In Pursuit of Vengeance

"Your Majesty, I am afraid that your actions have offended a Goddess from another world. I am not here as your loyal Captain, but as Edelle LuRoss, a woman tasked with that Goddess's vengeance."

King Julius was speechless for a moment, then as Edelle began to untie the wrappings around Bana Laoch, he appeared to realize what was going on. "Nightwatchers! Protect me, call the guards!" He shouted, rising to his feet in alarm.

By that time, Edelle had undone the twine keeping the cloth wrappings in place. At this point, it didn't matter whether Alesha took over her body; Alesha wanted to kill the King, and that was what Edelle had come here to do. Now that it was evident Bana Laoch had been telling the truth, there was no reason not to let her take vengeance personally. All the Goddess had said to do was "punish" the person responsible for tampering with her "seedling." Did that mean she had to do it personally? She didn't know for certain, but if she was lucky, perhaps allowing the "seedling" to do it herself would make the Goddess happy.

Was it foolishness? Perhaps. Was she simply eager to hand off the burden of killing the King to someone who actually wanted to do it? Maybe. 

Whatever the case, as black-clad individuals began to surge out of hiding and the King turned to flee, Edelle seized the cold, bronze-tinted handle of Bana Laoch with her bare hands and shouted, "Alesha! If you want vengeance, it's now or never!"

--

Alesha's fury ceased abruptly at the Captain's proclamation that she was here on behalf of a Goddess, seeking vengeance. Goddess? Vengeance? What was that all about? When the Captain hastily unwrapped the cloth and tossed aside something that had been covering her hands, then seized her sword body's hilt with bare fingers, Alesha felt even more confused. After the whole last week of being so cautious to never even brush against Bana Laoch's surface without a covering, she was doing so now? Intentionally?

"Alesha! If you want vengeance, it's now or never!"

The Captain's shout, like her earlier proclamation, was conveyed mentally as well as orally, so Alesha was able to hear. It didn't make sense. Alesha didn't know why the Captain had suddenly turned against the King or why she'd mentioned a Goddess's Vengeance, but one thing was clear: the Captain appeared to be inviting her to take over.

In a rush, Alesha attempted to do so.

She'd been practicing toggling on and off the shared skills with Captain Swallow over the past week; though she didn't know for certain whether the Captain had noticed, they'd never encountered danger during that time, so perhaps she hadn't. Alesha had even tried stealing control of her body again. While she had gotten the hang of the first, never once had the second succeeded. In the end, she'd concluded that, just as she'd noticed when she took over previously, skin contact with her sword self was somehow necessary in order to control the Captain's body.

Thus, Alesha found the task of possessing Captain Edelle to be surprisingly easy. 

She staggered at first, surprised by the various senses she'd somehow gotten used to not having. A sense of balance, of sight, hearing, smell, and touch. Her Life Detection was still active, so she could tell she didn't have much time to adjust. Several human forms were rushing towards her -- and one human form was running away.

As she looked around, a strange phenomenon was occurring, one that intellectually, she didn't quite understand. Even though she'd read the skill's description while bored during the Captain's return to the Capital, Battle Foresight's effects still caught her by surprise. She was lucky the skill came with an instinctual understanding of how to utilize this phenomenon. Without that, the overlapping images (which looked like simultaneously visible frames of an animation of the assailants' future actions) would have been far more confusing than helpful. 

Still, just because she could instinctively understand how to utilize the foresight didn't mean that her intellect could keep up with it. Before she could understand what was going on, she was dodging the projections of several crossbow bolts that Battle Foresight had revealed. Barely a second later, the actual bolts shot past, whistling audibly. 

How was she supposed to do this?? She had never fought before!! Sure, she'd received some basic training from Flynn (curse him forever) during her time as a "demon," and taken down the "Serial Killer" during the Werewolf Island story, but a battle against several highly-trained assassins while her quarry was escaping?? This was way beyond her capabilities! If it weren't for Battle Foresight, she'd have already been skewered.

As she ducked beneath a black-clad man's blade, Alesha mentally kept track of the King's location. He'd left the throne room and had entered what was probably a secret passage. A few people went with him. If she didn't go after him now, would she even be able to find the secret passageway's entrance??

Suddenly, Alesha regretted taking over the Captain's body so hastily. The Captain was a skilled fighter; she was not.

Ugh, if only I'd have waited for the Captain to take down these guys at least!! She mentally lamented.

… I apologize, the Captain's voice said in her mind. I forgot you have no experience with battle. If you give my body back for just a moment, I'll take you to the King. 

Dodging another pair of weapons, and without any clearly better options, Alesha agreed, relinquishing control of the Captain's body voluntarily.

It was best to let the expert handle this.

Barely a minute later, after the Captain had beautifully utilized a combination of skills, techniques and strategies in order to take down the black-clad assassins, the Captain rushed to where the secret passageway's entrance probably was. She ran down the hallway, approached the King, cut down the people with him, and finally nodded. "Alesha, it's all you now."

Alesha had been half-expecting the Captain to betray her in some way. Instead, the Captain had taken full advantage of the stats and skills Bana Laoch was sharing with her, made short work of the assassins trying to defend the King, and fulfilled the promise she'd made. Not only had the Captain taken her to the King, but she'd even gotten rid of his guards, too. 

Accepting the Captain's invitation, Alesha took over her body again. As she did so, she noticed how her sword body had turned red-and-black, with the same ominous smoke spilling out of it. Did the sword's appearance change whenever she possessed the Captain?

[Seems so,] Rogork replied. [Your sword body changed back to golden when the penalty ended and stayed that way until just now.]

Ignoring the System, even though she felt a tiny bit jealous since it seemed able to perceive their surroundings in color despite neither of them having their own pairs of eyes, Alesha turned a hate-filled gaze on the King. Her heart pounded in her chest.

"Hello, Your Majesty," she spat. "I'm here for revenge."