Chapter VIII: Inglis, Age 15—Orders to Defend the Hieral Menace (8)
Shortly before Inglis and Rafinha encountered the leader of the Steelblood Front, the battle against the horde of magicite beasts was reaching a fever pitch. The knights’ academy students and Principal Miriela had contained the chaos to the sub-dimension they had created to keep the fight against the creatures that Ripple had summoned away from the outside world.
“C’mon!” Yua yelled.
Whoosh!
Some powerful magicite beasts had meant to attack her from either side, but Yua’s swift karate chops slashed them in half vertically.
“Wow, you really are amazing, Yua!” Liselotte had seen the attack up close, and she couldn’t help feeling astonished. Even Inglis couldn’t take down a magicite beast bare-handed. Just how does Yua do it? she wondered.
Liselotte didn’t know, but Yua’s strength was a clear boon. The group had defeated many magicite beasts, probably dozens, but they’d never have been able to do so without Yua’s help.
“Thanks, Spike,” Yua said.
“You’re, ah, welcome...” Liselotte did wish Yua would ease off on the strange nicknames, though.
“I’m getting a bit tired,” Yua said.
“Yes, and I as well.” Liselotte had been fighting while using her Gift at full power repeatedly without a break.
Yua and Liselotte weren’t the only ones tired; everyone was starting to feel worn out, including Principal Miriela and Silva, who were supplying Ripple with mana so that she could continue to summon more magicite beasts.
“Silva, how are you holding up?” Miriela asked.
“It’s tough,” Silva answered. “But Lady Ripple’s still absorbing power from us, isn’t she?”
“Yes. That she is...”
They still had more beasts to summon; Principal Miriela and Silva had a strong sense of that.
“So we can’t stop yet! Let’s keep going!”
“Yes... Everyone! There’s more coming! Be careful!”
Despite their exhaustion, Principal Miriela and Silva sent more of their mana to Ripple. Once again, the vortex-like twists in space opened up. This time, three of the stronger magicite beasts appeared.
“Everyone, please—!” Miriela said as encouragement to her students while she and Silva focused on their own duty, but as they focused, they noticed something was very wrong.
Vreeeee!
The dark globe covering Ripple was suddenly changing. Various colors swirled and shimmered, becoming seven distinct colors. Miriela and Silva felt Ripple pulling at their mana with a greater intensity than before.
“Ugh?! Wh-What’s going on?!” Silva gasped.
“Ripple’s absorption has gotten much stronger for some reason...!” Principal Miriela managed to say. At this rate, it will be hard to give her any more!
While the two of them did their best to keep going, the others were already in the process of wiping out the three magicite beasts that had appeared. Yua went for one head-on, and Liselotte distracted another. That left the third magicite beast, which was gathering its power to use its wide-hitting heat rays.
Liselotte noticed what it was doing. “I won’t let you do that!” she shouted as she pulled out her wings.
However, with a poof, her Gift’s white wings faded away. She’d reached the limits of her endurance. “Someone must attack this one for me, please!”
“I’ll do it!” Leone’s greatsword Artifact extended, sending the magicite beast flying.
“Thank you, Leone!”
“Nice, Also Boobies,” Yua said as she took on her own target.
Without paying that comment any mind, Leone let out a grunt. “But sorry, I’m at my limits!”
The separate dimension faded away, replaced with their original scene: the lecture hall at the knights’ academy. The other students whose Artifacts had been sequestering the group away were drenched in sweat as they called out.
“Sorry, no way I can keep this up anymore!” one said.
“Me neither!” another said.
With everyone exhausted, it was hard to continue on as a vanguard in the other dimension. “Everyone’s at their limit... It’s going to be hard to fight for much longer!” Leone said.
“For now, let’s defeat the magicite beasts already on our doorstep!” Principal Miriela ordered.
Yua did exactly that, quickly delivering a karate chop. “There.” The head of the magicite beast she faced fell to the ground.
But the magicite beast Liselotte was fighting was still in action, and the one Leone had sent flying clambered to its feet and began to build power again.
“Here they come again!” Liselotte announced.
“All right, then I’ll—” Silva stood to lend a hand, but he couldn’t see as he got to his feet quickly. He felt dizzy and swayed. The late-stage transfer of mana to Ripple had been more of a strain on him than he’d expected. “Ugh!”
He wasn’t in time, and the magicite beast fired a blast of heat rays at the students’ circular formation. They’d managed to prevent all of those destructive attacks—until now.
“Ahh!”
“Oh no!”
As shouts arose, a four-legged form that glowed a deep blue placed itself in the path of the heat rays meant for the students. It took the impact and exploded with an intense flash.
Boooooom!
The explosion and the force canceled each other out. The magicite beast’s heat rays disappeared.
Leone gasped. “A lightning beast?!”
As if responding to her, four more of them appeared and surrounded the magicite beast all at once. As their opponent swiped at the new creatures...
Boooooom!
The lightning beast exploded, blowing off the magicite beast’s arm.
“Gwohhhh?!”
As it staggered backward, the remaining lightning beasts crashed into it, adding more explosions. Once the destruction cleared, the magicite beast was no more.
“Hey, Lady Arcia! Get back now!” a voice called. The lightning beasts reappeared and faced the last remaining magicite beast, the one that Liselotte was fighting.
“Ah?!”
As if to replace her as she leaped backward, the lightning beasts charged in. The magicite beast suffered the same fate as the previous one, disappearing in an explosion. The flash of light which swept over the lecture hall faded, revealing a young man at the entrance.
Leone gasped. “Brother!”
“Yo. Well, uhh. I’m sure there’s a lot to talk about, but for now I’m just gonna help out.” Embarrassed, Leon scratched the back of his head and smiled.
The students began to buzz. “Hey, is that—”
“Y-Yeah. I’ve seen him before!”
Leon was a former holy knight. He’d once been considered this country’s hero. More than a few of the students knew his face.
“Brother! What are you doing here?!” Leone yelled, and then everyone in the room grasped the situation. It was well known that she was the sister of Leon, the traitor who had abandoned his rank as a holy knight to turn to the Steelblood Front.
“So the Steelblood Front is here to interfere too?!”
“Of all the times to—!”
“Are we going to have to fight an ex-holy knight?!”
The students were furious.
“Hey, hey, hold it,” Leon protested. “You saw what just happened, right? I get that it’s probably hard to believe, but I’m here to help out. Hey, Miriela, say something to your students.”
“You’ve made your bed, now you have to lie in it. I can’t protect you from the consequences of your own actions.” Principal Miriela maintained a stern expression.
“Well, that much is true, ha ha ha.”
“It’s nothing to laugh about! Do you realize how hard things were for Leone when you left her behind? I understand you have your own beliefs, but I can’t stand behind them. Leone is one of my students—and I don’t forgive anyone who hurts my students, even if they are their flesh and blood.”
Leon’s expression turned serious. He paused to bow his head slightly to Miriela. “I’m grateful for that much. Take good care of Leone, will you?”
She sighed. “Do you think you’ll be forgiven just for helping here?”
“Of course not. I know being forgiven just for this is too good to be true. But hey, I’m just following orders.”
However, when giving the order, the black-masked man had said to Leon, “No matter what others think, one should not abandon one’s cause. If there’s something you want to protect, you should protect it. And if that results in us walking the same path, so much the better.”
“Principal Miriela, we need any assistance we can get! And a former holy knight’s strength is formidable!” Silva said.
“Ooh! Sharp one, ain’tcha? Not bad. You’ve got potential,” Leon remarked.
“Do not misunderstand me!” Silva shot back. “As someone else with a special-class Rune, I can’t forgive someone who fled from their duties! When this is over, I’ll have you bound immediately and brought to justice! Leone, you’re fine with that, right?!”
“Y-Yes, Silva!” Leone replied.
“Sheesh... Ah well, guess I’ll just have to make my escape before that.” With a shrug, Leon pushed his way into the midst of the circle of students. Approaching Leone and Silva in the center, he produced a sphere from his pocket. It had a mottled pattern, with black and white intertwining. “Here ya go!” Leon threw the sphere at his feet.
Crrrackkk!
As the sphere shattered, the area was filled with a gray mist.
“Wh-What was that?!”
“A smoke bomb?!”
“Be careful, everyone!”
Leon responded to the raised voices with a sigh. “C’mon, have a little faith. You kids are supposed to be the elite! The ones with the future of this country riding on your shoulders! Don’t panic, pay attention to what’s happening in front of you.” But even without his words, some were noticing the effect.
“My strength! It’s returning?!”
“It really is! How did—”
“My body feels lighter!”
“Yeah, with this...”
They could use their Gifts at full power again.
“This is mana mist. You’ve all felt its effects now. Not too shabby, huh? I don’t know how the boss does it, but he sure does have some interesting things.” Then, he gave orders to Leone.
“Leone, bring us back into that dimension.”
She did not respond.
“C’mon, it’s fine. I’m not going to spring some trap on you at this point, right?”
“Understood.” Leone tried her best to be blunt. If she said what she was really thinking, she’d regret it. She was relieved that Leon had shown up to save her in this situation. As he’d bowed to Principal Miriela, asking her to take good care of his sister, Leone’s feelings of kinship had begun to rush back—even though they shouldn’t have. In a critical situation like this, she had to cooperate with him, but she also had to see him as an enemy who happened to share the same goals at the moment. Her heart shouted in distress, not wanting to view him that way. It frustrated her, but she told herself not to let that show.
In any case, with her power back, Leone reactivated her Gift. The scenery around her shifted to a dark, empty space.
“Okay, I’ll lend a hand over here. We’re feeding Ripple mana so she can summon magicite beasts, right?” Leon knelt down beside Ripple, who was still unconscious, and brushed her with his Artifact gauntlets. “Ugh! Wow, she sure is hungry for it...”
“Silva, we need to do the same!” Miriela said.
“Yes!”
The three each poured mana into Ripple from their Artifacts. As they did, the light shrouding her swelled, becoming brighter and brighter. Exhaustion racked their bodies from the rate and quantity of mana that Ripple absorbed.
“C’mon! All this mana and she’s not coming up with anything?” Leon remarked.
“Up until now, they came quickly!” Principal Miriela noted.
Silva agreed. “This is completely different from before!”
Before long, a gigantic distortion suddenly appeared outside the circle.
Booooom!
A moment later, a huge pillar of light shot up toward the sky. In its aftermath, the dimension created by Leone was destroyed, and the group of students found themselves back at the knights’ academy.
“What?! The dimension—?!”
“It was destroyed?!”
Meaning, the pillar of light had considerable power. It pierced the ceiling, then the roof, of the school building, and the shockwave that followed blew away the walls.
“Whoaaaa!”
“Eeeek!”
The other students there were scattered and blown away. All that was left was the rubble of the building—and a mountainous form looming in the middle.
Leone was blown away, but someone caught her, saving her from serious injury.
“Yo. You okay?”
“Brother...” It seemed Leon had caught her. He smiled at her, but she turned away. “What was that?!”
“Yeah. Just look at that thing. Ripple sure did fish up a hell of a beast.” Leon pointed to a magicite beast glimmering in seven colors—a Prismer.
“Gwohhhh!”
The roar of the Prismer shook the air around them, gusts striking at their cheeks.
“Th-This is a live Prismer?!” Leone gasped.
It had tremendous power and presence. She had seen the frozen Prismer of Ahlemin many times. But a living, moving one was completely different—by an order of magnitude. An instinctive fear washed over her, and she shivered involuntarily.
“I get it now,” Leon said. “Ripple’s condition is a punishment on this country from the Highlanders. Seeing a Prismer come from it, it’s so obvious now.”
A Prismer could destroy an entire country. Leone knew her brother was right—it was an effective way to pass judgment on an entire people.
“We need to do something... Something! B-But—” What could they even do against such a beast?
“Leone, get that thing back in the dimension!”
“Yes, brother!” Leon’s orders snapped her back to attention, and she focused on her Gift. Her Artifact responded, and for a moment their surroundings began to change with a vo-voom!
But then her power weakened, and they returned to where they’d been. “It’s no good! The Prismer’s too strong! I can’t restrain it!”
“Gotcha. Then we’ve got to fight it here!” Almost a dozen lightning monsters spread out around Leon. “Leone, gather everyone who was knocked out and get them somewhere safe! They’re going to get caught up in this mess!”
“But I want to fight too!”
A familiar voice called from overhead. “Leone! Are you all right?!” Liselotte was carrying three unconscious students.
“Liselotte! Yes, I’m fine!”
From another direction, Principal Miriela gave orders. “Leone, Liselotte, you two get the unconscious to safety! We’ll hold off the Prismer!”
“Got it!” Leone responded.
“Yua! You and Leon, keep drawing its attention!”
“Err... That big beefy thing’s scary, though...” Yua protested.
“No back talk! Do it!”
Yua grumbled in shock before she acquiesced, shuddering and nodding nervously. “Y-Yes, ma’am... Guess I have to... Even though it’s scary...” She slowly, smoothly, approached the Prismer, gradually trying to work her way behind it—
As if offended by this, the Prismer turned toward Yua and roared. “Gwohhh!”
“Eeek.” Yua was afraid, but her face was still expressionless.
“Hey, don’t get nervous. But I guess that does make you a good decoy!” The lightning beasts, driven by Leon’s will, rushed toward the gigantic Prismer, exploding in its face.
Blammm!
There was an intense flash of light, and a few scrapes appeared on the incomplete parts of the Prismer—the patches of its hide that were not yet iridescent.
“Wow, you’re good,” Yua said, impressed.
“Oh? That’s good to hear.”
“Yeah. Nice, Pops.” Yua gave a firm thumbs-up.
“Hey, c’mon, I’m still in my twenties! But I guess I may as well seem old to a kid like you. Hmm... Ah, whatever! Let’s do this!”
One by one, the lightning beasts leaped at the Prismer, relentlessly targeting its head with explosions, but they weren’t making any progress. Any time they wounded the Prismer, it immediately began to regenerate. The Prismer’s durability was fearsome. But the flashes of the explosions blinding its vision were enough to bring it to a halt.
As Miriela watched the pair’s attacks, she waved her Artifact staff. “It’s working! Keep going! Let’s take shelter while we can!” Wards extended in a dome around the Prismer. Because they could not isolate it in another dimension, this was the only way they could keep damage to their surroundings to a minimum. “Prioritize getting the wounded to shelter while we look for a way to take it down! Silva, how’s Ripple holding up?!”
“The light’s faded, and she’s not absorbing our mana anymore!” Silva answered. “I think this is the last demihuman magicite beast!”
“I see—so we just need to hold out!”
“Isn’t Lady Ripple going to awaken soon? If we can hold out until then, I can borrow her power and—!”
Leon shook his head and interrupted. “Don’t count on it.”
“Yes, he’s right!” Principal Miriela agreed.
“But why?” Silva argued back. “At times like this, we need a hieral menace’s power!”
“That Prismer doesn’t seem to be complete yet. We should be able to make do without calling on Ripple.”
“Yeah, Miriela’s right. Ripple’s probably not in the best shape after being sick. We can’t force it,” Leon agreed.
As Leon and the others discussed things, Yua approached the legs of the Prismer. She swung her arms in wide circles, like she was winding up to gather her strength. Her fists shone faintly from within. “Let’s just get this over with...”
She launched from the ground with a powerful thud, kicking her knees high. She was near its solar plexus.
Thump!
With a loud, dull impact, Yua’s fist pierced its body. It shuddered to a halt. Her punch seemed to have done the trick.
Leon whistled. “Nice punch! It’s working! That reminds me of Inglis!”
“No, something is wrong.” Yua’s expression remained blank.
“Wh—?! What do you mean? You punched through it!”
“No. I’m stuck. It’s squishy.” Yua was right. Her hand—no, her whole body was being pulled into the Prismer.
Leon gasped. “No! It’s trying to absorb her and gain strength that way?! Hold on, I’ll get you out of there!”
“Cast a ward on Yua!” Silva called out.
Principal Miriela pointed the ring on her finger at Yua. As she did, Yua’s body was enveloped in a pale green light. “This way, the rest of you can make flashy attacks, and Yua will be fine!”
“All right, Yua! This may hurt a little, but try to bear it!” Leon sent his lightning beasts at the Prismer’s torso all at once.
The explosions would cut its flesh and free Yua, who would be fine thanks to Miriela’s defensive wall around her—or maybe not exactly fine, but it was better than the alternative of the Prismer absorbing her. This situation called for drastic measures.
The lightning beasts rushed at the Prismer’s legs.
Whoosh!
The Prismer brushed them away with a swipe of its long tail. The fierce blow knocked away the lightning beasts from its torso. They all exploded far away and disappeared. As for the Prismer’s tail, it was also a bit scorched, but it quickly began to regenerate. Leon’s lightning beasts wouldn’t be enough like that.
“Tch! You were eating those straight-on before, but now that you’ve got your hands on your prey, you decide to counterattack?! Were you just playing dumb at first?!” Leon grumbled.
This foe had originally been a sapient demihuman. Now that it was a gigantic Prismer, everyone had assumed it operated solely on instincts, but it was capable of tactics. They had mistakenly judged a book by its cover.
“I’ll help!” At Ripple’s side, Silva raised his red long gun.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
As the shots rang out, a barrage of fireballs sprang from the barrel of his gun. They transformed as they flew toward the Prismer, becoming a bird of red flames. It traced a complex path toward the Prismer at high speed. In response, the former demihuman held its fingers together in a spear-hand position and thrust it precisely at Silva’s bird. His attack couldn’t get close to the beast’s torso, where Yua was being sucked in.
“Ugh...! So this is the power a Prismer has...” Silva bemoaned.
“A focused strike, maybe?!” Leon suggested. “If we can’t slip through, let’s push through with brute force!”
Forming in front of him was something many times bigger than the previous lightning beasts. Instead of dispersing and creating many beasts, it was focused on a single point. With mastery of an Artifact, wielders could do impressive things.
“Of course! At the ready!” Silva answered back. A ball of flame several times larger than before formed at the muzzle of his gun.
Yua listened to them in shock. “Are you trying to kill me?”
“Have you ever seen yourself?! You’ll be fine! Just be ready!” Silva answered.
“We don’t have any other choice!” Leon said.
The large lightning beast and flaming bird rushed toward the Prismer as if one. It was a straight-on offense with no awkward confusion. When the Prismer saw this, it snapped its mouth open. A thick beam of light shining in seven colors erupted forth from its mouth, easily sweeping away the attack.
“What?!” Silva and Leon gasped. Some of the power was canceled out, but the rest of the light swept toward Leon.
“Ngh?!” He couldn’t dodge it. Behind him, Leone and Liselotte had gathered the injured. “Grahhhh!” He crossed his Artifact gauntlets in front of himself to shoulder the blow. The impact pushed him back quite a bit, but somehow he held himself together. Nonetheless, his gauntlets were a wreck. The damage was too severe; they crumbled apart. “You bastard! I’ve had those things forever!”
“Ahh! Yua?!” Principal Miriela gasped.
“W-We didn’t make it in time?!” Silva cried out. Yua’s body had been completely absorbed into the Prismer.
“Gwohhh!”
The Prismer’s roar seemed to indicate it was pleased about having absorbed Yua. Its body glowed even brighter, and its skin looked even more prismatic.
“Don’t give up! We’ll cut her out of there somehow!” Leon yelled.
The protective membrane of light that covered Yua’s body was still shining, visible through the Prismer.
The monster gave them no time to move, though. Countless points of light emanated from its surface. The light was reminiscent of the beam that had come from its mouth earlier, except now it was coming from all over its body. Each and every beam appeared to have as much power as the original. Had its absorption of Yua granted it additional strength?
“Oh no! It’s going to let those loose through this whole area! Leone, you and all the students must escape into the other dimension! Leon, Silva, fetch Ripple and join them!” Miriela instructed.
“Principal Miriela, what are you going to do?!” Leone asked in worry.
Miriela smiled. “I’ll figure out something for myself! If I go into the other dimension, this ward will disappear. Now hurry! I’ll be fine!”
Guilt stabbed at Leone’s heart, but she knew that if no one was here to isolate the Prismer somehow, many students would die. She had no choice but to follow orders.
“Here goes!” Leaving Principal Miriela behind, she separated herself and those near her into another dimension.
The scenery transformed into a dark, shapeless space.
“Mm... I...” Ripple opened her eyes.
As Silva cradled her body, a chorus of voices rose up at once. “Ripple!”
“Ah, everyone... Thank goodness you’re okay...” Ripple’s face softened into relief as she saw everyone present.
“Don’t get ahead of yourself. We’re not out of the woods yet. It’s getting pretty crazy out there,” Leon said.
Ripple’s eyes went wide. “L-Leon?! What are you doing here?!”
“This isn’t really the time to catch up, y’know?” he replied.
Silva cut in to explain. “This is a serious emergency, so he’s lending his support. I apologize; as soon as this is over, we’ll have him in chains immediately.”
“Hey, hey, what the hell?” Leon objected. “I’m here helping you out, you know!”
“There, there,” Ripple said to ease the tension. “That makes sense, but... Hmm. We’re in a pretty tight spot, huh? What’s happening?”
“Lady Ripple, could you try touching this?” Silva extended the barrel of his charged Artifact to Ripple.
“Mm-hmm.” Ripple brushed her hand across it. They had their confirmation immediately. “Oh, hey! I’m not absorbing your mana! So that must mean...”
“Indeed, it seems you’ve summoned the last of the magicite beasts.”
That Ripple’s condition no longer attracted demihuman magicite beasts through the sixth sense that they shared proved that demihumans as a species were nearly extinct. They had reached her limit of how many of them she could summon.
“I-I see... That’s good,” Ripple said, crying. “Then I won’t have to cause trouble anymore... I can go back to being your hieral menace...”
Seeing her tears of relief, those close to her could allow themselves to be proud. Not just Silva, but Leone and Liselotte also took pride in their hard work. The risks had paid off.
“But Ripple, we can’t celebrate yet,” Silva continued.
“Oh, right. You said this is an emergency... Did something happen?”
“Yes. The last magicite beast to be summoned...was a Prismer.”
“Whaaaaat?! A demihuman like me turned into a Prismer?! That’s crazy!”
“It’s still not complete, but it’s the beefiest magicite beast I’ve ever seen. Prismers are on a totally different level from normal monsters,” Leon said.
“Where is it?!” Ripple asked. “We need to stop it!”
“Right now it’s outside of this dimension, rampaging through the knights’ academy. The principal cast a ward to keep it from getting out into the city, but it was about to use an attack that would have hit all of us,” Silva explained.
Liselotte continued, “Leone used the power of her Artifact to send us to safety in another dimension. The principal’s alone out there to keep the ward up.”
“Miriela did that?!” Ripple gasped. “But that’s so risky... All right, we need to get back out there for her!”
Silva nodded intently in response. “Yes, Lady Ripple! The only thing that can defeat a Prismer is a holy knight wielding a hieral menace in weapon form! I’m still in training, but if you lend me your strength, I’ll give it my all! Please!”
“Silva... I... I still can’t.”
“B-But why?! Do you mean I’m not strong enough?”
“Nuh-uh, that’s not it. Leon said that it wasn’t complete yet, right? So there could be another way to defeat it. We’ve gotta try everything we can.”
“You agree with the principal, then.”
Leon cut in. “The combination of a holy knight and a hieral menace is the last hope for humans on the surface—and last means last. When you grow up a bit more, you’ll understand.”
“As if a man who abandoned his post as a holy knight has room to talk!” Silva fired back.
“Ha ha! I mean, you’re not wrong.”
“Anyway,” Ripple said, bringing people back to the point. “Let’s go, everyone! Leone, can you bring us back out?”
“Yes! Here goes!” Leone released her Gift, and the scenery around them changed. They returned to the ruins of the knights’ academy surrounded by wards. The school building was in an even worse state now. Rooms were practically rubble. The ground was covered in holes and large cracks.
“Miriela! Are you okay?”
“Yes, Ripple! Good timing! I’m fine, but I could really use your help!” Principal Miriela was mostly fine, but she had picked up a number of shallow scratches, and she was breathing heavily. The battle had taken a lot out of her, but it was impressive that she’d managed to hold out against the Prismer so well.
“Sure, leave it to me! I’ve been causing trouble for everyone for so long, now it’s my turn to protect you—as a hieral menace!” Twin golden guns appeared in Ripple’s hands. She moved nimbly in front of Principal Miriela to protect her before settling her gaze on the Prismer.
She recognized this demihuman.
“What?! No, no... That’s... That’s too—” She couldn’t hold back the tears welling up. She stared in shock.
“Ripple? What’s wrong?” Miriela asked.
“My dad... That’s my dad! When our village was destroyed by the Prism Flow, he became a magicite beast! And now he’s here!”
That was a far-off memory from long before Ripple had even become a hieral menace. It all came rushing back to her now.
Her father, the demihuman chieftain, had been struck by the Prism Flow and became a magicite beast. The village had been wiped out, and Ripple was the only survivor. Since then, her father had lived on as a magicite beast, evidently becoming a Prismer.
“Wh-What?!” Principal Miriela gasped.
“That’s your father, Lady Ripple?!” Silva repeated in complete surprise.
“Yes, I’m sure of it! So much time has passed since then... He survived somewhere in the world...”
Over those long years, how many people had he hurt? How many lives had he taken? Just how far had he deepened his sins? Ripple found herself asking those painful questions.
Principal Miriela winced. “Ripple, I’m sorry... That’s terrible...”
“Then allow us to shoulder this burden, Lady Ripple! We can’t ask you to fight your own family!” Silva said.
“Gwohhh!”
But the Prismer showed no mercy. Stomping the ground, it moved with a quickness that belied its size, pointing its spear-hand gesture directly at Ripple again.
“N-No! That doesn’t mean I want to sit this one out!” Ripple somersaulted high, dodging the Prismer’s strike. At the same time, she rained down gunfire on its hand. Its rainbow-colored skin repelled her shots, but she pierced the parts that had not completed the Prismer transformation process. The force of her attack thrust its hand into the ground.
“Now!” Ripple ran up the Prismer’s arm to its shoulder as nimble as a cat. “Because you’re my father, I have to do this! Before you’re too far gone!”
Pointing the muzzles of her guns at its neck, she fired a burst of bullets made of light. The still-incomplete skin at the base of its neck opened as deep wounds formed—only to begin healing and closing up. Before long, it would be as if nothing had happened.
“You can heal already?! But if I attack harder—!” Ripple hastened her fire rate, putting her all into an onslaught.
“Gwohhh!”
The demihuman Prismer’s free hand reached up toward Ripple to swat her away.
“I don’t think so!” She gracefully dodged the extended hand without pulling away from the Prismer’s neck. Dodging left and right, she kept up her focused fire, not letting the regeneration outpace her assault. The wounds deepened and widened.
Silva watched, transfixed by the sight. “Beautiful! A true hieral menace!”
Ripple’s rapid fire was gouging out more and more of its neck. She started to have hope that she could take off its head. “It’s not too late! This is working! Everyone else, attack too! Focus on its neck, and cut off its head!” Ripple yelled.
“Yes, Lady Ripple!” Silva said.
“Leave it to me!” Leon called.
Both Silva and Leon readied their Artifacts to support Ripple, Leon now using a dagger to replace his broken gauntlets. But before they could make an all-out attack, the surface of the magicite beast’s body lit up once more. Bright points of light shone in all directions from its body, signaling it was charging the same destructive rays it had used earlier.
“Lady Ripple, this is the attack we took shelter from earlier!” Silva warned.
Ripple pulled herself together after a moment of alarm. “Everyone but Miriela and me, take shelter! Leone, if you will!”
“Of course!” Leone nodded to Ripple and focused her power into her Artifact. “All right, here goes!” Leaving Miriela and Ripple behind, the others disappeared into the other dimension.
“Miriela, try to hold up through it rather than following me!”
“Yes! I’ll do my best!”
The magicite beast fired its beams of light in all directions within the wards Principal Miriela had set up. Closest to the Prismer, Ripple would almost certainly take the brunt of the onslaught.
“I can’t let those hit me!” she told herself. Focusing her efforts only on dodging would give the Prismer time to heal. She needed to keep up her rate of fire as she evaded.
To the right and the left, ahead and behind—every direction was lit up like firecrackers. And as the Prismer moved, the beams’ trajectory changed.
Ripple twisted, leaped, always finding a place where the beams wouldn’t hit. Of course, the aim of her twin guns would be off, but that wasn’t a problem. Even in human form, hieral menaces had an Artifact-like power to twist dimensions. Eris could unleash a slash from a distance. Ripple could change the path of her bullets. She couldn’t keep it up for long, but it was a powerful skill.
While continuing to evade, she kept the bullets coming through different dimensions toward the Prismer’s wounded neck. Finally, its storm of light stopped.
“All right! At this rate—” I can switch to firing directly and keep going!
Or so Ripple thought.
Suddenly, there was an explosion of light in various colors all along the magicite beast’s wounds. Its injuries closed instantly.
“Wh—?! No way! It healed?!” Ripple gasped.
Its former wounds had the iridescence of a rainbow; it was nearing the end of its transformation into a full Prismer.
“It’s getting stronger during this! It’s nearly complete!” Principal Miriela warned.
“But...! But it’s not done yet!” Ripple, not giving up, kept up her fire.
“Gwohhh!” it roared, lunging at Ripple. It was even faster than before.
“Ugh...!” Still dodging, she tried to leap onto the Prismer’s arm again, but as if it had known she’d do that, its other hand quickly grabbed her and tried to crush her with all its strength.
“Aaaaaagh!” she screamed. Its massive body was too strong. Her bones were about to crack.
“Ripple?!” Miriela was busy dealing with the rays of light.
“M-Miriela, you need to focus on your wards! I’ll be fine—ugh!” Ripple knew their priority was to keep the Prismer from escaping.
“But—!”
“It’s okay! Hieral menaces aren’t that soft!”
A hieral menace’s body was completely different from that of a normal human; given enough time, they could always regenerate. She could heal wounds that would be fatal for a normal human. Ripple had even lost both of her arms in the past, but she’d recovered nonetheless.
Rather than people who could take the form of Artifacts, they were more properly Artifacts which could take the form of people. So the standard rules of the human body did not apply. Even Ripple didn’t know for sure how hard of an attack it would take to kill her. Even if every bone in her body was crushed, she would probably heal over time. Over her long history as a hieral menace, she had experienced quite a bit of pain. She was used to it. After all, there were things that left scars far worse than what she got from physical pain. This wasn’t enough to bring her down!
“Damn you!” she growled.
Splrrrch!
Even as the Prismer crushed Ripple and beams of light leaked forth, she hadn’t let go of her guns. Instead, she had been gathering her power; it took time to ready, but she could unleash a single powerful shot. Once it was charged enough, she blew apart the Prismer’s hand with it. She didn’t go unscathed, but she could rely on her hieral menace hardiness.
“Gwohhh!”
Shocked by the attack, the Prismer’s grip loosened.
“Good fathers don’t try to crush their daughters!” Ripple yelled. She slipped out through the gap that opened and flew backwards, but something was off. She felt a stabbing pain in her legs. Not sticking the landing, she tumbled to the ground with a wince.
“Ripple!” Miriela cried.
“Ugh... Something’s not right with my legs... This isn’t good...” Ripple wasn’t quick on her feet anymore.
At that moment, a dimension popped up from which Leone and the others returned. As soon as Silva saw Ripple injured, he rushed over to her, his face red with concern and anger. “Lady Ripple! Your legs! Are you all right?!” He reached out a hand to help her up.
Leon gasped. “Be careful! It’s still—!”
His warning rang out sharply. The Prismer was charging forward to seize Ripple again.
“Ugh...! I won’t allow you to touch Lady Ripple when she’s wounded!” Silva stood before Ripple, trying to defend her.
“No! Silva, get out of the way!” Ripple pushed him to the side and faced the Prismer’s attack herself. She knew that attack from before would almost definitely kill him. As a cadet holy knight and the holder of a special-class Rune, Silva was strong, but he was still a flesh-and-blood human. He couldn’t survive what a hieral menace could endure.
“Ah! Nghhhh...!” Ripple grunted as the Prismer grabbed her again with a tight grip. This time, she endured without screaming. If it bought the others time to think of a plan, she could hang on.
“You bastard! Let go of Lady Ripple!” Panicking, Silva shot a flaming blast from his Artifact at the Prismer’s hand around Ripple, but the Prismer swatted it away with its other hand. “Ugh...!”
From behind Silva, the rest of the group decided on their course of action.
“Hey, Miriela! What do we do now? Even if it’s incomplete, this Prismer’s a hell of a foe!” Leon said.
“That it is... Let’s leave destroying it for later. For now, we’ll lead it away from the city! If we draw it far enough away from a settlement, it may decide to go somewhere else!” Principal Miriela said.
“Okay! By the way, where’s Inglis?! If she were here, she might be able to come up with something!”
“She’s at the palace, protecting His Majesty. When things calm down there, I’m sure she’ll be right back.”
“I see! So that makes buying time an even better plan!”
Silva couldn’t agree with that, though. “Please wait! If we do that, the city will be destroyed along the Prismer’s path! Our best chance would be for Ripple to transform and finish it off here! Plus, why are you just standing there talking?! We need to hurry and save her!”
“Hieral menaces are tougher than you think! She’s still okay!” Leon insisted.
“I understand, but someone that slender, that delicate—”
Splrrrch!
Again, Ripple fired off an explosive shot in the Prismer’s hand with stored-up power. Her body slipped from its hand as it loosened. This time, she smashed directly into the ground, unable to land gracefully.
“Lady Ripple!” Silva rushed to her side and tried to help her up.
“I—I’m okay, I’m okay...” As Ripple strained to speak, she coughed up blood.
“Ah, Lady Ripple! Is that blood?!”
“Ugh... I think I broke a rib... But I’m fine. It takes more than this to defeat a hieral menace.”
“But you’re...! Please don’t do anything so risky!” Silva protested.
“No! We want to lure him out of the city, right?” Ripple asked. “So I have to be the bait!”
As Ripple staggered to her feet, Leon stepped past her and stood in front. “You should sit back. I’ll draw it away!”
“Please...! Once I get a little rest, I’ll—!” Ripple fell to her knees again.
Silva placed a hand on her shoulder. “Lady Ripple, please! Transform into a weapon, and lend me your strength! Leading it out of the capital is nonsense! The only way to deal with this situation is for me to borrow your true power!”
Ripple immediately shook her head. “No! We can’t do that! We can still try to stop him without resorting to that!”
“I don’t want to see you get hurt like this!” Silva insisted. “Ever since you saved my life as a child, I’ve been training to fight alongside you! I’ve grown strong, just like you said! Isn’t this the time to use that strength?!”
Surprised, Ripple paused. “Silva... Time sure does fly, huh? For a little boy like that to grow up into a man... I’m getting older too.”
“Then lend me your strength! I want to repay you for saving my life by protecting your heart! I’ll save you from having to fight your father because of Highland!”
“Silva... But, but— Agh!” From within Ripple’s body, a light began to shine like the sun—the sign that a hieral menace was transforming into a weapon. “N-No way! I didn’t mean for this to happen!”
A hieral menace could only transform if her own will and that of a holy knight with a special-class Rune aligned. No matter how Silva felt, Ripple shouldn’t be able to transform if she didn’t want to do so. However, it was clear that she was transforming into her weapon form, as if Silva’s will was driving her.
This was an immediate cause for panic in Leon’s mind. “C’mon, Ripple, stop! It’s too early to give up! And he’s so young...!”
“I... I can’t! I’m not doing this! He’s dragging me along!”
This was unheard of for Ripple as well. The hearts of a hieral menace and holy knight had to be as one; it required unity. In that case, if Ripple didn’t want it to happen, why was it happening?
Did Silva not know what was happening and just genuinely want to use her strength for her sake? Did the combination of Silva’s deep respect for Ripple and her warm thoughts of him mean their hearts were close enough? Did Ripple deep down want to free her father, who had become a Prismer, as soon as possible? It seemed like a combination of many things that allowed Silva to push her into transforming.
“Ahhhhh!” she yelled, frightened. I can’t stop!
Ripple’s body glowed brighter and brighter, and when it reached its peak, her body was no longer that of a girl—but a golden, gleaming double-barreled long gun.
“I can feel it... This is incredible! This can defeat anything—even a Prismer!” Silva said.
With excitement on his face, Silva gripped the golden gun that Ripple had transformed into.
“No! C’mon, stop! Put her down!” Leon barked.
Principal Miriela was equally tense. “Silva, calm down! Don’t give in to the power!”
Leone watched her elders yell and had no idea why they were upset. If they could take down the Prismer with Ripple transformed into a weapon, wasn’t that fine? She agreed with Silva wholeheartedly; it would be hard to lead the Prismer out of the capital and would probably cause a lot of damage. If they had time to lead the residents to safety, that could minimize casualties, but that wouldn’t save the houses, shops, and other buildings on the route from being destroyed along the way. In her mind, a knight also had a duty to protect where people lived and worked.
Liselotte said, “What a beautiful light, fitting of the true power of the hieral menaces who watch over us...” She was genuinely riveted to the scene.
“Y-Yes...but...” Leone still found it somehow unsettling. The light was so divine, so beautiful, but it scared her nonetheless. She couldn’t explain why, but her fear was real.
“Get a hold of yourself! You’re still not ready!” Leon tried to grab the gun that Ripple had become.
“Lady Ripple responded to my will! I’ll do this! Out of my way!” Silva merely brushed Leon and effortlessly sent him flying. “A-Amazing... Hieral menaces really are like goddesses watching over us! This strength is unlike anything else!” Nodding confidently, he pointed the barrel of the gun at the Prismer. “Lady Ripple’s father—I have pity for you... But with Lady Ripple’s power, I’ll shoot you down!”
“Tch! I’m telling you, stop!” Leon rose to his feet, and stood in the line of fire toward the Prismer.
“Are you a fool?! Get out of the way or I’ll fire at you along with the Prismer!”
“Not gonna happen! So put down that gun!”
“I can’t do that! So I’ll take you both down!” A huge ball of intense light formed at the muzzle of the gun, as bright as the sun.
“Ah! No, Silva!” Principal Miriela called out.
“Why?! Taking down this traitor at the same time would be killing two birds with one stone!”
“W-Wait, Silva!” Leone called out before she realized it, her unease compelling her. Leon was their enemy, but he must have had a reason for going so far to try to stop Silva.
“Gwohhh!”
The Prismer let out a roar as the light spread out over its body for a third time. Its large ray attack was charging.
“Look out! Leone, get back!” Principal Miriela called out.
“Y-Yes!”
But at the moment that Leone responded, a louder sound overlapped with her voice.
Crrrack!
The ward Principal Miriela had placed shattered with a high-pitched noise. At the same time, a blur of a shape slipped close to Silva.
Blam!
“Gah...?!” Silva’s eyes rolled back. He collapsed. The golden gun slipped from his hands and returned to her form as a demihuman girl.
Her eyes were wide with surprise. Reflected in them was the person who had knocked Silva unconscious.
Inglis had just landed a beautiful elbow strike.
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