Prophecy of Flame
After the Seven Luminaries’ long-range strategic nuclear bombing of Oslo el Gustav, there was no one left to oppose them. The Blue Brigade’s ruling nobles descended into bitter infighting after having lost their leader, Conrad.
While that went on, Jeanne and the rest of the founding members who still believed in Blumheart’s ideals turned their backs on the Blue Brigade and seceded. As they joined the Order of the Seven Luminaries, so did the Gustav domain’s general populace. Just as the group had with its first three domains, the High School Prodigies now claimed sovereignty over Gustav. They had made good on their original plan to have all of the north under their control by spring.
With this new domain under their belt, Tsukasa took the opportunity to announce a large gathering in a field just outside Gustav’s capital, Millevana.
“We have an important announcement to make that concerns all citizens,” he said.
Nearly every resident from Millevana and its surrounding villages was present, despite it raining on the day of the assembly.
“So what’s this meeting today gonna be about?”
“Beats me. But the angels said that it was supposed to be really important.”
“I gotta say, this weather’s kind of a bummer. Why’s it gotta rain, today of all days?”
An enormous crowd stood before a stage that had been set up on the grasslands. Impatiently, they all looked around, waiting for whatever the event was to begin.
Thankfully, they didn’t have to wait long.
“Fwa-ha-ha-ha-ha! Hark, mortals! You have done well to brave the elements in response to my summons!”
Akatsuki’s voice came booming out of the speakers beside the stage.
“But wait—with the power of my miracles, I will now quell this rain! Beeee…HOLD!!”
Akatsuki was shouting loud enough to clip the audio. Just as he had proclaimed, however, the storm began to break, and a stir ran through the throngs of people.
“Huh? Wait, th-the rain…”
“The rain actually stopped?!”
“God’s amazing…!”
Cheers of joy and amazement began to erupt from every which way. Everyone was in awe of Akatsuki’s ability to seemingly control the basic forces of nature.
Naturally, the prodigy magician hadn’t actually done any sorcery or the like. He’d merely taken the satellite Ringo had set up as part of their missile guidance system, had it predict a change in the weather, and then used that knowledge to say something vaguely prophetic. Given that the concept of a satellite was beyond the understanding of those who lived in this world, however, none suspected such a thing. From their perspective, God Akatsuki had brought about an event beyond human understanding.
“Fwa-ha-ha! A feat like that is child’s play for a deity like me! …Now then, with that pesky rain out of the way, let’s get this show on the road!”
After using his scientific prophecy to warm up the crowd, Akatsuki moved on to the main topic. All at once, smoke and explosions rocked the stage.
“Aaaaah!!”
“Wh-what’s going on?! Did something blow up…?!”
“No, look!”
When the vapors cleared at last, the crowd discovered that the seven High School Prodigies were standing onstage in a row.
“When did they…?!”
“They must have teleported…! I saw God do that to escape from an iron box once!”
Akatsuki, who was standing in the center of the lineup, floated up into the air. He cast his gaze down on the audience as he spoke into his mic.
“Fwa-ha-ha! Your complexions are looking a whole lot better! I hardly recognize you all!”
“It’s all thanks to you, God Akatsuki!”
“You saved my grandson… I can never repay you…”
“Oh, thank you… Thank you…”
“Long live the Seven Luminaries!”
“Long live God Akatsuki!”
A chorus of gratitude rose up to the sky.
“I can feel the passion behind your faith. But I didn’t gather you here today to receive your thanks and prayers. Today, I have an important divine revelation to deliver to all the people who follow the Seven Luminaries. To do so, I’m speaking directly into the hearts and minds of every person living in our lands. Now, if any of you are having difficulty hearing me, you should move closer to the nearest amplifying obelisk so you don’t miss anything.”
Following the script that Tsukasa had laid out, Akatsuki instructed those listening from other locations around the four domains to move closer to their loudspeakers.
“Now then, my loyal angel Tsukasa will deliver the message on my behalf. Take it away!”
“Very well.”
Akatsuki proceeded to turn things over to Tsukasa. The white-haired young man stepped in front of the other five Prodigies, then swept his gaze over the assembled masses as he laid out the current state of affairs.
“As many of you are aware, the Blue Brigade, who fought tooth and nail to save you all from Gustav’s menace, was obliterated by the empire the other day for daring to believe in a fair and equal society. We firmly oppose such inhumane acts, so we retaliated with Divine Lightning and eliminated the enemy threat.
“The Blue Brigade heroes we lost are forever gone, however. With their ranks diminished and their leader dead, the Blue Brigade is no longer capable of governing the Gustav domain. As such, they’ve agreed to turn the domain’s sovereignty over to the Seven Luminaries.
“With this, the Seven Luminaries now hold power in all four northern territories of the empire—Findolph, Buchwald, Archride, and now Gustav.”
Usurping four imperial domains in a mere month or two was an astounding feat, and the crowd let out gasps of amazement. Even a mere six months prior, no one would’ve believed there was a force capable of striking back against the empire so.
Much to the surprise of everyone, however…
“But we Seven Luminaries and God Akatsuki have no desire to rule over you. Taking over the domains was merely a means to an end. In the name of equality for all, we want to see you live independently. In order to do that, there’s something you need: a nation of your own.
“Not one that belongs to a single man like the Freyjagard Empire, nor one where a handful of nobles do as they please. You need a nation where each and every one of you is your own master, a place where everyone can participate in government—a republic!”
“Repub-lick?”
“What’s that?”
“H-hey, don’t ask me… Maybe we’re all going to be nobles?”
“That can’t be right…”
Confusion swept through the onlookers. That, however, was as Tsukasa had expected. Democracy was an alien concept, after all. Expecting the people to understand it immediately was asking far too much. Instead of trying to explain it with words, Tsukasa instead appealed to their experiences.
“I realize you may find this notion confusing. I told you that you would all participate in government, but it’s perfectly natural for you not to understand what that means or what’s expected of you.
“But think back and remember. Surely you recall the absurd demands you were faced with when a small group of people controlled every aspect of your lives. Surely you remember the injustices. They didn’t just take your wealth and your land; they took your families, your lives!
“Was that acceptable?
“Can you stomach the thought of leaving behind a world that cruel for your children?!”
Tsukasa’s tone grew fiercer with each sentence, and the assembled mass of people began getting rather worked up as well.
“No way!”
“We never wanna go through that again!”
“That’s right—no way!
“But to ensure that, you all have to stand on your own two feet! You all have to take that first step yourselves! Children get bumped and bruised when they learn to walk, and so too will you.
“Now, we angels will give you all the help we can. Everything you need to support yourselves will be provided while you learn to stand on your own. Should you find yourselves lost, we’ll guide you back to the path.
“Our teachings will only get you so far, however. None of it will stick unless you first find within yourselves the will to stand. Relying solely on us will only allow new despots to rise and rip out the seeds of equality by the roots.”
That would make it all meaningless. Freedom wasn’t something to be given. It was something you poured your heart and soul into to win for yourself. When people forgot that, it was all too easy for them to lose their dignity. Above all, one needed to be willing to fight to protect their freedoms with their own two hands.
“And so, I ask you once more! Are you prepared to take responsibility for preserving your freedom and equality?!”
A resounding roar erupted from the crowd.
“““YEAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!”””
“Are you prepared to fight to protect your rights and dignity?!”
“““YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!”””
People raised their hands and fists overhead as they cheered. Such united action wasn’t limited to Millevana or even the Gustav domain. All throughout Archride, Buchwald, and Findolph, people were doing the same.
Men whose wives and daughters had been violated by their lord, elders who’d watched as egotistical nobles had robbed their beloved families of even the right to smile, parents who wanted their children to inherit the beautiful future the High School Prodigies were offering, all were united.
Save for a few disgruntled ex-nobles, everyone’s fists were raised in the air as they cheered. Clenched tight in those hands was the dignity of everyone who had ever suffered under the Freyjagard Empire, and they were never going to let that go.
All that was left was to make it official—to make a pledge to the world.
“Then from this day forth, the Seven Luminaries declare this land to be the independent Republic of Elm—”
At that very same moment…
Huh…?
Lyrule, who was standing beside the stage, suddenly felt a shiver go up her spine. The spirits were stirring, so quietly it was inaudible, yet so loud it felt like her ears were going to burst. They were screaming in fear.
Something is…coming…!
“Beary bad news!!” Bearabbit’s voice blared over the loudspeakers, cutting off Tsukasa’s declaration of independence. Hurriedly, the AI shouted at the High School Prodigies gathered atop the stage. “There’s an unidentified heat signature bearing down on you at twelve o’clock! It’s bearreling straight toward Akatsuki!”
“WHAAAAAT?!?!”
Akatsuki looked off into the sky, aghast. It was there that he saw a flaming arrow arcing through the air like a dragon. It was headed right for him.
“WHYYYYYYYY?!?!”
The magician’s mind went blank at the unexpected display of hostility.
“Akatsuki, drop out of the sky, now!!” Tsukasa demanded.
“—!” The sudden cry of his friend only barely managed to snap Akatsuki out of his daze. He released the mechanism keeping his body suspended in the air and dropped like a rock back toward the ground.
“Someonnnne catchhh meeeeeee!”
“Oof!”
Masato, the brawniest of the group, reached out his arms and effortlessly caught Akatsuki out of the air.
“You okay, Prince?”
Akatsuki thanked him profusely through fright-induced sobs.
“Hic, thank you, hnf, Masato…”
“Actually, given how I’m carrying you, I guess it should be Princess.”
“Dammit, jackass, put me down!”
Clearly, Akatsuki was doing just fine.
Watching the exchange filled Tsukasa with relief. Unfortunately, he never got a chance to show it.
“““UWAAAAAAAH!!!!”””
Screams rose from the crowd as a pillar of flame burst from the ground behind them.
Tsukasa and the others turned to look upon the face of their assailant. The entity stood in the center of the terrified, fleeing audience members. Its form was wreathed in fire, and its armless body was charred so badly it was hardly recognizable as human.
The malevolence and hatred in the creature’s eyes were unmistakable, however, even at a distance. Such qualities identified the attacker as surely as anything else could have.
“Oslo el Gustav…,” Tsukasa muttered.
It was hard to believe, yet Gustav must have somehow survived a nuclear explosion.
“Kill…emperor’s…enemies… Kill… KILL…”
The man charged toward the Prodigies. Even with his mind all but gone, he was still determined to slay his master’s foes.
“ !!!!”
The scream that came from his mouth was a sound no human throat should ever have been able to make. As it left Gustav’s lips, the black jewel embedded in his chest released a wave of dark light as though resonating with the cry.
“““Wh—?!”””
Then, something horrifying happened. A wave of the same obsidian substance began to spread from the gem, shredding the man’s flesh as it propagated across his body. In moments, Gustav now sported a crystalline carapace. The rapid mutations didn’t stop there, either.
The stone’s corrosion reached even as far as the man’s skull, causing black, bull-like horns to sprout from his forehead. The crystals also reconstructed his lost arms, sprouting from the stumps on his shoulders and restoring his body to its former four-limbed glory.
When at last the horrific transformation was complete, Oslo el Gustav looked more like a demon than a human being. In keeping with the comparison, flames began to issue from his body. Once they rose a good forty feet into the air and took on the shape of a colossal humanoid, Gustav dashed straight toward the Prodigies with his fire effigy in tow.
“H-hold your ground! Fire! Shoot him dead!”
The soldiers that the Seven Luminaries had kept on standby rushed to block Gustav’s path and showered him with gunshots. Most of the hundreds of bullets evaporated from the heat of the flames before they could reach their target, however. What scant few found purchase were rebuked by the thick armor surrounding Gustav.
“Our bullets aren’t working?!”
“GrooooaaaaAAARRRRR!!!!”
“““AAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!!!!”””
With a sweep of its massive arms, Gustav’s flame colossus mowed the soldiers down. As the fiery avatar shredded the guards to pieces, Gustav only pressed his advance, the ground turning to soot in his wake. It was like being marched upon by the Devil himself.
“GAH, G-GAH…GAH…GRAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!”
“““Ahhhhhhhhhh!”””
Boiling, bloody froth spilled from Gustav’s gnashing teeth. Even so, he continued toward the Prodigies, unabated. The man’s furious fervor had burned away whatever sliver of reason was left in his mind.
The bloodcurdling sight struck the soldiers pale, and they weren’t the only ones. Still standing onstage, Tsukasa was overcome with awe and terror at the logic-defying entity before his eyes.
No human could endure that… What is he…? That mineral-like skin looks an awful lot like the hide of that monstrous bear we found in the woods near Elm…
Tsukasa’s analysis ability in times of crisis nearly proved to be his own undoing, as his curiosity momentarily got the better of him.
“Tsukasa, m’lord! Pull the soldiers back! They’re no match for him!” Thankfully, Aoi’s cry brought the young man to the moment at hand.
“I shall take over, that I shall! Their efforts are better spent getting the civilians to safety!”
“Can you handle him?” Tsukasa asked.
“Of course!”
With a nod, Aoi drew her trusty katana Hoozukimaru.
“Aoi!! The jewel…aim for the jewel on his chest!” Lyrule shouted as she suddenly came running out from beneath the stage. “I can feel a dreadful power coming from it…! A great, inhuman evil! That must be what’s powering him! Please, destroy that jewel!”
The elf girl’s face was pale, her voice was trembling, and her teeth chattered. Aoi dared not to ponder what had instilled such base fear in the young woman, but…
“Understood!”
…she knew that Lyrule’s words were worth adhering to.
With a nod, the swordswoman dashed toward Gustav so fast it looked like she was flying.
“Everyone, fall back!! That man is mine, that he is!!”
“Those…who would defy…His Grace…will burn, , BUUUUUUUUURN!!!!”
“You shan’t be burning anyone!”
Gustav charged at Aoi in kind. There was a clear difference in reach, however, and Gustav was the first to strike. His fire giant clenched its fists together overhead, then brought them crashing down like a hammer.
Much to the mad duke’s surprise and dismay—
“Too slow!”
“ ?!”
—the attack didn’t so much as graze Aoi.
The moment Gustav had launched his attack, Aoi had tilted her body forward. By running almost parallel with the ground, she cut air resistance down to a minimum and accelerated to an even greater speed. Just as the hammer fist strike shattered the ground behind her, Aoi sped past Gustav and loosed a single, mighty slash of her katana.
“My ferocious secret technique—Iron-Cleaving Flash!!!!”
A shattering sound filled the air.
“………!”
What had been fractured and broken wasn’t Gustav’s obsidian flesh, but Hoozukimaru.
Once Aoi passed him by, Gustav seemed content to ignore her, and he ran toward Akatsuki.
She couldn’t stop him…?!
Upon seeing Gustav break past Aoi, Tsukasa gritted his teeth and drew the Colt Government pistol from his suit.
“Merchant, protect Akatsuki! Shinobu, get over here!” Tsukasa barked.
“That shan’t be necessary,” Aoi declared. “Hoozukimaru is a bewitched blade, imbued with a deep-seated vengeance. It will not perish without leaving its mark.”
Gustav was so close to the stage he could practically touch it, but all of a sudden, a fracture carved itself into the stone embedded in Gustav’s chest. Then, with a shrill snap, it shattered.
“GAH… AH………”
The moment it did, Gustav’s flames began to weaken, and the man’s movements became visibly stiffer. Sparing no moment for hesitation, Tsukasa unloaded several rounds into Gustav’s head.
When at last the magazine was empty—
“ ”
—Gustav finally dropped to his knees.
Without the power from Neuro’s crystal, there was nothing to keep Gustav going. His body had died back on the day of the Blue Brigade’s attack. The temporary life that the obsidian crystal had provided would soon fade.
As the Fastidious Duke lay there dying, a memory flashed through his mind. It was a nostalgic bit of recollection—the day he’d made his first, and only, true friend.
The city’s sky was dyed in deep crimson. Gustav was only a boy. The charred corpse of a noble sat beside him as he huddled in an alleyway.
“C’mon, Gustav. Together, we can change this empire for the better.”
A fellow knight trainee from Gustav’s class offered him his hand.
They were children, both firmly believing that they could save people. Back then, the two thought that the world ought to be a place where everyone could live happily. Oh, what fools they’d been.
For a moment, Gustav wondered why he was wasting his final moments recalling such a thing. The man knew perfectly well why, however.
This boy standing before him as he stood on the precipice of death…had the exact same look in his eyes as…
The moment Gustav faltered and fell, the colossus and the flames surrounding him both vanished. With a crumbling sound, the dark crystal coating his body began to break away, too.
Gustav was motionless, and his head was cast down.
Wondering if the man had finally died, Tsukasa moved in to check.
“…Heh…heh-heh… Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha…” Gustav did not rise to his feet, but his shoulders shook with laughter.
He raised his half-melted face, staring at Tsukasa through his blood- and sweat-soaked bangs. The words he spoke carried rationality he hadn’t possessed only moments prior.
“You must be…the leader, yes…?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Tsukasa refused to give a straight answer. As far as the Seven Luminaries religion went, Akatsuki was its God. There was no reason to say something that went against that merely to give Gustav the satisfaction of knowing he was right. As he dodged the question, Tsukasa drew his spare magazine and reloaded his pistol.
With scorn plain in his voice, Gustav said, “Heh-heh… Play dumb all you please… I can tell…from your eyes. They’re the same as mine and Blumheart’s… They’re the eyes of one who sees how powerless they are to change man’s ways, yet struggles in futility to save them nonetheless… They’re the eyes of a cheap imposter.”
Tsukasa’s expression twitched. It was slight but no less definite. Seemingly deriving amusement from that, Gustav continued.
“You still wish to cling to equality? To suffer in pursuit of that absurd ideal? All while knowing what people are truly capable of?! Surely, you suspect there must be another way! You must know that the more you try to save, the more it all slips through your fingers…?!”
“Shut up…”
Tsukasa was growing uneasy. There was no reason to pay this dying man’s words any heed. He readied his pistol once more and placed his finger on the trigger…
“Such hubris—and from a common imposter. We cannot save anyone.”
But Gustav’s words got through anyway.
“ ”
Try though he did, Tsukasa was unable to ignore what the duke said. Everything in his body was screaming at him to pull the trigger, but there was something that told Tsukasa that Gustav’s words were true and that ignoring them was folly. The war between his emotions and his mind froze him in place.
When Gustav spoke next, his voice rang with pity.
“In time, you too will learn that this world exists for one man alone. Not an imposter—a genius, chosen by the heavens to rule!
“The day you learn that, you too will kneel before the emperor.”
“…!”
Cracks spread across Gustav’s entire body, and he crumbled away into dust. The wind carried the man’s remains on the breeze, and they vanished into the sky. Such was the end of Fastidious Duke Oslo el Gustav.
All that was left of him now was an ominous prophecy about the future that awaited the High School Prodigies—Tsukasa Mikogami, most of all.
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