Beware of Your Wish

"No, no, no! This can't be happening!"

The blue-haired swordswoman dodged the swing of an axe before countering with her sword. The living dead roared in defiant before she permanently silenced it. She then avoided an arrow, only for it to hit one of her soldiers. She gritted her teeth before ran towards the archer.

"Milady, we can't stay here! We need to get out!" One of her soldiers exclaimed.

"I know that! But if we retreat at this state, we will be cut down immediately!" She replied the question before avoiding another arrow. "Stand your ground!"

Her soldiers tried to follow her order but it was useless. They lost too many men to create an effective defense and the remaining were on the verge of being killed or routed. As if those weren't bad enough, there seemed to be no end of their enemies; when one fall, two will replace it.

As her men fall one by one, she couldn't help but lament how when a hope arrived, it was then taken so abruptly, so unexpectedly, that it left a wound that could not be healed. Just when she thought that she and her friends could end the apocalypse before it was even started, she found herself walking closer to the afterlife.

Her thought was interrupted when one of them managed to slash her at her back. She didn't know how bad exactly the wound was, but considering her diminishing consciousness, it was really bad at best.

She could only hope that it wasn't fatal.

Alas, the wound proofed to be one. Slowly, she was losing her strength; her sight became blurry, her swings were sloppy, and her feet were unable to support the weight of her body. She was forced to fight on her knee. It only took her opponent a few minutes to knocked her out and sent her sword away from her. It was only due to it being hit by arrows at the back that she was not finished.

As if fate itself decided to mock her resolve, she spent her last breaths looking as the Fell Dragon's pawns finished the last of her men. She looked at her sword, the last gift from her father, lying abandoned, cared none by the surrounding.

"Father…Mother…Aunt Lissa…Uncle Lon'qu…Marc…Morgan…Owain…" As her eyes grew heavier, she started to think about them with regret overwhelming her. "My friends…I am…sorry…"

Lucina, the heir of the throne of Ylisse, drew her last breath.

There was no God or Goddess that could overturn the cycle of life and death. It was an irrefutable law of nature that even they couldn't easily interfere with. And even if there was one that willing to do so, the result was far from mediocre. However, there was a being that was sympathetic to her plight.

It could not be defined as by the terms of the Heavens or the Earth. But rather it existed outside of them both and dwelled within the Cosmos itself. It reached for the exalted soul, cradling it. It held the potential to be tempered into a Hunter well-suited to do what must be done.

Alas, doing so would make the soul no longer exalted, for it would be too corrupted to even be called good. Retaining its morality, it could be. Being called good by others, it could still happen. But being good, it would no longer be.

Such was the night of the Hunt. It took souls of all kind; old and young, man and woman, rich and poor, good and evil, and so on. Some ended up becoming nothing more than a beast, while others managed to reach that hill of silver flowers. Either they intended to do one last good deed or being awoken in the Waking World by the First Hunter.

This exalted soul would be no different.

Thus, it proposed a contract: An escape from death for as long as it served the will of this "Great One" and a respite to the waking world for every great feat befitting a "Hunter" chosen by it until the night of the Hunt is ended.

The exalted soul quivered in acceptance to escape death, yearning to return to life no matter what. So, the Great One dyed the soul the hue of paleblood and the contract was established, bringing the Future Witness to the Dream.

Lucina felt heavy as she slowly regained awareness. She was resting on the cold ground, lying in a bed of flowers that were silver and luminous, like moonlight sprouting from the earth. As she regained strength in her body, she lifted herself up slowly to take in the world that surrounded her; an isolated speck of land made of hillside and flowers, stones and graves worn by time, with the sole building being the one perched at the top of the slope ahead of her.

Confusion floated within the princess' mind as she tried to remember how she ended up in a hill full of flower. Then, there was the vivid memory of her being slashed at her back. Her usually stoic face lost its color and she immediately rubbed her back. Finding not even a hole in her clothes, tears started to form in her eyes.

"I…died." She looked around, desperately trying to find anything resembling the environment where she was ambushed. Finding none, she knelt and put her face on the ground as she cried.

Was this the afterlife that awaited her? That thought was immediately gone from her head as she thought about her siblings, about her friends, about the survivors of Grima's rampage. She was their leader, their inspiration, their light in this dark time.

And she had died.

"I am sorry. I am sorry…"

She sat there weeping for who knows how long, until the squeaking of metal wheels being pushed forward reached her ears. She lifted her head upwards towards it. There was an old man there that had seen many nights, looking down at her.

"Ah… the new Hunter, are you?" the older man said. "A bit young, I suppose, but welcome to the Hunter's Dream. It will be your home, for now."

"The Hunter's Dream?" Lucina wiped the tears from her face. "So, this is not Heaven?"

"I doubt such a dream could be called such." He gestured for her to rise. "I am Gehrman, friend to you hunters. And you are?"

"Lucina…"

"Well then, Lucina. Do you remember how you arrived here?"

"I died...in an ambush." Lucina became somber as she started to think about the effect of her death. "I died just when I thought I can…make things better. Now, my family and friends must be falling in despair. They will still do what we have planned before but…I don't think they will be in an optimal condition."

"…Do not give up hope so easily, young hunter." Gehrman said with some hesitation. "There must a purpose that brought you here, a purpose that drove you to sign a contract. Many hunters have come and gone through this dreadful dream in exchange for something to be gained. Perhaps you too will gain what you seek by fulfilling your end."

Hope started to grow in the heart of the princess. If this was not Heaven, then there might be a chance to go back. Naga has told her about the Outrealm and its many worlds. This could be merely one of them. She didn't remember ever signing any contract, but she doubted that was important.

For now, she needed to find a way to get back to her world.

"How do I do that?" Lucina asked.

"You must halt the scourge of beasts and end the night of the hunt if you wish to leave this dream," he said, turning the wheelchair around. "Come now. The night may be long, but there is much for you to learn."

Lucina followed the elderly man to the workshop at the top of the slope, past the doll that laid still. When they went inside, rather than checking the building to see whether there was a trap – a habit that she built over the years, her eyes immediately fell on the sword on the table.

"Falchion!" She exclaimed as she dashed towards the table and picked up her sword. "How…?"

"That sword is yours, huh?" Lucina turned around to see Gehrman moved closer to her. "That could explain why I found it when I woke up."

The princess of Ylisse inspected Falchion curiously. She remembered how she was separated from the sword when she was…killed. Lucina frowned and shook her head. The fact that she had died was still something hard to accept.

"Well, with that taken care of, all that's left is to complement your range." The old man said as he went towards another table.

He grabbed something from it and showed it to Lucina. It was a wooden block with an iron tube attached to it. The wooden block reminded her of a crossbow except the size was bigger.

"What is that?" Lucina asked as she tilted her head.

"It's a pistol," Gehrman replied before he aimed the tube into the ceiling.

When the trigger was pulled, she was surprised by the thunderous sound created by the pistol. Lucina looked at where the pistol was aimed and found quite a sizeable hole there. She could see the sky through the hole, indicating that the pistol's ammunition managed to penetrate it. The princess let out a whistle spontaneously. She never saw an arrow loosed from either a longbow or crossbow manage to penetrate that far.

She was then shown by the old hunter how to reload the pistol before it was given to her. She didn't know whether her eyes were deceiving her, but Lucina swore that the ammunition used by the pistol was liquid.

She was proven right when Gehrman gave her a bottle of mercury mixed with blood.

"Usually, it's not something I need to give." The old man said about the bottle. "But considering your knowledge about firearms, or rather, lack of thereof…"

Lucina couldn't help but glare at Gehrman, who ignored it. He picked up a parchment and looked at it with his hand on his chin as if he was reading something very interesting.

"Now, one last thing, but not the least; the value of blood." The old man stated.

"Blood?" The word reminded her of the bottle that was given to her not even a minute ago.

"Blood has many uses for us hunters. Healing and strengthening both body and steel are simply the most used ones, but not all of it." Gehrman dropped his hand from his chin to look closer at the princess. "Your blood is…unique. There's something more than it that flow in your veins."

"It could be because I am of the Exalted Blood. Our blood is blessed by Naga." Lucina suggested.

"Blessed?" Gehrman seemed to be curious before laughed a little. "Careful. Power comes at a price."

She decided not to retort his warning. It mattered not for her and she was sure that the old hunter wouldn't care about what she would say about the blessing.

"You have all the necessary tool and knowledge. Now, go pray at the headstone and find some beasts to kill." Gehrman ordered her before exiting the workshop.

Lucina stood inside the workshop alone before exiting it as well. Seeing no sight of even his hair, she tried to find the headstone that Gehrman meant.

As she searched for it, Lucina wondered how long time would pass back in the…living world. She knew that a flow of time between one Outrealm was different with another one. Thus, she could be spending weeks in Hunter's Dream yet only a few minutes in the living world.

In any case, the princess of Ylisse hoped that she wouldn't spend a long time halting the scourge of beasts and ending the night of the hunt. Though to be honest, it was clear that it wouldn't be a long journey. After all, it was only a night, as the name indicated.

Little did she knew that while it was only a night, it would be the longest – and the bleakest – night that she ever experienced.

And this chapter is done.

If you have a question or suggestion, feel free to tell me.

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