Masahide reached Hisa’s chambers, flung the door open to slam against the wall, and stumbled in. He didn’t know what he expected, but the calm scene somehow surprised him.
Yoshiie curled a bloody, wrapped hand behind his back as he practiced swinging his sword with his other hand. It whistled through the air. He must be trying to get used to his new predicament, but surprisingly, he was still the best swordsman Masahide had ever seen. Losing fingers would be challenging, but this man wouldn’t be deterred.
Hisa stood weekly from the bed, her legs shaky. However, when she grabbed her cane, she twirled it with finesse. “I'm not at my full strength, but I will not let Whitebeard go down like this. I don't care if I have to face the necromancer myself.”
Ema came over and hugged Masahide. She felt warm, and they stayed like that for a minute. “Yes, we have to help him,” she said.
Masahide stepped back and looked to Hisa. “He surviving somehow.”
Hisa smiled. “They won’t get him in the trails. Last I saw him in the world, the Nation of Ships tried him for heresy and failed, but the Necromancer is a whole other level of threat?”
Masahide repeated the word he’d heard name the Necromancer’s species, “Ghashantan.”
“Yes, they’ve been the enemy of mankind since the beginning, and they’re powerful beyond reason. It’s because there are millions of us that they work in the shadows.”
Masahide understood why Hisa wanted to interfere, and he agreed with her. Kichi seemed to have stopped second-guessing Whitebeard, but he didn’t think he could any longer. At the moment, there was a more pressing issue. “Then we should go down there. I’m here because William said Gon was in danger. Have you noticed anything?”
A series of shrugs and head shaking followed the question. Nothing looked out of the ordinary. Yoshi picked up the sword and practiced again, whirling it in his left hand, oblivious to the conversation.
Masahide paced, thinking about the next step. They should all go down to the arena. Gon would be safer surrounded by the knights than up here with Yoshiie as his only protection. Though the man was so good with his off-hand. “You’re still the best with the sword.”
“No,” Yoshiie said. “I discovered a skill beyond blade work, a thing I knew I had always sought, a thing that rivals magic itself, but I’ve lost it.”
Hisa and Ema dressed to go down to the arena, the former donning a shirt of mail that glittered unnaturally. Hisa twirled her stick and stopped Yoshi's blade with a ting. “If we’re going to help Whitebeard, we must attack with everything we have, which won’t be enough, but perhaps she’ll reveal her true form, and the knights will join our cause. Will you help, Yoshiie?”
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Yoshiie looked down at his ravaged hand. “Yes, but I won’t be any use.”
Gon sat still in a chair, reading the codex that Kiki had given him. Perhaps the boy would like to become a knight.”
Hisa sat next to him in the white chair, which was wide enough for both of them to sit side by side. She pointed here and there and told me a little bit about the book while Masahide, Ema, and Yoshiie peered over the rail and looked at the trail below. “We’re going to the arena,” Hisa told Gon. “When we get there, I want you to do everything I tell you for your protection.”
Below, they saw the green sword cross the hollow and hover into Whitebeard's hands, rising high and shooting a beam of energy into the sky. A shock wave expanded from the sword and rippled through reality.
“My stomach,” Gon said.
Masahide was thrown into a wall, his mind reeled, and his ears rang. He didn’t know what hit him. The shock wave had already passed and didn’t seem to affect anything physically. He patted himself and reached for Emma to see if she was alright. The ash snow outside swirled and mixed with smoke coming from inside.
Emma looked at him with white eyes, but her voice sounded like it was a mile away and mixed with a peal of a bell. Inside, bits of fabric drifted with flamed edges.
Light burst from behind and flooded the apartment. When had he opened the portal?
Inside was nothing but horror. Hisa stood, blackened, bleeding. A few remnants of Gon plastered the chair where the two had sat only moments ago.
Ema careened forward. “No. No.” Reality stretched and bent as she used Everywhen, but for what purpose, Masahide didn’t know.
Hisa collapsed in a smoking ruin.
Masahide crossed the room and opened the door.
Ema screamed, and even with defend ears, it seemed impossibly loud.
Yoshiie sat doubled over Hisa with tears streaking his face, “Where are you going?”
Masahide’s voice came flat and emotionless. “I will kill the necromancer.”
What had the Ghashantan done? William had warned him that Gon had been in her possession, but this was unimaginable. She would die.
Sagara’s red sash caught his eye. “Do not attack without a plan. This is what she wanted, to draw you out and make you act with haste.”
“Then she did her job.”
Felix appeared in the portal that followed behind, casting light down the corridor. “I understand that there’s no other way. We must rely on luck and power.”
Ulf burst through the portal and brandished an axe. “We are the Champions.”
Level: 35
Focus: Conjuring (conduit) +3
Secondary focus: Quake, Firequake tandem attack, spirit punch
Weapons: pure sword - 35% pure
Items: Heart of the Earth