CANON HISTORY: This story takes place in an impossible world, an ontological mystery. The world is one without land. Instead, people live on man-made islands, in cities the size of continents that fly in the sky. The planet’s surface is nothing but water, so saturated by mana that it is poison. To touch the ocean is surely to die, and even if you survived the water, the monsters that dwell within it would make short work of you. But mana gathers and flows like currents, and where two streams of mana meet, the resulting magic power solidifies, becoming magic crystals.

The four greatest crystals of all, the size of great skyscrapers, have become the center of all life. Known as the Source Crystals, they are enshrined in the center of each city, and provide the power that keep the cities aloft. Monsters that dwell within the ocean feed on magic, and so rise from the waters to attack the flying cities, and are repelled through the endless struggle of knights, sworn to uphold their honor and protect the weak.

Four cities have grown around each of the Source Crystals, and each city is ruled by one of the four gods. These cities are populated by four races: The Bast are people with cat-like features, ears and tails and furry clawed limbs, among others, and a highly dense skeletal and muscular system that makes them quite strong (and heavy). Long are dragon-people with horns and scales, and the only ones who ever swim. Angha are hollow-boned bird people, whose wings on their back grant them flight, and remain distant from the politics of the rest of the world.

Neferti, a Bast, was born in this world. But as an infant, she was left at an orphanage in the night without even a note, and it wasn’t hard to see why- Her left eye had weak blood vessels that caused it to bleed frequently, with additional slight necrosis. It was gross. She was named and raised by that orphanage, with what little healing magic they had used to keep her eye in check. But the orphanage was poor, and designed for human kids- It wasn’t equipped to handle a Bast child, with the increased body density (and thus food requirements). But Neferti was determined to not be a burden. She took to escaping the orphanage and begging, or even stealing food from the streets, so she could be fed without causing problems for the orphanage.

She got in trouble frequently, but her pride wouldn’t allow her to say why she was doing it. After all, in her mind, telling them why would be the same as pointing an accusing finger at them. So she simply gained a reputation as a troublemaker, until one day, she tried to steal from an older human man.

Unbeknownst to Neferti, this man, Isaac, was a retired knight. And not just any knight, but a former hero. He caught her easily, and though she attempted to run away, he instead sat down to talk to her, and even bought her more food. Neferti was suspicious, of course, and asked about him. He said that his name was Isaac, and he was just a retired knight. She didn't talk much to him, just scarfing down the food he bought her, then running away without even thanking him. But the next day, she went down the same route as before, wondering if he would be there, and indeed he was. This time, he had even bought her a fried fish ahead of time, waiting for her to show up. She thanked him bashfully and ate with him.

They began to have a routine of this, and slowly, they grew quite close. Eventually she opened up to Isaac, explaining her plight. Hearing of her circumstances, Isaac came up with the obvious solution: He would simply adopt her. She didn’t understand, but she agreed soon enough. (Isaac was too old to be her father, though, so she began to call him ‘grandfather’ instead.)

They were a close and loving family, and Neferti decided she wanted to follow in her grandfather’s footsteps and become a knight just like him. She trained hard, devoted herself to her training as hard as she could, and internalized all of her grandfather’s lessons and stories- A knight must be honorable. A knight must work to protect the people. A knight must be just. A knight must uphold all virtues. She strove to take all of this in and become the ideal knight, in body and soul, that her grandfather was.

At thirteen years old, she was finally allowed to become a squire. Squires are knights in training, who when monsters attack, are tasked with recon, assistance, and general duties rather than combat. Her grandfather was proud, and she didn’t neglect her training at all. In fact, even among her classmates in training to be a squire, her training for the knighthood, and her actual time with fellow squires… She never made any friends. Rather, she was incredibly non-social, and intense enough that not many tried to socialize with her. It was around this point she had her defective eye replaced with a magitech prosthetic.

(She did, at this point, meet a girl named Ariel in their training. Ariel was a couple of years her senior, and being the best at magic in their class, while Neferti was the worst, they were often assigned to train together. Neferti’s unyielding will in training, despite her talents, impressed Ariel a lot. This is mostly unimportant now, but will be more important later.)

Neferti’s sixteenth year was quite mixed. Her unfailing efforts in her training and devotion to her ideals led her to being made a knight at a rather young age. (Her strength, as well, due to being trained by a legendary hero of a knight that was her grandfather.) But at the same time, her grandfather’s health worsened- Legendary hero of incredible strength or no, a lifetime of fighting had taken its toll on his body. Healing magic was powerful, and certainly made him more comfortable, but it couldn’t keep him alive forever. But it wasn’t long after that that he passed, as if he had been hanging on just long enough to see her become the knight she dreamed of. He passed on with pride in her, and handed down his sword, the symbol of himself as a knight, for her to inherit.

His passing drove her to train further. Without him, the world had lost a great hero, and she was determined to make up for that loss. At eighteen years old, she was promoted to a Magic Knight like her grandfather had been. Magic Knights were allowed to use more powerful magic at their own discretion, where most people were banned from magic above a certain level for fear of attracting monsters. Eighteen was not the youngest to make that rank in history, but it was still extremely rare and extremely young, and exemplified the results of her training, the results of her diligence and efforts. Her strength and skill made her the perfect model of a knight.

She was then accused of treason, bringing her entire life and understanding of the world down around her.

While doing her duties, she was taken into custody and brought forth into a trial for treason. She had no idea what was going on, of course. But knowing herself to be innocent, she submitted to the authority easily, believing it all to be a simple misunderstanding that would be cleared up quickly enough.

Her belief would be unfounded. She stood accused of causing a breach in the city to the Source Crystal- The magic crystal in the center of the city which powered it all. The Source Crystals kept the city aloft, and if monsters were to get at it, that would certainly be the end of the city. The entire steel continent would fall from the sky, dooming all life on it. Her grandfather had once placed himself in a hole to the Source Crystal and fought without rest for three days and three nights- That was the event that made him known as a hero. And now, another hole had been opened, though smaller. And at the scene, Bast fur tail had been found. Her own fur, of course.

Neferti argued. It obviously wasn’t her. She lacked the magical ability to open a hole in the city, much less a part as heavily defended as the Source Crystal. But it remained that her fur was found at the scene, when she had no clearance to access the Crystal. She had no explanation. The trial was long and drawn-out, and it was conclusively proven that it could not have been her… But it was also proven to an equal amount that it couldn’t have been anyone but her.

What clinched things, however, was one simple fact: Neferti had no one who would vouch for her character. There were those accusing that she had only been given her position as a Magic Knight because of her grandfather, and those who resented her strength. There were also those who simply didn’t know her well, since she never socialized. She had no friends among the knights, and no one who could attest to what kind of person she was. While she had the skill and strength needed to be a knight, she had focused on that so much she had neglected forming any relationships with people, and so no one would come to her aid.

The final results were that Neferti could not be allowed to stay in the center of the city with the Source Crystal. She would not be stripped of her rank, but she would be sent to a remote position near the edge of the continent so that she would be no danger to the Source Crystal.

The shame and dishonor was worse than death. She could not argue the verdict, and accepted this new position, moving immediately. And there, she withdrew even further into herself. She threw herself into battles against the monsters with an alarming ferocity, refused contact with anyone, and did nothing but train and fight. It was as though her soul had been crushed.

This lasted for some time, until a new knight transferred to the same area as Neferti- Surprisingly, it was Ariel, whom Neferti had trained with as squires. Neferti was surprised, and a little dismayed to see her; Ariel had had such a promising career ahead of her in the city’s center, and also… It stung to see someone who knew her. The shame intensified, and Neferti would not see her. It took some persistence on Ariel’s part to even get Neferti to say a word to her, much less talk, but she seemed rather fixated on trying, never giving up. Slowly, she managed to worm her way through Neferti’s defenses, and got her to open up, if only a bit.

A sympathetic ear helped her. Neferti was still hardly a social creature, but she had someone she could confide in, and the world became less bleak to her. She gained renewed purpose- She knew her honor was unsullied, no matter the view of those around her, and having even one person who believed in her was enough. And so, she would simply redeem her honor in the eyes of the world by continuing on in her way, being a knight beyond reproach.

Her resolve was tested almost immediately, however, by the arrival of a man named Feng. A member of the Long race (dragon horns, scales, claws, and a tail), he was a detective, and extremely gruff about it. He was also investigating Neferti for her actions in the city’s center, hunting for possible motives for breaching the city. He didn’t believe in her at all, and made it clear. It seemed he would never come around to her, looking for any slipup to prove she was the menace who was plotting against the city. It wasn’t until Neferti risked her life to save a woman named Sara from a monster that Feng began to relent.

Neferti and Ariel began to spend time with Sara as well, following up to make sure she was okay. Wtih Feng helping them, the four of them began to spend time together. There was a lot of time and misadventures here I’m glossing over because this is already a huge section, and the most important effect of which is that the four of them got to know each other, their fates being stuck with each other, whether they liked it or not. (Sara and Feng did not like it, but it was odd and no one was sure why for Sara. Neferti made several efforts, mostly due to Ariel’s prompting, to try to become closer to Sara, but Sara was having none of it, and was surprisingly angry at Neferti even though she saved her life.)

Things continued in this way for several months. The trigger for change was when Neferti made an off-handed comment about her trial, how her tail fur was found at the scene of the crime. Feng realized that didn’t make any sense- In the first place, that was an incredibly weak way to assign blame to her, and for her to have been punished this way regardless… Something was fishy. Neferti herself had never questioned it, since it was her superior officers accusing her, but something didn’t add up. (It was plainly obvious, honestly, but given Neferti’s non-social nature, and not wanting to talk about what had happened, no one else knew until that point.)

Feng conducted his investigations on Bartholomew, the knight commander who accused Neferti. She herself, along with Ariel, returned to the city’s center, under the guise of maintaining her grandfather’s estate. With Feng’s help, they discovered something shocking: The beloved knight commander Bartholomew, who was thought to be a great man who worked tirelessly for the sake of justice, was actually a member of a cult which worshipped the god of the ocean.

The ocean god was a figure in their world, the fifth of the four gods. He was only spoken of in hushed whispers, his name unknown, but as he presided over the hellish oceans which sent monsters to kill, he was considered the ultimate evil. A devil of such power and fear that to even think of him was thought to invite bad luck, but to outright worship him? That was just pure insanity. The ocean god was trapped in his domain, the ocean, by the might of the four gods, but he dreamed eternally of vengeance, to sink the cities and claim all that lives, so that his monsters might destroy the work of the four.

This absurd cult, Voice of the Ocean, met in secrecy in ways hidden even from the gods. It took some time to figure out how they could possibly find one of these meetings, and thus find out the truth of what was going on. So while Ariel and Feng planned and tried to think of a way, Neferti simply stowed away on Bartholomew’s personal airship.

Alone and cut off from all backup or support, she discovered many truths one after another that would shock her to her core. Even more than the whole “respected boss is actually a cultist” thing, even.

First, when she emerged from the ship, she found the unthinkable: she had found herself inside a domed city under the ocean. Or, more precisely, of the ruins of a city. A city that should not have existed, recorded nowhere in history. Neferti departed the ship to explore what strange place she had found herself in.

She was forced to fight many monsters along the way, but shockingly, she met no other people as she explored. The city streets sat ruined, crumbled and rusted. Occasional lights flickered, and she would find remnants of records, personal diaries or log files that told of the city’s story.

The sunken city was called Dome Righad. And once upon a time, it was the center of the world. The records revealed that the tale of the world Neferti knew, of the four gods standing above the ocean god, was a lie. The ocean god was the true God who had created the other four, and the world itself. The four gods, who he had created, usurped him and sealed him below the ocean. The fighting between the gods had sunk the city.

But that wasn't all. Righad’s dome had let it survive in the ocean… In the depths of the god’s clutches. They believed as the faithful, they would be saved. But what awaited them was a crueler fate: with the influence of the ocean god, the ocean’s magic mutated those survivors into monsters, and those monsters tore each other, and any surviving people, apart.

Neferti followed the records and the roads and ended up in the city’s center: What was clearly the royal palace, once upon a time. And in its halls, Neferti found the cult. Hidden in the back, she listened as one man preached a sermon. Bartholomew, the knight commander, was reciting an ancient tale- Oral tradition which told the beginning of the world. The same history that she had found in the city’s records. The ocean god created everything, and the other four whom he had created grew envious of his power and usurped him. And among the audience, Sara was there, with rapt attention.

Neferti was shocked, confused, and defiant. The knowledge she’d seen here… It couldn’t possibly be real. But the records seemed like they had to have been true, and they matched what Bartholomew preached, and it seemed like no one else had disturbed the records she had found… Before she could work her mind through all this, however, Bartholomew discovered her hiding place. Angered that the obstacle he had tried so hard to remove by framing her for his own crimes had somehow made it this far, a duel began.

It was a difficult battle, but Neferti prevailed. But, despite everything, Bartholomew was still the Knight Commander, and someone she had deeply respected for it. After she defeated him, she hesitated, unwilling to kill him and unsure how to capture him, especially surrounded by his fellow cultists. Seizing upon that brief chance, Bartholomew unleashed his final attack: A forbidden magic that diverted a stream of mana from the ocean, piercing through the dome and flinging all of that ocean power directly at Neferti.

Neferti could have avoided it. But if she did, it would have kept going, and hit a defenseless Sara instead. And despite knowing now that Sara was a cultist, a worshipper of evil, she couldn’t just let a defenseless person get attacked. So she raised her sword and took the stream with her own body to protect those behind her. And absorbing all of that raw mana, tainted with the essence of the ocean, into her body, she charged forward, cutting Bartholomew down, before falling herself.

Chaos erupted. The dome had been pierced, so ocean water began to leak in. Soon, the city wold flood. And though some wished to kill Neferti, and most simply escaped in a panic, Sara couldn’t help but realize Neferti had saved her life twice now, and both times risked herself greatly. Sara used her magic to take Neferti and drag her back to a ship, and take her up to the surface, crashing down hard near the city’s edges.

Ariel and Feng were both drawn by this, waiting for Neferti’s return as they were, and an airship flying out of the ocean and crashing down to the ground certainly seemed like something ridiculous enough to involve her. But what they found when they arrived was the worst possible, something none of them knew enough to make sense of. Neferti’s magitech eye was powered by a crystal, of course. And naturally-occurring crystals came from the ocean, manifestations of its mana. Spending so much time with the ocean’s mana in her very skull… That final blast from Bartholomew had warped her. Her body moved strangely, twisting and shaking in impossible ways. Octopus tentacles came from her eye sockets, covering much of her head and body. Her sword had fused to her arm, becoming a horrible mix of steel and bone.

Neferti was dead, and her body had been mutated into a monster.

The monster that was once Neferti attacked Sara, who could only escape by flying. But it wasn’t enough, and Ariel had to jump in to fight. The monster lacked Neferti’s refined swordsmanship, but her strength was stronger than ever, and Ariel was pushed back. It seemed like nothing would help- The Neferti-monster would kill them all… When the only thing that could possibly save her appeared: A god descended.

Isate, the patron god of Chetes, the god of magic and chaos. Known as a jolly, carefree, whimsical type, but he had all the power one would expect of the god of magic. If anyone could save Neferti, it would be him… Except the first thing he did was simply wave a hand, and countless spears shot forth to kill the monster instantly.

Ariel saw what was about to happen, and did the only thing she could think of: She, who had been devoted to the gods all her life, jumped in the way, fully intending to fight off both Isate and the monster Neferti at the same time. Sara healed Neferti’s wounds that Ariel could not block, and even Feng, who had no fighting abilities, pointed a pocketknife at Isate. The three argued that Isate couldn’t kill her, because she wasn’t a monster- She was Neferti. Socially awkward and clumsy, but with a pure heart. A knight stronger than anyone, who wished only to protect others. And, Feng argued, if Isate was truly a god worth worshiping, then shouldn’t he be able to save this one person?

What tipped the scales in the end was Ariel, however, confessing that she was in love with Neferti. Flaws and strengths, good and bad, she had fallen hard for her fellow knight. Though she aimed her words at the monster, hoping to awaken Neferti’s soul in the monster, instead she awoke a compassion in Isate instead. And so he did the unthinkable: He plucked out his own eye. With a grand display of magic that cowed all present, the monstrous features of Neferti vanished as the ocean’s power was purged from her, restoring her to normal, and to finally finish it, he roughly implanted his own eye into Neferti’s empty socket.

It was a miracle. It took the sacrifice of an eye of a god, and the love and friendship of those who she had touched. It was something impossible, and something that could never be repeated. But this once, it worked. Neferti was saved and restored to life.

But, though she had defeated the cult (or rather been the cause of its self-destruction), things were not safe. The Ocean God had begun to stir in earnest, and Neferti, having seen Dome Righad and been granted the eye of a god, couldn’t simply leave things be. Almost as soon as she had woken up again, she confronted Isate over what she had learned in the ocean.

Isate evaded, and gives her the runaround for a while, never really answering. He instead sent her on quests… Extremely pointless quests. He told her he would answer everything once she had done enough of them, and that these quests were of the utmost importance. Except, of course, the quests were things like entertaining a child, or bringing a lost child back to their mother, or talking to a sad person for a while. Neferti didn’t see the point. It was Ariel who pointed it out to her (or rather, had to get the point through Neferti’s thick skull). Neferti had been helping all those people. Those people had been troubled, but Neferti had been helping. Neferti had connected, empathized with them, and made a positive improvement on their lives… Even if it wasn’t relevant, she’d done something good.

Neferti confronted Isate over this. She wanted answers. What exactly was his plan? She wanted to help defeat the god of the ocean, since his power was creating monsters, not that she had any memory of her own time as one. His cult was plotting something against the cities, and though the cult was scattered, it didn’t seem likely they were ended. Especially given that they were preaching that Isate himself was merely a usurper.

Naturally, Isate decided to take her group to a cutesry room full of children’s toys. Angered upon being made light of once again, Neferti began to voice her displeasure, but Isate interrupted her- This room was a shrine to the children who perished in the fall of Righad. He had saved what he could from the ocean, and it was all he could do for them.

Isate began to tell his story. That the Ocean God created everything. Being lonely, he created people. But unable to manage the world and its people, he created the gods to help him manage various tasks. Justice and order, chaos and magic, wind and fortune, strength and strife. Unlike the true god, they were essentially golems created from the purest and most powerful magic crystals, given an endless and boundless power by that god. And, for a golden age, the world was at peace and filled with happiness… But in the end, that god slowly changed. Once, he ruled justly. Then, he grew distant. Finally, he became cruel. Those gods who had been created to love him as his companions and fellow gods became nothing more than targets for him to do unspeakable cruelties to, simply because he could.

This was a great shock to all present, of course. Sara couldn’t believe the god she worshiped was something so pettily cruel. Ariel couldn’t believe the gods she worshiped weren’t truly gods. Neferti was stunned by the fact that the gods had someone so much more powerful than even them. (Feng was fine. Feng never really cared about the gods to begin with.)

The gods kept the Ocean God sealed with their power, but their rebellion had cost each of them dearly. And sealing was all they could do. The gods could not harm the one who had created them- It was directly against their nature. They could, perhaps, empower a mortal, but it would take all of them, and none of them would agree to. They were all hurt too much by their last rebellion… And frankly, it was hopeless. A mortal, even empowered by the gods, defeating the Ocean God was a slim chance at best. And to even attempt it, the gods would have to release the seal on the Ocean God, meaning a failure was guaranteeing the end of the world. The seal wouldn’t last forever- Maybe even only a few hundred more years. Maybe even less. But it would at least let the world carry on for just a bit longer. The lives of the children who existed now wouldn’t be cut short.

Neferti argued that that was a cowardly excuse. The argument went back and forth, Isate dodging and evading, because he didn’t want to think about all that had happened, and the chance of failure. (It was at this point that Isate revealed Ariel’s feelings towards Neferti to her, but Neferti remained completely oblivious anyway.) But what finally convinced Isate was pointing out that this was just deferring the problem. He had a chance to save everyone, but waiting was to guarantee the doom of the children in the future, when the seal inevitably broke.

Isate agreed, but that wasn’t enough. His power alone wouldn’t be enough. She’d have to convince all of the gods to help. And so she departed to convince the four gods to help her, to give her the power to defeat the Ocean God.

But the gods weren’t convinced. They wouldn’t take Neferti at her word, and as she traveled to meet each of them, she had to complete a trial to convince them. The problem was, they none of them believed it possible, so these trials were to be impossible.

Canglong, the god of warfare and strength, proposed the simplest trial: That of combat. If she were not strong enough to defeat him, then of course, defeating the Ocean God would be impossible. But defeating a god was impossible anyway, and Neferti was summarily beaten. Canglong told her that she could challenge him as many times as she wished, but the result wouldn’t change: The other gods would never help, anyway, and he would not partake in a battle with no chance of victory. The other gods had been too hurt by their last battle, so he would defeat the Ocean God by himself.

Feng gave her the key to this. She couldn’t win by herself, but she wasn’t by herself. When she challenged Canglong next, the others helped. Feng watched and analyzed, Ariel and Neferti used pronged pincer attacks to keep him off-balance, and Sara kept the others going with her healing magic. Of course, he was the god of warfare, so even this didn’t help in the end- He targeted Sara first, and the entire formation crumbled. But even so, they had made their point- He wouldn’t be able to do anything alone. He gave his blessing to their plan, and to Neferti, he granted his own sword- A sword of steel and crystal, of strength and strife, of the power that presided over the Body.

Metoth, the goddess of wisdom, order, and justice, was a trial of a different sort. They simply had to convince her with logic, why it would be a worthwhile risk to take. She was, after all, the goddess of order. She could not take such a huge risk for something with barely any chance of success. Her duty was to the people currently alive. Feelings and hopes did not enter into it. Their attempts to convince her, based on feelings, could not reach, and they left to reconsider their approach.

A strange man approached them as they left, telling them of an old, abandoned shrine that might be relevant. (He was Canglong in a lesser guise, but they didn’t know that.) It was ancient, flying in a strange place, hidden under the city where it couldn’t be seen from above. It was a strange shrine, something no mortal would recognize- A tomb. (In this world, the dead were cremated, and their ashes scattered into the ocean.)

As they explored the tomb, they discovered a story written on the walls. Some in pictures, some in words, but they all told a tale, one similar to the one told by Isate. The Ocean God who ruled the world with justice and wisdom, and created Metoth to rule over these very virtues. But as the god changed, order and justice became at odds. To obey the Ocean God was order, it was the correct way of things, but it caused great harm to her siblings, and to her people. And she, who loved their ‘father’, she could not even think of turning against him.

In the end, Metoth did the only thing she could: In order to continue her functions, she tore out a piece of herself. As a machine, she was broken, and so she broke off her heart. Her heart, her emotions, were thus sealed away, and she became the absolutely impartial arbiter of justice and order.

It was then they entered into the deepest room of the tomb, where a broken, childlike incarnation of Metoth awaited them. Cracked, missing pieces, splitting apart, but still caring, it was Metoth’s heart. She explained the rest of the story: That the Ocean God intended to unmake the world. It wasn’t that he hated it, but simply that he was a child who had grown bored of his toy. He became cruel out of boredom. He had exhausted all the possibilities of the world, so he was getting rid of it, not caring about what happened to those on it.

The main Metoth appeared at this point, sensing the seal on her heart being disturbed. At this point, Neferti went off in anger at her. Justice without a heart was not justice, and order that didn’t care for the people in it wasn’t order. She herself could not repudiate Metoth’s methods, as she herself had made the same mistake of ignoring her emotions to do her duty after she was framed. Emotions were a source of pain, so it was understandable to push them away. But Ariel had shown her that way of thinking was mistaken. A wise and just goddess should not have made that same mistake. Wisdom is knowing when to take a risk, because without that risk, there would be no future.

As if in response to her words, Metoth’s heart leaped into her body, reforming into a complete being. Metoth was not entirely convinced still… But she would accept the strength of Neferti’s convictions. She would help with their plan. And to prove it, she granted Neferti her own sword, a blade made of the same substance as Isate’s eye- the crystal gods were made of.

All that remained was Mahvata, but she would prove to be the greatest difficulty of all. Mahvata was reclusive, even among the gods, as whimsical as Isate. Mahvata, after all, was the goddess of wind and fortune. She went where she pleased, and if she didn’t wish to, she would never appear.

It took some time to even get Mahvata to show up. The only way they finally succeeded was to pray for her help with the ultimate gamble… But, unfortunately, just making her appear wasn’t enough. She didn’t want to be involved, it wasn’t her problem. Even if the Ocean God unmade the world, even without magic or justice or strife, fortune was always present. She wasn’t going to be responsible for anything like that.

Sara was completely furious, stepping up to unleash her anger for the first time since she had become a part of the group. A goddess who wouldn’t take responsibility was the worst. Even she, a mortal, was trying to take responsibility for the harm she had caused in worshiping the Ocean God, and was trying to fix it. If her seal was failing, it was her duty to take responsibility. She should learn from Neferti, Sara argued, since Neferti was absurd and tried to be responsible for everything. If a mortal could try to carry the weight of the world on her shoulders, why couldn’t a goddess take responsibility to try to save things with her power?

The argument eventually came down to a coin flip. Considering the opponent was the goddess of luck and wind, the odds of it coming down right were, of course, nonexistent. Even so, once the coin was called, Neferti decided to take matters into her own hands- As the coin flipped through the air, she used her ice magic, freezing it inside a pillar of ice, with her side facing up.

It was a cheat, of course, and Mahvata refused to accept it. That wasn’t fortune, and if they didn’t need fortune, why would they seek her help? The irresponsible goddess refused to listen, but gave the only compromise she would: She would help if she felt like it. Fortune doesn’t favor anyone, but if she wished to, she would grant her blessing. That was all there was to it.

Finally, they returned to Chetes, and as they took a few days to prepare themselves, Ariel finally worked up the nerve to confess to Neferti again, this time while she wasn’t a monster. (Neferti was dense enough that this confession took some doing.) But knowing that the end of the world could be coming, Ariel didn’t want to leave regrets if the worst came to it, and Neferti pledged her blade to protect her. It was very sappy and sweet.

But they couldn’t wait to prepare. After a few days, Isate appeared before them, descending just long enough for his head to explode. The seal was broken. The Ocean God appeared, and the world began to fade out.

With her blessings from the gods, Neferti was able to survive, and even fight against him. Her sword, Metoth’s crystal sword, was able to do damage, but it was undone immediately. Any attack Neferti took was regenerated by the power of Isate’s eye as she took attacks strong enough to flay her flesh from her bones or burn her in the heart of a star or crush her with the ocean’s depths.

The world faded, and time faded with it, leaving a battle that may have taken seconds, or centuries. Space and time were twisted at the god’s will, and yet she struck through it all. And when the god struck directly at her soul, attempting to twist and unmake her, Ariel saved her- Her oath to protect Ariel, placed on the sword of gods, had saved her, and Ariel became Neferti’s shield, protecting her soul and striking back.

Her other companions followed. In a place removed from space and time, where nothing should exist, Neferti’s bonds allowed others to come to her aid. Feng drove a knife through the Ocean God’s hands, Sara threw him into the air, and even those masses she had helped in her duties, or those Isate had sent her to befriend, pinned the Ocean God in place. It was impossible, and could only last an instant… But an instant could be eternity in a place without time. Even as he strove to unmake them, Neferti’s sword cleaved through his heart.

Without the Ocean God, the world should have remained gone. But through a one-in-a-million chance, or the influence of Mahvata, the wisdom of Metoth, Canglong’s tactics, or even Isate’s whims, she had an idea. She took Canglong’s sword, and thrust it through the body of the god. Canglong was the god who presided over the body. And with that, the god’s ‘body’ was enabled to remain, to become the ocean once more, to become the world around which the cities flew.

Isate returned as well (He was a god, so he was fine even with the minor headsplosion incident. The eye he gave to Neferti remained gone, though.), and with the power of the gods, the world was restored to just as it had been. And though Neferti had intended to simply lay low and return to her normal duties, Isate publicly revealed her status as a hero and the deeds she had done, ensuring she would not get the quiet she had wanted. Still, it was a happy ending.

CANON PERSONALITY: To describe Neferti in a word, she is laser-focused. When she sets her sight on a goal, she will devote 100% of herself to achieving that goal, letting everything else fall by the wayside, ignoring anything irrelevant. This causes a lot of problems. It seemed to work out at first, as setting out to become a strong knight let her become absurdly powerful. But she never thought about problems that couldn’t be solved by being incredibly overpowered, and this led to her downfall when she was framed and had no one willing to vouch for her.

Serious to a fault, she has little time for frivolity or fun, and if you were to ask her for her hobbies, it would be training. Her sense of humor is… Well, she has one, but it takes a lot of time before she’s comfortable enough with someone to let loose and make a few small jokes.

She’s very uncomfortable around people in general, really. She’s not social, and is at her happiest in quiet situations where she can meditate or relax. Which isn’t to say she dislikes people, she’s just something of an introvert! She dislikes being the center of attention, and would rather simply do her job. However, she has since gotten over that somewhat, and is much more willing to socialize and be known and empathize with others! Isate’s trial and her friendship with her party hammered into her head just how important it is, so now she makes a much greater effort to be social and talk to people and help them with problems, not just as a knight.

She strives to be an ideal knight, who will protect the people, someone who will be undefeatable. And in her mind, the image of the ideal knight, who upholds the code of chivalry, is her grandfather. She has a rather intense hero worship towards him, and one of the things that will drive her to an instant fury is to insult him or question his honor. But she wishes to live up to his name and carry on his honor, as his family, so she strives to be just like him. As a result, she always acts with honor and chivalry. She would rather die than sully her honor, because to lose her honor and break her code of chivalry would be destroying her dream, which would hurt more than death. She strives to act in a way he would be proud of at all times, and that is her guiding principle most of the time. It extends past simple knightly behaviors- She has even adopted his speech patterns, ending up sounding very old-fashioned and strange. While she has developed enough to try to become her own knight, and not just blindly mimicking him, she still does view him as the ideal she strives for.

But partially in part due to her desire to be a perfect knight, Neferti has a need to be strong. Not necessarily in control, but she hates feeling vulnerable. This made connecting with people even harder, and she has had to accept it as a fact of life that she will have to be vulnerable sometimes. However, showing any vulnerability is a sign of immense trust and personal connection from her. She’s prone to trying to play these moments of vulnerability off with acting prickly, in order to keep some measure of control and strength. This means she can come off as somewhat tsundere, though it’s not quite accurate.

As a side-effect of her single-minded nature, she’s rather… well, oblivious. She’s very straightforward, but this gives her difficulty in dealing with situations she didn’t expect. She’s extremely bad with hints and suggestions, working best when someone is frank with her- She’s as dense in terms of emotions as she is dense physically. Flirting is a guaranteed failure, considering she doesn’t generally think of romance at all, and it took multiple outright confessions to get her to actually understand what was going on. This oblivious nature can lead to her accidentally saying some rather cruel things without thinking, as well, such as dismissing someone’s feelings as a joke or plainly stating someone’s flaws in a rather harsh way when she’s trying to be encouraging.

As a result of her pride and her hatred of vulnerability, she has a tendency to try to do everything herself. She dislikes having to rely on others, or rather causing problems for them, never satisfied with her own strength unless she is able to do everything herself. It's a sort of a “I should be the only one who has to handle unpleasant things" mentality. Though this is only her core nature, and after her time with Canglong, she has since gotten better, more willing to rely on others, and even ask for help when needed. It is still difficult, though.

Another issue she attempts to overcome is her tendency to push aside her own emotions when things get tough. She internalizes all her problems and refuses to acknowledge her emotions- When she was framed, she didn't acknowledge the hurt, instead bottling it up and thinking it was because she simply wasn't good enough. She will kill her own feelings to be a better knight. But this is a problem that feeds into her trouble with connecting with others, so she is trying to overcome this as well. Even so, while she isn't outright suppressing her own feelings anymore, she does still have a lot of trouble expressing them, and is still prone to bottling them up if she thinks it would cause problems for others.

SKILLS/ABILITIES:
Neferti is extremely strong in terms of combat! To put it in RPG terms, she levelgrinded all the way up to level 99… at the cost of never learning other important skills. Like how to talk to people. As a result, she is an extremely strong combatant, able to fight giant deadly monsters or capture criminals with incredible ease, and is one of the strongest in the world in her verse. Shonen anime power levels… As long as it doesn’t require, like, puzzle-solving or socializing. She is essentially an inversion of the normal shonen series formula- Rather than starting out with the power of friendship and having to gain strength, she starts out crazy strong, but has to figure out how to make friends and connect with people before she can save anything.

(As a note, her verse operates on video game/anime logic where anyone can become absurdly strong through training. Though Neferti weighs roughly five hundred pounds, there are those who could lift her easily, or throw her across the room while fighting. It’s just that kind of setting.)

MAGIC: As a magic knight, Neferti is capable of a lot of magic! Though as a Bast her magical abilities are less than any human of equivalent training, the sheer effort and amount of work she’s put in has raised her magic to an incredible level regardless. She uses ice and lightning magic, mostly, and has some limited healing, but she’s got little ability for any other kinds. But she’s able to combine them in interesting ways! Giant glaciers that spit lightning to block a path or electric swords that can fly out and freeze things, or just pelting someone with hail.

SWORDSMANSHIP: Being trained by a legendary hero as her grandfather, not to mention having no shortage of innate talent, she is one of the most skilled sword fighters in the world. (She uses Germanic fencing styles, which teaches the use of the whole sword as a weapon- Gripping the sword by the blade to stabilize a thrust, or to use the hilt and pommel as a hammer to crush scales or armor.) Her speed, skill, reflexes, everything when it comes to swordsmanship is absolutely top of the line.

SWEET-ASS FANTASY BIKE: She gets around by magic motorcycle, and is accustomed to getting to places as fast as possible with it, so she’s skilled at chases or combat while mounted.

MAGIC EYE: Having replaced her eye, initially, it had no vision, but instead allowed her to visualize the flow of magic, so she could track beings of magic like ocean creatures, and provided a way to fight magic-users by seeing how the magic flowed in their bodies. Since having had a god replace her eye with his own, the eye is now capable of the above, along with providing vision, and acts as a battery to allow her to use incredible magics and protected her from the ocean god’s powers. (This did expend most of the eye’s power, however, leaving her with simply the vision and magic sight and a still incredibly powerful but much more limited mana battery. It cannot be recharged once used up, due to where it came from.)

ENHANCED PHYSICAL STRENGTH AND STAMINA/BODY DENSITY: Due to being a Bast, her skeletal and muscular structure is much denser than a human’s. As a result, despite being of average height and a toned build, she weighs somewhere in the vicinity of 500 pounds. This has several repercussions, but the biggest and most obvious is that she is very physically strong and durable. Her arms and legs are covered in fur, and her fingertips are clawed. As well, she has cat ears, and a tail for enhanced hearing and balance. (As tradeoffs, she is completely unable to swim due to that density, and has to eat a lot more than a human would. Also, her ability with magic is less than a human with comparable skill level. Perhaps oddly, clawed fingers do not actually hamper her dexterity. Also it’s not an ability, but her palm, fingertips, and toes all have pads like cat feet. It’s very cute.)