Chapter 17: The Spirit of Fire
Ruri and the others returned to the castle to find it was filled with busy soldiers, frantically running to and fro. Their voices could be heard shouting all over.
“Hey, hurry up!”
“Call a medic!”
“Get the support troops together. Get to His Majesty’s side on the double!”
“Did something happen?” Ruri wondered aloud.
As they went further into the chaos to scope out the situation, they could see soldiers collapsed on the floor. Not just one or two either. Soldiers lay everywhere along the corridor, as if making a path of bodies.
Ruri checked a nearby soldier, happy to see he was breathing and merely unconscious. Curiously enough, his clothes and hair looked as if they had been singed by heat. Upon closer inspection of the ceiling and walls, they also showed traces of fire damage.
“What happened here?” Ruri questioned, looking to Joshua and Ewan for answers. But since they had been with her this whole time, they naturally had no idea themselves.
Rin, floating by Ruri’s side, looked at Kotaro and Chi as if she noticed something.
“Say, doesn’t this presence feel like...?”
“Indeed, it is his presence,” replied Kotaro.
Chi nodded. “Yup, sure seems that way.”
The three spirits alone had a grasp on the situation.
Oblivious to their revelation, Ruri and her group followed the path of bodies. It led straight to the royal throne room. Normally, Arman would be there giving orders to his aides. Ruri debated whether to proceed on. Judging from the state of all the soldiers, she could guess that something big must have gone down.
Ruri and her group were torn. They wanted to avoid immediate danger, but they also didn’t want to just abandon Arman. However, as the party pondered over their decision, Kotaro and the other spirits steadily marched onward.
After realizing Ruri and the others weren’t following, Rin turned around and called out, “What are you doing, Ruri? You’re going to get left behind.”
“Wait, you’re going in?!” Ruri exclaimed.
They were hesitant, but since they couldn’t just let Rin and the other spirits go by themselves, they ran to catch up to them. Ruri couldn’t hide her anxiety over what could possibly be happening in there.
They rushed into the throne room. Arman could be seen toward the back where the throne rested. In front of the throne, a slew of soldiers stood in a circle with their swords drawn, their faces intensely hostile.
In the center of the encirclement was a lone man. He was tall, with a mane of bright, waist-length hair and strong gold-colored eyes. Despite being surrounded by a number of threatening soldiers, the corners of his lips pushed up into an amused smirk.
It was plain as day that this person was an uninvited guest. But it was even more shocking that the abundance of soldiers had allowed the man to infiltrate the heart of the castle, where the king assumed his duties, in the first place.
With the literal path of soldiers leading to the throne room, Ruri looked around to see if the invader was accompanied by anyone else. But the red-haired man was the only one there. That was also quite the shock since it meant he made it all the way here by himself. It was safe to assume that whoever he was, he boasted considerable strength.
The mystery man, not paying any heed to the soldiers around him, looked squarely at Arman as he sat atop his throne.
“I presume you’re the king?”
“What are you all doing? Seize the intruder!” Arman ordered, ignoring the man’s question.
Upon his call, the fleet of soldiers descended upon him in an instant. The man was trapped like a rat in a cage, surrounded on all sides with nowhere to go. Holding one’s own single-handedly against this many people was a tall order for anyone that wasn’t a dragonkin. However, when the soldiers tried to lay hands on the man, flames ignited high around his body, creating a wall of fire between them.
The soldiers tried to extinguish the flames flying onto their garments as they loudly shouted, “Fire!” and, “Put it out!”
The pillars of flames touched the ceiling, scattering embers and sending skin-searing heat toward Ruri, who was standing a distance away from the action.
“Rin, please!” Ruri shouted, asking for Rin, the Spirit of Water, to assist in dousing the fire. It wasn’t long before water cascaded from overhead, extinguishing the flames that had spread throughout the throne room.
Although some scorch marks remained, the massive amount of water killed the fire licking at the soldiers. They likely had a few burns to show from the ordeal, but luckily nothing too serious had happened since the fire was put out almost immediately.
Their relief was short lived, however. The man had somehow gotten close to them and snatched hold of Rin.
“Hm? You’re...” the man started, squinting at Rin.
Being a supreme-level spirit, Rin should have been able to easily get away, but for some reason, she didn’t show any signs of resisting. Kotaro and Chi looked on, calm and composed. The only one going into hysterics was Ruri, who stepped forward to come to Rin’s aid.
“Hey, let go of Rin!” Ruri shouted.
The man turned his attention toward Ruri. He had just infiltrated the castle, but there wasn’t a hint of hostility or bloodlust in his eyes. He seemed to be simply looking Ruri over as if to ascertain her identity.
He winced for a moment before glaring sharply. “Who is this bratty little girl?”
“Never mind me. I’m telling you to let Rin go!”
“Rin?” repeated the man, quizzically looking at the supreme-level spirit in his hand.
“Yes, that is my name. A perfectly fine name at that. I had Ruri pick it out for me.”
“Ruri? By ‘Ruri,’ are you referring to that pug-nosed little brat over there?”
“Pug-nosed...” Ruri was miffed at the man’s choice of words, but she was more concerned over the casual manner in which Rin was conversing with the stranger. She was a supreme-level spirit with a ton of pride. Normally, if anyone just grabbed her out of the air like that, she would fly into a fit of rage and pummel them into the dust.
As Ruri tried to concoct a plan to rescue Rin from his clutches, Kotaro and Chi both walked up to the man and casually addressed him.
“It’s been quite some time,” Kotaro said, approaching the man without hesitation.
“Yo,” greeted Chi. He lifted his tiny front leg like he was waving hello to an old friend.
The mystery man’s eyes widened in surprise. “Well, I can’t say I expected you two here as well. The whole lot of you are in some bizarre bodies. And, well, this is behavior I expect of Earth, but seeing you among all these people is a rare sight, Wind.”
“I’d rather you use my name. It’s Kotaro.”
“...You let a person name you?” the man asked, extremely shocked.
Kotaro nodded proudly. “Indeed. A fine name, is it not? Ruri gave it to me.”
“Ruri...” the man trailed off, finally showing something other than disinterest. He looked at Ruri again. You could tell from his eyes what he felt—curiosity.
He made a beeline straight for Ruri, but knowing they couldn’t just let some unknown individual approach her, Joshua and Ewan stood before her in an attempt to protect her.
“Move out the way,” said the man.
“Not on your life, pal. Who in the hell are you?!” replied Joshua.
Joshua and Ewan glared at the mysterious man, refusing to budge an inch. The man furrowed his brow and slashed his hand across the air. Soon after, a roar exploded around them. It blew both dragonkin away, and they smacked hard against a wall. Though they were on their guards, they weren’t able to take the man down. In fact, they weren’t even able to defend themselves. They both just sat on the floor, reeling, their expressions sour.
“Joshua! Ewan!” Ruri shouted in concern.
The sight of two dragonkin—two natural-born elite fighters—falling so quickly and unceremoniously was unheard of. Everyone’s eyes bulged out of their sockets, and they all stared at the man as fear coursed through their veins.
Now with the obstructions removed, the man came to stand before Ruri. He was naturally looking down at her due to his height, giving him an imposing demeanor.
“You’re the one who named those two?”
“I did. You have a problem with that?!” Ruri replied bravely, but secretly she was scared witless. He had incapacitated both Joshua and Ewan, two powerful dragonkin, with little effort, so eliminating her would be easier than taking candy from a baby.
Kotaro snuggled up to Ruri as if he could sense her fear. He tried to reassure her by saying “It’s all right, Ruri. You needn’t be scared. They simply have interest in you; that is all.”
Rin slipped from his hand and floated right up in his face. “You blew those two away and scared poor Ruri!” she shouted angrily.
“Nonsense. I employed the proper amount of restraint. I didn’t kill them, now did I?”
“Well, you need to employ more restraint. They may be dragonkin, but they’re still mortal,” Rin argued.
“You’re always going overboard, Fire,” Kotaro added.
“That’s the last thing I want to hear out of you, Wind.”
Rin and the man exchanged words in a friendly manner, and even Kotaro’s quip seemed to exude a sense of familiarity.
“Wait, do you all know each other?”
“Indeed, this is one of our brethren. He is the supreme-level Spirit of Fire,” Kotaro said, his voice echoing throughout the silent throne room.
“Huh?!” Ruri exclaimed.
Ruri, however, wasn’t the only one to show surprise. Ewan and Joshua, still sitting on the floor, and Arman atop his throne all looked on, eyes wide.
The soldiers, however, proceeded to turn deathly pale. It was for good reason too. They had pointed their blades toward a spirit, the object of their worship. Not just any spirit either—a supreme-level spirit.
Everyone in the room dropped their swords and collapsed to their knees. Arman couldn’t blame his men for losing their will to attack. While he was still skeptical, there was no way he could possibly tell them to attack now that he knew the offender was a spirit.
“What is the supreme-level Spirit of Fire doing here...?” Ewan questioned.
“Yeah, and as a sidenote: yowch!” Joshua exclaimed.
Ruri ran over to them as they staggered to their feet, asking, “Are you both all right?”
“Supreme-level spirits really are no joke...” Joshua commented. “I don’t think I’ve ever taken a beatdown this bad before, especially without putting up a fight.”
“I have, but only from Brother,” Ewan clarified.
Out of all the people who served in the royal castle, Joshua and Ewan were some of the youngest, but both of them were immensely capable individuals. That was obvious from the fact they were the ones always serving as bodyguards to Ruri, a Beloved. In spite of that, both had been quickly dispatched. Neither outwardly showed it, but it was safe to assume they were shocked. Fortunately, while they seemed to be in pain, neither were completely incapacitated thanks to their sturdy dragonkin bodies.
“Mere mortals shouldn’t try to impede me,” remarked the man in a brazen, offhand manner.
That comment annoyed Ruri, but the spirit seemed to be the type to attack others at the drop of a hat. His temperament was also a mystery, so it was probably wise not to make any thoughtless remarks. Knowing this, Ruri repressed her urges and stayed silent. Mentally, however, she was slinging all sorts of heated words in his general direction.
“All of you are contracted to this little girl?”
“Darn tootin’. Well, for now, at least,” Chi replied.
“Not just us. Time is also under contract,” Kotaro added.
“With Time as well? Who is this girl?”
“And why, pray tell, is it you don’t know? Didn’t you hear from the other spirits?” asked Rin. Rin and Chi both came to see Ruri based on the stories from the other spirits.
Spirits had the ability to mutually communicate their thoughts, so they could hear each other’s voices even if they were at a distance from one another. That was why, if the man was the supreme-level Spirit of Fire, he should have heard something about Ruri already. She had four supreme-level spirits conscripted to her, making her so famous that there wasn’t a single spirit around that didn’t know who she was.
“I’ve been sleeping here for the past thousand years. I just woke up the other day.”
“Early to rise as usual, I see,” Rin quipped.
Judging from Rin’s unsurprised reaction, this news didn’t seem to be a one-off occurrence. Apparently, he had a loose grasp on time.
The four spirits then started to engage in some rousing chitchat with one another. They probably had a ton of things to talk about, but Ruri wished they would pick a better time and place.
Arman and the soldiers wanted to speak up, but they couldn’t bring themselves to do so as none of them had the courage to dare interrupt a conversation between a pack of supreme-level spirits. The only person capable of doing that would be Ruri, the contract-bearer of Kotaro and the others.
She could feel the silent pressure coming from Arman to straighten things out. Ruri also felt hesitant to interject, but she reluctantly did so, regardless.
“Sorry to interrupt the festivities, but could I have a moment?”
The conversation screeched to a halt, and all eyes fell upon Ruri.
“What, brat? You have some nerve to interrupt our conversation, being the mere mortal that you are.”
“Stop calling me ‘brat.’ I have a name and it’s ‘Ruri’!”
“What’s wrong with calling a brat a brat?”
“Rin, make him stooop!” Ruri turned to Rin for help since nothing she said was getting through to the man.
“Oh my, weren’t you supposed to be a lover of ladies? You’re being rather harsh to Ruri despite her being one herself,” Rin commented.
“Hmph! Even I have my preferences. A bratty little girl like this is so far removed from my tastes that I scoff at the thought. Beautiful women with feminine features are more my type. If you want me to treat you nicer, then I’d brush up on being a better woman if I were you, brat. You lack what it takes.”
Ruri clenched her fist, seemingly ready to snap. Socking him across the jaw wasn’t going to cut it for her. She must’ve had a terrible look on her face because Ewan hooked his arm through hers to stop her.
“Contain yourself, Ruri. You’re trying to square up against a supreme-level spirit here. Act rashly and who knows what’ll happen to you? He’s not like the spirits you’ve contracted.”
“Supreme-level spirit or not, I’ve had it up to here!”
“Keep that scowl on your face and you’ll send men running for the hills, brat. That is, if there’s any man crazy enough to pick you in the first place.”
Just as Ruri ran out of her last bit of patience, Arman finally stepped in. Faced with the Spirit of Fire, the spirit who had invaded his castle and left dozens of soldiers in his wake, Arman looked to be a tad bit nervous, to say the least.
“I am the Beast King, Arman. I extend my most sincere apologies for drawing blades against you, Lord Spirit of Fire. However, I would like to inquire as to why you have come to my humble castle, if permitted.”
“Oh, right. Nearly forgot. I want you all to eliminate the Church of God’s Light.”
No one present expected to hear that response, especially Ruri whose eyes bulged wide at the supreme-level spirit’s words.
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