Mariel: The Goddess of War

"Yeah! This year I beat you to be 1st place." Frederick shouted with joy after his results of the second year's exams better than Mariel, who came in 2nd place, by only 3 points.

"Congratulations! Now we are tied 1 to 1. There is only one more year left, I will definitely win against you." Mariel said confidently.

"I will not give up on you either." Frederick replied.

Even though she congratulated Frederick, deep in her heart Mariel was very hurt after losing by only a few points. She made a goal that this 3rd year, she must reclaim the 1st position as a final exam.

Mariel sat silent in the car until Claudia had to comfort her daughter to be calm, but it still didn't do anything better because Mariel still blamed herself for not trying hard enough to practice textbooks. If she did more determined, she wouldn't lose to Frederick in this time.

From a period of 2-3 months, there were a lot of changing of female body shape which began to occur in Mariel. It started with her body's height rising so quickly that even Deric and Claudia were shocked. Her breasts are starting to appear clearly, and her body shape looks more like a young woman than before. 

 But the most important thing that made Mariel change a lot was increased female hormones in the body which began to affect feelings, thoughts, decisions, her behavior that appears naughtier and pleading like a woman until she start to notice this. Deep within her heart, there are still feelings of the male gender as well.

Clunk! Clunk! 

*The sound of metal swords colliding fiercely. * 

In the morning of the weekend, Mariel and Segal dual swords without using any magic power. Another point that Mariel began to pay more attention to was Physical Qi used for this fighting. This point had always been a weakness point for women because of their strength, with a body that was different from a man who was with a muscular body. As a result, when a woman and a man fighting each other, almost woman is defeated. Not even Mariel as well, who as the sword female class continued this fight, her strength decreased until she began to be unable to defense attacks from Segal.

Ouch!!! Mariel cried out when Segal slammed his metal sword with powerful that made the sword drop from her hand. Both of Mariel's hands were shattered and blood was flowing.

"Are you all, right? Mariel." Segal hurriedly put down his sword and came to check on his sister with concern.

"It's not a big deal, brother. There's only a little bit of blood flowing out." Mariel said, then she used magic to heal both hands until the blood stopped flowing from the wound.

Segal took out bandages, covered the wound and told her to stop practicing for now. He also advised Mariel to wait for the wound to heal and then resumed training again next time.

"No! We will practice more in the afternoon because I must continue reading textbooks tonight." Mariel refused and offered to continue practicing.

"Don't be stubborn, I am worry." Segal warned.

Mariel suddenly turned and stared at him. As a result, he had to agree to continue training in the afternoon.

"Alright! If that is all you need, I can't refuse it." Segal shook his head, tired of his younger sibling's selfishness.

"You're my lovely brother." Mariel smiled and kissed his brother gently on the cheek for thanks. It made Segal a bit shy and his heart pounding.

After Lunch, Segal and Deric had to go feed the other animals in the barn. As for Mariel and Claudia, they helped each other to collect the dishes and wash them until they were finished.

"Did you give me this dress?" Mariel asked while standing and holding the beautiful white dress that Claudia had just given to her.

"Yes, My dear. When I was a young woman, this dress was the first outfit I wore on a date with your father. I would like to give this to you. Is this dress beautiful?" Claudia asked.

"So beautiful. Thank you very much, Mom." Mariel said, hugging her mother tightly.

"So, you can wear this dress on dates with guys." Claudia teased with a smile.

"No Way!" Mariel denied. 

(Although I began to change in behavior and thoughts, but I still love a woman.) (Chai thinking)

When night falls, late at night Mariel and Segal often wake up and travel to meet Apophis to begin her training in the Illusionary Shadow technique. Mariel has great intelligence and can learn much faster than expected.

The more Apophis taught, the more he realized the determination from Mariel's heart. Her goal to become the strongest female swordsman in this world, allowed Apophis to teach his disciple with all he has. Mariel trained to the point that made her body begin to turn black and snake scales were clearly visible on her arms and legs. Her eyes began to turn frighteningly red. Even Segal stood and watched from a distance, he still to be frightened.

"If I have to fight Mariel in Illusionary Shadow form, will I still be survived?" Segal thought in his mind.

*Smash* 

Apophis punched Mariel's temple, causing her head to pound on the ground.

"Don't be too weak, don't be too slow. You must be faster and be more determined. Don't waste my time! Got it!" Apophis shouted.

"I'm sorry, Lord Apophis." Mariel apologized, standing up and continuing to fight Apophis again.

 They were fighting against each other with all their strengths. It felt like it was not just training, but almost like killing each other. 2 hours has passed, Mariel's body was covered with severe wounds all over her body. As for Apophis, there were only minor injuries.

Mariel used healing magic to heal herself until she felt better. As for Apophis, he gave her a type of ointment that, when applied to the body, wounds all disappeared. It made Mariel very surprised that there was such an ointment like this.

While they were riding horses back to the house, Segal had to be worried that Deric and Claudia might recognize the fact that they both went out of the house in the middle of the night to practice dark magic with Apophis soon.

"I'm worried that one day Father Deric and Mother Claudia might know everything about what we secretly went away to train at midnight." Segal said with concern.

"It's nothing. I don't go out on a date with a guy or do anything inappropriate. If we get caught, just tell the truth and everything will be all right." Mariel argued back.

"Honestly, I want both of them to know, because you are also a girl. It's normal for parents to be more worried about this." Segal said reasonably.

But Mariel chose to ignore those suggestions. She also ordered Segal to accompany her and had to take care of her while she trained with Apophis continuously every week.

 Deric noticed that Mariel's movements had changed a lot. She looked even more aggressive and fierce. It's like she was trained in a special technique from another place, and she also decreased her weak points and reinforced her strengths in the Coordinated mind technique with Segal more perfectly.

"Ouch!" Deric was unable to resist being hit by the double attacks from Segal and Mariel's magic and had to retreat and recover his magic power.

Derik stood still; eyes closed as if he was thinking about something. As for Segal and Mariel, when they saw their father standing still, they stopped their attacks and recovered their magic power as well.

Deric let out a long sigh*. Claudia seems to be aware of this situation.

Claudia walked into the house and took out her magic healing staff and stood behind Deric. The atmosphere of the battle had completely changed. They no longer looked as uncomfortable as they all had before.

Deric stared at his children with wild eyes that made them flinch in fear.

"I couldn't imagine that my children whose were only 12-16 years old and would make me take it seriously. Even with all my power, I still couldn't resist your attacks. So, this time, I want to fight more seriously." Deric said.

"The ultimate shield! Increasing the power of Ice magic!" Claudia raised her healing magic staff above her head and immediately chanted a spell.

In front of Mariel and Segal, Deric received another level of magic enhancement and a protective shield with a white aura surrounding him. He was ready to attack with full force.

"Take it! Ice Storms Magic!" Deric unleashed several large ice storms that struck the children mercilessly.

Segal spreads his shield to protect against storms in all directions. As for Mariel, she used a healing spell to Segal, she also cast the magic power of water and wind magic back at Deric as well.

Almost an hour had passed, Segal and Mariel were lying down and extremely tired. There were wounds all over their bodies. Deric and Claudia stood in front of them but were also quite injured too.

"You all were doing very well. Today, it even made mom and dad have to use all our strengths to win against you, but you are all still not good enough." Deric praised and didn't forget to tease them.

"Wait for it! I and Brother Segal will be able to beat Dad and Mom someday." Mariel looked up and shouted.

"Lol, I'll wait for that day, Mariel. Come on, let's have dinner. I'm starting to get hungry." Deric said with a laugh.

"I'll take the medicine and restore all your strengths." Claudia said, coming to check on her children with concern.

After that, everything returned to normal. Mariel studied more and more from her textbooks because it was her last year. Including intending to secretly practice with Apophis until she was close to completing the Illusionary Shadow Technique.

One night, after finishing practicing the Illusionary Shadow Technique, Apophis praised but was also a little worried. 

"Next weekend will be the actual completion of your Illusionary Shadow technique. You must have arrived at midnight for sure because I will be starting a very important ceremony, it may take 2-3 hours to complete, and it will be better if you come too early." Apophis said.

"Yes, I will definitely come here before midnight." Mariel promised.

Segal is also worried because Deric has become more suspicious of Mariel lately. He is afraid that one day they'll be caught doing Illusionary Shadow technique and come home late after midnight.

"Don't worry, Brother Segal. Just one more time, and my parents don't know about it. Trust me!" Mariel said.

It was midnight the next weekend. Mariel and Segal, who hurriedly went to bed early because they were exhausted from studying, asked to rest at first. Then they came out of the house and rode their horses towards Apophis to carry out the final ceremony of the Illusionary Shadow Technique.

Apophis prepared a sacrificial altar with countless venomous snakes in it. He then cast a spell to draw spiritual power from the snakes, then the bodies of all kinds of snakes were gathered into a large size of a black ball. Then it hit the middle of Mariel's body, who was sitting in the middle of the ceremony with her eyes closed.

 Mariel immediately trembled. Pain spread throughout the body and her skin began to transform more and more clearly into snake scales. The eyes glowed a terrifying bright red.

Meanwhile, the house was in chaos because Deric woke up at midnight and he had a strange premonition. When they knocked on the door, they found that both Segal and Mariel had escaped in the middle of the night. Deric and Claudia began to search around the house because they thought they were secretly training near the stream behind the house. But there was no sign of their children. When they returned to check at the barn, they found that two horses were missing as well. 

"What should we do? Mariel and Segal disappeared without telling us." Claudia looked impatient.

"These children do things arbitrarily. Calm down. I'll call the others to help search around here too." Deric said, quickly informing the others.

After 3 hours had passed, Mariel stood floating above the ground with a perfect Illusionary Shadow form. The snake's scales were all black under her skin with sharp claws and her fierce red eyes as well. This made Apophis feel very satisfied.

"Excellent! My disciple. You now have completely the Illusionary Shadow Technique, but you still must practice more after this. The more you practice, you will become more powerful, do you understand?" Apophis reminded.

"I understand and thank you for everything, Lord Apophis." Mariel knelt and promised.

"I will call you: Dark Mariel! Lol." Apophis said and laughed with a smile.

Mariel and Segal then said farewell to Apophis and promised to find another opportunity to see him again.

When they rode back and were close to the stream, they found that there were many small lights shining all over the area, making the children wonder what had happened.

They rode their horses across the stream and their faces turned pale with shock because Deric was standing there and staring at them with an angry expression on his face. Claudia and the others were worried but also angry too.

"Dad. Mom. Everyone." Mariel immediately felt remorse. Segal sat with his head bowed on his horse with a remorseful twinkle in his eyes as well.

"Where have you been? You troublemakers!" Deric shouted in a loud rage.