“Shall we proceed to acquire the last relic piece?”

Hikaru suggested once he and Ahab were reunited with Helgi.

“That’s probably for the best, i think we took care of all of guards, so let’s go there together and wait for Yuri”

Agreeing, Helgi used one of his last rune etched cards to heal some of his and Ahab's wounds.

“Afraid this ain’t too good on these old bones, they’ll break back down again before yah know it!” Ahab joked about him being healed.

“Just say thank you or i’ll break them for you” Helgi threatened him, still feeling a sting that he ended up being saved by a pure coincidence due to Ahab’s involvement.

“Thank yah laddeh.”

They slowly proceeded toward the last iron dust line in the sky, a small floating island where they would find the last part of the relic, three of which they already had each.

Hikaru carried the other two like sacks over his shoulders, jumping onto the island from a nearby one.

They were however, greeted by an unexpected figure. Yuri herself, standing and waiting for them.

“Yuri? You arrived before us? “

Hikaru set down the other two and slowly walked over to Yuri, slightly surprised.

Yuri wore a strained smile as he approached.

“My, how wonderful to meet you here dear.”

She curtsied at Hikaru, making him immediately freeze in his tracks.

(An imposter? No. It’s Yuri. I remember her scent perfectly, and her appearance. Then..a joke from her world? No her smile is too forced for that. Perhaps she is trying to resist laughing? Or perhaps she is trying to tell me something?)

Hikaru’s thoughts went in circles while he stood still.

“Oh for crying out loud. It’s obviously an ambush!”

Sick of waiting, Yuri yelled out the answer at the same time as Helgi did, who had already figured out what happened since he saw her forced smile, but was waiting for someone to act first.

They were immediately surrounded by figures who had not been there mere moments ago. Appearing as if from thin air. As they did not seem to be quick enough to change position in the style of himself, Hikaru deemed it was some manner of camouflaging magic.

There were seven of them. Three were clad in leather armour with stamped symbols. The others wore long robes, alongside with masks which all contained similar symbols.

One of the figures wearing leather armour was standing right next to Yuri, with a razor-like knife against her throat.

“What is this!?”

Hikaru drew his sword.

“Shit, what have you done this time Yuri!” Helgi drew his last card.

“Aye ain’t dealin with this!”

Ahab hid behind a nearby rock.

“A single move from yourself and myself will cut off the head of your female companion before yourself even manages to take a breath.”

The one holding a sword against Yuri’s neck spoke.

“You will not get the remaining relic pieces.”

Hikaru said determinedly. Yet his eyes were glued onto the blade just barely touching Yuri’s neck.

“Relic…? Ah that. That will be confiscated from yourself and yourself’s companions after you are arrested. But that is not the main reason myself and myself’s companions are gathered before you.”

“Huh? If you’re not after the relic, then what are you after?”

Helgi questioned them.

“You are all under arrest for harbouring a fallen one and aiding him in the destruction of property. The theft of godly relics crucial to the politics of each church. The destruction and annihilation of the legendary golden city. Your involvement in the politics of a closed off city and aiding one side to defeat the rebellion instead of letting it take the process naturally, presumably to further your own gain in some manner. The resulting murders of innocent civilians as side effects of said actions, and the attempted annihilation of an entire country.”

A woman wearing a robe stepped up, pointing a short staff at Hikaru.

“You smell of corruption and dark mana that does not belong in this realm. You must be the fallen one. Drop your weapon and surrender yourself or else your supposed companions will get immediately executed and you will be mercilessly attacked.”

Hikaru wanted to finish them off with a single stroke of his sword. Yet the blade against Yuri’s neck stopped him.

“Hikaru..! Kill them all..! Now..!”

Yuri mouthed at him.

“I wish i could. I cannot risk it..”

Reluctantly. Hikaru dropped his sword to the ground. Along with a pair of metal gauntlets.

“Wisely chosen. Under the jurisdiction of the combined authority of the representatives of the seven churches present. By the order of the gods, you and your companions are under arrest, and will be taken for trial in a church of our choosing.”

With a flick of her staff, Hikaru was bound by ropes made of skin surrounding his entire body except his head.

“This was easier than expected. I suppose a fallen one would have to be a coward to manage all this chaos without taking the blame for it for so long.” The robed woman smirked beneath her mask.

“You and you, stay here and take care of the other ones while we deliver the fallen one.”

The woman pointed at the man holding a sword against Yuri’s throat and another woman wearing a similar mask.

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They both nodded.

With another flick of her staff, her, Hikaru and four of her companions began to float away.

Hikaru looked back with worry at Yuri, who narrowed her eyes at him, mouthing for him to come back quickly, once she takes care of this.

The figure of the bound Hikaru and his captors slowly disappeared in the distance.

“Now then. Myself was simply told to take care of yourself until they came back. So sit down while she ties you up.”

The leather armour wearing man twitched the sword against Yuri’s neck, motioning for Helgi to sit down next to Ahab.

“Tie them up”

He nodded at the woman next to him.

“Ehh~ too much effort”

The masked woman turned toward the man.

“Just do it! I don’t know why we even brought you along..!”

“Fiiiine!”

The woman raised her hand and pointed it at the man. A lengthy cloth rope materialised itself from her hand and quickly bound itself around the man’s body like a snake, completely sealing his movements so he could not even move his arm.

The man fell backwards, stiff as a statue while yelling into the rope covering him.

“Huh?”

Yuri rubbed her neck.

The woman took off her mask.

“You’ve gotten so cuuuuute! I love your new look!”

Yuri was given a huge hug by the now maskless, big breasted woman.

“M-mako!?”

“Yesss~ i mished youuu”

Her hug tightened around Yuri.

“What are you doing here!?”

Yuri attempted to unstick herself from Mako who would not let go.

“Hmmm~~?” Mako looked at her after squishing her cheek against Yuri’s.

“Well..they asked for someone from the church of freiya! And i was the only one available..sooo, i came along!”

“Yuri..who is that…? Are you sure she’s not an enemy?”

Helgi asked cautiously, While Ahab peeked from behind his rock.

“She’s not..mmff..an enemy..” Yuri managed while being cuddled against Mako’s chest.

“She’’s ..supposedly. The archbishop of the church of Freiya.”

“I see..then miss bishop? Mind explaining why our companion was kidnapped?”

He asked.

“That’s right! Why did they take Hikaru and where!”

Yuri demanded.

“Oh that..well uh...ehehe…”

She slowly let go of Yuri.

“I kind of didn’t know it was about Hikaru..but uh. We..were on a mission to capture a fallen god..turned out it was Hikaru..i didn’t even know he was one..! And so uh.. The reasons are all the stuff they mentioned..”

Smiling awkwardly, Mako scratched the back of her head.

“Hah..” Yuri sighed “Then whyyyy, did you help them capture me as hostage to use against Hikaru!”

“Becauseeeee, they’re like really strong. Even Hikaru can’t take them all on at the same time..”

“So you just went along until there was only one left..well thank you i guess..”

“You’re welcome~” She went right back to hugging Yuri.

“Will Hikaru be able to escape, he even left his sword”

Helgi noted while picking up the sword.

“I don’t think so..by now they’ve probably bound him in hundreds of seals. He would need someone to open those for him..he will be judged at a chosen church but his sentence will likely be death..”

Mako explained, her tone wavering slightly.

“I can’t let that happen... we just have to go save him!” Yuri said, to which everyone except Ahab nodded.

“He left these gauntlets too..”

Picking up a pair of shiny gauntlets, Helgi looked them over, noticing something falling out of them.

“The relic piece he had..!”

“Let’s finish was we started and then head over to where Hikaru is!”

Yuri grabbed the 4 relic piece from everyone and paused.

“Wait what do i do now..”

She tried hitting them against each other or fitting them together as a puzzle to no avail.

“Let me try, i know this~”

Taking the relic pieces, Mako slowly breathed on them and closed her hands around them.

Opening her hands again, the pieces had fused together into a white metal tooth.

“A tooth..?”

“Perhaps the tooth of..” Yuri began while looking over the edge of the island.

“So how does this thing work..”

Picking up the tooth relic, Yuri began to poke it randomly.

While Yuri was busy inspecting the relic, Ahab had noticed something felt different. He felt strangely lighter.

Picking up a small pebble, he released it in midair. Although instead of dropping, the pebble in fact moved upwards.

“....huh?”

“Aye think...this island is sinkin..fallin in fact.”

Ahab noted.

“Hah?”  Everyone turned towards Ahab, and he demonstrated his pebble floating up again.

“...Oh.”

“.....”

Everyone quieted down for a moment, before Yuri spoke up.

“Guess i ended up turning it off somehow…”

“Yuuuuuriiii..”

Helgi stared at her.

“Don’t blame her for this, it was probably my fault, she’s innocent!”

Hugging Yuri once again, Mako squished her chest against Yuri’s face.

“Who cares whose fault this is, how are we goin to survive!? We ain’t got no airship no more and aye aint known to be good at flappin my arms!”

“Oh relax, would you, i’ll just draw a feather falling spell on this island and we’ll glide down as smooth as a -”

She paused.

Her hands travelling across her body before her eyes began moving around looking all over the ground.

“...That rune would be good right bout now?”

“..My dagger...I can’t...I can’t find it!?”

“....Um..they must have taken it..my colleagues i mean..”

Mako once again began to awkwardly rub her head.

“Wonderful.”

Helgi sighed.

“Wait, wait, i know! Remember that time we got stuck on an elevator during our escape, and they cut it’s wires?”

She said to Helgi.

“...You mean you want to…”

“It would work wouldn’t it..?”

“I….Don’t actually know. That time we were really lucky with the timing. How would we know when the island will hit the ground.”

“Aye can tell ya when. Aye’ve flown enough in my life, so aye know how the winds and air feel”

Ahab suggested.

“Good job Ahab! Okay on the count of three, three being when the island hits the ground, we will all-”

She began explaining.

“One, two”

Ahab had already began.

“ALREADY?!”

“Three.”

“OKAY EVERYONE JUMP AS HIGH AS YOU CAN!”

And everyone did. Fear and adrenalin pushing their legs to the limits as they each jumped almost a meter each.

Just below them, the ground shattered and cracked into several pieces, the island not being able to sustain its form due to the impact.

Everyone fell onto the rubble in an awkward position, not having calculated their landing as they were too worried about the act of jumping itself.

“I miss my feather falling rune..”

Yuri stood up and rubbed her head. Looking around , she saw a sight that felt like a dream.

Above them, floated hundreds upon hundreds of floating islands, all of which were now quickly falling, increasing in visual size as they reached the bottom.

Each one exploded into a shower of pebbles and dust when it hit the ground. The islands and the shattered giant mountains from earlier having created a solid bed of stone, under which the empty space they had visited before existed.

Now with the mountains gone and the ground actually covering the entire space of this country, it began to look much less like a picture from a fantasy book and more like the surface of mars, with the desert surrounding the country being visible.

“Well, Ahab, you got your country freed. If you really want to thank me, you should name it after me, since i was the one who saved it”

“Our countreh..it’s finalleh free. No walls to keep us in no more. The rest’re probably already celebratin!”

Ahab looked around with joy at being able to see the complete sky and not just part of it.

“We achieved our goal here i suppose? Wish Hikaru was here to see it since this was for him.. I’ll hide this somewhere” Yuri took the relic piece and stuffed it in the top part of her shirt, somewhere very unusual.

“You’re so girly now! I just can’t take it! So cute!” Mako hugged Yuri again and squeezed her hard enough that her legs dangled.

“We need to start moving, Ahab we need to borrow one of your airships”

Helgi said while dusting off.

“Ah?Aye, i can give yuh one, gonna have to walk all the way to our base..walk! The first walk over our country..!”

“Mmf, yeah, and you can explain things in more detail while we walk” Yuri said to Mako when she managed to free her face of Mako’s chest.

“Okay! But i get to hug you while we walk!”

“Fine…”

Mako began walking with Yuri still held up against her chest, her feet dangling slightly while Mako held her up.

--

“SeEms yOu wEre aBle to dEfeat thE mEageR mOrtaLs, my son. NOw tHat i Am bEneAth thIs rUbbLe..i CaN bEgIn abSorBing ThE mAna iNfuSed inTo it..wHile bEing cOmplEteLy oUt of SighT..weLl dOnE foLLowIng mY pRovOcAtiOns my son..”

The ground filled with rubble rumbled slightly. The laughter of the thing that dwells below it, making it move in the manner of an earthquake.

“sOon i wiLL go Out anD cOmPlEtE mY gOaL..FiNalLy..”