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In her childhood, Osnia Hebring’s day always began and ended with prayer.

The devout villagers considered the “strange” Osnia, who could communicate with what ordinary people could not see, hear, or speak, an ominous being, and even her parents feared the child they had birthed.

Thus, they locked her away in a cramped underground room, preventing her from wandering outside freely.

Just a life of disdain.

So all she could do was pray.

Osnia knelt on the cold, hard floor, opening the Bible of the Goddess Church given to her by the village priest.

Though every verse of the worn and tattered Bible was already etched in her mind, Osnia turned the pages and whispered as if it were a habit.

“O Goddess, our guide and protector, we pray to You.”

The village priest constantly urged Osnia to acknowledge her wrongs, repent, and seek the Goddess’s forgiveness, claiming that only then could she be cleansed.

Yet, Osnia had no idea what wrongs she had committed. In the end, she prayed for her existence to be forgiven.

She believed that if she showed remorse, her parents would someday embrace her in warm arms. Someday. She longed for something she had never experienced.

Furthermore, she thought that faithfully following the Goddess’s teachings would make the unknown beings tormenting her disappear.

“Guide our souls, grant trials in our lives… and by overcoming those trials, let us draw closer to the Goddess…”

Yet even in the moment when Osnia was reciting from the Bible.

The whispering voice beside her never ceased.

It was not a real language. Young Osnia thought of it as a voice, but they were not words; they weakly conveyed a will connected to her mind.

These beings always lingered near Osnia, constantly whispering something.

Didn’t she hate the walls that confined her?

Didn’t she despise her parents and the villagers who tormented her?

If she only wished for it, everything that tormented her could be erased.

Yet they could not grant Osnia’s true wish.

That is, the fervent desire for her parents and the villagers to love her.

No, even if they could grant it, Osnia herself would not have believed it.

The beings drifting around Osnia often granted her wishes, typically in ways she did not desire.

“May our hearts be humble, and grant us the strength and wisdom necessary to obey the Goddess’s will… so that we may serve the Goddess and gladly accept sacrifice… and thereby spiritually grow…”

Osnia was afraid.

Of her tormenting parents and villagers.

Of the village priest who constantly demanded repentance.

Of the unknown entities lingering around her.

But the most terrifying thought was another.

That one day, she might succumb to these whispers and commit a terrible act.

In the end, Osnia could no longer endure and threw the Bible to the ground.

“Stop, stop it!”

With a trembling voice of fear, she cried out to the invisible beings.

“Why won’t you just leave me alone…!”

This was just one of many repetitions in her daily routine.

Osnia already knew that nothing would change by acting this way, but she was too young to endure this seemingly endless pain without a timeline, and she was reaching her limit.

She prayed fervently to the Goddess.

That someday she could escape this pain.

That night, Osnia’s prayer was answered in the most cruel manner.

*

It was a chillingly quiet night, that is, until the first scream shattered the silence.

“It’s the Demon King’s Army!”

“Ahhh! Save me!!”

Soon screams echoed throughout the village, filling the air with the stench of blood and acrid smoke.

Osnia had no idea what was happening above. But she could at least sense that something dreadful was unfolding.

She curled up in a corner of the underground room, hugging her knees tightly to her chest. Afraid that even her breath might be heard, she covered her mouth with her hands.

Every time a scream echoed from above, Osnia flinched, haunted by all sorts of ominous imaginings.

Then, she heard the sound of her cabin door being smashed in.

“Agghh!!”

“Please! Save me!”

As her parents’ screams rang in unison, Osnia’s breaths grew erratic. She was caught in a complex mix of vague fear of death and a desperate hope for it all to end quickly.

Osnia expected the invading entities to kill her parents straight away. Instead, the being spoke in a rough, split voice.

“Where is the one who has awakened?”

“Awakened one…? What do you mean…?”

“Transcendent. The one loved by mana. Call it whatever you wish. There should be a very ‘peculiar’ human in this village?”

Osnia realized that they were looking for her. Her parents seemed to have understood as well, desperately answering in frantic voices, as if they did not wish to die.

“Ah, we know! Here! Here I am!”

As her father said this, he hurriedly opened the door to the underground room.

When the light seeped into the dark underground, Osnia fled to the furthest corner to avoid the brightness. But her father, undeterred, grabbed her arm and dragged her forcefully.

“Agghh!”

“Come out! Right now!”

Led by her father’s arm, Osnia emerged from the underground room. It was then she could finally see.

Knights in armor riding opaque horses roaming the village.

And standing before them, a man in a black robe with his face obscured, but his revealed jawline was pale and devoid of expression.

He was not particularly imposing just by appearance alone; rather, he was tall but skinny, arousing a somewhat neurotic impression.

Yet, Osnia immediately realized that he was the one leading this army. For the first time, she felt such ominous and evil energy. Instinctively, fear surged within her. Her legs trembled in the presence of such a powerful being.

In his presence, even the voices of the beings that had always whispered around Osnia fell silent. As if they had fled, sensing the vast difference in might.

It was a power she had never wished for, but in a moment of need, it served her not at all, bringing Osnia despair. In that moment, she felt utterly powerless.

The man looked at Osnia, dragged out from the underground room, and smiled beneath his robe.

“Finally found you.”

The man in the black robe gestured to the knights surrounding the cabin, issuing orders. Osnia later learned they were called Death Knights.

“Take her away.”

Osnia and her parents were captured by the Death Knights and dragged toward the village square.

Gathered there were the villagers who had tormented her while viewing her with hatred, and even the village priest who had demanded her repentance, all with terrified expressions.

The man in the robe turned his back on the gathered villagers and spoke to Osnia. His voice was ominous, like branches swaying in a howling winter wind.

“Little human girl. Those who have tormented you for so long are right here. Don’t you hate them?”

To say that she didn’t hate them would have been a lie.

For her entire life, she had desperately wanted their love, yet her heartfelt feelings had never once been reciprocated.

Osnia could not even muster the courage to lie. Afraid, she slowly nodded her head. The man’s smile deepened.

“If you wish, I can kill them all. What will you choose?”

At his words, the villagers began to cry out.

“No, don’t! Don’t kill us!”

“Please, save us…!”

Among them, her parents begged fervently. They looked utterly desperate.

Osnia too wished for just a piece of their affection, just as desperately. But for her, love among family had always been nothing more than a mirage written in the scriptures; all she had ever received from them was fear and hatred.

However, that did not mean she wished for their deaths.

It was just that she had no idea how this man would act based on her answer. Osnia hesitated for a long while before finally shaking her head.

“You want them to live?”

“…Yes.”

With a heavy heart and in fear, Osnia nodded.

Though they had tormented her, and even if they had never shown her the love she longed for, if everyone were to die because of her choice, then she could not bear the weight of that result.

The man in the robe scoffed.

“You’re a coward, little human girl. Then let’s make a contract. I will spare their lives. In exchange, you must swear to fully dedicate your body to me.”

Osnia looked around at the people gathered in the square.

“Osnia, please! Save us!”

“My daughter…! I’ve done so much wrong! Please save us!”

Her parents along with many villagers cried out, begging for their lives.

Fear and desperation filled their eyes.

Those were the same eyes Osnia had looked upon them with all this time.

Thus, she could not turn a blind eye to those eyes.

It was like betraying what she had desperately longed for all this while.

Although she didn’t fully understand what the oath of complete devotion entailed, she knew it would strip her of her free will. Yet still.

“…I’ll make the contract.”

“Very well.”

Finally, she nodded heavily. The man, seemingly satisfied, lifted his lips into a smile and pointed his staff at her.

In an instant, her vision blurred, causing her to stagger.

An unsettling magical power enveloped her, tightening around her heart. It was a contract, an oath, a binding.

But Osnia saw it as hope.

If her sacrifice could save the villagers, then that would be enough. Obedience and sacrifice—after all, that was the true way of repentance spoken of in the scriptures she had read.

However, the moment the contract was established, the man in the robe issued a command to the Death Knights in a tone laced with deep contempt for humans.

“Now, kill them all.”

“……What?”

Osnia momentarily failed to comprehend the meaning of his words, repeating them in a daze.

But the Death Knights faithfully followed the man’s orders, drawing their swords and beginning the massacre of the villagers gathered in the square.

“No! Don’t! Save me!!”

“Agghhh!!”

“Oh God! Goddess! Please, have mercy!”

The villagers screamed in fear.

Some tried to flee, but it was futile as they couldn’t escape the knights on their ghostly steeds.

It didn’t take long for the villagers to turn into cold corpses. Osnia’s parents met a horrific fate as well.

Gazing at the pile of pitiful corpses with blank eyes, Osnia spoke with a voice filled with despair.

“Why… why…? I made a contract… to save them…”

“Indeed, you made a contract. I said I would save them.”

The man in the robe raised his staff. Soon, a dark and wicked magical power spread over the corpses of the villagers.

Then, Osnia witnessed the villagers’ corpses moving on their own, rising as the walking dead.

“Grrrr…”

“Guuuu….”

They had literally ‘come back to life.’

“Now, the contract is fulfilled.”

“Ugh… Ah, agh…!”

Observing that horrific scene, Osnia lacked even the strength to cry out that this was an unfair contract.

Perhaps the villagers had been right all along.

Had she brought such destruction upon the village?

Was she truly an ominous existence?

Her sacrifice, deceived by the man in the robe, ultimately did nothing to save her family or the village.

As she was dragged away by the Death Knights, Osnia began to doubt whether she was truly cursed, whether something within her had led to everyone’s ruin.

It was at that moment.

Piercing through the pitch-black night, a red and sharp spear, like the fangs of a demon, flew and pierced the man’s chest.

“Aggh!!”

Osnia fell backward, landing on her backside. When she finally struggled to open her tightly shut eyes, the scene before her was not the lifeless body of the man.

“Damn it… have they already chased me here?”

The man in the robe pulled out the spear with a sickening sound.

Not a drop of blood or a piece of flesh fell from the gaping hole. The man soon disdainfully tossed the spear onto the ground.

At that moment, heavy footsteps approached.

Someone was walking toward this place.

A man clad in black armor with golden eyes gleaming, more demonic than a demon itself.

 

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