“I keep thinking about him in the Exhibition. It was like he stopped caring about me. About us. I’m being unfair, but whenever I try to say something I just stop.”
As soon as Cora woke up, she walked to the training hall – just as she did on the day of the First Evaluation. Both times, Endora had been there waiting for her. Both times, the Valkyrie leaned on a pillar of wood near the entrance of the training hall. Unlike the other time, though, Cora sat beside Endora, unable to focus on anything but the floor. She clicked her white and gold Exam boots as she waited for Endora to respond.
“You’re allowed to be upset, Cora,” Endora said, pulling Cora to her feet. Endora gave her a look of total reassurance, which Cora appreciated. “But you can’t shut down. There are only five days left, and I still plan on leaving Haven with you two.”
Cora gave Endora a smile she hoped looked sincere. “I gave you my word, and I intend on–”
The door to the training hall creaked open, and Cora felt an awkward blend of excitement and anxiety dance in her mind. On the one hand, Seiji had transformed into a different person after the First Evaluation. On the other hand, she still had to apologize to him for how she’s been treating him. Before Cora turned to him, she saw Endorabfix him with a smile she could hardly recognize. With a deep breath, she turned to her Servant.
She’d come to know Seiji as a relatively fashionable person. Sure, everything he wore was battle-oriented, but he still managed to make things work. So when the first word that came to Cora’s mind upon seeing him was ‘disheveled’, she knew immediately something was wrong. Seiji was dressed like he’d picked his clothes off of corpses. His shirt was white with patches of plaid haphazardly sewn across the arm, his pants were the black slacks of the butlers, and his boots were thick enough to give him an extra inch of height. His face was no better. His hair, while the undercut she’d come to love, was unkempt and disorderly like he’d just woken up. And his eyes. Cora’d never seen him with eyes that… gaunt.
Her first reaction was to ask him what was wrong, just as she had the first time he came from an Evaluation. Again, no words came out of her lips.
“Endora.”
Seiji didn’t say anything to the Valkyrie other than her name. His tone was dead, and he stood like a statue in the doorframe. Endora laughed to herself and made for the door. She placed a hand on his shoulder and gave him a sharp nod. With that, she left the training hall. Leaving Cora alone with Seiji.
As soon as the door closed, she rushed over to him. He’d hardly moved. He just stared down at her with eyes that looked almost hateful. Unable to stand the tension in the air, she spoke up.
“Seiji, these past five days, I have been… unkind to you. Please, forgive–”
Seiji raised his right hand to his chest. He straightened it, just like he did in the fight against Lirio. Cora frowned, what was–
“Don’t disappoint me.”
Seiji kicked off with a full coat of Dragon Fury before Cora could react, swiping at her stomach with a blade of Dragon Fury formed from his hand. Blood gushed from Cora’s stomach, though it stopped almost as soon as it started. Even still, that attack hurt.
“What are you–”
Seiji sped after her, landing his thick boot on the same place she’d just been stabbed. Cora tried to fight back, but Seiji brushed off every attack she landed on him. Swatting a weak punch away, Seiji formed that hand-sword attack of his and slashed at Cora repeatedly, blood gushing from Cora with every cut.
“Stop!”
Cora formed a Dragon Claw and cut down at Seiji. The attack ripped his shirt clean off, leaving three thick gashes diagonal on his midsection. Seiji laughed as he formed his hand into a claw and struck her with a Dragon Claw of his own.
Despite just being a Tier 4, despite being far weaker than her, Cora knew to dodge this attack. Dragon Stance could only negate pain, it couldn’t keep her from dying. Seiji kicked off, assaulting her with more and more Dragon Claws, each of them aimed directly at her neck. Seiji wasn’t trying to beat her, he wasn’t even trying to take his frustrations at her out, he was trying to kill her, to erase her. The more Cora dodged, the more futile her efforts felt to her. No matter what she did against Seiji, it’d end with her death. It was as if the heavens themselves had already condemned her to death.
Condemned? Me?
Seiji kicked Cora to the far wall of their training hall. He didn’t chase after her. Instead, he stood at the center of the hall, though he still seemed to loom over her from that far away.
Loomed over… me?
Cora suddenly felt a wave of annoyance pass over her, though it very quickly turned to anger when Seiji began to laugh.
“You asked for me, and now you have me,” Seiji said with a bored sigh. “Just like I expected, you’re too pathetic to handle me.”
“Insolent…” Cora muttered to herself.
Who the hell did Seiji think he was… Laughing at her, attacking her, looking down on her. On her! Cora cursed herself. She’d let her affection for Seiji leave an opening for this kind of insolence. She’d have to work on that after she reminded him of his position.
“What was that, princess?” Seiji said from in front of her. He bent down to look into her eyes with a smug grin, hands crossed behind his back.
She knew moved far faster than a Tier 4 ever should, but that was to be expected. Her power flowed through him. Anything less would be a disappointment. Seiji reached for Cora’s neck with his right hand, but Cora grabbed it in her left. It was unbecoming of a Queen to find satisfaction in acts of discipline, but she couldn’t help herself.
“I said you are insolent!” Cora spat, squeezing his left hand.
Seiji tried to pull away, but Cora didn’t let him. She smiled wider as she gathered aura into her left hand. Cora blasted through Seiji’s entire right arm with a thick pillar of Dragon Fire, the blue-white flame leaving no trace of the limb behind when it dissipated. Seiji looked down at the vacancy where his arm used to be, and Cora blasted him back to the door with a quick pulse of Dragon Fury. He hit the door with a loud bang, though he personally made no noise with the impact.
Cora approached him with hands folded behind her back. It was unfortunate that he’d lost his arm, but he could get it back with the proper elixirs. He didn’t know that, though. Nor would she tell him. It was important for him to–
Seiji laughed, and he really laughed. He rolled on the floor and cried, wiping tears with the white and plaid sleeve of his remaining arm, and coughing whenever he ran out of breath. A distant part of her adored the sight, though she silenced that part of her for now. Seiji still wanted to be an insolent brat, and Cora knew only a few–
Seiji rose from the floor, all hints of amusement gone as he revealed a slightly curved sword from his left pant leg and kicked off with blinding speed. Cora assumed he would slash at her, and guarded accordingly. Unfortunately for her, Seiji hadn’t been aiming to do that. When he reached her, he stabbed her, directly through the gut. Pain shot through Cora’s entire body as she attempted to register the attack. Seiji tried to drag the body up and through her, but Cora stopped it with a fully powered punch to the face.
Cora dragged the sword out of her body, falling to her knees with the intense pain. She crushed the hilt in her palm and bent the bloody blade like a twig, throwing the pieces to the side of the training hall. She winced at the pain as she clutched at her injury. Her body would heal this, but it wouldn’t be fast.
“That was one step too far!” She roared. “Surrender to me and beg for my mercy”
Seiji staggered to his feet. “I don’t take orders from weaklings! Why should I listen to you? Show me who you are!”
For an instant, Cora felt her resolve wane. She recognized what Seiji was doing, why he fought to kill. She shoved that feeling back immediately. If she didn’t fight at her best, she’d really die here.
Cora roared, squeezing the hilt of the blade as she conjured Dragon Fury. “You do not get to make demands of me! I demand to face Seiji Otsuki, and I demand he face judgment for his insolence! Do not forget your place!”
Seiji laughed. “Ask and you shall receive, princess.”
“Queen,” Cora corrected.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
As soon as the words came out, she blasted him with a Dragon Burst. The room shook with the deafening explosion, a few pillars of wood cracking with the impact. Ironically, Cora wondered whether she’d be the one to erase–
Seiji cut through the explosion with his entire body coated in Dragon Fury. How? That attack was enough the destroy the stage of Haven Coliseum. There was no way he could–
Seiji laughed, though his breathing was clearly labored. He didn’t attack her, but he stood right in front of her.
“Intensity… is still… a good… look on you.”
Just as those words left his lips, Cora felt her suppressed feelings come back in full force. This… this was Seiji. That childlike glee, how terrifying was that for someone about to be killed? The easiest solution was just to give up, but it wasn’t like Seiji would make that easy. He liked to toy with his victims. This was entertainment for him, and he justified it by saying Fate allowed it. If some higher power approved, it made sense he could carry out their will however he chose.
Right now, his target was Cora Lambros. He fought her as though Fate itself had condemned her to death, and trusted her to endure him at his full power. They’d gotten so close, and Seiji had thrown that all out of the window just for this little demonstration.
This is who you are.
That boy from Decorum Training who tolerated Cora’s training games, the one who went out with her to her favorite restaurant, that chatted with her about any and everything for the past twenty-five days, that was all Seiji. That monster that slaughtered Alexandros, that hacked the Hell Pit with reckless abandon, that nearly killed Lirio in front of all of Haven, that stood before her right now intending to erase her, that was also Seiji.
“Intensity is not a good look on me,” Cora corrected, a smile tugging at her lips. “I simply look good.”
Seiji laughed, though he still radiated bloodlust. As she’d expected, he threw a punch straight at her, but it wasn’t powered by any aura. He threw punch after punch at her, each one weaker than the last. Cora kicked him to the door again, though she hardly needed much force to send him flying.
“Seiji Otsuki, do not disappoint me.”
He couldn’t, Cora knew, but she still wanted to end this right. Seiji smiled as he flexed his left arm. Cora’s eyes widened as Seiji formed a Dragon Shot. Unlike the tiny, fist-sized sphere it normally was, this one was bigger than his entire hand and still growing. Seiji poured all of the aura he had into that Dragon Shot, and it took effort for Cora to keep her composure. Forming an equally sized Dragon Shot, she muttered to herself.
“This is who I am, Seiji. Queen of Valkyries.”
Their Dragon Shots were the size of a human head now. They smiled at each other as they kicked off, both Dragon Shots combining at the center of the arena. Before either of them could defend or react, blue-white fire filled the entire training hall.
----------------------------------------
Seiji lay beside Cora sprawled out on the floor of their destroyed training hall with his left hand in her right. His ribs were broken, his ears still rang, and his clothes were blown apart save for his pants. Cora wasn’t any better. She was down a right leg, and her eyelashes were completely gone, and she was missing quite a few teeth.
“You look terrible,” Cora yelled through a lisp.
“Stand over here and say that,” Seiji retorted a bit too loudly. It was still hard to hear over the ringing in his ears.
“You first.”
They turned their heads to look at one another then laughed hard. She groaned her injuries.
“How are you not a mess?” She asked, turning back to face the ceiling.
“Pain tolerance training. Everything hurts, but I know how to endure it.”
“Ah.”
Seiji turned to her. While he could endure pain, the shock was clearly starting to wear off on Cora. As it stood, though, that wouldn’t be mattering soon.
“Is this it?” Seiji asked, a bit surprised by how calm he was. He quickly realized why and smiled softly to himself. If this was it, at least he was with–
“Open and close your System ten times in a row. It’ll call the nearest butler to your location. It’s an emergency signal, so they come with high-powered elixirs at the ready.”
“Oh.”
Seiji complied. It wasn’t like he wanted to die. There was plenty of life left for him to live with Cora, but the thought of dying hand in hand with the one he loved seemed… nice.
They stared up at the ceiling as he tried to find the proper words. It felt good to know they were back, but they still had a lot to talk about. Seiji wanted to apologize for the Exhibition, but he didn’t want to talk in circles about the whole thing. Especially because he wasn’t that person anymore. He was an assassin, and Cora stayed with him regardless. He didn’t need to hide himself. Seiji still felt plenty of guilt and shame over the things he did in life, but he couldn’t afford to let that keep him from being who he needed to be.
“I’m sorry about all this,” Seiji decided to say. “I’m not good at expressing myself.”
“Not that I’m complaining,” Cora began. “But you were pretty well-spoken after the First Evaluation.”
“I was just parroting back what Sir Lasko said back then. I wanted to communicate with you today, and I felt that the best way to do that was by doing… this.” He glanced down at Cora’s missing leg. “Now we’re down limbs and a training hall.”
“Don’t worry. They have elixirs for limbs and bad injuries. Remember when Endora talked about stabbing my mother? There’s a reason she was confident Eir would be fine after that.”
“We’re dying, Cora. We aren’t just injured. We’re bleeding out.”
“I… am sure they have elixirs for that.”
Seiji stifled a laugh. If Cora joined, she’d get hurt. Thankfully, she changed the topic before he could start.
“I apologize, Seiji. A few times in there, I was really trying to kill you.”
I was trying to kill you the whole time.
Seiji smiled, but he kept that to himself. “Don’t be sorry. I got to experience your bloodlust firsthand. It was like I was fighting something… inevitable. It was excit–”
“Queen of the Valkyries. That is who I am.”
Seiji turned to her and was met with a look of total conviction. He met it with one of his own as he responded.
“Servant of Fate. That’s who I am.”
Cora frowned. “No, you’re my Servant.”
“You know what I mean.”
They laughed, and Cora thankfully didn’t wince or show pain. After a while, they just looked into each other's eyes. Neither of them spoke, but they both smiled. He wondered if they were thinking the same thing. Seiji cursed his own injuries. He wanted to move closer to–
ADVANCEMENT COMPLETE.
NAME: SEIJI OTSUKI
TIER 5 MAGE
HEALTH: 50
STRENGTH: 25
STAMINA: 25
MAGICAL STRENGTH: 55
MAGICAL STAMINA: 55
AVAILABLE SKILLS: DRAGON FURY, DRAGON SHOT, DRAGON CLAW, DRAGON STANCE, DRAGON FIRE
Seiji turned back to the ceiling and sighed. The moment was ruined. He still felt happy that he’d advanced, though he wasn’t filled with as much happiness as he’d been for his other advancements. He saw Cora point up from his peripheral vision. Seiji remembered they’d been holding hands. She saw the advancement screen, too.
“That isn’t the ceiling,” Seiji mused aloud. There were only five days left, but they couldn’t afford to be complacent here.
“Yes it is,” Cora said, still pointing ahead of her.
Seiji laughed softly, but he kept going. “We need to train hard. I can kill Lirio and you can dominate Selene, but we have no idea what the Favorite’s Rites will do to them. Even if they don’t become overpowered in the Favorite’s Rites, all they need to do to stop us is let us waste all of our stamina then they could defeat us. They survived our bloodlust once, so they’re probably going to resist the next time.”
Cora turned to him with a look of guilt. “We could’ve advanced sooner if I wasn’t being all we~ird. Sorry, Seiji. For reals.”
Seiji looked down at the pool of blood at Cora’s leg.
“Don’t… worry about it. We can still–”
The door of the training hall burst open as a familiar voice shouted from the entrance. “What did you two do?! Oh my gosh, Otsuki! Lady Cora!”
Seiji heard Thea run to them from the entrance, glass vials clanking with every step. She kneeled over them, her black ponytail falling into Seiji’s face with a frantic look. Seiji smiled.
“I exploded.”
It was horribly inappropriate, but it seemed like something she’d laugh at. He didn’t want her looking at him like he was on the verge of death, though Seiji remembered that he actually was.
She didn’t react.
“We both did!” Cora cheered. “Now my leg is over there! Do you think I can stick it back on?”
“Please, you two, stop talking and drink!”
Thea forced their mouths open with some sort of dentistry tool and poured about ten different elixirs down their throats. While they did taste relatively pleasant, the effects that they left him with were not. He felt and heard his bones crack into place like they had in the Hell Pit. His shoulder swelled and pulsated as a small stump began to sprout.
“It’ll take about twenty minutes for you two to be fully healed.” She turned to look at Seiji, her eyes still frantic. “Goodness, Otsuki. I knew you were planning something but this? I stayed a few blocks down in case things got bad, but I had to scramble for revival elixirs after I read your vitals! What were you–”
“So, you two ready for your final lesson?”
Endora appeared out of nowhere, bent over Seiji and Cora with a smile on her face. Cora didn’t respond. Seiji looked up at her and smiled weakly.
“Sure, ready when–”
“Endy, look around! I had to bring these two back from the brink of death! They can’t handle any training right now!”
He looked around the training hall. Most of the scaffolding had been destroyed. The banners on the walls were tattered and ripped, the floorboards jutted out at awkward angles, and the chandelier at the center of the room was a bit too low from the ceiling.
“They’ll be healed in a few minutes. They’ll be–”
“Endora, please,” Thea said, grabbing the Valkyrie’s hands in hers.
Endora closed her eyes and summoned a group of about twenty Aqua Silhouettes around the room. They all looked around the training hall like curious children, before turning almost at the same time to Cora & Seiji and running to surround them and shout concern. Endora took a deep breath.
“I’ll clean the training hall, and I’ll let them rest in their personal quarters. One hour. Then we begin. There are only five days left, there are no more breaks left to give.”
Thea gave Endora an apprehensive look, and Endora spoke up again. “Get as many revival elixirs as you can. Tell them I’m paying. I’ll keep you here to administer them, okay?”
“...Alright.” Thea sighed. She gave one last regretful look to Seiji and Cora before running out of the training hall. Endora smiled after her.
“She’s a good person,” Endora mused aloud. She bent back over Seiji and Cora, shading them with golden wings. “Now, I promised you two a final lesson!