The Ascension

Aila happily pushed her fully loaded cart around the stables, more then aware of who followed her, but not worrying about it in the least.  They were just a chance to use her abilities, and a source of combat experience.  She wanted to stretch her limits, or at least find them.

Before she got to the forest, she stopped, put the handles down, and unsheathed her sword. She turned back around, and immediately looked for the archers.

"Still not in range? These guys really don't believe that I killed that stone bear, do they?" She shook her head, and looked at a nearby tree. The forest was easy to see, but not all trees were inside its boundary.

A few of the poorer citizens ventured out this way, and carefully harvested the trees that tended to spill out of the boundaries. They were paid by the town to do that or the primeval forest would spread further every year. The soil had strong elemental essence, so they grew thick, and quite quickly as well.

Long before they got into range, as they seemed to believe she wouldn't enter the forest, she cut a tree down, took off the limbs, and shaped the trunk so she could grip it more easily.

"See? I told ya she was too scared to enter." The leader said. Aila lifted an eyebrow.

"Scared to enter? I live there, idiot." She said with a sneer on her lips. The entire group paled when she lifted the tree off the ground and grinned.

"Batter up!"

* * *

"They said she was weak!" One of the mercenaries said fearfully. He watched her lift that tree like it was nothing but a slender branch.  Even though he was a mid rank, first realm elementalist, that kind of strength was even beyond foundation realm, a whole five ranks higher then himself.

"Beast shit." Another mercenary said as the tree swept five of their members away. The first three hit by that trunk ended up as a pile of broken bones, and mashed flesh. The other two were able to survive the impact, but at least half of their bones were broken.

"Much too quickly." They heard her mutter. When their target's eyes began to glow, they realized that their target was not an easy mark, and she was not weak.

* * *

"How am I supposed to learn how to fight if everyone is so damned weak?" Aila asked as she dashed from mercenary to mercenary, and killed them in one shot. She dodged arrows as easily as someone dodges a falling leaf. To her, those arrows were so slow, she could easily grab them from the air, but she decided not to.

"How is she doing that!" An archer said, but spit out a mouthful of blood as her sword went through his throat. He fell before he could notch another arrow, and died not long after.

Aila stopped in front of the last member alive.

"Who sent you?" She said quietly. He swallowed a lump in his throat, and wasn't sure if he should answer, or fight. The sword flashed, and he looked down. His own short sword was on the ground, along with his hand.

"Who sent you?" He cried out and held his hand. "I will take you a piece at a time until I get an answer. Who sent you?" She lifted the sword again, but he quickly bowed.

"The Inaris clan! They said you were an easy mark, and paid the Mercenary Union to rob you! They said you weren't paying gate fees, or any taxes, and we had to make an example of you!" Aila tilted her head at his explanation.

"Inaris? Since when do I have to pay them? They don't protect me, nor do they own the town. Were there any other things they wanted you to do?" She asked.

"When we completed this task, we were to go to the merchant's stall and take what belonged to them! The bear plates!" He said quickly, and hoped that by being cooperative she would spare him. She nodded.

"Makes sense. They want what they can not harvest. It seems like they need a lesson." She pinned him with a hard glare. "If you return to attack again, I won't spare your life again. This is your only lesson, and the union's only warning. If I see another mercenary from that place try to rob me, or Rirn, I will destroy the building itself, and kill everyone inside it. Leave your sword and run."

Aila started to strip the bodies, and frowned when he didn't move.

"I do not know your name, senior." He said, which made her eye twitch. It was a common title given to a powerful being in cultivation novels. "I thank you for sparing my life. Please behead my comrades so they don't rise as zombies and attack the town." He turned and ran after he made his request.

"Not a complete fool. Interesting." She pursed her lips.

"After I get my stuff home, I'll come back and take care of the bodies."

* * *

"That same dark energy. It feels the opposite of that green energy." She pulled it out of the bodies and cut off the heads of those that were gathering the black energy. "I wonder if everything has energy in this world. I've already tasted flame, earth, and green, which I assume must be life. Now these bodies give me the same energy as the other bodies, while it feels opposite of life. Is it death energy?"

She left the bodies alone, although she did wonder if she was being too heartless by not burying them. In the end, she decided that it would be too inhumane of her to leave these bodies for the wolves to eat.

She cut down several trees, and made a large pyre out on the wasteland. It was on the south side of town, was mostly dirt and stone, but no grasses or shrubs. She looked around and smiled a little. She would come here to harvest stone as she felt there was a large amount of flame elements in the air.

"There. Be grateful since you attacked me." Aila put the bodies on the pyre, and lit it. Her eyes began to glow green as she felt a surge of life elements, but not from the pyre or the bodies. It felt like it was a small gift of the forest, as she didn't leave the bodies to gather death elements, which would have a detrimental effect on the life elements in the forest.

"May you find peace in your final rest." Aila bowed to the pyre, and walked back to town.

She didn't have a religious background, and didn't think about, or consider, that there might be deities that watched over her life. She had once read a few chapters for a book that the author had given up on, and liked the concepts he presented. The Final Rest was the way the common man, and the rich one, proved their love for the deceased. If anyone were to demean, or attack a person's character after they died, it was an insult to the living and the dead. She liked that concept as she hoped it would also apply to her when she passed away from her disease.

Aila didn't know that while she prepared for the send off of the mercenaries, the Inaris clan would give her a reason to respond to their crimes.

Aila might have ignored their feeble attempts to bully and rob her if they had stopped at sending the mercenaries. Short sighted fools never stop until they can clearly see the danger, and by then it is far too late.