Endless Path : Infinite Cosmos

Chapter 2231: The Price of Progress

Chapter 2231: The Price of Progress

Following her fateful encounter with the young slave, a human girl named Shelly, Shion went on to become a symbol of fear, resistance, and liberation within the Kingdom of Roma.

Thirteen years staked to a cross had given Shion a lot of time to think about the mistakes she had made in the past. Thus, rather than trying to oppose the Holy Church openly or in an above-board manner, she used her shapechanging ability to blend into normal society. She became a phantom that hunted down people known to mistreat their slaves before eventually going on to kill any and all people who regarded others as property.

Near the beginning of her second journey, Shion made sure to avoid attaching herself to any person or place for a prolonged period of time. She had grown tired of losing people, so, for the better part of ten years, she traveled purposefully throughout the world she had penned to paper in her previous life. Her goal was to learn as much as she could about the world while simultaneously increasing her strength to the point that none could stand against her.

Though the Holy Church hunted her and resorted to despicable tactics such as burning an entire village filled with liberated slaves, the one thing Shion's suffering had taught her was patience. She only took action when she was absolutely certain she would be able to kill her enemies. As a result, the Holy Church gradually lost its influence as the upper echelons of the clergy invariably retreated to the Capital City, Alamas, for their protection.

By burning down churches and slaughtering slave owners, Shion quickly garnered herself a massive cult following. Some attempted to blame her for the misery they were forced to endure as a result of her 'rebellion', but, having long since given up the path to becoming a Hero, Shion burned them along with the rest.

Without any attachments, there was nothing Shion's enemies could use as leverage to restrict her actions or put pressure on her. She wasn't like the Demons who had territory and people to protect. She was a singular, untraceable entity that skulked around the three continents like a phantom. The only reason people even knew she was the one wreaking havoc was because she would always burn her victims from the inside out.

For years and years, Shion butchered and burned tens of thousands of people. Whenever she ran out of one demographic to slaughter, she would move on to the next most corrupt group. When she finally extended her hand to various merchant associations, the already struggling economy completely collapsed. This ended up being the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back, as, in response to her actions, both the Kingdom and the Holy Church had been increasing taxes in an effort to expand their forces and shore up the defenses of the Capital.

In the end, it wasn't Shion that overthrew the Kingdom and laid waste to the Holy Church. It was the people they had suppressed, exploited, and overworked to the point they had no choice but to retaliate.

Unlike the Civil War that had started as a result of Roland's actions, the second lasted a mere six months before the Royal Family and the Archbishop were dragged out of their homes and executed in public. It was at that moment that Shion finally decided to step out of the darkness and into the light.

Instead of attempting to rule over the Kingdom herself, Shion nominated the leader of a family of Knights that had never stopped supporting the people. The man she had chosen hated her to the core, but, understanding the importance of having someone to guide them, he willingly accepted Shion's nomination before appointing her as history's first court-appointed Witch.

Taking advantage of her status and the notoriety she had garnered as a result of her one-woman crusade, Shion established an administrative organization known as the Witch's Court. She allowed the newly appointed King free rein when it came to passing legislation and collecting taxes but the authority of law fell into the hands of the Witch's Court. They became the Judge, Jury, and, in many cases, the Executioners enforcing the Rule of Law throughout the Kingdom.

Though many directly compared her to the Archbishop due to her recruitment of young women with innate magical talent, Shion knew better than anyone how different her actions were from the monster that had purported himself a vessel of the Gods. She didn't subject the girls she recruited to years of mental, physical, and sexual abuse. Instead, she embedded them with a genuine sense of purpose while empowering them with the knowledge and skill necessary to carry out their duty as fair and objectively as possible.

For decades following the establishment of the Witch's Court, a tentative peace reigned over the relatively young Ashbourne Kingdom. Many even began to view Shion as a genuine Saintess, but, as someone who had born the title in the past, she vehemently refused to carry it. Instead, people across the world of Gisele came to know her as the Phoenix Witch. Her actions had resulted in one Kingdom burning to the ground, but, in its place, a far more prosperous Kingdom had taken shape.

Unfortunately, as was often the case when it came to humans and politics, it only took two and a half generations before corruption had, once again, taken root in the Kingdom. Merchants readily took advantage of the vacuum of power that had appeared in the wake of countless noble families being completely annihilated. They bought up land, paid impoverished farms to rejuvenate it, and cut deals with the Royal Family to become a new generation of aristocrats.

Despite her best efforts, Shion was unable to prevent the younger members of her court from being swayed by promises of wealth and a life of luxury. By guaranteeing young witches a certain degree of freedom and independence, she ended up creating a situation that allowed them to be exploited by those seeking to curry favor with future Adjudicators.

With many young Witches hailing from extremely impoverished families, it didn't take a lot of effort for wealthy and charismatic merchants to take advantage of their naivete to woo them. Becoming a Princess or a Noblewoman was the dream of countless young girls. As a result, it wasn't long before the less magically inclined began seeking better prospects outside the Witch's Court.

After a while, even Shion's immortality became a problem as the sentiment that she was preventing the Kingdom from prospering began to spread far and wide. People instinctually feared things they couldn't understand, so, shortly after the Ashbourne Kingdom had coronated its third King, people began pressuring her to step down from her position as Supreme Justice of the Witch's Court.

Having lived well over a hundred years at that point, Shion only put up a middling resistance in the face of her deposition. She had long harbored the desire to travel and had already created a home for herself near the heart of a mountain range roamed by dragons. Thus, after a five-year selection process, she ended up passing her title to one of her many apprentices before starting her journey with a new name and face.

For decades following her 'retirement', Shion daylighted as an Adventurer while night lighting as a vigilante. Some suspected her of being the recently disappeared Phoenix Witch, but, as she never made use of her flames, she eventually made a name for herself as an SSS-Rank Adventurer known as the White Snake Princess.

During her career as the White Snake Princess, Shion crossed paths with several rising and many, already corrupt Nobles. She even had a few run-ins with members of the Witch's Court, but, due to her intimate knowledge of the legal system, her ability to change form, and her constant relocating, none of the crimes she was accused of ever stuck.

Though she could see the Kingdom was on a slow and gradual descent towards despotism, Shion eventually retired from her life as an Adventurer when the 3rd Prince began propositioning her to become his bride. Shion had no interest in marrying someone who was clearly looking to stage a coup, so, shortly after the man sent his Knights to try and 'persuade' her, Shion ventured into one of the most dangerous Dungeons on the Continent before simply disappearing.

While many of her more distant memories had faded with the passage of time, Shion could vividly recall the days she spent living in the mountains. Isolation, at least in her case, was like medicine for the soul. She enjoyed the serenity of the mountain basin and even managed to make friends with a few of the surrounding tribes of dragons. Their elders were far more knowledgeable than even the wisest human Sage, so, for the better part of a hundred years, Shion exchanged knowledge with the dragons while enjoying the relative peace and quiet of the mountains.

Had things continued in such a way, Shion may have never left the mountains. Unfortunately, two of the most prominent features of humanity were their tenacity and their pursuit of progress. While other races would maintain their way of life for hundreds, if not thousands of years, humans never stopped pushing the limits of technological advancement.

Though the Holy Church had been irredeemably corrupt, the one thing it had managed to achieve was preventing humans from developing too quickly. Without some kind of 'divine oversight', there was nothing to inhibit humanity's rate of progress during times of peace. As a result, the Ashbourne Kingdom developed from a relatively backward medieval kingdom to a reasonably advanced nation on the cusp of an industrial and magical revolution.

With every notable human civilization being built upon a foundation of conquest, it wasn't long before humanity's desire for progress extended far beyond their borders. Tensions between the various races continued to build until the more conservative races, specifically the Elves and the various Dragon tribes, began to threaten war if humans continued to expand into their territory.

Undaunted by the threat of war, a number of organizations purporting the human race's inherent superiority over other races began to develop. They viewed the 'inability' of other races to compete with them in terms of scientific progress as undeniable proof that humans were the destined rulers of Gisele. When the Dragons and Elves invariably retaliated, the various supremacist groups painted them as savages who wanted to prevent humanity from reaching its full potential. Thus, just as they had during the war against the Demons, humanity vilified every other race in an effort to justify the innumerable atrocities they subsequently committed. Shortly after that, humanity branded their first slave in more than a hundred and fifty years, a young elven girl who went on to become a sex slave pandering to high-profile businessmen.

When Shion first learned of the events transpiring outside of the mountain, a part of her refused to believe it. She knew that human nature compelled them to repeat the same mistakes over and over again, but, after dedicating more than fifty years of her life towards abolishing slavery, she couldn't fathom how it could simply take root without the general populace caring. Sure, it might start with other races, but, once slavery had become an institution, it was bound to expand to humans.

Using her ability to alter her appearance, Shion, for the first time in more than a hundred years, entered into human society. The changes they had made during her absence were startling, but, as someone that had reincarnated from a relatively 'modern' world, she wasn't too surprised. After all, lightning magic was actually one of the very first magic bestowed upon humanity by the Gods, so, as strange as it was to see power lines in a 'fantasy' world, Shion quickly got used to it.

What Shion couldn't accept was seeing a wealthy-looking man in a top hat and monocle walking around with a scantily clad elven girl on a literal leash. When she confronted him about it, the man looked at her as if she were trash before threatening to report her to the police if she didn't cease harassing him. That night, Shion entered into the man's mansion, strung him up over the entryway, and burned him from the inside out…

When news outlets learned about what Shion had done, the front page of the newspaper read: An Ancient Calling Card: Return of the Witch of Chaos?

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(A/N: Alternate Titles: 'Some lessons stick with you longer than others…','Human Nature…','History is written by the winners…')