After the Rook’s chest plate shattered against the paper-thin whip of the 1st dimension, Vermont pulled the lash back with immense force.
The recoil yanked the entire armored Rook forward, dragging it straight toward her.
Vermont didn’t hesitate, driving a hard punch directly into the knight’s face.
The royal guard stared silently, his eyes widening as his summoned armor was shattered and struck so easily.
Driven by desperation, the guard dashed forward, swinging his saber in a deadly arc aimed at Vermont.
Vermont moved efficiently, pulling a simple pocketknife from her coat to block the incoming steel.
With her other hand, she smoothly slipped a syringe out of her pocket.
It was filled with a glowing, orange substance.
Before the guard could pull back, she drove the needle deep into his neck, plunging the fluid into his veins.
Vermont stared at him calmly.
“Looks like the chess champion just got outsmarted.”
[Character Bio]Name: Vermont Lanthanum Wissem
Born: 1927, USA (Vermont)
Gender: Female
Appearance: Short black hair, orange eyes, and gold-trimmed glasses to assist her calculations.
She wears a crisp white shirt and black pants.
Her expression is a permanent, deadpan stare—neither excited nor bored—a face that constantly says, “Eh.”
Background: While other seven-year-olds were learning to ride bikes, Vermont was already mastering advanced mathematics.
She graduated in 1948 as the country’s top student in General Relativity.
During the Cold War, she was drafted as a lead scientist for a secret American experiment racing the Soviets to open a portal to the 4th dimension.
Two years into the project, she died right before the gateway could be breached, causing the government to shut down the experiment entirely.
Favorite Things: Books, paradoxes, constellations, and candied apples (to fuel her brain with sugar during heavy calculations).
Strast :Dimension Pull.
A power that manipulates the properties of the spatial dimensions: 1st dimension (height/lines), 2nd dimension (width/planes), 3rd dimension (depth/solids), and 4th dimension (time).
The royal guard stumbled, his vision swimming as his body began to reject reality.
His mind fractured, trapped in a paradox where he felt simultaneously alive and dead.
Panicking, he flashed a frantic hand signal to his Rook, ordering a rapid-fire strike.
Seeing the incoming assault, Katherina sprang into action.
She sprinted ahead of Glacia, Vermont, and the unconscious Fokusar, kicking a heavy iron manhole cover straight up into the air.
She used it as a makeshift shield, absorbing the Rook’s frantic, heavy blows.
As the strikes rattled against the iron, a strange black substance rapidly spread across the knight, consuming over half of the Rook’s armored frame.
Suddenly, the royal guard collapsed onto the cobblestones, his eyes rolled back in shock.
Vermont looked down at him, entirely unbothered.
“You’re the cat in the Schrödinger experiment.”
Katherina didn’t waste any time.
She grabbed Vermont, Glacia, and the sleeping Fokusar, hauling them down into the open sewer line.
Above them, the Rook dissolved into mist as the royal guard’s vision went completely dark.
The royal guard woke up with a gasp inside his quarters at the royal palace.
Queen Nexton stood at the foot of his bed, looking absolutely furious.
She swirled a glass of wine, her right hand encased in a polished metal gauntlet.
“Anatoly, my elite royal guard,” she purred dangerously.
“How did you lose?
Your ability should have easily won that bout.”
Anatoly shivered, his voice shaking.
“There was a girl…
an incredibly smart girl.
She injected a substance into me.
It made me collapse, Your Majesty.
It completely broke my mind.”
Queen Nexton’s grip tightened around her wine glass.
A mocking smile crossed her lips.
“You are foolish.
You should have stayed back.
Weren’t you a grandmaster chess champion, Anatoly?
If you lose to these peasants one more time…”
She set her wine glass down with a heavy click, reaching into her robes to pull out a pair of iron pliers.
Stepping forward, she violently pinned Anatoly’s head down against the mattress.
With a cold, steady hand, she used the tool to pry his eyelid wide open.
“I will personally gouge your eyes out and mount them on my gauntlet,” she whispered.
She held up her armored hand, showcasing the three sockets already embedded into the metal—one housing a preserved brown eye, one a blue eye, and one a green eye.
The fourth and final socket was completely empty, perfectly sized for Anatoly’s gaze.
Anatoly stared in sheer terror until Queen Nexton finally released his eyelid and tossed the pliers onto the nightstand.
She picked up her wine glass, her long purple hair catching the torchlight.
Her hips swayed elegantly as her curvy silhouette slowly disappeared through the bedroom doors.
Left alone in the quiet room, Anatoly stared at the ceiling, his mind drifting back to his days among the living.
He had been a legendary chess champion for the Soviet Union.
His name had been plastered across the front page of every major Moscow newspaper.
Yet, he had never been arrogant or driven by ego; he was always the quiet, calculated master who thrived under immense pressure.
But his life had been torn apart when two conflicting ideas collided.
The motherland demanded absolute loyalty, discipline, and submission.
But all Anatoly had ever wanted was freedom—a life that amounted to more than just being a political tool.
The regime eventually branded him a traitor for choosing his own liberty over his duty.
His defection was cut short when he was found shot dead, abandoned in a cold, dark alleyway.
[Character Bio]Name: Anatoly Sergievsky
Born: Soviet Union
Appearance: A tall, slim, dark-haired man with piercing green eyes.
He is exceptionally calm and quiet, possessing the infinite patience required to wait for the perfect moment to strike.
A chessboard was the only place he could ever truly escape the harsh realities of his life.
Strategy (Ability): Chess Manifestation.
He can summon spectral, armored chess soldiers to fight on his behalf.
The movement, attack patterns, and tactical rules of each soldier strictly mimic how that specific piece functions on a real chessboard