NOVEL NEXT Vol. 2 Prologue: Visions
Everything that happened after began amidst the darkness.
“…”
The next moment, the Saint named Natasha opened her eyes; complete blackness was already around her. All that she could remember was, before that, she was just lazing off around her room in the tower where she stayed, all giddy to read the latest issue of that ladies’ magazine with half-naked men sporting toned muscles—
“Ahem.”
A-anyway, surprised by the sudden turn of events, the Holy Maiden tried her best to feel whether her eyes were open. Then, once Natasha was convinced that she was fully conscious, she finally understood at that moment that this was one of those events…
She’s about to see another glimpse of the future.
Truth be told, Natasha had lost track of the time that she had been a Saint. Even so, she’s not used to being surprised like this. Based on her reckoning, if only this world had something close to those things like calendars, she’d bet that it’s already thousands of years since the last day of her being human. The companions she went on adventures with in the past could either be way too old now or had gone to the ‘other side.’
However, Natasha’s human instincts remained with her, and intuition kept on bugging her that what she was about to witness was something that she dreaded…
“…”
A lot of scenarios were playing on her mind right now. She could feel her heartbeat faster than it was normal, and cold sweat was forming on her forehead. Questions like, ‘Could this be a vision of what is about to happen after I forgot to pay that laundry woman her wage?’ or, ‘Could someone among the gods see me buy that lewd magazine, and I’m about to witness how’d they punish me?’.
That last question made her shiver terribly. It wasn’t rocket science to know that holy persons also want some ‘lewds’ in their lives …
Well, it’s not like Natasha possessed the ability to control her visions. She might have god-like powers, but the gods didn’t give her the right to view the near future whenever she pleased. Those visions would just suddenly come: in the middle of her sleep, while she was eating, or worse, when she was taking a dump.
It’s highly annoying, but what can Natasha do?
The darkness was then interrupted by a small, yet intense, white light. Natasha silently watched as it slowly grew bigger.
Alright, here it comes…
Although it was too bright, the Saint never blinked even once. For one, since she expected that this would happen, so she prepared a pair of sunglasses beforehand. Second, Natasha wanted to see the whole thing; she was afraid that she might miss a few small, seemingly insignificant details of this vision that would become a significant plot twist later if she closed her eyes.
“…”
By now, the white light had already engulfed the darkness. And then, the next thing that Natasha noticed was that she was already standing in the middle of a vast sea of grass, with a few rolling hills visible from a distance and blue snow-capped mountain ranges further away.
The Saint looked around, trying to determine where this place was. For sure, this wasn’t the continent where she was; the existence of green grasses proved that. Her land was miles and miles of sand and dead vegetation. And, it couldn’t be the place where the elves lived since Cherwoods was a continent full of, well, woods.
Obvious, right? Anyway, if she would base her answer on the current pieces of evidence, then Natasha could surmise that she’s in Chersea—the human continent.
“!!!”
A few minutes into her vision, the Saint almost jumped from where she was standing when she heard a sudden and prolonged trumpet blast not too far from her spot. Soon, three short but successive trumpets sound answered the long one. Natasha froze. She knew what those meant.
“…”
Her eyes scanned the surroundings, looking for the cause of those trumpet blasts. And much to her horror, the Saint saw a fully armored knight riding an equally armored horse, appearing a few distances away. His lance was drawn, ready to attack, and a trumpet hung on his neck. Behind him was a mighty host of fully armed individuals with grim expressions on their faces; swords were drawn, and their shields up in unison.
By the looks of it, this army seems to be marching to war…
Natasha’s heart was racing. War was unthinkable right now in the human lands since the current saint there worked hard to bring about peace to the warlike human kingdoms. However, if this was a vision of the future, it must mean that something would happen again to the Human Saint before this scenario.
“…”
Natasha knew she couldn’t waste any time. She had to warn the Human Saint, or that human from Earth, Kuro, of what was about to transpire.
“Augh, Toph, Ainumir, Sheoth!” she uttered the words meant to project her image to those people in their dreams, “Gods of the winds, hear my cry—” But just as she was about to finish her spell, the vision was cut-off. Everything fell into darkness once again.
“Oh no, you don’t! You’ve been meddling too much so far…”
“!!!” Natasha stopped in her attempt. Out of that sheer blackness, another voice came out. Though usually, she would be scared by the turn of events, for some odd reason, she was calm. She knew well the identity of the owner of that disembodied voice.
“Seirna!”
“Yes, I am,” the voice gleefully answered back.
“Where are you?”
“I’m beside you,” the voice explained playfully, “I’m right beside your unconscious body in the mortal world.”
“…”
“Don’t worry so much, Saint of Darkness—though I find it odd that you’re uncomfortable with it despite your title. I won’t do anything to your body over here. I’m just putting you on hold for a while with a restraining spell on your consciousness, so you won’t be able to return right now.”
“You!” Natasha couldn’t hide the anger in her voice, “Why are you doing this?”
“I know you saw another vision just now. And I also know that you would meddle once again in the order of things. This is what I strive to prevent.”
“You’re stopping me from preventing a war from breaking out?”
“No, I am just foiling your designs for this world.”
At that moment, Natasha fell silent. What she just heard hit her hard.
“Don’t pretend to be someone else when you’re the opposite,” Seirna continued, “We Saints have the duty to guide the people of this world to their full potential, not to ruin them.”
“I’m not destroying this land!”
“And yet, you caused a human to be summoned from another world!”
“…”
“And that human is interfering in the natural order of things. What’s your plan? Isn’t this a way to destroy everything Lord Gaius had done before us?”
“…”
“If you understand, then I implore you to stay put, oh wise Saint of Darkness. Let me correct everything that you’ve done wrong so far.”
“What are you trying to say?”
“I’m putting this world back on its track. And you won’t be let out of your dark prison for a while, not until I make sure that you won’t be able to reverse anything that I will do.”
Natasha could only gnash her teeth as she could only think of what might happen to the Human Saint and to that human from another world, Kuro. Seirna was a Saint that one shouldn’t get involved with too much. Realizing the magnitude of danger that was about to befall her friends, she needed to get out of this darkness as soon as possible!
But all those who knew Seirna could attest that her ‘Consciousness Prison’ was something so formidable that even a powerful person like her would have difficulty breaking…
How will she free herself?
“Oh, and Natasha…”
“!!!”
“These lewd ‘muscle man’ magazines you brought with you will be confiscated.”
“You fucking damned prude! Don’t you dare touch those magazines!”
A gigantic explosion followed, and it tore the topmost part of the tower where Natasha was staying. Those who could witness it said that it could be seen, heard, and felt its shockwave for several miles.
