Chapter 1. A Tale Of An Uncertain Future. [RotDE] (Patreon)

The enchanting Full Moon shone in a clear night sky, powdering the World with a gentle silver mantle. Like a guiding light, the Moon poured her soft glow on the World, protecting all living beings from the fearful darkness that devoured the land at night.

However, while most creatures were grateful to the gentle Moon for illuminating their night, some wished that the Moon had hidden tonight and allowed the World to be engulfed in the usually harrowing darkness.

Because if the Moon hid, they wouldn't have to witness the scene before them.

Because if the Moon hid, they would have gratefully allowed the fearful darkness to protect their sight from the ongoing nightmarish scene.

In a luxurious estate, the usually polished and immaculate gates that protected the entrance were nowhere to be seen. At the sides of the arch leading inside, there were two corpses of what one could assume were the guards. The bodies had a blackish aura around them, rotting their corpses at unnatural speeds.

Going further inside, one entered the previously beautiful garden, now marred with the effects of the traces the two heavy entrance doors created after being forcefully blasted open.

One could see the two thick and tall metal doors were on the ground several meters away from the entrance, with a deep dent that nothing but a creature with incomprehensible strength could ever achieve.

Going deeper inside, the vegetation was wilted, engulfed in the dark aura the two dead guards had. The previously adorned and tended entrance garden was now filled with the scent of death and corruption, looking nothing like a garden and more like an abandoned graveyard.

The trail of black aura continued deep into the estate, eventually leading to the main doors.

Around them, there were traces of resistance and battle, yet the result was a bunch of dead people, slowly being consumed by the powerful death energies corroding everything.

All of them, without fault, were killed by the same individual.

Deeper down the path of death, the main doors had been toppled down in a brutal manner similar to the entrance gates, showcasing that the individual who did all of this didn't even appear tired.

Inside, the once immaculate and polished marble floors and beautiful white walls were now filled with cracks, cuts, holes, and blood. More corpses lay around; some were female, some were male, some young, some old, some had luxury clothes, others had maid clothes, and others had everyday garments.

However, even if they were different in appearance, their ending had come the same way and on the same day.

The path of death continued deep into the mansion without any apparent stop, and finally, after approaching the backyard, sounds could be heard in the eerie and stale atmosphere the rest of the place had.

Yet, the sounds were not pleasant at all. They were a cacophony of metal clashing and loud explosive sounds accompanied by a female maddened cackle and a male desperate voice.

"Why are you doing all of this!? How have you become so strong!?" A man lamented in an anguished voice. His tone was an amalgamation of negative feelings: grief, anguish, anger, regret, melancholy, and the most prominent one, despair.

Even while his sword technique was superb, and his strength was regarded as one of the best in the area, the woman attacking him, surrounded by a black aura, felt unstoppable.

Even if he was confident, he had wasted most of his tricks, and the only thing left was a desperate struggle.

"HAHAHA! Do you regret it!? Now it is too late! I'm going to kill every single one of you! Everything you have stained with your filthy existence will perish today! Then, I will add you to my army! Be glad to become my first eternal companion! HAHAHAHA!"

The voice that answered the man came from a woman. You could hear insanity in her voice. Even her beautiful face was distorted in a freakishly wide smile, and her eyes were glowing with a bloody radiance as if they were leaking a red light, looking more ominous by the second.

Each of her movements left behind a piercing red light trail wherever her eyes passed through as her sword danced elegantly through her insanity, enveloped by a deep and ominous black aura.

Her otherworldly strength forced the man she fought into a corner with each passing second.

While they fought, others looked at their fight with a plethora of expressions.

They were all hiding far behind the man, away from the main battlefield, most of whom were his women and children.

All of them had nervous faces as they looked at their pillar of confidence being overwhelmed by the woman. A woman they knew far too well. A woman they had never thought of seeing fighting their husband.

Worse, even if they wanted to help him, they were too weak to do anything against the powerful cultivator that had come to disrupt their peaceful, happy life.

As the man continued being pushed back and injured, one child, the first daughter of the man, shouted. "You can do it, Daddy! Beat that bad woman!"

The man and woman fighting heard her.

The man shouted even while his opponent pushed him back. "Don't worry, little princess! Dad will win this fight!"

"Little princess?" The crazed woman's smile became even creepier and larger, becoming almost face-splitting, and her red eyes glowed with malice.

When the man saw her expression, his heart thumped, and a dreadful feeling instantly enveloped him. 'What's wrong!? What does she want to do now!?'

Sadly, by the time he reacted, it was too late.

With masterful strokes that a woman on the verge of insanity should not have, she made him lose balance while her kick landed on his stomach.

BANG!

The massive impact created a shockwave, and the man was sent flying against the building while coughing in pain.

He reacted swiftly, using a powerful technique to gain explosive speed and rush back to the fight, but when he exited the rubble, his heart sank in despair as he shouted in a heartbreaking tone. "STOP!"

The woman naturally ignored his plea and swiftly arrived before the child who had just spoken. Her speed was so high that nobody could react before her shadow was cast on top of the young girl.

"What?"

The girl asked in confusion, not comprehending her situation as she was unaware of how the woman fighting her father suddenly appeared before her eyes.

Then, the red-eyed woman stabbed forward.

Still, there was another person who reacted with pure instinct.

The mother of that child miraculously arrived before her daughter and put herself between the red-eyed woman and the child's way. "Please, stop this madness-!"

However, before she could call the crazed woman's name or end her pleas, under the despairing shout of the man and the screams from all the other women and children, the crazed woman's sword shone with a black light, piercing both mother and daughter, mercilessly and without any hesitation.

The little child only had time to look down on the sword lodged in her chest that impaled her across her mother before the ominous black energy made her body decay instantly and killed her painlessly, transforming her into dust.

The mother was much stronger than the child, so she didn't die instantly.

She was currently looking incredulously at the woman who had stabbed her and her child, the woman who previously was so close to all of them and had laughed, loved, cried, and supported them like a second pillar other than their husband.

As life left her body, a sobbing whisper escaped her mouth, looking with extreme anguish and grief at the madness-filled eyes of the woman she once called little sister. "Why did it have to end like this…?"

Still, before she could say the woman's name, her life escaped her body, and she became a corpse, joining her daughter in the afterlife.

The woman turned around, maintaining her smile. "Ah~, this is so fun~. How does it feel? How does it feel to see your entire life crumbling right before your eyes?"

"I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!" The man shouted, wrath and energy filling his body.

However, to his declaration, the only answer he received was laughter filled with amusement and enjoyment. "That's a good face you are doing~."

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Many years prior to this event, another tragedy had occurred.

This tragedy, however, didn't end with sorrow.

There was a maid who was walking through a meadow, carrying something wrapped in warm clothes between her arms.

It was fall, right before winter, so the winds were cold, and the brown leaves of the trees could be seen dancing with the soft gales.

The sky was clear, and the grass danced back and forth with the maid's steps.

However, wherever the maid walked, the tall grass would be smeared in a red color.

Looking at her face, it was pale and tired. However, her eyes shone with the firm determination that generals would wish they had.

"Don't worry, young miss. I will deliver you to safety."

The woman's soft mutter was carried in the wind, and the only one who heard her was the infant wrapped in the cloth. Looking at the little one, the infant was fragile and was not older than a day. Thankfully, the fabric kept the child warm, and the maid had fed her previously so she wouldn't die of starvation.

Time went on, and slowly but surely, the maid's steps started to falter while her vision flickered. She was weary as she felt her life leaving her body, but even then, she pushed on.

The maid knew that her wounds were too deep to survive more than a few hours, but her steps didn't stop for a moment, trying to find a light at the end of this dark moment.

Step after step. Drop of blood after drop of blood.

Faithfully, the maid kept walking while protecting the child in her arms.

Thankfully for her and the infant, after two more hours of walking, the maid saw the silhouette of a town in the distance. Her eyes, which had lost their light, came alive again.

Her voice was weak but had a relieved tone. "Young miss, fate didn't forsake you… I'm going to find you a Home soon."

The infant still had her eyes closed because she had just been born and was extremely tired. The way she was brought to the World was not a common one, and her body was weak.

The maid looked at the little child and smiled weakly. "Thankfully, this maid could feed you something after you were born. The Lady would have been sad if you were to die out of hunger."

After saying so, her eyes flashed with pain. 'My Lady…'

Quickly refocusing on her task, the maid's step became quicker as she rushed toward the town in the distance.

Thirty minutes later, the people guarding the town entrance spotted the bloody maid. Their clothes were shabby, and they looked like rural hunters with weapons more than guards.

They were at first wary, but when they spotted the infant between her arms, one of the guards rushed toward her while the other went to call the town's doctor.

This town was very remote, so their community was relatively small.

Therefore, the guard didn't take long to find the doctor and explain the situation.

Meanwhile, the guard that approached asked hastily, looking around just in case it was a trap made by bandits.

"Miss, what happened? Why are you so injured?"

The maid was only holding on because of her determination to send her young miss to safety, so her answer was extremely faint, almost inaudible. "Please… I can't hold on for much more. Take care of the child…"

The guard supported the maid and carefully took the cloth that held the infant, gently gathering the child in her arms. "Hold on a little longer, miss. A doctor is coming and soon will take a look-."

However, his words got stuck in his throat when he saw what was hidden by the infant she held.

On the maid's chest, there was a literal hole big enough for him to see through. His stomach churned, and his heart palpitated. 'How is she alive?'

The maid smiled while leaning on the guard and murmured. "I can't be saved… Please take care of young miss. Her name is… Tatyana."

The maid lifted one hand, caressing Tatyana's cheek softly with one finger, and after giving one last tender but worried look to the infant. Then, the maid closed her eyes softly, and her body lost strength, quietly passing away.

The guard's heart squeezed, feeling terribly sorry.

On the guard's arms, as if sensing the maid passing away, the infant began crying.

The guard was flustered about the whole situation, but he tried to calm her down, moving her back and forth. He didn't let go of the maid, still feeling shocked.

Not more than thirty seconds later, he saw the female doctor running over with a worried look. He felt relief and hastily shouted, "Fast! She is already dying!"

The doctor was a middle-aged woman with a gentle disposition and facial features, but her running speed wasn't any lower than the hunter beside her.

She quickly arrived, carefully taking the crying baby from the guard's arms. She cautiously opened the cloth, looking for any injuries, but she couldn't see anything wrong, making her relieved.

After tucking the infant in the cloth, she redirected her attention toward the maid.

However, after looking at her wounds, her face grimaced.

Then, she said. "It is impossible to save her; her body is already devoid of blood, and her meridians are wilted. To save her, only a legendary Earth-ranked treasure could do so… The fact that she reached here is already a miracle."

The infant's cries didn't stop, as if mourning her savior, the person who, together with other people, gave their life to send her to safety.

The doctor asked the guard, tenderly rocking the baby back and forth. "Did she say something before dying?"

The guard nodded and looked down at the crying infant. "She told me to take care of her and that her name is Tatyana."

The doctor looked at the baby in her arms softly and carefully with a sad smile. "Fate has carried you here today. Since it is like that, I will raise you until you can spread your wings in this chaotic, dangerous, but equally beautiful World, Tatyana."

Tatyana slowly stopped crying and opened her eyes for the first time in her life; besides her dead savior, besides people who weren't related to her, wrapped safely in a cloth stained with blood and with an uncertain future before her.

But even in that situation, the unaware infant smiled innocently, looking curiously at the woman who held her close to her bosom and the World around her.

On the other side, the woman and guards were surprised to see a pair of bright red irises looking around, an eye color that was unheard of but beautiful enough to leave them breathless.

Pureness and innate gentleness were behind the newborn's gaze as if her eyes were made of beautiful gems.

The doctor felt tender feelings grow in her heart and softly caressed the tiny child's cheek. The baby babbled and moved her tiny hands, grabbing the woman's finger. This melted the doctor's heart.

"Let's go back to town; I have to prepare food for the little one. Also… Keep the maid's belongings safe; they may have something about little Tatyana's household and maybe some valuables that can be useful for her when she grows up."

The guards carried the dead maid and suddenly heard the woman's voice, but instead of the previous natural gentleness, it had an icy tone, "If any person dares to try and steal anything that the maid carries, I will deal with them myself. So, you better keep it safe."

The guards didn't dare disobey the only doctor in the town.

They continued walking behind the woman without saying anything, but they knew that the person in front of them had seriously taken her role as the baby's guardian.