Just A Pawn - Chapter 1 Wont You Trust Me..?

Six realms remained unseen as they surrounded the mundane ‘physical’ world, they were thus known collectively as the ‘Unseen Realms’ by many of the mundane world’s inhabitants…

They formed in pairs, each existing across from their counterpart, like the sides on a cosmic dice.

But in Pawn’s case only two of them were important, realm number 2, and realm number 5, the ‘Demon Realm,’ home to the ‘demons,’ beings of chaos and negative emotion, and the ‘Spirit Realm,’ home to the ‘spirits,’ beings of order and positive emotion.

The beings of these realms were ranked from level 1-9, based on how much energy they had gathered within themselves, rank 0 and 10 existed as well, but calling them ‘beings’ at that point might be incorrect.

The vast majority of each realm’s inhabitants naturally thought their own realm to be above the rest, as they were naturally biased in there way of thinking, and those who thought otherwise, the minority… were banished…

…

Pawn was shocked at the request she had received from her elder sister, only able to give a blank stare in response, the mission she had just been given was clearly a task not meant for someone like her.

The reason for this was that she had a support based affinity, and thus could rely solely on support baced magic.

“I-” Began Pawn, about to ask if she had misheard said request.

But she was quickly cut off by her commanding officer’s words, the identity of which was her elder sister, Lumin.

“No, before you ask, you didn’t mishear me, Pawn, I want you to deliver this box to the barrier at the edge the demon territory, I’ll then direct you further from there via your communication crystal,” sensing her little sisters thought process, Lumin answered her question preemptively to speed up the process.

Lumin, like Pawn, was a spirit of the Spirit Realm, however unlike Pawn, she was an extremely high ranked combat orientated one, a level 7, a high-spirit.

While Pawn who was a miscellaneous support type spirit was currently at level 3, a low-spirit.

With the additional factor of combat related affinities being highly respected, and support related ones being thought of as unnecessary, there was simply no comparison in terms of rank.

What ever Lumin were to say, so long as no rules were broken, Pawn would need to comply.

“it’s a very important mission, so I’m entrusting it to you specifically,” continued Lumin as she patted Pawn on the head.

She then grabbed Pawn’s hand and forced the small brown parcel into it, ignoring her futile resistance.

Pawn stared momentarily at the cube shaped object that she had received, and then, after Lumin’s words had sunk in, began trying to think of ways to give it back.

…Eventually settling on trying to gain sympathy.

“I’m… just a supporter, my mission is healing injuries and providing resources, I can’t fight, what if I come across demons!” Pawn questioned as she looked towards the nearby, ominous looking tunnel, her potential destination.

It was formed into the base of a lush looking hill, as if to make it even more foreboding.

On the other end of which was the demon realm, home to all manner of demonic things that hated her kind especially… but that wasn’t the reason she didn’t want to venture near said place… it was pity and guilt over things she had seen the spirits do to the already pitiable demons…

“See, it says so right here,” she added as she displayed her her menu.

[Index Menu]

[Name: [Pawn] [+]]

[Race: [Spirit] [+]]

[Rank: [3] [328/900] [+]]

[Age: [257 years] [+]]

[Gender: [Female] [+]]

[Affinities: [Support] [+]]

[Status Effects [+]]

[Status Summary [+]]

All sentient beings in this cluster of realms had menus similar to this one, summarizing the physical existence of a being into a handful of letters and numbers, though more information could be sought if one wished to do so.

*Chop

Lumin gently ‘chopped’ her hand against the top of Pawn’s head, drawing Pawn’s attention back towards herself, and causing her menu to disappear.

“You can’t claim to ‘just be a supporter’ only whenever it’s convenient for you, I know how you try to use your affinity when know ones watching,” Lumin said with a bit of coldness and accusation showing in her voice.

Pawn froze at those words, and a long silence ensued…

Pawn had been trying to ‘twist’ her support magic do more than just what it was ‘intended’ for recently, in secret of course.

She didn’t trust other people very much any more, and thus, wished to support herself more and rely less on others.

This idea was a rather taboo one among spirit kind, to most spirits, your ability was generally thought of as a part of your soul.

Pawn however, didn’t believe such things, and thus did so anyway, and so what if it were indeed true… it was her soul to do with as she pleased.

However, She hadn’t known that Lumin was aware of her actions, and was currently unsure of whether or not she approved.

Lumin, ‘the Loyal strategist’, who famously had slain her own elder sister, Iris, was not someone you wanted to know such secrets.

“This will be just like one of your little… ‘tests,’” Lumin continued, a wry smile that seemed to say in big bold letters ‘This is your punishment!’

…

“Th-those ‘test’s’ as you call them, have a rather large fail rate you know… that’s what makes them tests…” Pawn began in a timid voice, though internally panicking.

“Won’t you trust me?” questioned Lumin, her emerald green eyes locking with the light blue eyes of Pawn as she said so, a slightly serious expression on her face.

There was only one answer Pawn could give, in truth, there was no one she could trust even half as much as she did Lumin, not anymore, and that’s saying something, as Lumin, her most trusted person, may or may not have been blackmailing her at the moment…

But Pawn had known Lumin her entire life, being both raised and trained by her, and though Lumin was quite manipulative by nature, Pawn knew her sister would never do something that would endanger her.

“… Always” Replied Pawn weakly, as she wondered what sort of punishment was about to befall her…

Pawn took one last breath of fresh air before entering the dark and foreboding tunnel, she had covered the white dress which she normally wore with an old looking, thick grey robe, mostly hiding her vivid blue eyes and waist-length blonde hair.

In addition to that, she could always use her magic to change her appearance to one that’s a bit more ‘demon-like,’ but only in case of an emergency, as being spotted by a spirit in such a state would cause numerous problems.

The skill was called ‘facade,’ it was one of her her most prided abilities.

Originally called mirror, it functioned by making illusion based copies of her allies to split the attention of nearby foes.

She had tweaked it overtime so that the image was overlaid onto herself instead, and the allies need not to be present, or actually exist for that matter.

The perfect disguise if combined with appraisal blocking magic.

“Haa…” She sighed as she took her first step through the barrier at the entrance of the tunnel, it prevented beings of level 4 or higher from travelling through with ease, yet only applied slight pressure to Pawn who was level 3.

There would be a similar one at the other end of the tunnel as well.

The tunnels could be considered a type of natural phenomena which connected different realms together, they allowed both safer and more efficient travel between the two whichever they may be.

That however, wasn’t always a good thing, the Bermuda triangle of one particular mundane world being a good example.

The tunnel Pawn was currently in was one of many which connected the demon realm with the other 6, allowing higher ranked demons to be summoned for cheaper prices by that realm’s sapient beings.

So spirits, naturally, did there best to hinder the demons by sealing the tunnels as the appeared…

Pawn proceeded further down into the darkness, a small white communications orb in her hand as she did so, it also doubled as a lantern in the darkness, her only active connection to the outside world should something go wrong.

She held it tightly within her hands, careful not to drop it.

Pawn also had a necklace and bracelet with a communication function as well, but they only had passive abilities, the former, simply allowing her location and ‘vitals’ to be monitored by the higher ups of the spirit realm so long as she continued to wear it, the latter bestowed a strong type of appraisal block to whoever wore it, she was unaware that it functioned as a tracker as well.

Someone Pawn had long ago ‘saved,’ or more accurately, had given a peaceful death to, gifted her the bracelet as payment.

…after which Pawn refused to return to the demon realm for any reason.

The demon’s smile as she sacrificed herself to save her children… it haunted her still… and it had completely crushed any negative emotions she may have had towards the demons.