The Girl Raised by the Death God Holds the Sword of Darkness in Her Arms - Volume 6 - Chapter 4.3

III

“Despite being our second meeting, this is our first conversation, is it not?”

“Yep, that’s right. Ever since that first time we met, I thought we’d end up here one day.”

“What a coincidence. I felt the same way.” The two smiled at one another, then, as though it had been choreographed, both drew their swords.

Ashton, seeing the greatest warrior in the imperial army for the first time, was struck first by Felix’s almost uncannily beautiful features. He seemed all the more regal for how he stood before Olivia, the feared Death God, with perfect calm.

“Olivia will win, right?” The words slipped out of him, drawn by a fear he had never felt before. But Claudia didn’t reply. He looked and saw her face had gone distinctly stiff. Sweat beaded on her brow. “Colonel Claudia...”

“I can feel it now too,” she said. “The Odic force coming off of that man is something terrible.”

“Odic force? That mysterious power inside you?” Claudia had told Ashton about Odh once before, and he had listened half-disbelieving. But when he thought of how Olivia fought, how it tore out the foundations of common sense, he had no choice but to believe it. Just as the army accepted the existence of mages without question, there were still many things Ashton did not know.

“Right. What I can say for sure right now is that the battle to come will be beyond anything we can imagine.”

“That bad...” Ashton gulped.

“Here they go.”

Olivia and Felix both raised their swords to one side. The next moment, there was a crash like thunder as the blades met. Every blow and parry sent a wave of vibrations out through the air around them. In the time it took to blink, their blades flashed countless paths through the air; then, storing power through her whole body like a spring, Olivia leapt high into the sky. Felix shot up after her, and they exchanged another series of blows, this time including punches and kicks. The two of them hit the ground at the same time, then sprung apart.

“You’re no stranger to fighting. I suppose you are of the Deep Folk after all.”

“Huh? Does that mean you’re one of those Asura, Felix?” Olivia asked. It was such an unexpected question that Felix was genuinely taken aback. If Olivia knew that name, that had to mean one of the Asura had already tried to engage her. That Olivia was still here regardless could only mean that the assassination attempt had failed.

“I know of them, but I am certainly not one of them,” he said emphatically. There was nothing more repulsive to him than being grouped in with that detestable league of assassins.

Olivia cocked her head, looking puzzled. “Oh...” she said. “Just in case, you don’t know Z, do you?”

“Z...?”

“Yes, the God of Death. I’ve been searching, but I can’t seem to find it anywhere.” Olivia went on to give a detailed explanation of the distinguishing features of this “Z.” There was no way any human could fit her description, but Olivia’s expression was dead serious.

So the girl they call the Death God is searching for a God of Death herself... Felix remembered something Lassara had once said: “Behind the House of Valedstorm, there lurks some presence beyond human understanding.” She had been implying that death gods really existed. Felix had responded by dismissing them as figments of the imagination.

Surely not; they couldn’t really...?!

“Maybe you do know something?” Olivia looked at him expectantly, but Felix shook his head.

“I’m sorry to say I’ve neither seen nor heard of such a person.”

“Oh...” Olivia said, her voice low and disappointed. The next second, she vanished. Felix raised Elhazard in a guard above his head in the same instant that, like a black streak, the ebony blade swung down at him. The ground beneath his feet caved in from the impact.

Such terrific power! Felix thought.

Olivia put still more force behind her blade, as though she meant to shatter Elhazard altogether. Felix shifted his weight, turning it aside, then aimed a high side kick at Olivia’s unprotected right side. Olivia pulled away, shifting immediately into a defensive stance, but Felix ignored this and kicked straight through. Olivia went flying, but by tucking her knees into her chest and somersaulting through the air she was able to soften the impact. She alighted gently back on the ground, unscathed. Felix didn’t leave her time to catch her breath. He used Swift Step just as Olivia did the same. They crossed swords, backed away, then closed in once more, blade reconnecting with blade. The scenery around them reduced to a single stream as their blows violently shook both the firmament and the heavens.

For now it looks like I have the edge in physical combat, but Olivia is undeniably more agile than I. She really is a tough opponent. I’m not getting anywhere like this... Felix leapt back to put distance between Olivia and himself once more, then returned Elhazard to its scabbard. He then crouched down low, letting out a quiet breath as he did so. 

At the sight of Felix sheathing his sword, Olivia cocked her head for a second. But sensing the same unnatural aura coming off him, she immediately shifted her stance to meet an oncoming attack. She was watching Felix like a hawk when there came a noise of impact that seemed to rise up from the pit of her stomach, and he vanished. A cool breeze wove its way across the battlefield...

Olivia’s eyes snapped wide open. Left!!! A double right kick!!! She knew at once there was no time for a counterattack, and instead used Swift Step to evade. But even that was nowhere near fast enough. Felix’s kick hit her square on.

“Ngh!” Even as she was thrown away once more, Olivia hunted for an opening for a counterattack. From behind her, she felt a fierce pressure, and no sooner did she hit the ground than she used Swift Step of Gales. She narrowly avoided the fist that came at her like a vast wall, taking a few flying leaps back to distance herself from Felix. With the back of her hand, she wiped away the blood trickling from the corner of her mouth.

That had to be Ultimate Swift Step, the highest level of Swift Step. I never managed to learn that one... she thought. Felix is even stronger than I thought.

Felix drew his glittering sword once more, slowly approaching Olivia like a lion on its prey. She had been so focused on the battle she hadn’t noticed until now that fog was creeping across the battlefield. Fog... Then that technique might work. Who knows how much of an effect it’ll have on Felix, but it’s worth a try. Olivia focused her Odh to call up the illusion technique, Moon Shadow.

A thick mist swallowed the battlefield, blotting out the light of the sun. Just before Olivia vanished into its depths, Felix was sure he saw more of her, layered over one another. A hallucination...? No, this is your doing, isn’t it?

Keeping alert, Felix raised his sword in front of him and fixed his gaze ahead. Then, like the slightest of pinpricks, he sensed a distortion behind him. In the same instant, he pulled away to one side, just in time to see the ebony blade stabbing out.

I didn’t sense her at all in that attack. Just what is going on...? In general, skilled warriors were also skilled at masking their presence. And Olivia was of the Deep Folk, some of the greatest warriors known to man. It wasn’t inconceivable that she had attained such finesse in masking her own presence. But in Felix’s veins ran the blood of the Asura—of those detestable assassins. For assassins, the ability to sense the presence of others came with the territory. His opponent here might be Olivia, but she was still only human. No one could extinguish their presence entirely, not so long as they still lived. It was therefore impossible that he would not have sensed her.

Even as doubts nested in his heart, Felix moved to strike back. He was poised to act when—

“Eh—?!” As before, he sensed no one, yet when he twisted his upper body away from the faint distortion to his left, the ebony blade slid silently through the air there. Felix quickly abandoned any thought of a counterattack, taking a single bound back. He breathed in a lungful of cool air.

It’s not just that I can’t sense her. That last series of attacks was clearly unnatural. The attack from the side had come immediately after one from behind him. Even with Ultimate Swift Step, Olivia should not have been able to perform such a feat, and besides, the nature of the Swift Step technique made it ill-suited to fine movement.

At any rate, unless I can work out what she’s doing, I’ll only be at a disadvantage... Felix gripped his sword, then took a deep step forward. He then swung Elhazard in a semicircle above his head to place the blade barrier Heaven’s Path. It covered a range of around ten paces around him. Closing his eyes, Felix focused on casting out with his powers of perception—

—Straight ahead! For a third time, the ebony blade materialized without any presence behind it, but with the bare minimum of movement, Felix dodged it. In the time it took to draw a breath, the blade came again from behind him. This too he evaded by leaping backward in an arc through the air. As the world flipped around him, Felix observed how Olivia melted in with the fog; then, as he hit the ground, the ebony blade struck yet again from his right, merciless. There was no time to get into his stance. Knowing it might be futile, he twisted his torso unnaturally, and somehow the blade only grazed his armor.

That was close. If I’d dodged even a moment later... He looked in the direction of the sudden sense of distortion he felt and found that the mark that should have been on his armor had disappeared without a trace. It was as though there had never been a scratch in the first place. What in the world...? Felix’s mind raced along, quickly arriving at a conclusion. It’s a risky gamble, but worth a try. Felix summoned Heaven’s Path once more. This time, when an attack came from the left, he deliberately left himself unguarded. The ebony blade clearly sliced through his side, and yet none of the pain he should have felt came.

Now Felix was certain. An illusion technique taking advantage of the fog... Of course I wouldn’t sense any presence if they’re illusions. It’s an amazing performance, but now that the illusion is broken, I can deal with it. He ignored the ebony blade that came slipping through the fog ahead of him, then carefully scoured the area for Olivia’s presence. Then, he suddenly felt something off in a different way from the previous times.

It can’t be!

He threw his upper body back as far as it would go, in the same instant that the ebony blade sliced down in a graceful arc right in front of Felix’s eyes, cutting off a few strands of his hair. He stared after Olivia as she vanished back into the fog, cursing himself for a fool. Why did you convince yourself all the attacks were illusions? he berated himself. It’s obvious from the nature of the technique that that couldn’t be the case.

It was practically impossible to distinguish between the illusory attacks and the real ones. But while this might at first have seemed like a puzzle with no solution, there had to be some reason at the root of it.

Well, assuming Olivia hasn’t surpassed the bounds of the law of cause and effect. 

Felix narrowly dodged the now entirely one-sided attacks, his mind whirling as he searched for the solution.

No presence, nor any sound. The only thing I can just pick up on is that sense of distortion that comes directly before an attack... Distortion... That’s it, I’ve got it! I know what that distortion really is! For anyone in their right mind, the act of taking a life was a heavy one. But the attacks since the appearance of the mist, with the exception of the one that had caught his hair, had all felt light, even bland. Felix’s answer was proved right when he not only confidently dodged the next attack, but at last even managed to get off a counterattack.

As much as I don’t like using this when it burns up so much Odh... Felix thought as he crouched down low. Then, he leapt up into the sky, sending the Odh he had stored up into Elhazard and then throwing it down at the ground. The mass of Odh hit with a dull, heavy thud, spraying out around the point of impact to disperse all the mist.

“I see. I admit, I don’t know that one.” Before his eyes stood three Olivias all looking up into the sky. One was the real thing. The other two, Felix thought as he hit the ground again, had to be illusions. “So that’s how you were able to pull off such a feat.”

“It didn’t work on you in the end, then,” said the Olivia in front of him, laughing. The other two on the left and right were drawn in toward her until the three Olivias layered on top of one another and returned to being one girl again.

“I wouldn’t say that. I used up a lot of Odh with that last technique.”

“That’s funny. Moon Shadow, what I used just now, uses a fair bit of Odh too.”

They smiled at each other and then, in the same instant, activated Swift Step.

“Colonel Claudia, unless there’s something wrong with my eyes, for a second it looked like there were three Olivias...”

“There’s nothing wrong with your eyes. I saw the same thing.”

“Then just what was that?”

“Some technique using Odh, I expect, but I don’t know anything more than that. All I know is that this isn’t a battle between humans anymore.”

“It...It really isn’t. I can’t even tell what’s going on...”

That the soldiers of both armies, after the fierce and bloody battle they had just fought, now watched Felix and Olivia in silence as though transfixed by a vision left the impression on Ashton that they felt as he did. He had prided himself on knowing better than anyone just how strong Olivia was, yet watching the battle now unfolding, it hit him that he had simply been deluding himself. There was no visible sign of the two, only the harsh, unsettling clash of metal on metal.

Despite knowing the answer, he turned to Claudia and asked, “Can your eyes keep up with them?”

But contrary to his expectations, she replied, “Barely, but yes.”

“I thought so. They’re— Wait, what?! You can see them?!”

“Thanks to these eyes,” Claudia said matter-of-factly.

“Eyes?” Ashton turned his attention to Claudia’s eyes and saw to his surprise a glint of gold. He gasped despite himself.

“This is another example of Odic force.”

“You too, huh...”

“When I was a girl, these eyes scared my best friend so much she pushed me away, saying they were unnatural...” Claudia said. “Do they scare you too, Ashton?” She was still focused on Felix and Olivia’s battle. Though she appeared unfazed, there was a nervous tension in her expression.

In his brightest tones, Ashton said, “Colonel, I am not about to change my opinion of you now just because your eyes glow a little. Now as ever, I don’t know what I would do without you as my comrade. I hope that on this occasion you’ll excuse my lack of proper respect to you as my superior officer.”

Claudia was quiet for a moment, then said, “Thank you.” Ashton saw her smile gently, then he focused his attention back on the battle he could not see.

Olivia’s blade came slashing out of nothingness, leaving Felix no choice but to retreat.

So she’s still got tricks hidden up her sleeve. Of course, the same goes for me...but it still makes things rather difficult. Felix seized upon a momentary opening to put distance between himself and Olivia once more. He held Elhazard at his side, then sent Odh running through every corner of his body. When Olivia immediately closed in on him, he used Ultimate Swift Step; then, as a miniature tornado spun up around the blade, he used Elhazard to call up a Third Order Destroying Whirlwind. Olivia was sent spiraling up into the sky. Felix moved straight into a Fifth Order Rending Slash, unleashing a seemingly infinite number of slashing strikes at her.

“Now go to your rest,” he said. With his final blow, he smashed Olivia straight into the ground. The sound of impact rang out along with a large plume of dust, mingling with the voice of a young man crying Olivia’s name.

“Olivia!” Ashton tried to run, but Claudia seized him by the neck. “Let me go!”

“Calm down!” she snapped. “Look over there!” Ashton followed her finger and saw, through the clouds of dust, a familiar figure. He strained his eyes desperately until at last, when his field of vision cleared, he was able to make out Olivia.

“Hmm. I really can’t beat him on the physical side, can I?” She patted herself over to get off the dust. At this, all the strength went out of Ashton, and he fell down in a heap on the ground. Olivia looked at him in surprise. “Ashton? Are you tired?”

“I don’t believe you...” he muttered. “You’re all right, then?”

Olivia laughed. “Of course I am.”

Ashton took a good look at her, and noticed blood trickling down her arms and legs. It was a terrible shock for him. He had never seen Olivia bleed before.

Seeing Ashton staring at her gobsmacked, Olivia smiled and said, “There’s no need for that face. I’m fine. When you’re alive, sometimes you bleed a bit.”

“But Olivia...”

“Ashton, stop bothering the General.”

“But Colonel...”

Olivia met Claudia’s eyes without a word, nodding. She started to assess herself to ensure there was nothing physically wrong, sending Odh running out through every corner of her body. Bones... Internal organs... Muscles... Yep, nothing wrong! she concluded. But what to do now...

It would be easy if she simply used magic, but Z had been emphatic that she was not to use it against human opponents. Of course, Z had also said that this did not apply when her life was in danger, but it wasn’t as if she faced an imminent risk of death.

“Oh! I’ve kept you waiting!” She waved cheerfully at Felix, who scratched his cheek and smiled uncomfortably.

“I honestly thought that last attack had finished you. It’s hard not to feel dispirited seeing you smiling at me like nothing happened.”

“Oh, but it wasn’t nothing. I took a fair bit of damage.”

“Yes, well. I did use Third Order and Fifth Order attacks. If you hadn’t taken at least some damage, it’d be a sore blow to my confidence.”

“It’s because of Z’s training. I don’t go down easy,” she explained, puffing out her chest. After the drills Z had put her through, she couldn’t go giving up after this. If Z ever found out, she could imagine how it would sigh at her.

Felix’s brow furrowed. “You’ve mentioned that name a few times now, but now I understand...” he said. “So this ‘Z’ is the one who trained you.”

“Just so we’re clear though, Z wasn’t my master.”

“I don’t believe I suggested such a thing?”

“Well, whenever I have this conversation, they all ask if Z was my master,” Olivia said, pouting. She didn’t understand why. She simply hated the idea of people thinking of her and Z as master and student.

“Then... Setting aside the precise nature of your relationship for the moment,” Felix said at last, “I can see that Z is important to you.”

At his words, Olivia felt a wave of simple joy. It made her very happy that someone understood how she felt about Z, even if he was her enemy.

“In any case, shall we continue?”

“I guess so.”

Their blades flowed like running water to meet in a clash both beautiful and brilliant, that drew the soldiers who watched on into a garden of enchantment. When the battle, which seemed as though it might never end, did come to a close, it was not at the hands of Olivia or Felix, nor was it the soldiers. It ended when the sky suddenly turned dark, concurrent with a dry, echoing laugh.

“That voice...” Without thinking, Felix stopped in the middle of an attack, looking around him. “Chancellor Darmés?!” But he could not see the chancellor anywhere. He was, it seemed, not the only one who had heard Darmés’s voice. Olivia looked up at the sky, puzzled, as did the soldiers who were muttering among themselves.

“Hunt all you like, you will not find me, for I am speaking directly into all of your minds.”

“Into our minds!” Olivia exclaimed, for some reason sounding delighted.

“Now then. I have gone to the trouble of making this display for one reason only. Emperor Ramza has issued an official edict abdicating his throne and ceding it to me, Darmés Guski. Felix, I wanted to let you know as soon as possible, so I was waiting for you to finish...and yet, for all your bluster, you’re rather pathetic, aren’t you?”

“Emperor Ramza abdicated of his own volition?! That can’t be!”

“You don’t believe me? Well, that is rather awkward. We’ve already had the coronation...”

“Wha...?!” At a coronation, the new emperor accepted the crown from the old, then proclaimed their ascension before an assembly of the highest-ranking nobles. Darmés would not tell a lie so easily exposed, so Felix could not immediately dismiss the claim as some game of the chancellor’s. He was struggling to find two words to string together when his ears caught a hushed conversation between some of the soldiers.

“...Truth is, there’s something I saw.”

“What’s what you’ve seen got to do with this?”

“It was in front of Marshal Gladden’s grave, he...Chancellor Darmés, that is, was there laughing, like he was happy. And there was this pale light coming off him. Still scares me stiff thinking about it.”

“Pale light? That sounds like the chancellor’s some kind of mage.”

Felix felt as though he had been struck by lightning. In the same moment, it all came together: the changes in Ramza these past years, Gladden’s sudden death, and now, like the final piece of the puzzle slotting into place, this phenomenon seemingly fueled by magecraft. At that moment, he had no hard proof. But Felix was convinced that all the inscrutable occurrences leading up to this were tied to Darmés.

“You blackguard!”

“Oh my. Hurling abuse at your new emperor? Such flagrant disrespect!”

“You will tell me whether Emperor Ramza is safe!”

“Former Emperor Ramza. I am showing him every courtesy, of course...” Darmés paused. “But it would seem he has little intention of following his new emperor.”

When Felix stayed stonily silent, Darmés said, “But that matters not. I am already halfway to my goal, and it is only a matter of time until the Chalice of Darkness brims over. It is a little earlier than I planned for, but Felix, you may now consider your duties at an end.” His high laugh echoed in the dark sky, then, without warning, the ground began to tremble. It subsided before too long, but then—

“Is this a nightmare?” whispered one of the soldiers, lips trembling. From all around them, things crawled up from out of the ground: armor, more rust than metal, bodies with the flesh hanging from the bones, ghastly wails that cut to the soul. One after another, the grotesque figures came squirming out of the earth—yet though they were grotesque, it was impossible to doubt from their appearances that they had once been human. Not only the soldiers of the Eighth Legion, but even the empire’s most elite Azure Knights could only stand and stare as the dead rose before them, as though brought from hell by a hunger for fresh life. The scene was simply too utterly divorced from reality.

“Olivia,” Felix said at length, “what do you say to a temporary truce?”

“That sounds good. It looks like those things are going after living humans.”

Standing to cover the other’s back, they each sent word of the truce to their allies. The soldiers of both armies were moving about this way and that in a state of utter confusion.

“You understand the situation. I propose that you and I take the front line and fight.”

“No complaints from me.”

“But in that case, we’d need someone else to take command of the larger army...”

Under abnormal conditions, a commander became more necessary than ever. Swords swinging everywhere without order would only fuel the confusion. The Azure Knights were lucky to have excellent commanders to spare, but Felix had serious doubts about their ability to handle a crisis. What was required more than anything was clearheaded thinking. They would also need to take the helm of the Eighth Legion in order to avoid confusion in the chain of command. Unfortunately, there were few commanders Felix trusted to make good use of the Eighth Legion against whom they had just been fighting. He did not even have any guarantee that the Eighth Legion would follow orders. If humans were clever enough to always put their reason before their emotions, after all, there would be no war.

“Maybe I could choose a commander from my soldiers?” Olivia suggested.

Felix paused. “You have such a person?”

“I’m pretty sure they’ll be fine.” She turned and yelled, “Ashton! You were listening, right?”

The blond youth she addressed looked up in open dismay. “Me?!”

“Well, there’s no one else I can count on.”

“You’re unbelievable... Pulling out a line like that when we might as well be wandering into the pits of hell...”

“Thanks, Ashton.” Olivia gave him a lovely smile, at which Ashton ran his fingers through his hair in agitation. As though to calm his nerves, he let out a long, deep breath.

“Understood.” He turned and called out, “Soldiers of the Azure Knights, you are to put your undivided attention into attacking! The Eighth Legion will concentrate on defending the Azure Knights. Then...” Ashton rattled off a precise list of commands. The Azure Knights were naturally nervous, but they followed his orders, moving into a solid defensive formation. Felix felt a rush of pride in his soldiers that they had put their reason first.

“His commands were ideally suited to our circumstances and left no opportunity wasted. It’s obvious now that he was the one working behind the scenes in your shadow.”

“He is my prized tactician, after all,” Olivia said, throwing out her chest and nodding in a self-satisfied way. Felix turned to the horde of the dead that crept ever closer, raised Elhazard, and sank into a low stance.

“Let’s go!”

“Okay!” Felix and Olivia faced the oncoming undead and used Swift Step. Behind them, the Azure Knights set to work clearing out the dead to support them. Meanwhile, the Eighth Legion put Ashton’s commands into effect, putting their all into defending the Azure Knights. Three hours later, they had exterminated a thousand of the undead. At some point along the way, the sky had brightened again above the ground strewn with corpses as far as the eye could see.

“That took longer than I thought it would.” Felix let out a breath as he sheathed Elhazard.

“We can’t help that. I mean, it’s our first time fighting dead humans.” Despite the nightmarish nature of the battle, neither of their armies had sustained many casualties. This was not only thanks to Ashton’s well-timed commands, but also to the many excellent commanders who had reliably carried out their orders. However, that was not to say that there had been no problems. Those killed by the dead had risen again to join their ranks, and more than a few of the soldiers had hesitated to turn their blades against them. Dead or not, these were still the allies they had come with together through thick and thin. Setting aside such feelings was easier said than done. And Felix did not believe for a moment that this calamity would end here. Unless they stopped Darmés, the one behind all this, the same thing would happen again and again.

“Right. Felix, what are you going to do now?” Olivia asked, flicking the lumps of flesh clinging to her ebony blade to the ground.

“As much as I want to get to the bottom of the riddles Darmés spoke in, I am more concerned about the safety of the emperor. Here, I have no way of finding out what’s going on, so I mean to return to the imperial capital.”

“But from what that Darmés person was saying, you’ll be treated as a rebel, won’t you? Will you just be able to walk back into the city?”

“I...” Felix trailed off. Olivia was entirely correct. The new emperor had condemned him as a traitor. He couldn’t say he felt no unease about rescuing the “former” emperor.

As he stood there lost for words, Matthew and Teresa came over to him.

“I beg your pardon, but we took the liberty of listening to your conversation. We of your personal guard, along with all of the Azure Knights, will follow you wherever you command us, Lord Felix.”

“If you were listening,” Felix said at length, “then you know I am now a traitor planning on going against the new emperor.”

“My lord, I think it was obvious after that exchange who is in the wrong here. I don’t mean to boast, but ever since I was a boy, I have only ever fought on the side of justice. I have no interest in becoming the villain in this story,” Matthew finished with a shrug.

Teresa added, “I agree with Major Matthew. Or do you intend to abandon us Azure Knights?”

“Lieutenant Teresa...” He found himself lost for words once more. Olivia clapped him on the shoulder.

“Sounds like it’s decided. Is it all right if I come too? There’s a little thing I want to make sure of.”

“There is?”

“Yes. It’s totally a personal matter though.”

“Given the circumstances, it would make me feel better to have you with us...” Felix admitted. “But what of the Eighth Legion?” He could see the uneasy way the Eighth Legion soldiers gazed at Olivia. He could well imagine the upset it would cause for them to lose Olivia at such a time.

“For now, I’ll send them back to Fernest.”

“Yes... Strange as it feels to say myself, that may be for the best.”

“Olivia, no matter what you say, I’m going with you!” Ashton broke into their conversation, a desperate look in his eyes.

“And no matter what you say, that’s not happening,” Olivia replied.

“Why not?!”

“Because I have lots of other things I need you to do, of course.” Olivia instructed him to rendezvous with the main force of the Eighth Legion, then put his efforts into gathering information. Ashton opened his mouth to protest further, but a noble-looking female knight cut him off.

“Your duty here does not lie in following the general,” she said reprovingly. “I know all too well how hard it is, but here the correct path is to follow her orders.”

Ashton looked anguished, but at last, his voice flat, he consented. Ashton and the female knight each issued their commands, then set to work getting their forces ready to march.

“Just don’t do anything reckless. We’ve got no idea what might happen this time.”

“You be careful too, Ashton.”

“I’ve never been the reckless type.”

“I suppose so.”

Olivia saw plain on his face how much it hurt him, but with that, Ashton wheeled his horse around, then waved back over his shoulder at her.

In that moment, Olivia was suddenly overcome by a sense that he was disappearing forever.

Before she could stop herself, she cried out. “Ashton!”

He pulled up his horse, then turned back. “What?” More than ever before he seemed gentle, somehow helpless.

She hesitated. “It’s nothing,” she said at length.

“Even now, you’re still so weird.” He tugged on his reins, looking confused, then rode off. Olivia stared after him as though in a daze, until Claudia, astride Kaguya, called over to her.

“You made the right choice sending Ashton away, General. In all honesty, I have nothing but bad feelings about what we’ll find in the capital.”

“Yeah. Like Ashton said, we don’t know what might happen.”

This human named Darmés, whom Olivia was now going after, had the ability to speak directly into people’s minds—the same ability as Z. This made him both highly interesting and deserving of caution. Claudia had the skills to look after herself, but not Ashton. Though Olivia had sent him with decent guards, including Riful of Fernest’s Ten Swords, in the end one could only rely on oneself. No matter how he begged to go with her, she couldn’t take him.

“I am ready, General.”

“I’m all good too.” Olivia mounted Comet, then drew up alongside Felix. They had decided that Claudia and another fifty soldiers would accompany her to the imperial capital. Without knowing the situation there, they wanted to avoid causing the citizens any undue distress.

“Isn’t life funny, though?” Olivia said. “We were trying to kill each other just before, and now here we are riding side by side.” She smiled around at them all.

Felix gave a wry smile. “Very true. Allow me to say again that I can’t imagine a more reassuring ally than you, even if our alliance is only temporary. But we haven’t time to waste. Shall we be off?”

“All troops, move out to Olsted!” Teresa’s voice rang out like a bell. As if in opposition to the mounting chaos of the age, the sky was a vivid lapis lazuli blue.