A bizarre scene unfolded before George, Edelgard and Masahiko.
At a single glance it appeared to be a battle between two super humans, carried out at a speed untraceable to the naked eye of a regular person.
However, the strange thing was the one-sidedness of the battle, and in particular the way it seemed to be far from reaching an end despite that.
With each of the hero's swings tremors ran through the castle, walls collapsed and floors crumbled. A countless number of slashes so fast they merged into a single line cut Lain's body into ever finer pieces, energy blasts hit her stomach and scattered her entrails, bolts of lightning poured down from above and violently ran through her body.
Lain's physical condition turned as grim as one would imagine, and yet, just a single moment later, she stood before the hero again as if nothing had happened.
The sage appeared so unaffected, if it weren't for her thoroughly tattered clothing it would have been difficult to believe she was under such a brutal barrage of attacks just a few moments ago.
Be it losing an arm, getting decapitated, having her entire body encased by an inferno: the next instant she would stand before them once more, without injury.
"What in the world… Is this how Heroes——, no, Sages fight?"
Edelgard raised her voice, filled with both dread and amazement. The two guards were watching the battle from a corner of the room.
Fortunately the hero focused only on the sage and made sure none of his attacks would particularly wound any of the bystanders, they would have most likely died from collateral damage a long time ago if he didn't. That said, they still had to fend off the chunks of rubble that came flying every now and then.
George was as stunned as Edelgard and replied.
"Can you even call it a fight? Sage-sama doesn't seem to be doing anything at all."
"Could it be she cancelled the Hero's gift?"
George was close to saying 'Do his attacks look like that of an ungifted to you?,' but after desperately trying to make sense of the scene before them that explanation didn't seem that unreasonable anymore either; the sight was just that abnormal.
"No, actually that can't be. The heroes' gifts are bestowed by the Sword Saints, so it shouldn't be possible for Sages to interfere. I believe Lain-sama really is receiving those attacks head-on, and instantly regenerating against them."
Gifts are continuously passed on to the next generation and those at the top of that chain of inheritance are able to regulate the gifts below them, but since the heroes are not connected to the sages they are outside of their control.
A sign of that separation is the difference in powers they bestow. While the sages' gifts tend to be related to the use of magic, the sword saints' gifts tend to be of a more physical nature. The hero before them was no exception, using a sword as his main weapon.
And while the spectators had their short talk the hero stopped his onslaught. He seemed to have realized his current strategy wasn't working.
"How about you just give up and leave again?"
She truly was unwounded, and before they knew it even her dress had magically returned to its original form.
"Damn monster!"
Despite his outburst of anger the hero knew that giving in to his resentment and attacking blindly wouldn't serve any purpose. For now he merely glared at her.
"Then how about we use this short break to have a conversation."
Lain looked genuinely carefree, as if she didn't even consider herself to have been under attack just seconds ago.
The hero didn't reply. However, neither did he go back on the attack; he may have had something to buy time for.
"You look like a hero alright, but why would a hero attack a sage? Shouldn't you be defeating some demon lord?"
That was also what George had been thinking. Sages were the ones governing this world, the ones protecting it, so what meaning was there in trying to kill one?
"Don't screw with me! You guys are nothing but harm to this world!"
"Not like I'm one to talk objectively, but personally I'd say us sages are handling things pretty well. We don't come down to interfere with things that often, and don't you guys have plenty of freedom to do your own thing? Even if you don't feel like that, we are still the protectors of this world. What do you think you're accomplishing by killing one of us? Just let us do our job."
"Don't tell me about freedom! How many people do you think died just because some sage felt like it?!"
"Sure, there are people that have died on a sage's whim, but if we weren't protecting this world a whole lot more would be dying, you know?"
"Are you telling me to overlook your cruelty because of that!"
"Hmm, here I thought heroes were supposed to fight for the greater good, but apparently that's not the case. Did someone close to you get killed by a sage? Stolen from you? Manipulated? Well, whatever it is, you came to the wrong one. I barely come down here."
"You're only the first! I'll kill every single one of you!"
Having bought enough time the hero entered his battle stance again.
He rose his sword to the skies and put all his power into throwing it towards the sage, where it pierced the floor to Lain's feet. He wasn't aiming at her.
Firmly planted into the ground the sword's broad blade began to shine and as if to answer the sword, Lain's surroundings also started brightening up: countless little blades were sticking out of the ground to the sage's feet —— the hero must have scattered them at some point during the earlier attack —— and reacted to the glowing straight sword, thin rays of light beaming from one blade to the next.
Only an instant later the beams began bending and cracking and soon an intricately designed magic circle had formed across the floor, the sage exactly in its middle.
"Do you think I care about your immortality!? Let's see you regenerate after I burn your entire being to nothing!"
The geometrical shape on the floor pulsated, unfolded countless times from within itself and finally turned into a solid body. At a speed one couldn't follow with their eyes Lain had been caged away.
The hero's right arm trembled as he stretched it out ahead of him, with his left hand he suppressed its shaking.
It was clear that the hero was about to go all out with his next attack, but George and the others couldn't interfere. He may have appeared defenseless, but the difference in actual power between them was just too overwhelming; had they approached him they would have been shut down in a heartbeat.
"Die!"
The hero shouted at the top of his lungs and the prison of light shone even brighter than before.
However, after a single flash it was already over.
The light ceased and everything was gone. The small blades the hero had used for the spell, the straight sword that looked like it had been plucked out of a legend, the beastman that was rolling around on the floor, and Lain.
The produced heat must have been immense, for even the floor had started to melt and glow like lava.
"Ariel… I've finally… …taken down the first…"
The hero mumbled something as he lost the strength in his feet and fell to his knees. He put so much into that one attack he could hardly even stand.
"How… how do we even treat a case like this?"
"What do you mean!? Of course the killing of a Sage is a major crime! We must immediately arrest him!"
Edelgard's usual habit of acting before thinking made George want to lie down and curl up next to the hero.
No matter how weakened he may be, they had no chance of arresting a hero. George looked over to the feudal lord at the other side of the room with a gaze that said "If you're an acolyte of sages then can't you do something about this?," but Masahiko vehemently shook his head. The responding gaze was equally vocal: "No way."
"So is this Ariel your dead lover or something?"
But there wasn't anything for George or Masahiko to do.
Just like she did all those times before, Lain stood in her spot anew.
Despair warped the hero's face.
"…How… …did you escape…?"
"I didn't. Why would I if I can't be killed anyways?"
"…This can't be… even Sword Saint Kartena was tracelessly erased by this heat, there shouldn't have been anything left of you…"
As a matter of fact, Lain truly was entirely eradicated by that attack.
"I wouldn't be having such a hard time if I could die just by burning to utter nothingness. Honestly you might as well think about this degree of immortality as a curse, I don't even want to think about how much longer I'll live."
"…kill me…"
After being completely outmatched despite expending both body and soul, the hero drowned in despair.
"What are you talking about? All you did was flare up at me, I don't have a reason to kill you."
Lain responded to the hopeless hero with a voice that merely sounded a little tired of the situation.
It looked like for her, just being assaulted wasn't a reason to kill somebody. Her degree of tolerance was so excessive it gave George a feeling of eeriness.
"Pardon me, but how should this be settled then?"
George addressed Lain. If the hero were to die here he couldn't cause any more trouble, but Lain's intentions seemed to be elsewhere.
"Just deal with him according to the law. Home invasion, murder and destruction of property, those offenses basically cover it all, don't they?"
"Well, certainly, but I doubt us guards would be able to detain a Hero."
"Mhm, indeed. Then let's go with this."
Lain grabbed the hero's arm, turned around to a hole in the wall and flung him out like a piece of rubbish.
"Wha——!?"
"You guys can't take care of him, I don't feel like killing him. If he's going to be a problem just by being around then let's all agree he never came here in the first place."
She said she didn't want to kill him, but the room they were in was quite high up —— high enough for a normal person to instantly die from the fall.
"Understood. No one but us has come here."
The sages' words were absolute. Furthermore, that way of handling things was also the most convenient for him and Edelgard.
"Well then, since the dogman got blasted away we might as well call it a day. Edelgard. As I was going to say earlier, track down Yogiri Takatou and contact me as soon as you figure out where he is."
"Yes, Ma'am!"
Despite being thrown from one strange situation into the next, Edelgard didn't appear perturbed in the slightest.
George could only admit that being as thickheaded as her was amazing in a way.
＊＊＊＊＊
That same time somewhere else, Yogiri and Tomochika were riding a train.
"Why do I have to crank a charger while being half buried by a fat ghost!?"
"Well, since the battery's empty it won't run unless it's being charged."
[I don't occupy any physical space so there's nothing to be upset about, is there? I for one don't mind.]
"It's, I don't know, stuffy! If you don't mind then go sit next to Takatou-kun instead!"
[Err, no, I'd rather not. He's scary.]
Of the four train seats, Tomochika and Yogiri were occupying the ones opposite each other. Mokomoko sat in the seat next to Tomochika, but because of how plump she was she also filled half of the neighboring seat.
"Then just go float in the air!"
Even though she had her part to say about it Tomochika continued to crank the charger, and Yogiri, unconcerned by the quarrel, comfortably played his game.
[That's not as easy as you may think. When traveling in a vehicle I can lose my grasp of relative movement at any time! I have to keep up a proper image of moving along with the train, for example by sitting in a seat like this, or I might get left behind.]
"You're so troublesome for being a ghost! Just vanish then!"
[It's not like I intentionally made myself visible to you, you simply became able to see me.]
Tomochika must have accidentally acquired ghost vision at some point.
"Noticing something once can be a big deal."
Now Yogiri joined their discussion. When Tomochika told him about Mokomoko's existence he ended up seeing her as well.
[Exactly! It's like when somebody points out a person's ear hair and even though you didn't even notice it at first from then on you can't look at anything else!]
"What's with that comparison, are you actually an existence of the same level as ear hair!?"
[Ah, forget what I just said. Give me a minute and I'll think of a better example!]
"Anyway, if Dannoura-san is the one switching seats there won't be a problem, right?"
"Oh, true!"
If it's just her and Yogiri then there would be more than enough space. For some reason she was under the impression they had to sit across from each other.
Tomochika quickly changed seats and, now sitting next to Yogiri, peeked at his console's screen.
His play style was clumsy as ever.
Having enthusiasm for games and being skilled at them appeared to be two different things.
——Wuah, I'm way too close!
Just as Tomochika noticed how far she had leaned in to watch Yogiri play he suddenly stopped the game and looked at her.
"Ah, y-yes?"
She was getting a little panicky from being stared at, but Yogiri ignored that and pushed her down.
"Wha—! Now wait a moment! What are you doing!? M-mokomoko-san is watching!"
[Don't let me bother you, since I'm your guardian spirit you'd best get used to it early on.]
"Actually, wait more than a moment! Mokomoko-san, do you intend to be next to me at all times!?"
CRASH
While Tomochika was fidgeting about, something cut by right above them.
"Huh?"
She looked past Yogiri's shoulders and saw the sky. Which is to say, the train's ceiling got blown away.
But it wasn't just the ceiling, the upper parts of the seats had also vanished, and if it weren't for Yogiri pushing her down her head would most likely have suffered the same fate.
"I think this is a good time for an explanation!"
"Sensed some killing intent."
'Killing intent' was a rather lacking description for it; hazards to his life were concretely visible to Yogiri.
"I wonder what's going on, I'd be surprised if someone was targeting us."
They didn't know where the attack came from, but it looked like the train cars were being thrashed by several somethings.
The train made an emergency stop and loud alarms started ringing.