As the morning sunlight rose amidst the trees, Leona was hiking uphill in order to train her stamina and endurance. Her only company was the ever unimpressed Robert walking beside her at a brisk pace.
“Ugh… huff…” It was only about a fifth of the way and she was already gasping for air. “How is this training for a mage?!”
The man on the other hand seemed to be doing well, even walking backwards to look at her.
“Well, unless you master flight or true teleportation, you’ll be stuck using your legs so might as well train them while you can’t practice in the inner world.”
“Goddess preserve me, I knew I’d be training, but does it have to be uphill of all things?!”
“Good training is one you won’t soon forget. It’s the same for your body, the harsher the training, the quicker your body is forced to adapt.”
“Isn’t this too intense though?!”
“I’ll heal you if you break something.”
“That’s not the point!”
Seeing how it was pointless to argue with him, she decided to focus on climbing the mountain. The path wasn’t exactly great, but there was a clear trail that had seen considerable use despite being through the middle of dense vegetation.
‘Right, he did mention both Yuna and Setsuna used to train like this too.’ She recalled. ‘Though does that mean they were using magic to make it easier?’
She focused momentarily as she gathered mana around her body before sending said mana directly to her legs. However, her spell was instantly dispelled the moment she tried to use wind magic.
“No cheating Leona.” Robert had snapped his fingers. “This is physical training, using mana as a shortcut is a no-go.”
“Tsk. Do you expect me to climb this by sheer might alone?”
“Yes, as I said, if you desperately need healing, I’ll heal you, but otherwise you’ll have to force yourself to keep moving.”
Instead of complaining, she simply shook her head slightly before continuing on with the climb. The steep incline coupled with the uneven terrain made hell for her legs to carry the rest of her weight.
They kept going for almost an hour, but the pace slowed ever so slightly for every minute they hiked.
“Huff…” She used the tip of her staff to relieve a bit of the strain on her legs but the trail was proving to be more difficult than she expected. “Did both your daughters do this trail every single day?”
He seemed disinterested when replying to her.
“Yes. It’s important for both the body and mind to be aligned with their goals.”
She stopped and reeled over as she was catching her breath.
“Ha… goals?”
“If they want to be independent, they need to be able to look after themselves.” He flicked his hand open and various elemental orbs started to rotate around the top of his palm. “In this lawless world, might makes it right. Be with magic or strength, if you’re strong, there is nothing to fear.”
“Ugh…” She swallowed dry as she tried to speak. Her saliva felt thick inside her mouth. “You say it’s a lawless world, but you don’t seem to be doing whatever you please just because you are strong.”
“You seem to be misunderstanding something, Leona.” The way he spoke felt different which made her look at him in his eyes. “I am doing as I please. Training you here, keeping those three alive, looking after my daughters—this is all so I don’t have any regrets when I finally am able to part from this world. Promises may seem ridiculous for someone as long lived as I, but it is what differs a human from a beast.” He closed his hand tightly and the orbs dissipated. “That is something the other ‘me’ didn’t realize.”
She averted her gaze towards the ground as she continued to ask.
“This ‘other you’ you keep mentioning. Did you come from this other place like Avalon did?”
He chuckled sourly.
“No, I’m from this world, well, not really. But I’m from this timeline. The other ‘me’ got himself killed before he could accomplish anything significant. Instead, he helped Lastraeous in the end.” He tightened his fists, further making them red. “The fool aided what he wanted to destroy. I won’t commit the same mistake.”
“...who came from this other ‘timeline’ you speak of?”
“I wouldn’t be upholding my promise if I told you.” He laughed it off. “Come on, keep on climbing. Climb until you fall and when you do, I’ll heal you for you to keep going.”
“You really are unbearable at times.” She raised the staff and looked at the trail ahead of her. “This is going to take a while…”
Back on the top of the mountain, Krieg was holding his training sword and shield while Setsuna stood slightly behind him with her hands on his exposed back.
“Slowly breathe in.” She instructed. “I’ll release a bit of my mana so focus on this specific point on your back.”
“Understood.”
He closed his eyes and began to inhale. At the same time, Setsuna’s palms felt warm on his back. The tingling sensation spread throughout his back to his entire body like it was all connected to the center of his being.
“Can you feel the warmth?”
“Yes.”
“Now, imagine it becoming one with your skin.”
He focused on the image she provided but he just couldn’t picture it in his mind. Every time he attempted to do it the warm sensation simply disappeared. He kept trying a few more times before he finally spoke.
“...Lady Setsuna, I don’t think this is working.”
He lifted his head and looked at her over his shoulder. She had a faint smile as she asked.
“Is there anything that makes you angry or distressed when you think about it?”
He stopped for a second—staring blankly before answering.
“I… can’t bear the thought of any harm befalling Leona.”
“Very well, for now, try to imagine in your mind that you must, no matter what, save her.” She tapped on his back once. “Please try again with this in mind.”
“...very well.”
“Here goes…”
Once again, he closed his eyes as the gentle warmth spread throughout his body. This time however, he imagined the fateful day in Londria when he had to go toe to toe against a drastically changed half death angel Jakob. The fight he had to give his all in order to keep the beast’s claws away from his liege.
Suddenly a surge of hatred and anger began to boil from below his stomach, a strange empowering heat bursted from his body and his skin began to tingle as if scalding water was thrown on him.
“That’s it!” Setsuna exclaimed as she took a step back. “Now! Come!”
The knight attacked her the moment her hands left his back. Setsuna dodged the tip of the training blade by a hair’s breadth.
‘Ugh!’ She took an extra step back but he started to charge at her in a relentless pursuit of slashes. ‘So this is the so-called next level of mana reinforcement.’
His skin was glistering with the familiar blue sheen from mana as he unleashed a flurry of attacks directed at Setsuna who was able to keep up with his speed thanks to her own mana reinforcement.
Krieg’s crimson red eyes had a murderous glint to them as he was mostly attacking without any regard to his own safety. Setsuna thought of exploiting such aggressiveness with one of her fastest spells. Like before, she pointed her staff a bit in front of her and released a runic spell with water and ice combined which quickly created a puddle of ice.
However, unlike before, Krieg simply smashed the patch with a heavy stomp and brought his training sword into a rising slash. Seeing how there was little time to dodge, she was about to use her staff when a loud smack echoed through the training grounds. The training sword was stopped by a sheathed blade wielded by Miyamoto.
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“Haaargh!”
Krieg quickly followed up with his left hand into a haymaker towards the swordmaster’s head but it was easily dodged before Miyamoto rotated his sword around Krieg’s training blade and struck at his legs. However, the attack did nothing if not grab his attention as he raised his left hand and punched at the swordmaster.
Miyamoto rolled the side and the sheer force of the impact left the ground with visible cracks under Krieg’s fist.
Both the swordmaster and Setsuna stood side-by-side as they were now forced to put the training on hold until they subdued him.
“Hmm… I don’t know what exactly happened but…” Miyamoto muttered under his breath. “...this is awfully familiar when his mother decided to not play around anymore.”
“What kind of life did you lead?”
“A very eventful one.” He adjusted the grip on the hilt of his blade. “We have to tire him out.”
“Right… I’ll support you. Try to not get hit.”
“Hah.” He chuckled. “This is nothing compared to his mother.”
He pointed the blade at him and started to inch closer while maintaining his stance. Setsuna on the other hand began to quietly chant while holding her staff against her left hand.
“Aaaargh!”
Krieg let out a bellowing roar as he charged at full speed against Miyamoto. The frenzied knight rushed him down with a wild horizontal swing that could certainly cripple even with a training sword—however, the swordmaster’s movements were quick and fluid as he parried the horizontal attack and ducked under his arm before smacking him lightly on the back of the head, which did nothing if not enrage him further.
While Miyamoto successfully drew Krieg away, Setsuna finished preparing her spell as she pointed her staff charged with mana at the knight.
“Rise o platinum great wyrm, rob life of warmth as thou turn flesh to ice! Entomb!”
A burst of ice shards suddenly took a hold of Krieg’s movements. At first he simply shattered them by swinging his foot forward, but more and more shards began to grow out of the broken ones before it encased him completely.
“Hmm…” Miyamoto casually approached the ice shaped coffin before knocking twice against it with his left hand. “It won’t hold him for long.”
“I… I know…” Setsuna spoke tiredly. “I just wanted to gather my thoughts. He shouldn’t have been sent into a frenzy just by using mana reinforcement…”
“His mother was similar to that aspect.” He took a step back and cracked his neck twice by tilting his head left then right. “She would become increasingly irritable the more time she spent without letting her mana run amok.”
After taking a deep breath, Setsuna began to draw mana from the environment around her in order to restore her own reserves. A light blue sheen could be seen gathering around her ankles and wrists as the very air seemed to siphon towards her limbs.
“Was his mother a direct descendant of the silver dragon?” She asked while concentrating on fueling her reserves. “Because the amount of mana he can wield and the rate at which he recovers it is unlike anything I've ever seen before.”
“She was one of her children.” He looked at Krieg with a nostalgic gaze. “Her strength was unlike anything in this world.”
“Hmm…” After recomposing herself, Setsuna adjusted the grip on her staff and took a deep breath. “Very well. I’ll have to change my approach to his training, but for now let’s focus on getting him back to normal.”
Miyamoto looked over his shoulder as the ice encasing Krieg began to crack.
“Yeah. Let’s.”
It didn’t take too long for the ice to finally shatter and free the knight within. His skin was smoldering with heat as the water from the melted ice was quickly evaporating throughout his exposed body. His eyes were still glistening with the same murderous glare as he recklessly charged at Setsuna.
“Miyamoto!”
She called as she hopped backwards.
“Leave it to me.” He stood in front of her before raising his blade in front of his body. “Grant me strength! Yoshitsune!”
A dark miasma started seeping out of the sheathed blade to envelop the swordmaster’s arms. He stood his ground even though Krieg was charging at him.
“Aaaaargh!”
The knight swung down with his training blade as hard as he could, but thanks to Miyamoto’s increased strength he managed to stop the weapon which resulted in the once magically sturdy wooden blade to snap in half. However, despite his weapon breaking, Krieg simply used the momentum of his body to wind up a left straight punch which landed right on Miyamoto’s right forearm.
“Ugh!”
There was so much strength behind it that it was able to launch him off his feet several meters into the forest behind him.
Just as the swordmaster was flung backwards, Setsuna pointed her staff at Krieg and shouted.
“Wind Barrage!”
Multiple magical wind bullets started to shoot out from a hexagon pattern around her staff which started to relentlessly pelt against Krieg’s body.
“Raaargh!”
Despite his strength, the dirt ground worked against him as it couldn’t generate enough friction to keep him in place and instead he was being pushed back by the sheer amount of spells that were being thrown at him.
“Hmm…” She muttered under her breath. “Come to think of it, this is closer to a dragon’s aspect rather than mana reinforcement…”
Her thoughts were interrupted once Miyamoto climbed out of the bushes and stood by her side once again.
“Good thing I had Yoshitsune’s power otherwise that would’ve broken my arm.”
She briefly checked on him from the corner of her eye before focusing back on the spells she was using.
“How does he hold up compared to his mother?”
She asked without taking her eyes off Krieg who just seemed annoyed by the quantity of spells being thrown at him.
“He can’t hold a candle to her.” He chuckled. “Had she punched me the way he did, it would have easily ripped the entire limb off. Though I can safely assure you, this is more than enough to deal with most things in Arcadia.”
“You mean regular humans.”
“Close enough.”
“Aaaaaargh!”
Miyamoto shifted his attention to the roaring knight and noticed he was winding up his fist which prompted him to step forward with his sheathed blade pointed at him.
Krieg slammed his fist into the ground, creating a curtain of dust that temporarily hid his silhouette. The wind bullets pierced through the dust but didn’t hit a target which made Setsuna instinctively look up as a shadow loomed over her.
The knight had jumped above the dust and was bringing both arms down into a slam directed at her.
“No you won’t!”
Miyamoto stepped forward and swung his sheathed blade upwards, catching Krieg’s arms as he redirected the knight to the side. At that point, Setsuna also pointed her staff at him and shouted.
“Wind Blast!”
A powerful gust of green mana circumvented Miyamoto and hit her target square in the chest.
Her magic in combination with the swordmaster’s parry was enough to launch Krieg backwards a few meters into the dirt.
“Ugh!”
At that point, Setsuna stabbed the ground with her staff and shouted.
“Maelstrom!”
Borrowing the technique from Leona, she turned the dirt ground beneath the knight into quicksand.
“Aaaaargh!”
Despite his strength, the slush ground quickly started to drag him down and just as his shoulders were engulfed by the dirt—Setsuna once again shouted with her staff still embedded in the ground.
“Fire Wall!”
The quicksand instantly turned into stone as the sudden spike in temperature solidified it. Despite his strength, the sheer pressure of the ground was enough to contain Krieg while showing no signs of breaking.
Setsuna finally let out a sigh of relief.
“Now I just need to ask Father to drain this excessive mana…” She lifted the staff off the ground before looking at the swordmaster. “Say, how were you able to marry a descendant of a dragon?”
“His mother? She was a retainer of a good friend of mine.” He sat down and placed the sheathed sword on his lap. “He would go on and on how she and I could achieve great things together.”
“You two unified many warring states under a kingdom. It’s nothing short of amazing.”
Despite how excited she looked to talk about it he instead looked downward with a bitter smile.
“We had one of the mightiest armies in the continent, only for it to fall short once they arrived…”
“Death angels.” A male voice rang from amidst the trees to their right. A brown short haired man that shared a similar build to Miyamoto just walked in the training grounds. “Hello, I couldn’t help but overhear the conversation. Why the history lesson all of the sudden?”
“Father?” Setsuna raised an eyebrow. “Weren’t you training Miss Leona?”
The moment she mentioned the tactician’s name, she plopped out of a bush beside the man and fell face first into the ground with the staff landing beside her. She was clearly out of strength.
“As you can see, she’s here.” Robert motioned at the collapsed woman with his open palm. “Oh? What do we have here?”
He walked to the buried Krieg in the middle of the training grounds.
“He went berserk when he tried to use mana reinforcement.” His daughter explained while approaching the collapsed Leona before lifting her back and pointing her right hand near her face. “Heal.”
A calming green aura enveloped her body slowly recovering her body.
“Ngh…” Leona grunted from pain. “Why does it feel worse than before…?”
“It’s called recovery pain.” Robert explained as he kneeled beside a very angry Krieg. “Healing magic aids the body in reconstructing bone, blood, tissue and nerves as long as it’s not dead. However, that does make you experience the pain from recovery all the more vivid.”
“In layman’s terms please.” Leona clutched the side of her head. “Gods, this is awful.”
“Healing magic mends the body, but it doesn’t mean you won’t experience the pain of recovery. Hence, recovery pain.”
“Right…”
Robert pointed his finger at Krieg and chanted.
“Mana Drain.” Black tendrils shot out of his fingertips as they began to siphon mana from the knight’s body towards his body.
Despite trying to fight back against it, Krieg was powerless to do anything and simply passed out right afterwards.
After both Leona and Setsuna stood up the shrine maiden decided to ask.
“What did I do wrong? I thought using mana reinforcement would be a good first step to take in order to train him further…”
“Did you make him use some of his mana before attempting it?” Robert asked as he scratched the underside of his chin. “Because this is more like a dragon aspect rather than reinforcement.”
“Oh… I didn’t think of that…” Setsuna frowned her brows as she tilted her head downward before uttering under her breath. “Dammit.”
“It’s alright.” Robert stood up and went over her before patting her head lightly. “You learned a valuable lesson and Krieg was able to vent some frustration.”
Leona looked at Krieg who was just a head popping out of the ground.
‘He’s doing his best while I’m still struggling with this…’
She picked up her staff from the ground and decided to turn back. Robert glanced at her and asked.
“Leaving so soon?”
She stopped and tilted her head to the side as she answered.
“I need to train more. I can’t let Krieg be the only one pulling his weight here.”
With sharp focused eyes, she started to climb down the mountain.