The grinding sound of moving stone was barely perceptible, not even echoing in the tight space, before the dusty corridor suddenly had a new occupant.
Elsa, the infamous Bowel Hunter, wasted no time. She sprinted through the empty corridor at her full speed, yet her heels made no noise at all on the stone floor. Perhaps she was equipped with a sound-dampening metia, or perhaps she was simply so light on her feet that moving silently came as second nature to her.
Despite the speed at which she moved, her face bore the same relaxed expression, showing no signs that infiltrating the palace of a foreign nation unnerved her.
Suddenly, the silence was interrupted, as the ground under her feet began to rumble.
Spiderweb cracks formed in a large diameter directly below the raven-haired woman, the floor itself beginning to give way.
It was no trap.
Elsa Greinhart would never be so clumsy as to activate a tripwire.
Not to mention, the location she was in, at the top of a stairwell leading to the cellars, was well-traveled enough that a trap placed there would be dangerous.
It wasn’t all that far down, but the hole that opened was still deep enough that no ordinary individual would be able to survive the fall, and yet the Bowel Hunter’s smile never wavered for a moment.
Executing a series of dizzying but graceful movements, the woman danced in the air, kicking off the debris falling around her to launch herself sideways, away from the rest of the rubble.
She landed in a crouch, swiftly drawing both of her kukri blades, her eyes flicking over her surroundings. She didn’t slow for a moment, dashing through the darkness towards the figure of a person, her blades held at the ready, her smile deepening.
Clang.
Julius’s blade easily deflected the blow, and sent the assassin skidding back from the resistance.
“It seems Lady Crusch’s suspicions on the secret passage the assassin would take were correct,” Julius observed, a stern look on his face. “I did not believe that I would have the pleasure to meet you again so soon, Elsa Greinhart.”
“Should the pleasure not be mine?” Elsa asked in amusement, twirling her blades. “I do believe that you were the one who chose to cut our dance short.”
“You had caught me at a poor time, I'm afraid,” Julius said, raising his new blade even as multi-colored light danced on its edge. “This time I have no such limitations.”
“Normally I’d savor such a rare treat,” Elsa said, her smile fading slightly. “However I’m afraid I have an appointment to keep, so I’ll have to keep this short. Please use that time to make this as memorable as possible.”
“An understandable request. I too am under time constraints,” Julius agreed and yet made no move forward, eyes locked on hers.
“Forcing a lady to make the first move? Not the most knightly of actions.” Elsa said, shaking her head. Then she launched herself forward, swinging her blades with sudden savagery.
“I am simply allowing you to set the pace,” Julius said, narrowing his eyes slightly as he took a step forward to launch his own counter-attack.
Unable to take the strain of matching even the beginnings of Julius’s techniques, Elsa’s blade keened as he broke through one to land a fatal blow, and yet even as her body fell, Julius did not allow his guard to waver. He kicked off the ground sending himself backwards, even as Elsa swung her remaining blade with wild abandon.
“Such a wound would be fatal to any ordinary individual,” Julius observed, watching as her flesh rippled, her wound rapidly regenerating. He’d mistaken such healing for Water Magic at first, but now with a longer time to observe, he could see that it was nothing so benign.
“Then it is good that I am no longer such an individual I suppose,” Elsa said with a hint of melancholy in her tone as she withdrew a new kukri blade.
“Surely you cannot expect to best me as you are now,” Julius said. “Even if you can recover from such injuries, I do not believe that it would come easily. Will you not surrender?”
“I believe that you underestimate the amount of damage you will need to cause,” Elsa replied, reading herself to dash forward once more.
“El Goa,” Julius began, sadness dancing in his eyes even as he swung his blade to release a probing fireball that Elsa barely dodged, leaving her to once more suffer a fatal injury at his blade.
She didn’t allow the injury to slow her down, and surged forward to swing at the knight once more, but if the first time had surprised and pushed him back, in the second, the finest knight showed no signs of retreat. Instead, his blade lit up brilliantly as Ia and Alo worked together.
“Fell Goa!” Julius declared, eyes filled with resolve as the powerful firestorm took shape, allowing no escape. Its power was enough to melt even steel and was by far the strongest Fire spell he could create. Powered by two elements working in unison, it was a spell few could come close to matching.
Julius locked eyes with Elsa, watching as her body started to melt away. Her eyes were one of the first things to go, seeming to turn pure white before bursting into flames, her skin following soon after, slouching off her bones and blackening in the heat.
She still fought on, her burning skeleton attempting to walk towards him, her muscle tissue trying in vain to regenerate to keep herself walking, but all that did was put her closer to the intense heat the fire produced. Within seconds, even the bones and her kukuri themselves started to melt, and the skeleton fell, unable to move anymore.
Closing his eyes, he prayed that the dark-haired murderess's end was as painless as possible. It would be more than she granted her victims, but a true knight could not afford to indulge in sadism.
He’d never used this technique against a human being before, and had hoped to guarantee a far less painful execution method. But if the beginnings of Al Clauseria hadn’t proved any more effective than a normal stab, then it was unlikely that even bringing its full power would make the difference.
Ferris had said that against a regenerating foe, his best bet was to use the element of Fire, and so he had turned to the most powerful fire technique he had created, something he had few opportunities to test out, Fell Goa.
Slowly stepping towards the blackened Skeleton, small flames still clinging to its form, he reached towards its eye sockets, Ia already preparing to shield him from the intense heat.
Performing such a seemingly meaningless action was a formality he knew many of the other knights disregarded, and to perform such an action on a corpse he’d butchered made the guilty feeling he felt intensify. But he pushed those feelings aside, as he allowed himself a moment of solemnity for the life he’d been forced to end.
He refused to believe that it was wrong for any true knight to show even the worst murderers some solace, and it was such acts that drove him to follow his dream to its end.
Against a creature such as Elsa Granhiert, however, such chivalry would only lead to further hardship.
The skeleton lunged at him.
Its burning claws tore through his defensive barrier of wind in an instant, sinking into his flesh, hissing as the heat caused his blood to boil. They scraped against his reinforced rib cage, cracking it, but failing to tear through entirely.
The force of the blow still sent Julius flying back. His blade tore through the bricked stone in an attempt to slow him down, but his momentum was great enough he was still forced back several feet. Julius shook his head forcing back the dizziness and ignoring the touches of black at the edge of his vision.
Raising his eyes towards where the skeleton once lay, he watched breathless as its form cracked as it forced itself into a proper posture once more, even as impossibly muscle, blood and flesh started to form around it, the newly formed claws flexing.
“What a thoughtful gesture, even I wasn’t expecting such emotion,” Elsa said with a deep blush, smiling at him, as the regeneration first seemed to target her face. It quickly spread though, if at a slightly slower pace, even as the ashes, blood and flesh formed in a disgusting mix, sending Julius’s stomach turning.
“How—?” Julius asked, only to be cut off by a coughing fit. He could feel liquid in his mouth, too viscous to be spit.
Blood.
For it to be surfacing this fast, his internal organs must have been injured severely.
Kua desperately tried to keep blood from filling his lungs and escaping his body. In’s power faded from his blade as he felt his Yang Spirit desperately muster her remaining power to keep his body active. Already, the majority of her power had been spent preventing the blow from tearing him in half.
Ake desperately gathered as much mana as she could for the two sisters, as they quickly surpassed the limit his gate could provide.
Ia, Alo and Nes clammored for his attention, begging for him to run away, even if in their heart of hearts, they doubted such an attempt would be feasible.
“That hasn’t been the first time I’ve been burned alive, even if most have not been so thorough. Unfortunately, it will take far more than that to kill me, even if you have destroyed my favorite tools,” Elsa said as she dashed towards him.
In comparison to their prior clash, Julius found Elsa was even faster now not weighted down with her signature blades, but while she had proven skilled with a blade, he found that she proved less so now that she was attacking with her claws.
Even without the additional strength and speed In provided, he found himself outmaneuvering her and landing numerous telling blows.
His blade once more burning with fire, Ia launched the fireball at the woman's face, destroying her features once more. His gate burned as it continued to provide its maximum output to Kua, as she prevented his blood from leaving his body despite his quick movements. Such were his wounds that even if he allowed himself to rest, Kua would have been hard-pressed to save his life.
Against such an onslaught? Where every movement threatened to reopen his wounds, even as Julius pushed himself harder in order to keep up with Elsa’s supernatural speed? Kua was being hard-pressed to simply keep him moving.
No longer hindered by needing to provide a facade, the burning skeleton continued to move fluidly, as it launched rapid strikes, as she continued to charge at the increasingly haggard Knight, who should have been filled with despair at his inevitable death. Yet in the finest knights eyes, resolve continued to burn as he met each strike with all of his spirit.
Yet even in such a state, Julius cautioned his spirit with caution as he gave ground, towards his foe, in order to prevent himself from being overwhelmed. Already he’d landed several telling blows, but an enemy that could essentially ignore his strikes to land even a glancing one of their own, would allow even the most unskilled of enemies to eventually triumph, and it was a testament to the finest knights skills that he’d lasted this long.
Only a bit longer, Alo, In, I entrust everything to you.
Eyes never losing the light of determination, Julius continued his deadly dance with the fearsome Bowel Hunter.
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It took all the determination he could muster, but even as the minutes passed and his spirits strained to keep up, Julius never wavered keeping his full attention on his foe, but in time his faith was rewarded.
Returned. Area ready.
Julius nodded as Alo and Ia returned from the mission he had assigned them. They had been reluctant to leave him even for the short duration and considering his current state, he certainly couldn’t blame them. Still this could be the key to his victory.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
“I’m afraid that this battlefield won’t do for the conclusion of our battle,” Julius hissed, as he threw himself backwards and shifted so that he could start to sprint towards the trap they’d created.
He’d considered if he could manage to trick the woman into following him, but considering the distance, it just wasn’t a feasible option.
Better to gamble on the fixation she’d shown, and trust that she would come after him.
Based on Nes’s report, Elsa hasn’t taken the chance to return to her mission but was right behind him instead. He took a moment to thank his Yin spirit for the information, even without the sound dampening metia the woman was absurdly quiet for a burning skeleton, if not for his spirit he wouldn’t even be sure Elsa was still with him.
In less than half a minute they reached their destination, in the form of a room burning bright with an inferno hot enough that without Ia’s protection he’d die in seconds.
Such was the product of both Ia and Alo’s mission, they had found a room full of flammable objects and then created a small but intense fire, and steadily fed it more items until it was one of the most intense fires he had ever come across. Fire mana drifted from the air in waves, easily visible to a spiritualist of his capability.
“Is this where our duel will conclude?” Elsa asked, voice rising and falling as her lungs were repeatedly destroyed.
“It is,” Julius confirmed. “Thank you for playing along and not forcing me to chase you.”
“After all the fun you’ve provided me, it’s the least I can do to repay you.” Elsa said dashing towards him, uncaring of the intensifying blaze that was forming around him.
“Then allow me to show you something that I created solely for you” Julius shouted as he created a feedback of power. Rather than generate his own heat solely through his mana, Julius channeled the Fire Mana that this room provided in ample qualities, even as Alo intensified it by funneling all of his own mana into wind.
Fell Goa grew in power until he felt as if he was holding a small star, the only source of light in the area as it consumed all that produced heat to produce something that was more than the sum of its parts.
“This is goodbye, Elsa,” Julius announced, closing his eyes.
Ia, Kua, Alo, Ake, Nes, In, thank you so much for putting up with me for all these years. Every day with you for the last decade has been a treasure, and when I first became a knight I worried that the additional workload would put a strain on our relationship. Instead, you’ve amazed me by how much you’ve grown despite my knighthood.
I know that one day you’ll all bloom into some of the finest spirits imaginable. Most of all thank you for always putting up with my selfish requests, and putting value into things like Lugunica simply because I asked you to. I hope that one day, that all of you can discover the value such things can bring yourselves. Even if this is the end, I will not shame the blossoms you will one day become.
“Fell Goa!” Julius shouted as he released the energy gathered.
The air itself caught ablaze as the superheated torrent of energy rushed towards a surprised Elsa, not even pausing as it devoured her whole, easily melting the stone and cement around it, as it triggered a domino effect, causing the floor itself to collapse.
Julius felt himself slump, as darkness crept in his vision, but he fought the comforting darkness off. If this was to be his end then he wanted to see it with his own eyes.
Yet if this was his fate, he found himself satisfied. He’d defended his Kingdom to the end, and managed to defeat a dangerous foe. He could leave the rest to Reinhard, Fourier and Ferris, his dear friends, and he knew that his spirits would grow even without him.
Feeling an abrupt stop to his fall, his closing eyes reopened in surprise to see His Majesty’s face, as he realized the slimmer man had launched himself into the air to catch him.
Deftly avoiding the falling debris, the royal used the nearby ones as platforms, pushing himself further away from the collapsing room and ensuring the final fall was as gentle as possible to avoid aggravating Julius’s wounds.
“I don’t recall giving you my permission to get this badly wounded, Julius.” Fourier said crimson eyes blazing with fury, even as he never stopped moving. “I’m going to need my personal knight in one piece, after all. Your duty is far from over.”
Smiling, Julius found the darkness once more creeping forward, but this time he didn’t fight it. Instead he allowed its comforting numbness to fall through his body, knowing that Fourier would find a way, and that the time would come when he’d reopen them.
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Dashing through the hallways, carrying the increasingly heavy form of one of his best friends’ dying body wasn’t what Fourier pictured his afternoon would be like, but then, the day had been one unpleasant surprise after another.
Despite the strain, he forced his arms to be completely still, attempting his best to prevent Julius from jostling at all, as he kept his upper half stiff. Draining the Sceptre of its mana, he poured it through his muscles haphazardly, using it to strengthen the muscles enough that they could maintain the demand he needed.
Julius owes me for this pain! It’s beyond even what I can tolerate! And here I thought after the curse no physical pain would bring me to tears again!
What felt like liquid fire broiled in his muscles, strengthening them even as the foreign mana ran rampant through his system. Normally when he drew from the Sceptre’s energy, all he’d been doing was reclaiming the mana that he himself had provided. The Sceptre had changed the texture of his mana, but it still recognized him as its master, and easily bent to his will.
Unfortunately, he’d drained the last traces of his own mana with his flagrant usage of it, and he’d burned through nearly two week’s supply of mana he’d provided quickly. Thankfully, there was another far greater mana reserve in the Sceptre, and all he’d needed to do was to lay claim to it.
In another situation, a voice in his head that sounded suspiciously like Ferris would have cautioned him about attempting something so risky, as another person's mana could easily poison somebody when not used with the careful affinity and precision of water.
Here and now, all he needed to know was that energy was the only chance he had at saving Julius, his knight and now one of his closest friends.
So he’d laid claim to the foreign reserve of power, and braced himself as the Sceptre glowed ominously before losing its light forever.
The Sceptre that had chosen each king for generations shattered, its power spent, but even that wouldn’t be enough. Closing his eyes he stifled a scream as he’d pushed his body to move faster than it ever had before.
Even now, with what felt like fire running through his veins, he couldn’t bring himself to regret it, as he’d managed to use it to do exactly what he wanted to.
He’d saved Julius, and with how much foreign mana was crammed into the staff, it would easily last the trip to the other side of the castle and beyond.
The better question would be whether his body would be able to keep up.
His body had already been pushed to the brink when he’d forced his still shaking form to save Crusch, he’d pushed beyond it, fueled by the thought of what could happen to Crusch if he failed. There he’d pushed past his limits, solely using his stored mana, but here that was no longer an option, and the only choice he had was to try to limit the spread of the contaminating energy.
Glancing at his arms through the sheen of his tears, he could see his nails starting to grow as he felt his bones start to shift in place, pain flooding his senses constantly, but all that mattered was that they helped his arms stay perfectly steady and allowed him to carry his fading friend.
He could live without his arms. He would not be able to live with himself if he became a man who put his own well-being above his friends' lives.
The changes will hopefully fade with time, he thought without much hope, as he found his body’s energy slowly start to rise, as he found his steps surer and faster, as even the areas he carefully isolated from the foreign energy, started to benefit. If it wasn’t for the continued agony of his arms, he might even have been fooled into thinking the foreign mana was purely beneficial.
But even as the foreign mana helped his own weakened mana recover, he could see that it was attempting to test the boundaries he’d set for it, and that in time it would succeed. Fourier wasn’t sure what it would do if it reached his heart or brain, and hoped that he could stop the flow before that point.
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“Medics! I need urgent medical care,” Fourier shouted as he barreled through the isolated area they’d set up for their healers. They were far from the castle’s main wing, and thus hopefully far enough to not get caught up in the aftermath of the assassination attempt. Part of him regretted just how far he’d placed them, but the rest was just grateful it meant that there was little chance any of them was hurt in that fire.
Seeing the medics start to swarm him, he gently handed the sleeping knight over, and almost sat down himself.
Getting their opinion and help with the Foreign Mana was essential and it could even save his arms, the chances the Mana had created were only just beginning to take shape, as he looked at the back of his hand and saw the skin start to change texture.
Putting it off would drastically increase his chance of needing an amputation but…
“This is one of the most important demands I will ever make,” Fourier said sternly, as he looked at one of the younger medics. “My speech was cut off, in one of the worst possible ways, and I’d barely begun to talk to them about the Dragon, and more importantly, what we can do together to fix this. Please tell me your unfiltered thoughts on how you feel right now, as your answer could help decide the fate of our Kingdom itself.”
Flinching the young medic cowered for several seconds before slowly answering. “I was afraid, Your Majesty. That the Divine Dragon could die… it’s simply inconceivable. I know first hand just how amazing you are, but even I doubted if you were telling the truth at that moment. I didn’t know what to do and froze up completely, if it wasn’t for our leader pulling me out of it, I would still be shaking.”
Nodding slowly Fourier allowed the failure to sink in, he couldn’t bring himself to regret any of his decisions, as it’d led him to saving a close friend's life, but equally he couldn’t turn a blind eye to the responsibilities he’d abandoned to do it.
Opening his eyes, Fourier looked at his friend being attended to one final moment before turning around.
“Do not fear, as the King of Lugunica, I, Fourier Lugunica will put all your fears and worries to rest, and help us stand together!” Fourier declared loudly, even as he finally broke the contamination field he’d set up.
Establishing a new one, he guided the energy to his legs, carefully avoiding his internal organs, as he dashed out of the room, picking up speed as he went. The pain grew even worse, until it felt as if it was infringing on his thoughts themselves, but he forced his way past it. He didn’t need to be at his best until he arrived at his destination after all.
His now malformed limbs felt jumbled, as if he was forcing his way upon something that no longer belonged to him. He had his suspicions about what he could do to change that, but he’d save removing the containment wave until it proved absolutely necessary.
Instead he turned to another sense that had been growing sharper as if in response to the situation, and with only a hint of gratitude that no one was before him, the King of Lugunica allowed himself to fall to all fours.
For a moment it felt even more foreign than running, but his eyes picked up the growing speed at which he sped through the castle halls, making quick work to his destination.
The first thing he saw as he drew near was the incense heat, the air itself rippling as the Fire Mana ran rampant. For a moment he allowed himself to feel grateful that there weren't many products to burn so at least he’d avoided the smoke.
Yet the Fire mana should have died down by now unless…
“The mirrors,” Fourier hissed, his voice sounding guttural even to his own ears. To think the Fire mana had grown so intense and powerful it had gained the ability to feed on a mana source as pure as the mirrors should have been absurd, yet it was the only possible explanation all the same.
For a second he wavered unsure what even to do, would advancing simply be throwing his life away for nothing?
I can still turn back, chances are the changes may have passed the point of an easy fix, but I’d still be alive.
But the face of that terrified young man stayed planted firmly in his thoughts, and with an inward swear, Fourier instead dove head first into the conflagration instead.
He felt it as his hair itself caught fire, even his armor glowing brilliantly as it struggled to handle the heat constantly assaulting it.
The castle-forged metal, warded with the strongest magic the royal family had created slowly started to melt as the intense heat surpassed anything the creators could ever have imagined.
Throughout it all, Fourier kept marching forward, as the foreign mana shielded his skin from the worst of the heat, allowing it instead to flake off to reveal a glimmer that looked almost like tightly knit scales.
Arriving at his destination, Fourier could see that his worst fears were well realized as a few of the mirrors had already dissolved into mana, swiftly dissolved and devoured by the ever intensifying heat.
Guided by his instincts, Fourier jumped over the debris littering the room and twisted his body mid-leap to release a torrent of the foreign mana in order to weaken the Fire mana in the area.
Fourier knew it was a success in an instant, as the heat decreased by an order of magnitude, even as the still painful heat lingered, and he arrived at the remaining mirrors.
Less than half remained in the pristine conditions they had been in only a few hours ago, but Fourier did not allow him to slow him down, as he modified the set-up swiftly. The quality would not be quite as high, and the possibility of it reaching less distance was also a distinct possibility, but he would not allow doubt to slow him down now.
He had decided that giving his citizens a goal, to help them calm down and potentially stop the riots was worth a great deal, potentially even his life, and he would not back down now.
Activating the remaining mirrors carefully, Fourier pulled from the core of what was left of his personal mana, allowing it to carefully coat his throat, in an attempt to hide the changes forming in his voice.
“Citizens of Lungunica, I’m afraid that I was forced to halt our precious moment of mourning due to an attack that is still on-going inside the castle. I will not lie and say that I didn’t consider leaving addressing you until after the conflict was resolved. But I realized that I would be making the same mistake many of you may be forced to make.
“We cannot simply ignore the greater issues in order to face what is in front of us! We must stand together as one, as the brave citizens of our beloved nation and keep everyone safe. I am not saying that you should attempt to actively stop those misguided enough to harm others, if you feel that it would put you in danger, but I am saying that we must not allow this doubt to fester and cripple us!
“Right now the thing that our enemies most desire is to divide the great nation of Lugunica and turn brother against brother! We can not allow them to succeed!
“Instead, I want you to find somewhere safe, and to actively reach out to help those around you and ensure they can also reach safety.
“By choosing to put our family first, we are in turn upholding the values of Lugunica, a place founded so that people could live happily with their families in peace!
“But that’s what makes our nation so prosperous, and a place that I am truly grateful to be King of. It is not just our blood that makes one family. It’s friendships, bonds and ties that are truly worth more than our lives themselves!
“I know that for many of you, all you truly need is a slight push in order to achieve truly wondrous things, so let me be your ally and let’s end this, once and for all!
“For Lugunica!”
Fourier stared at the dimming mirrors for a few seconds, allowing himself to slump forward as his abused mana rushed back to his core, and simply lay on the painfully hot floor, and after a long pause forced himself back up.
Looking at the spot he lay, he could see the shimmering gray as pieces of his still molten armor was left behind, but with a sign, Fourier allowed himself to fall back to the ground and begin the long crawl back, he’d dealt with greater humiliations before he reminded himself, before the pain robbed him of even that humor.