“I believe it’s arrogant to pray for a favor. Prayer should be reserved for seeking forgiveness.”
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I leaped off the ground, my draconic claws digging through the dirt, and my wings beating hard enough to nearly tear out of their sockets. I saw Rem turn her head around mid-air, perhaps hearing my roar of protective outrage. Her eyes grew wide in their sockets— something I’d never forget.
The tip of the miasma nearly reached Rem, who still hadn’t bothered to bring out her horns. For one briefly agonizing moment, I realized I couldn’t reach her in time. I saw what would play out, how the trajectory of the witch’s miasma would reach Rem before I could. My heart dropped; my resolve nearly crumbled.
But, Rem was smiling at me, smiling at her hero. Her face showed the most sacred of truths— she never doubted that I could save her. She knew I’d never give up until she was safe.
At that moment, I knew that I didn’t have to reach the miasma. Despite being nearly out of breath, roaring as I had been, I still managed to pull from somewhere deep inside of me— Rem’s near presence giving me the strength to protect her.
My resolve redoubled. I felt a surge of power build deep within my chest. My throat hummed as the flames coiled and rose, licking against my teeth as they got close to being unleashed. As I opened my maw, the purple inferno burst free with the last of my final exhale. The feral roar so immense it made the air against my wings vibrate from the pressure. For a fleeting moment, something about my draconic instincts reveled in the chaos of destruction, the very air before me destroyed anywhere my flames touched.
And yet, these were a gentle inferno, too— a tightly controlled beam bound to my will, unable to harm that most precious treasure. Rem watched the flames pass by her face with an open mouth, the deep purple void reflecting through her eyes, but never once licking against her skin.
My flames impacted against the miasma just before they reached my Rem— the mists pushing and bunching up against a wall of utter annihilation.
Then Rem was off, her previous flight path accelerating her out of the battle, my flames only needing to protect her for that single eternal instant.
My body barreled into the miasma a moment later, dispersing the last of the column that had been reaching for Rem.
“I hate her. I hate her. I hate her.” The mists whispered all around me, the hate raw and jealous, Satella’s tone completely unhinged.
I only had to hold her off for a few moments until my favorite spirit could arrive. “Don’t worry, Satella.” The mist seemed to point itself in my direction at those words. “Sometime after this, I’ll find you underneath the tower and save you. Be patient until then, okay?” Then I flapped my wings, once again soaring into the witch’s mists.
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“Hm! Subaru should not have left Betty alone, I suppose!” She stomped her foot petulantly.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah, quit yer yappin’! Cain’t ya see we got bigger fish ta fry!?”
Betty looked toward the violet-haired girl riding on a giant hippo, the mabeast itself easily just as tall as the village homes around it.
“Surely, you haven’t forgotten about me?” Elsa Granhert spoke from off to the right.
Betty kept her eyes on her opponent, the violet-haired mabeast controller. “You’ll have to deal with the vampire, I suppose. Subaru said you could take care of her, in fact.”
“Ya don’ hafta tell me that. But, I ain’t gonna be able ta protect ya either, got it? This woman is fixin’ ta take all my attention. I ain’t got time ta take care of a brat like you.”
“Betty is not a child, in fact!” She felt indignation crawling up her chest just from the idea of this ruffian talking down to her like that. Where did he get permission to speak to Betty like that? To speak to a greater spirit like that?
“If you two are done talking, then I guess we can get started~?” The bowel hunter brandished her wickedly curved purple knives, sunlight reflecting in a shine off the polished blade. “Ah,” Elsa moaned, “I can’t wait to find out if spirits have guts, too!”
“Too bad, yer opponent is me.”
“Betty will leave it to you, I suppose. Just don’t get in my way.”
“I could say the same thing ta you! Oi, Elsa. Ain’t no one that can run from Reinhard.” Then, Garfiel leaped forward, Betty hearing him clash against Elsa somewhere to her right, but Betty would not be so foolish as to take her eyes off of her own opponent. The half-breed would have to take care of himself.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“Hm! How arrogant to compare yourself to the sword saint, in fact!"
“Not that I’m disagreeing with you, but isn’t he your ally?” The girl Subaru called, ‘Meili,’ spoke up from atop her hippo mabeast.
Betty had not been idle all this time. And luckily for her, this Meili girl was happy to sit and watch while Betty prepared the battlefield. The Sweet Home’s portal opened above the girl, invisible to everyone on the battlefield except Betty.
“Taking care of you will take no longer than thirty seconds, I suppose. Maid, grab the girl, I suppose.”
Meili cocked her head in confusion but prepared to shout something at her mabeasts regardless. Betty smiled since it was already far too late for that.
A slender arm wrapped in a black and white sleeve reached out from the portal, Meili finally noticing something happening above her head as she glanced upward to look. The hand grasped around the back of Meili’s shirt lightning fast and yanked the girl up and through the portal in the sky.
“Meili!” Elsa shouted somewhere to Betty’s right.
Then, a clash of blade against claw rang out, followed by more shouts, “Don’ take yer eyes off me!”
Betty raised her cute arm high into the sky and called upon her Yin, “El Minya!” Purple shards formed in the sky, raining down a moment later. Every mabeast the shards touched instantly turned into that same purple crystal, crumbling or shattering moments later.
“Hm! Too easy, in fact.”
The Sweet Home’s portal opened once again, this time both of Subaru’s Oni maids walking out. The red-haired one had both of her shiny new horns out and on display, a wooden wand in one hand. The blue-haired one had that strange flail, the chain so long it had to be looped around a few times so as not to drag on the ground.
“Where’s Subaru?” The blue-haired one asked immediately.
“Hm! Off that way, I suppose.” Betty pointed to her left, where distant roars could be heard from.
The blue-haired maid immediately dashed off in a run, not bothering to wait and learn anything more about the situation.
“And you? Will you also go running off immediately, I wonder?”
“Barusu can handle himself.” The pink-haired maid looked up into the sky.
Betty followed her gaze, only to see fresh storm clouds forming in the distance, almost directly above Sanctuary.
“Something is happening in Sanctuary. Can you feel the magic?” The pink-haired one asked.
“Yes, I suppose. How odd. Is there anyone capable of this level of magic back in Sanctuary, I wonder?”
The pink-haired maid grit her teeth, the sound grating against Betty’s precious ears. “Roswaal,” she whispered, almost too quiet to hear. “I’m going.” Then, the pink-haired maid was off, too, a plume of dust in her wake— Running with the wind itself bolstering her movement.
“Hm!” Betty pouted. Her Subaru had once said something or another about the insatiable hare, that memory suddenly surfacing in her mind. “The storm in the distance... Surely not?” Betty was tempted to follow after the pink-haired maid— to take care of the insatiable hare as her contractor had hoped she would. But, her magic was incredibly limited without her contractor holding her hand.
“Stupid Subaru,” Betty grumbled under her breath, “Next time, Betty won’t let him go off by himself, I suppose!” Betty resolved. It was just like her idiot Subaru to go running off by himself. She’d have to correct that behavior going forward.
Betty looked back at the fight going on between Garfiel and Elsa. She could help Garfiel, but it looked like he still had it handled— despite all the scratches on his body. If anything, he just looked even more pissed off than he had been before.
It was a good thing Betty had not gone running off to Sanctuary, since the blue-haired maid came running back through the forest moments later, a panicked expression on her face. “Beatrice-sama! Subaru-kun needs you!”
“Hah! Finally, that dull-headed man has figured that much out, at least!”
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Ram sprinted through the trees, her feet only pausing for the briefest moment between strides necessary to push off the ground as fast as she possibly could; the wind bolstered each of her running leaps. Her Oni-prowess allowed her to practically jump through the forest, halfway flying more than running, really. She did the bare minimum to make sure no tree branches or bushes crashed into her as she soared through the forest floor. The few unlucky pieces of shrubbery that got in her way evaporated as she ran right through them, hardly paying the tiny stings any attention at all.
Her horns ached atop her skull, the density of magic in the area increasing by double for every stride forward she made. I’m sorry, Emilia-sama, Barusu, Ram thought to herself, But if there’s even a slight chance that Roswaal is causing this...
She tried not to hold onto that hope too fiercely, the pain of seeing Roswaal’s headless corpse still fresh in her mind. She knew it was impossible; he couldn’t still be alive. She’d seen his body with her own eyes. But if that were the case, who was channeling this massive amount of magic? It had to be him. It couldn’t possibly be him. These two thoughts tore through Ram’s already fragile psyche, clashing against each other until nothing remained in her head but the single-minded drive to sprint through the forest.
Distantly, far out past the trees surrounding Sanctuary, Ram saw an old ruin in her mind’s eye—
Ram’s clairvoyance allowing her to see through the forest animal’s eyes. That ruin was the source of the magic, and thus, it was Ram’s destination.
Ram just hoped Barusu wouldn’t be too angry when he found out she didn’t go try to help Emilia. Ram prayed that Emilia would be able to keep herself and the villagers safe in her stead.
An eternity later— Only a minute or two later, Ram skidded to a halt in front of that cliffside ruin. The heavy amount of mana in the air tingled against her skin and ran hot through her horns. If the Insatiable Hare wasn’t already here, it would be soon. Barusu always did have a knack for knowing about those kinds of things.
Ram brandished her wand in her right hand, pointing it straight into the dark entrance. It took all of the willpower inside of her tense body not to call out— to plead, beg, and cry for a healthy Roswaal to come walking out of the ruins.
After a moment of tense silence, Ram stepped forward past the threshold into the ruins. The dark, cold, and damp stone hallway led to a much brighter room, a giant blue crystal lighting up the entire area. She saw etches all across the stone, runic symbols for a massive ritual. She watched as the carvings flared with power, Ram easily able to make out the handwriting of her old master.
Ram fell to her knees and sobbed.