoring him.

“Look…” said the man. “I’m sorry...for what happened to your friend.” Luna turned her head to him, eyes beaming at his very position. He reeled back for a moment, frightened out of his mind at the girl. She scanned the boy, realizing that his group was missing.

“...Where’s Aldo?” questioned Luna, raising a brow, yet surprised one of them still possessed decency, despite what they had done to her.

“Beats me, I’ve washed my hands of that man.” he answered. “I’m leaving today, maybe go off and live on a farm, or something; military life is too much for the likes of me.” he smiled sweetly at Luna, putting a hand on her shoulder. “I know it’d be too much to ask for forgiveness… after taking part in what they did to you, but I’m looking to redeem myself for that, can’t go back home, my family would likely lament me for leaving.” he admitted, laughing. “The others would likely stick with Aldo for some reason. Crazies, all of their lot. Best of luck, Luna.” the man said before walking away from the girl, waving behind him.

Sighing, Luna then turned back to Jasmine’s body, taking one final look a the girl, closing her eyes. “Goodbye…” she said softly before tossing the fire onto the logs. As her eyes parted open, the entire pile was engulfed in a burning flower of flame before she even knew it. All the soldiers had already dispersed, leaving Luna by her lonesome to gaze at her friend pass on to the next life.

Many months to little over a year had passed, the grueling training had finally ended; graduation day had arrived. It was a happy little celebration back in Eisenrock, everyone stood delighted to finally be called a soldier of the Cursed Army, even Mayer joined in on the merriment. Drinks were served for free and those who were too drunk off their asses were too happy to care about what damage they had caused. Everyone had received their own armor, rank, and personal achievement to have passed the trial of basic training. Everyone, of course, was content and accounted for in the celebration-- all except for Luna.

Luna hung back, away from her battalion atop a hill distant from the village. It was the same hill she and Jasmine always stood at to gaze at the autumn leaves from, the same lone vantage point hasn’t changed at all, neither had the village itself. Luna had her reasons why she did not participate with the others: her grandparents would likely come looking for her if word got out that she was in town. A slight crinkling noise sounded around Luna’s position, she saw that orange leaves fell in small intervals around her...she had forgotten, the cold wind, the cherry red sky… it was autumn. “They’re falling the same as that day…” Luna said to herself in reminiscent thought. Sonata appeared next to Luna, poking the girl on her cheek.

Hey tiger, how ya been holdin’ up? she asked half playfully. You haven’t been very talkative these days y’know, maybe I need some company too~ However Luna remained silent, gritting her teeth and the like, Sonata’s voice wasn’t exactly the epitome of peace and Luna could truly feel at peace when she wasn’t around.

“….She’s gone, and it was all my fault; I made Jasmine kill herself.” Luna replied, grimacing the moment, constantly fighting back tears. She stared depressingly into the ground and shuffled uneasily, she truly felt guilty for Jasmine’s death and would not let it go. The image of Jasmine’s peaceful body burning and sent to the heaven’s through a rising cloud of melancholy. “I pushed her away, now I’m alone…” Luna then suddenly looked over to her Zweihander and bit her lip realizing that is leaned on the tree by its lonesome. She grabbed it by the hilt, bringing it close to her, holding the blade in both arms. “At least you’re here with me.” she said full of sorrow. Sonata wrapped an arm around the bereaved girl’s neck from behind, smiling as she embraced her.

Luna heard a set of footsteps crumple the leaves just from the very peak of the hill. Turning, she saw a small, meek looking boy who happened to be wearing Cursed armor. “Colin?” Luna called out, but then turned away abruptly, suddenly not caring who it would be in the slightest.

“I figured you’d be up here. You’re not coming down?” He asked. However Luna remained silent, shaking her head to decline his proposal.

“Is that all you wanted to ask me?” asked Luna preparing to completely push him from her presence for good.

“No, I actually wanted to speak to you--about Jasmine.” he said. Luna shot him a curious look then sighed. A boy of all people wanting to speak to Luna about a lost friend? That’s new. Especially when the other soldiers wouldn’t bat an eye to Luna. “It will be quick, I promise.” he then said, smiling tersely. Luna paused for a moment, conversing with her skepticism, but then moved her sword over one side on the rock she sat on, patting the empty space to beckon Colin to join.

Sitting down onto the rock, Colin began with a sigh as he searched for a starting point. “So, you two were pretty close, huh? I always watched you two sit up here on these very rocks as I grew up. This village has seen some better days, I suppose..” Luna merely nodded in affirm to this, remaining silent most of the conversation.

“I know you aren’t much of a conversationalist, and what I’m telling you is probably bollocks to you, but I will tell you this; no one blames you for her death. Jasmine just couldn’t handle it and I guess…she decided to...yeah.” Colin said, unable to find it in himself to come out and say what he intended without stepping on a sore subject, even though it was already at that point.
Luna scoffed, still feeling bitter on the matter. She would have gone to therapy if she sought for someone to tell her it wasn’t her fault her best friend killed herself from Luna’s words entirely. It was heart-rending, and Luna couldn’t take knowing that she was the cause, despite everyone else’s verbated tendency to tell her otherwise. It annoyed her, sickened her to a high degree; she just wanted everyone to leave her alone. “Out with it, what are you trying to say?” spoke up Luna, startling the boy, almost off the rock and onto the ground.

“...I heard rumors, about what Aldo did to you.” confessed Colin. The entire conversation went south as tears suddenly ran down his cheeks, the boy held his fist in quivering anger. He stared to the ground. “That is...unforgivable, you are a respectable woman and he would go off and do those things to you…” he said in between sobs. Why was he crying for what Aldo to Luna? One would think that he felt for the girl, that he merely wanted to hug her after hearing what depraved things Aldo had done to her, of all the things Luna had gone through, he merely wanted to hug her tight and never let go.

“My mother…” he spoke up. “He did the same thing to my mother...he made me watch, too. And you know what happened? She died afterwards.” he stifled his sobs after saying this, trying to stay strong having relive that lamentable moment. “That’s why I joined the military so I could become stronger, so I won’t have to worry about something like that happening again.”

“Do you hate him?” Luna suddenly asked, stopping Colin’s tears abruptly. Luna stared off to the village’s direction and had naught but a blank expression as usual, but you could tell that it was stern and with concern. Colin merely thought to himself in search for a feasible answer. “If you hate him...you should just kill him yourself. If you can’t bring yourself to, then you’re still weak.” she said simply.

Colin frowned for a moment but let go, realizing that Luna had a point. He smiled melancholically as he gazed upward at the autumn sky. “Yeah...maybe I am weak.”

Shortly a day after the festivities ended, the newly knighted soldiers were sent off to a battleground for neutral territory under siege in the west in the middle of the night. As they were on route to the camp by carriage, a soldier approached Luna bearing important information. “Luna Marcell?” he called out. “This here is a special mission for you. You and seven others are to protect our commanding officer, General Hammond as we fight the contending army-- The Descendants of Kyne.” he said, promptly handing Luna a letter with an official Cursed Army seal on the bottom.

“Why me?” Luna only said in mind of her insignificant rank and the fact that she seemingly had not done anything important. If anything, Aldo would likely be leading it; he seemed to have gotten a lot of praise lately.

“Because word has been going around that you single handedly thwarted the Band of the Lion’s attack on your camp a year ago, no?” answered the soldier. Luna stiffened her lips as she remembered that day, the day of her first kill. She couldn’t argue with that logic. She merely shrugged, accepting the mission. As they reached the base camp, there were a multitude of tents spread throughout the dry, desert-like landscape in an visual crescendo of red cloth after red cloth; a clear indication this was going to get awry very fast. The sky grew dark and everyone was on the verge of passing out. They each crawled into their tents and turned in for the night, with the exception of Luna who found the nearest tree to sleep under with her sword propped over her shoulder in case someone would attempt to replay her first night in the military.

The next morning was hectic, soldiers were hurriedly rushed out of bed and urged to put on their equipment the day before it is ordered-- some kind of jargon between soldiers one would think. Going back to sleep after a wake up call would mean getting stomped out by a captain. Luna was already dressed, equipment completely shined and latched onto her person as she, along with six other men-- including Aldo sternly walked through the camp passing by the other soldiers, even Colin who waved to Luna for a moment still getting ready for battle.

Aldo grimaced having to be in a position where she had to take orders from someone he was previously superior to. All because the girl killed a few people, it was a joke to him; a farce. He hung back from the group and sneered with one of his men about Luna achieving such a feat. “This is bullshit, suddenly a farm girl gets to lead a special mission from a few dead bodies? Feh!” he scoffed. Luna heard every word, though, she kept quiet, however.

Meanwhile in a well lit tent in the very center of the camp, a gruff, bearded man sat in the midst of reading through a few documents, flipping and scribing through pages like they were nothing. This man, however was no stranger to this story, however. He in fact, fought the same battle back in the Cursed recruitment camp in a year ago. His reading and flipping was interrupted as a rather scrawny-looking soldier hesitantly rushed in. In his hand was a ruffled stack of papers, each layer had a single peculiar name printed on them; it was impressive, the one in question would likely have an impressive combat record.. “General Hammond, sir.” called out the soldier, practically trembling in his boots as Hammond turned eyes turned the soldier.

“Ahh...a Luna Marcell is the one to lead your mission to--”

“Luna...Marcell?” Asked Hammond, interrupting the boy. He thought for a moment and like a metaphorical light bulb plopping over his head, he remembered name exit the lips of his daughter, Clevene as recommendation. He stroked his beard and scoffed at the proposal for recommendation; however, he still had the document on his lap, possibly considering it. “A woman, Howard?” Hammond then scowled. He held the notion that Luna, a woman, was not capable of such a feat.

“Yessir, she was the one responsible for the deaths of the late captains of the Band of the Lion, and it says here that she saved your daughter from one of them. Apart from that, she has an exceptional combat record and--”

“And no one else was able to fill this position?”

“N-No sir.” stuttered Howard attempting to keep his composure. “Unfortunately, there weren’t many soldiers willing to take the position, however she just...said yes, surprisingly.” Hearing this made Hammond sigh heavily, leaving a long pause between him and the shaken soldier. He stroked his silver beard once more, contemplating to his spirit if accepting Luna as his bodyguard would be the best course of action. Sighing once more, the general sat back in his chair and locked his two hands together, bringing them to his chin.

“...Very well,” Hammond painstakingly said, unable to see any other way out of this. “Do not make me regret this decision, you hear?” Howard then nodded as he handed the general the large stack of papers that seemed to be Luna’s and hurried out of the tent. Hammond half-heartedly eyed the scriptures with distaste, scoffing at each sentence in disbelief that a woman is able to do such things. “Luna Marcell...feh!” his mumble was stifled however as his eyes brushed past a peculiar slip of paper. Picking it up, it was completely different from Luna’s records that it wasn’t even related to her feats in combat; however her name was mentioned in it. Strange, it was. The sound of cloth shifting was heard from the corner of Hammond’s ear, turning to the culprit it was once more Howard, however he pointed behind him, gesturing the soldiers in question had arrived.

Hammond ignored the other papers on his desk, save for the one that caught his eye, and pocketed it before walking out to meet his group.

As he exited the tent, feeling the blinding sunlight of the rocky terrain beat down on his skin, he met eyes with the appointed soldiers. Five men, and two women, including Aldo and Luna. In an array of dead silence Hammond scanned the group closely, eyeing them to the smallest detail of his armor. One would think why he was so observant, especially when it is of people he meet for the first time. His eyes then met with the blood red pupils that was Luna’s, who stood in the very middle of the group. His face stiffened a bit, seeing the bleak mug of this woman, she did not seem like the sort to speak anyhow. As he skimmed through her files, the picture of the long haired smiling girl was taken amiss to the scarred woman he saw before him. “Well that’s different.” he thought.

“Luna Marcell, I presume?” asked the general eying the girl selectively. Luna merely nodded in affirm, remaining silent. Hammond eyed her over casually, not impressed by the slightest until his eyes grazed over to the immense blase on Luna’s back. His eyes widened as he saw this; that this small, dainty woman could carry a weapon of this caliber, it was baffling at the very most. He shook his head, tossing aside the matter and turned away towards his horse that awaited him. “Saddle up, you lot. Battle horns are blowing far east. You fall behind, you get left behind.” he yelled to the group. Aldo scoffed as he put on his helmet and mounted his horse, eyeing Luna tensely from behind.

Luna sighed before putting on her helmet, slightly adjusting Zweihander as she saddled up, as it was too lengthy for her horse. The group’s horses galloped through the dense, rocky atmosphere, rapidly easing closer and closer to the sounds of battle from afar. The heat of the desert, the heat of battle beating down on their armor, causing them to sweat heavily from both the physical hindrance, and the rising tension. The entourage gained closer and closer to the commotion until they could hear the sounds right in front of them. They suddenly entered a miasma of war. The sound of iron blades clashing together in the heat of battle fueled Hammond to rush in unattended, the other soldiers followed after. Galloping through the battlefield, Luna took notice to men and women being cut down in their prime. There were no rules, there was no discrimination-- this was war, her blood boiled and eyes widened at the gruesome sights, a tingling sensation shot through her body--something telling her to abandon the General and fight the battle she wanted, to bury herself in blood, to kill. No, she needed to focus on the objective at hand. No need to have personal desires get in the way of that.
However the urge was too overwhelming for the girl, she painstakingly changed her horse’s course for another route, to wherever she saw hostiles in wait.
On his way to find the acting chief Hammond slashed down a few with his sword with breakneck speed on the back of his horse. “Haha! Nothing like a good fight to get the blood boiling!” He bellowed, his joy was stifled however, by another horse which sped past him. It was too fast, he almost did not see it coming if it weren’t for his foresight. Whomever was on this horse left a road of bodies decimated in it’s wake. A well-built man wielding a large battle axe stepped off the horse, eyeing the General with an unquenchable lust for his blood to be splattered across the dirt.
“P-Paskan!” Yelled a soldier from afar, spotting the brutish man responsible for the deaths of his comrades. Paskan swung his axe wildly, snuffing out each soldier unfortunate enough to come into his path. The man was armored from head to toe, he was somewhat of a steel turtle from far away. Hammond gazed at this display and cursed under his breath, it was possible they would end up suffering a loss unless Paskan were to fall.
“Oi, is there no one who wants to fight me!? Cowards!” His voice bellowed; it could be heard throughout the entire battlefield leaving it in silence and stagnance. The Cursed Army was at an impasse, stuck in a crossroads between them, Paskan, and the rest of Kyne's army. At this rate, the Cursed Army just might be facing a defeat. Paskan merely laughed heartily at the sight of the frightened and debating soldiers. "Well, if no one is gonna step up I'll just take your general's head myself!" he said, feet kicking past corpses as he approached Hammond's position. In a last minute lapse in judgment, a few soldiers stepped forward in front of the large man only to be easily swatted away like mere bugs.
“Damn it…” Hammond growled. If no one fought Paskan, Hammond would likely be executed in front of his men, all hope was lost; he was ready to give the order to retreat until footsteps were heard-- small taps making a crescendo along the dirt road, the soldiers turned their attention to the source. It was a woman-- completely drenched in a bloody mess-- blood making marks as her sword was dragged along the ground like a paintbrush being dragged along a blank white canvas. The woman’s face was covered in blood; she was nearly unrecognizable to others until they all got a good look at her-- Luna was at it again. She removed her helmet, revealing her magnificent mop of hair soaked in the blood of her enemy. The other soldiers were taken aback by this sight, realizing the rumors about the girl may have been true-- she was a plain dealing monster, and she had just come into terms with that.
"M-Marcell..." Aldo choked out, nearing the urge to vomit as the stench of blood filled his nostrils while Luna passed him by, ignoring his very presence. Hammond eyed the girl curiously. She couldn’t have gotten all of that blood on her through passive means, could she? The man stroked his beard and held his order to retreat on standby.
“S-Sir…?” asked a soldier next to him.
“Hold on,” Hammond halted. “This should be interesting.”
“Hey,” the crimson woman called out, halting in place of a large, open area, holding her blade on top of her shoulder and glaring at Paskan and only him. He could easily tell she wasn’t out to play as she was the only one to step out to face him. Perhaps she was just insane. “I will be your opponent.” she then swung her blade in a downward position, standing battle ready. A streamline of dust dispersed around the battlefield from the force of the sword’s shockwave.
“A woman? Hahahaha!” Paskan yelled, doubting Luna, and in a way, everyone agreed with him-- even some members of Cursed. Women weren’t the most well-treated in Eisenrock-- or respected for that matter, when it came to doing things seen as brutish, women were seen as laughing stocks. “Alright girl, I accept your challenge! If I don’t kill you I’ll make a personal slave to me and my men! Take away all that blood and you’re not too bad look--” He was interrupted as Luna broke off in a mad dash towards him, unleashing a barrage of slashes at him; Paskan braced himself, taking each batch of her sword, staggering each time the blade connected with the handle of his axe. The men were surprised and wowed at the scene unfolding before them, a woman actually having Paskan on the ropes. Hammond watched closely, not outwardly showing any interest, but nevertheless, he watched.
Luna’s blade sliced through the air like a flash of light, each slash connected with the brunt of Paskan’s Axe, successfully knocking him back continuously. He lost his footing every now again each time he gazed into the slit of the nameless soldier’s helmet, seeing only shadows shroud her face. Luna would scoff if he called himself unstoppable at this point, he merely faltered like an ant in her path. Like Aldo, Paskan underestimated Luna, and seeing some semblance of Aldo in this damnable man, Luna merely lost herself in her rage as she blindly swung away for this man’s head. As he had enough, Paskan swatted Luna’s sword away with her last strike, beelining his axe straight for her head. However the blunt side of Luna’s sword deflected the strike, misdirecting the man’s swing by only a hair.
The force of the axe was so strong that it wiped the girl’s face clean of blood, revealing her entire pale face, those depraved solid pupils staring into his soul with pure anger as Luna recoiled Zweihander back, slicing halfway into the man’s abdomen. Defeated, Paskan fell to his knees, looking up to the hellish woman block out the morning sun with her crazed look like a blight to the world’s very existence. Luna raised her sword once more, gritting her teeth as she did.
“W-Wait…! I take back what I said earlier, you are an amazing soldier and I would be happy to have you join my ar--” alas the blade cleaved his head off, stifling his bargain. The man’s disembodied limb rolled along the ground, stopping abruptly. The entire battlefield was left silent with the death of Paskan, all mouths hung open with the display.
“...You talk too much.” Luna finally said as she wiped Paskan’s foul blood from her face. The Cursed army finally roared in victory, all rumbling the battlefield with their collective cheers and charged forward to kill the remaining soldiers of Kyne, suffering from their leader’s death. Luna was lost in thought as stared at the carnage with blank eyes, gazing into the blood on her hand, the stench arousing her, kindling her lust for it. Slowly she eased the marinated hand towards her tongue, highly taken with the look and texture of blood surmount her appearance. She was knocked out of this trance with a damnable sight as she turned her attention towards a corpse, though this corpse was familiar to her-- the meek looking boy she talked with the other day and passed on her way to Hammond’s tent-- Colin was his name?
The boy-- or rather, what was left of him, lied stagnant on the ground, beady eyes hung open as his torso lied there, marinating as food for the local animals; a fate same as the other casualties.. Luna could only stare at this, however, not saying a thing as the decaying body lied, not feeling a thing for the poor child. She turned away, back to her group that waited for her, back to the astounded General who smiled at her prowess.
Hours had passed. Night fell, the soldiers partied and sang and drank in celebration of their recent victory. Others hooked up with a few of the female soldiers and partook in other particular pleasures separate to partying. The moon hung over the campsite like an angel watching over each of the soldiers in their merriment. Hammond ordered Luna to meet him in a secluded area far from the camp. Well of course, after her performance in today’s battle, it was a given; Luna’s strength and skill with the sword was near inhuman to someone watching from afar, Luna would describe it as a simple feat with her level of skill. Aldo and his men likely went off to slack off with the rest of the soldiers in the camp-- it didn’t matter to Hammond, however, he only wanted to speak to Luna in private.
Luna came trudging past a rock to where Hammond stood, her entire body cleaned of the blood that lingered on her person. Hammond gazed at the girl and smiled sweetly. “Have a seat,” he said, gesturing Luna to rest on a nearby rock. She leaned her sword within arm’s reach and looked at Hammond with a face of dismissal as she crossed her arms defiantly. “Marcell, right?” he asked. Luna merely nodded in affirm. “So, I took notice to your skill in battle and I suppose my daughter was correct, you fight with gust, Marcell! Hohoho!” he laughed heartily at his own statement. Luna stared blankly at the man in deep wonder if that was all he called her all the way up there for.
“I looked at your ile, it said you craved action and adventure, correct?” he asked. “Look, I can’t provide you any of those things, but I can give you something better-- a revelation.” Luna raised an eyebrow, but remained silent nevertheless. Hammond then pulled a slip of paper from his pocket, the same one he found in his tent earlier. “What I have in my hand is a confession from one of the men in Aldo’s little clique-- something related to the death of your friend, Jasmine.”
“Get to the point! I want a name!” Luna suddenly spoke up out of turn. She stared at the man with fury in her eyes, impatient to his long winded speech. Hammond smiled diplomatically at this, thinking that he probably beat around the bush a little too much.
“I’ll give you the abridged version: basically, your *ahem* acquaintance, Aldo Heinrich was responsible for the death of Jasmine. He and his men snuck into her cabin in the dead of night-- much like this one and assaulted her-- in more ways than one.” Aldo’s voice trailed off a bit when he said this, taking note to how grotesque the matter was. “Aldo then covered it up to save his own hide.” After hearing all the pieces come true, Luna remained much more silent than before, Hammond couldn’t even hear the girl breathe. The girl’s hair covered her face to the point where her anger was shrouded.
“.....I see,” Luna finally said, looking up with a blank expression, acknowledging the man in only an accepting tone. “Why tell me this?” before she knew it, Hammond was towering over her, his hand suddenly eased towards the bangs of the girl’s short silver hair, gently swiping them from her eyes, as well as wryly running them down the girl's armor, undoing the straps.
“Because I want to make a deal, Luna." Hammond simply said, successfully unlatched Luna’s armor, revealing the girl's ample breasts, nipples shown from under her sweaty tank top. His eyes grazed past Luna’s body, those developed muscles, those abs, it was as if the girl worked non stop to get this body. Seeing this, Luna glared at the man, knowing exactly what his intentions were. "I will allow you to kill Aldo and his men to do yourself and your friend justice...a little gift to show my terms are sincere. You'll not gainsay that I'm more than generous."
Luna stared daggers at him for more than a minute, to her it seemed like an eternity. Usually she would belt someone coming onto her like this, however the burning thought of revenge clouded Luna’s mind for her to even care. She withdrew her death stare and turned away, painstakingly deciding if she should go along with this. "...Do as you please." Luna only said with high disgust, losing all respect she had for the man.
"I figured...men are all the same, just mindless creatures all hell bent on one singular thing-- tch, that was a given. And here I thought some of you were worth a damn. Heh, never making that mistake again... sometimes I do wonder if life would be better if I died on that porch that night, sure as hell would've beat this. I wish you all would just fucking die...die and leave me alone."
Before Luna could realize it, Hammond was on top of her and she was completely nude, her body being ravaged savagely by the large man, her body subsequently pushed back and forth along the ground, his hot steam like breath but she did not care if Hammond was trash like the rest, Luna simply could not wait to deliver a long-waited package to Aldo-- her hatred.
Meanwhile in Aldo’s location, the man wandered elsewhere, drunk off his ass. Upon impulse he unlatched his trousers and took a leak, while his men snuck off somewhere. As he finished, Aldo was stricken with a sight to make anyone cringe as he turned back to the direction of the campsite; the severed heads of his own soldiers all piled into a clump, and standing next to them was the red eyed culprit herself. It was so dark that she appeared as a silhouette-- before Aldo had a chance to react, a bolt, likely from a crossbow, pierced his leg making him fall to the ground. The silence was broken as Aldo screamed in agony. The figure walked closer and closer to the man, subtle footsteps tapping along the ground, they were like a mind breaking vice in the man’s head as he lied, awaiting his mystery assailant's next move, taking note to naught but those hellish red pupils through the shroud of darkness.
As the silhouette approached Aldo, the darkness that covered her face dispersed, revealing the attacker to be none other than Luna. She stood over Aldo, wearing a face of unrelenting fury-- all of that built up anger from the entire year of training, Luna wasn’t going to let this man off scot-free-- she wanted to make him suffer in his final moments.
"Marcell, what the fuck!?" spat Aldo, reeling from the sheer agony. He instinctively reached for his rapier, but his hand was stopped in it's tracks by Luna's boot. She shot another crossbow into Aldo’s crotch. Ironically enough that was enough to crumple him low. He winced as Luna then delivered several swift kicks to his ribs, face, and already injured groin, not sparing any ounce of anger for the man, not missing a single beat. She beat him to the point where his face was contorted and unrecognizable. The barrage of kicks ceased for a moment, Luna grit her teeth as she leaned over to Aldo in her crazed state.
"Let me tell you what the fuck is...I know exactly what you did, I know EVERYTHING you did!" Luna continued her wave of kicks to the man's throat and gut, the force of the final kick was so immense that Luna slipped and fell onto the ground herself, taken by her own fury. She remained silent for that painful moment as she sat onto the ground and stared into Aldo's warped, pleading face. Something welled up in Luna’s lungs, she cracked a feral smile "Ha...haha...HAHAHA!" she broke out laughing, a hearty guffaw escaped her lips as she howled to the sky. She looked back to the distorted Aldo as pushed back to her feet.
"Lookie there-- haha...you're looking a little pale, Aldo~." Luna pointed out playfully. Aldo noticed that the girl’s eyes illuminated an unholy pink hue. Could it have been her spirit fueling her long awaited rage? It had turned her sadistic if anything. Luna’s hot blood pumped rapidly through her body as she pulled her Zweihander from her back and held it towards Aldo’s throat. Tears ran down the man's face as he truly felt the guilty sting that was Luna’s unwavering lust for vengeance. This caused Luna’s smile to stretch wider, so far that her cheeks reached both ears. Aldo made pained sounds of protest from his swollen lips and broken jaw, gradually shaking his head for the malignant woman to cease her actions-- but no, she wanted to erase the man from existence. Luna hoisted Zweihander over her head and made a beeline straight for the center of the man's skull-- right between the eyes. She swung, everything Aldo had wasted his life doing had flashed before his eyes as the immense blade made an unholy marriage with his face, splitting it in two. Blood rivered from Aldo’s split skull like a satanic stream along the ground-- he lied, dead.
Like a large weight lifted off of her shoulders, Luna’s face went straight, returning to her mask of repressed dismissal. Whipping her sword clean of blood and sheathing it she looked to the direction of the campsite, still hearing the sounds of joy from the other soldiers, sighing. She took one last glance at Aldo’s corpse and took her leave back to General Hammond.