The Chimeric Ascension of Lyudmila Springfield

Intermission – Ann – Temple of Demons – Part One (Illustrations!)

The destiny Lori and I shared was written in stone long before our birth. While mother's womb nurtured us, she entered a learning chamber to hypnotize our underdeveloped brains. We were overloaded with styles of combat relating to the spear and katana before the concept of life was even applied to us.    

However, Mother’s potential was extinguished when she died during childbirth.  

That was the first life Lori and I took.  

It wouldn’t be the last.  

Father forced our hands to hold our weapons before we could walk. When we were three, we began training from sunrise to sunset, with him using medicine and drugs to strengthen our bodies while making us push far past our boundaries.    

Fighting was all we knew.   

And fighting was our life.   

That was the Zika Family in a nutshell. Our ancient traditions defined our childhood. In a world where styles of combat no longer had a place, Father, Grandfather, and Great Grandfather still believed in the ways of old, and we were brought up as if we lived centuries in the past.    

No one from our previous world could’ve bested us in a fight. We wouldn't fail-- no matter the enemy. Father believed losing was a weakness. He preached that the weak, sick, and frail were stepping stones for the strong to climb during their rise to the top, but Lori and I believed otherwise because Father was wrong.   

His belief was formed by a crude and outdated way of thinking.  

Everyone should strive for excellence and support others in their pursuit of greatness. The proof of that claim lay within Lori and me. Our abilities when we were 10 couldn’t have compared to us when we were 5, and that was because Father supported us during our time of growth. In his own words, we should’ve died because we were weak. Yet here we were, alive and well, growing stronger every day.   

But Father couldn’t handle us being an antithesis to the Zika Family’s belief. So, he challenged us to a fight one night after losing his temper. Ten minutes later, he couldn’t handle the warriors he had produced and died. 

Patricide was seen as a crime, yet it was a rite of passage in our family. Father believed only the strong should rule, so he naturally followed his beliefs to the grave and thanked us for being stronger with his dying breath.  

But Lori and I... We felt conflicted. Father still had potential, yet he didn’t see it. He died before realizing it, and his life ended with waste. The confusion continued to conflict even as we were forced to fight each other to become the new Family Head. Our ancient rules dictated we were to continue until the other had died.    

Lori and I had no qualms about fighting each other because that was how we learned, but who would force it to end with death? 

No one could beat us. Lori and I were natural phenomena—the best in our respective weapons and disciplines. Our trophy room was twice the size of our bedroom. 

It was our first time going all out, and we fought, and fought, and fought. For two days, Lori and I never left the dojo. We didn’t stop for food or water, and after our bodies had long exhausted everything they had, our minds kept going until my sister threw her spear down and announced her defeat. I could easily recall how she approached me on two broken legs and extended a fractured hand to gracefully touch my cheek.    

As the new Family Head, I had an appearance to maintain. That was the reason why I dressed conservatively, wearing muted colors, long skirts, and jackets to maintain pristine confidence. Lori wanted to be different so as not to cause anyone to confuse the Family Head with her twin. She was a flashier dresser, with short skirts, crop tops, heels, stockings, necklaces, rings, and bracelets to make me stand out more.  

We were almost raised as one in body and mind for the first decade of our life, and now my twin and I couldn’t have looked more differently.  

Yet we remained the same on the inside. Only our outward appearance had changed. The dichotomy of our ‘stern’ and ‘difficult’ personalities caused more than a few challenges once I took control of our family.   

As its leader, I refocused our efforts on the pursuit of greatness. Death was a natural part of the world. Everyone would eventually die, but it didn’t make sense to accelerate the arrival of that day when there was unrealized potential.   

We broke many records over the next eight years, quadrupling the family’s income. It was only under my rule that we achieved the status of billionaires. Countries paid for us to open training academies since there was always a need to train soldiers.   

And no one trained them better than us…  

But I didn’t care about the family. I only had eyes for my sister. She was the only one in the world to fight me to a draw. Even with that said, life was boring. When you stood at the pinnacle, everything looked as insignificant as an ant. Lori and I talked extensively about it. We were going to spend the school trip discussing what to do when Lord Meruria answered in the form of summoning us.   

All it took was one glancing touch of the weapons our summoner provided to rekindle the fire burning in our hearts.   

Unfortunately, we had left her church and missed the backlash of what happened to Shuuta. We only learned it during dinner, and Lori and I spent that entire night wondering about his potential.    

Would we have argued for his survival?  

They said he had an outburst near the end. Almost everyone regarded it as happening too late, yet…  

Potential… It was the most beautiful thing in the world. And we still weren’t exhausted. Our goal was to achieve Soul Evolution and ascend to a 6-Star Soul. It was the perfect challenge for those who shared the beliefs Lori and I had.  

We wanted to achieve everything we could with our bodies and souls. Even if it required burning them to the very end... We were ready for it.    

---

We were on horseback, traveling south of Junsa to the Arkley Mountains. A devilish horde of orphaned demons had taken root in the temple at the peak of the tallest mountain and were terrorizing the farming villages around the base. This part of Cridia was known for being dryer than usual, so having anything further to increase the chances of a bad harvest was something Lord Meruria couldn’t handle. We were supposed to meet with Shiku and the rest of Team Salim to wipe out the demons.   

Weeks ago, Lori and I had orders to escort a noble of Junsa as his bodyguards. That annoying task... The noble rambled on about how beautiful my sister and I were. I didn’t care much when those words left his mouth. His potential was...nothing. He was a man who used his large gut and larger wallet to buy anything he wanted without putting the effort in.  

His life was prematurely ended when he dared to try to lay a hand on my sister when he was drunk on the taste of wine. Lord Meruria didn’t see fit to punish us when we returned with his severed corpse. He was one of the last surviving members of a failed family of aristocrats who had swindled their massive fortune away in the three decades before our arrival. It seemed Lord Meruria was using her Soul Warriors to help remove those that wouldn’t be useful to her in the long run because something similar had happened to Shiku at Junsa’s guild.   

And a family was wiped out after Elly had performed for a child with awful manners.    

Tokko and Mia were invaluable assets towards that goal.    

They had acquired their fabled Soul Weapons within two days of being summoned. The two then took to the library to investigate this world and its history and effortlessly integrated themselves into Cridia's politics while causing a disruption in the balance of power the nobles wielded. Some families’ influence dropped overnight. Others found themselves with new titles and responsibilities they could only dream of. And they were making these decisions with Lord Meruria’s blessings. The aristocrats weren’t happy and petitioned Meruria directly to reconsider putting otherworlders in charge. Tokko and Mia put to rest all their worries after introducing a 100-page plan to improve Cridia’s logistics.  

Within the month, the city had made a noticeable change in almost every aspect. The surrounding farms were growing with more than 8 times the efficiency as before with less water. Advances in suspension technology meant bigger and larger wagons and carriages would ride smoothly, allowing more precious cargo to be transported faster and safer. Those were just a few of Tokko’s ideas, and he implemented more with each passing day.    

Two weeks later, Lord Meruria dispatched messengers to travel across the lands with a list of new improvements and regulations to be implemented immediately. Tokko predicted the country’s food supplies would easily triple within the year. The money gained would go towards establishing a foundry to automate the processing of steel and other metals using [Puppetry Magic] to employ golems and gargoyles as workers.   

In a decade, Cridia would have probably advanced by half a century in technology.  

Lord Meruria had summoned Soul Warriors in the past. Holy and Dark Lords convened at the Lord Conference in the Kingdom of Aquanis every year to discuss world relations, but every fifty years, the topic turned to summoning Soul Warriors. The practice stretched at least ten thousand years, so it was a tradition almost etched into the world itself.  

It took many years to prepare for a summoning, and every Divine Country needed to agree on the precise time frame. Sometimes, it was held on the 51st year, and often, the world went 80 years without summoning.   

It just varied. It wasn’t something someone could have predicted.    

It was rare to summon a person from after the 21st century. They were often from before the 1900s, but our class was an exception.   

And it proved very beneficial to Lord Meruria and Cridia.    

When Qiong Guo, an empire that shared Cridia’s northern border, requested a diplomatic meeting concerning the fast and efficient changes Cridia had implemented, Tokko and Mia went in Lord Meruria’s stead. They were gone for two weeks and returned with a trade treaty in Cridia’s favor in exchange for sharing ineffective information that would only increase their efficiency by a factor of 2.   

If they wanted more, they’d have to pay for it with gold they didn’t have. It was the carrot-on-a-stick approach. Let them become enchanted by the improvements and thirst at the chances of growing more powerful, yet withhold any additional assistance until they were desperate enough.   

Some of us adapted quickly to this world, but those two felt right at home. To them, I imagined this was something like a game. Cridia was theirs to mold, and it wouldn’t have surprised me if they were thinking about somehow usurping control from its ruler.    

I knew Lord Meruria had thought of that possibility as well. She’d have been a fool otherwise to not think something like that could eventually happen.   

“Sister?”  

“Yes? What’s wrong?” I turned to Lori, who looked into my eyes. Her voice took me away from my memories and into the present.   

“You’re so wise and beautiful.” Lori fluttered her eyes and rode her stallion closer to me. “I wanted you to hear it, so I said it.” A sparkling spear with a black tip rested softly against her back, which held the element of shadow—Shadow Strike. My katana held a yellow blade etched with white markings to combine the power of lightning and ice—Shocking Flake.   

These were our Soul Weapons. We had acquired them not long after returning from escorting that noble. We had been training against each other for four days straight, and on the fifth, our souls had recognized our dedication and produced them. Unlike other Soul Weapons, we were forbidden from using mana. The blue bar below our HP was replaced by one of crimson called [Soul Energy]. Any skill that required mana was, therefore, unable to be used.    

We weren’t weaker.   

If anything, our limit had been broken. Our potential became vast as a black hole—the heights awaiting us? They were much further than we thought. Lori and I were vying for the chance to grasp our destiny by the horns and realize our awaiting potential.    

After reporting to Lord Meruria, she ordered us to spar with a soldier named Remy.    

That Wolffolk had mastered the art of teleportation and portals. When combined with her natural quickness... Our defeat was inevitable. Even when we fought her together, we couldn’t hope to match her as we were. She jumped through one portal and appeared behind us, then hopped through it to appear to our left, not our front. Remy also held some time displacement spells to ‘halt’ our actions before we could do them. Time would then ‘skip’ ahead to after the motion.  

She somehow removed the period between the before and after, making everything within those few precious seconds seem lost to the world.  

Our many fights with her continued into the night and only finished once noon had arrived the next day. Lord Meruria was so impressed we managed to continue without sleep or rest that she ordered us to recuperate for the next three days without any other orders or commands.   

Lori and I spent that time in each other’s arms, cradling and supporting the other as we’d always been.  

We traveled together to the chalice of pleasure and flooded it as many times as in the years we had been alive.    

She was mine.   

And I was hers.   

The bond we shared was closer than anything that had or would ever exist in the infinite realities surrounding this world.    

Sister and I only had each other. When we were younger, we swore that we wouldn’t settle for anything lesser than the other. If life continued down this road, I’d marry her. And she’d married me.   

And we’d be happy. Because I couldn’t imagine life without her, and she didn’t want to live without me.   

But our Soul Weapons were powerful. Almost outrageously so.    

A swing or thrust could shoot out a wave of thick shadow or entrap an opponent in a lighting vortex that quickly reached below subzero temperatures. And we had a dozen more forms unlocked, with over 200 left before the Soul Weapon Evolution Tree was complete.    

Lori and I rode throughout the day and stopped before midnight to let our horses rest. She prepared a campfire and huddled close, resting her hand in mine while cooking dinner.  

After eating, we laid down, and I took off my shirt. Lori always slept with her head on my chest, nestled between my bosom because she wanted to hear my heart.    

I loved her so much.   

She was my everything in this world.   

---

It took four more days of traveling to reach the Arkley Mountain Range. It was an arid, dry region, with more dust and brown than grass and green. Our horses were bred for traversing uneven paths.  

It wouldn’t stay like this for long, though, since our destination was the peak of the tallest mountain. Even from here, the snow-covered tip taunted us.    

“Oh? Is that... Heeey!!! Loriiii!!! Annn!!!!” A girl with blue hair looked up from behind a boulder and jumped up and down. “Qutie, it’s the twins. They’re here. I didn’t think we’d run into them.”  

A red-headed woman with crimson glasses appeared and offered a friendly wave.  

“Sister?”  

“We have time. It’ll be nice to stop and catch up,” I replied. We rode our horses around the rock and hooked the reins to a hitching rail we had brought. They were expertly trained and listened to our commands, so it was done out of habit, not necessity.  

Quella had changed. She used to have this starry-eyed, aloof look in her eyes when it came to things that weren’t her books, yet they were hardened and fierce. I’d heard of what Quella had to do in the Apival Duchy, and it wasn’t easy. She looked more resolved. That purple tome resting at her hip must’ve been her Soul Weapon. Her robe certainly fit the image of a powerful mage.    

But her eyes... The potential still shone, but they were almost dead—forgotten to all. After she saw me stare, she blinked, and the spark became stronger—brighter.    

“Hey, Greggie and I were just about to exercise for the evening. Care to join us?” asked Elly, who wore shorts and a shirt. She had tied her hair in a ponytail and pointed to the only man here.    

“Greggie?” My voice couldn’t contain my surprise. I'd wondered who that man was, but it didn’t look like the Greggie I’d seen around the school. His arms were thicker, proof of dedication and potential shown in his muscles. The fat around his neck and cheeks had thinned dramatically, giving him a more defined look. His flabby belly wasn’t so noticeable underneath his long-sleeved, tight shirt. “Consider me impressed. I can see the hard work you’ve put in.”  

“Re--really?” he asked, embarrassed.    

“I agree with my sister,” said Lori. Greggie blushed. “It may not mean much coming from me, but your hard work is something to be proud of.”   

“I told you, Greggie! Annie, Lorie, I told Greggie a week ago that it was changing for the gooder, but he didn’t believe me,” said Ami, who jumped to her feet and pointed at Greggie. It reassured me that she kept that smile in this new world. I’d heard of what they endured in the dungeon—and what Lord Meruria had done by tormenting them with claims of a lie-detecting bell. 

She kept the jacket I heard they found. It looks good on her.    

My sister and I didn't have the greatest affection for Lord Meruria.   

"Where are Keeth and Ms. Mary?”  

“They went to hunt for food with Melusine,” replied Quella, sitting near a campfire. She hugged her knees and pushed her hair from her eyes. Lori and I joined Quella while Greggie, Ami, and Elly did their workouts. They were doing something called idol steps, if I remember right, before progressing to a dancing routine.    

“One! Two! Three! Four! Yep! Yep! Yep! Go!” Elly’s hips and arms swayed so naturally as she stepped back and forth. Greggie kept up with her, matching her speed and pace with his surprising stamina. He turned, jumped, and twisted, copying her every step.    

“This is the first time we’ve talked since... the summoning, right?” Quella tried to disguise a dash of happiness or joy in her voice, but it was forced. She probably didn’t know I had realized it, though.  

“It is,” replied Lori. “It’s almost been five months.”  

“So, you’ve heard about Shuuta? And everything else?”’  

I nodded.   

“If...you were there... What would you have done?”  

“Are you regretting your actions?”  

“No, it’s not that.” Quella took a moment to collect her thoughts. She told me of her family’s motto and decided to try and save Shuuta because it was the difficult path. Quella could have easily been a bystander. And she finally came to terms with her selfish desire. It told her to speak up. It wasn’t out of any sense of wanting to save him for the act of saving him. “I’ve…seen a lot. I’ve killed a lot, too. I’m happy I spoke up. Elly and the others don’t regret their choices, either. But I’m curious about you.” 

I can see past your tone, Quella. You regret everything... 

“My sister and I trust more in the potential we carry within ourselves. I see it in Greggie. He didn’t let his weight become a liability. He’s making active and noticeable changes to better himself. I see it in you, Ami, and Elly. And I know it’s the same with Ms. Mary and Keeth.  But about Shuuta… My sister and I wouldn’t have done anything until after he burned the flames of his heart. We would’ve stepped in then and argued for his survival based solely on his potential. But had he squandered it, I would have killed him.”  

“That makes me feel a little better,” Quella smiled softly. “I have nightmares. I haven’t had a good dream since his death. Sometimes, I’m afraid to fall asleep. I wish I could remain awake forever. In your eyes, do I have any less potential?” 

My sister answered and shook her head. “Accepting your weakness and acknowledging you have one is the first step.” 

“Even if I’m a murderer? When we were in the Apival Duchy with Lord Enele, I…killed children. Melusine said they were past the point of no return. Death would be a mercy, but…” 

Since we were here, Quella caught us up to speed on what her team had done so far. The one week of rest Lord Meruria had granted them was the only extended solace they had experienced. She said our summoner ‘rented’ Elly, Greggie, and Keeth to anyone who needed a singer, a chef, or a craftsman. They were often busy entertaining the needs of Junsa’s nobles while everyone else completed missions our summoner had given them. Those ranged from trying to solve a murder in a neighboring city to exterminating a band of slavers attempting to find new ‘products’ to sell.  

Team Quella wasn’t having a good time. Life was hard—even more so for their leader. She didn’t say it, but everything rested on Quella’s shoulders. But she…wasn’t built to endure it. She was starting to crack. Weakness and little fragments of her…of something else were peeking through the gaps. 

Quella leaned back and sighed. She looked at the skies. “But what can we do? Nothing, right? This is our life now—forever…forced to serve her whims. Good little Soul Warriors… That’s what Meruria ordered us to be—selfless, heroic otherworlders who yearn to put Cridia above their own wants and desires. Maybe...something might change at the Lord Conference, but that’s still months away. It’ll be nice to see Lord Enele and Kaiho again, but I don’t know if she’ll let us go.”   

“My sister and I have sparred against him,” I said, telling her of the fight with the Dark Lord of Justice after he arrived a month ago for a meeting. It ended with us losing ten times in a row, but Lord Enele’s pure skill with his turtle shell shield was masterclass. And on that topic, Sir Salim-Shiku’s team leader—was an excellent training partner. In terms of undiluted technique, my sister was his better. But Sir Salim had mastered his Soul Weapon and brought out hidden potential we didn’t know our weapons had. He was 140 years old, but he fought with so much fierceness it was dazzling.  

It was an honor to have watched that duel. Even now, I still see the vivid clashes and pounding blows when I close my eyes.

Seeing my sister so strong...watching her shine brighter than ever before...  

It made me want her even more...  

I loved her...  

I truly did...  

She was my one and only—the sole person who understood me... 

---

Thirty minutes later, Keeth, with a mature and experienced look in his eyes, Ms. Mary, who appeared more like a graduate student than a teacher with an uncertain aura about her, and Melusine, a fairy with pink eyes, white hair, a crystal tiara, and shimmering crystal wings, returned from their hunting trip. They were walking with two treant archers, a crimson tiger, and a dog with four tails—all monsters Ms. Mary had caught. 

We learned the truth about Ms. Mary’s birth when she confessed it.  

However, I was already aware of it. I was privy to secrets most would kill to learn. But I didn’t say anything. Lori remained quiet after she looked at me for guidance.   

The fairy queen was pleasurable. She was clearly knowledgeable and experienced—two aspects befitting a member of royalty, and she had managed to reach Lv. 60. Mary had learned more abilities to increase her monster’s overall abilities, although she had very little to give.   

But her potential was there. After introducing herself, she excused herself and joined Elly’s idol dancing class. Quella said Melusine had found herself interested in it and, after some encouragement, was told that she had the very foundations of an idol by Elly. The blue-haired girl even said she wanted to form a group with all her friends when things became more peaceful.    

If nothing, it warmed my heart and reaffirmed my sister’s and mine’s choice to see the value in potential rather than casting off the weak to die for the strong.    

We asked what they were doing this way. “There’s a village of Spiderfolk in the desert to the southeast,” said Keeth. “They’re having issues with a sandstorm that’s destroying their buildings and wiping out their food source. If there’s an enemy or monster behind it, we’re to kill it." He was working on turning a chunk of air-infused mana into a glider. The modeler hadn’t acquired a Soul Weapon, but his exclusive skill evolved into grasping mana and molding them into whatever shape he desired. In this case, he wanted to manufacture air mana to see if you could use it as a paraglider. If so, he said he had ideas to use it to gain height.  

I’d heard Keeth's crafting was why Quella and the others survived the dungeon. With him around, anything could be molded into a weapon. Protective gear was but a stray thought away if you had the iron. And amenities such as silverware, cups, and clothing were his bread and butter. His specialization laid in repair and thinking outside the box. It was a genius idea to activate his skill to use wood as a replacement for thread.    

The creativity was astounding. It was memorizing. No wonder Keeth was in more demand when compared to Elly or Greggie.    

Suddenly, a flash of light illuminated the campfire. The fact that everyone reacted with a groan and not fear told me the forthcoming stranger's identity. 

“Hey! Cutie Qutie! Oh, you’re my bestie in the whole wide world! Did ya miss me? I know I missed yooouuuuu!!!!” The teleportation portal vanished, revealing a brown-haired Wolffolk wearing a suit, white undershirt, a red tie, and heeled boots.    

She hastily teleported behind Quella and hugged her, sensually rubbing her stomach before licking her ears. Quella shrugged her off and threatened to boil her alive when her tome switched to one with an image of a flame surrounded by water. A deadly bubble of fire appeared overhead. “See? That overzealousness to murder me is what I love about you the most! Lord Meruria sent me here to keep you company. Hey, did ya give my offer any thought, Greggie? Lose about 700 more pounds, and I’ll let you taste what Shuuta experienced. I’m told my pussy is to die for.”  

Greggie refused to say anything as he transitioned from dancing to pushups. Melusine joined him, Ami sat on his back, and Elly sang a song about a wolf getting shot by a hunter for leering too close to a flock of sheep.    

Remy said the nuance wasn’t lost on her, but she licked her lips and wondered if Elly’s passionate cries were as pretty as her singing.    

She immediately stopped, hugged her body, and shuddered. Keeth glared. His unassuming, insignificant aura turned deadly for a moment. 

“Anyways! I’m gonna hang out with you guys for a bit. Lord Meruria’s busy with my sister. It’s about that time of the month when she gets some special, exclusive care. Say, you twin cuties are going to fight the demons, huh? Lord Meruria wants you to bring back some of their cores, so don’t forget that, ‘kay?”  

“Order received,” I said.   

We were forced to listen to her nonsensical bullshit for the next few hours. She kept hounding Greggie by peering over his shoulders during dinner preparation.    

He was an excellent cook. This world had exclusive spices and ingredients. Quella held the perishables inside a spell marked [Hammer Space], and Mary used a ‘storage’ monster-- a large packrat-type entity that did nothing but carry stuff. She had found it during a mission to a dungeon. She said their objective was to find the ingredients to make an antiserum against a certain kind of snake that often emerged from hibernation this time of year. Getting bit wasn’t fatal, but it needed to be done. 

The monster was cubed and looked like a pillar of rock, although it had many cubbies to hold stuff. It used slime to enclose the ‘sections,’ which worked to sanitize and clean Greggie’s pots, pans, utensils, and grill, which Keeth had made.      

Greggie said dinner would be rockbird filets with grilled asparagus drizzled with a lemon-lime sauce reduction. A rockbird's meat was tender and succulent if you could get past its boulder-like skin and hardened feathers. 

The chef salted and peppered both sides while warming the grill, using charcoal orbs Keeth had produced by plucking off a small piece he held in a bag around his shoulder.  The masterful cook trimmed the asparagus and tossed them in a bowl of olive oil he had pressed himself, then grilled them until softly tender.   

“The trick is to watch the temperature,” said Greggie, using a skill he had to instantly deduce the heat of something. He melted butter and sautéed garlic in a stainless-steel pan Keeth had made, then added lemon juice, lime juice, honey, salt, and pepper.   

It took eight minutes for the sauce to reduce but four to properly cook the filets that had rested to room temperature. They sizzled expectantly, and Remy sounded like she was in heat. She licked Greggie’s ears and rubbed his stomach, stopping when Ami threatened to ‘drown her in a blast of aura.’ 

That tiresome Wolffolk…  

I really disliked her.   

She got the hint and let Greggie continue. His plate preparation was worthy of his grand skill. The meal he had prepared took less than twenty minutes, yet it was otherworldly delectable and savory. Everything was perfect. Greggie blushed at the compliments, yet he groaned when Remy said he would be her sixth lover.    

But the night didn’t get any easier after dinner, and the problem’s name was Remy.