Chapter 761 Tales of Light Speed
Chapter 761 Tales of Light Speed
?In the middle of summer, Doma lay on her hammock wearing only her underwear with a wood golem fanning her with a large leaf. “Damn you, sun. What’s this heat today.” She growled, taking her cut for a drink.
Behind her a stack of papers, unfinished work. But no one could find it bearable to sit at a desk and work in such conditions.
KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK!
Doma grunted, turning aside, “Who is it now? I’m busy dealing with the heat…” She wore her mantle and walked toward the front door.
There weren’t that many creatures that could reach Doma’s front door. She lived in her hut, protected by countless lairs of curses and violent evil spirits roaming everywhere. It’s either a powerful monster, a demi-god, or a lost child that the evil spirits guided in to watch him get killed.
Doma opened the door, ready to blast anyone outside into oblivion. But instead, she was faced with a blinding light as if that damned sun came to her front door.
“Doma, I need your help.” The orb of light said.
“Luminus?” Doma sighed, smacking the door closed.
“Doma! Where are you going?” Luminus shouted.
“It’s always like this! Helping any of you would be several decades of commitment. I don’t want to deal with that. Find someone else.” Doma yelled at her.
“Doma, please. You’re the only one I can count on. At least give my granddaughter a look.” Luminus yelled back, and the door immediately opened back.
“Granddaughter? I sent you a congratulatory letter five years ago when she was born. That doesn’t mean I’ll care for it for you… but at least turn the light off.” Doma sighed, “I can’t see anything like this, and it hurt my eyes.”
“You know I can’t.”
Doma sighed, waving two fingers in front of Luminus with her eyes closed, “This will hurt.”
“Do it.”
Luminus’s light faded away, and her face could finally be visible. A tall woman in her late forties with long and reflective hair, diamond eyes, and clear pale skin that looked almost oiled, you could even see yourself on her mirror-like nails.
Blood started dripping from Luminus’s nose and ears. “This really hurt, more than the rest.” She smiled.
“The rest…” Doma looked back, seeing Lumunis’s back charred from all the curses she walked through to get there. “You’re dying! Get inside.”
“I’ll survive, not many things can kill me. More importantly, look at her.” Luminus handed something large wrapped in a piece of white cloth.
Doma’s nose instantly picked it up, the scent of charred flesh.
“This is bad. Come in.” Doma took Luminus’s granddaughter and rushed inside, with Luminus following them.
“What did happen?” Doma asked.
“She inherited my blood, and this is what happened.” Luminus replied as Doma unveiled the wrapping, seeing a charred body that was barely alive due to several magic items and healing spells active on her.
“Just as some fire sorcerers burn their houses down when their powers first manifest, she tried to go at the speed of light. But, mortals aren’t like you light dragons.”
“When moving at a high speed, the friction with the air turns into heat. She burned like a meteor without even reaching a fraction of the speed of light, and I’m sure the impact left her broken down to every bone.” Doma glared at Luminus, “I believe I told you not to have children with humans.”
“I didn’t, she’s my granddaughter. My eldest son married a halfling and she was born.” Luminus explained.
“Halfling…I guess the ears fell off when she burned.” Doma lifted her hand over the body. “First, I need to make sure she doesn’t use her powers by mistake when healing.” She turned toward Luminus, “You don’t mind me doing anything to her, right?”
“She’ll die if her powers aren’t quelled, so please do anything you can.” Luminus bowed.
“Got it, first, I’ll knock her out and seal her consciousness. That would make her act like a golem for the time being, but at least she won’t use her powers by mistake.” A wave of dark magic engulfed the body.
“That’s mind control, and a powerful one at that.” Luminus stared at Doma’s magic.
“I’m no stranger to learning forbidden curses and magic. But, they become really useful at times like this.” Doma replied.
“What scares me is that it can work on me.” Luminus smiled, looking at the spell.
“You’ll cut my head off before I could cast it.” Doma smiled.
“Is that so?” Luminus stared at her. “My guts tell me I’m the one to lose if we fought, and my gut feeling has never been wrong.” She could sense a wave of dreams coming from Doma’s magic.
“Why do you not join the power struggle? Doma.” Luminus stared at her, “Are you satisfied with your life here?”
“I’m a weirdo, a lonely elf with a fetish for collecting forbidden curses and horrid magic that makes people terrified. I can study in peace here, and the world doesn’t need to deal with the horror of me walking around it.” Doma waved her hand as she finished casting the spell on Lumunis’s granddaughter.
“You collect everything that is evil, cursed, and blasphemous. But you aren’t malevolent, you’re just weird. Probably why the gods never dropped a holy sword to slay you.” Luminus smiled.
“I just love, forbidden knowledge.” Doma smiled. “Done for now, get the healing spells to go all out.” She rushed to her lab and brought a tube to feed the granddaughter with. “Her name was Betty, right?”
“Yeah.” Luminus replied. “Now?” Putting her hands over Betty’s chest.
“Wait, I’ll make a slurry for her to eat first.” Doma quickly crushed a paste of honey, water, and herbs. She then shoved the tube down Betty’s nose and to her stomach, and started feeding her as Luminus slowly let the healing spells go all out.
After two days of hard work, Betty’s body finally fully healed and she woke up, sitting up with an empty, emotionless face as she was still under Doma’s mind control.
Luminus stared at her, almost crying. She thought her granddaughter would die no matter how she tried to help, but Doma made it possible. “Doma..thank…”
“Don’t thank me yet. We’re halfway there.” Doma approached Betty. “You said I can do anything to her. I’m sure you won’t like this, so can you leave?”
“I want to stay…” Luminus glared at her. “What are you trying to do?”
“We can’t let her live her life like an emotionless puppet, can we? So I’ll curse her to lose her powers or at least most of her power.” Doma looked at Betty’s eyes. “I better do it while she’s under my mind control so I can’t erase the memory of being cursed from her head.”
“Why erase it?” Luminus looked at Doma with a worried face.
“Cause it painful as hell. It’ll break and reconstrict her blood, soul, and bones to work. Imagine it like a really painful tooth, but it’s all of your bones.” Doma waved her hand over Betty’s head, and she started screaming her lungs out.
“Let’s go.” Doma dragged Luminus out of the room. “This will take a few hours.”
“We aren’t leaving her like this.” Luminus didn’t want to leave the room.
“You can stay with her if you want, but she’ll be in pain for a long time.” Doma left the room leaving Luminus sitting with crying Betty.
A day later, Betty finally calmed down, the curse had taken effect.
“So what now?” Luminus looked at Doma who just walked into the room.
“First, delete the memory of getting cursed.” She waved her finger, and Betty fell unconscious for a second and then woke up immediately. “And then release her.”
With a finger flick, light returned to Betty’s eyes and she looked around surprised, “Where am I?” She gasped.
Luminus hugged her crying, “You fine, it’s all right.”
“Grandma, what happened.”
“Nothing sweety, you’ll be fine.”
“No, you won’t.” Doma said in the back. “You almost killed yourself.” She cut them off.
“Doma!” Luminus glared at her.
“You said I can do whatever I want, so don’t get in the way.” Doma walked toward Betty. “I really don’t want to cut off this sweety family moment, but you still might kill yourself.”
“How?” Luminus glared at Doma, “Her powers are sealed.”
“You’re a light drakaina, do you think your powers are that easily suppressed?” Doma sighed, “My curse managed to suppress her power down to 0.000001%. This means she could still fly at 3 meters per second and break a bone or her neck.” Doma looked into Betty’s eyes, “You aren’t going back home, you’re staying here to train on how to control your powers.”
“I thought you hated having outsiders here.” Luminus glared at Doma, “And I didn’t tell her parents that she won’t be returning.”
Doma pulled two papers out of her pocket, “Give those to them, they can come to visit her. But she’s staying here.”
Luminus stared at Doma, “Betty, want to stay here?” She asked.
“Do I need to stay?” Betty asked, still confused about everything.
“Yeah.” Doma stared at her. “Otherwise, you’ll end up hurting yourself and making your parents and grandma worry. From today, you’ll be living with me here to train.”
Luminus sighed, “Fine, I’ll go bring her parents here.” She stood.
“Grandma…” Betty called her. “You aren’t glowing…”
“I did that to her.” Doma flicked her fingers, “Here you go, powers back so you can go. I made an exception for you in the hut’s defenses. And for her parents, they’ll be fine as they are carrying their passes.”
In a flash, Luminus disappeared leaving Betty and Doma alone.
“What do I do now?” Betty asked.
“Go take a bath and come to the kitchen, I’ll cook something for you to eat. We can then meet your parents and start training tomorrow.” Doma pointed at the wardrobe. “It has some of my old clothes, they should fit you. If they didn’t, make them fit.” She pointed to a box of needles and threads.
Betty took a bath, ate her fill, and met her parents who brought her clothes and toys. They were extremely weary of Doma but grateful for saving their daughter’s life.
The next day quickly came by, and Betty’s training began.
“First your core strength! Run around the garden until you puke!” Doma shouted, sitting on her porch with a staff in her hand, waving at Betty who ran with heavy breath. “I can’t!” Betty cried.
“You can! Keep going and don’t stop!” Doma yelled at her.
A year quickly passed with Betty only working on her endurance and strength, running around, doing pushups with Doma sitting on her back, and plowing the garden with the golems.
“Master.” Betty approached Doma. “I want to start training on controlling my light powers, it’s been a year.”
Doma approached her, slapped her in the face then kicked her in the guts, sending her rolling on the ground. Crying, Betty stared at Doma, “Why…did you do that.”
“Those two hits are far gentler than hitting a tree at a fraction of the speed of light.” Doma said, “Come do my nails. Starting today, I’ll hit you like this once a week, and when you can take it without falling down or crying, I’ll start training you on how to control the light.”
With tears in her eyes, Betty barely stood and started doing Doma’s nails as she thought about it. Those two hits hurt a lot, and Doma said they are far gentler than hitting something with her power, is she really ready to train? It’s been a grueling year, but for what purpose if she can’t even train?
“Don’t worry about it.” Doma said, “Everyone starts somewhere. You’ll be able to control your powers one day.”
It took Betty two years to be able to start her training in light magic.
“Stand in place and don’t move, focus on your magic and throw a straight punch. You’ll most likely dislocate your shoulder or elbow, so be ready for a lot of pain. Not that many things can move too fast.” Doma said, standing beside her.
Betty took a deep breath, pulled her fist back, and then punched forward. CRACK! Both her shoulder and elbow were dislocated. She fell down screaming, “Both…you seem to need more muscles around your joints.”
Doma grabbed Betty where she was and snapped her shoulder and wrist in place, leaving her writhing in pain. “See? It’s painful, so keep training.”
After another year of physical training, Betty finally managed to unleash 0.000001% of her power without breaking her own fragile body, halflings weren’t known for their sturdiness.
“Master! I did it! I did it!” She rushed toward Doma with a large smile.
Doma patted her head, “This is just the first step. Keep going and one day you can use 100% without dying.”
Time quickly passed by, and a decade ended without anyone noticing. Betty has grown so strong she could unleash around 0.0001% of the speed of light. She could move and hit at a speed close to bullets without ending her own life.
“Master, I’m going now.” Betty bowed to Doma at the edge of the hut. She’s going to her mother’s graduation ceremony.
Since Betty’s powers showed up, her parents refused to have any more children. Her mother instead focused on studying magic and alchemy, trying to find a way to have children without them inheriting her bloodlines. Her research didn’t go well, but she managed to graduate from a local school and invited Betty to visit.
The ceremony went well as any other and Betty stood at the entrance with her father, awaiting their mother to come out so they could head home and spend the night before Betty had to return to Doma’s hut.
CRACK! The ground shook, and dust started rushing in. Betty’s father looked to the walls, and a large giant had broken the city’s wall and walked in, he’s almost forty meters tall and holds a massive club.
Betty’s father couldn’t fight, he’s a semi-immortal shapeshifter and her mother is a normal halfling. “Betty, dear, let’s run!” The mother came in rushing from inside the school and grabbed Betty by the hand. “It’s dangerous.”
SWOSH! A fist-sized stone flew toward them, and Betty smacked it away in the blink of an eye. She shook her mother’s hand off, “You two run, I’ll handle that thing.” Betty hunched her fists back.
“0.0001%, unleashed…” Her body sparked with a faint light, and she flashed forward, running and dodging the flying debris. Her mother and father screamed in the back, but someone had to take action, the adventurers and guards were too slow, and people were already dying everywhere, crushed by the rubble.
The giant saw Betty and swung his massive club at her.
^Sorry, Master. 0.0001% doesn’t have enough power to kill this thing.^ Her left foot flashed with a bright light, CRACK! She jumped, dodging the giant’s club, and reached his face.
“0.001%, FLASH!” She punched him in the face so hard a shockwave blasted him backward, and Betty’s arm broke with her fingers falling apart, her leg was also broken as she used that same power to jump.
The people of the city gasped as they saw a bright white flash fill the sky for a fraction of a second.
From that day, Betty was nicknamed the Flash. “Betty the Flash was born.”
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