Side story 7: Time
Greenleaf stalks one of the hairless meatbags on the dark cloudy night. She touches the stake in her chest; the copper metal feels heavy within her body. The race warping magic has made the whole operation possible, allowing her to blend in as one of them. This magic item would kill or harm any fleshlings, but as an Elf, like Greenleaf, her body is more sturdy.
The fleshbags are weakened now, but they are quickly recruiting more Oathbound. The council of the glade had underestimated just how quickly the meatbags can replenish their elite soldiers. Every week there's a new world announcement of one of them completing a trial, but soon it will be time to deliver the final blow and rid the lands of their fleshy curse; such is her righteous mission.
Long have the elves prepared for this day, capturing cursed beings and researching ways to turn some of the fleshlings into more cursed beings. The Cannibal operation has been successful, but more powerful ones will be needed in taking out the Emperor; however, this will be a night of reckoning when that meatbag Emperor finally dies!
Greenleaf's target turns a corner and walks into an alley, completely unaware of his approaching doom. Greenleaf follows the black-haired meatbag, and then the world seems to slow down, or rather she is sped up so much that everything feels like it's stopped. She walks to the meatbag and grabs his throat before tearing it out. He doesn't drop, nor does blood spray yet; it's as if the world had decreed that the world slows for Greenleaf.
Greenleaf grabs the stake and yanks it out of her body; she wants to enjoy this as her true form. Leaves sprout from her as her skin changes into her proper green color. Dark brown bark emerges from her arms and legs, and her hair turns into a large pink petal.
She sighs as she returns to her real form; being a human is stuffy and uncomfortable. She raises the man's torn-out throat and takes a bite out of it, crushing the bone between her ironbark teeth. The sweet blood drips down her throat as she savors the flavor. Finishing her snack, she can't help but plunge her hand into the man's chest and rip his heart out before eating that too.
Greenleaf quivers in joy. How long has it been since her last proper meal? She can't help herself and plucks the eyes out and pops them into her mouth, enjoying how the juices fill her mouth. But now, she must return to her mission.
Greenleaf raises her palm up, the black storage ring almost invisible in the dark night. She summons the lich’s phylactery from it and shoves the orb into the gaping wound in the man's chest, and then she stabs the transforming stake back into her body, her body returning to the sickening blond-haired woman. The fatty lumps on her chest returned, and stiff bone grows under the returning soft skin and muscle.
Greenleaf shudders with disgust and fixes her dress, and walks out as if nothing happened. The world speeds up, then begins to whirl around.
What happened?
Her head begins to transform back into an elf, and that's when she sees her body slumping to the ground with a large golden-plated man standing next to it. Three more appear out of nowhere next to the man.
"Got greedy, Elf!" One of the men says.
She can't help but grin as her body regenerates as if days had passed all at once, regrowing like a sprouting plant.
More of them appear, a large man with majestic golden armor whose very presence smothers her own. It grips Greenleaf, commanding her to kneel like an oppressive tyrant; it's as if justice itself is judging her; it's the Emperor, the first cursed with flesh. However, it's too late; she has already started the awakening process of the lich, and that's not the only one that will be awakening tonight!
"So, you're the 'Champion' that stirred up so much trouble," One of the Oathbound remarks. "You will die here!"
Greenleaf rushes at the Oathbound if only to buy time for the cursed being to start razing the city. Lighting flashes and justice wraps itself around her, but none can match her Time Bond. Each spell and each swing of a blade misses with ease. Reality seems to burn, yet none can reach her as she zigzags straight to the Emperor, but for a split second, justice manages a secure hold on her, and suddenly the world splits in two before she regenerates half her body, leaving the other half behind, and again she charges she Emperor who doesn't falter for even a second and raises his sword to strike her down.
She reaches out with a bark-covered hand, a spell rapidly charging and unleashing time. The stone around the man crumbles to dust as if thousands of years passed in an instant; his armor, however, doesn't even blemish, much to Greenleaf's displeasure. She ducks under as a hole in reality forms sucking everything into oblivion before filling back in.
Greenleaf zips around the battlefield bouncing off walls to dodge the myriad of spells thrown at her, and despite her increasing time on herself, the Emperor and the Oathbound never seem to slow!
"Justice will always catch up to your crimes, Elf! No matter how much time passes!" The Emperor declares.
Greenleafs bares her teeth in displeasure and charges forward, amping up the rate of time to a century for every minute. The Oathbound suddenly disappears and reappears around her, spells blazing and swords already slashing down at her. Her arms are severed, and she is bisected at the torso, but in an instant, she regenerates, and the battle continues with her avoiding another void spell.
"Your majesty, she’s too fast!" One of the Oathbound says.
"Keep calm, Kain; everything will be fine, just keep pressuring her, and we'll win," The fleshbag Emperor reassures his knight.
"That's right, she's entirely on the defensive, and her spells are useless to immortals like us," another Oathbound meatbag says.
If Greenleaf had to guess, then that 'Kain' must be one of the less experienced ones; maybe she can take advantage of that.
However, the Emperor suddenly gives a command, "Oathbound! Leave this Elf to Squire Jonathan! Search the area; I sense a grave injustice appearing in this city!"
With the Fleshbag Emperor's command, the Oathbound split up, leaving Greenleaf bewildered. She just fought off the Emperor and four Oathbound, and they think some Squire can kill her?!
How dare they! She grinds her teeth in anger. They can't match her time, so they just insult her?!
However, a sudden chill grips Greenleaf as something seems to cut her very soul!
A soul assassin! Do they really think a simple soul assassin will be enough?! Time conquers everything!
Gathering the very essence of her Bond, she forces it into the soul, speeding up her own soul and her recovery of it; no simple Squire can slay her like that! But this gives her the chance to go back to her body and recover the last of the three cursed items. Rushing over, she takes the ring and the transformation stake. She takes out a vial of Vampire blood and a werewolf fang; that's when a chill pierces into her soul, making her gasp in fear.
How?! Her soul should be healing too fast for that damned Squire to do sufficient damage.
Another chill assaults her soul, making Greenleaf clutch at herself as primal fear courses through her, and then she feels her soul be severed in two, and the world begins to fade.
Not like this! Not to some damn Squire! She won't give them the pleasure of slaying her; she can delay the death of her soul! She can reverse the damage!
Greenleaf gathers the essence of time, but instead of speeding up time or slowing it down, she focuses on reversing the flow of time. As if bending to her will, she feels her soul come back together. She can't reverse time for more than a few seconds, nor can she do it often, but it will at least give her the time to complete her mission.
Greenleaf goes into one of the homes for a meatbag to force the vampire blood on, but the Emperor is already there, holding the lich’s phylactery, which disappears into his storage ring.
"Did you really think you can bring cursed items into my city, and I won't notice?" The Emperor says, the presence of his Bond already wrapping around her with an iron grip. "Did you think we did not know how to stop the transformations?!" His voice nearly trembles in rage as his blue and green, mismatched eyes pierce through Greenleaf's very being.
Just how powerful is that fleshbag?
Suddenly ten Oathbound appear in the house, surrounding Greenleaf.
"It's over for you, Elf!" one of them proclaims.
"Over?" Greenleaf grins confidently. Nothing can stop her time, and if all else fails, she still has her escape plan "I decide when it's over!" She is the warden of the Hourglass of Entropy, the only one powerful enough to maintain the seal on it; there's no way she can let them kill her while she has her sacred role!
Greenleaf musters the last of her power and flows it through herself, reversing her position in time. She suddenly appears in a place she was three days ago in her hideout in the outskirts of the Human capital.
She will not be able to return for some time, so she decided to make the long trip back to her home forest, back to the city of flowers.