The Girl

“With ‘The Coming of the Light’, the Luminescent came to our world with only one goal. To purify it of all human beings. When all hope seemed lost, the Goddess Raftilia came to our aid. Through her divine powers she created the Umbra Girls, young girls gifted with supernatural abilities and the power to stop the Luminescent. We were the last resort, the last battalion, all that stood in their way of purifying us all out of existence.”

Within the field of wheat a teenage girl stepped out of a dark portal. She had tan skin, was about five feet three inches tall, and was quite thin. Her golden blonde hair was tied up in a single french braid with a pink ribbon tied at the end. She had dark blue eyes that portrayed a far older look than her adolescent appearance. Both were different from the ones she was born with, but that was a consequence of her line of work.

Her pink sundress was knee length with just a hint of lace at the skirt, and the ends of the sleeves. Black platform shoes protected her feet from the muddy ground, but they did nothing to stop the ears of wheat from scratching at her knees. Despite this she showed no signs of discomfort, no signs of anything but sheer determination. She had a goal, and she was going to achieve it.

The portal closed behind her as she sighed and pushed her way through the wheat field. On the other end was a farmstead. A red house on her left, a closed barn in the back, and a stable on her right. She decided to start with the red house. Part of the roof had fallen to the ground, leaving a few shingles hanging loose from the part that remained standing. There was a small crack in one of the windows, perhaps more but she felt no need to investigate further. She had found something far more interesting than those two things. The paint was brighter on part of the wall, suggesting that someone had begun a new paint job, but not completed it. What concerned her was that it didn’t stop at the bottom or the top. Instead it ended in a large uneven swath, suggesting that the painter had been interrupted suddenly.

She didn’t want to dwell on it too much, so she moved to survey the stable. The door was slightly ajar, hanging on it’s hinges as if some kind of force had knocked it open a little too hard. Inside were various horses with name plates decorated with engraved flowers above their individual stations, but that wasn’t what caught her eye. Several of the horses had a nice meal in front of them, while some of them had none. There was an open bag of hay leaning on its side and spilling its contents onto the stable floor. While she wanted to move quickly to the next point of interest, some part of her that she had long forgotten moved her to fill the dish of the horses that had none.

After that act of kindness she systematically moved to the barn. The only thing of note was a trolley parked on the side of the building, half full of barrels of hay while the rest of the stacks lay next to it in a sad pile, as if waiting to be hauled so it could move to its next destination.

This is very peculiar, she thought. It’s almost as if whoever was here just up and left in a hurry.

Getting closer to the barn she saw an old dirt road that led to a white wooden gate. She had initially missed it, but now it was firmly in her sights. She left the farmstead behind, that small part of her secretly wishing the horses would be okay.

The dirt road continued past the gate and led to what used to be a street. Sometime after the Coming of the Light, they became hollow. If you stepped on them it was like stepping on a frozen lake. You could easily fall into the caverns below. The reason behind it was unknown. Conspiracy theorists claimed it was Mother Earth punishing us for our transgressions, but the more sane scientists determined the cause to be the Luminescent. Everything went to hell after they came to Earth. After they murdered over five billion people. Whatever the reason, it remained a fact that all around the world concrete roads had become unstable. For this reason she stayed on the side of the road, where the plants and vegetation had survived.

Walking across the greenery she saw a split in the road. Out of the corner of her eye she saw a glint. She turned her attention towards it to discover a fallen sign. Grabbing a nearby stick she crouched down and carefully pulled it towards her, making sure not to stick her foot on the deathtrap. Dusting it off with her forearm, she inspected the sign. It had a large arrow pointing to the right with the words: Handerson’s village: Population 325. Under that was an arrow pointing left that said: Freeway. She gave a sad smile to the sign, it might have been 325 at one time, but it was probably much much lower right now.

She paused for a second then cradled her chin with her hand. “Am I too late?” Her voice would have been sickeningly sweet had it not been for the gruff tone she used. At one time it might have been forced, but now it was as natural to her as breathing.

As if to answer her, a loud alarm sounded in the direction of the town. A warning that the Luminescent had been spotted. She ran towards the village in a sprint. Within minutes she arrived to complete chaos. About ten to fifteen people passed by her, trying to escape. The town was split into two lines of wooden buildings, one on each side of what used to be an old cement road. It had completely disappeared into a crevice below, so a wooden bridge was created to allow crossing. There also were wooden floors to replace the concrete sidewalks. There were various shops, and stores. Selling wares from clothes, to perfumes, to groceries, or any kind of necessity.
Normally someone would have approached her for moving towards the danger, rather than away from it. Her Diversion Field took care of that problem. It stopped everyone around her from caring about her or even noticing her. It was a special magick that Umbra Girls could use.

Ignoring the panicked screams she began surveying the area. Glowing yellow divots sparsely laid about the bridge. These poor souls had been purified. The fact it was still glowing meant this was a fresh kill. They were still here.

Suddenly a loud gurgling laugh pierced through the silence and broke her out of thoughts. She knew what that meant, it was the voice of a Luminescent. Luminescents sounded similar to if you tried to speak with your head submerged halfway under water. It was speculated that they spoke a different language, but the strange method of talking was their way of trying to communicate with us.

It was coming from a building on the right side at the far end that had a tilted sign with the words: “Sister Mary’s Orphanage.” The building was old and decrepit, the walls were yellowed, and greenish-yellow mold grew on the sides. Through a dirty window she saw black mold growing on the corners of the ceiling. She visibly shuddered at the thought of children living in such horrid conditions. To make matters worse there was a U-shaped hedgerow that would be perfect for trapping innocent children in a corner. With zero hesitation she ran towards the hideous giggle, hoping to save the unfortunate soul who was in their grasp.

“Why does the queen care about this pathetic town anyway?” a masculine voice gurgled.

“There will be no questioning our orders while I am in charge,” a feminine voice did the same.

Most Luminescent were no more intelligent than wild animals. However, the ones who could speak were the most dangerous. These two were clearly much higher up on the food chain than the others.

“I got it, I got it. Let’s just purify this last brat and be done with it.” Hearing those words, she immediately circled to the other side of the building and saw something much more dangerous than she had imagined.

The Luminescent were about the size of a normal human. They resembled a velociraptor from a Jurassic Park movie, but were made entirely of yellow glowing energy. The only thing that wasn’t glowing yellow was the white void that served as their eyes, mouth, and jagged teeth. The male ones were usually about five feet tall, while the female ones were a bit smaller with proportional claws. Though their size could vary widely like any other animal.

If there had been only one or two or even five it wouldn’t have been so bad. Instead there were at least fifteen of them, maybe more. She had gotten herself in hot water, and she wondered if this might be the time she finally was taken down. Nevertheless, she never backed down from a fight, no matter how dangerous.

The boy in question looked about a little younger than she did. Thirteen, at most fourteen. He had a brown complexion with brown eyes and short brown hair. He was a little short, and quite thin. He wore a tattered shirt with dirtied jeans and had no footwear. The only thing he had was abject fear as they closed in on him. In front of him were pits of steaming white light. There must have been at least eight children. Now there was only this single boy left.

Looking deep into herself, she found her Night Crystal and tapped into it. The Night Crystal was the lifeblood of an Umbra Girl. It stored energy by defeating Luminescents or doing good deeds. The reason it was necessary to store energy was because if an Umbra Girl ever became empty she would explode with the force of a nuclear bomb.

Inwardly she drew a large spiritual cord from the center of her Crystal, then swished it outward towards the path she had taken. It was almost like a magickal version of a collect call. The cord glowed with a faint dark energy as it reached back into her Night Crystal. Someone on the other end had answered.

“Bunberry? What are you doing? What’s going on, are you okay?” A worried feminine voice spoke inside her head.

“I’m fine Blue Bubbles, I just wanted to let you know I’ve located about fifteen Luminescents, I’m going to take them out.”

“Bunberry, you know the boss won’t be okay with that. You need to wait for reinforcements, I’m sending some to your location now.”

“Sorry, but there isn’t time. I’ll let you know when I’m done.”

“No! You can’t do that, you need to wa—” with that she cut off the call and walked towards her targets.

“Sorry kiddo, it’s the end of the line. Don’t worry, it won’t hurt, you’ll be purified just like your friends. You should be happy, you’ll be able to meet them soon.” His horrifying voice punctured through the air, he was going to kill this boy. She absolutely would not let that happen.

“Get the hell away from that kid you bastards!” They immediately turned towards this girl that had somehow snuck in. The Diversion Field worked faintly on Luminescents too, but only if she stayed about fifteen feet away. She was now about ten feet away from them. If the boy wasn’t occupying their attention, she might have already been spotted by them.

“Who in the world are you, girl?”

She wasted no time and began to incant. “With a blade of darkness, I will cut through the light. Swallowed into blackness, You will be slain by my eternal spite!” During her recital she performed an unusual dance. First “with a blade of darkness” she cupped her hands as if she was holding a double handed weapon. Next “I will cut through the light” was her slashing that invisible two handed weapon diagonally. When she said “Swallowed into blackness, ”She held the imaginary sword horizontally in front of her. Finally with “You will be slain by my eternal spite,” she gripped her air weapon and swung it to the sky.

“An Umbra Girl?! No!” Even with white glowing holes for eyes, they still were capable of expression, and his was one of absolute terror. In a panic he leapt towards her but smacked onto the hard surface of a gigantic dark energy bubble which encased her like a cocoon. He scratched and bit and shoved it, but no matter how hard he tried, the Luminescent couldn’t get through it. Even if it were possible, there would have been no time to stop the incredibly powerful dark shockwaves emanating from her body which sent him flying into the pit behind them.

Now that the riffraff was dealt with, an incredible metamorphosis began to take place. A swirl of bunny-shaped blueberries suddenly spun around her intensely. A brown bunny tail popped into reality, poking against the back of her dress. Her ears melted into her head, and light brown rabbit ears grew atop her crown. The rest of her remained human as her entire outfit disintegrated into darkness. The bunny blueberries flew down towards her feet and began to spin rapidly. They slowly ascended upward while hopping and giggling, and as they rose she was given new clothing. Her footwear transformed into a pair of brown mid-calf boots with two bunny blueberry pom poms on each. Her hands now sported black armored fingerless gloves with a bunny blueberry symbol on the back of the hand. A dress with frills and lace and a bunny blueberry design stitched onto it poofed into existence. Immediately after, black plates of armor melded themselves to the dress, forming a sort of ornate dress armor. Her braid was undone and her hair was straightened and lengthened down her back. A black tiara with a blueberry gem resting in the middle of it completed her look.

"How many more did you bring? You can’t possibly be the only one.”.

“I am the only one they need.” The Luminescent girl broke into laughter at her declaration.

“Do you realize the situation you are in? There are twenty of us. and one of you. As soon as that shield falls, we’ll have you. How do you plan to win?” the woman said. With a smirk she motioned with her claw. While Bunberry was still encased in the dark energy, the small army surrounded her, waiting for her protection to drop.

“Nineteen now.” She smirked but the lizard girl gave her a smirk back.

“Sure, whatever you say, Umbra Girl,” she mocked. That would have alarmed Bunberry normally, but calling her an Umbra Girl bothered her more.

Bunberry smiled a sad smile, then held her right hand above. “I’m not really an Umbra Girl. Not anymore.” With a loud boom a comically large greatsword fell from the sky and landed in her hand. It was all black, with a blueberry shaped pommel, and looked sharp enough to cut a strand of hair lengthwise in half. The cocoon faded and she entered a fighting stance. “I’m the Umbra Knight.”

“I-It doesn’t matter who you are, we have way more of us.” Her voice was shaky, clearly the Umbra Knight’s reputation had preceded her. The Umbra Knight was feared amongst the Luminescent for how many she had killed while alone. In fact she always worked alone, she never teamed up with any other Umbra Girls. It was almost like her trademark.

The lizard woman held her claw outwards and screamed. “Atta—!” The Umbra Knight moved with superhuman speed and silenced her before she could even finish her command. She screamed in agony as she disappeared with a bright flash. There would be no hesitation from the Umbra Knight. There was no uncertainty in her eyes, only cold death.

After seeing their leader die the remaining lizards charged towards her. Sensing their movements, the Umbra Knight slashed diagonally downwards, killing one of them. Without stopping she placed her feet clockwise ninety degrees, then using the force from the previous attack, sliced diagonally upwards ending the lives of two more. Moving ninety degrees again she slashed diagonally downward again killing another two. It wasn’t a flawless assault, they had scratched her and bit her repeatedly. There was no way she wouldn’t suffer an attack or two in this situation. Normally a scratch or bite from a Luminescent would cause that part of the body to disappear from existence. Or, at least, that’s how everyone would perceive it. The victim would know that it was there, but their brain wouldn’t comprehend it or believe it. They would look at it and feel as if that part was gone or never had been there in the first place. Thankfully, that fate wouldn’t befall an Umbra Girl. Umbra Girls used their magical powers to cover themselves in a shield. It protected them from any attacks by a Luminescent, and from being purified. However, it wouldn’t last forever, and enough attacks would break the shield, leaving her just as vulnerable to purification as any normal human.

Despite that risk, the Umbra Knight didn’t care. She fought like someone who wasn’t afraid of death, in fact she seemed to welcome it. She wasn’t going to give the reaper the satisfaction of doing it easily, though. It was going to have to work for its prize.

Realizing a ground assault wasn’t working, the Luminescents leaped high into the air and pounced at her from above. Despite their attempt at an aerial attack, the Umbra Knight was a trained veteran, and this was not the first time she had seen an assault like this. Using the momentum of the last blow, she crouched downward then sprung herself upward and swung her sword 720 degrees while in the air. Her greatsword cleaved four more of them in half as she landed back down on the ground. The rest backed off then turned towards the boy. They took off in a retreat towards him. Their first orders apparently superseded their last ones as they bared their fangs and claws at him.

Out of the corner of her eye she saw the trepidation in the boys’ eyes. She cursed herself for getting so absorbed into the battle that she had not even once thought of the boy she was trying to protect. She knew she couldn’t let herself be distracted by that thought, however, and steeled herself thinking of a way to save him. Instantly it came to her: She had to use her secret weapon. It would drain an immense amount of energy from her, but she had little time to stop them so there was no other choice.

She leaped high into the air as bunny shaped blueberries swirled around her then entered her sword. Fully powered up, she screamed at the top of her lungs, ”BLUEBERRY EXECUTION BLAST!” Her sword glowed blue, then at unfathomable speeds slammed down in front of them. Countless bunny blueberries glowing with a dark energy violently discharged out of the spot she struck. The blast instantly incinerated the rest of the nine Luminescent. They were gone, and the boy was saved.

After she landed she felt completely drained. Her shield was down, and her body struggled to hold her transformation. She couldn’t let him see who she was as a human, so she had to keep it up. Her Diversion Field was held up by her magick, as was her transformation. Once her transformation fell, her Diversion Field would too. It wouldn’t be the first time it had happened to an Umbra Girl, or to her for that matter, but it wasn’t something she really wanted to deal with right now though, so she used as much energy as she had left to stay standing. She turned to the boy then dropped her greatsword to the floor as its weight was starting to overwhelm her.

“You okay?”

Instead of answering he squealed excitedly. “That. Was. Awesome!” he exclaimed loudly. “That was the coolest thing I’ve ever seen!”

“So you’re not hurt?” Her eyebrow furrowed. He seemed to ignore her question.

“They were all, ‘there’s only one of you,’ then you were like ‘I’m all they need.” He attempted to mimic her gruff voice, while moving back and forth. “And slash slash slash, ahhhhhhhhhhhhh, blech.” He grabbed at his throat as if he was choking then dramatically fell to the floor.

She sighed and shook her head. It wasn’t as glamorous as he may have thought. Being an Umbra Girl didn’t only mean you got to save people. It was also a huge responsibility, and required great sacrifice. Though, his enthusiasm did remind her of someone she once knew, someone she once knew quite intimately.

Without warning the excitement left the boys eyes, and instead was replaced with dread. With a shaking finger he pointed behind her. The voice of the lizard girl echoed in her head, ‘There are twenty of us and one of you.’ She immediately ran the numbers in her head of all the Luminescent she had killed. Two, one, two, two, four, nine. She had killed all twenty, that should have been enough.

“I’ve got you now!” The male’s voice from before shook her to her core. With that voice she realized she had made an egregious error. The first one wasn’t killed, Luminescent cannot be killed by any means other than an Umbra Girl’s attacks. The shockwave had merely knocked him away. He probably climbed back up sometime during the battle, then snuck up on her. She was getting sloppy, the toll from constantly throwing herself into danger might have been finally reaching its peak.

He was close, much closer than she felt comfortable. If she didn’t do something, both she and this child would be purified. Thinking at lightning speeds she looked to her sword lying on the ground and formed a quick but crude plan. She stomped on the handle of the sword sending it flying upwards, with one quick movement she grabbed it as the handle rotated perfectly and with the last of her strength she stabbed it behind her. The boy’s face turned to relief as they heard a scream and a flash of light. The battle finally over, the Umbra Knight used her sword as a makeshift cane to walk towards the wall, then laid her back against it and slid down till she sat on the grass. Her transformation undid itself as all energy was drained from her, so unfortunately he had seen her human form.

“Kid, get out of here. You’ve seen what I look like, you need to run,” she warned the boy.

“What, why?”

“If you don’t hurry she’ll be her—” before she could finish she felt a tap on her shoulder.

“Princess Bunberry, I’m disappointed in you,” a feminine voice said. The voice was quite high pitched, but despite that it commanded an immense air of superiority. In less than a few seconds a familiar puppy face appeared before her. She was about two feet tall and looked as if a chihuahua was standing upright like a human. She had pink fur and two red eyes. The Umbra Knight knew this was the Goddess Raftilia.

“Y-you’re… a dog. How are you talking if you’re a dog?!”

“You saw murderous sentient energy lizards kill your friends, but a talking dog is out of the realm of possibility for you?” The boy put his hand up to say something, then immediately dropped it. “Besides, you won’t remember any of this anyway so stop interrupting me.”

“B-boss,” the Umbra Knight, no, Princess Bunberry said and looked to the floor. Her voice no longer had that gruff tone, it had the small whimper of a child caught with her hand in the cookie jar.

“Don’t you b-boss me,” Raftilia scolded. “You are in huge trouble young lady, we will talk back at the base. First, I have to erase this kid’s memories.”

“N-no please. I want to remember this, I want to remember how I was saved,” he said with a pout. Then sank to the floor dejectedly. Raftilia didn’t seem moved by his words and walked towards him mechanically.

“Sorry kid, it’s the rules.” She held out her paw. “You saw her real form.”

“I-I watched my friends die…I don’t want to forget them, please” he begged. Raftilia only rolled her eyes at him. She continued holding her paw outwards at him. Tears fell from his eyes as he slammed his fists onto the floor. “If I only had power. If I only was stronger maybe I could have saved them.”

Immediately at those words Raftilia’s ears perked up. Bunberry’s eyes went wide at the realization of what was going to happen. “Oh, do you? Do you really? What if there was a way? A way you could have that power you seek?” Raftilia asked cryptically and lowered her paw.

“R-really? That sounds great,” he exclaimed.

“You only need to—” before she could finish, Bunberry yelled out. “No! Don’t do it, you don’t want thi—” Bunberry herself was silenced as Raftilia held out her paw and a dark portal opened up under her. Her body fell inwards as she braced herself on the nearby grass to stop herself from fully falling in. Slowly she was pulled in more and more as she clawed at the ground, trying to warn the child before it was too late. Unfortunately she was stopped as Raftilia looked at her disapprovingly, then kicked her into the portal and turned back to the boy. “Now, where were w—”

That was the last thing Bunberry heard before she succumbed to her injuries, and fell into blackness.