Chapter IV: Inglis, Age 16—Far-Off Highland (9)
“It’s him again?!” Rafinha gasped.
“He came back?!” Leone asked.
“I can’t believe it!” Liselotte said. “Wasn’t he going to a Papal League-controlled part of Highland?!”
“Haaaa ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!” A laugh that was unmistakable as General Maxwell of Venefic’s rang out across the night sky. He must have seen the Star Princess, as he called out to them from the giant’s shoulder. “It’s been a while, knights of Karelia! Lady Charlotte has returned to her part of Highland, and my orders from the Altar are completed... From here on, I’m acting purely in the interests of Venefic!”
“Now that she doesn’t have an eye on him, he won’t let us escape!” Liselotte said.
As a general of Venefic, hostile to Karelia, his plan was to reduce Karelia’s strength in any way possible. And as knights’ academy cadets and visitors to Illuminas under Ambassador Theodore’s orders, they could not say they were acting as individuals independently of Karelia.
“Then, if we get out of here...!” Leone began. If Maxwell was focused on her, Rafinha, and Liselotte, once they got Myce to safety, they could fly away in the Star Princess and bait Maxwell to chase after them. That way, they’d keep the people of Illuminas out of the fight.
Rafinha silently looked down at the sea where Inglis had sunk. She didn’t want to leave her. If they escaped from here, could they return? In the worst case, the rest of Illuminas could sink while they were gone, and they might never be able to find it or Inglis again. This was a wide ocean, in an overwhelmingly vast world. Without a landmark, their exact position would be lost forever.
“Rafinha...” Leone began.
“Rafinha...” Liselotte repeated. They knew how she felt without any of them having to speak.
Myce was the only one with anything more to say. “Don’t worry about it! Fight on Illuminas! It will be easier here!”
Rafinha shook her head forcefully, as if she was trying to chase away her doubts and weakness. “We should let Myce get off! If we get out of here, the enemy will be drawn away from Illuminas!”
“Rafinha... Yes, understood!” Leone said.
“I cannot object!” Liselotte said.
Maxwell grinned from the shoulder of the giant, mocking Rafinha’s determination. “You’re not the only ones who have a reason to be here!” Maxwell aimed his gaze toward Myce and Illuminas floating in the sea below.
If his target wasn’t just Rafinha and friends, then things had changed. Them leaving Illuminas would be meaningless.
“So you haven’t done enough damage?! Myce and the other Highlanders have lost their home, where they’ve made so many memories! They can never go back! Enough is enough! Stop!”
Despite Rafinha’s objections, Maxwell shrugged and shook his head. “No! Those were half-measures. I can hear it—this giant’s grief, his bitter grudge... No, more precisely, those of the people turned into the mana extract of which he is made.”
“Mana extract? Bitter grudge? What’s that supposed to mean?” Myce asked.
The trio of girls flinched.
Myce may have been the son of Illuminas’s Second Academician, but he was still a child and did not know the truth. Even Wilma, the city’s knight-captain responsible for its defense, had only had a vague idea. The method of manufacturing mana extract seemed to be kept secret among a strictly limited group of people. Rafinha, Leone, and Liselotte all agreed that there was no need to allow Myce to find out like this.
“Leone!” Rafinha looked back at her, her hands still on the controls. She was entrusting Myce to Leone, who was behind him.
“Of course!” Leone understood what Rafinha meant and promptly clamped her hands over Myce’s ears, but the boy squirmed away. “Myce!” she cried.
“Don’t listen to him!” Liselotte said.
Maxwell’s mouth curled into a smile as he held the edges of his monocle, which began to glow. “Ha ha ha ha! So the brat doesn’t even know! Mana extract is made from people! Illuminas, which you all are so proud of, buys people from the surface and turns them into a goo they use to do anything they want! All the mana in there was mana that came from human bodies!”
“N-No! So what they said about Illuminas not using slaves and trying to live in peace with the surface...”
“Was all a lie! All because your people don’t want to see suffering. Instead, you take their very forms and consciousness away and use them as raw mana, you brat! You’re all devils! I’ll never forgive you!”
Myce’s shoulders slumped, and his voice trembled. “You’re... You’re right... Even the line about the mana coat soldiers being kind to people from the surface... We must be monsters!”
“Stop! How can you enjoy torturing a child like this?! You have no room to talk, anyway! You knew they’d be turned into mana extract, so you handed over dissidents from Venefic!”
“If that’s how you want to look at it. I knew them, and I was simply hoping they could live a happy life in Highland without being turned into mana extract. If they’d stayed in Venefic, they’d have had their heads put on pikes as traitors. In order to survive, they had no choice but to seek a new home. This was simply the result.” Maxwell tapped on the giant’s head softly. “If you didn’t even know why you were dying, how could we expect these devils to? And, there’s an idea I find fascinating. Highlanders, as a race, have stronger mana than surface dwellers, and above all they can control it on their own. What would happen if they were made into mana extract?! I’m sure it’d be incredibly powerful! So I’m going to try it out with this giant! And then use that power for our Venefic!”
“No! He wants to feed Myce and the others to the giant...”
“And make it stronger!” Leone added. “He’s terrible!”
“He returned only to cause more pain!” Liselotte glared.
“And not just the Highlanders! You too!” Maxwell continued. “Once we swallow you all, this giant and I will be the strongest things in the world! The foundation of Venefic’s power! Everything we lost when Roche-fool turned traitor, I have to work to make up for!”
“‘Roche-fool’? You mean Mr. Rochefort? I know the impression that he gives, but he’s a good person! At least, a better one than you!” Rafinha yelled.
Leone and Liselotte nodded in agreement.
“Ha! A traitor, good? He’s the worst kind of scum! Now, Tiffanyer! We’ve spoken enough!” Maxwell called out.
Rafinha startled. “Tiffanyer’s with him?!”
“Didn’t she go back to Highland?!” Leone asked.
“Be careful, everyone!” Liselotte said.
The three were guarded as they watched the space around the giant riding the flying battleship. However, they saw no sign of Tiffanyer.
A voice suddenly rang out from directly above them. “Very well!”
Rafinha gasped.
“From up there?!” Leone said.
“She’s dropping toward us!” Liselotte said.
The hieral menace was already closing in with a superspeed kick. It was like the clouds themselves had split to let her through. She was trying to use her momentum to bring the Star Princess down.
“I can’t—!” Rafinha couldn’t get the Flygear out of the way in time.
“I’ll get her!” Leone barely managed to slide the dark blade of her greatsword Artifact into the path of Tiffanyer’s kick.
Clang!
The blade clashed against Tiffanyer’s armored boots. That said, Leone was bracing herself not against the ground but against the Star Princess. The shock of the impact sent the Flygear swaying.
“Ugh! It’s going to flip over! Myce, hold on to me tight!” Rafinha said.
“O-Okay!”
“I’ll support us!” Liselotte danced off the Flygear, and activated her Gift. Wrapping around to below the Star Princess as it was pressed down, she flapped her wings mightily to hold it up. “I can keep it upright somehow!”
“Those were some quick reactions, but...you’ll need more than that!” Tiffanyer kicked the blade of the dark greatsword and launched herself high into the sky. At first, it seemed like she had withdrawn from the fight.
“Ha ha ha ha ha ha! Goooooooooo!” Maxwell shouted in glee. As if taking its turn after Tiffanyer, the faceless giant leaped down from the flying battleship, swinging its tremendous palm forward as if to swat the Star Princess.
I can’t turn in time! And I can’t hold up that much! Liselotte thought. “Abandon the ship!” she called out.
Without a moment’s hesitation, Rafinha and the others leaped from the Star Princess.
Smash!
Like it was swatting a fly, the faceless giant’s palm struck the Star Princess. The Flygear plunged headlong toward Illuminas’s central laboratory. Rafinha and the others had managed to avoid the attack and leap out, only to be enveloped by the indescribable sense of falling.
“Whoaaaa!”
“It’s okay, Myce!” Rafinha said. “Liselotte will—!”
“Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek!” Leone interrupted with an even louder shriek.
“It’ll be okay, Leone!”
Leone had always seemed to be a bit afraid of heights. She’d had plenty of Flygear time at the knights’ academy, and with her serious and earnest personality managed to master both flying them and fighting aboard them, but apparently jumping from one was just a little too much.
“Leone! Hold on tight!” Liselotte said.
As Liselotte held out a hand, Leone wrapped her arms around Liselotte’s waist and held on tight. “Th-Thank you!”
“Rafinha!” Liselotte said.
“Yeah! Thanks!”
With everyone holding on to Liselotte, they were safe. Below them, the giant plummeted toward what little remained of Illuminas. The giant crushing on impact would solve a lot of problems, but unfortunately its body was formed from liquid mana extract. It squished as it fell to the ground, softening the impact to Maxwell and Tiffanyer on its shoulders. But its weight was still considerable, and the small island lurched for a moment. Shocked by the apparent earthquake, the Highlander survivors came outside.
The giant before them was overwhelming.
“This is the thing that attacked us before, isn’t it?!”
“It’s back?! Is it going to sink Illuminas this time?!”
“We still can’t use the mechanical dragons for combat! Are we done for?!”
“That’s right, you devils who created mana extract!” Maxwell roared. “Now it’s your turn to become part of the giant and have your mana work at the surface’s purposes! Then maybe we’ll be even!”
The giant reached forth its hand and grabbed the Highlanders.
“Aaaaaahh!”
“Oh no! I’m on my way!” Liselotte dived at full speed, but it was too late. The faceless giant opened where it should have had a maw and swallowed the Highlanders.
“Ahh!” As Rafinha and friends gasped, the giant shined brightly for a moment.
“Hmm! Aren’t those Highlanders tasty? Ha ha ha ha!”
Judging from Maxwell’s words, the glow from the giant was proof that those Highlanders were now dead, their mana becoming part of the mana extract. There was no saving them now.
Another Highlander, a woman, appeared outside, and held her breath at the sight of the giant. “I-Is the mana extract giant going to eat us?!” She wore a white coat, which made her seem to be a researcher. Rafinha and the others recognized her.
“That’s riiiight!”
The faceless giant plucked up the woman.
“Agh!”
“Mom!” Myce cried out.
Myce’s mother was Illuminas’s Second Academician. A gash again opened like a mouth, and the giant lifted her toward it.
“Stop!” Liselotte had nearly reached the ground. Holding Rafinha tightly, she got her in a position where she could use her bow Artifact with both hands.
And Rafinha was already drawing Shiny Flow. “Leave Myce’s mom alone!” she yelled.
Fwoosh!
The arrow of light, tinged with the pale blue glow of aether, shot through the giant’s arm, tearing it off.
“All right! I did it!” She still couldn’t fully control the arrow as she willed—in fact, her only previous success had been stopping Leone when she had been controlled by Tiffanyer—but for now, thankfully, Myce’s mother had been saved.
“That was incredible, Rafinha!” Liselotte said.
“A-Amazing!” Leone agreed. “So this is how you stopped me... It really is like what Inglis does.”
“Yeah! I’m not very good at it yet, but I sure picked a good time to figure it out!”
“Mom! Thank goodness!” Myce rushed toward his mother.
“Myce! Everyone, thank you! You saved me!” Myce’s mother bowed deeply to Rafinha and the others.
“I’m just happy you’re okay!” Rafinha said.
“But...” Leone began.
“Indeed! Remain alert!” Liselotte said.
While they had been landing by Myce’s mother, the giant had picked up its severed right forearm and reattached it.
“Ooh! Giant, it doesn’t hurt you! It doesn’t hurt at all! You can just stick it back on!” Maxwell said. “And you, just blowing off my giant’s arm! You’re different now... You’re not just Inglis Eucus’s hangers-on...”
“Sh-Shut up! I don’t need to hear it!” As Rafinha protested, she saw Tiffanyer come to Maxwell’s side.
“There’s no need to get so worked up. I’m here for you,” she said to him.
“Lady Tiffanyer... Lend me your strength!”
“I shall!”
“Go, giant! Haaaah!”
Tiffanyer began to glow brightly as Maxwell was swallowed into the giant’s chest.
The trio of girls all felt their breath catch.
An overwhelming brightness lit up all of Illuminas and the nearby seas. And when it subsided, the giant was clearly wearing Tiffanyer’s golden armor, which had expanded to cover the large creature.
“Again?! It doesn’t have a halberd this time, but—!” Rafinha said.
“It’s still got a hieral menace!” Leone said.
“Yes, though of a different sort!” Liselotte concluded.
If it had just been Maxwell and the giant, they might have been able to fight them, but the addition of Tiffanyer spelled danger. When armed with Charlotte, the giant had been a powerful foe that not even Inglis could best. Perhaps she could have if the fight had gone on longer, but it certainly didn’t seem like she would have defeated it anytime soon. Even though the type of hieral menace it wielded now was different, the strength was the same, and now they were forced to face it without Inglis.
“It fought Chris without losing, and now she’s not here!” Rafinha said.
“But we have to beat it!” Leone said. “No one else can!”
“Indeed, we do!” Liselotte agreed.
Ignoring the three as they prepared, the golden-armored giant swung its fists toward the central laboratory. “Haaah!” Its swings caught only air.
Fwooom!
But the blast waves that it stirred up struck the already-crumbling structure directly. It creaked even louder before collapsing completely. A number of Highlanders still taking shelter inside rushed outside in a panic.
“Aaaah!”
“Run away!”
“It’s collapsing! Hurry!”
Watching them, Maxwell, now embedded in the giant’s throat, burst out laughing. “Ha ha ha ha ha! It’s ready, it’s ready, it’s ready! Time for a tasty treat, giant!”
“No! We told you, we won’t let that happen!” Rafinha yelled.
Fwoosh!
The arrow was once again wrapped in aether, as powerful as Rafinha’s fervent wish to put an end to this.
However, the giant’s hand in a golden gauntlet blocked it with a grunt.
“It caught it?!”
As they’d feared, the giant was on a completely different level now with the strength of a hieral menace behind it.
Maxwell’s maniacal laughter rang out. “Mwa ha ha ha ha!”
The giant brought both hands around the arrow of light and crushed it. The pale blue arrow dissolved and disappeared.
“Ahh?!”
“Too bad, but it’ll take more than that to take this guy down! This! Perfect! Body! This warrior of justice was born for Venefic! This warrior of justice will die for Venefic!” Overjoyed, Maxwell burst into laughter. It seemed like he had flung off his usual calm demeanor and revealed his true personality.
“You call this justice?! This?!” Rafinha focused again as she drew the bowstring of Shiny Flow. She didn’t know whether she could produce another arrow like the ones before, but surely it would respond to her.
Krrrrrk!
But her bow, upon which she placed her hopes, cracked into pieces and crumbled away.
“Huh?! Shiny Flow?!”
“Is this like when Inglis used my sword?!” Leone asked.
Leone’s dark greatsword had broken when Inglis had used it, and it was fixed only thanks to Ambassador Theodore remaking it. Leone’s current Artifact was her second. And Inglis said that she didn’t usually use Artifacts because they’d break if she did. If Inglis’s power had rubbed off on Rafinha, and then Rafinha wielded an Artifact, maybe it would break as it would if Inglis did.
“Of all the times!” Liselotte exclaimed.
“This is bad! Without Shiny Flow, I can’t... I can’t protect everyone!”
“No, we still have a chance!” Leone patted Rafinha’s back.
“What do you mean, Leone?”
“Look at that!” Leone pointed to the area around Maxwell on the giant’s body, where something like smoke was pouring forth.
“What is that?!”
“It wasn’t like that up until now. It has to be from wielding a hieral menace.”
Hieral menaces sapped away their wielder’s life force and dispersed it. In other words, if one was wielded in a fight as intense as that against a Prismer, her wielder’s life would then be forfeit. It was seemingly inevitable.
“That means he can’t use a hieral menace’s power forever!” Liselotte commented.
“I believe so! So we don’t have to take it down ourselves!” Leone said.
“If we buy time, our enemy will destroy itself, and we’ll have protected Myce and the others!” Rafinha concluded.
“Yes!” Leone said.
“I see! Then let us do what we can!” Liselotte agreed.
They nodded to each other, only to be met with a scornful laugh from Maxwell.
“Ha ha ha ha ha! That won’t help you! That’s nothing but fruitless struggling!”
“You say that, but we can see the smoke coming from the giant’s body! Who’s really trying to look tougher than they are?! We can tell when there’s no coming back from wielding a hieral menace!” Rafinha yelled.
“I’ll admit that! The price of wielding a hieral menace is being paid in the giant’s own being! Such beautiful patriotism! But even that will not last forever!”
“So you’re trying to beat us fast! We can tell that too!”
“We won’t back down so easily!” Leone agreed.
“Everyone! Please stay away from the giant! It can only function for a limited time! If you can flee from it until then—!” Liselotte announced to the Highlanders.
“You’re too naive! Even if it kills both the giant and I... Behoooooooold!”
As Maxwell spoke, the giant pointed behind Rafinha and the others, to the opposite shore.
Even though it was a nighttime seascape, it was lit up with a beautiful rainbow-colored glow. And there they could see the silhouette of a fish as large—if not larger—than the giant, its rainbow-colored dorsal fin breaking the water.
“N-No way! That’s...” Rafinha couldn’t bear to finish her sentence.
“At a time like this?!” Leone said.
“A Prismer?! Th-The sea serpent?!” Liselotte gasped.
In Charot on Karelia’s west coast, where Liselotte was from, it had long been whispered that a sea serpent lurked the open waters of the Shaquell Sea and sank ships which left the protection of the sound. According to the annals of House Arcia, it was a gigantic fish with rainbow scales. Judging by the path they had taken from Karelia, they thought they were somewhere in the Shaquell Sea. And what appeared before them now was just as the annals described.
“Well, young lady... Where exactly do you suggest we run to now?” a Highlander asked, giving her a pained laugh.
Liselotte had no answer. Maybe the pod of dolphins which had appeared before had been fleeing the Prismer. They had come from the same direction as it did.
“How about that! It isn’t just us! The heavens, the earth, the sea, the magicite beasts! All of them are telling you to diiiiieeeeeeeee!” Maxwell yelled.
“Wh-What do we do?! If they get too close to a Prismer, Myce and the Highlanders will be in danger!” Rafinha said.
Highlanders’ resistance to the Prism Flow was weaker than that of people from the surface. If they were exposed to it, they would become magicite beasts—the Steelblood Front used prism powder to accomplish much the same. And a Prismer was, in a way, one big ball of prism flow. At the battle with the birdlike Prismer which had been frozen in Ahlemin, they had seen it manage to transform, not Highlanders, but normal people into magicite beasts. Individual Prismers could, of course, be different, but as Highlanders had far lower resistance than normal people, they could not expect them to be safe anywhere near it. That it was so close already meant it might turn them all into magicite beasts at once.
“Wh—?!” Leone and Liselotte had no words to ease Rafinha’s tension. Both were desperately trying to think of a solution, but none came to mind.
Plip, plop...
And to make matters even worse, rainbow-colored raindrops suddenly fell on their foreheads.
“The Prism Flow?!” Rafinha gasped. Perhaps the approaching Prismer had called it forth.
“What do we do?! Of all the times—!”
Myce suddenly called out to them. “Rafinha, Leone, Liselotte! You’ve done enough! You three run away! There’s only three of you, you might be able to find a small island where you can hide!”
“Myce!” Rafinha said. Leone and Liselotte had their own protests as well.
“W-We couldn’t!”
“Not at all!”
“It’s fine,” Myce insisted. “We’re done for—either the Prism Flow or the Prismer will turn us into magicite beasts! I don’t want you to get hurt because of us! So hurry and go! Rafinha, Leone, Liselotte, run away!”
But then someone pushed him forward.
It was his mother. “Please, for his sake! Take this boy with you and flee! He’s right, but I want at least him to live on for the rest of us!”
“Mom! What are you saying?! I want to stay here with everyone!”
As Myce argued, Rafinha wrapped him in a hug. “I’ll keep him safe!”
Leone and Liselotte could not object even if they’d wanted to. Rafinha’s eyes were full of tears, and they knew painfully well how she felt. She had taken on the responsibility of making that decision.
“R-Rafinha! I’m fine! I want to stay with mom and everyone!”
“It’ll be okay! You’re coming with us, Myce!” Rafinha insisted to him as she pulled him along.
“Liselotte!” Leone called out to her as she helped Rafinha.
“Yes, understood!” Liselotte activated her Gift and spread her wings.
“Easier said than dooone!” Maxwell roared. The faceless giant swung its fist, and the shock wave caught Rafinha and friends just as they were about to take off.
“Ahhhh!” They were scattered, their backs slammed into the ground.
“Ugh...” But they would not submit meekly. They were determined to save at least Myce. No matter what it took. As Rafinha struggled to her feet, a dark shadow filled her vision.
“Here it coooooomes!” Maxwell’s voice continued to boom forth.
“It’s the Prismer! It...it’s jumping?!” In the blink of an eye, the Prismer brought itself up to the shore of Illuminas, then leaped from the water, so high that they had to look up to see it. It flew up toward the land, as if it were trying to gobble Rafinha, her friends, and the Highlanders up. The sight of a gigantic rainbow-colored fish was, in a sense, beautiful.
Myce gasped. “It’s scary, but it...it’s kind of pretty.”
Just as his words entered Rafinha’s ears, though—
Splashhhhhhh!
A fearsome blast of water suddenly arose from below the surface of the water and crashed into the Prismer’s belly.
Grrrrnnnn!
The Prismer let out a loud grunt as it was sent flying far over Illuminas and off into the yonder. It squirmed and flopped as it flew overhead like a freshly caught fish.
“Huh?!” Rafinha gasped.
“Wh-What?!” Leone said.
“That’s—” Liselotte began.
“The Greyfrier sarcophagus?!” the three exclaimed in unison.
The gigantic stone box that had suddenly rocketed from the sea without warning crashed into the Prismer and sent it flying away. Then, as if it had a mind of its own, the Greyfrier sarcophagus plunged toward the faceless giant in golden armor.
“Gwraaah!” In response, the giant crossed its arms in front of itself defensively. But as if to mock the giant, the shape of the Greyfrier sarcophagus twisted and disappeared.
“What?!” Rafinha, Leone, and Liselotte all watched in shock as it immediately reappeared behind the faceless giant.
“How?!” Maxwell gasped.
It rocketed toward the giant’s defenseless side with unnatural force.
Slammmmmm!
“Gwahhhhhhhh!” The giant skipped over the surface of the sea, kicking up tremendous waterspouts, as it blasted away in the same direction as the Prismer.
Rafinha and the others were at a loss for words. The Greyfrier sarcophagus had suddenly leaped from the sea and, as if it had a will of its own, had sent both the fishlike Prismer and the giant flying in the blink of an eye. But the Greyfrier sarcophagus was, in the end, just a block of stone. It had no will of its own, nor could it move by itself. There must have been someone or something making it move, hidden from their eyes by its imposing scale.
“Phew. I’m glad I made it in time. There’s not only a giant, but a Prismer too? Seems like fun.” Hoisting the Greyfrier sarcophagus in one hand, with a smile across her face, was, and could be no one else...
“Chris!!!”
“Inglis!” Leone and Liselotte both exclaimed.
Not only that, but she was back to her normal body of a sixteen-year-old rather than the child she’d been stuck as before being sealed inside. She had grown too large to wear children’s clothes and had wrapped them around her chest and waist for modesty.
“Chris! Chriiis!” Rafinha immediately came running to hug her.
It was almost a tackle—nearly hard enough to knock the Greyfrier sarcophagus from her hands.
“Sorry, Rani. Are you okay?”
Hugging Inglis from behind, Rafinha shook her head. She couldn’t find the words. Her shoulders were trembling, and Inglis could hear her quiet, ragged breaths as well as feel tears on the back of her own neck where Rafinha’s face was pressed. She must have been trying her hardest not to scream and cry. She must have been thinking that there wasn’t time for that now. Inglis remembered that when they were kids, every time she saw Rafinha after they had been apart for a while, Rafinha had cried and hugged her. She hadn’t done that in a long time; Rafinha had grown up.
“I’m so sorry. I would never forgive anyone who made you cry, but here I did it myself... I’m a failure of a squire.”
“I-I ab naw cwying! (I am not crying!)” Rafinha couldn’t stop crying long enough to enunciate her words.
Inglis turned to Leone and Liselotte. “What’s the situation?”
“They took Wilma, the mechanical dragons are out of commission, and no one could leave Illuminas! Then Maxwell came back and attacked!” Leone said.
“The sea serpent—that is, the Prismer—appeared, and then the Prism Flow began to fall!” Liselotte continued.
It seemed like quite the complicated situation. Smashing the Greyfrier sarcophagus into it had been the right choice. “Sounds like some rollicking fun, then?”
“It was not fun!” Leone and Liselotte both scolded.
Then, a voice came echoing from far away. “Ha ha ha ha! It’ll take more than that to get rid of me! Let’s settle things here and now, Inglis Eucus!” The voice carried over the waves came from the faceless giant upon the Prismer.
“Wh—?! What’s going on?!” The sight was enough to pull even Rafinha’s attention.
“It’s riding the Prismer?!” Leone gasped.
“A-Absurd! How is it doing that?!” Liselotte said.
“An impressive feat.” Inglis gave the faceless giant a graceful smile. “But I should warn you... Because of your actions, I made Rani cry.” She dropped the Greyfrier sarcophagus, and it landed with a heavy thud. “You’ll have to pay the price for that.” Her voice dropped dangerously low, and her piercing glare was suddenly filled with murder.
“Ngh!” Maxwell grunted, and the giant suddenly trembled and froze for a moment. Even the Prismer stopped, as if it sensed Maxwell’s hesitation.
Under Inglis’s feet, Illuminas began to shudder and shake as the coastline sank deeper into the sea.
“Wh-What’s happening?!” Rafinha asked, panicked.
“Another one? That’s not good,” Inglis said.
“Huh?!”
“It’s sinking. Probably all of Illuminas this time. Is it because I brought this?” Inglis tapped a palm on the Greyfrier sarcophagus. It was tall enough that she had to bend her neck backward to see the top. She had no idea how heavy it could be. With Illuminas already damaged, the sudden weight was too much for it to stay afloat.
“Say what?! That’s no good! Throw it away, now!”
“No, wait, Rafinha! Eris is inside!”
“And the princess from Venefic!” Liselotte added.
“Ah! R-Right! So what do we do? What do we do?!” Rafinha searched desperately for an answer.
Leone was panicking too. “What do we do?! We can’t stop the Prism Flow, and we can’t stop Illuminas from sinking!”
“M-Maybe we should take Myce and flee?!” Liselotte suggested.
“Is that all we can do?! C’mon, Chris!” Rafinha turned to Inglis, hoping for her to save the day.
And Inglis couldn’t refuse that look from her adored Rafinha. Fortunately, now, she had the power to do something about it. For that she was grateful. She patted Rafinha on the shoulder and smiled. “It’s okay, Rani. Leave it to me.”
“Really?! You can fix this?!”
“Yeah. Okay, everyone. Liselotte, don’t use your Gift. Keep your feet on the ground. Everyone else too! Stay on Illuminas! Please!”
After calling out, Inglis knelt down, and touched the ground with her hand.
The Greyfrier sarcophagus could be opened from the outside, but it was impossible to destroy or open it from the inside. And that much still held true—Inglis had not destroyed it, nor had she opened an exit. That was why it was still looming here above them as if nothing had happened.
As for how Inglis had gotten out without doing either of those things—that involved practice and more practice, so much that her body had returned to being sixteen during the process. No, maybe it hadn’t returned. Maybe her transformation to a child had never reverted, and she had simply grown up again. And now was the time to show what she had learned during that long, long time of training!
Vwiiiiiiiiiiin!
From where her hand touched, a halo of light spread forth, covering the ground. It was like a ripple spreading over the surface. As it covered the entirety of the much-diminished Illuminas, the island itself was wreathed in a bright glow.
“Oh? N-No way!” Rafinha gasped in recognition. She had seen it many times before, but not—until now—on anything but Inglis herself.
“You’re just showing off! Reeevenge!” The Prismer, carrying the giant, leaped high from the water, cutting a beautiful arc.
“I’m sorry, and I truly regret leaving, but good day.” Just as Inglis smiled up at the Prismer and the faceless giant serenely, the world around her twisted and transformed.
Splashhhhhhh!
Huge waves kicked up around what was left of the island, similar to something massive plopping into the water. The waves washed over the shore, flooding the roads and shaking floating ships. This definitely wouldn’t be good for the houses, but none seemed to be in danger of collapse, so Inglis hoped no one would be too upset.
“Whoa!” Rafinha’s mouth was hanging open.
“What just happened?!”
“Ah, this is—!”
And it was not only Inglis and friends who had the world around them suddenly replaced. It was everyone on Illuminas. Their surroundings had totally changed.
“Oh my gosh! This is Lake Bolt! We’re just outside Chiral! On the lake!”
“W-We really are!” Leone said. “I can see the Flygear dock and the knights’ academy!”
“Th-Then, we were taken straight from the Shaquell Sea to Chiral?!” Liselotte asked.
“Yep, that’s right,” Inglis said.
Without stirring, a goddess could look down upon the world, and if the desire took them, be in any place in an instant. Not by making a quicker or stronger effect within the physical world, but by changing the world itself to make their step infinitely faster or stronger. This was how the gods moved infinite distances in a single step. This was divine feat.
With this, even bringing the whole of Illuminas from the far-off ocean to Lake Bolt off of Karelia’s capital was no great ordeal. Distance and weight were meaningless. The laws of nature were simply rewritten. Inglis only needed to know where she was going.
When she had wielded Eris and Ripple in their weapon forms, their power had enhanced and amplified her aether, sublimating it to the hi-aether which made divine feat possible. And the purpose of her training within the Greyfrier sarcophagus had been to become capable of doing so on her own. The sarcophagus could not be opened from the inside, could not be broken out of, but could not prevent a goddess from moving as she willed. It was an overwhelming process of training in which she strove to, precisely and perfectly, weave her own aether into a masterpiece through fearsome amounts of time and effort.
And the reward of such mastery was to be able to create her own hi-aether. This was, of course, nowhere near as convenient as it instantly springing to her command as she gripped Eris and Ripple. But she at least had the option of creating and storing hi-aether in advance to then unleash as needed. But between breaking out of the Greyfrier sarcophagus and bringing Illuminas to Lake Bolt, she had used up almost all of her stores. Using divine feat again would require some time working to refine her aether.
Smack!
A slap landed on her back, left unprotected as the fabric had been more sorely needed in front. Rafinha, who was beaming, had obviously meant no ill will by it, but it hurt a little anyway.
“Thanks, Chris! That was great! Now the Prism Flow isn’t falling, Illuminas isn’t sinking, and we saved Myce and the others!”
Illuminas staying afloat was, of course, not through Inglis’s own power, but simply because the lake’s waters were much shallower. The island had come to a rest on the lake’s floor.
Through all this, Rafinha was giving Inglis an enthusiastic hug. A little pain in her back was nothing to pay any attention to.
“Well... Really, I should thank you.”
“Huh?”
A few days had passed for Rafinha in the others, but inside the Greyfrier sarcophagus, it had been years for Inglis. It had been good training, of course, and thanks to Eris and Ripple she had had the clear goals of hi-aether and divine feat in mind the whole time, but it had also been unimaginably difficult and she’d be a liar if she said that the long hours striving alone weren’t painful.
It was the longest she’d been away from Rafinha since she had been reborn as Inglis Eucus, and honestly, she had been lonely. It was thanks to her desire to see Rafinha again that she’d been able to keep going. It had spurred her on to complete the training that King Inglis never had, and it had made it possible for her to escape the Greyfrier sarcophagus on her own.
“It’s been so long, Rani. Please, let me get a better look at your face.”
“Hm? Here you go.” Rafinha again grinned ear-to-ear.
It was adorable. Inglis felt like her heart was being cleansed. She returned a satisfied smile. This is good. This is how things should be.
But one thing did make Inglis sigh. “I’m glad everyone’s safe, but it’s a shame that I left the Prismer and the giant behind... I wanted to fight them...”
She didn’t know if it had just been a coincidence, but the sight of it riding a Prismer as if it were a horse had been incredible. Maxwell and the faceless giant had a versatility and embrace of growth in their abilities that amazed even Inglis. Think of the countless possibilities there! Maybe it could even combine with the Prismer into something entirely different. If it could, she wanted to see that happen. And then fight it.
Rafinha whipped her head side to side. “No way! I don’t ever want to see that thing’s lack of a face again!”
“I don’t want to see it again anytime soon either. Especially that armor...”
Leone had, from what Inglis could tell, ended up wearing Tiffanyer whether she wanted to or not, and fallen under her control. Inglis knew that attack from her own fight with Tiffanyer in the past. Thankfully, forcing Inglis into the Greyfrier sarcophagus had required Tiffanyer to return to her human form, and even more thankfully, Leone was okay.
“It would have been better to kill the sea serpent...that Prismer...but I suppose we didn’t have that option,” Liselotte mused.
That Prismer must have sunk many ships in the waters off her hometown of Charot. Its defeat would make navigation of the Shaquell Sea much safer. It was only natural that, as the heir to the Arcia duchy, she would regret its escape.
Inglis, too, would have loved to jump right back to where she’d been and mix it up with the Prismer, Maxwell, Tiffanyer, and the faceless giant, but unfortunately, using divine feat again would require her to spend some time recreating hi-aether. If she had a hieral menace at hand, it would be a different story, but Eris was within the Greyfrier sarcophagus and could not be stirred, and Arles was, as far as Inglis knew, on her way to Alcard with the Rangers. But then, there was Ripple. If she were in the capital, Inglis might be able to return to the Shaquell Sea.
But first, there was something she needed to say. “Leone, Liselotte, I’m sorry for making you two worry.”
“It’s all right. I’m just glad you’re okay!”
“Welcome back, Inglis!”
The two of them came in for a hug as well.
Rafinha’s family—my cousin—and she’s essentially a granddaughter to me. I’ll take any opportunity to dote on her. Leone and Liselotte are a different story, though. I feel a bit uncomfortable—guilty, really—about any sort of touching with them. There’s still a little bit of me that remembers my past life as a man. I guess in a way, I’ll always be me, for what that’s worth.
A call came from far away. “Heeeeeey! Inglis! Everyone!”
Looking up, Inglis saw Flygears approaching from the direction of the palace. At the head of their formation was Ripple, and she had been the one calling out.
“Oh, nice! Ripple!”
With her here, Inglis could, as she’d just been thinking, return to the Shaquell Sea. This was her chance for another round with those tough-seeming foes. “Ripple! Over here!” She waved with a smile.
“Wh-What in the world happened here?! Inglis, did you do this?! And what’s with that grin on your face? It’s kinda fishy.”
As soon as Ripple landed nearby, Inglis immediately caught her by the arm. “Never mind that! Hurry up, let’s go!”
“Go? Go where?”
“To a fight, of course! There’s a general from Venefic with a special-class Rune, and he’s combined himself with an undying giant that his Artifact created, and then he turned the enemy hieral menace Tiffanyer into a weapon, and then there’s a shark Prismer and he’s riding it!”
“What...? You sound like a madwoman.”
“Yeah, isn’t it so cool?! If I go back there right now, I can fight them! So let’s go! C’mon, c’mon, c’mon!”
“Hold it!” Rafinha grabbed Inglis by the ear.
“Oww! Rani, that hurts!”
“We don’t have time for that right now! You’re going to have to wait! Myce and everyone just got dropped here, think about the trouble they’re having!” Rafinha looked over at Myce and the other Highlanders who had come along with Illuminas.
“S-So this is a surface city! It’s amazing! It’s beautiful!”
“You saved us!”
“I wondered what was going to happen to us!”
“Thank goodness...” Myce’s eyes gleamed as he looked out over the nightscape of Chiral, and the other Highlanders patted their chests in relief. Thankfully, none had been turned into magicite beasts by the Prism Flow.
“By the way...” Rafinha smiled at Inglis. “Aren’t you hungry?”
“I am. Very.”
Grrrrgl!
Inglis and Rafinha’s stomachs rumbled in unison.
“I think I want to have something other than fish for once,” Leone said.
“Yes, I’ve lost the taste for it from this trip,” Liselotte concurred.
Rafinha nodded in agreement with them, and then spoke up. “All right! Myce! Everyone from Highland! To celebrate your being safe, let’s go have some surface food! It’s our treat!”
“Wow! Thanks, Rafinha!” Myce said.
The Highlanders responded joyfully. “Wow! That’ll be a great help!”
“I’m exhausted, I could use a break.”
“It’ll take a lot of money to feed this many people...” Inglis began.
“So, let’s go to the cafeteria!” Rafinha said.
“Yeah, we can talk the principal into letting them eat after the fact.” They couldn’t exactly let Myce and the others starve, and there weren’t many other choices.
“Then I’ll come along too! I want to hear all about your adventure!” Ripple said.
“Okay!” Inglis and Rafinha agreed.
But still, packing all the Highlanders into the Flygears that had come with Ripple would be a tall order.
“How to get everyone there... Maybe this?” Inglis looked over at a mechanical dragon nearby. “Everyone, can you hold on to the mechanical dragon? I’ll get you there with that.”
“But, uh, Inglis,” Myce stammered, still getting used to Inglis’s teenage appearance, “the mechanical dragons still aren’t working.”
“Don’t worry, Myce. It’ll move. Climb on,” she replied.
“O-Okay? Sure.” Myce acted a bit sheepish at her smile. He’d only seen her as a little girl before. Inglis could understand his awkward behavior.
“Rani, everyone, you climb on too.”
In the end, nearly a hundred Highlanders, plus Rafinha and friends, were holding on to a mechanical dragon.
“We’re all aboard, Chris!”
“Got it. Okay, then!” Inglis traced her fingers along herself, and combined mana and dragon lore.
“Gwohhhh!”
With a roar, her dragon ice armor, azure in color with a draconic design, materialized around her. She’d managed to deal with the important parts with the cloth from her children’s clothing, but the armor provided much more secure coverage.
Inglis hoisted the mechanical dragon aloft and ran across the surface of Lake Bolt.
She almost expected the weight of the mechanical dragon would make her sink, but the power of the dragon ice armor made every footfall create a foothold of ice. The ice couldn’t continually support the dragon’s weight, but as a temporary measure, it was good enough. Before her foot sank, she was on to her next step, and her sprint across the surface of Lake Bolt toward the knights’ academy continued.
The Highlanders holding on to the dragon shouted in surprise. “Wow!”
“This is amazing!”
“What’s going on?!”
“That’s incredible, Inglis!” Myce gasped.
“Well, I mean, for her this is just another normal day!” Rafinha replied, cheerful.
“Ha ha ha... No matter where you are or what you’re doing, you’re still you, Inglis.” Ripple chuckled from her Flygear, which flew along keeping pace with her.
That night was a lively dinner party with the Highlanders, who could finally feel relief and enjoy the novelty of being on the surface. Inglis and Rafinha also relished in the familiar flavors of the knights’ academy that they’d missed. Perhaps they even enjoyed the food a bit too much.
Later, when they reported to Principal Miriela, she congratulated them on their good work—though the tears in her eyes suggested the cafeteria budget was about to be stretched again.
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