Celestia’s Side

“So what’s the tension between those two?” I ask Deret as the three of us navigate through the city again.

“Celestia.” Rainel says. “There’s no time to get into this.”

“Rainel, I’m no longer playing. If you keep avoiding the subject then I’m going to believe that you’re hiding something from me.”

“I think she deserves to know.” Deret says. “It might be a touchy subject, but someone like her can help mediate things if she knew what was going on.”

“There’s nothing to mediate or dispute. I’ve accepted how things played out. I don’t care about nor desire Lapis’ forgiveness.” Rainel says.

“I’m going to punch your eyes out the back of your head if you keep on being vague like this. Did you not see how badly things just went because you didn’t tell us what’s going on?” I say.

“It’s not…” Rainel sighs. “Telling you guys wouldn’t have made it go any smoother.”

“Why don’t you want to tell me? Something you’re hiding from me?” I accuse him.

“It’s not that.” Rainel growls angrily. “It’s genuinely too long of a story to talk about right now. I’m not trying to hide anything.”

“You are. Every time you look at me your gaze gets shifty, you go out your way to avoid me back in the castle as well. I’m not joking around anymore, tell me everything.” I scowl deeply.

I then take a moment of silence to gather my thoughts before saying–

“Did you rape her?”

…

“I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear that.” Rainel says.

“You raped her; that’s where all the clues are pointing; that’s why she specifically hates you so much and why Deret here isn’t bothered.” I continue my barrage.

“Hold on! That’s not what happened! Rainel disappeared during a siege he was commander of, and most of Lapis’ soldiers were wiped out as a result… Then…” Deret quiets down as soon as he sees our expressions.

I rub my head sheepishly, feeling bad seeing how earnest he was. “I honestly didn’t think that would work so well. You must admire Rainel a lot.”

“Huh?” Deret had a confused look on his face.

“Next time, don’t fall for such an obvious provocation.” Rainel sighs.

“When and what city?” I ask Deret.

“No. Deret this is an order, don’t mention anything else about the incident to her.” Rainel barks at him, practically confirming the fact that he was trying to hide something from me.

“Rainel, you are already on my bad side. Telling me the truth will only—”

“Sorry, but we’re now at the site of the flank attack.” Deret points to the upcoming wall.

I swivel my head in surprise, directing Anku to my ears. Indeed, the sounds of screams and metal clanking were ever present on the other side. Was I really that agitated? Why didn’t I notice?

I give Rainel the death-stare before talking to Deret. “We’ll take care of it from here. You don’t need to worry about us anymore.”

Deret nods. “Got it, just come back to the original meeting point when you’re done.” He then runs away.

I turn to Rainel. “We’re going to talk about this soon. Don’t deliberately get killed just to escape.” I say as I loosen up my joints.

“Just don’t be too distracted. You might get hurt.” Rainel says to me as he takes the scabbard off his back, running his palm across the exposed edges of each blade. After each blade is covered in blood, he seals up his gash and looks at me.

“Launch me up.” Rainel gestures a lifting motion before starting to lightly jog towards me.

“Yes, yes, you’re the boss.” I kneel down, resting my elbows against my thigh and cupping my hands together in a wide scoop.

Rainel leans in as soon as I do this and accelerates abruptly, barreling towards me at full speed.

This should be easy, but I should still be careful.

I relax my legs and arms before Rainel's right foot lands on my hands. My pupils dilate as his weight shifts downward into my hands, feeling out the perfect timing.

Tick.

Tick.

I explode upwards, my back and legs straightening vertically, my arms heaving into the heavens as I scoop his body upward with the force of a catapult. Rainel speeds upwards in a whirl of wind, briefly booming against my ears.

I briefly glance at the sky to confirm the right angle. I then dust my hands off, crouch down, then press my hands against the dirt covered ground.

I jump, and in the next instant, I am floating over the battlefield.

I first pick out Rainel from the view above. He’d landed square in the middle of the group of Oliviand soldiers and his six swords proliferated outwards in flowery waves of crimson blood and silvery metal.

But I was able to pick something out from the miniscule moment when he landed– Something felt slightly off about the way he landed, but I couldn’t understand what it was.

I close my eyes and pretend that I had six swords floating behind my back, the wind begins to pick up. Shouts came from the ground beneath me of enemy soldiers first noticing my presence, but all I could think about was that small disturbance I noticed from Rainel.

What is it? What is it? What is it…

I land from my initial jump after four seconds of airtime, the blood soaked dirt, sinking underneath my feet from the impact.

I stabilize myself and then…

It’s the arms. Rainel didn’t use his arms to regain his balance despite the treacherous footing. It’s not conclusive enough on its own, but combined with all the other clues I’ve–

“Ow!” I stagger sideways as a spear pierces me from the side, burying about a quarter of an inch deep before it slips out and the spearman stumbles forward.

“Fuck! Now I have to admit Rainel was right.” I grab the handle and tug the spearman straight into my fist. Their face and armor crumble like a piece of paper as I punch straight through. For a millisecond I could see her fearful eyes through her visor before my fist made contact, sending goosebumps down my spine.

Why can’t I focus?

The next person comes in. I whip the falling spear upwards, the wooden handle whipping across and breaking their necks from pure blunt force as they ragdoll to the ground.

As the end of the handle breaks and spirals off into the sky, I chuck the spear in an arbitrary direction, probably killing some more people.

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Ever since Rainel killed that hostage, and that stupid conversation we had right before. I just can’t stop thinking about it. These battles are nothing as I expected.

Stop thinking Celestia. Nothing good ever comes when you self-reflect too hard.

I don’t feel like I’m fighting right now.

Just do the very first thing that comes to your mind.

I’m just killing. Every battle since then, the feelings have only intensified.

Your virtues are useless and annoying, just move on.

…

I stomp down hard, diagonally towards the ground, snapping someone’s tibia. They trip over and tumble to the ground, clutching their calf, but they are still alive.

A second later someone runs over and slashes their throat.

So now they’re dead.

Do you really think you can maintain your indifference forever?

Soon nobody dares to attack me, opting to instead make a cautious ring around me.

“Come on! You ain’t so tough!” Some man screams at me, banging his weapon against his shield.

I stare down the soldier who taunted me, imagining a fleshy pink tail and floppy ears growing out of his head. His snout grows out into a cone shape.

A rat.

“W-What?” The rat flinches back as I stare him down, his tail wagging back and forth.

I snort. “You look ridiculous.”

“What?”

“Eh, you wouldn’t get it.” Its beady eyes widen as I rush forward, slapping away a spear thrust from the side and stepping straight into its personal space.

It tries to shield itself, but I punch straight through the metal, grabbing its chest plate, lifting it up, and slamming it against the ground.

It bounces across the ground like a rock skipping across a pond, limbs flailing around helplessly.

That helps a bit I guess. I’ll make do with that for now.

The battle eventually ends as the enemy soldiers retreat back into the surrounding forest. A ring of broken bodies surrounded the ground I stood on, and to my right. Rainel stood absolutely slathered over in blood, hunched over as his breaths came out in gasps, and…

Goodness.

Bodies upon bodies upon bodies surrounding him, there was no longer any hint of green in the foliage surrounding him, all of it had been painted over with a dark shade of red from the blood continuing to spill out into the grass and dirt.

As he stares vacantly at the retreating force I walk up to him and pat him on the back.

He jolts upon feeling my touch but lowers his shoulders and turns to me.

“This ain’t a competition ya know?” I quip. “But nice job either way.”

He looks at my pile. “And you seem to have gone too easy on them. You could have easily outdone me if you wanted to.”

I avert my eyes and look away, walking back to the city with my arms relaxed behind my head. “Didn’t want to steal the glory.”

“We appreciate your assistance, but who are you two?” An exhausted soldier walks up to us.

Rainel replies. “Don’t worry. We’re here to help.” He immediately pulls out his badge this time, learning his lesson from last time. “We're from the southern capital, but this is specially made for people who hold a position in the Lyster military.”

“Commander, sir.” The soldier bows, immediately recognizing it unlike that last person. “I’ll let the squadron know.”

“No, do not. Our presence is still somewhat of a surprise, and you don’t know who might be a rat.”

rat

“So far, you are the only one to know, so don’t go telling anybody yet, alright?” Rainel says with a small smile.

In other words, this is a threat. If the info leaks, we know who you are. Even though we’ve already told a couple of people.

”Yes… I understand. Okay, I won’t tell a soul for now.” The soldier glances at me, but decides not to ask.

“Okay, let’s go back.” Rainel says to me then hurriedly runs back.

“Huh? Ah! You still haven’t told me about your issues with Lapis!” I run after him.

Cain’s side

“So? Do you have some sort of plan?” Lapis asks me.

“Me?”

“Yes you, to be honest, I have no idea what you can do. I’ve only seen your sister do some stuff and that’s the extent of my knowledge. I can’t offer any suggestions; I can only offer some limited knowledge of the situation.” She says the same thing Rainel told me.

“Wait you said my sister? So does that mean you know who I am? And you also know what I…” I hesitate on the last word.

“Oi, I’m not that far down the chain that I’m completely clueless as to the dealings going on in the southern capital.” Lapis says.

I turn away guiltily.

Lapis sees my expression then gives an exasperated look. “The fact that you’re even here in the first place means that some misunderstanding has already been cleared up right? As long as you aren’t a flagrant enemy. I don’t know the specifics and I don’t care.”

“Huh? Oh… Okay.” So many people had treated me with hostility over the past months that I was a bit speechless after that.

Unfortunately, the next thought that popped into my mind was—

Rainel must have done something really awful to get on her bad side.

I shake my head and refocus. “Okay, I have concepts of a plan right now.” I say to Lapis who’d turned away and was talking to another captain.

“You don’t need to stop talking. I can listen to both of you at once.” Lapis quickly addresses me.

“Then, would it be an issue to set fire to the forest?” I say. “That’s where they’re all camping after all.”

“...” Lapis quiets down. “You think that would be effective?” She asks.

“Not on its own, but if there’s a way to entrap them, it could shift the tides.” I say.

Lapis looks down, deep in thought for a couple moments before finishing giving orders to the captain.

“You seem hesitant. What’s holding you back?” Lapis asks as the captain hurries away, her attention now squarely on me.

“Well, it’s just a fire. As convenient as it’d be, no one is going to willingly throw themselves into it for us. All it'd accomplish is temporarily regrouping the enemy. If we’d come before the attack, I’d think this would easily work. The fire would burn up all their tents and supplies and cause a considerable amount of chaos. Your only job would be to defend until they were exhausted.” I explain. “I just don’t know… If things are good enough right now.”

“What do you mean?” Lapis asks.

“How long do you think this city has left?” I solemnly state. “Do you think you could rebuff a last ditch attack from them? You’re only facing half of their combined force right now.” The two of us survey the battlefield after I say this, causing both of us to flinch back at the same time.

“THEY’RE GOING FOR THE COMMANDER!”

A group of two black clad soldiers had broken away from the main gate and were swiftly slicing through any opposition with their obsidian colored blades, running at us at full speed, leaving a trail of blood in their wake.

Black-armored. I draw a sharp breath as unsavory memories float up from my previous encounter.

Lapis swiftly draws her sword and stands back as swathes of soldiers try to intercept them, but too little too late as the black-armored jump into the commander’s den.

I point my hand to the sky, Tetsu boiling through my arm, ready to completely incinerate them but…

I look at Lapis. Is it worth losing our element of surprise for her?

The fire would likely take care of them, but it would then bloom into the sky, indicating my presence to the enemy.

This does not need to be a choice.

I blast Lapis to the side with an explosion of wind. Barely an instant later, the black armored sword arches straight through my arm in the spot where she stood. At the same time, a second sword bisects me from the top down.

Both of them pass harmlessly through.

I undo my fire and aim my arm down, shooting to the side with another wind blast, launching to separate the three of us in a controlled detonation. I grab Lapis as I land next to her and pull her a distance away as dozens of soldiers fill in the gap between us.

The black-armored are quickly overwhelmed by the swarm of soldiers allowing me to check in on Lapis.

“Are you okay?” I turn to her and ask worriedly.

Lapis rubs her head with one eye closed in a grimace. “I didn’t expect you to do that, so I hit my head harder than I needed to. You should deal with your arm though.”

I look down to see blood leaking down my hand, a large gash opening up on the forearm I pushed Lapis away with.

I cringe. Cutting it a little close there. If I hadn’t transitioned between wind and fire Tetsu fast enough, my arm would be feeling a lot lighter right now.

I continue staring at my arm however, thinking about something else as the blood drips down.

Hold on. This may work.