Rokka no Yuusha - Volume 2 - Chapter 4

Chapter 4 
A Sudden Turn 

It was three years before the Evil God’s awakening, and the day after Mora had made her agreement with Tgurneu. 
“This is bullshit!” An angry cry echoed through Mora’s quarters at All Heavens Temple. The Elder was sitting at her table, opposite another woman. Her guest stood up and punched the table. It instantly split in two, sending the teacups and flower vase flying. A moment later, the slabs of table transformed into slabs of salt and crumbled onto the carpet. 
“Willone, don’t break my furniture,” said Mora. 
The woman’s name was Willone Court, the Saint of Salt. She was twenty-five years old at the time, with light brown skin; long, pitch-black hair; and a taut, muscular body. The sleeves had been cut off her vestments, and she wore leather gloves on her hands. 
Salt had the power to purify evil. Past Saints of Salt had long been skilled at creating barriers to keep away fiends and nullifying the toxin that covered the Howling Vilelands, albeit temporarily. Willone also had the ability to turn her enemies into lumps of salt, which made her a capable fighter, rare for the Saint of Salt. 
Mora had revealed the entirety of her contract with Tgurneu to Willone. When she heard the story, she was shocked and furious—not at Mora, who had made this unforgivable contract with a fiend, but at Tgurneu, who had taken a hostage. “How can I be calm, boss?! Why didn’t you just slaughter that jackass?!” 
“It ran away. Besides, I couldn’t have defeated it alone.” 
“…That shitstain!” 
The maids cleaned up the mountain of salt and carried in a replacement table. After making sure they had left, Mora was about to continue the conversation when Willone suddenly tried to leave. 
“Where are you going?” 
“Where else?! I’m going out to go destroy that damned fiend! You come with me, boss!” 
“Calm down. You don’t even have an idea of Tgurneu’s location.” 
“It’s obviously gonna be in the Howling Vilelands, and with my powers, I can get in! We’ll take Chamo and Athlay, and maybe the princess and Granny Leura or whoever. It’ll be like a pre–Battle of the Six Flowers!” 
“’Twould be reckless. Your abilities would give us two days in the Howling Vilelands, at most—not nearly enough.” 
“Damn it!” Willone withdrew reluctantly and sat down on the sofa again. 
Mora trusted the other Saint deeply. She was a good person, the type to lay everything out on the surface. She was faithful and tight-lipped, and once she made a promise, she would never break it. Her one flaw was that she was simple and impulsive. But even so, she was the only Saint whom Mora could speak with concerning her contract with Tgurneu. 
“So is Shenira okay?” 
“You just saw her. She’s the picture of health.” 
“Yeah, the maid was teaching her to read. She’s a good kid. Does she know?” 
“I’ve told her nothing. She believes her ailment has been cured.” The pair sighed miserably. 
“Isn’t there something we can do for her? You can ask me anything, boss,” Willone said emphatically. This was what Mora liked about her. 
“From this point forward, I’ll be focusing on training. I cannot kill Tgurneu as I am now. While I train, you will protect All Heavens Temple in my stead.” 
“You leave it to me. If that’s all you want, you didn’t even have to ask.” She flexed an arm and slapped it with the other hand. 
“Tgurneu may have also blackmailed other Saints. Tighten perimeter security and get Marmanna to help you investigate to see if any others had hostages taken as well. There is much to do.” 
“It’ll be okay. Don’t worry about it—just focus on your training.” 
Mora had also asked Ganna to advise Willone for her. Now there should be nothing else to concern herself over. But just as she began to relax, Willone spoke again, her tone dark. “Hey, boss. Can I just ask one thing?” 
“What is it?” 
“This isn’t something I really wanna say, but…” Willone was being uncharacteristically evasive, choosing her words carefully, as though it was difficult for her to form the question. “If you can’t kill Tgurneu by the deadline, and you have to kill a Brave of the Six Flowers, what’ll you do then?” 
“Don’t think about that. I will kill Tgurneu.” 
“O-of course. Sorry for asking such a weird question.” 
“Don’t try to back out of it. Ask what you want to ask. Nothing you might say would anger me,” said Mora. 
Willone summoned her resolve, and then she spoke. “Boss…if you can’t finish it off in time…will you kill one of the Braves to protect Shenira?” She fixed Mora with a razor-sharp glare. “Because if that’s your plan, then I have to take you down. To protect the world. I care about Shenira, too, but I can’t give the world for her.” 
“Don’t worry. That’s not my intention,” said Mora. 
Willone breathed a sigh of relief. “Sorry. I shouldn’t have asked.” 
“It’s no trouble. That’s an obvious question to ask.” 
“Please, boss. You’re the only one we can count on. You’ve got to kill Tgurneu and save Shenira,” Willone said, smiling. “I care about her—and you, too, Boss.” 
The Temple Elder smiled and gave her a small nod. 
Mora figured it had been about three hours since Hans and Goldof had set out to battle. The night was deepening, and the moon was high in the sky. “Hans, return to the barrier for now. You may not have realized it yourself, but you’re showing signs of exhaustion. You’re slowing down.” So the fiends wouldn’t hear, Mora sent her directions echoing to Hans with the power of mountains. 
“Meow , I s’pose so. I reckoned it was ’bout time, too.” 
Hans and Goldof were a fair distance away from the Bud of Eternity. Mora called on her clairvoyance to find a path for the two of them to follow back to the barrier. “Climb to the summit, and then rush straight down. There are fiends coming, but I’ll have Chamo support you.” 
“Mea-meow. Roger. Goldof, c’mon.” The pair began to make their way back. 
To Chamo, intent on stuffing wild game into her mouth, Mora said, “Can you rouse your slave-fiends? If you can, dispose of the enemies above us.” 
“Sure,” said Chamo, and she coughed up several slave-fiends to send up to the top of the mountain. Mora noticed their bodies gleamed with an uncanny luster—they looked a little different from before. 
Bones of wild animals were strewn around Chamo. She had tucked nearly every creature on the mountain into her stomach. “Ergh. This is kinda making Chamo sick, though,” she said with a great burp. 
“What on earth have you been doing?” 
“Gathering animal fat.” 
“Fat?” Mora questioned. 
“That weird powder seems to get hot when it touches water, so if all Chamo’s pets are covered in fat, the powder’ll probably not work as good.” 
I see. It seemed the younger Saint was working things out in her own way. 
“Who knows if it’ll work all that great. There’s not enough fat. But we’ll probably manage somehow.” 
“Will you go fight Tgurneu?” 
“No, we’ll wait. Chamo’s not a kid. Chamo can wait.” 
Mora smiled. She was slowly growing, after all. “Indeed. You’re a good girl by nature. You just sometimes go astray.” 
“Chamo is not a kid.” When Mora patted her head, Chamo brushed her hand off grumpily. 
Even as she conversed, Mora surveyed the whole mountain vigilantly. Hans and Goldof were heading to the Bud of Eternity, the slave-fiends backing them up as they went. Though their foes were fewer now, there was no sign of coming reinforcements, or even any apparent intent to summon them. 
Mora scanned the area to make sure nothing else was happening—and that’s when she found an anomaly. Her entire body stiffened reflexively. 
“What’s wrong, Auntie?” 
Tgurneu was strolling along the western side of the mountain at a leisurely pace, as if simply out for a stroll. Four other fiends accompanied it, two of them large-sized creatures over ten meters in length. One was shaped like a reptile with a gigantic mouth, and the other resembled a large, monstrous jellyfish. There were also a monkey-fiend with rainbow hair and another that looked like a human made of stone. 
“Chamo Rosso sure was amazing, don’t you think? Hearing about it and seeing it for yourself are entirely different things,” came Tgurneu’s voice. 
“Índeed! I wonder just how that stömach of hers is structured!” 
“A single look at that is enough to make one burst out laughing. Good grief, is that actually human?” Tgurneu chatted pleasantly with the monkey-fiend. Nothing about its manner suggested it was concerned about the situation at the Bud of Eternity or its fellows on the mountain. 
“Once we kill Chamö, will the fiends she’s controlling be freëd, then?” 
“Who knows? Well, we don’t have to worry about it. They’re just Cargikk’s minions, anyway.” Tgurneu smiled and continued. “Has Mora killed someone for me yet?” 
“There are no reports of incidènt at the Bud of Eternity. She must still be undécided.” 
Tgurneu shrugged. “Foolish as she may be, I think she understands that she has no time, though. How long does she plan to make me wait?” 
As Mora listened in on them, rage turned her skin to gooseflesh. Just how deep was the creature’s contempt for her? 
“Will she reälly kill one?” 
“She may need another push or two. Still, it’s only a matter of time. Let’s wait a little longer.” After that, Tgurneu continued its stroll. 
Beside Mora, Chamo said, “What’s wrong, Auntie?” 
“The time has finally come.” From her packs, Mora pulled a stake. It was small, about the thickness of her thumb and thirty centimeters long, and packed with hieroglyphic patterns so fine they were invisible until closer inspection. 
In the three years since Mora had made that contract with Tgurneu, she had done much in preparation to kill the fiend. She had summoned a number of Saints to the temple, and together, they had created a variety of weapons. This stake was one of those. She had made it with the help of Willone, master of barrier creation. The Saint of Salt had named this barrier the Saltpeak Barrier. 
“Tgurneu has come!” cried Mora, and Adlet, Fremy, and Rolonia dashed out of the cave. 
“…That’s the current situation,” finished Mora. 
Hans and Goldof were back at the Bud of Eternity, and Mora had just informed the others of Tgurneu’s activities. When Adlet had heard their foe was just ambling along in a casual chat, his eyes had filled with anger. The boy, too, carried deep resentment toward Tgurneu. 
“I’m capable of entrapping Tgurneu immediately. Are you ready to kill it?” asked Mora. 
Adlet glanced at Rolonia and Fremy and then shook his head in disappointment. 
“Still? You had tons of time. Chamo’s all ready.” Chamo pouted. 
Mora was disappointed, too. She had known that they were short on leads, but she had also expected Adlet would be able to pull it off anyway. “Then we have no choice. We’ll attack now, as a group.” She raised the stake to thrust it into the ground, but Hans stopped her. 
“Hey. How can we fight neow? Nothin’s changed from last time.” 
Mora tried to push Hans’s hand away. “We won’t have many opportunities to kill Tgurneu. Do you intend to let this one slip from our grasp, too?” 
“I love bein’ in trouble, but I hate bein’ reckless and crazy. And I think fightin’ now is just plain reckless.” 
“Have you lost your nerve, Hans?!” Mora couldn’t disguise her irritation. 
Rolonia cut in. “Lady Mora, what’s wrong?” 
“Why are you so impatient about this?” Fremy joined her. 
Mora’s allies were giving her searching looks. If she continued to press the matter, it would only make her look suspicious. “I’m sorry. But this is unquestionably the best opportunity we will have. We cannot let this go.” 
“Don’t raise my suspicions—it’ll make me want to kill you,” Fremy said coldly. Rolonia watched their exchange with fright. 
“Mora, if you raise the barrier now, how long’ll it last?” asked Adlet. 
“It was made to last six hours. But it’s an instantaneous force field—I know not if its strength will be as expected.” 
“Give me three hours. We’ll solve the mystery of Tgurneu before that time is up. And if we can’t do it in three hours, we’ll give up and attack Tgurneu together.” 
“What’s your plan?” 
“I’m thinking we’ll leave the mountain and go back to the hill where Tgurneu first attacked us. Most likely, that’s the only place we’ll be able to find a clue as to its weakness.” 
What Mora really wanted to do was to go end Tgurneu’s life right that moment. It had said that she had only two more days. But she couldn’t object to Adlet’s plan. “Understood, Adlet. Be sure to find us a clue. Meanwhile, I will not let Tgurneu escape.” Mora showed the others the stake she held. “This barrier prevents the passage of fiends only. You will be able to pass through freely. Once it is active, head straight to the hill.” 
“Wait—then I won’t be able to get out,” said Fremy. 
“I’m sorry, Fremy,” answered Mora. “You were not known to us when we made this barrier. You remain here.” 
“That’s not good. There may be some clues that we can’t find without Fremy there,” said Adlet. 
“Couldn’t you just activate the barrier once Fremy has left it?” suggested Rolonia. 
“Then she wouldn’t be able to get back in after. We have no choice—Fremy stays here.” As Rolonia and Adlet talked, Tgurneu remained under Mora’s clairvoyant watch. It was still chatting, seeming entirely without caution. 
“I’m about to create the barrier. Shall I?” Mora said, and Adlet nodded. For some reason, Hans’s expression revealed mixed feelings. Fremy also seemed hesitant. 
“What’s wrong?” 
“Meow , I have some bad memories when it comes to barriers, ya know?” 
Mora was in complete agreement, but this was not the time to worry over that. She channeled power from the Spirit of Mountains, and the stake in her hands glowed. 
It was fundamentally impossible to erect two barriers in the same location. But the Saint of the Single Flower’s Bud of Eternity had different properties. Saints of past generations had already confirmed that a second force field would not clash with it. 
The instant before Mora thrust the stake into the ground, she checked on their target one more time. 
Tgurneu was strolling along the mountain as it had been before, still conversing with its minions. “Is Cargikk still doing nothing?” it asked. 
“Appàrently. Does Cargikk even want to win?” 
“What can you do? The most simpletons can hope to accomplish is to barricade themselves in.” It seemed they were just chatting, entirely unaware of the coming threat. 
It can’t be—is this creature nothing more than a fool? The thought crossed Mora’s mind. “Hnh! ” She thrust the stake into the ground. The engraved hieroglyphs glowed, and the earth trembled briefly. “O Mountain, release the power that you hide, and bequeath it upon Mora Chester.” She addressed the mountain, and in turn it replied. 
The technique of absorbing energy from nature and making it your own was an advanced one; only a limited few Saints were capable of it. Mora had called out to the salt that was within the earth of the mountain as she absorbed its power of purification and transformed it into a barrier to block fiends. 
Vast power flowed from the earth into Mora. Her body filled with intense heat, showering sparks around her. She packed the energy into the stake, and the carvings on it formed it into a wall. “Saltpeak Barrier, activate!” 
There was a thunderous roar. Invisible waves emanated from the stake. Instantly, the whole mountain was enveloped in a veil of light. “Did it work?!” Adlet yelled. No reply was needed. It was basically perfect. 
This barrier could only have been made via the cooperation of the Saint of Salt and the Saint of Mountains. What’s more, it would have been impossible had both of them not been particularly powerful. There was also the risk that Mora would be unable to control the large volumes of power that flowed into her—in that case, she would have been destroyed. 
“…Oh?” 
As Mora watched from afar, the fiend looked up at the veil of light spread above, smiling. Though Tgurneu was acting unconcerned, she could see clearly that it had been shaken. 
“They’ve creatèd a barrier! Concenträte the minions near the commander! Protect Cömmander Tgurneu!” yelled the monkey-fiend. Its subordinates immediately scattered about the mountain, summoning the rest to converge on this location. “If you stay here, Commander, you may come under attack by the Braves of the Six Flowers. Let us leave the mountain at once.” 
“True, but though I’d like to go, I don’t think I can.” Smiling stiffly, Tgurneu descended the mountain. 
“I have Tgurneu trapped, Adlet,” said Mora. “You and Rolonia, go to the hill now.” 
Adlet nodded. “Rolonia, let’s go. And you come with us, too, Hans. All right?” 
“Meow , of course it’s all right. Yer comin’ with us, too, Goldof. You wouldn’t be useful if ya stayed here, anyway,” Hans quipped and whacked the knight on the back. Goldof didn’t react, but he appeared not to mind. 
“So it’s the four of us, then. Everyone hurry and get ready,” Adlet said, and he dashed into the cave. 
Meanwhile, Tgurneu had arrived at the foot of the mountain, the wall of the Saltpeak Barrier. One of the fiends body-slammed the light, but when it made contact, its body sizzled in a shower of sparks and smoke. The fiend slammed the barrier again and again, but it did not break. Ultimately, it died, its entire body scorched black. 
“Oh, my. I expected as much.” Tgurneu touched the corpse with one hand. “It’s probably Mora, though I doubt she could make something like this on her own. Perhaps she had help from Willone.” The subordinates scattered about the mountain came to concentrate around Tgurneu, and the fiend gave them their orders. “Being trapped in like this is rather a bother. Break the barrier for me.” 
The gigantic reptile-fiend headbutted the barrier, and the jellyfish sprayed acid on it, too. All at once, the large mass of fiends began to attack. 
Mora fell to her knees, clenching the stake. With each impact against the barrier, the stake shuddered. She poured the power of the Spirit of Mountains into the stake, reinforcing her spell. 
Tgurneu regarded the whole scene with disinterest. 
What an utter buffoon , thought Mora. All she had to do now was wait for Adlet to bring back his results. Until then, she had to keep protecting the barrier. Please, Adlet. Her beloved daughter’s life was in his hands. 
Adlet opened his iron box and packed every one of his tools that could possibly be useful in the investigation into the pouches at his waist. “I’m ready, Addy,” Rolonia announced. He had told them all to hurry, but it turned out that Adlet was the only one who had preparing to do. He swiftly filled his belt. 
“Adlet, take this with you.” Fremy handed him two small firecrackers—the kind used for communication, like the ones she had given him back inside the Phantasmal Barrier. If he shot these off, it would alert her to his location. “I carved numbers into them. The first one is a call for help. If you detonate it, we’ll take down the barrier immediately and head out to help you. The second is meant as a message. If you find any clues, use that one.” 
“Got it. I don’t think I’ll be using the first one, though.” Adlet stood up and left the cave. He looked at Goldof, who was waiting. Still as sulky as ever. “What’s going on with the fiends?” he asked Mora. 
She was still clenching the stake, protecting the barrier. “The majority are gathered around Tgurneu, on the southwest side. There are some enemies on watch, but they are few. Their forces are thinnest on the northern side.” 
“I want to avoid the fiends noticing that we’ve left, if possible. Is there a way to get out without being seen?” Adlet inquired. 
Behind him, Chamo piped up. “That’s easy. You can just go while Chamo’s pets are distracting the enemy.” Adlet was a little surprised. He hadn’t thought she would volunteer to cooperate. 
Fremy drew her gun and scanned their surroundings as she said, “I’ll finish off the enemies that are watching us now. No problem.” 
“Then let us begin,” said Mora. “We have little time. We’ll end this before Tgurneu makes a move.” 
They all got moving. Under Mora’s direction, Fremy and Chamo took out the fiends on recon, while Adlet’s party waited until all the enemies around were gone and then ran off silently northward. They proceeded under cover of night, their bodies hunched low, until they received instructions from Mora. 
“Three fiends before you. I doubt you can evade them unnoticed as you pass. Get rid of them.” Adlet could faintly see the outlines within the darkness—the fiends had not detected them yet. Adlet threw paralyzing needles, and the moment the group heard their quiet moans, Hans and Goldof darted over and silently finished them off. 
“Next, run straight from the barrier,” instructed Mora. “And stay on guard.” 
“Roger,” said Adlet. 
I can’t be careless , he thought as they ran. If he came too close to the answers, the seventh would act to protect Tgurneu. If the seventh was one of the three with him—Hans, Rolonia, and Goldof—then they would most certainly try to take Adlet’s life. 
They came to the foot of the mountain, the massive, luminous shroud before them. The four exchanged a glance before they left the Saltpeak Barrier, racing off to the east. 
Mora watched them go with her clairvoyant eye. Once they left the barrier, they were beyond the range of her powers. “They’ve left the mountain. They’re heading to the hill without issue.” 
“So they pulled it off, huh? Though that much is sort of expected,” said Chamo. The hard part was the next step. All of this would be meaningless if Adlet’s party failed to get ahold of some clues and come back safe. 
There was no sign of any fiends around, only silence. Fremy stood in the quiet, still looking in the direction Adlet had gone. 
“What’s wrong, Fremy?” Mora asked. But she didn’t reply. She averted her eyes and moved to separate herself from the other two. Still gripping the stake, she tried again. “Fremy, are you that concerned about Adlet?” 
Fremy’s silence continued for a bit, and then she muttered, “That idiot doesn’t understand anything.” 
“How can you say that? He’s a reliable man.” 
“Right now, the only person we know for sure is really a Brave is Adlet. It’s obvious which of us would be targeted by the seventh. So how can he act so careless and unguarded?” 
“It may be that he wants to make himself a target. You haven’t considered that he’s deliberately inviting the seventh to attack him?” 
“If that’s what he’s doing, then I’d like to punch his lights out.” Fremy did not conceal her anger. 
But Mora found that charming. “Are you attracted to him?” 
“…” 
Fremy fell silent again. The Elder chose not to press for a reply. 
Chamo yawned as if to say she didn’t care in the slightest. 
“I hate him. He makes me so furious.” 
“Why?” asked Mora. 
Still staring at the ground, Fremy explained, “When I show concern, he snubs me. He doesn’t even try to understand my feelings.” 
“I see.” 
“Being with him is always unpleasant. When he gets hurt, I hurt. When we talk, I get angry. That redhead’s given me nothing but bitterness, sorrow, and misery. Not a single good thing has happened since we met.” 
“It never does go well, at first.” 
“I want to get rid of these feelings. I want to forget him. I’ve even considered wishing he was dead—at least that’d be easier.” Fremy looked up, eyes on the sky in the east, the direction Adlet had gone. “I’m sure Rolonia has never felt this way.” Surely not. Rolonia was up front with her feelings, unlike Fremy. “I wonder what love is? Tgurneu occasionally talked to me about love.” 
“Really?” 
“It said love is a very mysterious power that humans had, that it was the most important thing to them. It said in order to defeat the humans, first, you had to understand human love.” 
“Tgurneu said that?” asked Mora. 
“I didn’t know what it meant by that. I still don’t.” Fremy pressed her hand to her heart. “If this is what love is, then I’ll never be able to understand humans. I have no idea how they can value something that makes them feel like this.” 
“You can never know the answer right away.” 
“What should I do? And what do I want from Adlet?” After that, Fremy fell silent for a long time. Mora was unable to say anything. “…I’ve talked a little too much,” she said, and she went into the cave. 
Mora was no longer using her clairvoyance at that point. She was tired. It would be a long battle, and she wanted to get what rest she could. That was why she didn’t notice, didn’t hear what Tgurneu said at the foot of the mountain. 
“Hellooo! Good evening!” Tgurneu called quietly, cupping a hand around its mouth. “Mora! Good evening. Good evening!” The fiend repeated itself a few times and then tilted its head. “That’s odd. You aren’t sleeping, are you? I’ll be rather lonely if you don’t answer. I wanted to give you a hand killing one of the Braves.” It made one more attempt. “You have to hurry up and kill one of the Braves of the Six Flowers! At this rate, Willone of Salt will kill Shenira!” 
There was no reply. Tgurneu contemplated for a moment, then stopped trying to call Mora. 
“Are you okay with the footing?” Adlet asked the three behind him as they made their way through the nighttime Howling Vilelands. In his hand was the gem Fremy had given him, still glowing faintly. 
“Of course I’m fine. Also, that way’s the cliff, so you watch out,” said Hans. 
“Um, where are we going?” asked Rolonia as they walked. They didn’t make their way east directly. They went south, and then when they reached a spot with a decent view, Adlet lay down on the ground and looked back upon the mountain. He could faintly see the outlines of fiends illuminated by the light of the Saltpeak Barrier. The wind carried their chatter toward the Braves. 
“What do you think, Hans?” asked Adlet. 
“Doesn’t look like Mora was lyin’. I think we can trust her for neow.” 
Mora had informed them of the fiends’ activities, but without seeing it for themselves, they hadn’t been able to trust her completely. 
“What’re they doin’?” 
“Probably trying to break the barrier,” said Adlet. The fiends were assaulting the wall of light, but whenever they touched it, sparks flew, and the screams as they died reached their ears. Most likely, quite a few were already gone. 
“We can’t be dawdlin’. Let’s go,” said Hans. The party headed east. Apparently most of the fiends in the area were gathering at the mountain. There was nothing to block their way. 
Running at full speed, the party would make it to the hill in less than half an hour. It wasn’t long before they were there, back on the slope where only half a day before they had engaged in a mortal struggle with Tgurneu. 
“Is this it?” Amidst the smell of fresh blood and carrion, Adlet shone the gem into an open hole in the ground. 
The monstrous corpses lay everywhere. Hans and Goldof examined them carefully, but there were no live fiends to be seen. There was no sign of any enemies near the hill, either—it seemed it was completely undefended. Was that because Tgurneu was unsuspecting, or because there was no information to be found here, and thus no need to have it guarded? 
“I found it. It’s over here.” Rolonia raised her hand. At her feet was the hole Tgurneu had made when it had burst out of the ground. The four gathered around the opening, peering down into it. Even with the light of the gems, they couldn’t see what might await them at the bottom. 
“It’s pretty deep,” Adlet commented. 
“I can probe the inside.” Rolonia took her whip in hand, extended it, and dropped the end into the hole. They heard it smack around for a bit. “There’s no one inside.” 
“I guess I’m going in.” Adlet grabbed on to her whip and slid down into the pit. He landed at the bottom and illuminated his surroundings with the light gem. 
The hole was something that might be called a dirt cellar, or maybe just a burrow. The space was about five square meters, bare earth with no decorations on the walls. Wood supports on the ceiling prevented any cave-ins. It was completely plain. In the center of the space was a single crude table and chair, and on top of the table lay a cloth-bound book. Adlet timidly picked it up and gave it a look. “What the heck is this? That fiend reads stuff like this?” he said without thinking. It was a collection of stage plays. Being ignorant of the arts, the boy was not capable of appreciating its value. 
He set the book down and looked around. Narrow tunnels extended to the north and south. They were incredibly tight, and as big as Tgurneu was, the fiend would probably have had to hunch down low to get through them. Adlet shone his gem into one of the passageways. It was deep—he couldn’t see the end. “All right, let’s investigate.” Tgurneu had been there just twelve hours earlier—and, most likely, the one who had nullified the Saint’s poison had been there, too. Adlet had to find out who that someone really was. Surprisingly, though, there was nothing else in the cellar, just the book, table, and chair. 
Then Hans called down from above. “Should I come down, too?” 
“No, it’s okay. You keep watch,” said Adlet. Perhaps the tunnel itself was the trap, and it was rigged to bury him alive. With the other three aboveground, they would be able to save him. He would’ve liked to have had Chamo around with her power to search through the earth. 
As Adlet pondered, he went to search the northern tunnel. He went about ten minutes in. The tunnel branched off multiple times, and farther down were even more branches. Adlet didn’t have the slightest idea how far he’d have to go in order to reach the exit. 
“I see.” 
He understood now that the fiends had been preparing for that surprise attack for quite some time. Tgurneu must have had tunnels dug throughout the hill and moved around between them. Then, once the Six Braves were above with their guard down, he could attack them immediately. That had been the plan. 
“So?” Hans called to him, once he’d returned to the original hole. 
“There’s way too many passages for us to search all of them. It’d take until morning. How are things outside?” 
“All peaceful-like,” said Hans, and then suddenly something huge fell down into the cellar from above. Goldof had crouched his massive frame and nimbly hopped into the hole. 
Adlet reflexively dropped into a guard stance, thinking that Goldof was coming to attack him. But the other boy just looked him in the eye, not doing anything. “Wh-what is it?” 
“Addy! Are you okay?” Rolonia yelled, peering into the hole. 
After a long silence, Goldof spoke. “It’s dangerous…being alone.” 
“Oh! He talked!” Rolonia cried from above. 
Adlet was also more than a little surprised. “What, you can talk now? Don’t make us all worry like that.” 
“…Sorry.” Goldof was still not entirely back to normal, after all. It took him some time to reply. “…I’ve…been…thinking. I still don’t have the answers, but…I think I will soon.” 
“Thinking about what? What answers?” 
“I’ll tell you…eventually.” Goldof walked off to the other tunnel, the southern one. “I’ll go look. If I…find something…I’ll let you know. Leave it to me,” he said, and he disappeared inside. The dim light of his gem eventually diminished from sight. 
Adlet pressed his chest. The stuff this guy does is bad for my heart , he thought. 
“What will we do about him, Addy?” Rolonia called down. 
“For now, let’s just leave him be,” he answered. Goldof was strong. Even if he did encounter the enemy, he could probably resolve it on his own in all but the most extreme cases. At this point, Adlet just had to focus on solving the puzzle. “Rolonia, Hans, you stay where you are. If something happens to me, come save me,” he said, then he pulled out from under his cloak the bottled substance for inspecting fiend traces. It was the same one he had used within the Phantasmal Barrier. When this solution was sprayed on an object, any part a fiend had touched would change color. Adlet sprayed it on the table, chair, and then floor of the tunnel in turn. He had to hurry. Mora’s technique would not hold forever. 
At the Bud of Eternity, Mora stood, arms folded and eyes closed. She focused her mind, continuing to send power into the barrier. The veil of light that covered the mountain was continually trembling. The fiends were using all their strength in an attempt to break the barrier, and maintaining it was tougher than she had anticipated. But this was no time for complaints. If this barrier broke, she would lose her best shot at killing Tgurneu. “Is Adlet not back yet?” she asked. 
Fremy replied, “No, and he hasn’t sent me notice that he’s found a clue, either. Hold on for one more hour.” 
“I shall. I can manage that well enough,” said Mora, and sent more power into the barrier. In order to pour all her energy into maintaining the barrier, she was no longer scanning the mountain. She only checked on Tgurneu briefly once every five minutes. 
Masses of fiends were crowding near the Saltpeak Barrier from both within and without. They summoned all their effort to attack the barricade. Chamo’s slave-fiends tried to stop the fiends attacking the barrier, but they hadn’t yet recovered completely, so their assaults were sporadic. Tgurneu sat on a rock, protected by its minions as it gazed absentmindedly at the barrier. The fiend did not give any orders or conspire any tricks. To Mora, it looked as if it was waiting for something. 
Suddenly, Tgurneu raised a hand, and all the fiends stopped their barrage. “All right. I’ve ascertained its strength now.” The veil of light was still. 
What is its plan? she wondered, watching Tgurneu. 
Suddenly, it looked up at the mountain, directly at the Bud of Eternity. “Will you reply to me now, Mora? I’ve been calling you and calling you.” 
Mora swallowed. 
“You can hear my voice, can’t you? I know you have the ability to talk to me. Why won’t you say anything? Are you scared to converse? I swore I wouldn’t lie to you.” 
“Mora, what is going on?” asked Fremy, beside her. 
The Elder’s heart hammered. “I know not. The fiends suddenly stopped attacking the barrier. Don’t speak to me right now. I wish to focus on observing Tgurneu.” 
The half fiend observed Mora with sharp eyes. If Mora did anything to make Fremy suspect her, the Saint of Gunpowder would kill her. But still, Mora couldn’t ignore Tgurneu’s call. “What do you want, Tgurneu?” she asked, using her power of mountain echo. She did so without speaking out loud so as to avoid Fremy’s suspicion. 
“Finally, a reply. Now then, as I’ve said over and over—you have no time. If you don’t kill one of the Six Braves within the next two days, Shenira is probably going to die.” Mora shivered, goose bumps standing out on her whole body. “Did you perhaps kill one already? Was it Adlet, after all? Or perhaps Rolonia? Those two seem easy to kill. If it was Hans or Chamo, I’d jump for joy. Those are the two I’m really scared of, after all.” 
“I’ve killed no one.” 
“I thought not.” Tgurneu shrugged. “You really are a cruel mother. I thought a mother’s love was supposed to surpass everything. Do you know just how many opportunities to save her you’ve let get away from you?” 
“Be silent. What would a fiend understand? You’re a monster that knows neither love nor justice,” said Mora. 
For the first time, a faint swell of anger seeped into Tgurneu’s expression. “I will ignore that discourtesy—I’m a generous fiend.” 
“I want to ask you something. What do you mean, I ‘have no time’?” 
“Oh, I do wonder what I meant there. Do I really need to be telling you that? What you should know is that you have only two more days. That’s all,” Tgurneu said, and it smiled unpleasantly. “This barrier did surprise me, but your efforts are useless. Your party can’t kill me. I’m going to leave this barrier, and I won’t appear to you again for the following two days. This is your warning. If you want to save your daughter, then hurry up and kill a Brave.” 
Mora was speechless. 
“If all of you came and attacked me right now,” Tgurneu continued, “then you might be able to defeat me. But you still aren’t ready to pull that off, are you? If you were, you’d come straight for me.” 
Then Fremy, standing beside Mora, grew tired of waiting and said, “What’s going on, Mora? Explain.” 
“I know not. Nothing has happened, so there’s nothing for me to say.” 
“This is getting nowhere. I’m going to go see what’s going on with Tgurneu.” Clenching her gun, Fremy ran off. Chamo followed after her. 
Mora did not pursue them, resuming her exchange with Tgurneu instead. “Who is the seventh? Tell me, and I’ll kill one of the Six Braves at once.” 
“Are you trying to negotiate with me? I can’t comply.” Tgurneu shook its head. “If you kill Hans Humpty, Chamo Rosso, Fremy Speeddraw, Rolonia Manchetta, Goldof Auora, or Adlet Mayer, then I will release your daughter. Which of them is the seventh has nothing to do with it.” 
“So you don’t care if I kill the seventh?” Mora muttered. What was Tgurneu thinking? Using her clairvoyance, Mora checked the situation halfway down the slope. Fremy and Chamo, on their way to see what was going on with Tgurneu, were currently held up by a dozen-odd fiends. 

“Come on, Mora,” said Tgurneu, “there’s someone fighting up there. If you go and punch them from behind, your beloved daughter will be saved. Don’t you love her?” 
“Why?! Why is it only two more days?! The deadline was supposed to be twenty-two days after the Evil God’s awakening!” Mora burst out. It was a good thing Fremy had left. At her outburst, the fiend pressed a hand over its mouth and exploded into laughter. 
“What’s so funny?!” 
“Oh, pardon me. I was just remembering something amusing. When I remember how you were three years ago, I just can’t stop laughing.” Tgurneu’s mouth warped into an uncanny sneer. Up until now, no matter how uncanny the creature had looked, there had also been something humanlike about it. But this smile was entirely monstrous. “Twenty-two days after the awakening of the Evil God? You really are dim-witted. That time limit is utterly meaningless.” 
“What did you say?” 
“You made one mistake—if not for that, you may have had another seven days to spare.” 
“What are you talking about?” 
“You brought Willone, Saint of Salt, into this. That was your mistake.” 
Mora’s legs suddenly felt unsteady beneath her. Willone’s face and her hearty smile came to her mind. It couldn’t be. Impossible. Willone would never betray me. She never denied those in need, never condoned any wickedness or unfairness. She was a close friend, one Mora had known for a very long time, and she had been fond of Shenira. Mora had chosen her because she had trusted her most of all the Saints. 
“Willone hasn’t done anything wrong,” said Tgurneu. “She’s a truly praiseworthy human. But you know, she is a little dim.” Suddenly, it pulled from the mouth on its chest a charcoal pen and a piece of wood. “I showed you this once, didn’t I? I can forge any sample of handwriting, just having seen it once. I think I deserve a compliment for that. I practiced that skill diligently every single day over the course of fifty years.” 
Mora remembered—three years previously, Tgurneu had sent her a letter written in the handwriting of Torleau, Saint of Medicine. 
“I sent a letter to Willone in your handwriting,” continued Tgurneu. “The letter surely reached her some time ago. Simply put, it said this: 
Dear Willone, 
Show this letter to no one. Once you have read this letter, burn it forthwith. Ganna is a soft-hearted man. If he were shown this letter, he might go mad. ” 
As the fiend spoke, it transcribed the words on the wood scrap. It was very clearly Mora’s handwriting. Mora herself might have mistaken it for her own. 
“Tgurneu has deceived me. It may no longer be possible to save Shenira. Fifteen days after the Evil God’s awakening, the parasite in her chest will excrete a particular poison. When that poison takes effect, Shenira will be transformed, still alive, into a fiend. Once that happens, any attempt to kill her will be in vain, and it will be physically impossible for her to die. It would be a living hell for her. Tgurneu swore to me that Shenira would not be attacked. But to Tgurneu, that is no attack, but rather a grand act of benevolence, granting her rebirth as a noble fiend. ” 
Tgurneu tossed away the scrap of wood, but continued speaking. 
“Even Torleau cannot save her. She would, doubtless, not even be capable of grasping that such poison has entered her system. I swear I will kill Tgurneu before fifteen days have passed after the awakening. But if that cannot be… ” 
“You…vile…” Mora’s legs trembled. 
“Once midnight on the fifteenth day has passed, if the mark on Shenira’s chest yet remains, kill her. ” 
Tgurneu raised both hands up high like a melodramatic actor. “What do you think of that? Not bad, huh? The letter then goes on about how sorry you are and how much you loved Shenira, but I’ll spare you that.” With a cruel smile, it continued, “If your husband were to see this letter, he might realize that it’s a forgery. But would Willone ignore the first line? I’m sorry, but Willone Court is rather simple, and she’s loyal and honest. I doubt she will realize this letter is a fake, and I believe she will follow your orders. Of course, Willone or your husband might figure out the letter is a counterfeit, or even if they don’t, they might hesitate to kill Shenira. But this is enough to threaten you, isn’t it?” 
Tgurneu had promised that it wouldn’t lie to Mora. The fiend really had sent that letter. “What I promised to you is that I would not lie to you ,” Tgurneu emphasized. “I can lie to Willone. And I promised that no fiend would touch Shenira. But a human killing her wouldn’t be in violation of my oath.” 
Mora was speechless. She was seeing it all in her head. Willone reading the letter and agonizing over it. Shenira cheerfully awaiting Mora’s return. Willone’s hand on her daughter. 
“Incidentally, I’ll let you know that the traitor is the clerk you hired five years ago, Kiannan. He was easily bought and told me a variety of things. He even helped me implant the parasite in your girl. He didn’t realize his employer was a fiend until the moment before he went down my throat. Well, not that anyone cares about that.” 
Mora couldn’t even hear him. 
“You’re a bit of a simpleton, but you must have grasped what’s going on by now,” continued Tgurneu. “You have only two more days, and in order to save your daughter, you have no choice but to kill one of the Braves of the Six Flowers.” 
“Tgurneu…” 
“I’ll say it one more time. Trying to kill me is futile. I have a plan—a plan to escape your barrier, and I’m gradually nearing success.” 
Mora looked to the east for Adlet. Come back soon , she pleaded silently. 
“How was it, Addy?” Rolonia called down. 
Adlet didn’t reply as he intently focused on the ground and the walls. The cellar was red all over from the solution that reacted to evidence of fiends. When this substance came in contact with an object, any part that had been touched by a fiend would change color, and each fiend would make it turn a different color. Adlet sprayed the solution on his own armor to compare. The places Tgurneu had touched became a dark red. 
The boy covered the cellar with the solution. There were more traces here than he could count, but they all turned the same color, the same dark red. There had been no other fiend but Tgurneu in this hole. Adlet investigated the tunnels, too but got the same results. “The only fiend that was here…was Tgurneu.” 
“So does that mean a Saint is cooperating with Tgurneu?” Rolonia supposed. However, that couldn’t be right. Adlet had meticulously searched the floor of the tunnel. There was no sign that any human had been underground here, not a single footprint in the soft earth. There were also no signs that any prints had been erased. Where on earth could the fiend—or Saint—that had blocked the poison have been? 
“…” At this point, Adlet was forced to consider that his initial assumptions were simply incorrect. Either Rolonia’s analysis was wrong or the assumption that the Saint’s poison would work on every fiend was wrong. “No…that’s not it.” He was overlooking something. He examined the cellar one more time. 
That was when the table caught his eye—just one small part of it. The table was splotched dark red all over from the spray, but there was one little spot, just the size of a fingertip, that had turned orange. 
Adlet immediately sprayed more solution there. That one part of the table turned orange, a circle of less than three centimeters in diameter. It was so small he had missed it. Had a different fiend carried the table? That couldn’t be. The color change was on top of the table, near the middle. 
One other fiend aside from Tgurneu had been there—probably one so small Tgurneu could pluck it in its fingers. Adlet had never heard of any fiend that size. What was this tiny creature? And what had it been up to all this time? Where had it gone? Recalling their fight with Tgurneu, Adlet arrived at just one conclusion. 
It couldn’t be. If so, then how the heck…? 
“Addy. Addy!” 
Adlet had been so lost in thought, he hadn’t noticed Rolonia calling him. “What is it?” 
“Where did Goldof go?” 
Adlet looked around. He considered for a moment, and then dashed into the tunnel Goldof had disappeared into. 
A single minute felt like an hour—or a day. Mora poured power into the barrier, desperately awaiting the return of Adlet’s party. She checked on Tgurneu through her second sight. The fiend was calmly sitting on a rock, looking up toward the Bud of Eternity. Its minions had ceased their assault on the barrier. 
Mora didn’t know how long she could keep Tgurneu trapped. The barricade was holding, but she couldn’t anticipate Tgurneu’s next move. The fiend had declared that it had already come up with a way to break out. 
Mora gently placed her hand on her stomach, thinking about the trump card she kept within. She’d had a red gem surgically implanted there—her ultimate weapon, one that she and Liennril, Saint of Fire, had worked together to create. Stored within it was the power of volcanic eruption. If Mora recited the incantation written in the hieroglyphs, the gem would draw immense power from the magma within the earth. She would not need to control the power it would absorb. It would cause a massive explosion, blowing apart Mora and everything around her. When Mora had first fought Tgurneu, she had hesitated to use this weapon because at that time, she had thought she would still have more opportunities to kill it. Now she was starting to regret that. 
Moments later, Fremy and Chamo, who had been out doing reconnaissance, returned to the Bud of Eternity. “Just as you said, Tgurneu isn’t doing a thing,” said Fremy. “What’s going on here?” 
“Is Adlet yet to return, Fremy?” inquired Mora. 
The Saint of Gunpowder scrutinized Mora’s expression, deemed it unusual, and turned suspicious. “Not yet. He also hasn’t contacted me to say that he’s found anything, either.” 
Mora despaired at no word from her companion. How long did she have to wait for him to fulfill her hopes? She had no more time. She picked up the iron gauntlets that lay on the ground, put them on, and then walked out of the Bud of Eternity. 
“Where are you going?” asked Chamo. 
“I’m going to go fight Tgurneu. I can wait for Adlet no longer.” 
“What’s wrong, Auntie? Calm down. Tgurneu’s trapped in here, right?” 
“Just concentrate on maintaining the barrier,” said Fremy. “Let’s wait for Adlet.” 
“No. I must kill Tgurneu now,” Mora insisted. 
“There’s no need to rush. Even if we do let Tgurneu get away, it’s not such a big deal. This won’t be our only chance to kill it. We’ll fight Tgurneu once we’ve made sure we can win.” 
“That’s right,” Chamo agreed. “What’re you going on about?” 
Indeed, from their position, maybe that was the best choice. But Mora had no more time. She ignored them both and kept walking. 
“Mora, stop.” That was when Fremy drew her gun, thrusting it toward Mora’s ear. “I’m sure of it now. You’re hiding something. I’m not putting my gun down unless you explain to me why you’re in such a hurry.” 
“What’re you doing, Fremy?” Chamo demanded angrily. She vomited up a few fiends, sending them to surround Fremy. 
“Think about it, Chamo. Mora is not acting normally.” 
“Neither are you. You’ve never acted normal.” 
Fremy and Chamo locked eyes, glaring at each other. Mora was facing away from them, so she couldn’t see them, but she could perceive what was going on behind her using her clairvoyant sight. The moment Fremy’s gun turned to Chamo, Mora sped away in a straight line. 
“Mora!” Fremy yelled. 
The Elder could not rely on Adlet any longer, and she couldn’t expect help from Fremy or Chamo, either. She had no choice but to kill Tgurneu with her own hands. She would use the ultimate weapon implanted into her stomach to destroy that beast and save her daughter. She had no other options left. Tgurneu said it had a plan to escape the barrier. She would not give the fiend the time to put its scheme into motion. 
About a minute’s run away from the Bud of Eternity, fiends set upon her. She didn’t stop, even for an instant, body-slamming into one of her attackers. She didn’t have the time to waste on small fry. 
Tgurneu, perhaps noticing the distant sound, spoke. “Hmm? Something’s happened. Hellooo, Mora? What’s going on?” 
Of course Mora was not going to reply. She punched a fiend that blocked her way and stomped on it. Tgurneu wouldn’t yet have realized she had an eruption gem. If she could just get near it, she could take Tgurneu down. It was expecting her to kill one of the Six Braves. That meant it would want to avoid killing Mora. She would be sure to find an opportunity to get close. No…she had to make the opportunity. 
Fremy was behind her in pursuit. “Mora! Stop right there!” 
“If you’re going to shoot me, then shoot!” Mora ignored Fremy, grabbing a fiend. The muzzle of Fremy’s gun spewed fire, and a bullet skimmed Mora’s arm, a scrap of her sleeve dancing in the air. 
“Fremy! If you kill Auntie, I’ll kill you!” Chamo cried from behind them. She was chasing them with her slave-fiends in tow. 
“It looks like the Braves are attacking. Half of you, go slow them down,” Tgurneu ordered. Its subordinates inside the barrier obeyed and moved out. Mora tracked them with her powers, and when she scattered the fiends, Chamo’s slave-fiends finished them off. More and more of them came to stand in her way. The Saint of Mountains punched down a gigantic dog-fiend and then forced down a lion-fiend until its neck snapped. She plunged forward—ever forward. 
“Mora! Go back to the Bud of Eternity!” Fremy’s bullet skimmed her shoulder. 
Mora ignored it and kept on running. As long as Chamo was there, Fremy couldn’t kill her, and there were fiends attacking the gun-toting Saint, too. 
“Auntie! This is so sudden! What’s going on?! Chamo won’t understand if you don’t explain!” The fiends came after Chamo, too, though she fought them off as she desperately chased after Mora. 
The situation was chaos. Mora kept pressing forward, while behind her, Fremy attempted to stop her. Chamo was preventing Fremy from killing Mora while also trying to stop her charge. The fiends attacked all three of them indiscriminately. From the outside, the entire scene must have looked like a comedy. 
As Mora fought, she employed her abilities to watch Tgurneu and its minions from afar. They were moving into formation. The one that seemed to be the highest-ranking among Tgurneu’s minions, the monkey-fiend, was giving orders. The commander was sitting on the tail of a reptile-fiend, hand on chin, observing. There were now eighty or more fiends standing in Mora’s way. These were not the sort of numbers she could handle on her own—but she couldn’t stop. She couldn’t let Tgurneu get away. 
“Go back, Mora! What are you trying to do?!” Fremy surged forward to stand in front of Mora, blocking her way. 
“What else? I’m going to kill Tgurneu!” Mora screamed. 
Fremy hesitated. If she had been certain that Mora was the seventh, she probably would have shot her, heedless of Chamo’s presence. But Mora was not attacking her allies—she was trying to attack Tgurneu. “Are you the enemy? Or are you just a hopeless idiot?” 
“You’re in my way! Move!” Mora ordered, and quickly slipped by Fremy, blocking the shot that followed with one of her gauntlets. When her companion threw a bomb at her, Mora did not flinch. 
“Just what is Mora trying to do?!” Fremy asked Chamo. 
“Chamo doesn’t know, either!” 
Mora yelled, “You two, help me out! Cut a path before me!” Fremy and Chamo were confused. But I won’t let that trouble me , she thought. She would not rely on anyone else now. She’d always known that she was the only one who could save Shenira. 
At the foot of the mountain, by the barrier, Tgurneu turned toward the battlefield and smirked. “Mora, I can hear your voice from all the way over here. I think you should try not to get so worked up.” Only half of its forces were fighting. The rest were simply in formation, waiting patiently. Even as Mora approached, Tgurneu did not appear the least bit anxious. 
“Auntie! What’re you trying to do, charging in all by yourself?! Do you want to die?!” Chamo yelled. 
That was exactly what Mora intended to do—she would die if it meant her daughter’s life would be saved. Mora had regrets. Her own naive ideas—that if they all just worked together, they could kill Tgurneu and that she still had time before Shenira would die—had invited this situation. She would hesitate no longer. She would accept death, for her daughter’s sake. 
How much time had passed? Mora’s sense of time was shot. 
A massive fiend shaped like a reptile stood in her way, one of the higher-order fiends previously accompanying Tgurneu. She had been fighting it for a long time. She punched it over and over again, but it never went down. “Move!” 
She would kill Tgurneu. That singular thought had consumed Mora for the past three years. She had trained her body, refined her techniques, and sparred with the strongest warriors in the world to compensate for her lack of experience in real battle. Together with Willone, Saint of Salt, she had created a barrier to entrap Tgurneu. With Liennril, Saint of Fire, she had created the ultimate weapon to defeat Tgurneu. But all of that did not diminish the anxiety in her heart. 
Mora had told Willone that she didn’t plan to kill one of the Braves of the Six Flowers in order to save her daughter’s life. However, Mora had known all along that no matter what happened to her, she couldn’t abandon her daughter. If Tgurneu escaped now, she would slay one of the Braves. 
“Chamo, retreat! We should give up on Mora!” Fremy yelled. She lobbed bombs at the approaching fiends, running from the attacks. “Mora is going to kill herself! If that’s what she wants, then let her do it!” 
“No! Chamo’s taking Auntie back! You just run away by yourself!” 
Fremy had already given up trying to shoot Mora. She had her hands full with the enemies swarming toward her. 
“You’re in my way! Silence! Don’t bar my path!” Was Mora yelling at the fiends or at Chamo? 
She plunged her hand into the mouth of the reptile-fiend that loomed before her, seizing its tongue. She dug her feet into the ground and let out an earth-shattering shriek, hurling the fiend over her shoulder. Another hundred meters to go until she reached Tgurneu—so close that if it were day, she would be able to see it directly. Tgurneu was looking her way, guarded by its formation of minions. 
The reptile-fiend she had flung away stood up again and sprang upon her. Mora caught the blow and in the instant before she would be crushed, she just barely turned the creature away to the side. The fiend immediately rose again to attack her. 
Then Tgurneu shouted out. Mora didn’t have to use her powers—she could hear it directly. “You can leave Fremy and Chamo alone! Don’t let Mora get close to me!” 
Instantly, Mora understood. Tgurneu had figured out what she was trying to do. It probably didn’t know about the eruption gem, but it had realized that Mora was on a suicide mission. “Tgurneu! Have you lost your nerve?! Come at me!” she yelled as she fought the reptile. 
“No, I can’t do that. I can tell quite clearly what you’re going to do.” 
“I’m telling you to come at me!” 
But Tgurneu did not move, and Adlet did not return. 
As the red-haired boy ran through the tunnel, he heard a queer sound, like someone far away was screaming. It echoed manifold within the broad tunnel, and Adlet couldn’t tell which direction the scream was coming from. “What’s that idiot doing?” He sprinted like mad through the complex web of tunnels, though he also stopped along the way to carve signs in the wall so he wouldn’t forget where he had come from. It would be no joke if one of the Braves of the Six Flowers ended up lost. “Goldof is just nothing but damn trouble.” He muttered his frank opinion. 
There was no guarantee Mora could keep Tgurneu trapped indefinitely. Their foe might have done something, and Fremy and the rest of them could be in danger. There was no time to waste. It had probably been around two hours. At this rate, they’d be forced to go back with no results to show for it. 
“But what is that screaming?” The noise from the depths of the tunnel was a cry of agony. It wasn’t Goldof, but a fiend’s voice. Soon, the cries became weaker, and then they were gone. After that, the sound of something snapping echoed faintly through the tunnel. “Over there, huh?” 
The sounds were finally getting closer. As Adlet reached a corner, he raised his sword. He had no idea what might come leaping out at him. 
“What…?” When Adlet turned the corner, there was Goldof—and the corpse of a steel-skinned human-type fiend. His stomach roiled. He had seen the bodies of many fiends, but this sight was particularly cruel. “What are you doing?” 
Both of the fiend’s arms had been broken, both legs wrenched off at the knee, and the part Adlet assumed was the face was smeared in rust-colored blood. Goldof had his hand on the dead fiend’s neck, constricting it as tight as he could. When he saw Adlet, he responded quietly, “I’m…fighting a fiend.” 
“I can tell that much.” The other boy’s spear was still slung on his back, and there was not a single drop of blood on it. No way. Did he demolish that fiend with his bare hands? 
“I tried…torturing it, but…it didn’t…go well. It was my first time…so I…didn’t really know how.” 
“Look, Goldof—” 
“Oh yeah…someone said before…torture…doesn’t work…on fiends,” Goldof muttered as he crushed the fiend’s face. Seeing the power of his grip, Adlet gulped. He was every bit as superhuman as Hans. 
“How dumb are you? Did you think a fiend would talk? We’ve got to head back now.” Adlet set off the way he had come, and Goldof obediently trailed behind him. 
“Fiends…are…chattier…than I thought they were.” 
“Yeah.” 
“They have no problem…sacrificing themselves…under orders…but…they also…want to keep living. That one kept saying…I’m not gonna die here…I’m gonna kill you… over and over. It was strange.” 
“Oh? I’m glad it was a learning experience for you. Run faster.” Perhaps it was Adlet’s annoyance that turned his tone rude. 
“Apparently…it was…one of Tgurneu’s. It didn’t say…what it was…here for. It didn’t say anything about…who the seventh is…or where Her Highness went, either.” 
Adlet could think of nothing but the mystery at hand. Who was that tiny fiend? And why hadn’t the Saint’s poison worked on Tgurneu? 
“That fiend was so…frustrated…that it couldn’t kill me. It said…over and over…it wanted to kill me.” Adlet was just about to tell Goldof that he was allowed to shut up. “It said… If I had Commander Tgurneu’s power…you trash would be nothing. ” 
When Adlet heard that, he stopped in his tracks, and Goldof bumped into him from behind, knocking him forward. Adlet collided with the ground face-first. 
“Are you okay?” 
Goldof tried to help him up, but Adlet didn’t take the hand he offered. He just lay facedown. His intuition was speaking to him, telling him that what Goldof had said was important. Sprawled on the ground, Adlet chewed over the oddness of that statement. “Say that one more time—that exact thing.” 
“If I had Commander Tgurneu’s power…you trash would be nothing. ” 
“Was that exactly what it said? You’re sure?” 
“Yeah…that’s just what it said. If I had…Commander Tgurneu’s…power. Come on, get up.” 
That remark led to one single deduction—that Tgurneu had the ability to bestow power upon other fiends. But Rolonia had said that Tgurneu didn’t have any special powers. All that had happened spun around in Adlet’s head—their first fight with Tgurneu, Rolonia’s analysis, what they’d discussed with Fremy, Archfiend Zophrair, the fact that Tgurneu had once been Zophrair’s minion, the odd fiend traces in the cellar, that fiend’s seemingly ordinary remark. And finally, that the Saint’s poison had not worked on Tgurneu. Adlet arrived at one conclusion. All the facts were pointing to it. 
“Goldof, you may have just accomplished more than any of us have managed so far,” Adlet said, getting to his feet. They urgently raced back to the cellar, grabbed hold of Rolonia’s dangling whip and clambered up to the surface. 
“Yer finally back. I was gettin’ pretty sick of waitin’ for ya, meow .” 
“Did you find anything?” asked Rolonia. “What should we do now?” 
“I’ve found a possibility—but no positive proof.” 
“Are we headin’ back? I’m worried about Mora,” said Hans. 
Adlet shook his head, looked out over the dark hill and said, “No, we’re gonna look for proof. If memory serves me, we should find some on this hill.” 
“Proof?” 
Adlet told them what they were going to search for, and Rolonia and Hans’s jaws dropped. Understandable—this idea was pretty damn out there. But if he was right, then this would resolve every one of the mysteries. 
The reptile-fiend finally fell, and Tgurneu had still not fled. Just fifty meters more. Mora would get right close to Tgurneu and trigger the eruption gem, and then it would all be over. 
“You guys just can’t hack it, can you?” Tgurneu said to its minions as it watched Mora draw nearer. “I gave you one order: Don’t let Mora come near me. You can’t even manage that much?” 
About fifteen underlings charged recklessly toward Mora. She drove her fist into one, trying to mow a path through, but it clung to her with its face smashed in, pinning her arm. 
“Good, good! You can do it if you try!” 
The fiends grabbed at Mora one after the other, slowing her down for a few seconds each at the cost of their own lives. Tgurneu observed with satisfaction. 
“Auntie! Chamo can’t watch this anymore! Your arms better be ready for this!” Chamo’s slave-fiends began to attack both the fiends and Mora. 
The Saint of Mountains roared and thrust the slave-fiends aside. Tgurneu’s fiends surged toward Mora, and Chamo’s tried to restrain her while also killing the enemy. She shoved them aside as she desperately struggled forward. Fremy had her gun trained on Tgurneu as she readied her bombs. 
The situation was now completely out of control, Tgurneu alone laughing among the chaos. “Ah-ha-ha-ha! This is so much fun! Quite the spectacle.” 
No matter how many slave-fiends Mora shoved aside and hurled away, they quickly swarmed upon her once more. A gigantic slug curved around Mora and caught her feet in its sticky mucus, pulling her backward. “Let me go! Release me, Chamo!” Mora tried to shake the slug off, but the slave-fiend could not be peeled off with strength alone. She fell to the ground and frantically struggled to drag herself forward with her arms, but another slave-fiend pressed her back to hold her down. Still glaring at Tgurneu where it sat just a little farther away, Mora could move no more. 
That was when she wondered—why had her target not tried to flee yet? It had said that it had a plan to break through the barrier, so why had it not yet done so? 
“That’s for the best, Chamo. Hold Mora down for me,” Tgurneu said as it stood. Instantly, everything fell silent. The surviving fiends stopped fighting and gathered around their master. 
That’s when Mora figured out Tgurneu’s plan and just how terribly she had fallen for its deception. Tgurneu didn’t have any way to destroy the barrier—not aside from its plan of exhausting its creator, to drain her of the strength she needed to maintain it. Tgurneu had toyed with her and made her come charging in to try to kill it. 
How much power remained in her now? Did she have enough to uphold the wall? 
“Mora, it was only two hundred years ago that I acquired the seventh crest,” said Tgurneu. “The seventh crest is, in a way, not a fake. The Saint of the Single Flower herself created it—for a different purpose than the crests the Six Braves bear.” 
“Why…are you suddenly talking about this?” Fremy’s weapon was raised as she listened. 
“I searched for a long time for a creature worthy of bearing the seventh crest. I kept thinking about this for a long time—what sort of person would be appropriate to bear it? When the time came, the crest would be given to the one who was worthy, on the body of the seventh that I chose.” Mora crawled along desperately, listening to Tgurneu. 
“Auntie! You’re supposed to stay still!” Chamo yelled, but Tgurneu disregarded her and continued. 
“You’re truly magnificent, Mora. A true villain. You’re so good at pretending to be virtuous, and yet you still believe that you’re not evil. No one knows the truth in your heart. No one but me. I’m thankful it was my fate to have encountered a human like you. Your love will surely destroy the world for me.” A moment later, the surviving hundred-odd fiends dashed at the barrier, and as they did, the fifty other fiends on the other side body-slammed it. When the horde crashed into the barrier, their bodies burned up, turning into filthy mud. But they didn’t care—one after another they charged to their deaths. They were all ready to give up their lives. 
When Mora had created the barrier, she had not anticipated this—that a hundred and fifty fiends would choose death in order to break the barrier. The veil of light flickered wildly. Mora sent her remaining power to it, but the wavering only grew worse, and it wouldn’t stop. “Wait… Wait, Tgurneu!” she cried. 
At last, there remained the gigantic, jellyfish-like fiend. Tgurneu gave its body to the fiend, and the jellyfish swallowed the leader up inside itself. “I’ll tell you one last thing, Mora. The seventh…is you!” Tgurneu’s body was sucked all the way into the jellyfish, completely out of sight. The fiend leaped at the barrier, and the sound of it roasting rang out together with an agonizing scream. But as scorched as it was, it passed through the barrier. Leaking fluids, dragging along its burned body, it ran off westward. 
“Tgurneu! Wait! Wait, you!” Mora screamed. She screamed and screamed and screamed. But Tgurneu gave her no further reply. Inside the jellyfish-fiend, it disappeared into the darkness. 
The few subordinates that remained followed Tgurneu into the west. In a heartbeat, the mountain was quiet. Mora, having expended all her powers, slowly faded from consciousness. 
“…Auntie! Come on, Auntie!” 
How much time had passed? Mora was in Chamo’s arms, and the small girl was calling her name repeatedly. 
“Tgurneu?” When Mora opened her eyes, that was the first word out of her mouth. 
“It ran away. It’s a shame, but there’s nothing to be done. We’ll have many more chances to kill it.” 
Fremy’s gun was trained on Mora. Mora had no intention of resisting. 
“I want to kill you right this moment, but for now, I’ll have you explain yourself.” Fremy’s finger moved to the trigger. 
The slave-fiends blocked her shot. “Chamo won’t let you kill her.” 
“Move.” 
“Auntie isn’t the seventh. She’s doing stuff that doesn’t make sense, but she hasn’t attacked any of us. You’re the suspicious one.” The two glared at each other. 
Mora muttered, “Tgurneu said that I’m the seventh, didn’t it?” 
“Chamo’s smart,” said Chamo, “so it makes sense enough. That was obviously just a lie to try to fool everyone. Fremy’s stupid, so she’s letting Tgurneu trick her.” 
“Obviously, anything Tgurneu says is a lie of some sort. I have other reasons to suspect Mora.” 
But Mora knew that Tgurneu had been telling the truth, because it could never lie to her. I see…so I was the seventh. That would explain the various inconsistencies, like how none of them had cooperated with Nashetania within the Phantasmal Barrier and why the seventh had not done anything in their initial battle with Tgurneu. Now both those things made sense. 
“Move, Chamo,” said Fremy. 
“Then lower your gun.” 
Mora interrupted them. “Have Adlet decide whether I will live or die. I’ll abide by his decision.” 
“Are you okay with that, Auntie? Adlet’s a dummy.” 
“I trust Adlet. He’ll not fail to recognize the truth. Is he yet to return?” 
“Not yet,” Fremy replied. “He hasn’t contacted me to say he’s found any proof yet, either.” 
“I see.” 
To Chamo, Fremy instructed, “Go and bring back Adlet. Tgurneu might be after them. You back them up.” 
“And you’re not just gonna kill Auntie here?” 
“I will, this one time, listen to what Adlet has to say. I won’t kill her until then. Of course, that’s only if Mora doesn’t do anything.” 
“You watch out, Auntie,” Chamo said before she ran off eastward. She didn’t seem to be in a hurry, as she ran no faster than usual. 
Fremy took about five steps backward, putting some distance between herself and Mora. She kept her crosshairs trained on the back of the Temple Elder’s head. 
Without looking back, Mora said, “Fremy, allow me to treat my wounds.” 
“Don’t move. Heal yourself with the energy of the mountain or whatever.” 
“The energy of the mountain is not so all-powerful. Without poultices and sutures, the wounds will not heal.” 
“…Fine, then,” Fremy said, gun still in hand. 
Mora kept some first-aid medicine tucked away in her boots. Adlet wasn’t the only one who fitted tools into his gear. Under Fremy’s watch, she removed her vestments and armor and treated her wounds. 
“…” 
For three years, Mora had been tormented by nightmares of what would happen if she was unable to defeat Tgurneu, unable to save Shenira. Whenever she saw that possible future in her dreams, she would leap out of bed. Some nights, she couldn’t sleep at all without her husband, Ganna, by her side. With each nightmare that tormented her, Mora thought, I never should have become a Saint. I never should have become a warrior. Beloved Shenira had been targeted because her mother had become powerful enough to be chosen as one of the Braves of the Six Flowers. 
Those nightmares had now become her reality. 
As Mora treated her wounds, her thoughts turned to the past. It must have been about two years before when Mora and Ganna had been face-to-face in their bedroom. They had asked a maid to handle Shenira so the two of them could talk alone about the management of the temple, which she had left to Ganna; the leadership of the Saints, which she had entrusted to Willone; and the looming battle. 
Once they finished the discussion, Ganna had suddenly said, “Mora…if it turns out that Shenira can no longer be saved…” 
Mora was startled. Voicing that possibility had become a taboo between them. She would save Shenira, save the world, and return. That was what they had promised each other. “Don’t speak of that. Did I not say I would save her?” 
“I’m no keener than you to discuss it. I don’t even want to think about it. But we must.” 
Mora didn’t want to hear it. “You don’t trust me?” 
“It’s precisely because I trust you that we must talk about it.” Ganna fixed his eyes on Mora’s. “If you cannot defeat Tgurneu by the promised day…if you must weigh the life of a Brave of the Six Flowers against Shenira’s…” He faltered, his expression heartbroken. “If that comes to pass, please, let Shenira go. You mustn’t kill one of the Braves of the Six Flowers.” 
His wife couldn’t reply. 
“I know just how much you love Shenira, and that’s why it frightens me that you may invite disaster in order to protect her.” 
“They won’t lose. The Braves of the Six Flowers will not lose.” Mora averted her eyes. 
Ganna gently embraced her and said, “Even if you were to kill one of the Six Braves, they still might be able to defeat the Evil God. But then what would become of Shenira after that? She would spend the rest of her life with a debt on her shoulders—the debt of being the daughter of a Brave-killer.” 
“…” 
“Shenira is a good girl. I know she’ll grow up to be a wonderful woman, like you. If she discovered someone she’d never met had died for her to live, it would surely bring her sorrow as an adult. It would wound her in a way that would never heal. I don’t wish that for her.” 
“Stop it, Ganna. I can’t take it anymore.” Mora pushed her husband away and buried her face in a pillow. 
“I’m sorry. I know this brings you more pain than me… I’m sorry.” He gently put his hand on her shoulder. “I’m a cruel father.” 
“No…you’re not. Not…ever.” Mora buried her face in the pillow and sobbed. 
It had been approximately one month ago, around the time Mora had finished the surgery to implant the eruption gem inside her body. She hadn’t even waited for the incision to heal to return to combat training with Willone. Exhausted, her stomach empty, she fell into bed. Right as she was about to fall asleep on the spot, Mora noticed her daughter standing beside her bed. “What’s wrong, Shenira?” 
The little girl seemed different from usual. She was usually so cheerful and babyish, but now her lips were pressed tight together, and she held back tears. 
“Mommy…are you going to die?” asked Shenira. 
Without hesitation, Mora embraced Shenira and the stuffed animal the little girl held in her arms. Shenira already knew about the Evil God, and she probably also knew that Mora would likely be chosen as a Brave of the Six Flowers. “You have nothing to worry about. Mommy is going to win. The Evil God is nothing to fear.” Mora petted her back to calm her down. 
But then Shenira said something that her mother couldn’t have expected. “Are you gonna die ’cause of me?” 
“Huh?” 
“Are you gonna die ’cause I’m sick? I don’t…want that…” 
Mora had been most emphatic with both Ganna and Willone that they were not to tell Shenira anything. She should have believed that she was cured. But this meant that Shenira had figured out the truth quite some time ago. Sometimes, children could be mysteriously intuitive at picking out when adults were lying. Her daughter sobbed and sobbed for a long time. No matter how much Mora tried to soothe her, she didn’t stop. Ganna scooped her into his arms and sang her songs until she finally fell asleep. 
After that, Mora found out—for a few months now, Shenira had been praying every day before a certain statue of the Spirit of Fate in All Heavens Temple. I’ll always eat my vegetables, so please save Mommy. I’ll never do anything bad my whole life, so please save Mommy , she had prayed before the Spirit’s image. I’ll die instead, so please save Mommy , Shenira had said to it. 
Mora had known all along—no matter how much she fought it, she couldn’t abandon Shenira. She knew it wasn’t out of love but due to her own weakness. “Fremy,” she said as she treated her own wounds. In her hand, she clenched a metal tube about the size of her index finger. She crushed it in her fist and sprinkled the medicine inside on her body. “If Tgurneu dies, will you know?” 
“Why are you asking me that?” 
“I’m concerned that even if we do kill Tgurneu, another might assume command in its place.” 
Fremy observed Mora steadily as she gave the matter careful consideration. “If Tgurneu dies, every fiend that follows it will know immediately. They would all grieve and moan and begin to panic.” 
“I see.” Then that meant Tgurneu was still alive, and everything it had told Mora was true. If that was the case, then it must also be true that Mora was the seventh. Oddly enough, finding out that she herself was the seventh was a relief. The mystery was solved. Now she need no longer fear the seventh. “What sort of relationship does Tgurneu have with its minions?” she asked. 
“Tgurneu commands absolute loyalty. Their allegiance to Tgurneu is equal to their allegiance to the Evil God.” Their idle chat was beginning to make Fremy suspicious. “Mora, what are you hiding? What is your plot, here?” 
“I am hiding something. But there’s no plot.” 
“Talk. What’s your plot? If you won’t tell me, I’ll shoot you.” 
“I shall tell you everything, and leave nothing out—after Chamo returns with Adlet.” 
“You—” Fremy hesitated for just a moment, and when she did, Mora whipped around and attacked her. It was not the kind of attack Fremy could block. Normally, she probably would have shot Mora in the head on the spot. But when she fired, the bullet only skimmed past her ear. 
“!” 
Mora had not dodged. Fremy had missed. Her typically precise aim was off, having failed to hit a target only five steps away. Mora didn’t give her the time to jump back and get away. She grabbed the hem of Fremy’s cloak, pulled as hard as she could, then wrapped her arms around Fremy’s slender body, circling her hands about the girl’s neck. 
“Mo—” With the artery in her neck cut off, she fell unconscious only moments later. 
“…” 
Mora released her grip, and Fremy dropped to the ground. 
Tgurneu had said that Mora was a true villain. Was it right? Mora doubted that many in the world were as evil as her. She had sworn to her husband that she would not kill any of the Braves of the Six Flowers. She had sworn to her daughter that she would save the world. But in the shadows, she had been preparing to kill one of the Six Braves—meticulously, deftly, and secretly. 
Mora picked up her iron gauntlets, heaved Fremy over her shoulder, and ran off toward the Bud of Eternity. “I’m sorry, Shenira.” She apologized not to the Saint slung over her shoulder but to her beloved daughter far away. “I’m sorry this is the kind of mother I am.” 
The unconscious Fremy breathed quietly on her shoulder. It would be easy for Mora to snap her neck. But she couldn’t kill Fremy—not here, not yet. She had put a lot of time and effort into working out her plan, and she was not yet ready to kill one of the Six Braves. The plan required the help of a certain someone, someone she had reared and trained for the purpose of implementing her plan to kill a Brave. 
Rolonia Manchetta, Saint of Blood. Mora had kept the child prodigy close at hand, taking on the role of her teacher and training her personally. 
She had raised her for the purpose of killing one of the Braves of the Six Flowers.