Right here, right now, was where it all started.
"Why am I here again…"
Lieren looked down at himself, quivering and trembling in pure, primal fear and horror. The coward was hiding in some corner, holding himself like a fool, waiting for the horrifying existence to pass.
"..."
He instantly pieced the replaying nightmare as some kind of dream created by his subconscious self. He felt for his abdomen and leg, then sighed as he noticed the two gaping wounds in them, and looked to the right.
His heart immediately sunk.
Lady Berett had always been a beautiful lady—too beautiful, even, for his reach. Luscious rosy lips and naturally flowing hair like a raging waterfall. It was her eyes that drew him in at first; those hazel gems.
Right now, however, they couldn't be any more different. The hazel shine of her eyes were gone, replaced with lime green. Paired with the blood on her arms, legs, and face, she looked like a harbinger of death. Maybe even a herald.
The advent of defeat.
She walked with an unsteady gait, her steps echoing and making the cowardly boy hiding in the corner hug himself in futile reluctance even more, tears streaming down his face like an ugly river. With shaky hands, he covered his mouth and closed his eyes, believing that, if the enemy cannot see you, then you cannot see them.
It was an idiotic attempt.
The boy's body was shaking the entire time.
He looked so small, weak, and pathetic, so much so that it was very easy to mistake the quivering boy as a meager bug, infinitesimal and inconsequential.
And then, Lady Berett was upon him. He couldn't see her face anymore, he didn't see this part, after all.
But he did see the next.
"Minasaki…"
Looking down at the poor hamahan girl, Lieren kneeled down to be eye-level with her. A solemn expression appeared on his face.
He clenched his hand so tightly that it felt like his veins were going to explode.
Closing his eyes with a tear, he waited for the two to pass, stifled sobs filling the room. He didn't know why, but he felt strangely attached to the gutsy girl of unbelievable talent. Perhaps, he never would, and these feelings of his will be left unresolved.
And that was fine. He didn't desire a conclusion, anyways. What he wanted was much worse.
Retribution.
For those he lost, no matter how little he knew about them. For the emotions that she made him feel, and for leading him on and eviscerating her first friend ever.
He didn't even care about her past sins, those she had done under the mask of her persona: The Marionette, and all the horrid plans she will certainly enact in the future. He cared none for it.
All Lieren cared about was himself and his own deficiency.
He swore to his heart, made an oath, as the figure and the bedraggled corpse walked further and further away from him:
"I promise. It might not be now, it might not be tomorrow, but in the future, when you're at your weakest and your guard is down, I will strike you. I will kill you. I will do my utmost best to resolve these emotions of mine and eviscerate you from the face of this land. At all costs. Even if I have to rip my arm, eat my flesh, and drown in my own blood. I will kill you, I promise that."
As he turned around, facing the other way and retracing his steps, he failed to notice as Lady Berett turned around, looking as if she could see his form, despite the plane they were in amounting to no more than a dream.
There was sly smile on her face, a drop of blood falling down her lips.
And then, she turned around.
It was then that their fates became irrevocably entangled.
◇◆◇◆◇
*BOOM!*
"…!!"
Lieren woke up with a start, standing up on his own two feet as he instinctively picked up his brilliant dagger. He automatically circulated mana throughout his body.
Thankfully, the worst had come to pass. Hid wounds have closed. Blood was no longer seeping from it, which was a boon he would accept any day. He was doing great!
Though the same couldn't be said for the others.
As he activated Manavision, his surroundings gradually came into focus.
First, there was dust and smoke, which is never a good sign. Then, there was the cracking sounds of the crumbling pillar, slowly and surely making its way to complete destruction.
He looked down with a sinking feeling in his heart.
"…Mysta?"
Lastly, there was the uptight attendant's bedraggled body. The stench of scorched skin and burned flesh made the air practically unbreathable, both heavy and lasting.
It was as though somebody had been burned alive—two of them, even.
A solemn smile appeared on his face for a second, before immediately disappearing like the invisible wind. A bitter expression replaced his deep melancholy.
Kneeling down with caution, he scooped up the uptight attendant, checked for breathing, confirmed it, then looked to the side with a hard-to-read expression.
Standing where he looked at was a man he knew quite well.
"So, you're still alive, huh? Not only are you a cretin, but you're a cockroach, too? How revolting."
Scorpio called for his masterful spear, summoning it from the debris with one outstretched open hand.
Then, he pointed the sharp point at Lieren, his brown eyes alit with the same kind of determination in him.
The angst teenager seemed to have his life to live and values to abide by, and losing here would mean spelling the doom of one or both of them.
"Is that so? Oh, well. Nothing I could do about it, I guess."
Brandishing his dagger, Lieren took a step forward and prepared for another turn of combat.
Round 2 START…!
◇◆◇◆◇
Harita's face paled like a specter as he beheld the Legend of the Dead Sea. His hands shook and his heart palpitated. His master's Resistance was still active, albeit a little weaker.
'Something happened…'
It was then that he heard it.
*boom!*
"Huh?!"
Looking down and away, he allowed himself to worry for a fraction of a second and peer into the space where Eavesdrop was.
It was muffled, weakened, and was too far down to accurately judge the strength of it, but he was certain of what happened.
'Detonation…'
Scowling, he shifted his attention back to the Legend in the skies—rather, the supposed ruler of it.
The Lord of Storms.
The Mother of Clouds.
Sister of Rain.
Geruda Tempest.
Diving deep into himself, Harita felt for his remaining mana reserves and clicked his tongue and gripped his watersteel dagger even tighter.
His mind was split between two decisions.
One was to save his master, and the attendant with her. Doing so would mean abandoning Bian. The two of them couldn't go together, since somebody needed to stall for the other to search. And since their ligature provided a form of spiritual connection between the two of them, Harita was the prime candidate to search.
But that all but spelled doom for the one left to stall the Legend.
The other, riskier path is for him to stay her and try to beat the Legend, or at the very least stall for time. This would mean leaving his master to his own devices, risking both of their lives. Through their link, Harita could subtly feel that his master was seriously injured. He was barely breathing.
And that scared him the most.
Taking a deep breath, Harita closed his eyes and relaxed his facial expression.
Inside, however, was a raging storm of bridled emotions.
"Lieren can do this. He wouldn't give up here, I know that for certain."
Harita knew of his master's situation from Kronesta, his superior and the one who saw the boy in the orphanage first. He knew of his fear, his dread, his regret, and his solid vow of retribution and vengeance. Not for the ones he lost and the past sins of his hated individual, but to resolve whatever lingering emotions and feelings there is in the world.
And he also knew that he had nothing else to live for. At first, he hoped to give the boy something else to live on. Something more profound and beautiful.
However, that had not come to fruition.
In the beginning, he had tasked the boy to hunt with him, educate him in the ways of life and death and what entails between it. But when he saw the boy, uncaring for his own life, continue to hack away at the monster, with eyes that despised the world, he felt his own reality crumble.
A world where kids of such a young age, with no loved ones left and forced to dive into an unknown world and the cruel and savage fate that awaits within…
Such a world was not a fun world at all.
Even this lousy and crazy competition was an excuse he found for himself to give the boy something. The competition had a clear goal: reach the end and marry the girl. Through this, no matter how absurd and unrealistic its, he at least hoped for something to spark within the boy.
A reason to live besides retribution, perhaps.
But no. Fate is a much more cruel mistress than he knew it to be.
The boy only descended deeper into darkness, further cultivating his mislead anger and regret.
Still, there was still a chance to save him.
Harita hoped so, at least
Looking down at the falling body of the renowned mage, which was suddenly caught by the avian creature of sapphire and yellow feathers, he finally came to terns with a dire truth.
Bian landed by his side as the two of them finally reached the ground. Tempestuous wind blew around them furiously.
It was like they were in the center of a hurricane. Which felt more and more surreal the longer the thought stayed.
"The summoned creatures aren't disappearing…" Bian muttered, her words drowned out by the tempestuous winds.
Harita did not need to hear the rest to know what she was talking about.
Summoned creatures, by nature, aren't real beings. They're merely souls trapped within a suitable vessel. Though there are rituals and spells that allow for full incarnation of creatures from otherworldly planes of existence like Hel, summoning those creatures require much more than just a simple and a mediocre vessel.
To fully incarnate a creature of such power and authority requires a far greater sacrifice than one can imagine.
Leo had not fulfilled the conditions to summon, let alone fully incarnate such a powerful creature.
And yet, here it was. A monster capable of devastating seas and cities at a whim. It raged and whined as it continued to form its body and soul, tempestuous cyclones surrounding it constantly.
Harita was in the middle of such a scenario.
Bian too, was there. Looking up, she said in a voice much lower than normal:
"So, what's the plan? Are you getting the kid, or are you staying here?"
He had already made up his mind.
"I'm staying. It's not like I can leave, anyways. That hurricane is too powerful to traverse and pass through."
And even if he did, somehow, it would not be without a plethora of wounds and lacerations.
He sighed.
"So, yeah. Better get ready, cause you're not getting out of here so easily."
She took a step forward at the same time he did.
"You know, my Vow did state that you're not allowed to harm me, and you have been sticking up to that until now. But I feel like with how I'm being treated, it's almost like you're breaking it."
He chuckled.
"Must have been your imagination."
She looked down with an inexorable expression.
"Huh. Is that so…"
"..."
'…If that really is the case, and I did break our Vow, then I already would have suffered the repercussions of it.'
Circulating mana throughout their bodies, Harita and Bian squared up, the latter summoning gale-force winds to her aid.
It was finally time to face the Legend.
◇◆◇◆◇
The battle began faster than the two expected, but not so fast that they weren't able to react accordingly.
*Whoosh!*
Tempestuous winds blew across the battlefield, sweeping the pair's footing.
'Dammit!'
Bian was the first to recover.
Brandishing her silver rapier, she leapt from one crumbling mound to another, until she reached the highest point there was. It was low, and nowhere near high enough to reach the incarnating Legend.
But it was enough for a vantage point.
…Meanwhile, Harita finally got back up to his feet, just before another wave of tempestuous wind slammed into him like giant's palm. This time, he was more than prepared to face it…
Or, rather, evade it.
Green sparks ignited around his body. They were much less prominent than before, the mana that leaks from his body unconsciously now contained by his borrowed Resistance.
It made him just a little bit stronger.
…Which was a great boon, considering his current calamitous predicament. Any help is great help in his situation.
With a lighter step than normal, he leaped to the side and dashed towards where Bian was, leaving a faint green trail behind him. It was much less prominent than before. Or ever, actually.
Rolling through the shaky and uneven terrain with astounding speed, Harita gripped his dagger's hilt and glared at the flying avian creature of sapphire and yellow. The summoned creature that has been carrying Leo's body all this time.
It was then that he noticed it with a bitter thought.
'That bastard is still alive.'
The renowned mage refused to die.