[You have acquired Golden Heart!]

  Mumu awoke immediately, and her heart was overcome by warmth as she saw that she was in bed and Lavender was sleeping peacefully by her side.

  Her golden heart, unlike her original one, filled her with a strange euphoria.

  One that came with being that much closer to light.

  That much closer to the truth.

  To creation.

  But Mumu didn’t care.

  Lav was safe.

  He was warm.

  And that’s all that mattered.

  She remained still, taking care not to wake him until he finally whimpered awake.

  “Mmm? Oh, good morning big sis.” He whimpered as he sat up, his white hair was all messy and he had drooled a little as he slept.

  “Good morning, Lav.” Mumu cooed as she gently wiped the side of his mouth with her thumb.

  Lav’s ears grew a little red as Mumu sat up, and it was here that she noticed the little abrasions on his palms and face.

  “What happened?” She asked as she took one of his hands, her jaws clenched slightly.

  “Oh- I just fell a few times while running from pillbox to pillbox. Big sis Stician said she’d help me get stronger and has been training me—look!” Mumu winced as Lav excitedly hopped out of bed.

  He then grabbed a bow, which had been lying on the floor and held it up with pride.

  It was a simple, wooden bow and had no special properties but since Lav liked it so much, Mumu couldn’t help but smile.

  “She gave me this and said that if I wanted to help you in any way, I would need to master it. Uncle Dollman said that it’s the only weapon she knows how to use, though.” Lav snickered, and while it broke her heart to see him so willing to throw himself into the flames, the moment’s inevitability made her decide not to fight it.

  She let out a sigh before realizing that neither of them had eaten since they met.

  She was a KVL, so she didn’t need to eat often, but Lav was still only human.

  Well, she knew he was a clone that had been genetically tampered with, but still…

  “Have you eaten yet?”

  Lav playfully shook his head, which made Mumu kick herself internally.

  She was so focused on fighting that she forgot such an important thing and so she got up, wearing an old pair of pyjamas.

  The one undone button at the top revealed her fading surgery scar, which caught Lav’s lingering gaze.

  “Yes, actually. Big Sis Cian and I had some field rations.” Lav answered flatly but this made Mumu pout a little.

  “Looks like you had a good time with your new big sis. I guess you don’t need me anymore.”

  “Oh—no! I… I still need you… too.”

  Lav fiddled with his fingers, and his eyes fell.

  Mumu smirked, mimicking Stician, and wrapped her arm over Lav’s shoulder.

  “I'm just messing with ya. I know I'm you’re favourite. Now, where are those rations you spoke of?”

  Lav giggled as Mumu led him out of their room.

  “There’s a box next to the staircase where she keeps stuff.”

  Mumu nodded as the two entered the main chamber wherein Dollman stood before a headless body that hung by strings, like the many others that lined the walls.

  This one had a torso and limbs that were made from a gold which had a crystalline shimmer to it.

  “Good morning, Sir.” Mumu greeted, prompting Lav to do the same, but Dollman didn’t immediately react.

  Instead, he keenly eyed the body with hands crossed behind his back.

  Mumu stood by his side as Lav walked over to the trunk next to the stairs, behind some of the bodies.

  “Frustration is not the enemy of progress. Resignation is and I must admit that if I fail to give you what you desire, if I watch yet another child die or fall to corruption, I genuinely don’t know what else I will be able to do.” Dollman sighed as Lav retrieved two square-shaped crackers from the trunk, one of which he gave to Mumu.

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  “Hey, at least you would have tried, right?” She asked as she took a bite of the dry and bland pastry.

  “I guess you’re right.” Dollman nodded.

  Mumu looked at the deep wrinkles that lined his face.

  They didn’t quite match the vigour and spryness in his eyes and motions.

  She dismissed her suspicions, concluding that he was just an incredibly healthy old man.

  But she also wanted to know.

  “Just who are you, if you don’t mind my asking. What compelled you to help us, KVL?”

  Dollman led Mumu and Lav to his favourite spot on the floor where his tools sat.

  He then sat, prompting the two to join him, with Lav still nibbling on his cracker.

  “I… am a child of this reality, like so many others and, perhaps naturally, I didn’t want anyone to suffer when destruction finally came. Na?ve as it was, I didn’t want anyone to fight, and when the time came for me to defend those I cared for, I ran away and hid. So many were killed as I fled, and the guilt from this moment has gnawed at me ever since. It’s what compels me to help wandering souls. It was when I fled that I found them after all. Those seeking purpose, a second chance, redemption or even wish fulfilment. I do what I can to grant their wishes. I gave power to some when I had it, gave wisdom to others, and I am now helping you get the strength you need.”

  Mumu nodded, and it was here that Dollman suddenly gasped.

  “Oh—and I forgot to mention yesterday, but the boy, he has special blood. You probably can’t sense it, but his body radiates with the same energy as Realstone. I, unfortunately, still have no idea what this means, but it seems as though the master of the Lair to the north, Adsecula himself, was trying to make living Realstones.”

  Mumu’s eyes widened, and she immediately turned to Lav who, while also shocked, clearly didn’t understand the gravity of what had been said.

  “Realstone is used to power reality-altering skills and technologies. I tremble at the thought of whatever unimaginable evil the Caprine Lord was trying to power. However, if the boy could learn to control his… power, he could fuel your skills without you having to seek out shards.”

  “Yes—but what would that do to him?” Mumu frowned at Dollman, whose eyes lowered a little.

  “I… cannot say. I guess caution and care will be our dearest friends in this. Let him continue to train under that stuck-up archer. He should eventually learn how to wield that which courses through his veins, allowing us to observe whatever it may be more intimately.”

  Mumu nodded before nodding towards the golden body.

  “And that?”

  “That will be yours, but only when you have acquired twelve Realstone shards since equipping it, will be akin to using a skill which will last for as long as you breathe.”

  “I guess that means I have a new goal then,” Mumu smirked, making Dollman softly smile in turn.

  “I guess so.”

  .

  ..

  Ellyn stood atop the edge of the cliff just south of the Lair of her lord and she reminded herself not to grind her teeth.

  She had been searching for her target for more than twenty-four hours but her search was made that much harder by the fact that she received reports that Mumu had been spotted in three different locations.

  Not only that, she had supposedly killed three dangerous KVL, one of which was among the Anointed.

  To make thing even worse, that damned archer had taken Mumu under her wing.

  It was still unclear what the archer’s motivations were or who her master was.

  When a KVL fell from the heavens, they were destined to meet their master and losing one’s mater was akin to losing one’s will to live.

  Yet the archer fought ever fiercely, even with no master in sight.

  Tangentially, due to the fact that all the satellites that once orbited Neo-Earth had been shot down, long-distance communication had been significantly hampered.

  Even if someone spotted Mumu or the archer, if the spotter wasn’t able to radio the message back soon enough, the targets would just change locations.

  That said, Ellyn had gotten word that the archer’s hideout was a few kilometres deep into Saintly territory, just south of the trench line.

  But she knew if someone as strong as her stepped beyond the borderline by herself, other high-level KVL and even heroes would get involved.

  The reason why they hadn’t acted was that the true nature of the Lair of the Caprine Lord had yet to be discovered, and the Saintly Forces were too far spread across the continent to search every mountain.

  Ellyn groaned.

  Thinking about all this made her temples burn.

  She needed to destress and so turned towards the mountain beneath which sat her master’s lair.

  She sighed her way back into the hidden facility as the sun sank into the horizon.

  The guards greeted her with reverence, and the anointed scholars did the same, bowing their balk, marked heads as she walked by.

  They, like her, had been marked by their failures.

  Being covered in scars that formed runes.

  Runes that stated, in no uncertain terms, just how much of a failure they were.

  How worthless they were in the eyes of their god.

  Runes that now marked Ellyn’s skin.

  She still hadn’t fully recovered from the pain, and she still saw Lord Adsecula’s burning hot glare.

  She made her way to the war room, where she found the ever-beautiful K'lum giving orders to a group of three called The Blackened Ones.

  These soldiers were humans whose souls had come from another world, but instead of becoming heroes as they were fated to, they were captured by the Anointed and cleansed in pain and terror.

  They were then trained until they were elite soldiers and they were the shock unit of the forces active in the Ab region of the continent and helped command those forces when needed.

  They were clad in charred gear that was constantly burnt by the MAL energy that oozed from their burning souls.

  Their bright red eyes would have made even an anointed human fall to his knees and cry horror but it was they who bowed when Ellyn entered, lowering their black berets that were adorned with their crest which depicted the head of the Great Red Emperor and Divine Beast, Laal Samraat. His gnarly, four horned head standing proudly as the only symbol with his single eye passing judgement on all it beheld.

  Whether it was because she was their superior, whether it was because she was the Red Dullahan, she who could slaughter battalions of both allies and enemies or whether it was because she was an almost perfectly crafted KVL.

  Ellyn didn’t know, and she didn’t care.

  She simply and silently walked up to K'lum’s side and remained silent as the most powerful of the KVL gave out her instructions.

  “With that in mind, a sudden shift in tactics would be too obvious, so try not to make it too obvious.”

  The Blackened didn’t visibly respond; their faces hardened and their eyes seemingly unblinking.

  Their captain, C?nth?nhn? - The Smouldering Sword of Wounds That Never Heal, was fairly short, had a cleanly shaven head that was lined with scars, and his mouth was covered by a tight mask that Ellyn knew was hiding his burn marks. Sheathed by his hips was the Ultimate Class sword known as Flare of the Malformed Sun, which burnt anyone who touched it and wasn’t in tune with its Malignance.

  He stood completely upright, with his hands behind his back and his eyes steady.

  Behind him were his two lieutenants.

  Navpil was just as short and had a scar going across her body from top of her head to bottom of her torso. The left half of her short hair was black while the other lacked pigment, being completely white.

  She had two sub machine guns holstered at her hips, and Ellyn knew that these devious weapons were filled with rounds that were infused with Malignant energy.

  Navpil, unlike her captain, was unable to stand still. When she wasn’t tapping her foot, her eyes were wandering, sometimes looking in different directions, something that was made even more bizarre by the fact that her left eye was brown and the right was grey.

  Gentle was the last and, standing much taller than his comrades, he had a scar going across his mouth an around his head.

  He carried a small ladder on his back, which was actually a complex device that, when set up and active, could drain a person’s Actuality, which, when experienced by something that was only level one, would lead to death. Unfortunately, as Ellyn knew, it also affected him.

  He had neck-length dreads that were interwoven with colourful ribbons. Dreads which hung as he hunched forward.

  “If that is all, you are dismissed.”

  The Blackened nodded before promptly leaving the room.

  K'lum then finally turned to Ellyn, whose eyes immediately lowered.

  “No news to report still?”

  “No, ma’am.”

  “I thought so. Well, you are in luck because our lord has devised a most cunning plan. After pulling back some of our forces, tricking the Saints into a state of complacency, we will sneak into their lines and detonate a new and glorious weapon, one designed by a man who worked directly with our Lord himself!” K'lum reported excitedly before taking a breath to compose herself.

  “Ahem! However, the weapon still needs testing, and we have been given the opportunity to test it. That lucky bastard is being brought here, and I want you to be his personal guard. Do you think you will be able to fulfil even this most simplest of roles?”

  With a racing heart, Ellyn answered.

  “Yes.”