'I hope one day I shall become cleverly stoic and artistically delicate and divinely beautiful and angelically good — all at the same time.' — Arina Avenira to Ren, spring 2016.

***

'Arina, can you hear me?'

She had seen her other self once again, before the day of departure.

'Why are you refusing to hold a weapon?' she questioned, staring down at herself on the floor.

'Or it's just that you have become a coward?'

For not holding a weapon? Arina blinked her eyes.

'What's wrong? You won't fight for yourself anymore?' her gaze was cold. She slung off her 22LR and threw it in front of her counterpart.

'Pick it up,' she demanded, kicking the rifle closer toward wide-eyed Arina.

'Stand up for yourself. Fight for your own survival. Remember what those animals have done to you. Remember how cruel the world is. Fight for your own pride, Arina. Pick it up. Zaya is your best friend.'

'No, it's just that...' murmured Arina. 'Fear is what drives me to pick up a weapon.'

What truly drives us, as humans, as animals, as nature? Snowflakes poured down their heads. The scenery shifted to the Winter War military camp.

'Pick. It. Up.' hissed the defense mechanism. 'The enemies are coming.'

Arina stood up, snow clung to her dress. Her breath formed into a cloud before her. She looked into the distance. What drives us as humans, actually?

If she picks up the rifle now, for her own safety, and to trade the life of others for herself. Was it just basic survival instinct?

If she does this to protect her loved ones, was it just due to our instinct as social animals and we have to rely on eachother to survive?

Just like how wars always happen by starting or defending their own nation.

It had deeply ingrained into our brains. Everything is just a result of evolution. Do we, after all, have free will?

'To become a strong person,' said her little self. 'You shall learn to fight for yourself.'

'As part of how nature works,' Arina gazed into the winter wilderness beyond.

'But if I were to become the Savior of the whole world, I shall break free from nature from now on. It's, after all, my destiny.'

To truly bring peace to this world, she shall sacrifice her human instinct to perceive humanity as a whole, not just from hers and her loved ones' perspectives.

To see the world as a whole, not just from one country's perspective.

Or else, everything will just end in a never-ending cycle.

She will do anything — anything in her power, for the peace of this world.

From now on. Basic human survival instincts: eat, sleep, social interaction, mating, reproduction, fear against danger. She will limit them all, only enough for her mortal body to survive.

No happiness. No sorrow. No pleasure. No pain. No fear.

What shall only remain is peace.

To break free from how nature had coded us, required much more strength and practice than simply picking up a weapon and following our natural instinct.

'To save this world, a part of the Universe's creation,' the scenery had shifted again. From snowflakes to glowing embers. Arina stood in the middle of burning fire. Pure determination lit up in her glowing eyes. 'I shall reach toward that level of divinity. To break free from a sentient being's consciousness. By then, I will be eligible to become a Savior to this world!'

Literally, her mortal body will be the only thing that holds her back.

Arina Avenira, how will your future go?

In the year 2017 — the year Alexei Avenir had started another great world war, his daughter, who although had been abused by him, had volunteered to go back and join his military.

Her goal wasn't to serve her country, but to save as many crying souls as possible.

Because she was convicted as a traitor to the whole nation by Alexei, General Fedorov had convinced him to let it go and give her one more chance. Little did he know, Alexei would let his daughter pay for what she did by suffering through hell days in the military barrack. And still, she had to be interrogated and scanned to make sure she didn't scheme plans that led to treason or terrorizing the area.

According to the Orlas laws, only men who were above 17 years of age were eligible to train for the battlefront, but since Alexei had meant for Arina to be tortured for treason, she faced no opposition during the application.

She was assigned to an infantry unit. 81st division. But even with her request, she was wondering why she was assigned as a rifleman, but not in a medical role. Although even if she was assigned as a combat medic, it was common practice to carry a weapon for self-defense.

Her commanding officer pressured her to carry a rifle by punishing her every day (already featured in chap 48) although after a while due to her persistence, he truly believed she had lost her mind and sent her to a medical checkup to see what was wrong with her mental state. However to his surprise, the result confirmed that she was perfectly normal.

It was truly hell during the months of training. Arina had to hide from the young men whenever she went. She had made herself less desirable as much as possible by cutting her hair until she almost went bald, as well as getting rid of her eyebrows. She shed tears when staring into the mirror and wrapped her chest area with bandages until she couldn't breathe because of its tightness. She couldn't even sleep at night. Always with eyes open she escaped outside of the barrack when night falls. Not a single day she didn't wish she was born a man.

'If only I was a man,' Arina dug her nails into her palms in helplessness, 'I wouldn't have to go through these. I wouldn't have to hide anymore. I would be respected as a human being. I would be stronger, faster. I would be able to save more people in the future.'

Whenever the commandant left her with welts on her body, at least the snow was there for her to rub her skin against. It will cool down. It will cool down. Hence why she never cried. She knew, the pain and suffering she had to go through were nothing compared to millions of souls out there. Not just humans, but every sentient being.

She was too stubborn. No matter how much abuse or threats she received, she would always find a way to soothe or hide from it. No matter how painful — no matter how emotionally damaged, she would always persist with her beliefs. She would always have enough strength to not pick up a weapon.

But her stubbornness finally got to her when she was thrown into jail to wait for the final decision between being kicked out of the military and punished by Alexei himself or continuing to stay and being thrown in the middle of the battlefront to suffer there, this time, with no weapon.

There, suddenly, with a realization, Arina did finally break down in the cell. 'I just want to save lives instead of taking them, why would I be seen as a criminal?'

That was the reality, whether she liked it or not. That was the reality of mankind.

Even General Fedorov had to visit her in the cell and beg her to lower her ego and pick up the rifle just for once. Still, she insisted not to, pretty much to his chagrin. 'This is an order! Not a request, Avenira!' he spat, but Arina was too stubborn that not even torturing her to death could not do any better.

At last, Sergey Fedorov, with a final drawl of exasperation from Arina's behavior, had decided to help her out in the trial. Because of him, she was granted permission to be moved to the medical platoon. He was, in fact, the Comrade Chairman's most trusted high-ranked general, but for some unknown reason (through Alexei's perspective) he had decided to resign from his position just to become an infantryman (so that he could protect Arina when she entered the battlefront without a weapon for self-defense).

'The more people you love, the weaker you are! Understand!?'

'You can't protect someone who is blind to your command.'

Regardless of all the things he had said before.

At last, the day finally came. Arina, as a medic as of now, was assigned together with an infantry battalion to Hesse, West Germany on their conquest to seize Bonn.

The soldiers in the unit didn't like her. They believed she would be nothing short of a liability for them. In addition to not carrying a weapon for self-defense, she insisted on being a strict vegan at such a time when food was scarce, the unit viewed this 'medic' with such distrust and hostility that one man in their unit warned her ominously, 'When we go into combat, Avenira, you're not coming back alive. I'm gonna shoot you myself.'

When they arrived at the Western front, Arina also had to deal with her own PTSD, but the thought of other beings suffering motivated her mind so much, that her feet would start moving on their own, and she would find herself charging into bombing areas before knowing.

'You know, I am not so brave. But I do think miracles do exist in my situation, Asano-kun! Whenever I see people getting hurt, my legs will move on their own, and VOILA! I will not even recognize I'm there in the middle of the chaos, being brave, and so forth! Have you ever done something that you aren't even aware you are doing and impressed by yourself when you look back at it?' as her fourteen-year-old self had said gleefully. 'Because I sure do!'

Looking back now, documentaries still depict her as 'full of courage' to just blindly charge into danger. Maybe that was a nice way to put it rather than 'reckless'.

However, while it worked just like that for her, it wasn't for the person who was always by her side to protect her. General Fedorov. He was growing more and more frustrated with Arina. He will beg her to stay in a safe spot but she will just continue to charge into danger. How are you supposed to protect someone like this?

It continued like this until years later. Alexei's plan was to weaken US currency by cutting their international trades starting from the middle East first and foremost. They allied with nations that were rich in natural resources and together formed an oppositional anti-NATO organization, along with that a Pact to strengthen their alliances during the war. By having the war also going on in the Middle East he had diverted the attention to both areas.

By violating the treaty the US sent troops to defend its NATO allies. But even so, the Orlas Union had the upper hand by using their biological weapons, in other words, keep injecting cell liquid into their war prisoners and turning them into their own weapons. 'This is beyond immoral and Avenir will eventually have to pay for his war crimes' announced US ambassador to the Orlas Union.

The US had also considered using nuclear bombs on Belaya Posadka, but the problem was that Alexei was using Cuba, a country in central America, to set up a nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons program, and it would be the end of the US as well if they spark this nuclear war.

Not to mention the Orlas also had a Perimeter system to deal with the US when things got out of control.

On the other side of the globe, China had also attacked Taiwan and claimed every island within the South China Sea. North Korea, with aid from the Orlas Union and China, had begun invading South Korea as well. This thus resulted in a full-scale world war.

In the year 2019, one year after the war started, Arina's luck ran out when an artillery shell injured her leg and was sent back to recover. Her heart sank when she saw people on the street suffering from famine and exhaustion from the war. But it only ignited her determination to return peace to this world.

Finally, she fully recovered after months and was soon brought back to the battlefield. Within a year, due to their liquid cell technology, they managed to seize Bonn, West Germany had fallen. They marched thousands of troops through Austria, which was a neutral country at the time, to get to Italy (Alexei's plan was to invade every NATO member and force them to sign the Warsaw Pact), and soon invaded Austria on the way when they defended back.

Here on the border of Austria - Italy, Arina had finally snapped back to reality. She had finally realized that the choice she made was nothing but extremely challenging without General Fedorov.

This battle was later pinned as one of the deadliest battles during the 21st-century World War. Battle of Nassfeld. To establish an infantry stronghold, the Italians had spent months fortified there, placing tanks supplied by their allies on the high ground.

Even if it was illegal to shoot a medic according to the international law enforcement, both sides usually aimed at medics with a clear red cross on the helmet first. Therefore Arina had to change her helmet. One thing was that, it was quite untrue when the other soldiers assumed she would have it easy by running around carrying no rifle or ammo, in fact, her two canvas of medical bags were almost as heavy and much harder to operate than any rifle.

Even without using the cell liquid that day due to the inconvenient military tactics (Cell liquid could only be used in mountain warfare anyway, to avoid battle casualty) the battle was still so deadly that it was estimated that both sides suffered around 10,000 casualties within the first 24 hours.

It was a catastrophe. Mines were set up by the Italians everywhere. Every second hundreds of soldiers would blow up by accidentally stepping on them. Men killed men from afar or in close combat, stabbing over and over. Explosion, fire, machine gun. You could die in any given minute, second, either when hiding, running, or shooting, or healing.

Fedorov ran after Arina everywhere to ensure she was safe to continue pursuing her quest of healing the wounded. Rats were everywhere and, on top of the deadly battle were spreading diseases. Even with the prospect of her own death, Arina kept scurrying around, dodging a terrifying mixture of mortar and machine gunfire to reach and inject morphine into the injured soldiers who were mourning the pain and wrapped their open wounds with bandages to stop the blood flow.

Even with Fedorov's advice to leave men who had already become disfigured behind, Arina refused to. She will save everyone, no matter what, even her own enemies.

Bullets were flying around like bees. Unfortunately, to protect Arina, who had always taken his presence for granted up until this moment, Fedorov had taken the bullets to himself, immediately fell on the ground beside her feet.

It had happened during the peak hour of the battle. Arina, with her eyes opened wide, still hadn't processed everything when every of her troop members fled passed her to temporarily retreat. In desperation, she picked up the ex-general and dragged him down the escarpment to retreat after them as well.

Was she going to lose another important person in her life?

Laying him down, she had hurried to implore the doctors at their encampment to save his life. But to her horror, they had confirmed to her that he wouldn't make it.

Again, it had happened once again, because of her foolishness.

Soldiers kept retreating past them. Arina already shed tears, her chest palpitated with this terrifying prospect. She unfastened her helmet and threw it away, lowering her ears to check his heartbeat.

When she was eleven, alone in this world, general Fedorov had come to pick her up in his arms.

He had fed her instead of her father.

He had bought her many ice creams when he learned that she loved them.

He had taken her out into the world, walked her around many cities, something her father would never do.

He had always been cold and scary on the exterior, but deep inside, how much he secretly cared for the daughter of the evil Comrade Chairman, was immeasurable.

Shell drops sounded in the back. What will the world be like now when Arina finally will have to navigate it alone in her quest?

In his last drawl of breath — in his last words, Fedorov had said:

'Farewell, Arina Avenira...I've always seen you...as my daughter of flesh and blood.'

A daughter.

A family member.

The prospect flooded again. Before her blurry vision, she saw her ten years old self, staring into the family's window that icy day.

Kneeling beside Fedorov, who never woke up again, Arina reflexively shut her eyes for a moment and opened them again, she lifted them up slowly to stare soullessly into the void. The world itself, even with humanity killing itself in the back — even with a hundred explosions every second, was empty.

How blind she was to always pray for a caring father, when he was always there.

General Fedorov had forever left her life. She had lost a father figure she was never aware of until now. She had lost her last life journey companion.

Tears streamed down her bloodied face, smearing with mud.

The world halted for a moment. All the chaos ceased. All the gunfire — everything. Arina, still sniffing with tears, looked up at the dead air, around the reality of this world — of humanity.

Pain.

The kind of pain it was to lose a family member, was out of this world.

Now she was officially alone in her journey.

'What are you doing, Avenira?'

'Oh, I'm hiding from you, general Fedorov!' Arina had said brightly when she was twelve, unveiling herself from underneath the table's cloth. 'Bless Ms. Ivanova! She had come up with the most brilliant game ever! And now you have won when you found me! It's ever so thrilling, but— general Fedorov, I suppose you can not play it with friends who are too small — like my ant friends, you would be too easy to spot when you are gigantic— mercy me it's too unfair! Ms. Ivanova is ever too busy, and you can't play it with friends who can't move on their own either. So now you play with me! Oh— ooh, general Fedorov, you would be so wicked to say no,' she clasped her hands together. 'Pretty pleaseee!'

General Fedorov, who had lost his entire family in the previous war, saw something familiar in the freezing little girl that day, hiding herself inside a shelter made of snow.

Poor child. She had lost the innocence and light in her bloodied, purple face. Her eyes widened in horror as she screamed in shock and fell behind when she realized she had been found by an enemy.

He reached his arms out, despite having the 22LR pointed at his face. His dark eye socket lit up for the first time since the loss of his loved ones.

'There, there, child,' he had spoken gently. 'I'm not your enemy.'

'From now on. Hide and seek will be just a game for you to have fun.'

A cart with corpses piling into a heap rolled past them. Flies hovering around. A photograph with letters on the back dropped to the ground from a dead soldier's pocket, landing into Arina's sight.

A man with his wife standing by his side, and a baby son in the wife's arms.

But it wouldn't just be his family that would suffer through the loss — Arina let out a heavy breath — there were at least twenty bodies on the cart.

And thousands behind them.

It was a paradox. The more of us in this world, the less significant are we.

Arina had blinked her eyes out of tears and reflected. How would her loss of general Fedorov compare to millions in this world? Her sorrow was only a single grain of sand among countless others.

Behind her, right now, many more will die, and many more will suffer through their loss, just like what she and milions of others were currently going through.

Arina took Fedorov's hands — the one who had nurtured her from childhood — into hers, and whispered, still with tears, but with a burning determination. She had forced a smile:

'And you will be so proud to have me as your daughter. Thank you for everything. I love you.'

Explosions kept sounding in the back. No one was brave enough to stand their ground without retreating. They will resume the battle tomorrow when the peak hours pass — when bullets no longer whiz by in flashes — when the constant bombings would cease being this intense.

Arina rose up from the ground, wiped her tears away, again put on her helmet, and with one step she took toward the battleground, the other of her foot would follow, she would soon find herself running back toward the enemies — toward the injured left behind.

Even when she had wiped her tears away, they kept bursting out again, and again, but she gritted her teeth, shutting her eyes and forcing her mind to forget her own pain and replace it with the pain of every dying soldier's loved one if they learned their fathers, sons, or husbands wouldn't be able to return home.

She had gone through this sorrow so many times to know how painful it was — with determination, she would save every other being from experiencing the same sorrow she experienced just now.

She climbed the escarpment in tears, bumping into fleeing soldiers who urged her to retreat — she told them to escape to safety first as a response, and turned ahead, continued to charge toward danger — where other human beings were screaming 'Help me!'. She was always reckless. She was always going to help. She was always going to reenter the battlefield. She couldn't have that to herself, so in response, she would be the one to give it to everyone else — she w0uld continue until every soul in this world would be at peace knowing their fathers, husbands, brothers, sons were safe and sound.

She was a soldier, without a weapon, charging into explosions with only her two canvas of medical bags bumping against her thighs whenever she ran. She would always forgive and save humanity, regardless of what they had done to her in the past, she would never abandon them or cease to love or have faith.

She was, after all, the most angelically good girl alive.

A/n: there is some cinematic reference to this scene from 5:10 onward.

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Arina was a girl who was good enough to be blessed by God, even without someone to protect her by her side.

'I'm here. I'm here now. It's alright,' she would say to every panicking soldier while wrapping up their wounds. Every single one — even if they were disfigured. A disfigured man lying on a wreckage, his limbs have been blown up, in desperation, he panted:

'Please, get me out of here. I- I have kids, they are waiting for me at home, I—'

'I'm going to get you home.' smiled Arina, nodding repeatedly, 'Okay? Trust me. I'm going to get you home.'

Even if she gets him to the medical tents and the doctor refuses to cure him, she will do it herself. She will do anything in her power to save every individual, until she squeezes out all her life force and collapses.

It proved right that Arina truly had God by her side when she was able to survive without a weapon solely based on luck. It was even more than that. Years later, when an enemy sniper was interviewed, he answered that every time he had her within his sight, his gun always jammed when he pulled the trigger.

But it wasn't until Arina's next stop that miracle had once again repeated itself. Even much greater this time.

In winter of 2021, Arina along with many other troops (after winning and occupying many strategic locations) entered the deadliest battle. The Battle of the Alps — a common phrase folks would later say when this battle was brought up, 'There was once an angel in the Alps'.

Once again, Arina had to deal with another winter. Even worse, these battles will take place along a 400 mile front in Northern Italy — the most treacherous of the fighting in the Dolomitic Alps. They will be fighting amid the peaks of this spectacular alpine landscape, beneath the summits occupied by their troops, a maze of tunnels and caverns will be carved out just to gain a few meters of tactical advantage.

Mountain soldiers would climb, fight, and die over and under the highest peaks of the Dolomite Range.

Looking back, this battlefield was the most insane in the history of mankind. Nothing like it had been seen before or since the history of warfare.

To regain Trent and Trieste from the Orlas troops' occupation and turn the tide in, the Italians had no choice but to break through these narrow chains of peaks and control the supply route to Trent. They and Orlas mountain troops raced to capture strategic mountain passes. Here, harsh high mountain warfare involved firefights in the trenches, close combat in the labyrinth of tunnels, and most insane above all, the use of inhumane injection of cell liquid had shocked the world news to the core.

The prospect of such a harsh style of warfare finally cause Arina's body to tremble after being reckless for so long. She had seriously wondered whether she would make it by the end of this war.

The most strategic tactic in this type of warfare was to gain control of the peaks and bridges. It would allow anyone to dominate the valleys below. A good battery of artillery well positioned could therefore be absolutely decisive on this part of the front.

The Orlas troops had reached the higher ground first, making the Italians spend the next months and years trying to dislodge them and fighting the mindless 'monsters' resulting from the cell liquids.

It was a battle of small units, even individuals. Single Orlas platoons would occupy seven hundred foot tall blades of rocks and obliterate the valleys with the support of their illegal biotech and machine guns where the Italians couldn't climb to or reach the high Orlas positions.

It was a great disadvantage and loss of casualties for them, so after a year, they ended up tunneling and dynamiting over 100 feet into the sheer rock face under the enemy positions to bring down the Orlas encampments with massive bombs.

The rocky terrain ended up making the shells deadlier. The brittle rock of the mountains shattered into lethal splinters, leading to 70% higher casualties per round compared to battlefields elsewhere.

Thousands of men would die trying to take a single position on the side of a cliff face, trying to secure a supply line or break the bloody stalemate. In sub zero temperatures, they would dig miles of tunnels and caverns through glacial ice. They strung cableways up mountainsides and stitched rock faces with rope ladders to move soldiers up to the high peaks then haul up an arsenal of industrial warfare: heavy artillery, mortars, machine guns, and flame throwers.

They would also use the terrain itself as a weapon, rolling boulders to crush attackers and sawing through snow cornices with ropes to trigger avalanches. Storms, rock slides, and natural avalanches also killed thousands of men. This phenomenon would be later referred to as the 'White Death'.

In the first few years, Arina had a lot of trouble trying to rescue anyone other than her comrades because of the inconvenient terrain. But she had risked herself to climb down the valleys multiple times at night to remove the poor, dying Orlas prisoners' tentacles and spent an hour navigating toward the Italian encampment and climbing the cliff again with them tied up on her back. She would repeat the whole process after getting one to safety, again and again, climbing down, dragging soldiers on her back, climbing up, and climbing down.

Only if they weren't Orlas prisoners, she wouldn't have to risk herself intruding into the enemy territory to save their lives every single time.

She was only a small girl, and the men were at least half her size. Her body felt like snapping in half. The entire time she felt as if she could collapse out of extreme exhaustion and never wake up again. It was beyond a human's limit. She had exceeded that limit every single time, but her empathy was too much to give up on just one being. Even if they were a hundred more people to save in one night, and she would have to repeat the process again and again, nothing could stop her from enduring the extreme physical pain she was going to go through.

At night, when the battle ceased and most soldiers had gone to sleep, Arina alone sneakily roamed in the valley to inject morphine into injured Italian soldiers and wrap up their wounds.

'It's alright, I'm not your enemy.'

'You're safe now.'

'I'm going to get you home.'

Those were her famous three words. From sneakily saving the Italians and having them show her their encampment location and helping them get back to safety, Arina would soon gain the trust of her enemies. Later, she would become an enemy to no one. Besides saving the injured soldiers, she had roamed around to remove the tentacles from the western allies' soldiers and tied them to her back with a rope and dragged them across the whole valley to climb a cliff to the Italian encampment.

When laying one down, she would scurry back to save one more. 'I have to get one more,' Arina muttered to herself, tears streaming down her face for the physical pain she was enduring, 'one more, I have to get one more.'

Her bare hands inside the gloves were torn from climbing, blood dripping through her clothing layers down her elbows. Her face: purple and bloodied, was cut by small splinters. Each of her steps was heavy when treading through the thick layer of snow with a man half her size on her back to reach the medical tents at the end of the valley. She fell face down due to the overwhelming weight pressure, feeling as if her body could no longer function, but quickly grunted and drove above a mortal's limit to pull herself back up.

'One more,' Arina implored herself, 'I have to get one more.'

Getting one more, and one more, until the sun rises, she would not stop until she got one more.

Tears froze on her bloodied face. Splinters cut her face more. When she slipped and fell from the cliff out of fatigue, even though her body was physically dead now, her mind which was alive would drive it back up.

'One more, one more is waiting to come home.'

To Arina, a girl who barely had a home anymore, she would deplete her entire life force for the last of the injured waiting to come home.

A/n: this scene and Desmond Doss is truly what inspired Arina's nature. He was a real soldier who fought a war without a weapon. He was also a vegetarian and super underweight at the time with other men about half his size, but somehow, he managed to save 75 lives in just one night (as shown in this video) I truly believe it's just that his willpower is too great.

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It was again harsh winter. But this winter is different.

Flakes blinded Arina's vision. But in her mind, she kept thinking, 'How cold it must be for them. Poor souls.'

Her whole body quivered not just from the cold, but also from the nerves telling her they had had enough. Many times she suddenly collapsed on the snow with her bloodied hands quivering in the freezing air, but every time she would remind herself, 'One more, I have to get one more' and pulled her breaking body up.

Winter was never nice to her. Winter had stolen her too many things. She had no choice but to fight in winter, killing three hundred lives in the process. But it was this winter, that she repaid her debt, and exceeding everything. She would not let winter bring fear to her anymore. She will be brave this winter. She will preserve, winter will make her fall, but she will get up and keep on persevering.

She will persevere through this hardship for the sake of mankind. At last, she finally possessed the strongest willpower any being could ever imagine.

Near the end of the battle, never once did Arina give in on persevering. Even though she was shot and had her limbs shattered to the bones, she continued crawling around to remove tentacles and save other beings. Even when she was offered a place on the stretcher, she would give it up for another injured soldier.

The reason why there is a legend about 'an angel in the Alps' is because it was during this battle that Arina's willpower peaked. She saved an average of 25 men per night, and by the end of the battle years later, the number had far exceeded the 300 debts she once owed.

7 years after the 21st century Great World War started, victory had fallen to the Orlas and its allies' side. NATO and many more anti-Regenism organizations across the globe dissolved.

The Orlas Union had practically become an empire when expanded its territory far into the west. The previous NATO nations had become their puppet states. Even Western colonies in Africa had been kicked out. The only remaining oppositional countries now were the US and Britain. (Japan is now a neutral country)

Coming back from war, Arina saw that her people had hailed Alexei as a Spasitel sent to Earth by God. She spent the next years navigating her life in his empire. Because of her unbelievable acts in the war, folks everywhere had spread rumors about her being protected by God Himself, and they would get some blessing to themselves if they were to get close and touch her.

On the other side of the globe, Asano Gakushuu had graduated from MIT and was already in a relationship with Liliana Chadwick since she used to study at Harvard just a few miles next to his uni. He even considered marrying her to benefit his future career and get himself involved in the high-class society.

But even if he was now in love with another woman, he couldn't help but always love Arina the way he had never loved anyone before. An unconditional kind of love. He watched the news to check on how she was doing every single day throughout his working years, from when he just started out with his business, to facing challenges and finally succeeding in his endeavors of beating his father. He was now a successful CEO of a tech company in Silicon Valley at only the age of 28, and Arina was still navigating her life in the Empire.

Apparently, ever since coming back, because she was now a national hero to the UOPR, Alexei would face backlash if he punished Arina so he let her be. But she took advantage of that and ignited several riots against the Gulag system and was arrested countless times.

However, over the years, the Empire had received stagnant economic growth. Alexei eventually proposed several reform packages to kick-start their economy and secure UOPR's future. These packages included restructuring, openness, and democratization. The main purpose was to drive economic growth and now non-regenist independents were allowed to run for office.

Funnily, this was to reform UOPR so that it would stay together and grow stronger, but no. Instead, opening of the press actually led to many Orlas citizens finding out how much worse off they were than their capitalist counterparts and was made aware of any incompetencies in the government.

Democratization gave a potential voice to all of this new-found discontent in almost universally when regenist candidates run against non regenist independence they would lose.

In the meantime, Arina caught up with her studies, and later joined several committees which supported reforming the nation. It was during these times that served her a good foundation for her path to revolution.

She was remarked as a genius in giving speeches. Later in life, Arina would give speeches to the general public for a remarkedly long time. Among them was one speech about the reforming of UOPR at Belaya Posadka Square, which helped her achieve a Guinness record with the speech's length stretched up to 7 hours and 11 minutes.

Whenever she was arrested, she would exonerate herself by understanding the judges' political viewpoint and again using her charisma to give powerful speeches that would sway their minds. Arina often entered the court as a criminal and left as a hero and all those moments were captured on the news which people would make memes about it on the internet.

Using the Glastnos movement, she interconnected with hundreds of people across the globe who supported the revolution and formed a large organization. Over the time, she had carefully selected and surrounded herself with the right men who would help her achieve future endeavors:

A) an expert organizer to help run and expand movements efficiently.

B) a military man from another nation who can enlist others to enforce your whims.

C) a trusty assistant to maintain busy schedules and record pearls of wisdom for posterity.

D) a decorated hero other than herself to help impress the deep pocketed elites because revolution isn't cheap.

Despite so, Arina often had to keep an eye out for any threats from any individual that would challenge her leading position in the organization.

They often travel between nations and randomly barge into public places and Arina would jump on a table every time to give her speeches. The propaganda from her organization also worked like magic thanks to her trustworthy assistant.

In July, 2030, Arina stormed a meeting and called an uprising against the government. With her supporters, she marched on the streets of Belaya Posadka, hoping the police would join her side.

But they did not.

In the end, 80 people lost their lives, Arina was once again arrested, and convicted for treason. This time she couldn't escape and was sentenced to 15 years of jail time.

During her sentence, she wrote and published a book titled, 'Principles to the Reformation'.

The book soon became best-seller across the world and was translated into 20 languages. Gakushuu even went to buy the book. By this time, he had actually married but divorced Liliana right after due to her stabbing behind his back (A/n: fun fact, Liliana is inspired by Amber Heard the whole time lolol)

Arina was released from jail way earlier than expected. She summoned the rest who had been released and replanned her steps.

Unfortunately, during this time, she began to notice some unusual signs in her body as it went through pain and discomfort every day. Eventually, after doing a medical checkup in the hospital, they announced to her that there was a bullet stuck inside her body. It would be too fatal to remove it, but if they left it there, the lead from it would spread poison across her body.

It meant she was going to die soon.

Initially, Arina just brushed it off and refused to believe the reality of her fate. But after a while, she soon accepted it, and devoted her entire time to revolution before that time came.

Within one of her speeches, she took a step further by declaring her devotion to peace — to her life principles of breaking away from human instinct as a sacrifice for the peace of mankind and shocking the entire world by actually proving it, going against human nature and stepping into a torture device for 24 hours and coming out bloody but alive.

Many folks simply thought she was insane, but a few of those who actually understood her philosophy wrote her name down as a real Saint for everything she did. The whole affair was covered by the media worldwide, and it improved Arina's image to the next level as she got herself even more supporters.

Meanwhile, due to the miscalculated packages Alexei had proposed before, revolutions had started on their own in many other puppet states, to the point the police and military could no longer do anything but watch riots breaking out everywhere.

Because there were too many riots happening at once, they were many cases where the Orlas government didn't do anything but let satellite states erupt in protests, even within the regions of the Orlas borders.

Arina now seized the chance and marched her rebellion everywhere. And as more and more people noticed that rebellions passed without a major backlash, more and more people started a rebellion of their own. One region after the other erupted in rebellion.

There were countries where people destroyed fences and watchtowers and overthrew the government in one town, although here the Orlas army did violently crack down on protesters, which alienated the local Regenists, and led them to unsuccessfully declare their own independence.

However, meanwhile, some countries would erupt in peaceful protests, and the government did oblige the local population, such as decriminalizing certain religious practices. In their elections, people voted for new democratic parties.

And then, those countries would recall their soldiers who were fighting in Orlas conflicts.

The military leader Arina had corporated with was from Tajikistan. There, protests turned violent as the military turned against the government, and people torched government buildings, shops, and businesses amidst a call for economic and political reform.

Back in Normady, Arina got herself some network with the government officials. There was an initiative to wholly transform the Orlas Union away from centralization and oppression, and towards a federation where every region was given equal rights and equal say in the affairs of the country and where every person, regardless of ethnicity or creed were given equal rights.

It was hoped that people would no longer protest for independence as a federation would allow each part to govern mostly independently.

And to make sure the people felt that they had a say in this matter, the Orlas Union decided to ask its people if this was what they wanted. They held a nationwide referendum on February 2036, asking whether they wanted to preserve the Orlas Union as a renewed federation of equal sovereign republics.

Over 75% of people ended up voting in favor of turning the Orlas Union into a federation.

And so, democratic reforms were quickly implemented which opened the way to presidential elections in numerous national territories within the UOPR.

However, it was merely a stage for Alexei to quickly manipulate the election. And he was elected to become the President of Normady.

Because of this electoral fraud, a coup had been implemented. Arina's goal was to remove her father from power, forever.

Alexei was on a holiday, so with his daughter's order, the rebellious army put him under (holiday) house arrest, and send the rest to take over government buildings.

Thousands of people also came out in droves, supporting the movement. Arina, as the coup organizer, raced to the parliament building amid the coup, climbed atop a tank, and held a powerful, long speech to promise her people and the entire world a bright future ahead. A future where they will be glad to be living in a lovely world they deserve.

People chanted her name repetitively. One man grinned and started first by calling her the rightful 'Spasitel!' and others took up the cry. 'Spasitel!' they called. 'Spasitel!' 'SPASITEL!'

The chant grew, spread, swelled. Eventually, the entire streets all chanted 'Spasitel!'

Pulling the brightest smile ever, Arina got down of the tank to be unexpectedly carried up by two men on their shoulders.

A/n: it's a reference to this scene from 3:51 onward

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'Spasitel! Spasitel! Spasitel!' the chant swelled loudly. It swelled so loud that it seemed to shake the walls of the parliament building.

Coincidentally, the Spasitel was wearing a white dress today. With her white blonde hair, she seemed as if a real Angel sent to Earth by God to save mankind.

More people were streaming forward to her, and as they came they took up the call. They were pushing toward her now, stumbling, reaching their hands out to touch her and receive the blessing from God.

Cameramen standing from afar and up close, some on the helicopters to capture the glorious scenery. Drones roamed in the air.

Arina smiled while extending her arm to touch their hands. 'Spasitel! Spasitel! Spasitel!' they kept chanting.

A drone flew above her head, and she looked after it.

Those people who were reaching for the Spasitel — those she had saved with her own hands, from soldiers to their families and friends, together combined had exceeded a thousand.

'Spasitel! Spasitel! Spasitel!'

Her love was distributed evenly, regardless of everything, from nationality, race, creed, species, sentient or non-sentient being.

Against nature, she won't favor her love for anything or anyone. She loved the world as a whole.

She was truly, the one Savior of the world.

~ To be Continued ~

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