The Cursed Huntress and the Guardian Sham
This is an AU story where Icening has to deal with not only the disappearance of her loved one, but her elimination - the story of the Huntress cursed by Fatalis and the False Guardian who tried everything to save her.
Clara and Icening met during New World events and, well, it wasn't the true love at first. Clara was a young but hardworking huntress while Icening was basically the opposite: erratic and disobedient. Because of that, Icening did not hesitate to put Clara into dangerous situation and to let her manage alone, as a way to test her limits - to test her, overall. Icening hated Clara's blind allegiance for the Guild and, paradoxically, she was a bit jealous of her, as she was perceived as a misfit, almost a mistake by most of her peers.
Icening regretted it later. Her awful behavior and her actions. She regretted a lot of things she did back in the New World but above all, she regretted not to be able to ask forgiveness and to make up for her mistakes. She however got the chance to do it with Clara, several years after the New World, as they were both assigned to the Forbidden Lands expedition.
At the beginning, they barely recognized each other as they both changed a lot, especially Icening - the way she was, her perspective of things. She was absolutely different from the person Clara knew: collected, quiet and, the most surprising thing, careful about her mates. Clara surprised Icening to protect her from multiple monsters offensives. If she first thought it was her way to catch up with her past mistakes, she noticed that she was doing it naturally, without asking something in return. She was doing it on purpose.
Clara discovered a new Icening. She learned to know her, to know what she went through, to understand why she acted like she did back in the New World, even if it did not forgive everything.
Icening asked her forgiveness at multiple times. That's all she did. However, they started to hunt more often together. Then, they started to spend some time together. Eventually, they started to get closer. Very closer.
Their relation was a bit chaotic though, for different reasons. It was sometimes confusing to know if they were together or not, even for them. Clara was the kind of person unable to stay still. Always seeking for adventure. Sometimes forgetting about what mattered, focused on hunts. On her side, Icening changed a lot but she's never been someone very talkative, someone capable to communicate easily. She's always been a woman of acts, of demonstration. Her way to show her love was to look out for Clara, to protect her during hunts and, when they had the opportunity to get spare time, to be close to her.
It's how Icening discovered something weird on her, during a night. Something that was pulsing on her neck, a kind of purple energy under her skin.
It happened to be a fragment of Fatalis, a scale that hit her and got stuck in her skin during the battle against it. A scale that her body assimilated. A simple, little fragment that allowed Fatalis' consciousness to survive and, progressively, to develop, to grow up. Ultimately, it managed to take control of Clara in her more vulnerable moments. It lasted few seconds but it was enough for Icening and Clara's friends to understand that something was wrong.
In the meantime, Icening got badly injured by the Guardian Arkveld. She discovered that, because of the residual energy contained in her scar, she was able to interact with the energy of Wyveria and use it; something she tried not to do but she had no choice but to use later, when she discovered that it could prevent the Fatalis to take control over Clara, as if the energy of Wyveria was able to repel it, to create a kind of barrier between Fatalis and Clara's minds.
Fatalis influence unfortunately didn't stop to grow and the events that were occurring in the Forbidden Lands - new monsters, new threats - didn't help. Icening was able to repel it occasionally but the more she used energy of Wyveria, the more she felt that her body wasn't made for carrying such energy, and the more she got weakened. Fatalis became a threat to such an extend that the Guild started to make provisions against it and therefore against Clara. Progressively, she started to physically and mentally morph and, because Icening used too much energy of Wyveria to contain the Fatalis, she also started to get physically affected.
Icening tried to overtake her human limits to protect her but it became an evidence that it was too late. Clara's mind was already too corrupted, too altered.
(Art by @Senbiki0kam1, Clara's player!)
They had to put an end to this.
As you can guess, that story didn't end happily. The Guild, including Clara's relatives, friends and of course Icening, had to engage into a tough and heartbreaking battle against their former ally. Icening and Clara's best friend Jericho tried to find her somewhere inside the monster but ultimately, they had no choice but to act: to stop all of their suffering, and to say goodbye to Clara for good.
After this event, I like to imagine that Icening stopped any activity related to the Guild and found a place to disappear for a while - probably years. I wouldn't be surprised if she decided to cut off contact with everyone from her past life and tried to restart a life elsewhere, maybe under a new name.
Okay, if you read until the end... Thank you, I hope you liked! And to end on a positive note, yeah don't worry, there's a world where Clara managed to control the Fatalis within her and where Icening and her can live happily :3
