CHAPTER 6 WAR’S END
“D-damn elven wench…!”
Moonlight trickled in through the window of the dim storehouse to reveal a certain branch manager tied quite securely to one of the pillars with a length of rope.
Riveria’s handiwork, obviously.
“Someone from the Guild will be along sooner or later. You’ll be able to confess to your crimes then.”
—She’d left him with this before vacating the premises not long ago. Calmly accosting him in his desperate attempt to hide the mountain of transmissions and documents that evidenced his embezzlement—not only remunerations from Njör?r but evidence as to his own personal smuggling efforts, as well—she’d opted to simply leave the whole pile for whomever happened upon the unlucky man first.
For a man living in fear of a soon-to-come investigation from Guild Headquarters, things had taken an all-too-real turn for the worst.
“If I could…just…get free of these…confounded ropes…!!” he huffed, the long-faced man wriggling his body to and fro as blood pounded through his eyes. The secret knot-tying tricks of the forest high elves were not something an ordinary person could easily extricate themselves of no matter how much they struggled. And as he pulled and tugged at his bonds, face as red as a ripened tomato, he was just beginning to realize this all too fully, when suddenly.
“Rubart Ryan! So you were up to no good, you wretched man!”
“…?! Wh-who’s there?!”
The voice was unfamiliar, reverberating around him in the dim space of the storehouse.
Jerking his head first left, then right, he searched nearby, but there was no one to be found.
The only company he had was that same disquieting shadow wrapped all around him.
“So ambitious and so accomplished, too. Even Ouranos had agreed that you might be able to turn things around for the Branch Office…and yet here you are. Oh, how the mighty fall.”
“I—I command you to show yourself!” Rubart shouted into the darkness, his body trembling at the strangely ethereal voice that was neither male nor female.
Then.
“Though some of your actions may be pardonable considering your oh-so-laudable cause of restoring peace to the oceans—”
A cloak of blackest night cut through the darkness, revealing a shadowy figure in front of him.
“A gh-gh-gh-gh-gh-ghost?!” Rubart screamed, half-crazed by this point as he remembered all too vividly the long-running rumors of the spirit haunting the Branch Office.
“—that doesn’t condone the fact that you took advantage of your position to line your own pockets. Disciplinary measures must be taken, Rubart.”
No sooner had the words left the cloaked figure’s mouth than a glowing green particle of light worked its way from one of its darkened sleeves. Rubart’s face went white, the green light filling his mouth and lungs and rendering him unconscious almost instantly with his eyes still open in fright.
“To think I had to come all the way out here for this…” A grumble came from under the dark hood. With Rubart now sleeping soundly, the “ghost,” Fels, looked down at the man with a good-natured slump of the shoulders. The Magus and right-hand man to the god of the Guild, Ouranos, let out a sigh.
“And here I thought Loki worked her men hard. But who am I to talk?” Fels added before looking up toward the window overhead—and the sudden sound of commotion coming from outside the storehouse. “Dear, dear. I should be making haste…It would seem they’ve already arrived.”
Indeed, the cacophony of voices was already transforming into the battle song of a forward advance.
“Wh-what was that?”
Back in Meren’s trade pier district…
As Aiz and the rest of Loki Familia squared off against Phryne and her assailants, the ears of the Amazons on guard perked up at the sounds behind them. They’d been stationed there to ensure no civilians made their way out onto the wharf, but the timbre of the earlier city commotion had taken a sudden shift. In fact, the sounds of fear and confusion as people fled had given way to…excited shouts, almost as though they were welcoming someone.
They turned their gazes to the rear, peering suspiciously through the blue shadow of nightfall—only to come face-to-face with an entire army charging straight in their direction.
“What the hell?!”
“L-Loki Familia?!”
The Trickster flag waved on high as the troops barreled their way into Meren. Making a beeline toward the pier, the men of Loki Familia stopped for nothing, stampeding straight through the city.
In less than an instant, the Amazonian guards were obliterated, completely overwhelmed by the galloping throng of male aggressors and their accompanying deep-bellied battle cry.
“Finn! You’re here!”
“Apologies for our late arrival, Riveria. What’s the current status?”
Finn and Riveria convened atop the roof of a nearby building, Meren’s citizens mistaking the group for emissaries from Orario and welcoming them with buoyant cheers.
“Aiz and the others have been brought to a standstill farther down the road…As for Tione and Tiona…” Riveria began, filling Finn in on the rest of the situation.
Finn responded promptly, tossing out orders to Gareth and the rest of the troops following along on the road below. “Gareth! Take Raul and the others and head toward the western border of the city!”
“The west? The devil’s goin’ down over there?” Gareth asked in confusion.
“Tiona, Loki, and the others were last seen headed in that direction. Where’s Bete?”
“Knowin’ him, he’s already tearin’ things up at the pier!”
“Perfect. We’ll leave that to him, then!”
“And what of us?” Riveria this time.
Finn glanced up at the question, turning his gaze toward the high elf next to him. He tossed her the long silver staff he’d been carrying—her Magna Alfs—and she responded with a nod.
“As for us, we’ll—”
“Hrrggggrraaaaaaaaaghhhh!!”
“Ngh!!”
Silver sword met twin axes in a flurrying whirlwind of strikes.
With every incoming barrage, Aiz deftly knocked away the two bludgeons and retaliated with the wild flash of her blade, but no matter the angle of her sword, the fully armored giant of a woman always just barely managed to fend off her onslaught.
Phryne flinched beneath her visor. This wasn’t some giant battle-ax she was up against—this was nothing but a single sword. But then why was her armor already covered in scratches? Why was the duel leaning in Aiz’s favor?
Because she was the Sword Princess, that’s why. And it didn’t matter that their levels were now the same or that her wind magic had been sealed.
The temporary strength Phryne had gained for this duel was no match for the swordsmanship Aiz had perfected through hours upon hours of rigorous training. Aiz’s technique and tactical prowess were simply too great for Phryne’s own abilities to catch up.
“Youuuuuuuuuu…annoying biiiiiiiitch!” the giant woman wailed, putting everything she had into a single massive diagonal strike of her ax.
With blinding speed, Aiz sidestepped the incoming attack in all its overflowing, rage-induced power. Time came screeching to a halt as the Sword Princess retaliated with a spinning cut, so fast Phryne couldn’t even register the movement.
“Ruuuuuuuuuaaaaaaaarrrrrrgggghhh!!”
The tempestuous horizontal strike collided with Phryne’s torso, slicing across the armor with a magnificent flurry of sparks.
“Gnnnggraah…!! You…you scratched ittttt! My beautiful armorrrrrrrrr!!”
—It…It only nicked it!
Aiz looked on in dismay at the superficial mark her attack had made on the armor’s surface. She’d put everything she had into that hit, yet she’d still failed to fell the beast. And it wasn’t that Phryne’s reaction time had simply been too fast, either. It was for the same reason she’d already let so many other good opportunities during this fight pass her by—both literally and figuratively, her weapon just didn’t cut it.
The sword she was using was not her own but a substitute, and her opponent’s suit of armor was easily top grade. It put her at a distinct disadvantage, especially with their levels already so close.
Aiz glanced down at the blade of her sword, covered with nicks and chips. She had no idea how many more of Phryne’s attacks the metal could take. As blood and light particles oozed their way out of the neat gash in Phryne’s armor, Aiz turned to the woman with a sharp glare, the inklings of anxiety working their way up under her collar.
Then, suddenly.
“?!!”
“!”
Her reinforcements arrived.
With a raging howl, the slew of Loki Familia men threw themselves at the surrounding circle of Amazons. Narfi and the other lower-level familia members, barely hanging on by that point, could only look on in speechless wonder as the sudden blitz stole their opponents from them.
Soon one, two, three, the Berbera fell one by one, no match against these new enemies.
“What the hellllllllllll?! What’sssssss going on—?!”
But the Berbera weren’t the only ones. A similar shadow quickly overtook the thunderstruck Phryne. Gray curls dancing, the werewolf leaped toward her like a starved animal, thirsty for blood.
“Gyyyyyyaaah??!”
There was a brilliant flash as the kick connected with her armor.
Phryne barely managed to defend herself, bringing an ax down just in time, but the sheer force of the kick still sent her careening backward and forming deep grooves in the dirt with her heels.
“Yo, Aiz.”
“Mister Bete…!”
Bete turned his gaze toward Aiz with an incredulous look, and Aiz herself was taken aback.
“I thought you were supposed to be goin’ up against that Kali Familia whatsit! But this is just that nasty frog from Ishtar Familia.”
It didn’t take long for Aiz to realize that Loki must have been the one to call in the cavalry. A bit shamefaced, she quickly filled in Bete on the current situation.
“I don’t understand…a single bit of what you just told me, aside from the fact that these cows are keepin’ us from Tiona and Tione,” Bete started, face darkening as he spoke. He could tell that the normally emotionless girl was desperately trying to string together her words in a way that made sense. “Aiz, you go on ahead.”
“What?”
“Y’gotta save those numbskull Amazons, don’tcha? They’ll do a lot better with your help than mine anyway,” Bete continued almost languidly, ignoring the way Aiz’s brows rose in surprise. “I’ll take care of things here.” The red glint of Phryne’s armor reflected in his amber eyes.
“B-but she’s as strong as a Level Six! And…and my magic, it was sealed, so going up against her alone would be—”
“Awww, shut the hell up, would ya?” The werewolf cut her off with an irate growl, already a Level 6 himself. “Only a little longer now…” he hissed, looking up. “Only a little longer, and I’ll become stronger than even you…at least without that wind of yours.”
“!”
Confused, Aiz, too, turned her gaze upward to the night sky. To the clouds drifting among all that inky blue and the moonlight just starting to peek through the veil.
Taking her Desperate from him, she nodded.
She ran out of there as fast as she could.
“Stop right there, Sword Princessssssss!”
“You’re not going anywhere!”
“?!”
Enraged, Phryne made to follow the swordswoman, only to find her path cut short by a werewolf. She brought her axes up to fend off the incoming kick, revealing her monstrous tongue. “Donnnnnnnnn’t mess with me, Vanargand! I know youuuuuuuu can’t get enough of me, but I doooooooon’t have time for this!!” Her face was already the same color as her crimson armor.
“You smokin’ somethin’, froggy?” Bete spat out, not even trying to disguise his disgust.
Whether or not she knew of the rage surging through the werewolf’s entire body, Phryne let out a grand peal of laughter.
“Hee-hee-hee!! I’ll warn you! I’mmmmmm a great deal stronger now, after chasing that sssssssorry girl! You think I care that you leveled up? You’re nothing but a dog with itssssssss tail between its legs!”
The air around Bete froze with a crack.
“Yer gonna regret those words…”
A dangerous glint appeared in his eyes.
Almost as if in response to his call, the clouds parted to reveal the light of the moon.
“Hee-hee…hee…?” Phryne’s echoing laugh came to an abrupt halt.
The scene outside her visor was…changing.
Golden light flooded the once-dark pier, sending faint tremors up and down Bete’s body, and the werewolf’s shadow trembled ever so slightly against the ground.
And then the pupils of his amber eyes suddenly turned to slits that split the irises right down the middle, almost like some kind of feral beast’s.
“N-no way…”
He stood with the moon at his back, his canines enlarged and sharpened, and his gray hair practically standing on end.
Phryne could only stare in horror as the shadow on the ground warped into a terrifying, crazed wolf.
“Nhag loy! Korru jhi roojeh!”
“Negrub fuu Kali?!”
Wh-what are they saying…?
Lefiya thought back in one of the caverns in the winding sea cave. The Amazons left to guard her had burst into a flurry of anxious activity, and though she had no idea what they were saying, she could hazard a guess in response to their reactions.
Someone’s here? Maybe they came into the cave…At least that’s what it seems like. Why else would they be scuttling about so?
And certainly invaders could mean only one thing—Aiz and the others were on their way.
Lefiya swallowed hard.
I can’t very well sit here and do nothing, then, can I? At the very least, I need to inform them of my location…!
But the question was how, especially with these brutish guards keeping watch.
Even in the current commotion, the four of them had yet to avert their eyes from Lefiya. And Lefiya, well, she had nothing but magic in her arsenal, and if Kali’s words were to be believed, if she even tried to whisper a quick chant, they’d crush her little neck faster than the words could pass her lips…
The mental reminder was enough to make her shake her head in furious refusal.
“…?”
Until, all of a sudden, she realized something.
There was a crack running through the rock face overhead, just high enough that it entered her vision when she tilted her head up. While not wide enough to let a mouse or rat pass, it was just wide enough to let a sliver of moonlight filter through.
—Light? Then…it connects to the world outside—.
With that revelation came an idea, and quite suddenly she knew exactly what she needed to do.
It was a reckless plan. In fact, she might as well have been gambling on the impossible, and it was going to require ample courage. But if she couldn’t even do something as simple as this, certainly she would never amount to anything more than excess baggage for Aiz and the others to carry around—!
With her hands still bound by their chains, her body gave a shiver. She was ready.
I’m a ridiculous magic powerhouse, I’m a ridiculous magic powerhouse, I’m a ridiculous magic powerhouse…
The words Loki had spoken to her back when she’d updated her Status reverberated in her heart like a mantra of courage. Then, gathering every tiny ounce of pure determination she had, she sucked in her breath in one mighty whoosh.
“…?”
The action was enough to draw suspicious glances from every Amazon in the cave. But it was too late.
“—Unleashed pillar of light, limbs of the holy tree!!”
“?!”
Her chant had already begun.
She bellowed it from the top of her lungs, not even bothering to hide it, not resorting to any tricks and simply singing with everything she had.
For a single instant, the Amazonian guards could do nothing but stand there in shock, and during that time, an enormous magic circle formed around Lefiya’s kneeling form. Just as the guards were about to spring into action, the golden light seared into their eyes with a brilliant flash.
—A smoke screen?!
Or at least that was the Amazons’ first thought, but in fact, Lefiya’s intentions were quite different.
No, her goal was to fill up the cave with so much light that it escaped that crack in the rock and lit up the sky—.
“You are the master—”
“Rhu moona!”
“Guh?!”
One of the Amazons leaped toward her, cutting her chant short. Down came the knife, directly toward her throat, but with a yank of her chains, Lefiya somehow managed to block the incoming attack.
Her magic circle was still intact. There was no snuffing it out now. And as Lefiya’s light shone through that crack in the wall, she willed her friends to see it.
Miss Aiz, Miss Aiz, Miss Aiiiiiiiiiiiiiz?!!
Her heart cried out desperately for the one she loved, and just as the other Amazons drew near, reaching for her—there was a ground-shaking explosion.
“?!”
The ceiling above them gave way, rocks and shrapnel flying as a lone adventurer came bounding down into the cave. Her call had been answered, and the one who’d shattered rock and stone to save her was none other than—
—Miss Aiz!
She turned her trembling eyes in the direction of her savior and took in the sight of that gorgeous, slender swordswo—Since when did Aiz have muscles like that? And a-a beard?!
“Ye all right, lass?”
It wasn’t Aiz at all but, in fact, Gareth.
Her magic circle went out with a hiss.
“…Not as easy on the eyes as the one ye’re expectin’, am I?”
“That’s—?! N-n-n-no, Mister Gareth! I’m not—, I wasn’t—, s-s-surely you’re just imagining things!!” Lefiya desperately tried to explain, sweat breaking out across her temples.
But Gareth saw right through her all the same. “Sorry, lass. I know I can never be Aiz,” he muttered with a sigh before reshouldering his Grand Ax.
“Gha-gha reem?!”
The flabbergasted Amazons stood rooted to their spots at this new development, then quickly readied their weapons and began to move. The tense cry had clearly been some kind of command, because one of them shot forward, straight at Gareth.
In response, Gareth readied his own arm, balling his free hand into a fist to promptly bash the incoming body out of the way.
“?”
BAM!! The Amazon went flying, and the cave shook with noise as she collided with the far rock wall. She wasn’t getting up after that.
Once again, time seemed to slow to a crawl, neither Lefiya nor the Amazons saying a word.
“Reminds me of the first time I met those two ragamuffins.” Gareth laughed before tossing aside his ax. The day played out in his head like it was yesterday—when he’d sent Tiona flying just like this not more than five years ago—and the giant dwarf warrior turned to face his remaining opponents. “Ye seem pretty confident in yer skills, don’t ye, lassies?” he said, cracking his knuckles with a popping sound that echoed off the walls. “But yer still green.”
Then he laughed an uproarious, fearless laugh.
“??!”
Something stirred inside the Amazons. They might not have had any idea what the dwarf was saying, but they did know one thing—he was making fun of them, and almost in sync, the whole lot of them came charging at Gareth at once.
What happened next was enough to drain the color from Lefiya’s face—Gareth’s fist sent each of the incoming Amazons flying into the wall one after another.
The moon glimmered in the blue sky overhead.
The clouds had all but disappeared, and its golden light poured down on the ground below.
And beneath that watching gaze, in the middle of Meren’s trade pier, clash after clash of a raging battle echoed throughout the docks. Again and again the clamorous percussion of metal on metal punctuated the air.
“Grrrrraaaaaaaggggghhh…!!” Phryne belted out, her voice hoarse and her face exposed to the night breeze. Her fat arms, short legs, and even her round torso engulfed in shimmering particles of light had been laid bare. At her feet, the crimson pieces of her armor lay like bloody shrapnel, still glinting in the moonlight. Nearly all the reinforced plating had been torn off. The full-body suit of armor she’d been so proud of was nothing short of decimated.
Thanks to a certain werewolf.
“This is…this is innnnnnsane! How can you…be even more powerful than…than the Sword Princesssssss…?!” She ground her teeth, and her ghastly, froggy face had become all the more ghastly once it was stained with blood and vehemence.
Across from her, the werewolf stood in stark contrast, backlit by the light of the moon as a heavy globule of drool leaked down from between his lips. The pieces of her strewn armor crackled under his feet like mere crushed pebbles.
Phryne’s bulbous eyes dilated before the glare of his silvery metal boots.
“Hr-hrrrrrrruuuuuuuuaaaaaaAAAAAAARRRRGHHHHHH!!”
With a roar that split the air, she charged forward, ax flying.
She put everything she had behind that strike, barreling toward the wolf and still surrounded by light particles, and he responded in kind, moving at a near impossible speed to meet her with an accelerating kick of his own. They collided.
“?”
Her ax met the same fate as her armor.
As the broken fragments scattered in slow motion, the particles around her fizzled into nothing.
“M-my time rannnnnnnn out—?!”
But before she could so much as lament her life’s choices, Bete’s metal boots were streaking toward her face. Her expression froze in horror, the word “Wait!” stuck between her lips, but even if she’d been able to get it out, it wouldn’t have stopped the charging wolf, and with a kick that made the very air groan, the heels of those silvery boots hit her head-on.
“GUUUUWWOOOOOOOOOOOOUGH!!”
It was a direct hit that sent her rotund body sailing through the air, obliterating every object it encountered along the way. She flew all the way past the docks, plunging into the waters of Lolog Lake beyond.
There was a tremendous splash, and the Berbera still fighting on the pier nearby looked up in shocked dismay. Even the Amazons still hiding in the shadows on the roof of the storehouse could only look on in horror.
“A-Aisha…?!”
“…!” The long-legged warrior, Aisha, grimaced beneath her turban. “He’s transformed!”
Werewolves had long been considered the least-suited race for Dungeon crawling all across Orario because deep within the bowels of the Dungeon, they had no access to the moon—the source of their true power. These sorts of “transformations” had been confirmed only in a limited number of animal-person species. It was an ability that unleashed not only their untapped power but their innate animalistic nature as well, “trading rationality for strength,” as the saying went. And for werewolves, the key to their transformation was none other than the light of the moon.
While this werewolf skill was well-known across the globe, none of the Amazons had ever seen it in person, nor anything like the sheer overwhelming boost of power it gave to his abilities now.
“Vanargand…!”
With blazing speed and honed strikes, he could decimate his opponent in an instant, turning the battlefield into a bloody brawl. Even the werewolf’s alias on her lips was enough to make her shudder.
“Gngh…?!”
She could feel the fear radiating off her veiled companion behind her.
The werewolf’s gray fur was standing on end, giving off the illusion that it had grown in length. His amber eyes, still split down the middle, emanated a kind of savage lunacy.
Looking at him now, the veiled girl felt her tail, similar to his own, begin to tremble in subconscious terror.
“—There you are.”
Snorting, Bete turned in their direction, eyes staring straight through the darkness to where they shielded themselves in shadow.
None of them so much as breathed—and then he charged.
“Shit!” Aisha hissed, the first to spring to her feet, and though the other Amazons leaped to defend them, it was too late.
Pudao swords and other weapons came at him, but they couldn’t so much as graze his fur. His single flying kick connected with the group of hidden warriors, hurling them away.
“You damn animal!”
“Don’t try it, Rena!!”
But the girl wouldn’t listen, flourishing her scimitar and sending it toward one of Bete’s gauntlets. It glanced off with barely more than a haphazard bounce.
Bete turned to her, now frozen in the air, and punched her straight in the gut.
“Nnguuuuuh!”
Her scream followed behind her as she was sent flying. Bete, however, turned toward the lone animal girl, now helpless without her Amazonian guards.
“—!!”
“You’re the one controlling that light, aren’t you?!”
Just like Aiz, Bete, too, had noticed the Level-6 Status Phryne currently boasted. But as soon as the particles of light flitting about her had disappeared, she’d turned into nothing more than a hapless civilian. Not about to leave the source of all that power—this conspicuously out-of-place girl who looked more like a shrine maiden than anything else—at large, he stood ready to bring his full strength down right on her head.
“Ah—”
Until.
He caught a glance of her through the pale-white shroud of her veil, and the trembling green eyes staring back at him brought his hand to an abrupt halt.
“Hngh!!”
Aisha saw her opening and took it, jumping forward in the nick of time to pull the girl to safety.
“M-Miss Aisha—!”
“There’s no time to talk. All of you, run!!” Aisha commanded, her voice ringing out across the battlefield even as she struggled to push her injured body forward. Her fellow Berbera were quick to follow her order, all of them retreating into the darkness.
Soon, none but Loki Familia remained.
“…”
The battle on the pier was over. Finally, silence had returned to the dark city.
All that was left was the quiet lull of the tide from the direction of the lake. With a slump, Bete let his left arm, still held aloft, drop to his side.
Whether his froggy opponent had sunk to the bottom of the lake or floated her way to safety, he didn’t know, and he didn’t care, either. He wasn’t in the mood to go running after her.
He couldn’t seem to shake those jade eyes from his memory. Lips curling in disgust (and his tattoo with them), he shot a wad of spit toward the ground.
“If yer not willin’ to fall in the fire, don’t jump in the pan…”
Back in the sea cave.
The rite continued down within the arena nature had built. It should have been over already, but instead, the two women continued to go at each other with undiminished strength, coming closer and closer to the grand finale of their battle.
“Hiiiii-YAH!”
“Ngh!” Bache quickly dodged Tiona’s incoming attack. The other Amazon no longer feared the armor of Velgas surrounding her body, nor each strike aiming to kill. And as she swung her leg with enough force to break bone, attempting to throw Bache off her feet, Bache took to the air and brought her own heel up for a downward swipe at the top of Tiona’s head.
Tiona was too fast, her catlike reflexes moving her nimbly out of harm’s way, and Bache’s ax kick went flying into the ground. Her heel connected with the stone and cracked it in two. For a moment, the rock burned, smoke rising from the effects of Bache’s Velgas.
“Hey, you guys! If I win, do I get some sorta prize, just like before?” Tiona shouted as she chucked a rock she’d picked up during her evasive maneuvers in Bache’s direction.
Bache didn’t reply, Velgas-coated fist rising to meet the rock and shattering it into pieces as she charged. Kali, on the other hand, furrowed her brows in curious doubt as she watched the goings-on down below.
“You’re really somethin’ else, you know that?…But what the hell. What were you thinkin’?”
“If I win…I want you to make it so Bache and Argana don’t have to fight anymore!”
This was enough to widen not only Kali’s eyes but Bache’s, as well.
“I’m not sayin’ you have to stop the rites entirely, ’specially for those who like ’em! But Bache doesn’t wanna fight anymore, yeah? She doesn’t wanna die! Just like Tione and me! So I want her to be able to do whatever she wants!!”
A chance for Bache to escape from Kali’s command, from the brunt of Argana’s bloodlust. Even now, in the midst of their close-quarter duel, Bache’s movements dulled ever so slightly.
“…Don’t listen to her, Bache. You think I’d be stupid enough to release you for losing? Don’t make me laugh! Victory is the only path to survival.”
“…I understand, Kali,” Bache replied, devoid of emotion, and soon her attacks packed the same punch as before.
“But why?!” Tiona shouted.
“You think your words mean shit? Ha! As if I’d grant you any old stupid request.”
“You’re just a greedy old hag!” Tiona was whining now, bickering like a small child even as she was pummeled with attacks.
“And that’s good enough for me!” Kali shot back, sticking out her tongue in an equally childish riposte. “…It’s a good thing I’m here to watch over your fight,” she continued, going stoic beneath her mask. “At least with Argana and Tione, I know they’ll complete the rite. They’ll continue fighting until the bitter end, offering up their opponent’s dead carcass in triumphant victory.”
“…!”
“Because Argana and Tione…are made from the same mold.”
Tiona twisted her head upward. “That’s not true!”
“Yes it is!” Kali simply laughed. “Argana may have her relentless fighting spirit, but Tione has her anger, and they’re both the same, ever-enduring and ever-abiding. When that girl gets really, truly angry…she wouldn’t hesitate a moment to end her opponent’s life.”
Almost as if in response to Kali’s murmured allegations, a similar battle to the death intensified, far away atop its ship out at sea.
“?HrrrruuuaaaaAAAGH!!”
Tione roared, all her rage and all her fury sending her fist into Argana’s abdomen. The force sent a waterfall of blood down Argana’s chin.
“Guh-guaagh…ha-ha, ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!! You’re still…growing stronger…are you, Tione?!”
“I thought I told you to shut up!!” The sight of all that blood, the sound of Argana’s vicious laughter—it only served to spur Tione on further. It didn’t matter how much of her own life Argana’s strikes had already carved away. It didn’t matter how much blood came bubbling out between Argana’s lips. Tione couldn’t stop; her fists, her feet—all stained red—just kept flying.
Relentlessly, mercilessly, she threw blow after blow, the aura of vibrant red air around her darkening as her every strike sought to rend the other Amazon limb from limb.
Argana had her curse. But Tione had her skill.
And Argana was forced to admit that these two weren’t exactly the most compatible of abilities. As her own defenses took a sharp decline, Tione’s attack power only climbed and climbed.
One strike. One strike was all it would take. Tione was becoming the sword that would behead the snake.
While there were any number of ways Tione could have overpowered the other Amazon using her technique and skills, she forgot all of them—simply railing on her again and again, her entire mind, her entire being focused on wringing the very life from Argana’s body. And with every punch, more and more blood came spurting from Argana’s mouth.
Argana took all of it, making no move to cancel her curse.
Perhaps it was a sign of respect, perhaps a way of not turning her back on the battle at hand. So as not to dirty the sacred rites of her country.
And Argana, who refused to put nothing but her best foot forward, was dying.
“Are you going to kill me, Tione? Good!” She laughed, even now trembling with excitement, with a scorching pain. “My blood will become yours, and I shall live forever! Together with those I’ve already consumed! We shall arrive, all of us, at war’s end!!” She was howling now, her state of mind practically no different from Kali’s own.
“We shall become…the strongest warrior!!”
—Shut up, shut up, SHUT UP.
Argana’s words were like white noise to Tione’s ears.
—I’ll defeat her. I’ll kill her. With my own hands. I’ll steal the life from her eyes.
This monster of Telskyura, who represented everything she and Tiona had been made to suffer—she was going to kill her. And she was going to protect her sister.
There was one key difference between her and Tiona—and that was how much they condemned Telskyura. Tione, who’d never been able to smile the way Tiona had, retained nothing but a quietly amassed resentment, like a shadow hanging over her. Without even realizing it, Tione was becoming every bit the warrior she’d so tried to escape.
Kali had been right on the money.
While there might have been a temporary slump in Tiona and Bache’s rite, Tione and Argana’s never faltered. On and on they fought, showing no signs of hesitation or misgiving. Tione’s rage was propelling her toward the future of war Kali desired.
Kali had all of them in the palm of her hand. It had been she who’d ordered Argana and Tione’s fight to take place out at sea, where no one could interfere, and she who’d decided to remain in the cave and watch over Bache and Tiona.
Everything was going exactly as she’d planned.
“I’ll kill you, Tione! Come here and let me drink the life from your veins!!”
“RuuuuuaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAGGGGGHHH!!”
As Argana coaxed her, voice dripping with joy and rage, the Amazonian warriors beside them raised their own voices in vociferous climax.
The final curtain call so lusted after by their goddess was growing steadily nearer.
Tione…!
Back in the cave, Tiona scowled. The constant drumming in her ears was louder now, sending rippling waves of heat all the way to the tips of her fingers.
“Ngh!”
Not missing the opening, Bache threw a knife-hand strike toward her face, and Tiona had less than a second to dodge the incoming Velgas. She leaped backward, narrowly avoiding the attack as it went into the wall, sending shards of smoking, toxic rock flying.
Tiona’s cheek and hair, too, sizzled where Bache’s hand had grazed her, and moving back, she reestablished the distance between them.
I can’t be worrying about Tione now. I have to focus on winning this battle first…
If not, she was in for a world of hurt from her sister. She turned her gaze toward Bache and the icy-cold stare the other Amazon was directing her way. Feeling the sweat running off her in droves, she let out another breath of crimson air.
“My big hits keep missing…” she mumbled beneath her breath, and it was true—three times now she’d tried to lay the finishing blow on Bache only to miss her target. While she knew pecking away at the other Amazon with short, quick strikes would do nothing but get her own body further scorched by Bache’s Velgas, Bache herself wasn’t so negligent as to leave herself open for any type of critical hit. “What should I doooooooo?”
She didn’t have much time. That much she knew.
She could keep smiling all she wanted, but pain was still pain, and heartache was still heartache.
In fact, if she had any choice in the matter at all, she’d much rather have curled up right there on the floor and taken a good long nap.
Kinda reminds me of those caterpillar critters down in the Dungeon. If only I had some sorta weapon…then I could figure somethin’ out.
Not that it was an acceptable scenario, considering she’d probably kill Bache right out.
But if I had my Urga…then what would I do? she mused, looking down at her fist as her mind went to her beloved weapon still under maintenance.
This poison was different from that of those caterpillars. Though her skin may change its color, lose its feeling, and squirm with an agonizing pain, it didn’t melt or lose its shape.
Her breath grew darker, saturated with more and more red.
“…”
Then slowly, she began to stretch.
Bending her knees, she let out a deep puff of air.
“Bache.”
“…”
She looked the other woman straight in the eye. Bache’s face was expressionless, and her lips were closed tight beneath the black of her neckerchief.
“—I’m coming for you.”
And with that, their final duel began.
Tiona’s inaugural strike was a flying punch, straight from the front.
“?!”
Both of them attacked, counterattacked, blocked. They went at each other like dogs, and the swirling mass of toxic light circling Bache’s body seared Tiona’s skin every time they touched. As she danced out of harm’s way, her feet as bare as the elves’, Tiona was foregoing all manner of evasion and simply throwing herself at the other Amazon with everything she had.
What is she thinking?
Bache’s eyes hardened as she watched Tiona come at her. It was ridiculous, really, coming straight from the front like that. Her Velgas was not only a method of attack but one of defense, as well. And every time Tiona’s fist came at her, no matter if it hit, no matter if it was blocked, no matter if it was fended off, the toxins ate away at her bit by bit. It didn’t matter how high of a status resistance she might have—if she didn’t heal herself soon, she had only about five minutes of fight left in her.
And as for the finishing blow she’d been trying to lay on Bache for some time now, she had only about one.
Had the other girl really let herself go this time? Abandoned all reason in her desperation? The thought had only just crossed Bache’s mind when—
“?”
—her attacks began hitting nothing but air.
And the attacks landing on her came faster and faster, the accuracy of Tiona’s punches and kicks seeming especially on point.
Bache threw punch after rock-crushing punch. But none of them hit. Tiona was gone. Then suddenly she’d be right next to her, landing a kick to her shoulder. She could hear the sound of Tiona’s skin sizzling against her Velgas. Again and again and again.
—She’s…
Their timing no longer matched.
Tiona’s speed was rising.
Alarmingly so.
And not only that, the power behind her punches was rising, too.
Bache’s eyes shook in their sockets. And all of a sudden, that painfully smiling face came directly into view.
Sh-she can’t be—!
Tiona’s skill, Intense Heat.
Similar to her Berserk skill, every time she took damage, it increased the course-correcting effects of her abilities. The more cornered she was, the closer she came to death, the more her survival and battle instincts turned into pure, concentrated power, flaring up inside her.
—Which meant Bache couldn’t let her land an attack. But Bache couldn’t attack her, either. Or to put it another way, whether she turned the other cheek or simply let it all fly, Tiona’s Status would simply keep on rising.
The damage from her Velgas was going to keep on strengthening the other Amazon no matter what she did.
“Gngh!!”
Tiona’s two boosts had stacked themselves.
Bache, on the other hand, couldn’t land a single hit. She couldn’t dodge a single blow. And she couldn’t guard against a single incoming strike.
Bone-crunching punches slammed into her face. Flailing toes met her chin in earsplitting kicks. Throws sent her hurtling through the air to slam hard against the ground.
Higher, higher, higher.
Speed, endurance, power—all of it rose, seemingly without limit.
Up, up, up, up, up, up—it never ceased.
“Nothing can stop me noooooOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWW!!”
The wave of attacks beat against Bache’s body with the force of a raging river.
Wounds opened up all over her faster than she could even register them, shaking her so much she couldn’t even maintain her Velgas.
Blood was leaking from her every pore now, coloring every inch of her copper skin.
Tiona, you—
Tiona was on fire. Burning brightly, ablaze with life.
Despite the pain and despite the heartache, she’d stood tall, utilizing the most relentless method she could to bring Bache down. Her eyes were hazy, evidence of the struggle her own body was enduring to keep her alive.
And yet through all of it—her smile never once faltered.
Instead, she was creeping toward her, looking more and more like the snake Bache had come to fear—her sister, the embodiment of death.
“Gngh…gnnnnrrrraaaAAAAAGHH!!” Bache screamed, the first time she’d even raised her voice during the duel, trying to dismiss that horrible building fear of death shaking her to the core. Her mask of insouciance gone, her eyes glinting, she gathered together all the power deep down inside her and wrung out every last drop of the murderously toxic venom exuding from her pores.
Who would fall first? Tiona or Bache?
Faster and faster their fists flew, and the great abyss of death transformed into their final arena.
“? RRRRUUUUUUUUUAAAAAAAARRRRRGGGGGHHH!! ”
They were boiling now.
Battering punches. Flying kicks. The fire burning within them both set their fight ablaze.
Even their voices met in a battle of roars, shaking the very walls of the cavern.
“HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA! This is it! This is truly a rite of the arena, a life-and-death duel! This is the fight I’ve been waiting for!!” Kali laughed gleefully, her eyes wide and glimmering as the rest of the Amazons found themselves taken aback at the sheer power behind the echoing voices.
“Tiona!!”
Bache’s voice screamed as her fist came in contact with Tiona’s abdomen.
The air rushed out of the other girl with an audible guhhh.
“Are you smiling now?!”
The poison ripped through her, all along her skin, burning her nerves, and the pain and shock practically sent her to her knees.
But even through all of it, even though the hellish torture ravaging her entire body, Tiona still smiled.
“—You bet I am!!”
And then she punched back.
Her fist sank into Bache’s abdomen with the same force the other Amazon had just inflicted on her. Bache’s body curved into an unnatural C shape at the force, blood shooting from her mouth.
“Hurt me all you want! Bleed me all you want! I’ll never stop laughing!!”
A spinning kick.
Bache dodged this one, both of them jumping back to put distance between them.
“I’ll smile…for those who can’t!!”
The treasure she’d received in that story of legend, that unwavering promise, two sisters smiling and laughing together.
She’d smile for tomorrow. She’d smile because she believed in the happiness that awaited.
The gazes of the two Amazons met. Then they drew their arms back, preparing themselves for the final strike.
Tiona clenched her fist.
Bache focused the light of her Velgas.
Then they charged, smile meeting bloodlust in a mad dash toward the center.
“Gnnnngh!!”
They collided.
Red-hot air hit purplish black light particles at point-blank range.
It happened in an instant, Bache one step ahead, her fist flying and, with it, her Velgas.
“TIONAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!”
She hurtled straight at her face, straight at that smile—but Tiona ignored it.
Instead, she was focused on Bache’s arm, on a spot of skin where the light of her Velgas seemed to have disappeared, and reaching her own arm around it, she pushed down.
The strike barreling toward her face suddenly wasn’t anymore.
“?”
Bache’s eyes dilated in surprise.
“Bache—”
Her attack was gone. All that was left was that smile—and then Tiona roared.
“Here I…GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO?!!”
The explosion was instantaneous.
“Gungh?!”
Tiona’s right fist came straight into Bache’s chest.
So much power. Bache’s body was launched away, crashing into the far rock wall with a horrific crunch.
Urga. The Amazon word for “great destruction.”
Letting herself get within a hairbreadth of death, she’d built up the effects of her skill to its very limits, releasing a truly “final” finishing blow.
It was the strongest attack she had in her arsenal.
“—Gn—gh…”
Peeling away, Bache took first one step, then two steps, then, wobbling, she fell to her knees. She collapsed to the ground, right then and there, robbed of her voice aside from the stuttered grunt making its way past her lips.
Tiona had won.
“—Se wehga! Se wehga! Se wehga!”
Thou art the true warrior! Thou art the true warrior! Thou art the true warrior!
All around her, her fellow Amazons raised their voices in thunderous praise, extolling her, the victor. It was enough to shake the walls of stone and rock surrounding them—Tiona with her breath ragged and Bache facedown on the ground.
“Well done! Well done!”
Two tiny hands came together in excited applause. Kali smiled beneath her mask, more than satisfied, as she lauded Tiona from above.
“That was just wonderful! Guess that settles it, then. Letting you go truly was my one big mistake, Tiona. I was too soft. Too soft!”
“…”
“You’ve proven victorious in the rite…However, your opponent lives,” Kali continued, her eyes flitting from Tiona, exhausted and covered in wounds, to Bache, still lying on the ground.
Indeed, the chest of the sandy-haired Amazon continued to rise and fall. The blessing Kali had bestowed unto her long, long ago yet endured.
“Go ahead and kill her.” The smile was audible in her command. “Only then can the rite be complete.”
Tiona’s response, however, was all too direct.
“Don’t wanna.”
It was no different from that day, so long ago, when Tiona had looked her goddess in the eye and insisted that she didn’t want to fight her sister.
“I’m not a warrior anymore.”
“…”
“…and Tione isn’t, either. We’re adventurers now.”
Kali found herself at a loss for words.
“I’m not gonna kill anyone else…not anymore, Kali!”
Now even the ovation of her sisters quieted.
Tiona glanced up, meeting that of her goddess’s gaze in the middle of that silent stone arena.
“…You really have changed.”
Kali finally muttered slowly, almost mournfully.
But it didn’t last, her earlier smile returning to her face.
“…But one thing certainly hasn’t changed, and that’s your connection with your sister.”
The goddess raised her arm, and all of a sudden, the other Amazons who’d been watching over the match charged into the arena, descending upon Tiona.
They surrounded her in an instant.
“Tione is with Argana right now…far, far out at sea. There’s no one to save you.”
“…”
“You’re coming with us…back to Telskyura!”
Even Tiona knew it would be pointless to put up a fight at this point. Even now, she walked the line between life and death—it was the only way she’d been able to release her inner Urga, after all—and standing there was taking everything she had. She couldn’t even think of raising a finger, let alone a fist. And then there was the poison from Bache’s Velgas to contend with, still coursing through her. It would be so easy for them to simply carry her back to their ship.
“Which of them will come, I wonder. Argana? Tione?…Whichever one lives will be your next opponent. An offering to the strongest warrior!”
The goddess of war and bloodshed couldn’t be swayed. As Tiona looked up at her through blurred eyes, she couldn’t think of a single way out of this mess, and around her, the circle of Amazons grew smaller and smaller.
When all of a sudden—ever so lightly.
A breeze brushed past her cheek, playing with the strands of her hair.
Wind. Faint yet very definitely there, reaching out all the way to her deep within that cave.
“…You’re wrong, Kali,” Tiona said with a smile, her eyes closing. It was a different kind of smile this time, quiet and peaceful.
Kali raised an eyebrow dubiously.
Then Tiona opened her eyes. “Because Tione and I aren’t alone anymore.”
It was then that it happened.
The trickle of air turned into a rushing blast into the cave.
“We have friends now!”
One brilliant, gleaming slash, then another, hundreds of them, raced around the group as Kali and her followers’ eyes opened in shock. Before her lightning-fast onslaught, the circle of Amazons around her was blown away.
“The Sword Princess…?”
The golden-haired, golden-eyed swordswoman appeared before them, barring their path to Tiona and flourishing her silver sword with an audible slice as it cut through the air.
“—Are you all right, Tiona?”
Even as bedraggled as she was, Tiona burst into a smile, at her companion who had raced to save her, faster than anyone else.
At her beloved friend.
“I am now!”
Almost as if on cue, the rest of Loki Familia came barreling into the cave with a mighty war cry. They flung themselves on the remaining Amazons with weapons flying.
Kali shot to her feet, her seemingly impenetrable calm demeanor gone in an instant.
“That damn Ishtar…Were they defeated already?!”
The battle below her was practically over before it started, Aiz and the rest of her peers quickly suppressing Kali’s warriors. At Ishtar Familia’s retreat, the curse restricting Aiz’s Airiel had been undone, and she released it now in waves across the battlefield. The other adventurers, too, not wanting to be outdone, raised their voices in murderous, frenzied cries as they set themselves on the Amazonian warriors. Their power was overwhelming, a result of their knowledge that a companion, one of their own, was in danger.
Kali’s gaze narrowed as she grit her teeth in scarcely contained rage.
“—Looks like you picked the wrong people to mess with, you damned little gremlin.”
The voice came from out of nowhere.
From above even her as she stood over the battlefield.
She looked skyward with a jolt, only to find a certain ginger-haired goddess seated on a rock ledge jutting out not far from the ceiling.
It was Loki.
“How ya feelin’ right about now, huh? All your glorious plans crashing down around you with your precious children lyin’ facedown in the dirt?”
She’d just appeared from the hole behind her that led into the rest of the cave. The smaller goddess’s unsightly development was all too amusing.
“Don’t patronize me!” Kali snarled, pointed canines snapping.
Loki’s vermilion eyes opened ever so slightly as her smile widened. “I’m just sayin’, is all, you pint-size ignoramus. You really…really picked the wrong people to mess with.” The smile accompanying her sentiment this time could easily have rivaled that of the most nefariously wicked god, all her anger at the smaller goddess coming back a thousandfold. It was the ultimate depraved sneer, enough to make even the faces of Njör?r and Rod, who’d accompanied her into the cave, twitch in fear.
Kali’s face burned with shame and humiliation beneath her mask, the screams of her warriors echoing around her.
“…And yet, Tione has never strayed from my will. She’s gone already. She’s far away where you miserable scum can’t reach her, continuing her own fight,” she hissed between her clenched teeth with a vengeful smile.
“Oh pish. You think I’m worried about her?”
“…What do you mean?”
Loki flapped her hand dismissively before looking up and behind her toward the hole from whence she’d come. The two figures that appeared from the darkness were none other than Gareth and the very much no longer captured Lefiya.
The dwarf nodded at his patron deity’s glance.
“I’ve got my strongest knight on the job.”
Back on the Amazonian ship still far out in the ocean southwest of Meren.
The rite currently taking place was reaching its finish.
The spectators knew this, all of them Telskyuran warriors who’d seen more than their fair share of battles. The end wasn’t far off. And facing the two combatants now, Tione and Argana, still at each other’s throats in violent repartee, they clamored for victory, for glory, and, most importantly, for death.
Tione and Argana were giving everything they had to take down their blood-covered opponents. They no longer saw anyone else; Argana reflected in Tione’s eyes the same way Tione was reflected in Argana’s.
—I’ll kill her. I’LL KILL HER!!
Tione’s vision had gone red. Argana, however, only smiled deeper the more Tione’s true warrior’s nature shone through. Each one of them was looking for an opening, a shot at landing the finishing blow and bringing down their opponent once and for all.
Nothing but pure, concentrated rage controlled Tione now. Her every move was dictated by a need to kill. No one could stop her. Not her goddess. Not even her friends.
But if there was someone.
If there was someone who could stop her…it would have been her other half. Her younger sister—
“That’s far enough.”
—But the voice was not that of her sister. It was someone who’d bested her, who’d stolen her heart.
“?!”
No sooner had Tione and Argana been about to lay into each other for the last time than a spear thrust its way between them, lodging itself in the wooden floor. It was long and boasting a tip of pure golden alloy. The two Amazons found themselves frozen where they stood, and all of a sudden, a tiny figure came flying down—a single prum landing on the deck of the ship and reclaiming the spear for himself.
Brilliant green eyes, like the all-knowing surface of a vast lake, stared out beneath his sweeping bangs of gold.
Finn Deimne had inserted himself right smack in the middle of the rite.
“Cap…tain…?”
All it took was one look at that pint-size frame and heroic profile for the anger to dissipate from Tione’s eyes. In fact, all too quickly, her rage was replaced with the thump, thump, thumping of her giddy heart.
As Tione found herself at a loss, Argana, too, could do nothing but stare in shock.
“A prum…?!”
Murmurs of bewilderment passed through the audience of Amazons beside them. They were on a ship out in the middle of the ocean. An arena on the open sea, where not a soul should have been able to reach them. Nothing but the fading light of the far-off lighthouse was even visible off Meren’s coastline.
“You…you…How did you even get here…?!” Argana could only mutter in awe.
Her eyes went first to the surrounding waters.
But there was nothing, no other ships, nothing that would have delivered this prum to where they stood. And swimming was out of the question—a thought that she quickly eliminated, considering the prum’s clothes didn’t have a drop of water on them.
“How—?”
Her confusion seemed just about to get the better of her—when her eyes narrowed in on a sight that truly took her breath away.
“A…bridge of ice…?!”
“I do apologize. I’ll return it momentarily.”
Flowing locks of shimmering jade-colored hair fluttered in the salty breeze.
Below her, waves lapped against the coast, while above, the soaring outline of the lighthouse stood tall.
Silvery staff in hand, Riveria responded calmly to the dumbfounded gazes of the lighthouse attendants currently looking down at her from the building’s windows. In front of her, traveling for kirlos and kirlos out into the sea, ran a winding bridge of ice along the water’s surface. Boasting a breadth of five meders or so, it cut a direct line from the coast to the ship just visible in the lighthouse’s line of sight.
It was a bridge of magic, formed of her glacial spell, Wynn Fimbulvetr.
Using the high-output spell, she’d frozen the very sea itself. By focusing an immense amount of Mind, she’d been able to narrow the scope of her magic’s effects while also lengthening its path to an unimaginable degree. To put it mildly, it was a feat none other than the strongest mage in all of Orario would be able to pull off.
What followed her stunt was, no doubt, obvious. Running across this new bridge, Finn made his way to the ship, took a flying leap, then landed artfully atop the ship’s deck, spear in hand.
“Bring Tione back soon, Finn…”
The high elf mage murmured from back on land, no traces of doubt in her voice as it made its way across the waves.
“Honestly, I’ve no idea if my words will get through to you, but I figure there’s no harm in trying. I was hoping we could reach some sort of agreement, warriors of Telskyura,” Finn began calmly, his back to Tione and shielding her from any further blows.
The reaction to the Koine-spouting, spear-wielding prum was immediate.
“—KILL HIIIIIIIIM!!”
Finn had interrupted their sacred rite, and the Amazonian warriors were incensed.
They leaped at him from all sides, weapons flying as they prepared to make this new intruder pay for the heinous crime of defying their goddess’s divine will.
“That could have gone better,” Finn muttered. “Then you leave me no choice.”
All at once, the prum captain began to move. Like a spinning top, he twisted, never once leaving his spot as his Fortia Spear sliced through the air in every direction, golden tip gleaming. His speed was incredible, repelling the female warriors, weapons and all, as they launched themselves at him; he sent them flying over the side of the ship as they screamed in shock and disappointment.
“You lot have been giving certain members of our familia considerable trouble, haven’t you?”
All around the ship, giant pillars of water soared upward as the Amazons plunged beneath the waves. Soon, the only ones who remained on deck were Finn, Tione, and Argana.
“…Ngh!!”
Finn’s strength was in a league all its own, and Argana couldn’t even try to hide her astonishment. Behind Finn, however, Tione was experiencing her own crisis.
“St-stop it! Please stop, Captain! Don’t…don’t get in the way!!”
“Get in the…way?”
But even as she screamed, the damage had already been done, her inner fragility revealed. Looking at his back now, she saw in her mind the bond they shared growing weaker and weaker.
“I…I have to bring Argana down myself! If I don’t—…If I don’t, then Tiona, Aiz, and everyone else, they’ll…they’ll be hunted down!!”
She shouted what was in her heart, disorganized and inarticulate though it was.
Yet even as she stood there stammering, the tiny prum didn’t move from his spot; no, he didn’t even flinch.
“Tione. Since when did we become so weak and frail as to need your protection?”
“…!”
“That you would go to such lengths…Is it out of pride? Or perhaps some sort of personal resentment? If it is out of enmity, I’d say you certainly got your revenge.”
The words cut into Tione’s heart like a knife.
It was cold, almost, this direct attack on her past actions and rationale.
—She was being scorned. By the person she loved the most.
The mask of boldness she’d so desperately attempted to hide behind began to peel away. She felt a heat spread through her battered body, a heat that had nothing to do with her earlier anger, and in her eyes, all that she’d been keeping suppressed fought for release.
“However…”
Just when despair had begun to overtake her features, Finn turned back, looking straight toward her.
“…Somehow, despite all the time you’ve spent pushing, you’ve finally learned to pull.”
“Huh…?”
“When did you learn such tactics, hmm?”
Tione raised her gaze, meeting Finn’s own, and the prum gave her a wry smile as he balanced the handle of his spear on his shoulder.
“You really should try not to make us worry so much, Tione.”
Now Tione’s eyes began to tremble.
“I’m just glad you’re all right.”
Strange though it may seem, a part of her, the smallest, most infinitesimal part, had always wanted to play the heroine waiting for her knight in shining armor. Just like in those stories Tiona had read to her.
It was the smallest, tiniest part buried deep down within her.
The part of her that had found someone to love so, so much.
“You’re going to get an earful from me after this, you know that, right?” Finn said with a soft smile.
“Y-yes…” she responded, tears clinging to her eyes.
And then she sat, spent of her energy and sinking to the floor. She’d already been on the verge of collapse, having suffered almost more than she could take, and this new attack melting her heart had severed the final thread holding her together.
It wasn’t rage scraping at her heart this time; it was something else, burrowing its way into its deepest recesses.
“—You can’t be serious! What the hell is all this?!” Argana suddenly barked, no longer able to watch in silence. Rage made itself plain on her face as she glared daggers at Tione on the ground. “To your feet, Tione!! We will continue the rite! You really think you can just end it with this lunacy?!”
She couldn’t bear seeing the cowardly image of Tione on her knees before her.
This wasn’t the face of a warrior, of an avenger ablaze with fury.
This was nothing but an ordinary, run-of-the-mill, unremarkable girl.
As someone who yearned for a future of war and combat, this was something she could not permit.
“You understand Koine, I see.” Finn turned his attention now to the enraged Amazon in front of him. “Then our conversation will be short. I was wondering if you would be willing…to let me take the place of Tione in the rite.”
He thrust his spear into the boards of the floor below. Watching Argana, still shocked, out of the corner of his eye, he stooped down into position, fully prepared to fight sans weapon. “If I win, you’re to leave Tione and her sister alone. Make one move toward them again, and we’ll completely decimate the country you call home.”
“A man…and a prum, no less?! Don’t make me laugh…!” But even as the mere thought made her body quiver in shame, she readied herself all the same. Long tongue reaching out to lick the red liquid off her cheeks, her eyes turned bloodshot. Her body coursed with bloodlust, absolutely prepared to slaughter the tiny fool of a man in front of her so she could continue her fight with Tione.
“Die!!”
Tione knew how the fight would end before it even started.
“I’ve heard tell that those of Telskyura consider it an insult to be shown sympathy in a fight.”
Argana’s wounds were too deep and too many from their own fight.
Her body had just about reached its limit.
“So I shall give it my all, as well.”
And even more than that.
The Argana in front of her now was no different from the Tione who’d gone up against Finn those five years ago.
She knew nothing. Not of the strength of adventurers, nor of the world.
Nor that the tiny figure standing before her was not only a prum hero…
“—Spear of magic, I offer my blood! Bore within this brow.”
…but a berserker, too. One as strong and crazed as even her.
“Hell Finegas!”
His green eyes, as calm as the lake’s surface, suddenly flashed a brilliant red.
“?!”
Argana’s fist came at him, but he caught it in his own, in his fist no larger than a human child’s. And as Argana gulped in surprise, he unleashed everything he had. His abilities were now enhanced to an unimaginable degree and his mind gone wild with a thirst for blood.
Fingers digging into her fist, he yanked her forward in the blink of an eye.
Argana could barely believe what she was seeing, and time ground to a screeching halt as she saw the tiny prum ready his other fist.
He roared, lungs bursting with all the intensity of a bloodthirsty warrior.
“HUUURRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAUUGGGGGHHHHHHH!!”
His fist collided with Argana’s face.
“GUGNNNNH?”
She tried to scream, but the vicious crack of her bones snapping interrupted the sound.
Then she was flying. She crashed through the railing, sending up splinters of wood as she plunged into the water far, far away from the side of the boat. The deluge of water that rose up from the impact might as well have been caused by a magic explosion for all its magnitude.
“?!”
The recoil was enough to send the ship rocking back and forth, its boards creaking noisily, and Tione waited for the motion to subside before moving. When finally silence had returned to the deck, she raised her head, finding Finn standing in front of her with his eyes still red.
“Ah…” She instinctively closed her eyes, unable to face his red ones head-on as they stared at her huddled form on the ship’s floor.
A few seconds passed.
When nothing happened, she slowly, ever so slowly cracked open her eyes, only to feel something come down on her shoulders. Taken aback, she quickly turned her head to find that Finn had wrapped his waistcloth around her.
“Captain…” she murmured, lips trembling.
Finn just smiled, his irises having returned to their beautiful green shade.
“Let’s go home, Tione.”
Then he walked past her, giving her head a soft pat.
That was the final straw for Tione, already spent in more ways than she could imagine, and her eyes welled up with salty tears. Completely abandoning all modesty, she turned on her heel before promptly tackling her beloved’s back.
“Captaaaaaaaaaaaaaain?!!”
Her arms wrapped around him in the tightest squeeze she could muster.
Finn, on the other hand, was sent straight to the floor by the emotional Amazon’s giant bear hug, his nose cracking against the hard wood of the deck with his arms spread-eagled above him.
“Captain, oh, Captaaaaaaaain! Thank you soooooo muchhhhhh…Ahhhh, I’m so sorry…!!”
“…There, there,” Finn could only reply with a knowing smile as Tione sobbed his name again and again into his shirt, her arms still wrapped around his waist.
He’d wait there, the prum captain of Loki Familia, with his cheek pressed into the floor, until she was done crying, simply smiling at the night sky up above.
The two rites, one within the cave and one atop the ship, had come to an end.
The fate the two girls shared had been broken at the hands of their companions.
By the time Tione and Finn made their way back across the ice bridge to the shore (Riveria had re-created it to allow them passage), traces of light were already starting to color the sky. It took a while after that, mostly due to Tione’s wailing, for Riveria to apply the proper healing and care for her battered body. But once finished, the three of them continued to the wharf, Tione sandwiched between the two elites with Finn’s waistcloth still wrapped around her shoulders. They found the rest of Loki Familia gathered in front of the fishing pier and causing a horrible racket.
“I…I brought Misses Tiona’s and Tione’s weapons for nothing…?! But her Urga almost broke my back…!” Raul lamented.
“Don’t sweat it, Raul! It’s the thought that counts, yeah? We’re just happy you had us in mind! Thanks!” Tiona replied, as boisterous as ever.
“How does Miss Tiona still have that much…energy…?” Leene asked.
“Indeed,” Lefiya agreed. “Only a few hours ago she was knocking on death’s door and plagued by poison, no less…Just healing her took considerable time.”
“All thanks to you, Leene! And I’ve gotta apologize to you, Lefiya. Gettin’ you all mixed up in our problems!”
“No one’s gonna forgive ya when yer runnin’ around like a damn crackpot! You even realize what all these guys did for ya?” Bete growled.
“Well, sor-ry for wantin’ to apologize when I’ve done something wrong!…Not that…you know…an apology’s probably enough…I’m really sorry for puttin’ you guys through all that.”
“Somebody hold me! Tiona? Bein’ all meek ’n’ submissive? A new world’s bein’ born in my soul!”
“Let her be, Loki,” Aiz said.
“All right, all right! You win, Aizuu! You and your damn perfection—Nnnnggaaah!”
“Bete, do something! Look how sad Tiona looks now!”
“H-how the hell should I know what to do?! You think I can do anything to fix that crazy woman?”
“You could start by apologizing, you big ol’ asshat!!” Tiona finally squawked.
“Oh, why don’t you just shove it, you shit-for-brains Amazon!!”
As Tione looked out across the clamorous group with her sister at its center, she felt the muscles in her face relax, her earlier anxiety washing away. Next to her, Finn could only shrug as Riveria sported her usual one-eyed smile.
“Huh? Oh, Tione!” Tiona suddenly spouted, noticing her sister immediately.
“Lady Riveria!” “Captain!” the rest of the group shouted as the younger Amazon came sprinting toward them.
“You all right, Tione?! The rite! What happened with the rite? Where’s Argana?!”
“…The captain sent her on a one-way trip.”
Tiona was silent for a moment, her face blank in puzzlement.
Then she laughed, great guffaws that forced her hands to her stomach.
The sight of it was enough to make the corners of Tione’s mouth twitch upward ever so slightly.
“I beat Bache! And you know what? No one had to do any dyin’ or killin’! How about that, huh?”
That smile. That smile. Always that smile.
What was behind that smile? What did it hold? What had it saved?
To the east, the sun broke across the horizon, coloring the surface of the lake a brilliant, fiery gold.
Tione’s face softened, her lips curling upward, all the way upward—in a true smile.
“Thanks, Tiona. For saving me. I can’t thank you enough.”
Tiona glanced up at her sister, now smiling as brightly as the rising sun, and for a moment, something in her heart caught. The more she looked, the more her own face flushed and the more her own smile grew.
“You bet!” she finally answered, the two sisters now sharing the same smile as Finn and Riveria watched like protective parents.
Almost instantly, though, Tione’s smile fell, and a look of despondence washed over her. “I…need to apologize to everyone. You’re too much of a dunce for people to stay mad at, but me…? I guess we’ll see.”
“It’ll be fine! It’ll be fine! You’ll see! Everyone’ll forgive ya! Just shoot ’em that same smile and everything’ll be right as rain!”
“Smile?! During an apology? That’s just asking for a punch in the face!”
“Naaaaaaah! C’mooooon! Just do it!”
“Ugh, you’re so annoying! Go over there somewhere!! You really are the worst!”
“But Tioneeeeeeeeeeee!!”
And so the two sisters walked toward the group.
They walked to that place of light where their friends awaited them with smiles.
Their days of loneliness were behind them.
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