Chapter 71 : Rescue(1)

Luna and Carne, who had heard the shocking news that Cled’s execution was scheduled, were nervously pacing.

“It can’t be. Instructor Cled, for treason…?”

The fact that he—who didn’t like to get involved in politics and didn’t even talk to high-ranking imperial officials—had been arrested for plotting a rebellion was absurd to Carne.

“…Something’s definitely wrong. We have to appeal to the academy.”

“That’s impossible.”

It was Luna who cut off Carne’s words. With a different atmosphere than usual, she continued speaking, her expression depressed.

“I sent appeal letters several times, even during Saya’s time. Once the news has reached the emperor, there’s no way for us to reverse it.”

In the Armonia Empire, the emperor’s word was law and an absolute principle. It was just that this emperor was quite enlightened, so that point wasn’t very prominent.

“Then what are we going to do? Just stand by and watch?”

“That’s…”

The two of them looked at the floor and sighed, unable to easily come up with a solution.

“…You’re finally showing your true colors, Violet.”

I, having climbed up a tree and looking down at the city center of Semal, glared at the academy with hateful eyes.

[Saya. Are you going to save him? If you do that, you’ll reveal yourself directly to people. Violet will also realize that you’re alive.]

“It doesn’t matter. It was bound to happen anyway.”

While hiding at the entrance to the forest where the guards stood watch, I heard unbelievable news from them. Cled had failed to assassinate Violet, had been captured for treason, and was destined to be executed.

[There are only 72 hours left until the execution. How do you plan to enter?]

“…I have to break through head-on.”

In fact, entering a dungeon guarded by numerous soldiers alone would bring enormous risk. But there was no other choice. All of my resistance comrades were dead, and the only ones left were me and Invidia.

“…Let’s go.”

I jumped toward the prison entrance, visible on the ground in the distance. Landing from a high place and leaping behind the gatekeepers, I transformed my hand into a thorn and instantly pierced the bodies of the two guards. After confirming they had died without even screaming, I broke the iron bars, but what awaited me behind the door was a group of heavily armed soldiers.

“It’s the monster!”

[Rumors about you seem to have spread quite a bit. This is troublesome.]

I, who had planned to somehow break through the prison and enter, fired spells without hesitation, turning the oncoming soldiers into dust. The soldiers who broke through the spells were all pierced by Sarkas thorns.

“Ugh…”

Due to the visual horror of my strangely transformed body and the spells that killed them on contact, the soldiers—where had their initial momentum gone?—cowered and began to back away one by one. I, determined to break through, glared at them and spoke.

“Move. If you value your life.”

“…Yes!”

Surprisingly, the soldiers seemed to part and make way in response to my words, but the voice that came from between them belonged to an unexpected person.

“…Drawing your swords and retreating from the battlefield. Where has your pride as imperial soldiers gone?”

The woman who walked out from among the soldiers in a neat uniform had her silver hair tied back in a half-updo, swaying in the wind. Slamming a large claymore into the ground, she glared at me and said, “We meet again in a place like this, Sarkas woman.”

At the sight of her face, encountered again in an unexpected place, I reflexively blurted out her name.

“…Yuri?”

As if she hadn’t expected her name to come from me, she twitched her eyebrows.

“…I don’t know where you heard that name, but it’s not one someone like you should be calling casually.”

She, now the next Spirit Master Commander Yuri Freesia, pointed the tip of her drawn sword at me.

“This time, I’ll make sure to kill you.”

At that, Invidia spoke to me in wonder.

[That woman—she doesn’t remember you.]

“…Yes. It’s probably Violet’s doing.”

I guessed that Violet had brainwashed Yuri, just as he had done to Carne. Determined to enter the prison and rescue Cled, I extended my Sarkas claws toward her.

“Move, Yuri.”

“You keep saying other people’s names…!”

Yuri charged, swinging the huge claymore, and I leaned back, avoiding it by a hair’s breadth.

[What will you do? Will you attack…?]

“…Wait.”

Even though I knew I’d die if I didn’t go all out, I couldn’t easily bring myself to use my full strength because the opponent was Yuri.

“Don’t run away…!”

Yuri, sensing that I wasn’t attacking at all, grew even more shadowed in expression.

“That’s right. What Yuri hates the most…”

What she hated most was when her opponent didn’t take the fight seriously. Moreover, since I had never responded to a proper match with her after our first encounter, that tendency must have strengthened.

Enraged, Yuri summoned her Osteon.

“Gigantas!”

Yuri’s Osteon, which I had once encountered at the ruins, revealed its massive body.

[It’s that guy from before…!]

Gigantas slammed down a huge ice greatsword, as large as his enlarged body, toward me. To avoid it, I transformed my hind legs like a rabbit’s and leapt with their strength.

[…This is why I hate Osteons. I can’t analyze their abilities at all.]

Invidia’s ability could only analyze Sarkas or humans. Apart from Daengdaengi, who had already become one with me, it was impossible to even mimic the appearance of other Osteons.

Boom.

The golem, clad in massive frost armor, struck the ground countless times, making the air resonate.

“Ugh…!”

The power was so ferocious that no solid ground remained. I, who had absorbed numerous Sarkas and had no natural enemies left in nature, was helpless before the expertly trained Osteon.

While desperately dodging the house-sized greatsword and firing spells at Gigantas, Invidia noticed something strange.

[Saya, something’s suspicious.]

“…You feel it too…?”

[Yes. Compared to our last fight, she’s being too stingy with her magic.]

Unlike our previous battle, where she poured out magic without restraint to capture me, Yuri now stood far off, merely watching Gigantas and me fight. I couldn’t keep dodging forever—I needed to land an effective hit on Gigantas.

“I’ll lengthen my arm…!”

I transformed my arm, wrapped it around his leg, threw off the center of his heavy body to make him fall, and aimed at the center of his chest with my finger.

“I didn’t want to do this…”

If I accurately destroyed the brightly glowing blue core, Gigantas would be annihilated. The moment the spell was about to fire from my fingertip, Yuri slammed her sword into the ground and shouted.

“Gigantas, Unify!”

“Unify…?”

At her command, Gigantas shone brightly across his entire body, scattered, and began to be absorbed into Yuri’s huge claymore. Ice formed on the blade of the ordinary claymore, transforming it into a terrifying ice-snow greatsword.

“…The Osteon combined with the weapon…?”

It was an ice greatsword that condensed the power of a massive Osteon into a single blade.

There was something called Chaos Points.

These points, which accumulated whenever Saya deviated from the expected development, didn’t merely alter the ecology of Sarkas. They also triggered a step-up evolution for the Osteons, their opposing species.

The ultimate form born from the Osteons’ determination to protect the Spirit Master’s body—that, the Spirit Masters called Unification.

[Saya, something’s coming…!]

Yuri, concentrating all her magical power into the sword, swung it through the air. The sword energy that flew from it grazed Saya’s left side. Just brushing against the blown sword energy, Saya’s transformed left arm was neatly severed and scattered into the air.

“Strong…!”

At a speed unbelievable for a greatsword, Yuri charged toward Saya. The flustered Saya tried to block the sword with her other claw, but her remaining Sarkas arm was also sliced off by its astonishing hardness.

[Saya, retreat for now…!]

“Don’t let her escape this time…!”

Saya stretched out her black wings to flee, but those too were helplessly cut off by Yuri’s sword.

“Ugh…!”

Before long, all the Sarkas tissues in her body were severed, and her form reverted to pure human. Yuri’s sword tip pointed at Saya, who fell to the ground clutching her hand.

“…”

It wasn’t just Saya who had grown stronger over the past year and a half. Yuri had found her own breakthrough, dramatically increasing her power. Yet the fact that this strength was now directed at Saya was something her past self could never have imagined.

Cook.

The wound on Yuri’s back throbbed as she stared at Saya on the ground.

It was strange.

Whenever she looked at this person, the wound on her back ached unbearably.

“Any last words?”

The frost blade rested against Saya’s neck, and she instinctively knew: if this continued, Yuri would kill her. Facing an unexpected obstacle, Saya decided to try a dangerous gamble.

“…Invidia. Unleash Ira.”

Though she had absorbed the power of another ancient species, Wrathful Ira, with Invidia’s help, she had never used it. She couldn’t be sure how her body’s control might change if she unleashed it even once. In the worst case, she might lose control and live as a Sarkas forever.

[Your body will lose control, Saya.]

“It doesn’t matter.”

The situation grew dire, their sharp gazes locked, when—

“…Huh!?”

A mass of vines erupted from the ground, swallowing Saya’s body and pulling her underground.

“…!”

Yuri, witnessing this, struck her sword downward. But Saya had already vanished beneath the earth. Furious at losing her target again, Yuri yanked her sword from the ground and ordered the soldiers.

“Quickly chase the traces…!”

“Yes!”

Taking a deep breath to calm her excitement, Yuri muttered, staring at the spot where Saya had disappeared.

“…You ran away again.”

Emerging from the ground, Saya coughed up the soil she’d swallowed while passing through.

“Cough… Cough…!”

With dirt covering her eyes, Saya rubbed them to regain her sight and faced two figures before her. A blunt voice came from the one on the left.

“…You’re just begging to be killed, aren’t you?”

“…You guys, really…”

As she tried to stand, the other woman beside her hugged her tightly.

“…!”

The unique scent that calmed Saya told her who it was without needing a voice.

“You’re alive, Saya.”

It was Carne and Luna who greeted me.

A reunion with them after a year and a half.