Chapter Text
“Dire Straits” is what the thing, Being X, had promised them, and Tanya believes that they have been delivering. Suddenly pushed in front of a train, the former male businessman of the modern world had found himself reincarnated as a young girl in a pre-medieval world after a short yet heated conversation with… something. Honestly, what irritated them the most about this series of events was the circumstances surrounding their birth.
Born to god-knows-who(if we were to take Being X at face value), Tanya was abandoned shortly after her birth, left to rot in the mud that covered whatever dark back alley she was deserted in. Her new life likely should have ended there and made Being X’s point short and pointless, but it too must have understood that this was a horrible argument for gaining her devotion, and thus she got lucky. Apparently, a sister of the local church had been walking by at the time and decided to save the crying baby and brought her to a temple. It was here that she was raised and taught for the first five years of her life. She was taught about the world she found herself in and the place she was born, as well as what struggles she believed she would face in this life.
According to the priest of the temple, and further corroborated by the demonstrations he did when he healed injured people, magic existed in this world. It was immensely helpful and powerful, and apparently came in the form of different tiers that grew exponentially stronger as the tier increased. It was potent enough to affect all aspects of life, from mindless chores made easier by even tier 1 magic, to horrifying beasts being slain by the magic of the gods in the tiers above 6. To go along with this, Tanya also learned that she now resided in the fortress city of E-Rantel, which sat on the border of the Re-Estize Kingdom. It’s a popular town for both adventurers and soldiers alike, and both for the same reason: the Katze Plains. It was a place where countless battles had been fought between the Re-Estize Kingdom and its rival nation, the Baharuth Empire. It was practically next to E-Rantel, meaning that soldiers set up a base of operations here during war times, which seemed to occur about once a year.
During the peace, or at least more peaceful, times, adventurers would often travel out into the surrounding forest or onto the plain itself to fight monsters that threatened humanity. The plains themselves were apparently home to one of the largest populations of undead due to the countless thousands who had lost their lives on them. Tanya had seen some of these so-called adventurers around town during the times the church could not house her and she had to beg on the street. She thought that the term ‘adventurer’ was being a bit too kind to them. At best, they were mercenaries; at worst, they were some of the most vile people she had ever heard of. The illegal activities of the town were practically left to spread by themselves, and the shady organisations that plagued the low-income areas were not at all shy about their use of adventurers for muscle. And Tanya couldn’t blame them.
Adventurers were strong. Relatively speaking, at least. Tanya had heard rumours about and even caught a few glimpses of high-level soldiers and knights, and they definitely exuded a stronger aura and demonstrated greater feats than the average adventurer. However, to the common layman, they might as well be in a different class entirely. Even just the jump between the common first-tier magic that people used at home and the basic second-tier magic adventurers used to fight was practically ginormous.
This made Tanya realize something. She realized that she wanted to become a magic caster. Not only did magic seem more powerful than anything a martial artist could accomplish, but it also seemed easier than having to train her body for years just to be strong enough to defeat a simple wolf, especially with her age holding her back for the time being. She still trained her body just as much as her mind, but she knew that all of her strongest cards would come in the shape of any magic she could get her hands on, at least for the foreseeable future. This actually came with its own speed bump, as anything beyond a first-tier spell was very hard for her to get a hold of. She mostly learned spells that the priest of the temple could teach her, which mostly consisted of holy and healing spells, but anything outside of that was nearly impossible for her to get. Even then, the priest had already been calling her a prodigy and had been singing her praises since she was capable of casting second-tier magic at just 5 years old, so Tanya was willing to consider her progress to be successful, even if it was slower than she would have liked.
—
“[Magic Arrow].” With the words spoken, a light blue ball of energy flattened out next to the young girl's outstretched arm and began to take the shape of a projectile. Then, just as quickly as it had formed, it shot forward towards its target that sat nearly 30 feet away. The arrow raced towards the log that it was directed at and managed to sink a few inches deep into the wood before it dissipated, leaving nothing more than a deep gash in the wood that blended in with the countless others that littered the piece of timber. As soon as the spell faded away, the girl who cast it practically collapsed with exhaustion onto the tree that stood beside her. Her ragged and sparse clothing seemed to threaten falling apart at the slightest movement, and her blond hair was matted down onto her head as if it had been days, if not weeks, since it was cleaned. However, she seemed to pay her tired and dishevelled form little mind as she stared intently and calculatingly at where her spell had landed.
Accuracy is still being maintained even at the point of exhaustion. Mana capacity has been increased from 4 to 5 max casts. Mana depletion symptoms have also been redu- suddenly, her heavy breaths were interrupted as she doubled over herself and began to involuntarily throw up anything that was in her stomach. Luckily, or perhaps more unluckily, she hadn’t had a proper meal in days as the church was too preoccupied with the visiting soldiers to feed any of the needy, so she was only capable of dry heaving as she tried to get her body back under control.
… Mana depletion symptoms persist, Tanya thought to herself as she finally managed to settle her breathing down and started to stand on shaky legs. Overall, progress is still being made, and rapidly. According to others, I am well ahead of schedule, so this is acceptable. Now then, time to head back. With a wobble and a limp, Tanya began to make her way towards the tall stone walls that she could just barely make out through the tree line. It was several meters high and seemed sturdy enough to keep out just about anything, though Tanya had gotten past that hurdle long ago. It was the wall that protected the city of E-Rantel that lay just beyond it, and for the most part, it was relatively well-made. Except for a small spot in one of the segments along the northern wall. It was not a big opening; in fact, it was smaller than the stones used to construct the walls, as it was more like a crack between two of the stones. It would be impossible to fit a normal adult or even an average child through the gap, but a malnourished little runt could just barely squeeze through it, letting them enter and leave the city freely.
Thankfully, Tanya was that malnourished little runt.
The sun was about 3/4 of the way through the sky by the time Tanya managed to get to the edge of the clearing just before the wall. Quickly glancing along the wall, she looked for any guards watching over the fortification. The frequency of patrols had increased recently due to the redeclaration of war between the Re-Estize Kingdom and the Baharuth Empire, so she had to be extra careful. Considering herself lucky that she spotted no guards watching over the defences, she made a mad dash towards the bushes and barricades that lined the wall.
She wasn’t as fast as she had been when she had originally come out here due to her exhaustion, but she still cleared the distance in well under half a minute. Reaching the stone wall, Tanya practically dove into a bush and held her breath as she listened. She was trying to hear if anyone had seen her and if anyone was currently on the other side of the wall, but she heard nothing. In fact, she got slightly concerned as she truly did hear nothing.
Strange. The alley beyond this wall isn’t popular, but there is at least some noise that usually comes from it or the surrounding ones. Where is everyone? Putting herself on high alert, she slowly felt around in the bush for the opening in the wall, finding it quickly and sticking her arms through before her head. She pushed aside the boards that hid the crack on the other side and carefully pulled her body through until she could peek her head out of the other side. Once she saw that there was truly nobody on the inside, Tanya pulled the rest of her body through, just barely managing to squeeze her shoulders through the opening with all of her strength. After making it to the other side and placing the boards back over the hole, Tanya once again stopped and took in her surroundings, looking and listening for signs of anyone. What is going on? This part of the city isn’t this dead even during the night, so where is everyone? She remained on high alert as she travelled slowly, making her way through the back alleys towards a little safe haven she found in the southern part of the city.
I only remember this place being like this twice before. Once, was when a huge monster showed up in the graveyard that everybody was sheltering from. The other time was when the soldiers paraded out of this place just a few days ago. Are they back already, and everybody is celebrating? That would have been one of the fastest wars I’ve ever heard about if so. A glint of something moving caught Tanya’s eye, and she quickly turned to see someone peering at her through a window before they hurriedly ducked out of sight.
Huh, so people are hiding away. Is it another disaster? Shit, I’m going to have to get back to base fast. Picking up her pace, Tanya began to move closer towards the main roads. These were usually faster to use, but they often involved some kind of encounter with unsavoury individuals, malicious guards, or disgusted upper-class folk. However, as of right now, these streets were deserted, without a single soul occupying them aside from Tanya herself. Making her way through the Eastern part of the city, Tanya finally started to hear something; hell, she even felt it. It was a distant, rhythmic stomping that she had heard a couple of times over the past few days, but it was almost completely different from what she was used to. Having seen the soldiers parading out of the city, Tanya could tell that a vast majority of them were impoverished and likely just working-class people conscripted to fight for their country. This meant that almost none of them could afford armour, and they were almost always out of sync in their marching.
But not now.
Now, she heard what could only be a vast army that was perfectly in sync with each other; inhumanly so. There wasn’t a single noise that didn’t sound like it came from a thousand people at once. And the noises that did come were those of metal, not leather or even bare feet.
This was not the army that left E-Rantel just days prior. It couldn’t be.
Is it the Baharuth Empire? But they specialize in mages and knights. There is no way that they could have enough armoured soldiers alone to shake the ground like this. They would have conquered this place years ago if that were the case. As she got closer to the noise, she realized that it was likely coming from the main road, which ran from the Eastern entrance to the castle in the middle of E-Rantel. This was bad news for Tanya, as in order to get to the southern part of the city, she had to pass through that main road. Slowing her pace and checking around every corner before she moved on to the next street, Tanya slowly approached the main street, attempting to hide her presence as much as she could as she got closer.
There is no screaming, no fighting, nothing. They are just marching through the streets, not attacking or looting anything. Are they allies? Reinforcements? If so, why is everyone hiding? Tanya was deep in thought as she approached an alley that would lead straight to the main road. Keeping her body close to the building next to her, Tanya steeled her nerves and slowly peeked around the corner
What she saw froze her right where she stood.
It was indeed an army, as she had surmised. And it also wasn’t the Re-Estize army, as this one was far more professional and well-equipped, with each soldier walking in lock step with each other in perfect row formations. Each of them was geared with armour and weapons that looked more expensive than even what the highest-ranking knights in E-Rantel could possibly afford. All of this was already enough for Tanya to fear for her life, but none of that was the worst part.
No, the worst part, by far and away, was the fact that the entire army was dead.
Or more accurately, undead.