Elisabeth Faith

"A large crystal… with a teenage girl inside…? What… is this…?"

Everyone else stands in awe—Surprised by this sudden mystery.

<So, you have finally come, Haruki? I have waited so long for this moment.>

 "Elisabeth… is that… you?"

<Yes, Haruki. It is me.>

The crystal starts cracking. The cracks split the crystal into two and Elisabeth falls. I jump forward and catch her in my arms. This girl resembles Elisabeth. But she is not the child version or the adult version.

Elisabeth opens her eyes. Blue, like both Elisabeths

"Haruki…" she says. Her voice is like both Elisabeths'. "You finally saved me," she says placing her hand on my cheek.

"Are you… Elisabeth?"

She nods her head.

"Hey, Haruki, what's going on?" asks Ivy, confused.

I explain everything to them.

"So, in this dream," asks Selina, "a young Elisabeth was helping you out. But the evil Elisabeth was the one that had been terrorizing us. And you say this is also an Elisabeth? But not quite the same as either Elisabeths'?"

"Yes."

"Well? Is she on our side, or not?" asks Ivy, glaring at Elisabeth.

Everyone stares at Elisabeth, with their guard on high alert.

"Will everyone stop staring at me!?" she says, annoyed. "I know that you guys are on guard because my adult self did horrible things. I don't expect to gain your trust. But I want you guys to believe that I am your saving grace in your fight against my adult counterpart."

The room remains silent and the tenseness in the small room thickens.

"I trust you," I say, breaking this uncomfortable atmosphere. Elisabeth's eyes light up.

"Of course you do, Haruki. Why would you not believe the love of your life?"

"Love of your life?" asks Selina. "What's this about?" she asks me.

"Don't listen to Elisabeth's gibberish," I say.

"Explain," says Ivy suddenly.

"Explain?" asks Elisabeth, confused.

"Explain who the evil Elisabeth is. Why is she terrorizing us? Why create the Illuminati? Why kill the people in my village!?"

"Your name is Ivy, right? If you want an explanation, then I will happily oblige. However, I want you to know something. I am by no means a good person."

"What do you mean?" I ask her.

"Haruki, I want you to hear my story."

"Your… story?" My mind flashes back to when I asked the evil Elisabeth to tell me her story. "Ok," I say.

"This story goes back a millennium…"

To understand our current situation, we need to go back to before the realms were at war with each other. To the demon realm, Netherworld. The demon realm was not like the others. The lands are desolate, and the environments are unhospitable for any living creature. To counter this austere environment, all demons are born with a resistance to the dense miasma. I, on the other hand, was not born with this resistance. The reason for this is because I was not born as a demon. My parents were Fairies. My father, leader of the Royal Guard in Aerlogard, and my mother, the former Fairy Queen. I was born into royalty, however, it's not as grand as people make it out to be. Fairy Royalty in Aerlogard are trained since birth to lead all Fairies. Every day, since my birth, I would exhaust my mana and train my body past its limits. The training was rigorous, and it made my life a living hell.

When I turned five, my mother attended a meeting of realms in Ragnarök. I accompanied her, but when we arrived in Ragnarök, I got lost. I walked around trying to find her, but what I found instead was the turning point in my hellish life.

After walking in the forest for an hour I finally found someone. A young five-year-old boy. He was resting in the afternoon sun on a patch of grass. When I came closer, he opened his eyes. The boy's hair was cyan, and his eyes were crystal white.

"Who are you?" he asked. His voice was soft for a boy's voice.

"I am Elisabeth. Elisabeth Faith. And you are?"

"My name is Haruki. Haruki Ryu. You are not from Ragnarök, are you?"

"How can you tell?"

"This," he said pointing to his nose. "Dragons have heightened senses. I can smell the difference between a dragon and a fairy."

"Yes, I am not from Ragnarök. I got lost, can you help me?"

"No," he said arrogantly.

"How dare you refuse a request from a fair maiden such as me?" I asked him, fuming. In Aerlogard, no fairy would refuse my request. That was the first time someone said 'no' to me.

"A fair maiden?" he said, looking at me in disbelief. "Sure, whatever."

"You… How dare you…?" My first impression of him was of arrogance and discourtesy. I marched off into the forest.

"Hey, wait!!" he shouted.

"How can such a rude person exist?" I asked myself, ignoring him. As I walked into the forest, infuriated, I stepped into a certain dragon's territory. Dragons, despite claiming neutrality, are extremely violent when someone enters their territory, uninvited. Oblivious to this, I unintentionally entered the territory of a powerful dragon.

After walking for a few minutes, the air became heavy.

"Who dares enter my backyard!?" roared a voice.

The voice both surprised and terrified me. I tried running back where I entered from. "Help!!" I screamed.

The air got thicker and thicker as a powerful presence closed the distance. "Little girl," said the voice as it appeared before me. "Do you know where you are?"

Gedeon was his name. He was a dragon with a bad temper. Entering his territory was the worst mistake I ever made. His presence was overwhelming. I could not utter a word. My legs trembled as his mighty body moved closer, ready to feast on me. I clenched my eyes shut.

"Stop!!"

I opened my eyes to a familiar voice. Haruki, the rude boy from before.

"This scent? You are…" Gedeon seemed frightened. His voice and body were both trembling.

Haruki bowed down before Gedeon and said, "My apologies Lord Gedeon. This girl is with me. I failed to inform her that your territory was in the area. Please see it in yourself to forgive her. And if not, then punish me instead."

He was rude and arrogant; however, he was also kind and self-sacrificing. At that moment my heart fluttered, and my face started heating up. 'What is this feeling?' I asked myself.

Gedeon remained silent for a short while. He then spread his wings and flew into the sky, after shouting, "Let this be the last time, Grandson of Emygdius."

After leaving Gedeon's territory, Haruki lectured me. I felt guilty but mostly happy. We spent the entire day talking on that patch of grass. I cherished each second. I was later found by my father.

"Father, look here, I made a…"

Father interrupted me mid-sentence with a slap across my face.

"Elisabeth are you okay!?" Haruki came to aid me, however, my father stepped in front of him. "How could you…!?" he asked Father.

"Get away from her. She has made her mother sick with worry," he said with a disgusted look on his face.

'Lies. My mother does not care for me. She is likely ecstatic to see I was missing' was the thought running through my mind.

"That is still no reason to slap your daughter!!" Haruki continued to defend me, which brought joy that overshadowed my misery. But Father was getting angry. I could not let Father attack Haruki as well.

Father raised his hand and I quickly screamed, "Haruki!!" Father's hand paused. "It's okay. This is how I was raised. I am already used to it."

"But…"

"You know what would make me happy."

"What?" he asked, realizing these were my final words to him.

"I would be happy if you saved me, Haruki."

He looked dazed for a second, before screaming, "Of course I would!! I will go to Aerlogard and save you, Elisabeth!!"

I knew it was impossible; however, hearing those words made my heart tighten. This was a chance meeting, so I decided to believe in those words; however, reality can be quite cruel. Haruki, my first and last love, never came and when I turned ten, I became the Fairy Queen, by killing my mother.

My succession to the throne was met by rebellions. Led by my father, the fairies that loved my mother opposed the way I rose to power. After a year as queen, I was usurped from the throne and cast out of Aerlogard. I became known as a Fallen. I was lost. I had no place to go. No realm to call home.

I decided to go to the demon realm. As soon as I entered Netherworld, I could feel the dense miasma. It was suffocating. However, by maintaining a mana coat around the clock, the effects of the miasma did not affect me. Ironically, the hellish training I hated was my saving grace. I would spend the next three years living peacefully in Netherworld.

After a few years in the demon realm, my life became monotonous. It was boring. I soon realized that my training made me crave violence and bloodshed. My personality changed and I would go on a killing spree. I later joined an organization of people with similar personalities. Our organization of five monsters massacred billions and would become infamous. Our names spread far and wide, throughout the realms. People feared us. However, no one who has seen a member has lived long enough to identify us. Because of that, we were a mysterious band of fearsome monsters.

After nine centuries passed, I got bored of people fearing me. My life became meaningless. That was when I met a sage. He was an old man who needed a crutches aide to walk. As I walked past him, he muttered the name, "Haruki."

I turned around, shocked. However, the old man was gone. I searched for the old man for weeks. My investigations all lead to dead ends. But I would not give up. I continued my search and finally found him.

My search led me to a bar in the Heilder Kingdom. The old man was lively for his old age. Buying everyone drinks and drinking canisters by himself, flirting with the young maids, and arm wrestling the young men. I walked up to him and grabbed him by his crooked cloak.

"Hey, old man, I've been looking for you," I said to him.

A few men walked up to us and said, "Hey, hey, hey. Little miss, you shouldn't disrespect your elders like tha—"

The man's voice was irritating, so, I sent his head flying. His lifeless body fell to the ground and within a few seconds, the bar was empty. Despite witnessing an execution in front of him, the old man continued drinking. His nonchalant behaviour annoyed me, so I decided to scare him. I attacked one of his legs; however, the old man's leg felt like it was made of diamond. Instead of his leg breaking, the bones in my hand shattered. I jumped back instantly.

"What is your skin made of you damned geezer!?" I shouted. This was the first time in nine centuries that I took any damage.

"Ah, my booze," he said, completely ignoring me.

I could feel the veins in my head about to burst. "Is that how you want to play this? Fine, I have a feeling that with you I can use my full power."

Our battle completely eviscerated the town we were in. It lasted a mere ten minutes. Despite all my efforts, the old man was victorious. This was my first loss ever. I felt multiple emotions twisting together. Anger, joy, sadness. However, I did not feel any regret. I enjoyed the fight between me and the old man.

I lay there defeated, waiting for him to deal the final blow. However, it never came.

"Haruki Ryu will arrive in another century," he said. "I want you to be by his side. Help him overcome the darkness that will taint both himself and this world."

"I don't deserve to be by his side," I said crying. "How can I help him overcome the darkness of the world, when I am the cause of this tainted world?"

The old man just laughed as he said, "My dear, you are but a shadow to the real darkness. And I believe you are the perfect person to aide him."

I laughed for a bit and then asked, "What should I do then?"

"Spend the next half century to repent, then prepare an army. Create an organisation if you have to. A great war will start soon, and Haruki needs all the help he can get."

"A war? Will it be like the Ancient Magic War?"

The old man paused. When he looked into my eyes, it was like I saw the embodiment of fear. "It will be many times worse. Be sure to gather an army," was his final words to me. After that encounter, I didn't see the old man again, until fifteen years ago.

Shortly after that encounter, I left my organisation and repented for fifty years. I then spent the next twenty years gathering members. The Illuminati's name spread far and wide. All the members I gathered were humans. Despite humans being weaker than the other races, their numbers are exponentially higher. And they are also more easily convinced. I could gather a greater army with humans than any other race. Everything was going great. Until I decided to create a certain spell.

As you know, my magic is called Memory Magic. On the surface, it allows me to read through people's memories like it was a book. However, with centuries of training my magic, I could do things like reading the memories of inanimate objects or even reading the memories of someone through another person's memories. Twelve years ago, I decided to attempt to see the future. It's a magic skill called Future Memory. By peering into a person's future memories, I could predict their future actions. A spell like this uses a large amount of mana, however, because of my large mana pool, I could use this spell many times.

I decided to combine Future Memory with a magic spell that materialises a memory into reality, called Memory Manifestation. When used together, I manifested a future version of myself. This was my mistake. The future me attacked me and sealed my powers. I managed to escape, but she followed me. I was going to die there. 'Right here, before seeing my beloved Haruki again.' When that thought crossed my mind, the old man appeared before me again.

"I see you got yourself in quite a pickle, haven't you, Elisabeth?"

The old man said he could not interfere with matters of another realm. So instead, he proposed sealing me with a powerful seal that only Haruki could break with his mana. The only problem was, I would have to wait for fifteen years.

"A problem? I waited a millennium for Haruki. Fifteen years will fly by," I told him.

With that, the old man used a powerful divine seal to seal my body inside this monastery. And my wait began. For fifteen years.