A long time ago lived a peaceful village, cut from the rest of the world by a huge forest.
But they wouldn't suffer it, as the townspeople learned to suffice for themselves, and create a happy community.

Among them lived the Nurse, a woman skilled in the art of healing, but also of astonishing beauty. She was young, pretty, but also a very kind person who loved her job.

Every time that someone fell sick or got injured, she always had a treatment for it. There was no known person more appreciated than her in the village, causing the jealousy of the other women, and many men tried to marry her... But she would always decline politely with a smile, and they would try their luck again the month after.

But she couldn't spend her life alone, she knew she had to choose a husband one day. After all, who will take care of her clinic, if she have no children to teach her art ?

One day, as she was thinking about who she would say yes to, screams and cries came out of the window. As she opened the door in urgence, she got a sight she would never, ever forget again.

Her precious village in flames.

As they were cut from the world, they didn't knew anything about the Monsters attacking people, nor about Avalon sending sorcerers to take care of them. Nobody was prepared...And nobody survived. By the time the sorcerers that were after this monster, it was too late...

They took care of the monster and left without a word, leaving the woman in the middle of the ruins of her beloved village, in the corpses of those she called her friends.

She cried, for days and night, so much that she lost track of time, until she couldn't cry anymore.



Laying in the ashes, she was looking at the sky, feeling her breath getting slower as she realize she haven't ate for days...She was going to die from starvation. She had a last thought...

"If only i could see them again... Just once..."

And before she knew, a bright chalice appeared before her, telling her words without speaking.

" I may grant you your wish, as long as you pay the price. The better the offering, the better the reward... "

She had no idea what was going on. Was it a divine gift ? Desperate in her solitude, she nodded yes, ready to give everything only to give her people a second chance. And after that, the chalice disappeared.

Her heartbeat started rising again, as she could stand up. But it kept on going faster, faster...She felt dizzy as her heart was like a machine going wild, and then...

Her body was engulfed in flames, like her village before. It was an horrible, painful experience, as she felt her skin melt and twist, and that's where she knew what her sacrifice was...

Her beauty. The chalice took away her skin, and as the flames once again engulfed the village, she saw moving shapes.. Familiar shapes. Her friends, the people of the village, were resurrected. Her sacrifice made them come back from the dead.

"Who is this?"

"What have you done to our village ?!"

"You're the cause of its destruction, witch !"

She stood in front of them, as if time stopped. They were unable to recognize her. The chalice didn't only take her skin...

The dead didn't keep memories. They were wiped of any memory of her.

She tried to prove she was the Nurse, that she resurrected them. They wouldn't listen to her, as she was a stranger to them. Their memories wiped out of her, she was banished and sent to live in the forest, like an (h)ermit, and from then on was called the Witch's forest.

Fallen into a pit of despair and anger, she regretted so much her decision. She shouldn't have messed with Fate...
But perhaps she could fix her error?

A drop of poison in the well.

Or maybe...Maybe if the chalice would come back, one last time... She could sacrifice them to it...

As her mind got closer and closer to the pit of madness, a knock at her door was heard. And behind it, a little boy.
He was looking at her, having his knee red of blood, certainly from playing and falling on the ground.

She asked the boy why he would come here ? After all, this is the Witch's lair.

He answered that there was no Witch in the forest, only a nurse.

These word made her freeze again, like that day. He was the only one to remember her...And she knew why by looking at his necklace.

It was a pendant of a little animal that she gave to this boy some time ago, when she healed him for the very same wound...
Maybe that little trinket saved more lives that one could imagine. She smiled at him, and she lost all will of revenge.

With her newfound resolve, she remembered those two men who came for the monster... They were talking about something that she wasn't really listening to at first...

"Avalon". That's what they were talking about. A mysterious organisation of those same men who destroy monsters.

She had no place here. But she could still save people...By becoming a sorcerer, by destroying those monsters, and prevent anymore disasters like these to happen. To murder these people transformed by their selfishness in (for) the sake of world peace...

She wrapped her bloodied skin in bandage, and hid her face with a golden mask, a gift from the blacksmith in the village who crafted it with a rare material. He wanted to "make her beauty be eternal with this object".

How ironic, she thought, that this object would carry this exact objective...

Her beauty would be the last thing the transformed monsters would see before she sacrifice them.

---

Upon relecture, i'm really shitty at stories. And blood stains. I'll ask someone else next time.

Color/lines is from  Kyrie_Eleison

Original character design / Soul Sacrifice is © Marvelous AQL / Japan Studio