"Please... someone, help me."
Amidst the cacophony of chaos and encroaching darkness, a blonde girl crouched, hidden behind a stone column. She sobbed, trembling at the horrors unfolding just beyond her sanctuary. She could hear the sickening sound of flesh being flayed from bone, accompanied by a symphony of guttural screams. There was nothing she could do but weep, burying her face in her knees, praying for the nightmare to end.
As fate would have it, one of those things appeared before her. It stared at her for several long seconds, swaying with an unsettling, clumsy lurch. A fluid resembling droplets of blood leaked from its claws and what appeared to be its mouth. The sounds it emitted as it stepped closer were incomprehensible to the little girl. She squeezed her eyes shut, desperate to wake up—to return to her mother and sister, to go out for ice cream after the festival.
It was a promise that would never be kept.
The footsteps grew heavier. The girl pulled her knees tighter to her chest as her breath hitched and accelerated. Her small frame shook uncontrollably, and a fresh wave of tears began to fall.
"Shron'tel Rhi Nol'tar," the beast recited.
"Please... someone save me..."
A piercing shriek, followed by the screech of rending metal, snapped the girl out of her trance. She looked up, her eyes widening more than they ever had before. Her trembling subsided, replaced by a sudden, bone-chilling cold.
A blade as white as fallen snow had skewered the Y'ivak.
Ice erupted from the wound, slowly encasing the creature. Frost-roses began to bloom across its hide. In an instant, the monster that had haunted her was reduced to a pile of crystalline shards, scattering like ash in the wind. From the freezing dust, a woman emerged. Her black dress stood in stark contrast against the pale remains of the alien; the rhythmic clack of her heels drowned out the girl's ragged breathing. Her sky-blue hair was slowly shifting into a deep indigo, and her piercing yellow eyes—the most striking feature of the scene—surveyed the area. The girl simply clung to the pillar, watching the spectacle as her gaze grew lost in the rising flames.
"Sweetheart, are you alright?" The woman knelt before her, placing her hands gently on the girl's arms. "I can't begin to imagine what you've been through. Let me take you somewhere safe, okay?" She stood up and extended a hand.
Hesitant and teary-eyed, the girl took the woman's hand and gripped her dress tightly. It didn't take long for her to break down again, crying out for her mother and sister. Without a word, the woman scooped her up and fled the area at a blurring speed, leaping through a window and racing across the city's rooftops. Behind them, the building they had left was consumed by a series of massive explosions.
"Minerva, do you copy?" An unknown voice crackled from a hairpin transmitter near the woman's right ear. "What's the status?"
"General Kassandra, containment was a success. All Y'ivak have been neutralized, but at a heavy cost."
"I see..." the voice replied, raspy and cold, as if hardened by a thousand such tragedies. "How many survivors?"
"Only a girl..."
"Bring her in. We'll provide medical support and then brief her on the incident."
"Understood. I'll reach the Valhalla rendezvous point shortly. See you there," Minerva said, putting on a burst of speed. "Rest easy, little one. Everything is going to be fine... I promise," she whispered into the wind.
As the fires faded into the horizon, the girl began to nod off from exhaustion. The night's events had drained her, mind and body. She felt the cold wrapping around her, yet it was balanced by the warmth of Minerva's embrace—a warmth that reminded her of her mother's hugs. In that night of tragedy and hardship, she understood: this woman had saved her from a fate her family would have never wanted for her.
When she opened her eyes again, she was in a comfortable bed. Startled by the clinical hospital surroundings, she looked around until her eyes met Minerva's blue mane. She noticed an IV in her arm, dripping a reddish fluid that didn't quite look like blood. Swallowing her fear, she chose not to scream, waiting for the woman resting at the foot of her bed to wake up.
Suddenly, she felt it. A powerful heartbeat thundered in her skull. On both of her arms, two shapes manifested like sudden tattoos: a white lily on one, and a black spider lily—a lycoris radiata—on the other. They pulsed before fading into her skin.
The girl screamed in panic, startling the woman awake, who immediately pulled her into an embrace.
"Easy now! What happened?"
"My arms... two things appeared," she said, her voice trembling.
"Two?!" Minerva's eyes widened in genuine shock.
She quickly pulled out her phone and dialed a number. "She awakened two. Get here, fast," she commanded before hanging up to comfort the girl. "Calm down, let me explain everything, okay? But first, I need to know your name and your age."
The girl calmed down and gave a slight nod. "I'm Stefani. I'm ten."
"Alright, Stefani. Listen closely, because this is hard to wrap your head around. Those monsters you saw are called 'Y'ivak.' Hard to say, right?" She gave a small, disarming chuckle. "Those creatures come from beyond the stars."
"Beyond?" Stefani tilted her head. "Why?"
"We aren't entirely sure, but we know they don't like us. They attack and kill anyone in their path. They are monsters." Minerva looked away for a moment. "But not all of them were like that. Long ago, during their first visit, some of them opposed the slaughter. They gifted us a power."
"A power?"
The woman gently lifted Stefani's arm, stroking her forearm with a light, ticklish touch.
"What you saw on your arms was their gift. We call them 'Flowers.' They grant us unique abilities." A rose made of ice manifested in Minerva's hand, and she handed it to the girl. "Some people are coming to run some medical tests. Later, I'll come get you and we'll go for that ice cream, alright?"
"Yes, but... what about my mother and sister?" She gripped the bedsheets until she felt a comforting warmth envelop her.
"Don't worry, they're fine. They're at another one of our bases. You can see them as soon as they're feeling better, okay?" Minerva stroked the girl's cheek as the door opened to a group of scientists. "Be a good girl."
She withdrew her hand and left quietly. As the workers began preparing their equipment, a faint, distant screaming filled the room, making Stefani flinch. She seemed to be the only one who could hear it. She tried to warn the doctors, but in an instant, they vanished. The room plunged into pitch-black darkness. The screams intensified.
"Wake up! Please! Don't die here!" It was the voice of a boy. "Don't leave me alone... those things are close..."
Stefani felt something on her cheek—a stray droplet that dampened her dry skin. A thin thread of light pierced the darkness.
Her eyes fluttered open. She was lying on the ground, disoriented. Kneeling beside her was a crying boy, shaking her shoulder. In the distance, a Rank 1 Y'ivak was approaching slowly. The smaller creatures had already scurried away, leaving their leader to finish the job.
The memories rushed back. An ambush. She had been knocked out while trying to protect the boy. One thought nagged at her: Why haven't they killed me yet?
"Get... behind me..." she panted, struggling to her feet.
"O-okay."
Stefani summoned two pistols: one white in her right hand, one black in her left. She pressed the muzzle of the white gun against her temple and, without a second's hesitation, pulled the trigger.
The wounds on her body began to glow. Bruises, cuts, and scrapes vanished in a flash. She then aimed the black gun at the ground. A void the size of the boy opened up, forming a tunnel that led toward a distant white light.
"Get in. Now. Just run toward the light and don't look back. You'll reach a safe zone with people dressed like me. Tell them Stefani sent you." She looked at him over her shoulder.
Terrified but trusting, the boy jumped into the pit. The sound of his footsteps echoed instantly.
"Thank you!"
Stefani smiled at the sound and fired the white gun into the hole, sealing it shut. She trusted that the camp at the other end would welcome the boy with open arms. She turned her weapons toward the creature, which had remained motionless, observing and analyzing them. The thing's maws unhinged, letting out a roar so violent it sent debris flying through the air. It spoke in its guttural dialect before rasping:
"Pierce... you claws. Eat... win... you power."
Stefani's blood ran cold at the sight, but she took a step back and fired both guns in unison. The creature dodged the bullets and closed the gap in a blur. Stefani threw herself backward and fired the black pistol into the ground, shattering it completely and creating a massive, deep crater. Both fell into the abyss.
Neither panicked. They landed on opposite sides of the pit, illuminated only by the faint light filtering down from above.
They began to circle each other slowly. Stefani's gaze had shifted; it was no longer the look of a frightened girl, but something that reflected a primal bloodlust. She peered through the sights of the black pistol. Voids of the same obsidian hue swirled around the barrel. The sclera of her left eye bled into black, her pupil turning a vivid, intense red. A haunting, ecstatic smile crept across her lips.
The creature lunged, claws scraping the earth, but a sudden blast checked its advance. The stench of charred, sliced flesh filled the air. The Y'ivak's arm exploded into a thousand pieces, forcing it to retreat as it began to regenerate almost instantaneously.
Stefani just laughed. She sprinted toward the beast, wielding only the black gun. The alien lashed out with its bladed tail, but she used her right palm to vault off the limb, spinning through the air. She fired three consecutive rounds, the bullets burying themselves into the Y'ivak's legs and tail.
They detonated, erupting in a spray of emerald blood.