I didn’t have time to see what I had stolen from the dead man. I could do that later, when I wasn’t in the middle of a giant battle.

I let out the breath I was holding, thumbing the activation switch on my spear. The body of the man I had killed slumped to the floor with my weapon’s retraction. Exhausted, I stood up off of the corpse to look around.

I found most of the battlefield looking back at me, having recovered from Fade’s strange attack. Both allied and enemy forces.

I froze under the weight of their stares.

Shit.

Cautiously, I backed up until I was standing next to the exhausted and slumped-over form of my Spirit Wolf. I bent down slowly, gathering him up to hold in my free arm.

That seemed to be the signal to break the battlefield out of their stupor.

With a resounding cry that echoed across the battlefield, one of the pirates gutted a Guard that had chosen to stop and watch me.

Things devolved from there.

Fighting broke out again, attention falling away from me for the most part. But not all of it. A large group of Guards broke out of the crowd and began sprinting my way causing my eyes to widen in alarm. I swiftly started backing up to the room that held Honoka, hoping I might be able to barricade myself in there.

I needn’t have worried.

With a bellow, Curloch barreled into the group of advancing Guards, knocking one off of their feet and gutting another with his hand scythe. Morlow and Laryn followed after their friend, battering the Guards with their mace and quarterstaff as well. After knocking one of the Guards back with a blow from his mace, Morlow turned to me. “Git goin’!” He shouted at me, blocking a blow from another Guard. “We got this bunch!”

I nodded at him hurriedly and turned around to make for Honoka’s room.

Thanks guys.

I found that Sylvia was way ahead of me, waving my form inside hurriedly. When I dashed through the opening, Sylvia slammed the door shut and then dragged a nearby chair under the handle to block it. With a sigh, she turned around to face me.

Sylvia was looking a little rough. My Sculpted friend actually had multiple dents in her metallic skin, and even had a rent in it visible on her left arm. That armored guy had been a little too strong for the two of us to handle, and a bad match up for our abilities as well. If it hadn’t been for Fade showing up out of nowhere and demonstrating odd new abilities…

I tried to put it out of my mind. We still had something to do. Carefully, I laid the exhausted form of my wolf on a nearby table. I kneeled down and smoothed back the fur on his small head. “The hell are you doing here, little guy,” I murmured to him, before shaking my head. “Well, whatever. Thanks for the save.”

Fade just tiredly licked my hand in response, before his head slumped down on his paws.

I stood up, looking around or Sylvia. I found her kneeling next to the bound form of Honoka, slumped over and manacled to a chair. I approached the duo.

“How is she?” I asked Sylvia, reaching around to rummage around in the small bag at the small of my back.

Sylvia flicked her eyes my way and stood up with a frown. “Merely unconscious, I believe. She…appears to have been mistreated. I’m unsure of her general condition.”

Before I could say anything in response, a dry, aged voice spoke up first. “Oh, I’ve been better. But I’m not dead yet.”

Both Sylvia and I turned to face the voice, to find that Honoka was awake now and watching the two of us with exhausted eyes. This was my first time seeing her in full.

She looked like someone’s granny. Well, I suppose in the same way that you could say that Grey looked like someone’s grandpa.

Honoka looked like a well-aged elderly woman. If I had to put an age to her physical appearance, I would say she looked like she was in her sixties. I knew that was only an illusion, though. If she was a contemporary of Grey’s and looked that old, she had to be almost as old as he was. Maybe like eight or nine hundred or something. Despite her age, she was still beautiful in her own way. I could tell that this woman had probably been downright gorgeous in her prime. Her snow-white hair was long and unbound right now, reaching near to the floor. Funnily enough, even though she was sitting down, I would guess she might be a little bit taller than Grey. From her haggard features peered two intensely orange eyes, surprisingly sharp for her apparent exhaustion.

Said eyes were examining the two of us closely. She looked me over before visibly dismissing my form and turning to face Sylvia. Her gaze softened when she saw my Sculpted friend.

“Sylvia, my girl,” Honoka said with a small, tired smile. “Come to rescue me, have you?”

Sylvia immediately kneeled back down next to Honoka. She lay a hand over one of hers, visibly troubled by the fact that it was manacled to the arm of the chair. Despite that, I was still able to see the two of them clasp hands together. “I have, Lady Honoka,” Sylvia said softly.

I shuffled in place, uncomfortable. I felt like I was eavesdropping on a private moment. I winced though, when a cry from outside the door reminded me we were on a time limit. There was still a battle going on out there.

I cleared my throat, causing Sylvia to look at me and Honoka’s eyes to snap my way. “Excuse me,” I said, somewhat uncomfortable from the intensity of Honoka’s gaze. “But we really need to get going. Uh, Lady Honoka, do you…know where the keys to your chains are? Maybe where the control slate is for your…?” I gestured to the collar around her neck.

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Honoka snorted. “Who’s this?” She asked Sylvia bluntly, dismissing me.

My eyebrow twitched.

“This is Father’s new apprentice, Lady Honoka,” Sylvia answered with a smile. She nodded at me. “We’re here to free you.”

This time Honoka gave me a more assessing look. “So, the old goat took another student, eh?” She scoffed. “Not much to look at. How is this little boy going to free me? That upstart Leonard robbed me of everything I’ve ever worked for with this brand, so I can't help you.”

She didn’t sound the tiniest bit bitter over that. Not at all.

“That’s what I was trying to ask you,” I said between gritted teeth. Little boy, am I? “Where’s the control slate for your collar?”

“This isn’t a slave collar, fool,” Honoka said scornfully. “It’s just a regular one, built for yanking me around. Leonard stamped me with some form of custom slave brand that doesn’t need a real slave collar. According to that braggart, he ‘pioneered’ a new type of brand that combines both an exploding collar and a brand into one.”

I blinked at that, tilting my head in thought.

Huh.

“That,” I said out loud. “Actually sounds like it makes my job easier.”

Honoka looked startled at that, blinking at me in confusion.

“Father was branded as well, Lady Honoka,” Sylvia said to the old bat. “Nathan met him while they were both slaves, and he developed a way to break the slave bond. He freed both of them.”

While Sylvia was explaining things to Honoka, I was taking my latest Bond Breaker out of my pouch. This one was a bit smaller than my usual. I’d found that I didn’t need to make them quite as large as the first few were. Those had been enlarged because the design had been based on a Ward Breaker, and needed the extra runic space and Aetheric capacity. This one was smaller and looked even more like just a regular dinner fork now.

Still, Honoka clearly recognized part of the design. She rocked back in her chair as much as she was able to. “That’s a damn Ward Breaker,” She said, shocked. “The hell are you doing with that?”

“It’s not a Ward Breaker,” I said to her, impatiently tapping the device against my palm. I was keenly aware of the time we were wasting as I tried to reassure this old woman. “It’s based on the design, but it’s not one. I call them Bond Breakers. Sylvia, can you expose the brand for me?”

Sylvia nodded at me, then turned the chair that Honoka was sitting in around and started to bare her left shoulder of the rags covering it. Before I lost sight of Honoka’s face, I saw it scrunched up in deep thought. I shook my head and approached the woman. When I reached her, I examined her slave brand.

Yeah, it was different alright. To someone who hadn’t seen as many slave brands as I had, it would look pretty much the same. But to me, I could tell that the runic sequence burned into her skin was, in a word, more advanced. It was tighter, denser. Hell, it looked more efficient to my eyes. And right about...there, I think I could make out a runic sequence for a lethal explosion.

I didn’t like that. I didn’t like that at all.

I hoped the Warden hadn’t managed to distribute this design.

I was knocked out of my inspection by Honoka speaking again. “I understand the idea,” She said, suddenly much more reasonable. “And I can see how it would work. But on mine, it’ll probably set off the explosion.”

“Yeah,” I said, troubled. This wasn’t the time for seething over a few minor insults. “I can see that, now that I’ve got a look at the design. I can get Grey’s help later, and try to make a new Breaker to work on this design. But for n-”

Honoka sharply shook her head without turning to face me. “No time, boy. On a normal person, the explosion would probably instantly kill them. But if your ‘Bond Breaker’ works as it should, then I can take it. If my Status instantly returns to me, then Leonard's piddly little explosion will pass over me like a fart in the wind.” This time, she turned her head to fix me with a sharp, eager glint in her eye. “Do it. But move back right after you do.”

Okay…

I exchanged a look with Sylvia. “Will you be able to stay awake when your Status returns? Grey passed out right after his did.”

Honoka scoffed. “I’m not some pansy little Magi, boy. I’m a Cultivator. Physical strain is what we’re built for.”

Hey.

I…actually, sort of, kind of resemble that remark.

“All right then,” I said, raising my Breaker and positioning it over Honoka’s brand. “I guess we’re doing this. Sylvia, move back,” When Sylvia was out of the blast radius, I preemptively raised Sylvan Vigor to half, ready to spring back. At the last moment, I remembered to sheathe my Breaker in The Scintillant Blade as well. This woman might have skin as tough as Grey’s had been. “On three then. One…two…three!”

I jabbed my handheld bident into her back over the brand, grunting as I leaned my full weight on it to pierce Honoka’s rock-hard skin. Once it was in, I depressed the activation rune and immediately sprang backward as hard as I could.

Good thing I did.

Honoka had been right.

An explosion went off in the small, cramped room. Most of the sound and force was directed inward at Honoka, but enough escaped the blast radius to rattle the walls and momentarily deafen me. It startled Fade from his impromptu nap as well, I see.

But I was mostly paying attention to the smoke that was obscuring Honoka’s position.

“Lady Honoka…?” Sylvia called out, worried. “Are you…all right?”

Suddenly, a bright crimson flame appeared in the smoke, bright enough to pierce through it. A gust of wind erupted from within the smoke cloud moments later, revealing Honoka.

She looked…more than all right.

The blast had destroyed the chair that she had been manacled to. The older woman was standing upright under her own power with one hand raised. In that hand, a bound flame the color of freshly spilled blood danced. Without turning to face us, Honoka clenched that hand tightly.

That flame didn’t die. It just started to cover her entire body in a monstrously powerful, firey aurora of a similar shade. As I watched, the chains, collar, and manacles that were attached to her body melted away, running in silver rivulets down her body. Strangely, her prison rags didn’t burst into flame from either the molten metal or her aura.

Honoka finally turned to face us, with an eager, dangerous grin on her suddenly revitalized features. The woman looked at least ten years younger. “Oh, I’m just fine and dandy, my dear,” She said with a smirk. Her long, still-white hair was flowing in a non-existent wind behind her. “I just need to go have a…chat with young Leonard. If you’ll excuse me.” She stalked forward, causing the two of us to move out of her way instinctively. She paused for a moment when she noticed Fade, directing her attention to me after a moment with an assessing gaze. She tilted her head thoughtfully and then nodded at me. “I owe you one after this, boyo.”

I didn’t get a chance to answer her. She just continued towards the door, walking straight through when she reached it. The door completely disintegrated, leaving not even ash behind. Outside the door frame, I saw her form erupt into a bonfire inferno of blood-red flames, large enough to presumably brush the ceiling. Two massive bird-like wings formed from that flame, seemingly growing from her back.

Honoka began to float out of my line of sight, but I still heard her voice.

“LEONARD!” She bellowed out into the suddenly deathly silent hall. “I HAVE A BONE TO PICK WITH YOU!”

I saw her streak across the length of the hall in an instant to impact the shield dome where Grey and the Warden’s duel was occurring. It shattered into a million, fragmentary pieces at her touch.

Meanwhile, I was looking at Sylvia with a shocked look on my face. “Kind of…intense, isn’t she?”

Sylvia sighed and nodded. “She usually is.”