Starchaser: Beyond

Idea sparked from: Mayhem, The Unbeatable Demon

"It's over, Star Lily!" The Dark Queen Melrondia gloated.

Star Lily's raiment had been shattered, she was back as an ordinary human, as Ingrid Blair, still standing defiantly. Star Rose, Star Juniper and Star Tulip were still groggy but their raiments held.

She needed to buy them time.

"Pathetic" she deadpanned, wiping her lip with her thumb. "Knocked my socks off but not me."

With an angered shout, Melrondia fired a Crimson Lance. Without any protection, she grabbed the glowing projectile with her bare hand, the sheer impact and the lack of shoes for traction sent her sliding several feet backwards but she remained standing upgright. The Crimson Lance crackled and sizzled before Ingrid crushed it's energy core and it dissipated.

"Heh, That tickled, Queenie, got anymore tricks?" She raised her other arm and wagged her fingers inwardly, tauntingly at the Dark Queen.

Her fellow Starchasers yelled in unison "Lily, no!" Half at seeing her injured hand she now hid behind her back to the Dark Queen, and half because without her Starchaser Raiment protecting and enhancing her, she was powerless.

"You will DIE for this, Star Lily!" Melrondia screamed.

Ingrid took one last look at her friends.

"Smell ya later, losers."

Using the last of her Aura, Ingrid transformed again.

When she first was offered this power, Ingrid thought it was going to be like her guilty pleasure Magical Girl trope where it took five minutes of ballet and transformation. In reality it was very fast, almost instantaneous.

But not fast enough, Ingrid thought to herself. Already the Dark Queen Melrondia put all her power into her Annihilator Smasher, a colossal beam that threatened to swallow up her and the rest of the Starchaser Girls and a huge chunk of the city behind them. Moving faster than light, the beam made contact just as Ingrid was completely exposed, her core unshielded, her raiment barely having time to reform and wrap her in it's protection.

Star Lily's Core shattered then vaporized, leaving nothing left.

...and the beam imploded, creating a localized black hole that sucked in Melrondia.

All that remained of Ingrid Blair, of Star Lily, was an unraveled bow tie.

With shaking hands, Star Rose picked up her friend's symbolic gesture of laying down her life and let out a heart-rending wail.

***

The Dark Queen Melrondia had attempted to use her Teleport to get her out of range of the localized black hole's event horizon, which if wasn't absurd enough had been redirected towards her. But she felt a hand clamp on her arm.

It was Star Lily's.

Her body was gone but her soul had taken form, mimicking her previous appearance. With wide glowing eyes full of murderous glee, the fallen Starchaser pulled her into the unknown portal with unstoppable force.

How long they kept falling nobody knew, but Star Lily kept a grip on the would-be conqueror of Earth and viciously rained punches and headbutts for as long as her soul kept burning. Star Lily didn't know when Melrondia was finally lifeless so she kept going and going. Melrondia had dealt her a fatal blow and Star Lily was going to make sure she went down with her.

And at the last punch, Ingrid realized she had punched the ground.

***

How did I end up here? She thought to herself.

Standing up and examining herself she must have subconsciously fell into the ocean and dragged herself out of the water.

She pinched herself, first on the cheek. No way... she thought. She pinched and pinched. This is a flesh and blood body, no longer just a soul silhouette. She could feel the wind and water droplets around her.

And she could feel her Aura washing all over her as if her Raiment was on.

Oops, I better power down. Ingrid thought. Release! Umm... release? Something wasn't right, she can't keep this on, or she'll run out Mana when she needs it.

"Release!" She said, verbally this time, she even struck various poses she associated with undoing one's Power Up but nothing was happening...

Release! Release! Release!

Nope... not working.

What if... Power Up!

The sand and water around her were violently pushed away, this was the feeling if she had transformed but on a much higher level... what was going on? Was her "default" Ingrid self now scaled up to Star Lily?

Ingrid willed her Aura to Shroud itself around her, and with that she now walked back to the relatively calm water to look at herself.

Ohhhhh God, she thought to herself. I've actually turned into those Super Zillians from that anime.

***

Further inland, two boys were running as fast as their legs could muster.

"Idiot! You didn't know they could run THAT fast!"

"Shut up and keep running!" the other said, threatening to break into tears.

The massive Tusk Boar was bearing down on them, squealing furiously, the two boys let out terrified screams when suddenly something leapt right at them.

***

Ingrid leapt at the gigantic wild boar, as she sailed through the air she twisted her body around. Time seemed to slow for her as she positioned herself to deliver a vicious axe kick, striking the top of the boar's skull, the sudden downward force pinning it down and nullifying all forward momentum.

***

The boys yelled and cried in relief as the fearsome beast was brought down.

"Umm... this is going to be awkward, but who or what are you guys?" it said in a girl's voice.

"W-were Kobolds! Please don't eat us!"

"No, I'm not going to eat you, I'm just ummm..." the strange creature said, choosing its words carefully. "I'm just an ordinary fairy passing by."

"Thank you! Thank you miss fairy!" the two rushed over for a hug as they cried in relief.

***

Ingrid couldn't help but pat the two dog-like or rather, puppy-like creatures that could talk.

After a couple of minutes, they invited her over to their village, talking excitedly about how they made friends with fairy of the forest. Ingrid dragged the Tusk boar by one of it's hind legs. As she suspected, in her base form she was definitely was around if not equal to her Raiment-wearing Star Lily self.

She offered to take the Tusk Boar to the village since she had a sneaking suspicion that it was her fault. When she tried to power up, she lit up the darkening forest as the sun was already setting in the distant horizon. It was then she heard the panicked cried of the Kobold younglings.

The village as in first in an uproar of terror, then joy as they received Ingrid. They gave her a hero's welcome as she had not only saved two of their younglings but also brought back a large amount of meat.

If Ingrid had a tail it would be wagging right now as the village was full of cute dog-people. Thank you Goddess Alcyon for sending me to this world she thought to herself. She resisted the urge to commit an interspecies faux pas by hugging them out of the blue and tried to focus on learning about her current whereabouts.

***

The next morning.:

"Do you really have to go, Miss Fairy?" Mink and Roofe; the two Kobold boys she saved yesterday, asked, making their adorable puppy-like whining sounds.

Please, this is already so hard for me, Ingrid thought, stop giving me those teary eyes.

Deep inside however, Ingrid had to see for herself if she could return to Earth. The fact that she somehow still lives gave her a bad feeling that Melrondia too might be alive somewhere. If she's somewhere here in this world of Teragalia, she'll hunt her down and finish the job. If not, then she needs to get confirm as quickly as possible if she can go back.

On balance, she was confident that even if she could not return and Melrondia did, the remaining Starchasers could carry on.

Ingrid adjusted her padloi, to her Earthly senses it was a dog collar she might have considered if she was doing cosplay, but among the Kobolds, it was a symbol of kinship. Finally finding something to tie her hair with, she put it up in a ponytail.

"Smell ya later!" Ingrid said, and sprinted away, leaving behind marks on the ground that did not in anyway look like her feet.

***

Ingrid felt like she was on a leisure jog although the rest of the world around her was fast blur. Her aura was nothing like it was before. Her feet hovered probably an inch and a half off the ground, give or take as her aura cushioned them like she was wearing super-comfortable sneakers. She tested it, it did make sneaker imprints on the sand when she tried it out yesterday. But the best part of all was that this shielding around her didn't feel like she spending any energy.

And that was the thing. Normally one's mana always leaks out and joins the ether. Ingrid's Mana does not... at least not within a certain point. Enhancing her body to jump in and axe kick a giant pig's head with enough force to fracture it did cost her Mana, but simply moulding it around her feet to make the perfect invisible shoes cost her nothing.

But it wasn't just on her feet. A thorny vine caught on her hip and it's sharp spikes blunted, a random tree branch hanging too low was simply shoved to the side as her head made contact with it.

Oh full-body shielding. Where were you when I needed you? Ingrid thought to herself. What I would kill to have this when I did scouting activities... all the memories of accidental brushes with poisonous, spiny, and thorny flora came back to her.

"I wonder how far have I run" she stopped in mid-thought as she saw a a window that displayed the distance.

Even more surprising however was the cute mascot appearing on the status window.

"Cecil!" she cried happily, seeing her adorable slime familiar wriggling up and down.

"Ingri- I mean, Star Lily!" the blue slime squeaked in joy.

"I'm not Star Lily anymore Cecil." she sighed. "I don't know what happened to me... and how are you contacting me? Can you get me back?"

"Hee hee hee!" he giggled mischievously "did you think your little sacrifice trick was enough to get rid of me? I divided myself and had a little bit of me cling to your core at the last minute!"

"Does that mean I have a slime body now?"

"No. But it does mean that I'm a part of your Mana now!"

Ingrid smiled sadly.

"You're welcome, Ingrid!"

Ingrid shook her head "I didn't want to involve you in this Cecil... but thanks."

Cecil's pixelated avatar grew a muscled arm and flexed its bulging bicep "I'm your familiar to end, Ingrid, and I will NEVER go back on my promise!"

Ingrid pretended to wipe a random speck of dust in her eye.

"Now when you're done pretending that your Shields malfunctioned, no! I don't know how to get us back. As it is, my consciousness only activates when you bring up this videogame menu thing."

"But what about your other self? You divided, you should still have a link."

"Been trying that Ingrid, and I'm not getting any response."

"Let's see if having you as an overlay will get me wheezing in five minutes." with a light gesture, she moved the window so that it hovered above her shoulder. With that, she surveyed the area around her, she was standing atop a hill and from the distance she could see what looked like a decently sized town.

"We should go there next."

"You're the one walking there Ingrid and by the way..."

"Yes?"

"You're outdoors, in the woods? On dry land?"

"Yes."

Cecil seemed to be considering his words, a few times he opened his mouth to say something but gave up and simply twisted around left and right. "No never mind, you do you. Go riiiight ahead."

With that Ingrid crouched on one knee and fully extended her other leg "Ready..."

"Mhmmm... sure, play it up Ingrid." Cecil sighed.

"Seeet!" Electricity crackled to life around her, causing her hair to undulate from the ambient static around her.

"Yup, ham it up more for those likes." Cecil deadpanned as Ingrid unnecessarily raised her haunches and coiled further back, he wondered if instead of a sprint she would just end up catapulting herself out of orbit.

"Gooooo!"

"Claaaasic." Cecil said as Ingrid ran so fast that even the Window Overlay lagged behind her.

***

"And what are you supposed be?" Asked the green-skinned guard, absentmindedly scratching one of the protruding tusks from his lower lip.

"I'm Ingrid! Just your local fairy."

The guard rolled his eyes. She was doing a poor job pretending to be a fairy by merely hovering an inch off the ground, it struck him as almost comical and she didn't have wings to boot. Still, no armor, no weapons but has a decent Mana signature around her, keeps a Slime Familiar actively communicating to her from some distance using an interesting sigil...she was strange yet looks formidable enough.

"Uh-huh... fairy. Sure. Look, I don't want to be responsible if you start trouble in this town."

"Alright, alright." Ingrid said, raising her arms slightly. "I'm a human."

"I don't know what that is either, missy. If you're a 'human', you're the first that I or anyone else at town has ever seen."

"What? You've never seen any species like me?"

"The hell not!" snapped the Orc guard.

"Would it help if she w-"

"Stay out of this, slime." Said the Orc. "Look, you got any money with you?" Looks like a stretch, but I gotta ask anyway, the entry fee is two silver."

In response Ingrid summoned another window. The guard frowned when he saw the floating magic sigil. Whatever this creature was doing, it sure wasn't going well.

"Seriously? Is this glitched?" the small creature said to no one in particular.

"Hello, Ingrid? Are you seriously going to... oh sure." Cecil sighed in exasperation as she stuck her upper body into the window, somewhere in that pocket dimension the slime and orc could hear clanking of metal within it's mysterious depth.

The Orc yawned. He wanted to back inside already and kick back with some good ale, it might take a while but certainly this Human definitely had some spells a very good adventurer possesses; a Treasury Spell that either lets her store item in some protected Arcane space or a direct portal to some other secure location.

"Well...that's a first." Cecil said to himself.

"There you go!" Ingrid chirped bouncily, handing the Orc two silver coins. The bored man barely glanced at the coins and tossed them into the toll chest.

"Welcome to New Gorsipal" he monotoned then he noticed some latecomers going in... completely ignoring the strange "human" creature and he yelled at the small group of adventurers hurrying to the gate. "Hey! You guys come late again, I'm gonna charge you extra, hustle up now!" his voice was full of vigor again.

***

"That's another tick off the checklist Cecil!" Ingrid said excitedly as she took in the sights and sounds of the Market. "We're offically Isekai'd now!" she raised her arms in emphasis as if making a speech to everyone. But barely anyone paid her attention, to them, any new face entering town this late is obviously some dumb wannabe adventurer.

Cecil gave her a tired "Yes, very Isekai, so when are you going to p-"

"Look Cecil! There really are no humans here!"

"Seriously? You weren't going to take that Orc's words at face value?"

"That's Sargent George to you." The Orc said as he walked by. "drinks are on me if you're done gawking at the market."

"Sure! I'll come along!" Ingrid hurried alongside George.

Cecil bit his lip, or would have if he actually had one. He didn't know what was more weird, the fact that an Orc had such a earthly name or that Ingrid was-

"Okay, I gotta test something out Cecil, you feel hungry?"

"Actually now that you mention it, I do, but since I'm stuck in this 2D window there's now way for me to consume anything unless I happen to be feeding off of your own Ma-Ugh! Wow, this is some good stuff!" Cecil said as he pulled the kebab-like skewers into the screen.

"Ugh." George grunted when he saw the line at the tavern. "Might take us a while. You mentioned you want to work as an adventurer? The Guild's over there, he pointed towards a large half-timbered hall. This might take a while and it shouldn't get you long to get registered."

"Roger!" Ingrid said, sprinting towards the Guild Hall.

"It's George!" the Orc yelled back.

***

"Name?" Asked the elfen receptionist.

"Ingrid Lily"

"You have a previous occupation?"

"I was a private contractor."

The pretty blonde elf girl looked at the strange, not-so-elf-like creature before her quizzically.

"She gets hired to do violent work if violence is called for." The slime explained. He shot a venomous look at Ingrid and said at the corner of his mouth "...was that what you were thinking all this time?"

Ingrid gave him a cheeky sideways look and grin.

"What was the name of your last client?"

"We simply called it the 141st Order. You wouldn't know it."

Privately the receptionist was bewildered with this "Human". Based on it's explanation it seemed to function as either an assassin or a hired guard depending on it's client's needs. Sounds so much like an adventurer she thought, but why the secrecy? Well, it wouldn't matter. It'll have to go through a test tomorrow morning and they'll see if it's as competent as it's Aura seemed to suggest.

For one thing, compared to everyone else in the room, this Ingrid's Aura seemed was unlike everyone else's. Normally everyone's aura pretty much looked like a flame, if the flame was moving very slowly, terminating into several wisps as the Aura mixed with and was converted to the ambient Ether.

Ingrid's was flat where everyone else was wavy, it was like a clear outline around her body with no wisps at all.

She shrugged, she's never seen a Human before so maybe it's just a thing with them.

"Very well, I please come an hour after dawn we will conduct a series of tests to determine your level of proficiency. Now the fee for joining will be twenty silvers..."

While Ingrid did her Hidden Ostrich Impression, Cecil was scanning the crowd of adventurers.

"...shading?" Ingrid's voice brought him out of his reverie. Took him a bit to realize what she said and he replied. "No I'm just waiting for the token guy-who-comes-out-and-bullies-the-newcomer cliche' to happen."

"That counts too, and don't be silly" echoed her voice from that mysterious windows' quantum depths "Who's going to start a fight under the eyes of the Guild Staff?"

"To be honest there should a long line o-"

"Sorry I just got one gold coin, you can give me the change tomorrow, I gotta go see George."

"That's perfectly alright, our dealings are done today, Have a good evening Ingrid Lily." the pretty elf girl bowed.

"What a polite creature." She thought to herself, watching as it strode away in probably was a proud strut of a fierce warrior, she had once been assigned to a few guard-escort duties and noticed how some of her more seasoned colleagues assumed a certain gait such that they could easily pull out a hidden weapon of their choice.

Not that the Human concealed anything but she reasoned it was a hold-over from her long stints in guarding important people.

To Part 2