Chapter 6:
The Marquis’ Mansion
AFTER STOPPING BY THE GUILD for help, we were on our way to the Aschtner estate with a bunch of adventurers. Erianthe was leading us to battle, fueled by her hatred of the marquis. Twenty adventurers enlisted for the battle, all of whom were over D-Rank, but Fran, Erianthe, and Colbert made up the core of our fighting crew.
Along the way, Erianthe filled in the adventurers about the soldiers with the Fanatix replicas on their backs. She had taken to calling them “fanatics” for short. Our experience with Seldio back in Ulmutt came in handy, since these fanatics behaved in much the same way. Their stats were greatly boosted because of Unleashed Potential, and they possessed enhanced regenerative capabilities because of it. The sword also gave its host a variety of powerful skills. Most important was the sword’s ability to suppress mana. The adventurers wouldn’t be able to cast magic, and potions and skills would also be rendered ineffective. However, the enemy would be able to use all the spells they wanted.
We reached the Aschtner estate in the middle of our explanation. Our team of intermediate adventurers could move pretty fast. The front gate was already thrown open by the time we got there, and a violent battle was going on right outside its walls. I saw Frederick there, and he had picked up a squad of guardsmen who happened to be nearby. Once he saw us, he immediately went inside. There was no time for pleasantries.
Jet blocked his path and barked at him, as if telling him to calm down.
“Wh-what?” Frederick said, not understanding him. Fran and I had to translate for him.
Velmeria’s no longer here?
Jet barked again in assent. His nose was as trusty as ever.
“Where is Velmeria now?”
“Woof.”
Jet pointed his muzzle away from the marquis’ estate, in the direction of Velmeria’s scent. Fran told Frederick what Jet had said, and he immediately trusted the direwolf since he knew what he was capable of.
“So she’s already been relocated,” Frederick muttered. He was deciding whether to go after Velmeria immediately, or after attacking the mansion. As far as the adventurers and guardsmen knew, they were to attack the mansion, and he couldn’t issue them new orders now. Especially not when we were here to arrest the marquis, the suspected instigator of this insurrection.
But by the time we did that, it might be too late for Velmeria.
It can’t be helped. We’ll have to split up.
“Hm. Jet, you go with Frederick and track down Velmeria.”
Jet barked softly. He was worried about Fran, and he could sense the creature emanating terrible mana within.
Fran shook her head. “Please, Jet. You’re the only one who can do this.”
Jet nodded, and gave her a quiet but reluctant bark.
Frederick meekly bowed his head to the direwolf. “Please. You’re the only one who can find Velmeria.”
“Woof!”
The gesture moved Jet’s heart. He barked to reassure Frederick that he would find her.
“We’ll have to split up now. The rest is in your hands.”
“Woof!”
Frederick left Erianthe in charge of his guardsmen, and quickly sped away.
Those two will take care of Velmeria.
“Hm.”
Meanwhile, we had a mansion to raid. Erianthe was giving orders to guardsmen and adventurers alike. There was already a battle raging inside. We had to move quickly.
“Fran, Colbert, you take point. We can’t use magic inside, so hit them with whatever you’ve got.”
“Hm!”
“Roger that!”
Erianthe split the group up into smaller units, and I could feel the tension rise in the air.
“I’m going in.”
“First, the yard! It’s time to do some landscaping!”
“Yeah!” Adventurers and guardsmen released their battle cries, and entered the estate together. They saw fanatics flailing about, surrounded by the broken bodies of guardsmen. These were probably the first responders, and the adventurers choked upon seeing the carnage in front of their eyes.
“Don’t just stand there! Take them down!” Erianthe ordered.
“B-but…”
“We’ll save the guardsmen too, so show them what we adventurers are made of!”
“R-right!”
The adventurers started moving again after Erianthe chewed them out, but they were looking pale. The grotesque shapes of the fanatics had gotten to them. It looked like we’d have to do something to snap them out of it.
Fran, stand right outside of their mana-suppressing range. We’re going to send them a little present!
“Hm!”
Fran took a spear out of our Pocket Dimension. We probably got it off a goblin or one of the undead in the sky isle. Either way, it had sat in storage for a long time. She reared up and threw it. We applied Wind and Fire spells on it, as well as Telekinesis, to make the ultimate throwing weapon. The spear flew at the speed of a telekinetic catapult. Its target was one of the fanatics, who had conveniently shown his back to us. The spear flew unabated by mana suppression. The swords might be able to nullify skills and magic, but it had no way of negating fundamental physics. We had used this tactic to great effect back in Ulmutt. Dahlum, Seldio’s lumbering hunk of muscle, had fallen to a telekinetic catapult.
The fanatic couldn’t respond in time. By the time he noticed the spear, it had already pierced his back. His face was an expressionless mask as usual, but it looked slightly surprised. The fanatic looked at the left side of his chest and then shifted his gaze to us before crumpling to the floor. The whole scene played out with perfect comedic timing.
Nice! We can kill them by going for their hearts!
Dahlum had kept regenerating even with a missing heart and head, but these fanatics had yet to achieve that level of inhumanity. Maybe it was because they were mass produced. Maybe Dahlum was an exceptional specimen. Either way, these fighters wouldn’t be as tough as their predecessors.
Let ’er rip, Fran!
Hm!
Let’s go!
I urged Fran on as she threw one spear after another. The adventurers finished off anything that didn’t die in one hit.
“Take them down!” Erianthe shouted, and the men marched into battle. There was no hesitation left in them. Watching Fran kill the enemy had eased their fears. They teamed up with the surviving guardsmen and attacked the fanatics together. Colbert was the star of the show. His kicks and punches were still formidable, even without magic. He crushed the fanatics despite their superior physical strength. Eventually, not a single fanatic was left standing.
But Fran had yet to let down her guard. There was a reason why I wanted to clear the fanatics out as soon as possible.
Teacher, anything on the inside?
Yes!
A strange aura came from inside the mansion, and it was intense enough to spread to the outside. Oddly, Erianthe and the others hadn’t sensed it—not even Fran. I was the only one aware of it. Probably because of that revulsion which had become the aura’s calling card.
It didn’t take long for Erianthe and the others to realize what was coming. The thing unleashed its mana from within the mansion, and it was so intense that Fran flinched. Even the adventurers and guardsmen knew there was something inside.
BOOM!
A loud explosion was followed by a figure tumbling out of the freshly made hole in the wall.
“Argh…!”
It was a man, broken and battered. He had a masculine jawline and his green hair peeked out of the cracks in his helmet. His gold suit of armor was deformed where it had melted and warped. Blood spewed out of the holes. Colbert and Erianthe were shocked to see him.
“Zefield!”
“What are you doing here?!”
The half-dead figure groaning on the ground was Zefield, the A-Rank adventurer. The man who bore the nickname of Sky Wall had sustained unimaginable injuries. He had once sparred with Fran, and proved that his A-Rank status wasn’t just talk. And now the great warrior was almost dead. What on earth had he been fighting?
“Guild…master…?” Zefield croaked.
“Greater Heal!”
Fran wasted no time in healing him. She closed all his wounds with a few Greater Heals, but he was no longer in fighting shape. His armor was in shreds; he wouldn’t be much good in a fight even if he wanted to join. I wondered what could’ve given the great tank so much trouble.
Zefield had worn a dull black metal armor when he sparred with Fran, but now his armor was sharp and golden. This was probably his best equipment—what he wore to a real fight. And now it was in tatters. It was bludgeoned in some places, pierced in others.
Fran and the others watched with worried eyes as Zefield struggled to sit himself up.
“That thing’s a monster,” he mumbled.
“That thing?”
“Everyone is dead!”
It was then I noticed that Zefield was alone. His party wasn’t with him, and I couldn’t sense their auras, either. There had been four of them, and they were all gone…
“He’s coming!”
Zefield shielded his face and started screaming. Perhaps from frustration, or even fear or despair. Either way, you wouldn’t guess that the man was an A-Rank from the sounds that he was making.
“It’s Marquis Aschtner!”
A figure now stood at the threshold of the hole Zefield flew out of. He was a balding old man who was so thin that you could count the vertebrae of his neck. This was Marquis Aschtner. He wore gorgeous armor made of orichalcos and sported a shimmering golden cloak. His armor was so thick, you could have crafted a small fortress out of it.
But the marquis did not look like he belonged among the living. It wasn’t that he looked dead; it was the fact that he looked artificial. His skin had all but lost its moisture, and it had cracks in it like the bark of an ancient tree. His eyes were sunken into his skull, and there were bags under them so thick that they looked like they were painted on with ink. Only a few straggling strands of hair were left on his head, and his face was too dry to sport a beard. It all added to the inhuman effect.
Despite his apparent soullessness, the marquis straightened his back and emitted a menacing aura which was felt by everyone present. He looked like a mummy possessed by a vengeful spirit, and he would be right at home in a Hollywood picture set in an Egyptian tomb.
Erianthe and Colbert stared at the old man.
“Is that really Marquis Aschtner?” Colbert stammered. “He doesn’t look anything like his portraits.”
“I’m not sure it’s the same person,” Erianthe murmured.
“What do you mean?”
“I met him a few years ago, and he was a lot fatter then.”
“It can’t be him.”
The marquis had undergone a transformation, but it wasn’t limited to his external visage.
“Not with this kind of mana. No way.”
“Hm?”
“He’s one of those cultured nobles. The kind who’s never been to a battle zone… But this pressure and mana…”
The Aschtner who Erianthe knew was nowhere near as strong as this. I checked him with Identify and saw that he wasn’t the man he used to be.
Name: Wenalia Gale Aschtner
Age: 66
Race: Human
Class: Sword Saint
Status: Fanatic, Superhuman
Level: 36
HP: 911 MP:1208
Strength: 541, Life: 320, Agility: 520, Magic: 778
Skills: Intimidate 10, Acting 2, Flame Magic 7, Singing 3, Absolute Barrier 6, Danger Sense 8, Horseback Riding 3, Reveal Weakness 6, Royal Etiquette 7, Frenzy 10, Presence Sense 9, Advanced Sword Arts 7, Advanced Sword Mastery 10, Negotiate 5, Brute Strength 7, Poetry 5, Social Skills 3, Instant Regeneration 7, Flash Step 6, Abnormal Status Resistance 7, Life Steal 4, Elemental Blade 8, Land Magic 4, Poison Resistance 7, Venomology 6, Vigor 7, Dance 3, Magic Resistance 8, Mana Sense 9, Mana Steal 6, Steel Magic 8, Enhanced Intimidate, Choir Breaker, Enhanced Regeneration, Enhanced Physique, Sense of Balance, Mana Control, Night Vision
Unique Skill: Spirit Regulation
Extra Skill: Superhuman
Titles: Weak-willed, Marquis, Spendthrift
Marquis Aschtner was beyond A-Rank. He could give the Beast King a run for his money. In all our travels, I had never seen anyone with Advanced Sword Mastery 10. His boosted stats were probably because of his Superhuman Extra skill. His skill composition was strange. The marquis had advanced skills like Advanced Sword Mastery, Flame Magic, and Mana Steal, but the basic forms of those skills were absent. It was like he woke up one day and was gifted those skills. Just like Hummels and Gordon.
Just like me and Fran.
As we stood in awe of his power, the marquis opened his mouth. “Heh heh heh. Look at all these chumps…”
His face remained a stone mask, but his words had the rattle of a street thug. Unlike the other hosts, this one could talk. Marquis Aschtner didn’t have a replica Fanatix in his back, but neither was he wielding the broken demon sword. He was definitely being manipulated, though, given his Fanatic status.
“Are you really Aschtner?” Erianthe said.
“Who’s to say?” Something inside of Aschtner replied with his mouth. The marquis definitely wasn’t alone in there. As much as we wanted to extract information from him, our enemy didn’t give us the chance.
“How would you like to experience dying today?”
Aschtner focused the mana around him.
“Everybody, gather up!”
“Ha ha ha! Volcanic Geyser!”
Erianthe ordered the adventurers to gather around her, but she was a moment too late. The ground under the estate split open, and glowing orange liquid spewed out of it in all directions like a fountain. Hot lava rushed through the garden like a tsunami, drowning people in its burning waves. We were protected by a wind barrier, but not everyone made it to shelter. Adventurers and guardsmen screamed as the burning lava overwhelmed them, and then they fell silent. By the time the spell was over, the lava had disappeared like a bad dream. There was no trace of its casualties, either. The lava had burned them to ashes, and the ashes blew away. The only proof of their existence was their enchanted equipment, which had refused to burn.
“This is bad. He’ll wipe us out if he gets another one those spells in! All C-Ranks and below, except Fran, fall back! Evacuate the residents! Go!” Erianthe commanded.
She knew the weaker adventurers would only be dead weight in this fight. But the marquis wasn’t going to let them go so easily.
“Oh, no you don’t! Your A-Rank big shots died fighting earlier! You should follow their example!” the marquis shouted as he got ready to pursue the adventurers.
Fran, we have to help the others escape safely! A reactive approach will only get us killed! We have to go all out from the start!
“Hm! Awaken! Flashing Thunderclap!”
Aschtner noticed the surge of energy from Fran’s awakening. He stopped going after the adventurers and looked at her, but we were already finished with our prep by the time he noticed us.
You may be superhuman, but there’s no way you can shrug this off!
“Thor’s Hammer!”
Our magic wasn’t being suppressed. Was that ability unique to the estocs? Anyway, this was a real fight now that our spells were available. I cast Kanna Kamuy and Fran used Thor’s Hammer, and the combined force of both spells slammed into Marquis Aschtner. Even the strongest fighter would have trouble reacting to the speed of lightning. Accuracy and speed were the main strengths of Thunder Magic.
“Aaaaaaagh!”
A pillar of white lightning struck the marquis, but he managed to pull an enchanted sword out of the item bag on his waist to absorb some of the damage. He resisted the torrent of electricity for a few good seconds before giving out. Still, the fact that he could resist at all highlighted the fact that he was a powerful opponent.
Let’s go, Fran!
“Hm!”
The marquis was still standing. I saw a barrier go up before the lightning overwhelmed him, so his magic resistance couldn’t be scoffed at, either. Fran charged through the winds generated by the explosion and went into the epicenter of Kanna Kamuy.
I can feel him! Aschtner’s still alive!
“Hm! Haaa!”
Fran attacked him with a Pressurized Quickdraw, but Aschtner blocked it with his sword. A metallic clang rang throughout the yard as I clashed with him.
Dammit! His sword is as powerful as he is!
I was expecting to slash right through his sword, but the thing was tough. It was clearly a replica of the Mad Faith Sword, but this one had the shape of a long saber. The grotesque guard of the estoc was the same, but the blade was closer to the broken demon sword. It was what the broken sword would have been if it were whole.
“Heh heh heh! That actually hurt!” he cackled, despite the black lightning running through him. Even his defense was enormously powerful! I felt the impact of his Advanced Sword Mastery. The marquis’ swordsmanship was on even footing with Fran’s. Furthermore, the wounds he took from Kanna Kamuy had almost finished healing because of Instant Regeneration. As if that wasn’t bad enough, his attacks carried the force of a menacing skill with it.
“I feel…weaker…”
He’s using Life Steal and Mana Steal!
We had the same skills equipped, but we couldn’t recover the lost life and mana because his skills were more powerful than ours. A battle of attrition would end in defeat.
“Haaa!”
The marquis cackled again. “You’re pretty good, kid! I haven’t felt this kind of pain in centuries!”
Aschtner clashed swords with Fran, the smoldering yard our backdrop. His evil laughter resounded despite his stone-faced mask.
Centuries, he’d said. Whatever this thing was, it definitely wasn’t Marquis Aschtner.
“What are you?”
“Wouldn’t you like to know? Wouldn’t we like to know? What are we?”
People who said these things were usually dodging the question, but this creature wasn’t lying. It really didn’t know the answer.
“How long has it been? A hundred years? Five hundred? A thousand? We don’t know! The last thing we remember is getting destroyed by Holy Order!”
Holy Order? That was one of the Godswords Aristea talked about!
Holy Spirit Sword Holy Order—the Godsword created to defeat the Mad Faith Sword Fanatix. That settled the question of the mastermind behind all this. But it brought up another question. The sword the marquis was wielding was clearly an imitation, so how could Fanatix be resting inside it? Was the real one somewhere else? Or maybe Fanatix was an Intelligent Weapon like me…
If that were so, it made the possibility of Fanatix pulling the marquis’ strings all the more likely.
“Haaa!”
“Eeegh!”
The fast-paced battle continued. Erianthe and Colbert could only watch as the swordfight raged on.
Marquis Aschtner, with his Advanced Sword Mastery 10; versus Fran, who had yet to master Sword King Mastery. The two ended up being on level footing.
“Are you Fanatix?”
“Fanatix?” the marquis mused. “We suppose we had a name once. Hey, are we Fanatix?”
“I’m the one asking you.”
Aschtner cackled. “Ah, of course! We forgot!”
‘We’? Not ‘I’?
“‘We’…?”
“Yes, we,” he said. “We are many in one. All in one. We are all, and that’s all we are! Hey, you’ve got us in your sword, too! We know us when we feel it!”
What? Inside of me?
“What do you mean?”
“Our shards aren’t conscious like we are, but they’re still us, all right! We’d bet that your sword can absorb mana.”
Was he talking about the replica Fanatix’s energy I absorbed with Cannibalize? The replicas might be imbued with the real Fanatix’s mana, and that was the energy I consumed when I Cannibalized them. Fanatix could assimilate into itself the powers of whoever it cut. Having multiple egos wasn’t out of the question. But…
Am I going to be okay?
“Which reminds me,” the marquis said. “Give me that sword, kid! That thing’s made of orichalcos, isn’t it? That’s the only thing that can fix us up!”
“Never!”
“Ha ha ha! Can’t say we didn’t try! Good job holding out, though; we’ll give you that!”
He changed the subject again. Between all his chatter and his manic state, the marquis was really annoying. He could barely hold a conversation, and he had clearly lost his mind.
“You know, I never expected this body to hold out for so long!”
“What do you mean?” Fran managed to slip the question between her slashes. The marquis remained calm within the eye of the duel.
“We’ve been training this body for forty years, see. It’s different from all the rest.”
“Forty years? Training?”
“That’s right. It takes a lot of time and drugs to transfer our powers to a body, but we did it! Man, was it annoying, though! We used to be able to create whole armies of powerful specimens in a single day! But now, we can only transfer two or three of our skills, and that’s if they have the aptitude for it! Unleash Potential lets them get more skills, but then they die as soon as it runs out! It’s infuriating! Can’t even see through their eyes! We had thousands of perspectives in our heyday!”
Fanatix not only assimilated powers, but could also distribute them. That’s where the fanatics got those strange skills from! Some of the skills had come from using Unleash Potential, but the rest had come from the Godsword. Fanatix was linked to the minds of all its victims, which meant the real Fanatix could take on all the skills that its victims possessed.
Strangely enough, it didn’t seem to know much about us. Perhaps it couldn’t process all of the information in all its victims’ minds, despite having possessed them. Or maybe the link wasn’t strong enough. Either way, it could create terrifyingly powerful soldiers if all of them had access to the skills and experience of the hive mind. Apparently, that was the way Fanatix used to operate. If Marquis Aschtner’s forces were perfectly coordinated under Fanatix, it could create the perfect army as long as there were people for it to infect. This Godsword really was a demon sword.
“And we tried, too! We tried it with his son, his vassal’s son, and any old schmuck in the capital who had the misfortune of being alone!”
His son… Seldio? And is the vassal’s son he’s talking about… August?
August Allsand was a noble who quickly became Fran’s enemy in Alessa. He was the previous owner of Essence of Falsehood, and the first subject of our skill Taker hit. I think he was the son of Count Olmes, who was working for Marquis Aschtner himself.
“Are you talking about Seldio and August?”
“Oh, you know those two? Couldn’t take the mind control and Unique skills back from them in the end! Weapon skills and magic are so common, but those two goons had the best skills in our set! Finding the right skills is just as big of a pain in the ass as finding the right body!”
Fanatix was the one who gave Seldio and August their skills, and because they had died while the skills were being loaned to them, Fanatix couldn’t recover them.
“Forty years we spent on this body! It took forty godsforsaken years to get Skill Transfer running, but we did it!” the marquis laughed. He was a real chatterbox, and I wondered if he couldn’t fight a battle without running his mouth. We got a lot of information out of him, but it made him hard to read. The battle might have seemed even, but between Flashing Thunderclap and the marquis’ powerful drain skills, Fran was at a disadvantage.
We needed to finish this battle, and fast. But the marquis made the first move. Maybe he knew he was fighting an even battle, or maybe he just got tired of talking. He jumped away, distancing himself from Fran.
“I can even do stuff like this! Magma Wall! Earth Shot! Sword Sonic!”
The marquis summoned a wall of magma and fired boulders through it. A hailstorm of molten rocks rained down onto Fran. He followed it up with a shockwave from his sword. Even if she managed to dodge the boulders and Sword Sonic, she would still have to contend with the fiery raindrops. Blocking them with a barrier would make her slower, so the next attack would be more difficult to avoid. That was the opening Aschtner was going for.
But we were also going for an opening which this attack had produced.
“Earth Wall!”
We used a Land spell to set up a screen.
“Haaa!”
“Heh heh heh! Teleportation!”
“Tch!”
His detection abilities were uncanny. He parried an attack which came from behind, but this was still part of our plan!
Fran, I’m good to go!
“Hm! Haaa!”
Fran attacked again, nailing the marquis in place. He didn’t seem to mind, since he knew that a battle of attrition would be in his favor. This was exactly the opening we wanted.
“You wanna hit swords some more? Sure!”
“No.”
Eat this!
I nailed him with another Kanna Kamuy. This one was fully charged for maximum damage.
“What the—?! But you’ll get caught in the blast!”
“Get back here!”
“Shit!”
He couldn’t defend against the spell and fight Fran at the same time. Fran would be fine thanks to her Thunder Immunity, while I could just Dimension Shift myself to safety.
“Haaaa!”
“You little bitch!”
The marquis screamed as the lightning fell on him. Fran was also engulfed in the pillar of lightning, and the thunder it produced shook heaven and earth. The weight of the impact split the ground, and I could see Fran float for a split second. By the time the dust cleared, the marquis was kneeling in the center of a five-meter-wide crater. Fran and her equipment were protected by her immunity, but the marquis’ orichalcos armor was half melted as smoke rose from his body.
The crater was smaller than I expected, and that was only because the marquis managed to create a wall of magma to absorb some of the impact. Fran managed to lop off his left arm because of it. But half of the missing limb was already regenerating.
“Grrrrrgh…”
The marquis knew he was vulnerable with one knee on the ground. He watched Fran with his demonic eyes, readying himself for whatever came next. She was a good distance away from him to avoid his magma wall.
Still, Fran finally had the upper hand. She leapt at him, leaving a trail of black lightning behind her. The distance between them was closed immediately, and Fran brought her sword down upon Marquis Aschtner.
“You’re done for!”
“Aaaaargh!”
I clashed with the replica Fanatix, scraping against it, pouring a shower of sparks around us. Aschtner was much stronger than Fran, but the fact that he was on one knee put him at a disadvantage. Fran had used her superior speed to increase the force of her downward slash. Both combatants were now locked in place as they struggled for supremacy. But this was exactly the situation Fran wanted.
There was no need for a signal, no need for a glance. Fran had locked the marquis down in place, and Erianthe and the others knew that this was their chance to pile on him.
“Die, bastard!”
“Sonic Blow!”
“Spiral Bash!”
They couldn’t have helped Fran if they had wanted to on account of how fast she was trading blows with the marquis. Fran had given them this opening, and they were going to make the most out of it. Erianthe furiously swung her greatsword from above while Colbert and Zefield attacked the sides. Erianthe’s swing had the force of a fully charged Pressurized Quickdraw to it.
But the marquis—and his cronies—were very strong. He had a superhuman physique with incredible skills to go along with it. Those skills were perfect for battle. His Advanced Sword Mastery was able to go head to head with Sword King Mastery.
But the marquis was beginning to tear at the seams as the fight wore on. Aschtner had lived the life of a sophisticated noble, and his body was weak because of it. He didn’t have the ideal fighting body that Fanatix desired. The two of them were powerful enough to overwhelm the opponent in a straightforward battle, but the marquis’ body lacked the muscle memory to anticipate attacks.
Zefield’s party was probably wiped out because they took Aschtner head-on. Zefield was also the most powerful defensive adventurer around, and none of them probably expected to fight an opponent who would be able to penetrate his defenses.
Leveraging their fighting experience to catch Fanatix off guard was the better approach. Fanatix was powerful, but it had the arrogance that came with such power. It looked down on us to the point that it had completely ignored Erianthe and the others. Frankly, it was like a greenhorn fighter in that regard. Zefield’s party would’ve had no trouble exploiting this weakness, but they had apparently been summoned to the mansion by Marquis Aschtner. Though they knew they were dealing with a crooked noble, they weren’t expecting the crooked noble to wipe them out.
“This is for my friends!” Zefield shouted in agony as he drove his shield into the marquis’ face. I thought I heard branches snapping, but it was just the sound of crunching bone.
“Gyaaah!”
The blow sent Marquis Aschtner flying, but he still managed to defend himself against Erianthe’s sword.
“Urgh… You insects think you’re hot shit!” the marquis cried from his dangling head. His broken cervical spine had given him a disturbing slur, and yet he refused to take a defensive position. Instead, he glared at his assailants with eyes filled with murder and hate.
“I’ll kill all of you!”
Strangely, Fanatix didn’t seem to have much combat experience. If it had time to threaten us with words, it should’ve used that time to actually start killing us instead. Fran, on the other hand, was a professional.
“I’ll flood the place with magm—”
Fanatix’s hatred for Erianthe and the others had caused it to forget Fran for a split second.
But that split second was all we needed.
Using her superhuman reflexes, Fran got to work on exploiting that moment and started charging a Sword King Art. We hadn’t gotten to the point where we could use Sword King Arts at will. We needed to be in the proper position to start and finish the moves. We also needed time to pour the right amount of mana into the Art.
All of this prep work took a few seconds, and that would’ve been enough if we were up against weaker enemies. Against enemies who were stronger than, or even equal with Fran, those few seconds could’ve been the difference between life and death.
Teacher!
On it!
Fran signaled that she was ready, and I teleported her in to deliver the Sword King Art. Aside from the explosive displays that were Sword God Form and Unleash Potential, this was our most powerful attack.
“Skycutter.”
“Hurgh…!”
The marquis still managed to react. His advanced Danger Sense blared its alarms at him, Advanced Sword Mastery told him that a powerful attack was coming, and Presence Sense informed him of Fran’s teleportation.
But we were prepared for this. Counting on it, in fact. The marquis swung the replica Fanatix to deflect the incoming attack, but all that did was allow me to attack him and his sword at the same time. Fran cut right through the replica Fanatix, and through Marquis Aschtner’s right shoulder all the way down to his left side. It felt like I was slashing through a lump of air. There was no resistance.
The cutting edge of the replica Fanatix fell a second later, as if it finally realized that it was broken. Marquis Aschtner’s body also fell apart, and black blood started spraying out of him like a grotesque fountain.
“You little bitch,” the marquis growled despite his bifurcated torso. He was lying in a pool of his own blood, the replica Fanatix lying next to him, as broken as his body.
I braced myself for the Cannibalize trigger, but the nausea never came. Fanatix, the parasite living within Aschtner, was still alive. I wondered if it was because we were up against a replica, but then I noticed the marquis still breathing.
Fran, he’s still alive!
“Hm! Haaa!”
Fran recovered from the Sword King Art and leapt into action once more. She prepared a Pressurized Quickdraw and aimed it at the marquis’ head. The lower half of his body was already healing because of Instant Regeneration, but her attack proved to be quicker.
“AAAAAAAARGH!”
“Ugh!”
Dammit!
He was still putting up a fight. Marquis Aschtner put up a focused barrier to stop Fran’s attack. It wasn’t enough to stop the attack completely, but it absorbed a good chunk of the impact. My blade was supposed to go right through the marquis’ skull, but I stopped halfway.
“Oooogh!”
Having a sword in your brain would be a death sentence for most, but the marquis’ powered up regeneration kept him in the fight. I felt that his barrier had grown more powerful than before. I Identified him, and found the rest behind his enhanced barrier.
Unleashed Potential. The marquis’ Superhuman skill was further enhanced by it, giving him S-Rank stats. I would’ve taken Superhuman away from him, but Skill Taker was still on cooldown after we used it on Urslars’ Mad Ogre Form.
“We are going to kill you…! And then we’ll take that sword from you!” the marquis shrieked as he stood up. His wounds were healing quickly. “This body is going to die, but it will all be worth it once we have the girl’s sword!”
The replica Fanatix didn’t want to lose the host it had honed for forty years. As much as it was used to using Unleash Potential, it didn’t have a good way to stop it.
Don’t let him get back on his feet!
“Haaa!”
I fired some Thunder spells at the marquis to stop him, but they had no effect. His magic resistance was far too strong now.
Dammit! Weaker attacks are useless now!
“Hm!”
The marquis was now focusing his barrier in response to Fran’s attack. My blade clashed with the back of his hand. This attack would’ve worked earlier, but Aschtner was too strong now. He batted me away, sending Fran flying, and drove the replica Fanatix through her. The blade was shorter now, but mana pulsed through it to compensate for its lack of length.
“Die!”
“Aaargh…!”
Fran had twisted her body, barely avoiding a fatal blow to the heart, but the replica Fanatix still went through her. I knew for sure then that Aschtner was not to be trifled with. In a panic, I quickly teleported us away.
“Take this!”
I made it just in time. Aschtner swung his sword violently in an attempt to rip straight through Fran’s heart. The replica Fanatix cut nothing but air.
Healing you now!
“Hm…!”
“Ha ha ha!”
“Huh?!”
Aschtner was already next to us. He was so fast! For a moment, I sympathized with all of Fran’s opponents. She blocked the replica Fanatix, and I took a huge hit of durability because of that. The attack sent Fran flying to the side, but the marquis was waiting for us before she even landed.
“Urgh!”
My reflexes couldn’t keep up with the marquis’ enhanced speed. He was reading us like a book!
Fran somehow managed to react to his attack. She kicked the air with Air Hop to accelerate as well as regain her footing. She attacked the marquis, knowing that he would only prevent our attempts to escape. His eyes widened, as if he wasn’t expecting Fran to fight back. The marquis flailed the replica Fanatix around, trying to smash it into me. But our attacks never clashed.
I had used Dimension Shift to phase right through his slash. Aschtner was thrown off balance by his own inertia, and we finally landed our first significant hit.
“Haaaaa!”
“Hyahaaa!”
There was still a power gap between the two which couldn’t be covered with combat experience. I had intended to split the marquis’ head in half, but all I managed to do was chop his left arm off. Meanwhile, the marquis had taken his right foot and shoved it deep into Fran’s left side. I tried to hold it back with Telekinesis, but the kick still made Fran cough up blood. Her body flew through the air, bouncing off the ground many times before going through the ruined wall of the mansion.
We were inside some sort of waiting room. Fran was on the floor, surrounded by shelves and furniture.
“Hurf… Urgh…”
Use Regenerate!
She was puking up blood and bile, making a mess of the rug. She was wounded inside and out. After skidding across the yard, her body was covered with wounds, some of them deep. Both of her legs were broken. But Fran still held me tightly, and her eyes were burning with spirit. Once her legs were healed, she staggered to her feet, fighting through the pain throughout.
Fran would still fight. I would not.
Even if she healed herself, we would still lose this battle. The difference in power was far too great, and Unleash Potential had enhanced the marquis’ Life Steal and Mana Steal so much that they were unbearable. Fran would only be feeding him if she kept on fighting.
I detected a powerful heat heading for the room we were in. The sword had failed, and now Aschtner was going to finish the job with a spell! As I defended us against the ensuing magma tsunami, I urged Fran to get moving.
We have to get out of here! Put some distance between us!
Aschtner didn’t have Teleportation. He would self-destruct if we left him alone for long enough. But Fran shook her head.
No! Erianthe and the others will be killed!
But if we don’t get out of here, you’re—
I have an idea! And if it doesn’t work, we’ll make a run for it!
An idea?
Hm!
Fran looked determined as she swung me up. The marquis had closed in on us, and our blades clashed.
“Ha ha ha! Die!”
“Urk!”
The Steel spell was a distraction for this follow-up attack. Fran grimaced from the force of the slash. She knew she couldn’t take the marquis on in another swordfight.
“Yaaah!”
“Ugh!”
Aschtner saw the opening and hit Fran with his left hand. Fran stepped back, but the fist still clipped her cheek. Her evasive maneuvers managed to reduce some of the impact, but his monstrous strength was impossible to completely nullify. Before she could smack into the wall at the other end of the room, Fran managed to shift herself in the air and stick to the wall with her left hand and both feet. Her cheek was already swelling. Good thing the marquis didn’t have any martial arts skills, or her face could’ve been crushed from the mere shockwave of the blow.
The marquis wasn’t going to wait around for a reaction, but neither was he going to underestimate his opponent. Fanatix knew that its host was on a timer, and it would go all out and kill us before the marquis expired.
“Volcanic Geyser!”
I felt a surge of underground magma incomparable to the lava that the marquis had used at the beginning of the fight. This one was more powerful and covered far more ground. The spell was wide enough to cover the marquis’ estate—maybe even the whole district. The room we were in got the worst of it. Boiling lava filled the cramped space and swirled like a washing machine. I was holding it off with Telekinesis and barriers, but I couldn’t keep it up for long.
Hurry, Fran!
Fran might not live long enough to try her idea if she didn’t do something. I was beginning to wonder if the spell had killed Erianthe and the others outside. I felt conflicted. On one hand, I didn’t want them to die. On the other hand, if they were beyond rescue, then Fran could make her escape now, and live.
It was an awful thing to think, but it was true.
I tried sensing their whereabouts and they were still alive. Erianthe, Colbert, and Zefield were in one spot, presumably holding off the magma together with their magic. I breathed a sigh of relief. I was glad they’d made it.
Fran readied me as we held off the lava with a Wind spell. There was still fight left in her eyes. She was going to do something, but I didn’t know what. Was she going to bet it all on the combined strength of Flashing Thunderclap and Sword God Form? Whatever it was, I had a bad feeling about her so-called idea. I would’ve stopped her, but Danger Sense wasn’t triggering when it absolutely should have.
Fran, wait. What are you—
She carried out her plan before I could stop her.
“Unleash Potential!”
Wait! No! You can’t—
She was already in Flashing Thunderclap, and her energy was being drained by the enemy.
And she would add Unleash Potential on top of that!
I shouted at her to stop, but a surge of mana whirled around Fran, boosting her stats, making them comparable to Marquis Aschtner. The stat gain was beyond belief. Her agility was over 1000, while the rest of her stats were over 800. I didn’t think that she would get buffed so much. Then again, she was a child with a whole lot of potential.
Aschtner’s mana clashed with hers and exploded all around us. The torrent of magma about to overwhelm us fizzed away from the mere force of the mana. Mana wasn’t the only thing that clashed, either. Both combatants stared at each other after the lava tsunami dissipated, and both looked ready to kill.
“I’m going in!”
All right, fine!
There was nothing I could do at this point. Fran was the only one who could get us out of Unleash Potential, since she was the one who used the skill. The only thing I could do was ride with her to the battle’s bitter end. I thought about teleporting us away to escape, but I wasn’t about to trample Fran’s decision to fight.
“Haaaa!”
Fran used Air Hop and leapt at the marquis. The magma had burned the floor away, leaving uneven bits of charred stone.
“Gaaaah! You little brat!”
Aschtner used another Steel spell, but I dispersed the magma with Telekinesis. Fran reached the marquis and started slashing at him. The sheer speed at which she moved and struck surprised me. She didn’t just flail at him, either. Her movements were crisp but sharp, and each strike had the force of a perfectly executed Pressurized Quickdraw. Never mind D- and C-Ranks—even an adventurer like Colbert wouldn’t be able to keep up with her at this pace.
“This is…!”
The marquis let out an anguished cry at Fran’s sudden speed boost. But he was still powerful enough to react to her attacks.
“Aaaargh!”
“Damn you!”
Fran was losing mere seconds ago, but now she stood on even footing with him. Both combatants clashed in a battle of wills, their swords ringing out every few milliseconds. The next moment, Fran blinked a short distance away to parry the marquis’ attack. I was the one who teleported her, of course, but she didn’t have to make the call. I just felt where she wanted to be and moved her away. Unleash Potential had strengthened the bond between us, and now she could use me perfectly as her sword.
So, this is what swords normally feel…
I was a mere sword and nothing more, but I didn’t hate it. Just the opposite—I felt fulfilled.
The marquis staggered when his powerful attack didn’t land. It wasn’t enough for him to lose his footing, but he wasn’t able to perfectly guard against back attacks anymore. Fran’s attack made a huge gash in his spine. It quickly healed, but the attack had certainly damaged Aschtner.
“What the hell are you doing…?!”
The marquis was glaring at the blue glow surrounding me—the warm light that always showed up when our backs were against a wall. The light shone brighter today because of our strengthened bond. We focused our minds on one thing: defeating Aschtner. The light shone brighter then, bright enough to blind the marquis. And of course, the light was more than a mere flashbang. It was powering up my attacks, too.
Let’s do it, Fran!
Hm! Let’s go!
Fran did another super short blink along with the high-speed teleports of Flashing Thunderclap to land a flurry of attacks on the marquis.
“You’re done for!”
You’re going down!
“Dammit! I wasn’t expecting this!”
Each attack sapped the life out of her, but Fran kept up the pressure all the same. The marquis was far from defeated, and he knew that she couldn’t keep up her offensive indefinitely. Aschtner grinned, seeing that Fran didn’t have much life left in her. He had secured his victory. There was nothing more she could do.
What he didn’t know was that this was all part of the plan. Fran was conditioning him with her relentless attacks. She knew that he would let his guard down once she had established a pattern. She then deliberately delayed one of her attacks. The marquis shifted himself into a bad position trying to block a horizontal swing. He would’ve been right before, but now his timing was completely off.
“Black Lightning Strike!”
Fran’s body turned into a bolt of black lightning before the replica Fanatix connected, and she blinked to the other side of the marquis. She wasn’t able to use Black Lightning Strike before, but Unleash Potential had unlocked it for her. Miraculously, this attack was just like the one Kiara used against Theraclede. Fran couldn’t have seen it since she was knocked out, but her instinct had guided her in the same direction as her predecessor.
Go for it, Fran!
“Haaaaa!”
She followed it up with a Sword King Art: Skycutter. Unleash Potential did more than give her Black Lightning Strike, a huge stat boost, and an increased bond rate with me. Previously, she had only been able to use Skycutter from high up in the sky, but now she could use it from this disadvantageous posture. Fran roared as she swung me, still glowing bright blue.
“Graaaaaagh!”
But the attack didn’t come for free. Fran’s body started snapping and popping. The muscles in her young body were ripping apart, and I heard dull crunches as her bones fractured within her. Fran gritted her teeth and followed through, fighting the pain.
The attack was blindingly fast to begin with, and with all the enhancements from Unleash Potential, it became the fastest attack of the day. There was no way to evade it. Still, we were up against an absolute monster of an opponent. Realizing the futility of evading our attack, the marquis seemed to have given up on it. He committed himself to trading blows. He put up a charged barrier on his side where the Sword King Art would land. It would do little to stop the attack, but it would buy him several milliseconds of time—milliseconds that would determine the outcome of this battle.
The marquis took everything he had and stabbed his sword as I connected with his side. Fanatix wouldn’t mind killing Fran, even at the cost of a dead host. For the Godsword, the loss of a host would be a minor setback at most. Meanwhile, landing a hit on Fran would transfer her mana and life into the sword. It also knew that Fran had no way of avoiding this attack.
Urgh…
Fran barely had any life in her left. She would die if the sword even touched her!
There were ways to defend against this attack: Teleport, Telekinesis, or even Mana Thruster. But my defensive countermeasures wouldn’t activate in time. I slowed down time with a Timespace spell to give myself more time to think, but I could see the sword rapidly approaching. I used Teleport, but not quickly enough. The marquis was too fast.
Aaaaah!
“Ah.”
The marquis’ dead eyes lit up with a joyful glint as he saw that the attack was going to trade.
Come on! Just teleport already! Faster, please!
But there was nothing I could do, and I could only sit by and watch as the sword plunged into Fran’s body.
Damn it all! …Huh?
“What?”
“Hm?”
I was shocked, but so were Marquis Aschtner and Fran. I felt the blade go into Fran. She was even knocked back slightly when the blade made contact.
But she remained unhurt. Unwounded.
What happened?
Now wasn’t the time to ask questions. We had to take advantage of this opening!
Fran knew that she had somehow cheated death and was already making her next move. She swung me overhead and shouted.
“Black Lightning God Claw!”
Currents of black lightning coursed through my blade. Kiara had used this to create a sword out of black lightning, but this move actually imbued the user’s weapon with black lightning, as well as the element itself. The surge of mana felt a lot like Sword God Form. Divine.
“Taaaaah!”
“Aaaaargh!”
Marquis Aschtner was already dying from being opened up with Skycutter. Now, cords of black lightning whipped his body to finish him off.
“YAAAAAAAAGH!”
The attack sliced cleanly through him. The black lightning pierced and then burned his body. The battle was won, but I had no time to savor our victory.
“Aaaaaaargh!”
Waaaagh…! This is…!
A rush of mana flowed through me after the marquis let out his dying scream. I resisted the urge to throw up.
Hurk! Uuuuugh…!
I lacked the faculties to vomit, so I could do nothing but endure the whirlpool of nausea. I still remembered the relief I got from throwing up after eating something bad, and that nostalgia made it worse. I never thought that not throwing up could feel so bad.
Urgh…
I had to suck it up. We were still in the thick of battle. I looked around me and saw that Marquis Aschtner was on the ground. He wasn’t regenerating. He didn’t even twitch. Had we finally won?
I felt no life force from him, confirming our victory. Our final attack had completely wasted the marquis, and the parasite Fanatix within him.
Teacher?
I’m…I’m fine. You need to turn off Unleash Potential…
Already did.
Good. That was good. Except it wasn’t. Fran barely had any life left in her, and her mana was a big fat zero. She looked pale, and her eyes could barely focus.
“Hurk…”
Fran!
She coughed up blood before falling to the ground. Her innards were probably a mess after being forced beyond their limits, and she had no mana left to heal them.
I had a bit of mana left, though it was probably mana from Cannibalizing the replica Fanatix. I immediately cast recovery spells on her, leaving my own recovery for later. A single Mid Heal got her out of the danger zone. Color returned to her face and her breathing stabilized. Now that I knew she was going to be all right, I immediately started scolding her.
What did you think you were doing?!
“I…”
I don’t wanna hear it! If Aschtner hadn’t whiffed his attack, you would be dead by now!
The root of the problem was the fact that she had forced herself to use Unleash Potential to fight him off.
Maybe we needed it to win! But there could’ve been other ways we could’ve done it!
“…I’m sorry.”
Please…don’t make me worry like that again.
“I’m really sorry.”
You’d be worried sick if I did something that might break myself, right?
“Hm.”
I feel the same way. It drives me crazy if you do something that might kill you.
“Hm…”
Fran felt like I was nagging her at first, but she grew genuinely apologetic. She knew that I was worried for her safety.
Promise me you won’t do something like that again.
“Hm. I promise not to use Unleash Potential without telling you again.”
Fran was a girl who kept her promises once she made them. I breathed a sigh of relief. I wouldn’t have to worry about sudden Unleash Potentials anymore.
Thank you. So how are you feeling? Anything feel out of place?
There was always a price to pay after using Unleash Potential. For me, the skill ate up my magicite count. What would it be for Fran? I couldn’t tell from just Identifying her.
“Hm…?”
Can’t tell the difference?
“Hm.”
Fran didn’t know what the skill had taken from her. Was it something subtle? I was hoping it would be visible so we could quickly heal her.
Still nothing?
“Sorry…”
It’s all right. It’s not your fault. Just tell me the second something feels wrong, okay?
“Okay.”
Fran gave a small nod and slowly got back on her feet. We had to get out of the burning mansion, even if she had to drag herself out of there. The building was in shambles by the time the fight was over, and it wouldn’t surprise me if it suddenly started collapsing in on itself.
Just have some potions for now.
“Hm…”
I gave her five bottles of potions over the course of her way out and they recovered a grand total of twenty percent of her health. They weren’t as effective as they should be, and I wondered if Unleash Potential had something to do with it. Maybe her body was just too damaged to absorb them properly.
Either way, she was still in the danger zone. Her movements were still sluggish and exhausted. I was in a bad spot myself. While it wasn’t as bad as the aftermath of Sword God Form, I was still missing a large chunk of durability, and it wasn’t coming back soon by the looks of it. Black Lightning God Claw’s Divine element was probably the main cause.
Fran was a special case, but people who used the Divine element probably threw their weapons away right after. The Beast King himself was equipped with an orihalcon spear when he used Spear God Form, and it ended up destroyed. Actually, did the Divine element have an effect on Fran, too? Was that why it was taking forever for her to heal?
Are you okay, Teacher? I heard you scream earlier. Fran was just as worried for her partner as I was.
Cannibalize got me. I’m fine now.
Are you sure?
Yeah, I don’t feel sick anymore. It was a big haul, though.
The replicas of Fanatix I’d been consuming only gave one point of mana and durability. The replica which Marquis Aschtner used, on the other hand, didn’t seem to be mass produced and gave a whopping 300 points of mana and durability each. I didn’t get any EP, but that was as good as a rank up. I was glad I chose to suck it up with the nausea and keep Cannibalize on.
We got to the garden, where we found Zefield sitting on the ground with Erianthe and Colbert tending to him.
“What happened?”
“Fran! Did you beat him?”
“Hm.”
Fran nodded, and a faint smile appeared on Zefield’s lips.
“I see. Excellent.”
He didn’t sound like he was in pain, but there was blood coming out of his stomach and he had the face of a dead man. He was pale to the point of looking like paper. Anyone could tell that he was knocking on death’s door. What impressed me was his serenity.
Fran, heal him.
“Hm. Let me heal you.”
Zefield’s body glowed with the healing light of the spell, but he was still dying. His wounds remained open, his life faint.
“Huh?”
“I guess you can’t do it, either.”
“He can’t be healed?”
“None of our potions worked!”
Was he in a state that nullified all healing? He would die with those wounds!
Fran tried another healing spell, but the blood kept pouring out of Zefield, and with it, his life.
“Why can’t these wounds be healed?”
Colbert started, “That’s—”
“I got hit by a stray bullet, that’s all,” Zefield croaked, cutting him off. It sounded like he didn’t want Fran to know the cause of his injuries. But Erianthe admonished him.
“Tell her. Fran might be young, but she’s as good of an adventurer as any of us.”
“But…” Zefield started to complain. “No, I guess you’re right.”
“We know why you don’t want to burden her with your death, but she’ll understand.”
Erianthe, Colbert, and Zefield himself knew that he wasn’t long for this world. Helping him in this state was borderline impossible without a few potions. Transporting him the wrong way would probably be enough to kill him…
And apparently, Fran had something to do with it.
“What happened?”
“There is an Advanced Shield Art that allows its user to take damage which would’ve been dealt to a party member,” Erianthe said. “That’s what Zefield used.”
“…On me?”
“He said he wanted to help,” she continued. “We got a better view after your fight destroyed the mansion. We knew then that Zefield had used it.”
I could pinpoint the moment he used the skill, too. Zefield used his skill during Fran’s final clash with Aschtner, when the stab which was supposed to go right through Fran was mysteriously nullified. I had Physical Immunity, but I didn’t have enough time to equip it. I would make a point to swap to the risky skill on the fly later, but I hadn’t equipped it back then. There wasn’t any time to think about our strange stroke of luck, so we just kept fighting.
Apparently, the strange stroke of luck was Zefield’s doing. I knew that Advanced Shield Arts could do such things. It made life difficult for us when we fought the valkyrie back in the Beastman Nation. The monster army had used skills which allowed the valkyrie to cheat death.
“Thank you, Princess…for avenging my friends.” Zefield coughed and bowed his head. If it weren’t for the pool of blood he was in, his serenity would make you think that he was only going to sleep. Erianthe and Colbert let him talk. They knew that the great adventurer had come to his final moments.
“Was it of use to you?”
“Very. I’d be dead by now if it weren’t for you.”
“Excellent. Allow me to offer you one final piece of advice.”
“Hm.”
“You used an ability with tremendous recoil, yes?” Zefield asked, using the last of his strength. As an expert shield master, Zefield knew that what he was going through now was a side effect of whatever skill Fran had used in the battle. She was supposed to be unhealable, but instead it was him.
This is definitely the cost of using Unleash Potential.
“Hm,” Fran nodded quietly. Zefield had taken on all the symptoms and damage of Unleash Potential. He was the reason why Fran came through Unleash Potential only nearly dead instead of fully dead.
“Well, do be careful with that ability in the future,” he coughed.
“Zefield, why are you smiling?” Fran murmured, tears welling up in her eyes. The warrior’s tranquility in the face of death had forced the question from her.
“Because this is the way an A-Rank should depart from this world. My friends would laugh at me if I had died scared.”
Zefield demonstrated his true strength when he faced death with absolute serenity. I had nothing but respect for him. His calm smile reminded me of how Kiara died, and I think Fran felt the same. She bowed her head mournfully to him.
“I’m sorry. This is all my—”
“No!” Zefield stopped her and coughed. “No. I was able to help you beat him. If anything, I should be thanking you.” He grinned.
Erianthe continued for him. “Zefield’s right. He’s going to die, but you’re not to blame for it. Maybe he took a hit for you, but that was his choice to make. You should send him off with pride for helping you take down such a powerful monster.”
“She’s right, Fran,” Colbert said. “You did a lot of the work, but we—Zefield, especially—helped you from the sidelines. We took that beast down together, and if we share the glory, then we share the responsibility. Best you can do now is thank him instead of apologize.”
“…Hm.” What they said made sense to her.
If I were Zefield, I wouldn’t want anyone to apologize to me, either, she said.
Right.
Fran stopped looking sorry for herself and looked Zefield straight in the eye. She thanked the great adventurer for being an ally.
“Thank you very much.”
“Likewise… This last job was to die for.”
And those were the last words of Sky Wall Zefield, A-Rank adventurer. He was a good man, and though we only met a few times, he won our respect. I think Fran would’ve loved him if she had met him sooner.
Thank you very much.
I wonder if he heard my thanks behind his closed eyes.
Rest in peace, friend.
We took a short break after Zefield’s passing to recharge, but Fran was so tired that she was yawning on the battlefield.
Feeling sleepy?
Hm…
Adrenaline had fueled her through the battle, but now that it was gone, exhaustion reawakened and made its move. Tiredness overwhelmed her once the tension of the battle had faded, forcing her body to sleep.
Fran rubbed her eyes. “Hnh…”
You okay?
“Fine,” she said, and then fell asleep.
Whoops.
“Zzz…”
Fran was knocked out. Her legs gave way underneath her, and I caught her with Telekinesis to ease her to the ground. She looked so cute when she was asleep.
But what should we do now?
The battle was far from over. I could sense powerful mana coming from the royal palace. It was too far to get a good estimate, but it was at least as powerful as the mana that came from Aschtner in Unleashed Potential. There were multiple sources, too. The ground shook underneath us from time to time, and I thought that it had to be related to the mana I was sensing.
Fran falling asleep now is for the best.
Going up against another powerful enemy right away would be suicide, but if she were awake, Fran would fight all the same to protect the city.
I guess Fran becomes unhealable after using Unleash Potential.
My main concern was how long it would last. If it only lasted a few hours, then we could use Unleash Potential again if we had to. We wouldn’t die if we killed our enemies instantly. But we would only use the skill against powerful enemies, and powerful enemies weren’t ones to go down easily.
If the fight went on for longer than anticipated, it wouldn’t end well for Fran. It wouldn’t be a problem if she was only unhealable for a few minutes, but what if it lasted for a few days? I didn’t think she would be permanently unhealable, but I was worried that the effect could last for months. We couldn’t really test the skill, either. Unleash Potential was far too dangerous to use in training. If we were going to use it, we needed to be ready to die.
Honestly, if Zefield wasn’t around, Fran would be dead by now. The thought brought up conflicting emotions and my mind started whirling. I felt worthless, useless, incompetent, and I hated myself for it.
I had to get stronger. I wasn’t going to let her go through this again.
Colbert noticed Fran sleeping on the ground and ran toward her. “Fran,” he said. “Fran, are you all right?”
Fran continued sleeping.
“Let her be, Colbert.” Erianthe said. “She’s probably tired. Wouldn’t you want a nap after that kind of battle?”
“I-I guess. But still…”
“What?”
“I was just thinking that she doesn’t look like a girl who took down that monster when she’s asleep like this.”
“True.”
Erianthe and Colbert watched Fran snooze away. Colbert looked conflicted. He’d received confirmation of the difference in their powers, but Fran was still a little girl. But he shook himself awake, realizing that now wasn’t the time to contemplate such things, and glared at the surge of mana.
“So what do we do now?”
“First, we take Fran and Zefield to the guild.”
“Right.”
Erianthe put Fran on her back while Colbert carefully took Zefield’s body.
“So much death and destruction,” Erianthe sighed.
“We lost a lot of good people today.”
Erianthe lamented the loss of life more than the destruction of property. The battle at the marquis’ estate had killed over twenty intermediate adventurers and taken the life of an A-Rank. Fran, their only hope, was fast asleep. Meanwhile, the battle in the capital raged on.
“I didn’t think Zefield would go so quickly,” Colbert said.
“That’s the life of an adventurer for you,” Erianthe said. “We never know how we’re going to die. I think Zefield got off pretty easy. You remember how satisfied he looked.”
“I dunno about that,” Colbert mused.
“Think about it,” she continued. “He died avenging his friends of forty years.”
Zefield had been with his party for forty years. They were more family than colleagues at this point.
“It wasn’t a bad way to go. Not for him.”
“It’s still pretty bad,” Colbert complained. “Would’ve been much better if everyone survived.”
“Well, that didn’t happen. It couldn’t happen, considering what they were up against. You know, being the only surviving member of your party can be quite rough.”
Colbert stopped and bowed his head. “I’m sorry, Guildmaster. I didn’t mean it that way.”
“If he had survived,” Erianthe continued, “he would’ve taken on one unreasonable quest after another so he could die.”
“I mean, you’re still around,” Colbert mumbled.
“Yes, well. I’m a special case.” Erianthe chuckled and put on a wry smile. “Losing your team is tough, but surviving that experience is worse. I was eating bland porridge with a bunch of injured soldiers once and I suddenly started crying. I couldn’t stop. Not when I realized I would no longer have the usual conversations I had with my friends.”
“But you got back on your feet. Maybe Zefield…”
“Maybe. But my team wasn’t completely wiped out. Some of us were left behind, and we licked each other’s wounds. If it weren’t for them, I wouldn’t be alive now. For that, I will always be grateful.”
“I’ve always wondered. Why did you make the jump from a mercenary to an adventurer? You said some of your mercenary friends made it out alive. Why not just stay in the same company as them?”
Apparently, Erianthe had once suffered a similar fate to Zefield. Before she became an adventurer, she was a mercenary whose team almost got annihilated. She must be a pretty good adventurer to make it all the way to Guildmaster.
“Your friends are still mercenaries, aren’t they?”
“I’m the only one I need to worry about as a solo adventurer, aren’t I?”
“I suppose…”
“That’s why I joined, anyway. What I’ve learned so far is that there is no getting away from them for as long as I live. I’m going to care about them one way or another, and I’ll never really be alone.”
Colbert paused. “Do you still feel like dying sometimes?”
“That’s for me to know, Colbert. I wonder sometimes, though… What if I hadn’t retreated that day Raydoss’s Crimson Knights attacked? What if I had faced them with my friends instead?”
Colbert and Erianthe never let their guard down during their conversation. The city was still in chaos. Adventurers and guardsmen worked together to evacuate its citizens. The two worked together to take down any fanatic that stood in their path. Eventually, we made it to the Adventurers’ Guild.
Ah…!
It was then that powerful mana signatures started multiplying in the capital. There were almost a hundred of them now, and one of the strange auras was approaching us.
FWOOM!
Flames burst from one of the nearby alleys. A knight flew out of it like a ragdoll.
Erianthe clicked her tongue. “Colbert, take care of Fran!”
“Got it!”
She readied her weapon and brought the fight to the enemy. A figure appeared behind the body of the charred knight. It was a swordsman with a replica of Fanatix in his back. But there was something strange about this one. He was emitting way too much mana.
Godsword… Release?
I Identified him and found that dreaded status in his stat sheet. He was powerful, as powerful as Aschtner before Unleash Potential. He wouldn’t be alive for long, though. The power was consuming his life. He probably only had three minutes left to live.
But that meant he had three minutes left to move.
Three minutes to destroy everything in his path.
“Gaaaaaah!”
The swordsman started throwing out Sword Arts and spells as if he’d read my mind. He didn’t seem to have focus or a goal. If he had one, it would be to destroy as much as possible before he expired.
“Stop that!”
“Raaaagh!”
Erianthe had no way of beating such a monster!
What do I do…?!
Dammit! I didn’t think a replica Godsword could even do Godsword Release! I had to protect her!
You’re not making Fran cry again, Fanatix!
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