[Come on, run faster or you’ll be cleaved in half again!] Nozh barked while throwing spears of light at Làzhú who had been training with the Angel in the highest dimension for an indeterminable amount of time.
In this vague timespan, Làzhú had endured physical exercises that would have been impossible were they not in this most high of places.
She was made to run for an eternity, lift meteors and comets, and she was made to punch those same comets with her bare hands until the comets broke.
While excruciatingly painful, this process was only bearable because of Làzhú’s new body.
One which had been unwillingly dragged up here by the ever-overzealous Nozh.
Làzhú frantically dodged the incoming missiles of light while reminding herself what this was all for.
After each session of nightmarish training, Nozh would give Làzhú the most delicious food from around the universe and this was the only way the Angel had managed to convince her to do anything.
Before then, she’d simply cower away and freeze when asked to do anything by the near-omnipresent being.
Làzhú also seldom spoke and even when she was under fire, she wouldn’t scream or beg.
A habit that had followed her into the second life.
Wounds from having screamed and begged before but never having been heard.
[Alright, this is the last one!]
Nozh yelled while gathering more light than ever before.
Làzhú didn’t even need to see the bold of light to know how powerful it would be and so she continued to run.
The Angel then loosed the bolt and, while pushing her new body to its limits, Làzhú dodged something that was moving at the fastest possible speed in the universe.
Her now perfectly muscular and bare body moved just enough to avoid getting hit while also allowing her to keep her balance as she finally came to a stop.
A massive explosion went off behind her as she stood to face the approaching Angel.
Nozh looked a fierce-eyed Làzhú over and nodded.
[I think you are ready now. For mine blessing.]
As if instinctively, Làzhú took to her knees.
Nozh then held her hand over Làzhú’s head and gave her a little bit of her Kilnessence.
Làzhú’s body immediately caught fire, burning with white flames that didn’t scorch her skin.
Instead of giving her pain, it seemed as though they were feeding off of the pain and frustration she felt inside.
Manifesting as her wrath.
Làzhú took a deep breath and focused all of these white-hot streams of fire on her pure white hair which was cut short.
[Good. I shall grant you two more gifts before sending you back from whence you came. A suit of armour, forged from the light of the highest place and…]
Làzhú looked up and watched as Nozh reached for one of her feathers which she proceeded to pull out, letting out a guttural groan as she did.
The feather was without definable form and held immense power.
As Làzhú was wrapped in armour of light, she was handed the feather which took the form of whatever weapon she had in mind, starting with a great hammer.
[Go now. Bring justice and unity to your world.] Nozh winced.
Làzhú nodded as she slowly descended, passing through all the other dimensions before finally returning to the spot where she had once died.
It looked like a few years had passed and her corpse was nowhere to be seen but that didn’t bother her that much.
She looked, her golden eyes peering beyond the cavern’s ceiling and beyond her world.
Nozh, who had returned to her home in the Hereafter looked down from the balcony of her marble palace and gave Làzhú a wave.
Làzhú waved back before lowering her head and looking herself over.
Her armour had solidified, taking the appearance of a complex white-ish crystal lattice that was warm to the touch and her hair was no longer on fire.
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She held a great hammer in her right hand and now stood two meters tall which was half a meter taller than even the tallest people on her planet.
She took a moment to think about what she wanted to do and recalled all that Nozh had taught her in addition to the insight she gained due to the Angel’s blessing.
Nozh hadn’t given her a specific path to take since the battle maniac of an angel was too focused on combat but she said that if Làzhú came across reasonable people, force should be the last solution. However, if she came across unreasonable people, force was to be used first to get them in line.
But what line?
What vision did Làzhú have for her own world?
Before being reborn, she had never even thought of a moment other than the present and now she had to decide the fate of her world.
It was all too much and so she decided that the first thing she must do is find someone smart and wise enough to help her with this.
She also cursed her Angel for not taking more time to help her study the more academic combat styles.
Làzhú took casual and heavy steps out from underneath the pile of trash she had died in and turned to the distant city of Abell which glowed an eerie green.
The only reason why Làzhú could see it was because of her blessed eyes.
“Mmm…”
Làzhú’s initial thought was to make her way to the city beyond the hills of scrap but she found herself glancing at the wastes that had become her home in the final years of her life.
Unlike the city, she knew very well the goings on of the places that were cast in shadow.
People here relied less on words, plans and other such things, relying on their instincts instead, a language she spoke quite well.
She would find the people she needed here, in this wretched but familiar place.
As she walked, the dregs of her kind peered at her from the shadowy shacks they’d built in the scrap heap and this made Làzhú a little self-conscious.
Normally, not even these most unfortunate of souls wouldn’t spare her a glance.
Now they were staring at her while muttering all manner of things.
Awe, shock, fear, things she could never before have imagined being associated with.
She made her way to the centre of the wastelands, waking the slumbering outcasts as she did.
As she walked, she came into a group that she recognized.
They were scavenger bandits who robbed even those who had so little.
Clad in filthy drabs, wearing cracked and hissing oxygen masks and brandishing weapons of rusted iron, they snarled at her, suppressing whatever caution they may have had as they greedily ogled her armour.
“I don’t know who or what you are but if you don’t wanna die, you’ll drop that hammer and come with us!” The foremost bandit snarled as onlookers fearfully watched from the shadows.
Normally, Làzhú would have done as they said, surrendering herself and all she had but things were different now.
She was stronger and while she had lost all patience for people like this, she knew that, if Nozh were in this situation, she would give them a chance and so, after taking a deep breath and puffing her chest, mimicking her Angel, she spoke.
“Leave.” Her voice, although now deep and sultry, shook a little. She had wanted to tell them to leave this place but only managed to utter a single word as her nerves got to her.
Not because she was afraid but because she had never been in a position to tell anyone anything before.
“Ha! Was that supposed to be scary? Get her!”
The bandits all rushed towards her and she flinched in a manner that was almost imperceivable.
But now was not the time to be afraid, she had given them more chance than she had ever gotten in this world and so she swatted the air with the back of her free left hand, sending forth a wave of air that tore the bandits from their bones.
Whatever was left of their bodies splatted on the surrounding hills of scrap and hidden onlookers coward further into their recesses as Làzhú stood.
She had just killed a group of people and while she knew this moment would haunt her forever, she hoped that, by getting rid of them, one less person would have to worry about having their things or their life taken.
Làzhú eventually made it to the centre of the wastes, a toxic scape of metal, rust and filth.
She took a deep breath in, appreciating the fact that she was now immune to all toxins but regretted the fact that she had to smell everything directly.
She had chosen this place because it was far away from the city which would allow her to try a few things and even fail without interference.
The first thing she had to do was clean the place up and since this was the lowest, darkest point in the region, where all waste flowed, she took advantage of this fact and tapped the ground once with her great hammer which, infused with the power of an Angel, annihilated everything beneath Làzhú, creating a circular hole that was ten kilometres deep and six thousand kilometres wide, creating a dam into all the wastewater fell.
She had planned to turn the incline that led into this pit a series of dams that could generate electricity but that would come later.
Since she couldn’t fly, so she fell to the bottom of the pit where she then harvested gargantuan chunks of rock and stone which she carried by hand to the upper rim of the dam which she laid them long, leaving channels for the waste to flow into.
This would be the centre of her base but now she had a problem.
Her actions had shaken the wastelands and Supercluster to such a degree that it probably frightened tons of people as several tremors shook the continent.
This would undoubtedly make people weary about approaching the dam which made Làzhú groan in frustration.
It was proving quite challenging to think both for the present and future simultaneously.
She would have to take a step back and focus on gathering the people who would help her on her mission and so she returned to the wastes, trying her best not to frighten those who were hidden.
She eventually came across a heartbreaking scene.
Cramped in an old container unit, was a family of four who were all without masks.
A mother, father and their two sons who Làzhú could see through the rusted walls.
They were bone thin and covered in festering wounds.
Of course, they hid when Làzhú approached but she was determined to help them, just as her Angel had helped her all that time ago.
And so, she knocked on the side of the container as gently as she could.
“Hello.” Làzhú greeted softly only to wince as the father fearfully wrapped his arms around his family to protect them.
Làzhú understood their fear and so mimicked Nozh by sitting and waiting in front of the container but, unlike in the seventh dimension, she didn’t have an eternity and it looked like the boys were running out of time.
“Pardon my rudeness but I''m going to heal you all now.”
Làzhú raised her left hand and gave the family the trace amounts of Kilnessence that were in the air around them.
The mother gasped aloud as whatever pains, aches and cuts that covered her body were healed.
They all then began loudly weeping but the sound of their cries was little price to pay for Làzhú who lowered her hand and uttered a word in thanks to her Angel and the one she had learnt of from Yana.
“By her light and His will are you saved.”