Alma's Dreams (are Default) [An Eldritch Thriller]

"Who dares—?!" Marie craned her neck toward the direction of the sudden surprise attack.

"Hiiiii! That would be me!" High in the sky was an enormous, demonic bird being ridden by an obnoxious-looking blonde girl in a puffy pink jacket and whose hair was split into two long pigtails. She waved excitedly at the women down below as the obsidian raptor she was mounted on glided swiftly toward their battlefield.

The Scarlet Sister was stunned. The sudden appearance of this mysterious woman had put a wrench in her plans that she was unprepared for. She wasn't sure who she was about to deal with, but her carefree attitude showcased that the woman was either very confident in her abilities or just a plain moronic imbecile.

"Is that…?" Zulema focused on the black blur speeding toward them. With only a single eye, she was finding it increasingly difficult to gauge the distance of things past a certain point. Fortunately, the glaring pink and blonde stood out among the creature's dark feathers. "…Loise?"

Marie hurriedly searched the snow floor for where the artifact had landed. She quickly spotted the smoke rising from the smoldering debris of its remains. The seemingly weak spell had destroyed the ancient device utterly. "Augh! Lucia!"

"Oh no." Zulema braced her weapon, ready to save her would-be rescuer from certain doom.

The mindless priestess rotated her body and cocked her chin toward the sky. Her stance had completely changed from before. Instead of the primitive quadrupedal posture that emphasized her bestial transformation, she now stood rigidly upright. Lucia's scarred back was arched into a perfect outward curve that looked almost unnatural. As the enormous bird flew closer, she raised up her arm and rotated her flail in a rapidly increasing circular motion. Lucia was preparing one of her signature attacks.

Zulema had been prepared to counter a flurry of mindless swings, but she couldn't possibly have imagined that this abominable facsimile of her old friend still retained any of her old fighting techniques. The grip on her scythe tightened as the tension in her mind started up again. It was a bad idea to get close to Lucia when she was revving up this skill of hers, but she had to do something. She was going to have to wait for the last possible moment and pray.

But the audaciously bodacious witch had other plans in mind.

"Carthas…!" Heloise's outstretched arm signaled for her familiar to ensure they don't get smashed to a pulp.

The familiar threw open his beak and unleashed a loud howling caw that spread over the area in waves. Each of the priestesses flinched in pain as they were forced to cover their ears to block out the sensation of their heads exploding from the pressure.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

Zulema quickly reinforced the bones in her ears with ice and managed to regain her balance, but the moment she had caught sight of the bird again, it had already dove and swooped right past the two priestesses and was heading straight toward her.

Carthas flew right over the glacial knight's head and touched down a few feet behind her.

"Merde! I can't believe I came all the way out here again." The witch slid off the bird's side—her fluffy, pink boots landing softly in the snow as she dismounted with ease. She reached for the staff that was tied to her back and unfurled the velvet cloth it had been wrapped in then turned toward Zulema and called out to her. "Heeeey giiiiirl~! What is up? If I hadn't seen that wickedly sexy transformation for myself, I wouldn't have believed it was you under there, Zula!"

"Loise? What on Sarracas are you doing here?"

"I told you not to call me that. It's Heloise. There's an H and an E in there!"

"How did you even find this place? I've been trapped here for weeks without a single soul traveling up here! Now suddenly three of you stop by my door."

"Well~. I would have come sooner, but then I couldn't be fashionably late." Heloise gracefully flipped her hair over her shoulder.

"We're doomed." Zulema groaned to herself.

"Hey! You should consider yourself lucky I just happened to find you out here! Alma came to me personally and asked me to help her search for you." The witch recalled the absurd memory of watching Alma waltz right out of that mysterious portal and into her room. A strange and frighteningly overpowered new ability she had apparently just discovered that she'd promised to explain to Heloise once things had "cooled down." Something the witch was told to keep secret from her sister if she somehow managed to find her first.

"She did?" Zula's eye widened in surprise. Marie was wrong. Alma hadn't given up on her. Even when she had no reason to believe she was still alive. It was the first good news she had heard in a while.

"Apparently the Scarlet Church declared you dead and you know stubborn Alma refuses to move on from anything." Heloise turned toward the two priestesses who were observing their interaction cautiously. Neither of them had said a word since the witch arrived. "But I guess that was just another one of their typical lies, right? Judging from the look in their eyes, they don't seem too happy to see you. And why is that bitch naked?!"

"The Church has declared me a heretic, Loise. I may as well be dead to them. Although I never imaged how much worse than death this would feel." Zulema furrowed her brow in frustration. "I was kidnapped by an eldritch monster and now they are punishing me for it."

"Are you like, even listening to me? I said it's Heloise!" The witch sighed loudly in exasperation, then tilted her head in confusion. "Is—Is that a scythe? A double-ended scythe?? Whoa, like, since when do you know how to fight? Aren't you supposed to be just some harmless, self-righteous priestess who collects alms for the strays on the street like some wholesome good girl? Aw, did that eldritch monster you mentioned do this to you? They've been known to pull all kinds of freaky shit like this…"

"It's a long story. For now, please do not underestimate them. Alma would be furious if your blood was on my hands."

"I'd rather kill myself than let the Scarlet Church burn this witch."