The First Kill and the Bloodline Ancestor

The night, curious, lifted the hem of its skirt, the lace-embroidered stars on the trim swaying with soft, pale yellow light.

Plants ceased their playful banter with the wanderers in the wind, their leaves half-obscuring their faces.

Nocturnal creatures foraging for food straightened their bodies or cocked their heads, not making a single sound.

The entire world watched the two locked in a struggle of life and death.

Tolke gritted his teeth, his muscles taut, knowing that even a slight relaxation would allow the enemy’s weapon to pierce him.

The enemy grinned excitedly, a fierce glint in their eyes.

Tolke clenched his right hand into a fist and slammed it into the enemy’s waist.

The enemy’s eyes bulged, their mouth forming an ‘O’, and a spray—whether spittle or sweat—splashed across Tolke’s face.

Tolke relentlessly pounded them with his fists, and the enemy’s agony intensified.

“Aaaaaah!” the enemy howled, putting more force into his arms.

Watching the iron weapon draw closer, Tolke, too, let out a roar!

After a powerful punch, the soldier’s suppressive hold noticeably weakened.

Tolke’s waist suddenly arched, pushing the soldier away.

Tolke scrambled to his feet, using both hands and feet, hastily snatched up his short axe, and swung it down without hesitation.

The soldier attempted to parry with a dagger, but the axe blade broke through his guard, severing his collarbone and sinking into his shoulder.

Only the soft armor prevented it from splitting him entirely.

Still clinging to survival, the soldier gripped Tolke’s wrist with his one remaining usable arm.

His eyes and the corners of his mouth twitched, tears streaming forth, his previous ferocious expression replaced by one of desperation.

He pleaded hoarsely, “Please—let, let, let me—go, ah!”

Tolke felt a pang of emotion.

This was his first battle, and faced with the soldier’s pleas, perhaps due to his assured victory or perhaps his compassionate nature, the fear of killing wildly sprouted and spread within him.

A hand suddenly reached out from beside the boy’s head, firmly pressing down on the axe.

Inch by inch, it drove the blade deeper into the soldier’s body, the hard metal grinding against soft flesh, blood staining the fabric crimson.

Tolke instantly fell into a daze, watching the soldier let out a few soft whimpers before his soul departed, leaving behind a lifeless husk of flesh.

He… he had killed someone!

The boy turned back numbly, seeing Noren casually wiping bloodstains from her soft armor.

She muttered in a strange tongue, “Ugh~~~ my first piece of soft armor, now it’s dirty, you little Opava devil, damn your ancestors.”

Seeing the boy still frozen, Noren called out, “What are you staring at? Let’s go! Tell Old Man Svein and Tolruk to handle the bodies. We’ll drag the wild boar and the s*ave back!”

Killing was an ordinary affair, and in Tolke’s eyes, Noren seemed to have merely butchered a livestock animal.

Noren raised an eyebrow, grinned broadly, and stepped forward to ruffle Tolke’s messy golden hair, much like one would placate a large dog.

“Dumbfounded, are we? Didn’t pee yourself, did you? Ha!”

Tolke suddenly noticed the girl’s right hand, gripping her sword, trembling slightly.

In that instant, his mind cleared.

He shook his head and replied, “It’s nothing, just too tired.”

At some point, the Valkyrie was once again perched on a tree branch.

She carried no weapons or winged helmet, her eyes curved into crescents, one hand covering her mouth as she chuckled softly, as if watching two small beasts, having concluded their first kill, now licking each other’s wounds.

Battle numbed the mind, and exhaustion blurred the perception of time.

It felt as though they had returned to the spot where Scarface had been pinned by a single shot in the blink of an eye.

All was quiet, three bodies silently reposed on the ground.

But Tolke immediately noticed the s*ave was gone.

He cried out anxiously, “Noren! The s*ave!”

Noren nodded. “Find him.”

It took only a few minutes to locate the s*ave.

The man’s hands were bound behind his back, and he squirmed on the ground like an earthworm.

Tolke yanked the man to his feet.

“Hey! s*ave, what’s your name, and why were they chasing you?!”

The man struggled and writhed desperately, his head violently striking the boy’s chest.

Tolke winced in pain and let go.

“Ah~ ah~ it hurts so much~ Don’t chase me, don’t kill me, don’t kill, don’t chase, don’t kill…”

The man howled incoherently, repeating certain words with high frequency and overlapping, giving Noren, who already disliked foreign languages, a massive headache.

She used her sword to cut the ropes binding the man, then extended a hand to him, asking in the gentlest tone she could manage, “How are you? Can you still move?”

The s*ave rolled onto his back, his calm face not resembling someone who could utter such frantic nonsense.

He lay there quietly, surrounded by trees forming a circle, with moonlight spilling down into the center.

“Hey!!!” Tolke shouted, seeing the man disregard Noren’s kindness.

The man flinched, and seeing signs of him going mad again, Noren quickly told Tolke to shut up.

No useful information could be extracted from a madman’s mouth.

The man calmed down once more.

His right arm bent at a ninety-degree angle, his elbow on the ground, propping up his upper body.

His right leg was straight, his left leg fully curled.

Then, with his left hand, palm facing up, he slowly extended it towards Noren.

This posture was utterly languid and relaxed.

Yet, Noren found no anger stirring within her.

As if possessed, she leaned forward to meet him.

In a daze, the moonlight reflected a gleam in the man’s eyes, and Noren saw God in a white robe.

[Damn your meddling hands, you’re hopeless.] a hallucination whispered into Noren’s ear.

The imagined Valkyrie leaped into the sky, riding a pure white holy steed, and with a twist of space, vanished…

Simultaneously, a strange tingling sensation leaped from the s*ave’s fingertips.

It felt as if the hangnails on her fingertips were slowly being torn up to the edge of her skull.

Noren stumbled, collapsing weakly to the ground.

An indescribable agony, a torment, injected itself from her finger bones, climbing along her skin, muscles, and blood vessels, covering her entire body with a thin layer, seemingly transforming her both in mind and flesh.

She wanted to cry out, wanted to scramble up and bludgeon this wretch to death with a single punch.

But this power was intertwined with a kind of mental toxin, possessing the ability of a drug to paralyze the body.

Even the most resolute “Invincible” warrior, undefeated in a hundred battles, would likely be forced to crawl.

Seeing Noren fall, Tolke rushed forward to help her up, but was sharply called to a halt.

“Don’t come closer!!!” Noren’s upper and lower jaws ground together rapidly, her teeth emitting a strange, grating sound, as if sparking.

Far away in O Village, the blacksmith, Frey, and Freya felt a mysterious stirring in their hearts.

Even Anna, in Hradec, experienced an inexplicable tremor within her.

Almost simultaneously, they all looked up, gazing northward, sensing that something momentous had occurred!

Noren continued to clench her teeth, countless voices surging towards the center of her body, chattering incessantly.

[Don’t push!]

[Mine, mine!]

[Heretic!]

Various sounds filled her body, and her consciousness began to scatter.

Sixteen years of medieval life flashed before her eyes, a veritable death-dream!

‘Ha… I’m going to die again.’

Poof, the girl collapsed onto a patch of grass.

“Noren-ren-ren-ren!!!!!!!!!!!!” The boy’s eyes were bloodshot and nearly bursting.

Several startled crows cawed as they flew into the sky.

****

“Huh? What’s this?” Walking through a hazy chaos, Noren heard someone speak.

“Oh, the ‘Bloodline Ancestor Resolution’.” Another voice.

Noren ran against the sound in the darkness, pushing aside the mist, chasing the source.

“Can we click it? What are the consequences if we do?”

“Hmm… no big consequences, really. Just know that we CK3 (TL Note: Crusader Kings 3, a grand strategy game developed by Paradox Interactive, often humorously referred to as ‘P-Corp’ or ‘P-Dox’ by its player base.) players are practically blameless within the Paradox community!”

“Hey! Why are you angry? So what’s the actual point of clicking it?”

“Click it or don’t, it’s up to you!”

“Don’t be mad~ Tell me, what’s it for?”

“Who! Who’s there! Who can take me out of here!” Noren screamed, but her voice was swallowed by the darkness, not a single echo returning.

“It’s simple, it just gives your protagonist the title of ‘Bloodline Ancestor’. And then…”

“And then?”

Noren lay silently gasping on the cold darkness, the mist like grave soil covering her head, suffocating her.

The two voices continued to argue, as if ten thousand years had passed.

“Then click it.”

“Mm.”

Noren lay as if dead.

Suddenly, a fragment fell from the sky, and a wisp of golden light shone upon her face from a crack in the heavens.

Her pupils constricted.

The sky was already covered in golden cracks.

Before she could react.

Crack!—The sound of the sky shattering.

Intense vibrations accompanied a grand epic and angelic music.

Endless light surged towards her, and the entire world trembled!

Bloodline Ancestor Resolution—

Activated.

****

Boom, a giant drum sounded.

The girl, who had been lying quietly, jolted.

Tolke, his face streaked with tears, looked up in surprise.

Boom-boom, he looked around, searching for the source of the sound.

Boom-boom-boom, he was certain: the sound was coming from Noren’s body.

But he couldn’t approach.

Dense, eerie whispers encircled the girl’s lifeless body.

[Slurp~]

[Wagon]

[Hercules]

[Heretic]

“Bang!”

The body jolted, then vanished from Tolke’s sight.

After a brief search, the body stood before the s*ave.

The s*ave still maintained his strange posture, similarly surrounded by whispers.

The girl and the s*ave stood opposite each other, motionless.

Then, a red glow emanated from beneath Noren’s skin.

She opened her mouth, and two streams of air jetted from its corners, while white steam rose from her skin.

“Boom—!” A wave of air erupted around her, scattering the whispering, eldritch whispers.

[Oh my goodness!]

[What’s this?]

[Maintain formation!]

With a single kick, she created a ripple, lightly brushing the s*ave’s face.

“Pfft! Rulululu…” The s*ave instantly lifted off the ground, his body spinning wildly in the air, a mouthful of rotten teeth scattering like bullets onto the earth.

He vanished in an instant, only to reappear beside a broken fir tree, blood splattering everywhere, his fate unknown.

However, the mosquito-like whispers that had regrouped around him buzzed their wings, swarming towards Noren.

[Stop pushing!]

[Mine, mine!]

[Don’t touch me!]

[Heretic!!]

Noren spat out a mouthful of fresh blood.

The blood compressed space, and countless currents of air coiled around the whispers, surging towards the center.

[Huh?]

[GG]

[It’s pureblood, eh~]

[Heretic!!!]

After the storm, droplets of blood fell silently to the ground, sliding over blades of grass, rolling across the lawn, and solidifying into a brilliant gem.

Her strength depleted, Noren’s newly consolidated consciousness was shattered once more.

Tree shadows swayed, and in the moonlight, spirits danced, their voices in unison, chanting an ancient melody—

[Ashes, ashes, reborn from ashes.]

Noren could no longer hold on, collapsing heavily to the ground.

In her vision, Tolke’s face gradually enlarged, blurred, then vanished…