Peril's Origin - A Magical Girl Quest [Complete]

When you wake up the next morning, you feel that you have a good plan for what to do. First, you are in need of a break, so you will take the day off.

After that, tomorrow, you will practice a little more; this is the first time in ages you enjoyed yourself that much, and you have something you want to test.

Beyond that, you will see.

Either way, you hear someone almost hammering at the door before even finishing your breakfast. Just like every day, though she is a little more enthusiastic today; you think you told her something about being free yesterday when heading for bed.

Though you can not help but smile, even while 'your' Imp remains obviously unsure what to think of it.


"This way, just a little further...." You follow Paoras with a hint of amusement and sheepishness alike. She is pulling you around near the parts you know house the logistics department, her grip tight and with a bright smile that makes it rather clear she missed you. Or... it would, if she had not already said as much earlier.

You are not entirely sure how to feel about that yet, but at least she does not blame you for having little time.

The journey ends with another set of doors that lead into a large living room; large by this place's standards, it is at least twenty metres in diameter; various sitting implements and a free center space with a plush carpet, all of it held in warm reds and oranges.

The moment Paoras pulls you inside, ten pairs of eyes are on you immediately. Maya and her husband are there, as are seven other half-Elves and one man that looks more like a Demon-noble but has two toddlers in his arms. His features are softer than Dragul's, though; the only point of reference you have on that matter.

"Big sis!" various voices call and four of the five non-toddlers jump Paoras to wrap her into hugs; two girls, two boys. The fifth girl just watches them with a smile while braiding her father's shoulder-length hair.

You almost get whiplash from how different the atmosphere is in here. Maya is sitting amidst the chaos with a serene smile, her once-again bloated belly barely hidden by a white nightgown. "It was about time you got a break, sweetie. Come, sit." She pats the empty spot next to her on the couch, which you take after a moment.

A moment later, a little boy plops into your lap after getting his hug from Paoras; you blink, but he just beams at you. Maya giggles and pets your head. "Welcome to my home; do not expect the little ones to hold back, they heard a lot about you by now."

Oh.

You do not even have time to brace yourself as, moments later, four children have surrounded you and start chattering; you can not really follow them and give up trying after a moment. Thankfully, your friend gives each of them a little smack on the head and they apologise.

"Your hair's so pretty, miss," one of the twin-girls gushes right after, the other one nodding in agreement and making you a little sheepish. "Can we braid it?" one of the boys asks, and only now do you notice he looks just like the twins. But that is...

"Uh...." You are not sure what to say and look to Maya, who nods with an amused twinkle in her eyes. Considering that you did not have much time for your hair the last month, there is not much they can mess up anyway. "Sure, just be careful."

"'Kay!" And with that, the triplets turn their attention away from you. One more boy remains, and a girl that finishes off her father's braid with a proud hum. Paoras smiles and sits on Maya's other side, quickly drawn into a sidehug.

"Eight children... okay, eleven," you correct when the full-blooded Demon clears his throat; the toddlers blubber at him immediately after, taking up his attention. Good thing that, there are too many people for you to engage them all. Talking to Maya might not be possible if they all wanted to talk to you right now; you give the Succubus a look. "How many more until you are happy?"

Almost as expected, she gives you a wry smile and rubs her belly again, her oldest hybrid-daughter's hands quickly joining her. "I can never have enough children." Paoras squeals at the thought of more little brothers and sisters.

"I was afraid you would say that." Just looking at this large family makes your head spin; Eleven children, and there are only nine here. Human families are big with three. "How can you keep up with that?" you ask the only actual Elf in the room.

He mulls over your question before shrugging, though you can see his smile. "So far, our family is not much larger than an average Elven family." Now there is something else you wonder about, but he keeps going: "I don't mind it; they are all quite receptive for their age, so much that I can actually teach them a few basic things."

When your eyebrow raises, Maya points to the shortsword and shield hanging on hooks near the door. "My dear used to be in the Elven Legions, so he teaches the children some combat techniques whenever they feel restless. They take to it quite well."

All that produces in your head is the picture you saw of a legion phalanx, reaching back to the horizon and obscuring the ground it stood on, just with all the Elves replaced by Maya's spawn. The image is both amusing and horrifying.

Thankfully, he continues and thus diverts your attention: "Though it is a little jarring to see them grow so fast," at which you regard the boy in your lap again; he looks like an eight-year-old, so he is probably four months old or so. Potentially the youngest, though the fact all but him are taller than Paoras tells you this does not mean much. Granted, only her sister is noticeably taller just yet.

"Which reminds me," Maya interjects cheerfully, her daughter crawling on her lap, "that her birthday was last week."

Paoras, however, scowls cutely and crosses her arms. "I don't like getting older anymore. My boobies hurt all the time now." She ignores your raised eyebrow and keeps pouting even when Maya pets her head.

Her younger, non-triplet sister leans over Maya's back to join the petting. "Don't worry, sis," she offers sagely. "That's just your boobies growing. I have it, too." And considering that her chest is quite prominent for a girl that can not be older than a ten-year-old in comparison... wait, Elves grow faster than humans. You do know that much; fifteen is their age of maturity, so at ten... that might work for an early bloomer.

Paoras huffs, but you can tell there is no heat in it; she just wants to keep all the attention, which you do not mind; aside from that, the errant tug on your hair is enough to remind you there are still three half-Elves busy doing something with it, though they are at least skilled enough not to hurt you.

Admittedly, it is eery in a way; except for the twins and the boy in your lap, who have black hair, all the children are redheads. All the children are somewhere on the sliding scale from cute to pretty. All the children look so happy in a place where you never thought you would find even just a family living in the first place.

You say nothing about it, though; Maya seems happy. Paoras, for all her faked pouting, is also happy.

Then the triplets cheer. "Done!" the boy calls and you reach back to feel what they did. your hair is in a single tight braid, you can tell. Not particularly orderly, but that does not matter much. You reach around the braid and pull it over your shoulder to behold.

It does not even look half bad, you have to admit. The children are waiting for your judgement, but they beam anyway; you huff and reach out to ruffle the two girls' hair. "Good job, you three. I like it." They giggle, though their brother moves to pout... until you give him a peck on the forehead, after which he blushes and hides, much to your amusement.


Playing with so many children tires you out, but it is a completely different kind of exhaustion. Much more pleasant, relaxing. So relaxing that you feel you can get back to practicing some more when you open your eyes the next day.

Which is why, after a nice breakfast and playing with Paoras a little longer, you make your way up the spire once more. The place is deserted as usual, aside from Mokutuuk dozing in the morning sun. You pay the Hell Beast no mind and transform, then take a basic stance; your teacher did say to practice all your stances regularly, which is why you have trouble actually bringing yourself to do so.

At least her explanations make enough sense to justify doing as she says.

An hour passes until you are done 'warming up', but you feel good about yourself. Still not fast or good enough to negate anything without leaving yourself wide open, but you have a good grip on what you can and can not do.

First you bring out Aetheric Tide and stab an imaginary opponent four times in rapid succession. It is... noticeable that there is a delay between the first two and the second two. You can tell why, too. The spear somehow gives you a speed boost when you move to strike, allowing you to stab twice in the time it normally takes to stab once.

You can tell this can not just be replicated; you can not just speed up like that, no matter how useful it would be. Which means bridging the gap with pure speed is not an option, at least not now.

"Hm."

It takes some practicing, trial and error, and a few unworkable ideas, lunch in-between, and more practice, but you do reach something interesting by the time the sun begins to sink. Sword in hand, you focus on your imaginary opponent and stab forward, pull back and turn that motion into a swing.

(Stardust Striker: +225 Base Damage, dice do not matter = 225 Total Damage
Stardust Striker: +225 Base Damage, dice do not matter, -25 Off-Target = 200 Total Damage

425 Unified Damage, no target)

It is still not perfect, but you can say for sure that you have it now. By letting your attacks flow into each other, you can combine them; it is different than just hitting twice, you can tell that much. You hit harder this way.

Still, another half day will probably be needed to get it down entirely. You do not mind that, it is progress nonetheless.

The next day, you find a surprise up top; your teacher is there, going through stances of her own. She pays you no mind for the time being, fluidly flinging her cross like a spear and sword both; cuts, slashes, stabs, she apparently mastered them all.

You take up position a bit away from her and begin your own practice, fully aware that she is watching you. It takes until you are done with your own basics until she speaks up, though: "Your dedication is commendable. What are you practicing today?"

You raise an eyebrow at that, but bite down on your tongue and just think some unpleasant comments. Then you go about explaining your idea, to which the Angel becomes a little thoughtful. She watches your displays and has them run into her cross a few times, eyes narrowed.

"It is a useful technique indeed," she finally tells you. "Though one that depends on speed no matter what. Perhaps you can do it anyway with enough practice, but not soon." Then she eyes you again. "Speed will come in time, then you will be able to do this without any problem."

You raise an eyebrow, but then shrug it off and nod at her. "Sure, but I'm still putting some more time in. This has to work when I need it." She nods in turn and leaves you to it. Though she does not, you notice, leave entirely; your teacher keeps watching.

After a while, you decide to talk to her; she does not look like she is going to leave anytime soon, anyway. "Can I ask you something?" Not that you are against spending some more time with her; with how frosty she behaves, you can imagine that most people keep their distance at best. The Angel nods at you, so you go ahead: "What's your name?"

You still have her in your field of vision and can thus see the puzzled expression your question brings. Despite everything, that makes you smile and you cheerfully repeat the motion you just completed with your spear. She stays silent for a few moments, eyes on you. "You do not know my name?"

There is a certain confusion there, to which you just roll your eyes and follow your first stab with a slash, followed by another slash in the other direction and a fourth stab. That works, too. "You never said it and nobody else told me, so no."

There is a certain risk to talking so familiar with her, but you do not feel particularly threatened; not to mention that you can not bring yourself to actually act respectful right now.

"I see." She ponders that for a moment, and her late introduction has you pause mid-swing: "I am Lucifer."

Your sword lowers and you eye the dark Angel for a few long moments, exasperation quickly bubbling within you. "...Lucifer. Really?" She nods and you almost slap a hand against your forehead, only barely remembering that this hand is holding a sword right now. Clubbing yourself with solid steel... or whatever it is, is not a good idea.

It is still tempting, though.

Lucifer. Because of course you can not meet an Angel with a less known name among humanity. Or one whose name is less... loaded.

Thinking of that, you return to looking over your teacher thoughtfully. With how she looks and now her name... you know not everything in the old scriptures is accurate, but most things humanity knows of the existing races, even if warped over time, is suspected to come from members of that species ending up on earth and passing on knowledge before dying of mana withdrawal.

You can at least ask.

"So you're a fallen Angel?"

Lucifer, and is it not weird to think of her under that name, raises an eyebrow; the chilly air noticeably warms up and you can feel the heat emanating from within her. "Yes." That is the only response you get, aside from how her arm-wing is twitching. She averts her gaze and returns to her own practice, signalling that the conversation is over.

Well, no. Not with you. Though you will drop that particular matter, she obviously does not like to talk about it.

"You haven't asked for my name, either." Silence answers you at first, but you know she heard it. When no response is forthcoming, you shrug and keep talking: "It's Heidi, by the way. Technically Adelheid, but I like the shortened form better."

She remains quiet, and so you continue with your practice for a bit before talking to her again: "What do you do aside from practicing?"

At first you think she is not going to say anything again, but then she does answer: "Meditating." It is just a single word, but that is progress; you probably enjoy alienating her a little too much, though.

"And?" No response. You wonder whether she went back to the same silence as before, but then it occurs to you. "Wait, that's it?" A nod, Lucifer completely unconcerned with the matter. You sigh and lower your weapon into a guard stance for a moment, then go back into a swing from there. "That explains why you're that bad at talking to people."

She pauses, just as you expected. The glare you thought would come does not, though. Her gaze is calm. "I am well aware, and find myself uncaring."

Now you tilt your head, though, curious. "And why did you volunteer to train me if you're not going to talk to me?" No response; you huff and continue moving around, though your movements soon bring you back to back with the Angel; she halts again, as do you. "Just curious about the human?"

Her body is warm, but you feel that there is something dangerous lurking beneath this warmth. Not directed at you, just... there. Lucifer stands quiet for a while, but then she sighs. "You are irritating, Heidi. Which is what drew my curiousity; I could end you in a heartbeat, yet you talk back like you do. Demons do not do this, Dark Stars do not do this, not even most Elven champions dare."

She pushes the butt of her weapon into your back, making you stumble forward and back into practice. You take the dismissal for what it is this time.

Though there is one thing you want to ask her now, and you do after a few minutes of not-quite-comfortable silence: "Do you mind meeting me up here tomorrow? No training, just hanging out."

You do think she is nice enough to spend time with, even though she tries to be all icy. Lucifer's face is not visible from where you stand, so you have to wait a little anxiously for her response. Perhaps it is revenge, then, that she does not speak until the sun begins to dip low.

Her own practice ends by the time yours does; you wave at her and turn around to leave. Only when you reach the stairs does the Angel answer you: "I will see you tomorrow, at noon."

You almost turn around to flip her off. Then you realise she is not even looking at you and do it anyway.


Breaking awkward silences may be one of your specialties, but your teacher's specialty is apparently making them.

The two of you are on top of the central spire once more. This time however, you are both seated at the edge, feet dangling several hundred metres above ground; you are not worried, though. You were never afraid of heights, and your own balance is superb these days.

That does not solve the problem of Lucifer just not talking, though. You ran through a few things to ask her or to talk about, but none feels right. Either too personal to have a chance of being answered, or too noncommital to get any more than a few words.

Then again, a few words are better than nothing. "So, how old are you?"

As expected, she considers your question for a moment as if to decide whether to answer it. Her response is... also about as expected: "I was young when Dark Star declared war on the Fey."

Not exactly the numbers, but the way she said it. "So about three thousand years?" A nod from her and a grimace from you. "You could have just said that." No response. You sigh and drop the matter.

One could think she is doing it on purpose now.

...

Your eyes narrow at the Angel and you see her lips twitch the slightest bit. She is doing it on purpose. Or at least knows exactly what she is doing.

You bite your tongue again and rub your eyes for a moment, then change the topic and point up to her folded wings: "Assuming it's not some weird taboo to let anyone touch your wings, can I touch them?"

Lucifer thinks about that for a while; her feathers are quite orderly, you notice as you watch them for a bit. They look well-groomed, same as her hair. Considering how tattered her clothes are, you wonder if that is an Angel-thing or just your teacher doing as she pleases.

"If there is such a taboo," she offers after a while, "I forgot about it. I would not care about another's rules either way. I do, however, not want you to touch my wings." Your hands had already risen a little, but you lower them back into your lap over the refusal. They are her wings, that is just fair. You still grumble for a moment.

Then you smirk and eye her. "Can I touch them after I landed a hit on you?"

Bullseye; the Angel snorts and eyes you with something approaching a smirk. "If that motivates you." You both know it will not be soon, but the wager makes it a little more interesting for when it does happen.

However, the silence returns afterward; you continue looking outward, taking bites out of your sandwich once in a while. Maya made them and had Paoras deliver them in the morning; they did that for weeks now, ever since you forgot to save some stuff from breakfast that one time. You are not complaining; it is kind of cute.

After a while of just sitting there, Lucifer speaks up: "Ask." You cast a confused look her way, wondering if she really knows the kind of question on your mind. When she elaborates, you understand that she does: "We both know you are curious what I am doing here. Ask."

You have been wondering about that for a while. Just what would bring an Angel to work with Heaven's natural and mortal enemy? She never appeared like the kind to answer that, but if she offers? "Okay. What brought you here?"

Silence. It holds for a long while as you wait for her to speak. Lucifer does not even look at you and it takes quite a bit until you realise no response will come; that is when you get angry, slapping the back of your hand against her arm; it would be her shoulder, but that is too far up. "Did you just tell me to ask so you can not answer?"

The weak smile she shows you is irritating, to say the least. "Yes. Knowing I won't answer is better than wondering." Her words do not really calm you, but you bite your tongue -perhaps a little too hard, that hurts- and stay quiet.

At least one of you seems to be having fun. And for some reason, you are not as mad as you think you would normally be.


Your free time dwindles quickly and soon it is the last day. Paoras keeps you company that day, happily chattering about the shenanigans her siblings got up to. Also about how she asked her father to teach her more things. It is relaxing to listen to your little friend; she somehow has a childish innocence about herself even while talking about combat training.

"Oh, and I had my first period yesterday. I'm glad it's gone now." Or that. You eye the girl by your side and shake off the thought, simply glad Maya quietly helps you with your own.

At least she does not dwell on the topic; you feel oddly cheerful while the half-Elf keeps talking about this and that. It has been more than six weeks since you arrived on Sheol and... you got used to it.

There is still a pang of pain whenever you think of home, but things do not look as bleak anymore; you got used to your new environment and are actually enjoying yourself. Thanks to time travel, you will not even be gone for long from everyone else's perspective.

You are pretty happy with how things are turning out, even if you have to go back to practice for a while soon after.


At least all the basics are covered; Lucifer only has you run through them once to ensure you recall them, then moves on to more advanced combat maneuvers.

All in all, you really feel happy about the things she teaches you; it is interesting and fun, though you do not manage to land a single blow on her yet again. One day you will, though!

She lets you off to rest when your second month is over; little more than a week spent training and you continue soaking up everything like a sponge.

Now that you are free, though... you feel like exploring the Keep. Running around outside is one thing, but you barely looked around inside before. Going alone is lame, though.

Now... who do you ask to tag along?


Pick two:

[] Maya
[] Paoras
[] Lucifer
[] Orux
[] Dragul


[]EXP-Plan
-[] Write-in what to buy


+5xp Played With Lots of Kids
+5xp Talked to Lucifer
+10xp New Perks
+5xp Starting to Settle In
EXP gained: 25


(Unlocked Level 5 (Max) Character Sheet: Paoras)


Unlocked Soft Exploits:
-Flowing strikes (allows to string several attacks together like a multi-hit Ability, though each attack still costs an action)