IV
Blood split his forces into three main groups. He commanded the central force made up of the Royal Army and the Azure Knights. Lara commanded the left force made up of the Winged Crusaders and the Crimson and Helios Knights. Finally, the Sutherland armies made up the right force. The mages who formed the core of their strategy he divided up, one to each force. They would have the difficult job of taking the lead in going after the undead beasts. By rotating the three forces clockwise, Blood kept the soldiers’ fatigue to a minimum while countering the imperial army that continued to attack day and night. The battle unfolded just as he had predicted.
Johann, who was deployed with the right force under Lion’s command, kept up a steady stream of magecraft, exterminating one undead beast after another without rest. He arrived at his next destination to find his allies under attack by a pack of ice foxes—class one dangerous beasts. He let out a sigh as heavy as mud.
“Cut me some slack, would you? I don’t have infinite strength, or mana.” But complaining wasn’t going to change the situation. Johann set his sights on the ice foxes, then flicked his fingers at them in rapid succession. Each sent flames erupting from the pack, but they continued their rampage with no sign of stopping. Even when more than half their number had fire eating into their flesh, they went on attacking. Fresh chaos was spawned atop the old when a crowd of undead soldiers joined them.
“Thank you, Lord Mage! I thought we were done for...”
Johann didn’t even look at the soldier who called out to him in a trembling voice.
“Seeing as you’re alive, don’t waste it. Take the wounded who can still walk and get the hell out of here.”
“Y-Yes, ser!” The soldier blindly ran off to carry out Johann’s order, leading away several of his wounded comrades.
“Right, then.” During this short exchange with the soldiers, the creatures had apparently finished making a meal of his unlucky comrades. The ice foxes’ clouded eyes turned to Johann and were fixed on him and him alone.
“It was fire that first allowed man to compete on even footing with beasts. And dead or not, you once were nothing more than beasts. I suggest you learn to fear fire like your kin.”
In truth, Johann was not confident enough to justify being flippant. The foxes weren’t nearly as strong as the class two dangerous beasts he had taken out, but as a pack, they could pose an even greater threat. On a basic level, people and beasts were the same.
When one of the pack dashed at Johann, the others followed, like a dam breaking.
“Uh-uh, I do not like that. You’re dead, you don’t get to go on a murderous rampage.” Johann cast Adamantine Wind on himself to heighten his physical defenses. Stepping nimbly to dodge around the ice foxes’ wildly chaotic attacks, he aimed solely at their legs, lopping them off. He had taken away most of his foes’ mobility and was still alive—and it was in that momentary gap that the vampire bird he hadn’t noticed in time dropped out of the sky.
His mind instantly began working, hunting for a way to survive, but—
I’m doomed. All his options for evasion were already closed off, and there was no time to cast a defensive spell. It was such an anticlimactic way to die, it was almost funny.
There’s still so much I wanted to do... Even though he was facing certain death, a savage grin spread over his face. Facing the vampire bird as it came at him, scattering black feathers in its wake, he thrust out his left hand. In his mind’s eye, he saw Angelica’s innocent, smiling face.
“I hate to do this,” he called out to the bird, “but I just can’t stand to be alone, so you’re going to have to die with me. Oh, except you’re already dead. You’ve got nothing to complain about, then.”
Moments before the sharp beak pierced his chest, a vast shadow fell over them from the sky above the vampire bird. Before Johann could see what it was, his vision went white.
What’s going on...? Following his survival instincts, Johann jumped back. As he did so, he saw an enormous beast of godlike proportions crushing the vampire bird like an insect under its foot. Is that...?!
The creature was covered in fur as white as fresh snow, giving it a graceful, even kingly air. That alone would have set it apart from the other beasts, but more telling still was the total absence of the stench of decay that rolled off the undead beasts and men alike.
Golden eyes that revealed a powerful intelligence fixed Johann with an imperious stare.
Is that the king of the beasts?! Johann sent flames swirling around the blade of his sword and took up a fighting stance. But then—
“Settle down, young buck. We’re on the same side.” The voice came from above his head. It was extremely dignified, but also clearly belonged to a young child.
“The— Did you say the same side?” Without letting his guard down, he looked up. Atop the great beast’s head, standing legs astride, was a small girl.
“He appears greatly confused.”
“So he does...” Lassara agreed. “I can’t believe he dragged me into this mess—at my age!” She was quite disgusted at herself for agreeing to take part in a war that did so much harm without any good to show for it. But she couldn’t turn Felix away when he’d asked her.
“The fate of humanity or some such is at stake. Such things are of little concern to me, but the same can hardly be said of you.”
“You can put a sock in it. I know all that without you harping on.” Lassara jumped nimbly down from Vajra’s head, then walked over to the wary young man, noting his well-honed physique.
“Hmm. Yes, every corner of your body is bursting with mana. You’re to be commended for training so diligently without losing yourself to your talent. Still, you forget about your flank. That’s how you end up making fatal mistakes. If I hadn’t been here, there’d be a dirty great hole in your chest to let the wind through,” Lassara finished with a cackle. The young man’s wariness did not decrease.
“You’re the empire’s mage. Why did you help me...?”
“Oho. Sounds like the youngster’s been talking nonsense,” she replied, scowling to indicate her displeasure. “You listen to me—I’ve nothing to do with the empire of today. Especially not now that they’re raising the dead.”
“It seems I was ill-informed. I do apologize,” the young man said earnestly. “Not to compound the insult, but you are not the age you look, are you?”
Lassara had not expected this question. Glaring a little, she said, “That’s hardly a question fit to put to a lady. Still, I’m impressed that you picked it up so quickly.”
“Well, I’m better with women than I am with magecraft.”
Lassara snorted. “If you can mouth off like that, there must be life in you yet. All right, young buck, you deal with the dangerous beasts on the left. Broaden your field of vision. You’ve still got mana aplenty, so I won’t take no for an answer.”
Lassara’s large eyes bored into the young man. With so many more undead beasts prowling about than she had expected, she didn’t have the luxury of letting a talented mage sit on his hands.
At last, the young man’s guard came down a little. “This is the last place I thought I’d be reminded of my nagging old teacher.”
Lassara folded her arms and lifted her chin indignantly. “If you were my apprentice, I’d spank you a hundred times.”
“I beg your mercy,” the young man said, dipping his head in apology. He then turned away from her, let out a deep breath, then sprinted off west.
He must have had a mighty fine teacher. I didn’t catch a whiff of that arrogance that always hangs around mages. Yes, he’s not like the youngster, but he’s sweet in his own way. Lassara smiled, then looked over at Vajra, who had taken care of the remaining undead in their vicinity.
“They don’t hear you, then?”
“No. As ever, there is no response. There can be no doubt that they are dead. In all my long years, I have never seen anything like this.”
“Well, when you consider our enemy is a god that feasts on death and its puppet, perhaps it isn’t so surprising.”
“A god, eh...?” Vajra murmured, then fell silent. As a great plume of flame rose up into the western sky, Lassara finally gave voice to the question that she had kept hidden in the back of her mind.
“Why did you decide to help us?”
“Why? Because you asked me to, of course. Has senility come for you at last?”
“Who’re you calling senile?!”
Vajra only regarded her with a silent look of resignation. Lassara turned away, cleared her throat, then moved on to her next question.
“Are you ready to forgive the humans, then?” No sooner were the words out of her mouth than Vajra bared his gleaming fangs, leaning in toward Lassara as though he might tear her to pieces then and there.
“Forgive the murderers of my beloved child? No matter how many ages go by, that I will never do.”
“Then why help?” Lassara said levelly, her expression unchanged.
“I cannot leave my fellows to be degraded even in death. That is all.”
Time made even the most lasting memories fade, whether one wished it or not. While Vajra might never come to trust humans, it seemed enough time had passed that his hatred would no longer drive him to lash out at random. So Lassara observed as she regarded Vajra, who turned away from her.
“Well, whatever your reasons, I’m glad we have you. Even for a great mage, this is a little more than I can handle.”
Vajra snorted. “Still, even if we survive this, it will mean nothing if we do not strike at the root. I wonder if the boy and Garcia’s descendant can really pull it off.”
“Who can say...”
The nebulous fears that Lassara had harbored had turned out to be far, far worse than anything she’d imagined. After seeing Olivia’s magic in its full glory before the battle had begun, Lassara would not fight alongside Olivia and Felix. She was not worthy to do so. All she could do was keep faith that they would survive and ensure that they had a place to return to.
She jumped up onto Vajra’s head, then with a dashing flourish of her vermilion cloak, cried, “Go forth!”
“Always with the orders...”
Lassara and Vajra set off, carving their way through the undead in their path as they pushed on east.
Meanwhile, Olivia and Felix held the fate of the world in their hands...
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