Leo, Chimera Exousia, was quite the tall man. He was nine-feet tall, with platinum blonde hair and golden eyes to match. He was lean, fitting of his height, and had quite the slender look and vibe. According to previously-unearthed information about him, he was around twenty-three years old, and his face was well-defined enough to match that description. He was well enough on his way to becoming an adult.
Harita squinted his eyes and flexed his arms. It didn't budge. Then again, he didn't really expect it to.
'No dice, huh…'
The renowned mage had an air of confidence about him, cold and calculating. His golden eyes shone with dark brilliance, reflecting the shimmering and loud lightning cloud hanging overhead the two of them like an omen of death.
The Lord of Storms, the Legend of the Dead Sea's shadow fell on the two of them like a titan's foot, crushing them all silently. It was different from the gravity monster in the worst way imaginable in that, rather than weighing down on his body, it weighed down on his soul, like lingering regret or forgotten promise.
It was crushing, painful, and lasting. To the point that, no matter how much he wished to, he never even thought that escaping it was a possibility.
But that only lasted a second.
*shatter!*
The sound of shattered glass rippled across his entire being, permeating every facet of it. It was an odd feeling, expelling all impurities from one's heart and soul, but a good feeling nonetheless.
And that wasn't all that expelled.
Feigning ignorance, Harita glared at Leo with a burning question. He said fiercely, never letting up his guard even for a second.
"Hah~? A Legend? What the hell is that? Some weird fairytale you came up with, you brat?"
He needed to but enough time for his master's Resistance to do its job. And so he provoked the man to stall for precious time. Plus, Bian was still out there, hiding and waiting for the prefect opportunity to strike a sneak attack.
Leo looked at him for a second, slightly befuddled. His eyes were squinted and his hands were positioned behind him. He was standing perfectly still, though the raging force that was his mana continuously swirled and enveloped him, reaching far and away, into the growing shadow of a forgotten Legend.
After a while, he said with a bit of disdain bleeding from his voice:
"Damn charlatan…"
Sweeping his hair back, he cast a cold gaze to Harita and his frozen state, then looked up with reverence. He spread his arms wide and spoke in an enlightened voice:
"Long ago, in the olden days of the Indrath and Vritra, when the human race had yet to resurface and monsters roamed the land and air… Seven calamities, known as Legends through word-of-mouth, dominated the Seven Seas and all its inhabitants. They roamed the waters, fighting and dominating even the gods themselves… until it was their time to fall. One by one, they fell at the hands of an unknown King, until… until they were all but gone, forgotten and erased from history by those damn charlatans! How dare they erase something so beautiful, majestic, and gorgeous?!"
Leo's tone turned from nostalgic, to reverent, and finally erratic. He was clearly enraged by his own words, offended and in disbelief at the treatment of the once-majestic beings.
Still, Harita understood why historians would erase such beings from history. He had been told the reason why, when he was still touted the Protector of the Archipelago. It had been a long time since then, and he had grown and regressed multiple times. Now, however, he wasn't sure what he had turned into anymore.
Leo continued, belligerent to Harita's throes:
"Those bastards killed them, erased and eviscerated them from history!..."
Belatedly noticing his pent-up anger, Leo cleared his throat eloquently, looking down at his hand for a moment, then to Harita. He glared again, this time much more sharply.
"The Lord of Storms, Mother of the Dead Sea, and Guardian of the Final Archipelago. Right here, right now, this magnificent being has finally reincarnated into this plane. After so long…!"
As Leo continued his mad tirade, Harita noticed something odd and pointed it out.
He needed just a little bit more time.
Scrunching his brows, Harita looked at Leo's hand and said, half in doubt and half in curiosity:
"Cancer's ring… what did you do it?"
One of Leo's ring, which was the proof of participation of the contestant Cancer, pilfered from the defeated noble's body, looked corrupted and tainted, as if it had been submerged in tar, encircled Leo's middle finger. Black lines of corruption, perfectly outlining the renowned mage's mana channels, like a stream of dirty essence. It seemed to originate from the ring itself rather than from the use.
Lowering his hand and looking at it forlornly, Leo said in solitude:
"I didn't do anything. Well, not nothing… rather, I just paid a price. A heavy, heavy price."
There was an inexorable expression on Harita's face as digested Leo's words carefully.
A price. All magic has a price, whether that be mana, life, or other items of value. It is the basics of basics, the fundamental laws of magic itself.
The reason for the erasure of the Legends of the Seven Seas, as well as its continued cover-up, is most likely for this reason.
No matter the date or era, there will always be those filled with avarice, fools with dreams, and zealots with their wild intricacies who desire more than they can take. The Legends are something not meant for this world, and thus, it had been redacted from all records, documents, and historical literature. People like Leo, who has both the power and the means to call these creatures upon the world at their fingertips and have them wreak havoc across them, will do so without a shadow of a doubt. They're just like that; foolish and idiotic, not caring about the circumstances.
Just like his master, Lieren.
…But not without cost. Summoning in itself is a dangerous venture, as it requires not their own power, but the power of others. Specifically, the creature that is to be summoned. It's less of a summoning, and more of an "invitation".
If the creature to be summoned is alive, that is.
Conjuring a "vessel" and "inviting" a soul said "vessel" is an entirely different ordeal to regular summoning, which simply requires the caster and the summoned to form a pact and mutual agreement. A simple ritual will do in cases like these.
To summon a dead creature, and a Legend to boot, not only requires mana beyond compare, but also skill beyond compare.
Both of which should not belong to only one person. One so young, as well.
Feeling his master's Resistance flow through him like and into the binding wind, Harita muttered under his breath as his shackles gradually loosened:
"You really are different, huh?"
'Come to think of it, I seem to be meeting more and more of those lately.'
Leo's expression hardened, his nostrils flaring.
"So you didn't just strike up a conversation out of nowhere…"
Flaring his Reinforcement, Harita broke free and gripped his dagger, looking at the renowned mage with pity.
"It's a shame that I have to kill you. I bet you would have done great things in your lifetime."
Leo shifted slightly, fixing his footing and putting up one hand.
"Oh, I will. Though I can't say the same for the likes of you."
Yelling with all his heart, Harita beckoned with slight panic:
"Bian, now!"
The renowned mage's eyes grew wide as a crystal ball.
"What—?!"
And then, all hell broke loose.
◇◆◇◆◇
Like a heavenly body streaking across the Sky Beyond, Bian shot out of her hiding place, where she had masked her mana signature and presence in. There was a faint glimmer of stardust, her lustrous silver hair trailing behind her like a shooting star.
In her hands was her silver rapier, Weeping Maiden. It shone brighter than the night sky itself.
…Meanwhile, Harita caught himself with a start. Gale-force winds wrapped around him, alike and different to the Legend's tempestuous winds. It pushed him forward and into the renowned mage, having achieved temporary and limited flight.
Harita did not waste a second and slashed at Leo with a grimace.
"Tch…!" The renowned mage clicked his tongue like an annoyed brat. At his swift behest, seven mana circles, which looked like thin and hollow rings, manifested in midair around him, forming a complex array of intersecting rings.
Practically at the same time, an impenetrable translucent barrier shone for a brief second before melting into the fabric of space. It was so seamless and natural that, for a moment, Harita considered it to just be a trick of the eye.
But, no, it wasn't. Couple with his unique vision and hid master's Resistance, something of that is impossible.
*CHING!*
A sharp, reverberating high-pitched noise rang out, spreading over the battlefield. It was sharp and distracting, but not the most debilitating.
After a second of confusion, Harita swung his own weapon, as well, drawing a beautiful arc in the air. There were faint, green sparks left behind as trails, like some kind of glamorous show.
*creak*
A crack surfaced on the nascent barrier, spreading through it like a tree, branching out until the entire thing shattered like a glass dome. Faint colorless glimmers spread across the battlefield all over the three of them.
Fixing his grip and gritting his teeth, Harita pointed the edge of his blade at Leo with a furious expression like a hungry lion, his eyes ablaze as he performed a reverse cut with his dagger, sweeping his watersteel blade back, tracing the faint, green sparks he had left in space.
"…!" With his eyes opened wide and attentively awake, Leo put his forearms up in defense at the last second. While Harita's initial cut was far faster that he would have liked, and infinitely harder to dodge, his second is bound to be as — maybe even more dangerous.
And so, dodging was out of the question. Which meant that he would have to, since the start of this battle, incur some damage.
Harita knew that all to well, and thus opted for another method.
"..." For the briefest of seconds, Leo's face was that of a wandering fool, lost and unreadable. There was an inexorable expression on his slightly matured face.
Readjusting his swing, Harita retracted his arm slower than normal, making sure that Leo was watching him and no-one else entirely.
And then, Bian made her move. The tempestuous winds of the Legend of the Dead Sea, the Lord of Storms, clashed against her comparatively meager and insignificant gale-force winds like a cyclone and a hurricane at odds with each other.
…However, instead of fighting the wind, she opted to use it, instead. With the raging contest behind her making control less noticeable, she instead allowed the two forces to fight each other freely and trike her from behind like an air cannon.
With Weeping Maiden in both hands, Bian let her control over the winds loose and allowed herself to fly off like a missile and appear just a shy feet away from Leo's mature face.
There was silent doubt and questioning evident on her face, like a question left unfinished.
But these feelings didn't last very long as she focused back to her own spells and mana circulation, and used all her augmentation capabilities to boost herself even more.
*FLASH!*
And then, something happened, something unforeseen by anybody.
"…What… what the…"
Looking down at his own body, by the sternum, was a kneeling and bleeding body, with swimming eyes and clouded irises. Crimson liquid flowed from the wound left behind by the protruding weapon from the other side of his body.
As a drop of blood flowed down the edge of his lips, Leo stifled a cough and failed miserably.
"Kill them, my lord…"
As a cry loud enough to be heard by the entire godforsaken city pierced their poor ears, Harita had no choice but to look up with a deep grimace.
He didn't like what he saw, at all.