A cheerful, lively voice of a child called out for her mother. The child ran with, practically leaping across the halls, smiling so brightly that the attendants and guards around her could not hide their doting expressions.
Her silver hair was tied into one long braid, and her wide emerald eyes sparkled with innocence.
This was when Celestina was six years old. Her childish eyes looked around in excitement. Then she ran into the garden; her attendants and guards kept pace, but the picture of the child running with all her might made their lips curl up in a warm smile.
"Celestina! How many times have I told you not to run like that? You're a princess of the Empire." A soft melodious voice full of love came from the woman sitting near a table.
She had shiny, luscious black hair in a side ponytail and a pair of deep emerald eyes similar to Celestina's. Her face was mature and enchanting, with rosy cheeks and a regal look in her light blue summer dress.
The Empress of the Brilliant Drake Empire, Anastasia Dragnar, looked at her daughter with sweet love contrary to the scolding tone in her voice. As her daughter came closer, she held a book in her hands.
Celestina's eyes shined even more as she smiled widely. She ran straight to her mother's side with a look of pleading. "Can we read it?"
"Of course!" Anastasia lovingly rubbed her daughter's head, to which Celestina responded by closing her eyes with a hum.
"Mother's hands are warm." Celestina grabbed her mother's hand to rub her cheeks with a grin. She didn't know why, but her mother's hand made her feel warm and happy.
"Fufu. We won't have time to read if you keep playing around." Anastasia chuckled as she teasingly waved the book around with her other hand at the young, baby-faced Celestina.
"NO!" Celestina puckered her lips, giving a stubborn and unwilling gaze at her mother. She quickly let go and sat on a chair next to her mother.
"What is it this time?"
"The book I have is called 'The Boy with the Scabbard'. It's a story of a boy born with a scabbard by his hip."
"Eh? That's weird! How can that happen?" Celestina giggled as her eyes filled with wonder. What kind of person is born with a scabbard?
"Let's read and find out."
Under the soft, gentle beams of the two suns and the slight breeze that tickled their hair, Anastasia and Celestina read together. Anastasia narrated the story with a mesmerizing voice, drawing Celestina into the book.
This peaceful scene continued on for about an hour. The mother and daughter laughed and gasped at the chapters of the book. They were having a great time together.
"The hour is up. You need to go to your lessons." Anastasia closed the book with a bookmark. They were about halfway through.
"Awww. Can we stay a little longer?" Celestina pouted with a begging look.
"If you're late, you'll be scolded by your father." Anastasia brought up her husband, the current emperor, causing Celestina to stiffen and straighten up.
"I'll be going!" Celestina went out in fright. The gardens were silent except for the sound of Anastasia's laughter.
Celestina loved her mother and the reading times they shared. Every time it would be exciting as her mother narrated the book with various voices and emotions.
For all the exhausting lessons and strenuous training she had to endure from a young age as a member of the royal family, this brief respite with her mother was her little heaven.
Her free time was spent reading books with her mother or alone in her room. She was excited to share what she read with her mother, who listened attentively to her words.
However, nothing lasts forever.
Celestina woke up to horrible news that her mother had failed to advance to the Marshal Exalt realm, despite her Grade Seven Exolsia core.
Failure to advance into a brand new realm had severe repercussions that could lead to a drastic decline in health, even instant death. The process to advance into a Marshal Exalt from a Knight Exalt was one of the riskiest.
Celestina remembered seeing her mother, weak and skinny to bones. Anastasia's healthy black hair had turned into a dull white, and her emerald eyes were shut tight.
This was when she was ten years old.
"Mother…." Celestina bent over the bed and grabbed her weak mother's arm. But no matter how much she tried to rouse her, Anastasia would not wake up. Tears dripped down Celestina's face as she shook her mother's arm to little avail.
"Celestina." A man dressed in ceremonial royal clothes with golden shoulders knelt and held her shoulder.
He had golden eyes and silver hair that shone like moonlight. A handsome face with hawk-like eyes and a square chin. The emperor of the Brilliant Drake Empire, Julius Evergrant Dragnar.
"Father…." Celestina could barely speak, with the tears choking her up.
"Your mother will not wake. Come." He said dryly.
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"NO!"
Julius took Celestina into his arms, not wanting his daughter to continue watching this. But the little girl kept clawing and struggling to get out of his thin yet powerful arms.
Celestina was crying the whole way as Julius hugged her tightly. He did not show it, but there were flickers of sadness in his strong, detached gaze. The father and daughter continued to walk away.
Day after day, Celestina would come by to visit her mother. Every time, she would bring a book and read to her unconscious mother with great enthusiasm, hoping she would wake up
In the end, her mother passed away a week later. She never opened her eyes a single time, dying in her sleep.
Since those days, Celestina buried herself in training to forget the pain of her mother's passing. Her father was too busy to help her in this lonely time. So she turned to books again but was aggrieved that there was no one to talk to.
She missed the days when she spoke happily with her mother and read books together.
"I miss Mother."
She desired a friend. Someone who can speak with her causally. Someone with who she could enjoy the same joy she had with her mother. Someone with whom she could share her love of books.
As time passed, she met many others. They were amicable and could connect on other things, but they maintained a distance due to her status. Or they coveted her and could not hide their intentions well enough, like Gilbert.
It's not as though she didn't understand. She was a princess, after all. This was only natural. But a part of her yearned for something like she and her mother had.
…….
'That's right. I finally found others. I want to go back. Read some books in the Archives while discussing with Oscar. I want to talk more with Emily.'
During this trip, she was happy. Phillip and George were the usual who revered her as the princess. But she was adventuring with Oscar and found a new friend in Emily, who didn't hold back.
She stood up and walked past Oscar to stand in front of her group. Her temporary black hair, which resembled her mother's, waved around.
"Princess!" Phillip shouted.
'I'm happy with these friends of mine. What right do you have to break that apart, to destroy it.' Celestina eyed Doyle with unbridled fury and hate.
'Get out of my way.'
Doyle took out a sharp three-pronged claw from his bag, equipping it in his free hand while the other held the scourging whip anima. It was a grade-one armament.
"I'll cut you a thousand times, reducing your skin to naught, then whip you all a thousand times."
Celestina turned to the others. Oscar looked anxious and tried to move over, but she held her hand to signal him to stop. He was her precious book buddy; she could not allow him to throw his life away like this.
"I'll get us out of this. We're going back together." She turned away and began moving forward. Her heroic back was etched into everyone's eyes.
A terrifying surge of Ein burned brightly like an inferno around Celestina. The sheer pressure it gave off made Oscar and the others unable to take a single step.
Celestina shouted as the ground caved in and shattered under her. She mounted her dragon anima and brandished her rapier.
BOOM
Suddenly her silver Ein fluctuated strangely. It grew denser and brighter. It moved as if there were two layers of fire. One tried to escape and disperse while the other kept exploding inward.
"This is 'Ein Awaken'?" Oscar was shocked. However, it made sense that she would know of the existence of 'Ein Awaken'. Aurora Bellwood showed it during her alchemist competition. Naturally, a princess would know and possibly learn it earlier.
Celestina let out a piercing scream as blood flowed down her eyes and nose, only to be evaporated by the heat of her Ein.
Her dragon anima blew away the ground under it as it flew headfirst toward Doyle. It let out the largest light beam it had ever made.
Celestina also created the largest 'Radiant Lance' ever, twice as big as before. Her mind was beginning to split apart as her core was burning like magma in her chest. Her face grew paler from the blood that was flowing out and evaporating.
Doyle poured his Ein into his whip and claw and lashed out to maim Celestina.
The whip and claw clashed against the light beam and lance all at once together. The air blew ferociously like a hurricane around the two. The section of the island around them was in upheaval.
"She's forcing herself too much. Even I can't do this far in 'Ein Awaken'!" Oscar was reminded of when he had undergone Draven's training and felt his master's overpowering Reis tear through his body. Something similar must be happening to her.
However, instead of her silver Ein showing signs of slowing down, it continued to burn like a fiery star.
One side was utterly baked in silver Ein while the other was coated in dark Ein. Neither side was giving in.
Doyle's eyes expressed his shock as he felt the immense Ein behind this attack. He was not privy to 'Ein Awaken' and was not a Knight Exalt to discover it naturally, so he was confused.
'Where on earth is she drawing this Ein from?' He poured more to stop this crazed girl.
Celestina sensed Doyle's Ein getting stronger. Her body bled more that fizzled like smoke off her skin.
Her emerald eyes shined like jewels as she gave off one final cry. Her Ein suddenly swelled up to incredible levels that her skin was tearing and bones were breaking. The tip of her 'Radiant Lance' had an immense concentration of Ein that was continually fed more.
"What?!" Doyle was aghast.
"AH!" Celestina roared, pouring everything into her rapier and lance.
A large explosion occurred. The silver and dark Eins were in flux as they rotated around like a vortex. A loud deafening sound blew away the air as the ground became a pond of rubble.
Oscar could not see anything through the explosion, and the loud noise knocked out his hearing. But he saw a shadow coming out of the fierce vortex of Ein. With the last of his strength, he leaped out and grabbed it.
In his arms was Celestina, but her current state made Oscar wince and curse his weakness.
There were lines of blood coming out of her orifices, mainly from her unfocused, unconscious rolled-over white eyes. She had broken her arm but still held the rapier tightly.
He could not sense a hint of Ein within her and felt her vitality fading.
Everyone else hurried over but paled at her condition.
"Anyone has a Heal Elixir? Or did we use them all up?" Oscar asked.
George took out his since he had never used it. Oscar took it and poured the content into Celestina's mouth. It worked to cure some of the various wounds on her body but did not rouse her awake.
The 'Ein Awaken' had severely damaged her mind. It would take a while to recover.
"We need to leave."
"Where can we go?"
"WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU'RE GOING?"
A loud hysterical shout shook Oscar and the others to their core. The storm of Ein had settled down to reveal Doyle; his hand was bleeding from a large gaping hole on it.
"That bitch!" Doyle moved forward. "I didn't expect her to have this sort of trump card. But it looks like that was it."
Oscar stood up with his buckler and took up a defensive stance. "Bastard."
"I'll take care of you first. Then I'll torture that girl for as long as possible before turning her into a shrunken head!" He screamed crazily. His Ein exploded out, making Oscar and the others kneel down, unable to fight back.
They squirmed and struggled but could only look at Doyle with a hint of despair.
Doyle began to laugh crazily. His victory was near.
"Who did you say you were going to torture?" A rough and powerful voice interrupted Doyle's moment of pleasure.
"Who?!" Doyle brandished his weapons and turned to the voice; his eyes widened in disbelief.
Oscar also turned and was also in disbelief. There was a man.
This man looked middle-aged with a short beard and shaggy purple hair. But his eyes contained a destructive might that could swallow all of existence.
His face was burly, and his shoulders broad. He carried a single broadsword on his back.
The more shocking fact was this single man stood in the great divide between the second and third islands. He was flying without care.
"A Marshal Exalt…."