Nexus Awakened (An Isekai LitRPG Gender Bender Story)

669. Gerina Aztra and The Corpse Snatchers

“Hah! Hah! Haaaa!”

A lone horse galloped through the animal paths of a great forest. Overgrown weeds and vines wrapped its hooves as it passed. The steed screamed as it tore off the encroaching plants, leaping over rotting logs that were disguised to hide the bellies of these plants.

Pitcher plants decorated the canopies of the forest like bells. From a distance they would appear like fairies of an enchanted forest. A pair of delicate hands held onto the neck of the steed tightly as the figure shut her eyes, knowing well of their hypnotic power.

“Faster! Please, run faster!” The girl, who was wrapped in a filthy brown cloak no better than the apparel of a beggar, begged her steed to hasten as she felt a cold wind bellow from behind. “The C-Corpse Snatchers are coming closer! Hurry!”

Trepidation dripped from her voice, but her eyes carried an unyielding conviction to survive. Those eyes belonged to Gerina Aztra, a young woman from the Bellum Empire with an unknown status, aside from the rags she wore.

Glimpses of color could be seen through the shredded holes of her cloak as twigs and vines lashed at her, their barbed tips drawing blood. The plant life of this Regions had evolved to sense the scent of blood and the intoxicating smell of fear itself.

Examples were the Pitcher Python; a pitcher plan that swallowed their prey and stored them into stomach disguised as rotting logs, and the Venus Maneaters, which were no more than flowers that possessed teeth both inside, and as thorns along their thick stems.

As these parts were infrequently visited by humans, their appetites were whetted terrifyingly. Over two hundred species of man-eating plants were documented across Grandis. Over 50% were in Southwestern Grandis alone.

“G-Gaaah!” A hoarse cry left her lips as her hood was pulled back, revealing a pair of yellow eyes, fair skin, and blonde, wavy hair.

It was caught by a vine, its many thorns digging deeply into the bundle.

“Let – Me – GO!”

Any ordinary person would have been dragged straight from the back of the steed. However, the woman expertly drew a dagger from her hip and slashed the excess hair off with frightening precision.

She held the blade close, meeting with the encroaching vines with a slash, cutting them down with the efficiency of a seasoned assassin. It did not fit her youthful image.

Gerina Aztra had of course lived in one of the most unforgiving Regions of Elysia. Therefore, this was expected of a person who lived in these lands. However, the fact that she rode on horseback and wore light clothing than heavy armor meant that these monsters were not a concern to her.

As the light of the edge of the forest appeared, a cold darkness swallowed her senses.

“Already!?”

She shouted, peering back to see a band of heavily armored men and women riding on skeletal horses. As beings of the undead, they did not require stamina and could gallop at full speed for as long as their masters wished.

They were the steeds of the Corpse Snatchers – the Undead Mares. One could not differentiate one of their members from another, for they wore an identical set of black, unreflective amor pieces that were far too large to be practical.

And yet they rode with comfort, howling at the sight of her like they were possessed by beasts. The death rattle of their horses caused her blood to freeze. For a moment, she caught a glimpse of a metal skull amongst the black hooded figures.

“A Knightmare. Just for me? I thought they were here to capture me. But if that’s with them…”

Knightmares were seen as a rank of the Corpse Snatchers just below of that of the metal-skull men and women – the Ankou. If the Ankou were the masterminds and players of the chessboard, then the Knightmares were their pieces and attack force.

Although in truth, they were no real hierarchy. There were only areas of expertise within the Corpse Snatchers.

She watched as various skeletal horses emerged from the base of trees. They joined their march, bearing rotting flesh and eyeless sockets possessed by an evil spirit. Their movements were like the shambling of puppets on strings; neither perfect nor graceful.

It was an image born from nightmares.

“… Then they’re here to kill me.”

Death drew near, and she could feel its scythe brushing against her throat. Gerina Aztra cursed beneath her breath, leaning forward with her horse as they broke through the edge of the forest and rose into the expansive valleys.

The pink glow of sunrise rose over the distant oceans, past the tree lines that ran along the coast.

“Hurry… One dagger isn’t going to cut through their armor. My horse is slowing down too. Bastards – I hoped to lose them before this point! I should never have gone there! To think they’d use their own people as bait!”

A day earlier, Gerina Aztra had been working to remove the Corpse Snatchers and bandit installations from villages around the Bellum Empire. With no Adventurers and the focus of the Kingdom pivoting to major settlements, the villages suffered the most. Even Dukes overseeing their dutchies did not intervene, and neither did their barons who lived in total luxury, leaving it into the hands of the common folk and mercenaries like herself.

Although, Gerina Aztra was neither of the two. If she was a mercenary, then she would not have involved herself at all. Additionally, the common folk of those lands could not possibly result in such a powerful response force.

Her status was therefore of great importance.

“THE SKIES ARE CLEAR! DRAW YOUR ARROWS!”

“Fuck… Right! Turn right!”

She made her steed run at an angle, then nibbled on the edge of her small, curved dagger. Its edge began to glow a faint gold, and the symbol of a rising run glowed through her apparel on her back, matching that of the sunrise in the horizon.

“RELEASE!”

The volley of arrows turned into a cloud. She readied her blade, twisting herself so she sat reversed on the saddle.

“… Thelma’s blessing…”

She chanted through her teeth, magical circles appearing around her as she ended the sequence with –

“– [Golden Dawn – Illustrious Shield]!”

A golden shield in the shape of a translucent hemisphere appeared ten meters above her. Rays of light emitted from her twisting magical circles had brought forth what was considered Tier 5 Magic.

* * *

There were 11 tiers of Magic in Elysia, the first 8 being denoted by the Soul Ranks and the final 3 belonging exclusively to the most powerful of Exalted, Moons, Stars, Beholders, Archetypes and entities of vastly powerful scale.

Quantifying and limiting their powers to mere tiers was sacrilegious to the Stars so the tier system was never adopted by the Nexus. Outside however, especially in magical theocracies and magical Associations like the Golden Dawn; it was an integral tool that enabled them to understand the nuances of magic.

8th Tier magic was the pinnacle of the non-blessed and were represented by the Colors. 11th Tier was a hypothetical Tier and was but a thought experiment that pushed magic to the extreme. It was therefore appropriately called ‘reality altering magic’.

Realistically, Tier 7 magic was the highest that one could possibly achieve, but those that did reach such heights were almost always absorbed into an Association, Syndicate, Atelier or aligned themselves with a Kingdom.