Solo Act Like An Angel, Dress Like Crazy

[Lune]

The quiet was a blessing in the small, unnamed settlement deep within the forests of Western Brisshal. Lune had come to appreciate the simple sounds of the rustle of leaves, the distant crackle of a cooking fire, and the soft hum of Ryujin practicing a simple spell. It was a peace she had fought for, sustaining the small community of Landers with her own dwindling life force. The days of being Moonsong felt like a lifetime ago.

It felt like a story belonging to someone else.

A young settler approached her as she sat outside her hut, enjoying a cup of spiced tea. He hesitated, "Arbiter," he began, his voice barely above a whisper. "Word has come from a trader passing near the Vintergard ruins. The... Heralds are back." Lune paused her work, her red eyes lifting to meet his. She gave a slow, tired sigh. This again.

Those Heralds of the Immortal were so shameless that they came back to borrow someone's legacy for their crime.

"Told you not to call me that," She placed the cup of tea to her side, "What are they doing this time?"

He swallowed hard. "Uh, like the last time. Asking for 'protection money' from surrounding settlements. Apparently, their number had grown quite a lot."

Of course they would. She pinched her forehead and sighed. The woman wasn't in her best condition to be in combat, but this problem could spread if not taken care of as fast as possible.

And this felt really personal. "I'll handle it," she said, her voice flat and cold, leaving no room for argument. "Go inform the Explorer League, someone over there should owe me a favor." She then dismissed the settler with a nod and prepared to leave. Lune wasn't sure how quickly the League would respond with one or two backup, but she was confident they would at least send one. Best-case scenario would be Luthien, but she might not be online.

As she was about to walk out of the settlement, she tapped on Ryujin's shoulder. "Mother will be back soon, some business to attend." She just responded with a happy smile and a big nod. The woman then stepped out of her hidden sanctuary, walking straight toward Vintergard.

Now you're like the idol of this place, huh?

Shouldn't you plan how you will take them on instead of thinking of a joke like that?

 

[Lune]

The road to Vintergard was just as she remembered. The familiar woods of her home thinned out, replaced by the scarred, sparse trees. Recently though, things have been better here thanks to the total eradication of the magia.

Lune pushed her way into the only tavern. The room went quiet. She walked to the counter and put a few coins on the bar, looking at the man cleaning the countertop while going straight to the point. "The Heralds. I heard they're back." The man turned to her, wiping a clean spot on the bar with a trembling, scarred hand.

Burn marks, probably from several years ago.

He confirmed the stories—the extortion, the threats, the blasphemous sermons—all centered around their 'holy site.' "Yes, my daughter couldn't stop cursing at them. Usually around this time, they should be trying to recruit new followers in a weekly ceremony." The barkeep sighed, grabbing the coins.

"Under the statue?" A simple question, responded by a simple nod. "Hm."

"Alright, thanks." Without any more delay, Lune just left the tavern like that. Meanwhile, as the day was slowly breaking, more and more people started to fill the establishment. "Tavern's getting packed. Lyssa! Come help down here!" The owner shouted toward the stairs behind him, but there was no answer. "Lyssa? Where are you?"

---

The closer she got to the statue, the quieter it became. There were no checkpoints, no guards, no chanting. Something was wrong. Lune slowed her pace, and in her hand, her greatblade materialized from her inventory. She stopped once she spotted several people in the distance.

Lying on the ground.

Bodies were spread across the ground—not dead, just unconscious, groaning in pain. Discarded weapons lay everywhere. Faint wisps of golden light still hovered in the air, slowly fading away. It was the aftermath of a fight, and she'd missed it. The entire problem she'd come to solve had already been handled somehow.

Uh, I think they got smitten by the statue?

No. When have I ever had that kind of magic skill?

Whatever it was, it seemed to be not just a simple divine intervention. The woman stepped closer. In the middle of the mess, a single person stood at the base of the Immortal Heroine statue. She was a young woman dressed in a black robe akin to a priestess. Her back was to Lune, her golden hair falling over her shoulders as she looked up at the statue's face, seemingly unaware of the chaos around her.

 

[Lune]

Lune's greatblade remained solid in her grip as she stepped quietly over the groaning bodies of the Heralds. The woman in black didn't seem to notice her approach, her attention completely devoted to the stone giant before her. She was muttering something, a soft prayer that was lost to the wind. Lune stopped a few feet behind her, blade held in a relaxed but ready stance.

"They're not dead," Lune stated, her voice cutting through the quiet clearing.

The figure flinched, her prayer interrupted. She turned slowly, and Lune's crimson eyes immediately locked onto the girl's face, who was wearing some kind of eye-covering mask. A blind priestess? "Did you do this?" She gestured with her sword at the incapacitated cultists.

"A demon," The blonde hissed, her voice filled with spite. "Have you come to defile this holy ground as well?"

Lune blinked, her brow furrowing slightly.

Demon? Excuse me? This was the first time she encountered this particular form of fantasy racism. "Relax, I'm just here to clean up the trash," Lune said, her tone flat as she nudged a groaning cultist with her boot. "Looks like someone beat me to it."

The blonde didn't relax. If anything, she looked more tense, taking a half-step back towards the statue's leg as if to protect it. Even though Lune couldn't see her eyes, she was sure the girl was wary of her horn. "Your kind has no place here. The Goddess has purified this sanctuary of heretics. She will not suffer the presence of a fiend." The light around her hands brightened, casting a warm, yet menacing, glow.

"Goddess?" Lune asked, glancing up at the impassive stone face of the frozen armor, then back to the zealous girl. The pair of her magically sensitive crimson eyes noticed that more and more of the magical energy around them was getting denser.

"She saved me," The girl declared, touching her face, close to the obscured eyes. "She protects this place. And I am her vessel." She took a defensive stance, the divine energy she wielded crackling audibly. "Leave now, or be purged."

The woman would call her delusional, but she had no energy to badmouth or argue. "Look, it might look like I have a horn, but I'm not a demon. I'm here to—"

"O, great protector, one true Goddess, my savior," she began, "You who shielded me from the dragon's fire and gave this land its peace." At first invisible to the untrained eyes, the magic around the statue took the form of a visible glow. The light around her flared, casting Lune's shadow long and distorted across the clearing.

"A creature of shadow now stands on your sanctuary. Grant me strength. Let me be the vessel of your pure light, and I shall be the one that banishes this darkness." The countless magical particles around them light up like a thousand crackling fireflies. As the prayer neared its climax, she raised her right hand toward the sky, with her palm open.

"Let your holy light be my sword, and your stone will be my shield. For I..." A single bolt of lightning descended from the sky into her hand, and now, contained in her grip was an insurmountable amount of power. "...WILL NOT suffer a fiend to stand on your sacred field!"

"...What?" Lune took one step back as the girl slowly aimed her fist towards her.

It's highly dangerous.

Not the incoming attack, but how the girl wielded the raw power behind her. It was clear to her that she hadn't been taught magic, but she was still able to somehow pull and manipulate this mysterious, divine magic from the statue. If she interrupted her now, the massive amount of dense magic could unsafely explode.

Fuck it, she's gotta take this one. Her eyes scanned through the field before noticing a certain winged shield on the grass. It seemed like the Heralds were trying to steal it again. Reaching with her left hand, Lune used a gravitational pull to make the shield fly towards her.

"Begone."

She opened her fist, and then there was a blinding light.