Chapter 12:
The Masked Knights
JULIUS’S EYES WIDENED as he took in the battle’s aftermath. Arroganz stood alone amid the carnage, completely unscathed. To Julius, there was something ominous and unsettling about it.
“Leon,” he said, “what did you do?”
The way Arroganz had fought was unlike anything he’d seen before. His stomach twisted in knots. He could only pray that he was wrong to feel so unsettled.
Arroganz turned, glancing back at him. “Nothing,” Leon said. “Anyway, I’m a little tired. Let me rest, okay?”
Its previous agility and speed forgotten, Arroganz struggled to stay upright or move at all. Or, more accurately, Leon had reached his limit and begun faltering, not his Armor. He was completely exhausted, wrung dry.
“You used those drugs Marie got you, didn’t you?” Greg asked bitterly.
“Drugs?!” Julius cried in disbelief. “Did you really?!”
There were lots of performance enhancers on the market, but Leon had gotten his hands on a special one with significant side effects. It was a potent elixir that increased the user’s physical and magical strength. And, the stronger an elixir was, the more strain it placed on the person consuming it. That was especially true of a fast-acting enhancer like this. Judging by how Arroganz had fought, this drug was extremely potent to boot. Marie had delivered it to him, and she’d regretted it deeply afterward.
Julius gripped Arroganz’s shoulders. “You used it, didn’t you?! Why would you push yourself like that?!”
“We don’t have time for this,” Leon interrupted, uninterested in listening. “Let’s get going. Move on. We’ve got to destroy that reactor, or this fighting will never end. Don’t forget, Finn hasn’t even shown his face yet.”
Julius wiped away the cold sweat beading on his brow with the back of his hand. “And you said he’s tougher than you?” Leon had told him that before, but Julius had a hard time believing that Finn could best Leon at the latter’s current strength level.
After a pause, Leon answered with bitterness in his voice. “I’ll take care of him.”
Julius wanted to shoot back that Leon shouldn’t push himself any more than he already had, but he knew he couldn’t stop him. Not with the unbending, grim determination he heard in Leon’s voice. I knew he’d made his mind up about going through with this, but I didn’t realize how intent he was. He lamented that misjudgment.
As they pressed forward, Julius gently pushed Arroganz along. Although he knew it was futile, he said, “You and Finn were really close, weren’t you? You don’t have to force yourself to fight him. You can let Greg and me handle it.”
He didn’t honestly think that the two of them could defeat Finn, but he wanted to avoid Leon having to fight him if possible.
Leon seemed to sense Julius’s intentions. He smiled wanly. “Not going to happen. Neither of us can back down, and we don’t intend to.”
“If you’re sure.”
Greg led the way forward. He glanced back at them. “Hey, Luxion, how much longer till we reach this reactor?”
After they’d breached Arcadia, it took a significant length of time to navigate the labyrinth of corridors inside. Far longer than they’d originally anticipated, which was probably what made Greg anxious. Julius suspected he was also worried about Leon, as well as Chris, Brad, and Jilk.
“It should be just ahead,” Luxion answered. “I detect a strong presence that can only be the reactor.”
The airborne demonic essence was becoming more concentrated, according to the meter on Julius’s monitor. That had to indicate that they were finally nearing their destination.
“As long as we trash this reactor thing, this enormous fortress will go down, right?” Greg clarified.
“Yes, without a doubt,” said Luxion.
“Seriously? That makes things pretty simple, then.” Greg was forcing himself to sound more cheerful than usual, trying to drive away the gloom that had settled over them. “Makes me wonder what the hell our ancestors were doin’. Why couldn’t they take this fortress down?”
“Had Arcadia been at full power, our group here would already have been annihilated. We wouldn’t even have stood a chance,” Luxion explained very matter-of-factly.
Greg gulped. “Oh. Uh, you don’t say.”
On the other hand, that information reassured Julius. “But since he isn’t at full power, that’s completely hypothetical, right? Greg, we should be grateful to our ancestors for giving us this opportunity.”
“You’re not makin’ me feel any better about this,” Greg shot back.
“That is an accurate assessment,” said Luxion, sharing Julius’s sentiments. “Old humanity’s military was responsible for bringing him to his knees. The only reason we have any chance of winning is because they fought so desperately.”
As awkward as he felt about both his companions driving the same point home, Greg forced himself to remain optimistic. “Well, that just means we gotta put an end to him. That way, our ancestors can have no regrets.”
Julius sensed something approaching rapidly from behind. He yanked his hands away from Arroganz, lifting his shield and bracing himself to meet their pursuers. “Looks like they caught up with us.”
“Is Finn with them?” Leon managed to ask, voice still strained with pain.
Luxion analyzed the incoming data. “I do not sense Brave’s presence among them,” he reported. “The signals lead me to suspect our foes are a group of Demonic Knights.”
Julius was grateful to hear Finn wasn’t there, but that didn’t make these enemies any less dangerous.
“Hey, hold up. Does this mean the enemy broke past Jilk and Brad?!” demanded Greg.
“Not necessarily,” said Luxion. “They may have found a different route by which to enter and pursue us. Based on the data at hand, I cannot definitively say whether Jilk and Brad have yet been beaten.”
In the short few moments during which they had that conversation, the enemy arrived: a number of Demonic Knights accompanied by men in regular Armors. As they spotted Julius and the others, they began firing.
Shield raised, Julius stepped in front of Arroganz to cover Leon. He studied the enemy. That’s a lot of knights, and they have even more Armors with them. They don’t look like they belong to the defense forces, so they must’ve come from the army outside. He glanced briefly at Arroganz, whose movements were still jerky and unnatural.
“Luxion, can Leon fight?” he asked.
“I already injected him with the neutralizer. He should recover soon enough. However, I do not believe he is capable of battle at present.”
“But you’re saying he will recover, right?”
“Correct.”
Julius took a deep breath as he made up his mind. “Then I’ll stay here and deal with these guys.” He drew his sword and took a battle stance. The two cannons connected to his rear container hummed as they aimed at the enemy. Those weapons, which fired energy rounds that exploded on impact, had also been specially designed by Luxion. “Go,” he ordered. “I’ll do you the favor of staying behind.”
“But you’re a prince,” Leon argued, shocked that Julius volunteered himself so readily.
“You’re worth a lot more than I am at this point,” Julius said with a self-deprecating half smile. “Now go. I can at least buy you some time.”
“There’s no way you can take on so many all by your—”
“Then I’ll stay too!” Greg interrupted. “If you’re worried about Julius staying behind on his own, I’ll join him.”
Leon hesitated, obviously wanting to argue, but Julius gave Arroganz a shove. “I said go! You don’t have time to waste here, do you?”
Arroganz turned away from the two, and Leon said nothing more as he took off, leaving them behind.
“That’s more like it. We’re trusting you to finish this, Leon,” Julius called after him.
As he watched Arroganz leave, a Demonic Knight flew toward them. The pilot had noticed Arroganz and panicked, not wanting to let it proceed any farther.
“Sorry, but you’re not getting past us!” Julius blocked the enemy with his shield.
“Grr! For the Scumbag Knight’s useless tagalong, you’ve got some nerve.”
Julius managed to deflect the enemy’s charge. His enhanced Armor was plenty powerful enough to go toe to toe with the Demonic Knights. “If you honestly think I’m a ‘useless tagalong,’ you’ll be in for a world of hurt,” he warned.
The other enemies in the background were armed with guns that they aimed and fired at Julius, but his shield protected him from their bullets, and his cannons returned fire in kind.
Another Demonic Knight tried to dart past them, but Greg skewered them on his lance. “Julius, you’d better pace yourself, or you’re gonna wear out too quickly!”
“I can take care of myself,” Julius huffed at him. “Anyway, pay attention. Here they come!”
Thus, as they tried to thwart the enemy’s attempts to pursue Leon, their battle began.
***
Finn brought Mia with him to the command room, which was currently the safest place in the fortress.
“Princeeeeess!” Arcadia wailed the moment he spotted her. “I’m so glad you’re safe!” He turned to the others in the room and snapped, “Hurry and prepare a seat for her.”
The other soldiers and staff present were busy with other matters, but they obeyed his command despite the inconvenience.
Brave ignored Arcadia’s ridiculous antics. “Partner, Arroganz is almost at the reactor,” he told Finn. “Our allies must either be dead or preoccupied, because they haven’t been able to halt him. We’ll be in big trouble if we don’t step in and stop this.”
Finn clenched his fists. “So that’s what’s going on.” His face hardened, at least until Mia threw herself at him and clung to him. “Mia?” He blinked at her. As soon as he realized she was trembling, he wrapped his arms around her.
“Sir Knight, I beg you. Please, please…come back to me. Don’t leave me alone!” Tears formed wet trails down her cheeks.
“It’ll be all right. I promise I’ll come back to you,” Finn said gently.
“Really? You mean it?”
“Yes, I do,” he said. “Please wait here for me.”
“This is the safest place for you,” Brave threw in. “As long as you’re here, Partner can fight without holding anything back.” He was doing his best to keep up a cheerful facade, hoping to ease her fears.
Mia’s dewy eyes darted to Brave. “You’d better come back safe too, Bravey. I’d be devastated to lose you.”
“You got it! But, uh, could you stop with the whole ‘Bravey’ thing? No one calls me by my real name. Even Partner calls me ‘Kurosuke.’” Brave pouted.
Finn chuckled. “It fits you, doesn’t it, Kurosuke?”
Mia grinned. “I think ‘Bravey’ is an adorable nickname.”
“Neither of you have any sense,” said Brave.
It comforted Mia to banter the same way they always did. She finally let go of Finn and stepped back, clapping her hands together as if in prayer. Staring up at him, she said, “May you be victorious, Sir Knight.”
He smiled back at her. “I will be.”
***
The situation outside Arcadia was developing as well.
“Lord Loic, please fall back!”
Loic’s Armor was a wreck, and his allies were trying their best to stop him from battling further, but he was still fighting monsters and enemy Armors alike.
“What good would it do to pull out now?!” he shouted back at his men. He was the one leading the Republic’s forces on the field, making him the center their army revolved around. He feared everything would crumble if he withdrew now. “I have to hold out for milady’s sake as well. And besides her, the archduke has saved me countless times. I can’t fail them.”
Loic owed Leon a substantial debt for all his help, and he intended to pay it back.
Despite his determination, his Armor refused to keep up. Its joints creaking in protest, it began falling to pieces right there in the air. The engine on its back went up in flames.
“Why now?!” Loic cried.
This time, his allies forced him to retreat.
“Fall back, Lord Loic!”
“Contact Lord Albergue, quickly!”
“Please don’t endanger yourself recklessly!”
They were all admonishing him. As reluctant as he was to heed their wishes, he was relieved to see the rest of his men still fighting tooth and nail without him when he looked out at the battlefield. See? If you try, you guys are tough enough to pull it off.
***
From the bridge of House Fanoss’s battleship, Hertrude monitored the intense battle between the two forces.
“I am impressed by how well the Republic forces are holding out, given their overreliance on their crests,” she said.
“We will soon reach our limit as well, Lady Hertrude,” the ship’s captain responded. “But Holfort’s rear guard moved here, to the front lines, so we should be able to withdraw without issue.”
Gilbert and the ships under his command having joined them had significantly lightened the front lines’ load. Still, they were far from able to let their guard down.
“No,” Hertrude said firmly. “I will not allow us to withdraw, no matter what.”
“But—”
“Besides, retreating would do us no good.” This is a battle for our very lives.
She didn’t get to say that last bit aloud. There was a visible change in Arcadia’s fortress; it was powering up its main cannon to fire on them again.
“The enemy’s about to attack!” bellowed one of the soldiers on board.
Hertrude closed her eyes for a moment. She figured this would probably be the end. Then she spotted a white blur whiz past them.
“That ship!” she gasped. She would’ve known its single horn anywhere—the Licorne!
On each side of the vessel were the last two remaining spaceships old humanity had left behind, the ones the AIs had adapted into specialized shields to combat Arcadia’s main cannon. They proved unable to completely block the cannon’s incoming attacks, so the Licorne pulled out in front, deploying a magic shield in the form of a curtain of light.
Staring at the Licorne, Hertrude shrugged. “You’ve come up with a ship even more daunting than the royal family’s.”
The royal family’s ship had proven a formidable force in the war with the former Principality, but it was nothing compared to the Licorne, which Hertrude was even less inclined to pit herself against. She was lucky that they were on the same side and that the Licorne was defending them against Arcadia’s deadly blasts.
“I expect you all to fight with everything you have out there,” Hertrude shouted at her men. “Make sure everyone remembers the name Fanoss!”
There were many reasons her house needed to pull its weight in this battle. Foremost among them was that doing so would ensure her dukedom’s future prominence. That was why she couldn’t easily order a retreat, knowing all that was at stake. But she also had a personal reason to insist on keeping her men out there.
Even now, I can’t bring myself to leave our saint, Marie, hanging.
***
“Gaaaah! My precious Licorne!” Cleare wailed dramatically.
Although they’d managed to shield their allies, the Licorne hadn’t come through unscathed. A violent tremor had rocked the ship, putting immense strain on it, which was the reason for Cleare’s dismay.
Putting up a defense wasn’t as simple as harnessing energy from the Sacred Tree Sapling to fortify their shield. Marie panted heavily as she stood on the bridge, hands clasped tightly around her staff. She had shared the burden of protecting their whole army alongside Livia. To be precise, Marie had shouldered the majority of that burden.
“Miss Marie…” Livia said worriedly, examining her face.
“Hmph. This is child’s play,” Marie sniffed. “You should save your power for later.” Despite her bravado, her face crumpled in pain and exhaustion.
“Lady Marie, if you’re that worn out, you should rest!” Carla fussed.
Marie smiled tightly at her, the edges of her lips straining with the effort. “I-I’ll be all right. Don’t worry.”
Kyle carried over a bottle of water and a towel. “Mistress, if you push yourself too hard, you’ll end up passing out.”
“I-I told you, I’ll be fine. I’m not so weak…that I’d pass out from something like this.” Marie was gasping even as she spoke, only staying on her feet by clinging to her staff to support her weight on it. She grabbed the water and gulped it down.
The voices of Leon’s friends echoed in her ears. They had crowded around the Licorne to protect its passengers.
“Keep the enemy away from the Licorne!”
“Don’t even bother aiming! Just shoot straight in front of you. There’re enough enemies that you’ll hit something!”
“Aaah! I knew I shouldn’t have tried to act tough by fighting in this stupid war! Leon, you absolute idiot!”
Yes, there were cries of dismay among them.
Leon’s friends had excellent ships and Armors because Luxion had personally seen to their construction. On top of that, they’d fought many battles over the past two years and become more coordinated under such circumstances. Since Leon had forced them to fight so often, they’d grown accustomed to it. Regardless, Marie found their presence reassuring.
She wiped sweat from her face. Even his friends are giving this their best, she realized.
Leon had been wise to gather such stalwart allies at the academy. They were proving integral to this battle. Leon had admitted to binding them with contracts, but as Marie saw it, they shared a strong bond of friendship too.
However reliable they were, though, the situation was too volatile for them to let their guard down. A few people’s efforts wouldn’t change the severe disadvantage at which the royal army found itself.
Cleare’s blue lens flashed. “Tch! Some slipped past our allies’ defenses!”
Having sensed the danger the Licorne posed, a swarm of monsters gathered around it. The beasts ignored the ships that encircled them to act as shields, charging right past. One was over twenty meters tall.
“Fire at them!” Angie shouted at Cleare.
“Sorry, but after the damage we just took, I can’t. It’ll take thirty more seconds to recover enough to fight. Don’t worry, though; I have something prepared for just this occasion,” said Cleare.
Marie’s eyes flew open wide. “Wha…?”
Someone had carved right through the enormous beast coming for them, transforming it into a burst of black smoke. She soon realized it wasn’t just one person; there were two pure-white Armors outside. They looked almost exactly like Julius’s Armor, with a few discrepancies, and masks had been fashioned over their suits’ faces.
“You seem to be in distress, ladies,” said one pilot.
Images of both pilots, who wore masks just like their Armors, appeared on their internal monitor.
“What do you think you’re doing?” Angie demanded of them.
In response, the two adopted similar poses, almost as if they’d planned and coordinated this beforehand. As they spoke, their voices even overlapped.
“I am a nameless knight. For the moment, you may refer to me as the masked knight.”
“I’ll call myself the masked knight for now.”
The two even sounded like Julius.
All Marie’s strength drained away, and she crumpled to her knees. Oh my God. Is this the power of genetics?! Both masked knights’ demeanors struck her as ridiculous, which clued her in to their true identities. Biology was a terrifying thing.
Alas, that wasn’t the end of the ridiculousness. The two knights hadn’t noticed each other until that point, and the moment they did, they began bickering.
“You there! I’m the Masked Knight, not you!”
“I could say the same to you! I pulled an all-nighter figuring out this getup. You have some nerve copying me!”
Neither seemed to realize who the other was, which was all the more awkward for those watching the spat unfold.
“That mask of yours is inferior to my own!”
“Oh, now you’ve done it! How dare you insult my mask? Eri assured me I looked dapper in it! Prepare yourself! I’m going to cut you down where you stand!”
Everyone bearing witness sighed in exasperation. The two masked knights were Roland and Jake.
Livia’s face sagged with exhaustion, her features morphing into a blank mask. “You’re both nuisances. Go home.”
Roland recoiled, shocked at being treated so coldly by a woman. “M-Miss? That’s awfully callous of you, don’t you think?”
Jake, on the other hand, had no interest in Livia’s feelings; Erin was the only woman who mattered to him. “I’d be a laughingstock if I went back now. Whatever—I get it. For now, I’ll be the bigger man and fight as this loser’s ally. Just try not to hold me back, impostor.”
Flustered and indignant, Roland roared back, “I’m the original between us! Me! And your voice makes you sound like an awfully young man. If they gave birth to an arrogant swine like you, I bet your parents look like brainless clods!”
“You bastard,” Jake replied through gritted teeth. “Two can play at that game. Am I right in assuming, from your actions, that you’re a lowlife loser adult? Oh, no need to answer. I can tell I’m correct even without you admitting it.”
“You…you worthless brat!”
Cleare ignored their endless squabbling, “These two came to me separately before we left, insisting that they wanted to take part in the battle,” she explained. “I borrowed a couple of spare Armors Luxion had created and gave those to them. Intriguing that they both created similar designs.” If what she said was true, she hadn’t come up with their masks, they had. Father and sons unknowingly shared the same aesthetic.
Marie stared out the window at the two. “Genetics sure are something else.” It was a bit disheartening to think that Julius had donned that same guise, putting himself on the same level as this pair.
No Comments Yet
Post a new comment
Register or Login