Chapter 4
Part 1
-the image itself was a switch.
All magi had different methods.
Some people had an image of dropping a firing hammer, and others something more like piercing their own heart. An unexpectedly large number of magi relied on sexual excitement, and among them many were forced to rely on drugs. Regardless of the method, these images were switches to turn the nerves inside the magus' body into Magic Circuits.
By activating these Magic Circuits, the magus connected themselves to the Great Magic Formula that served as a foundation, and turned the magus themselves into a "system for realizing mysteries."
For Flue, that switch was thirst.
Walking through the desert. A dryness in his throat he was helpless to do anything about. Long ago the sweat had stopped flowing, and even his eyes had withered up. Even if it was for a single drop of water, he would commit any crime-
-no, that thinking would only lead to death by dehydration.
By using a simple, pure thirst as his energy, his his nerves flipped over.
Suddenly, he was beset by the sensation of a lid being blown off.
He turned.
Agony became ecstasy. Thirst became pleasure.
"Lead me!"
Along with those whispered words, the world changed along with him.
Throwing six knives into the air, they sank into the stone floor as if it was made of no more than butter, forming a magic circle.
But, three of those that had cut into the stone were still trembling.
They were being resisted. When two supernatural phenomena came into contact like this, the result was decided entirely by the skill of the individuals involved. That's why, as far as Flue was concerned, backing down was beyond unthinkable. Setting the Od within his body aflame once more, he transformed it into magical energy and slammed it into the knives again.
Then, after striking the stone floor,
"Lead me, now!"
In response to Flue's shout and the flood of magical energy, the knives were sent flying.
Removing themselves from the floor, they energetically embedded themselves in a nearby wall.
-Or so it seemed. As the knives stuck into it however, what was supposed to be a wall started to fade. As the knives slipped out of it and fell to the ground, it disappeared without a trace.
In other words, the wall they had perceived there was not real.
The rigorously established bounded field had, before the "guidance" of Flue's astrology, been completely swept away.
"Well done."
An elegant voice called out from beside him. Shortly afterwards, a pale hand reached out towards the darkness in front of them.
"
."
In Luviagelita Edelfelt's hand, a purple flame ignited. Though it seemed like it would burn her pale white hand, it seemed it held no heat as it coloured her skin and flooded the darkness with light.
Flue dropped to the floor and sat down with a tired sigh.
"That was exhausting."
As he spoke, he wiped the sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand.
In reality, what he had done had taken the utmost concentration, which was reflected in Flue's complexion looking like he had just aged ten years. Naturally, this didn't happen every time he used magecraft. It was just that the barrier in the Castle of Separation was that powerful.
After leaving the company of Lord El-Melloi II and his friends, the two of them began searching every corner of the Castle. Dragging him along in her rage, Luvia's pace was such that they didn't miss even the smallest amount of dust in their inspection. Their inspection was honestly so thorough that Flue felt like what they were doing wasn't all that different from Lord El-Melloi II's own inspection.
"-ow..."
Flue began to massage the area around his throat.
It must have been a reaction to his use of magecraft. On top of the fact that using magecraft at all in the Castle was incredibly difficult, the excessive use of it was causing him pain not from his body, but from his magic circuits directly. The agonizing sensation of bone scraping against bone was all the harder to bear knowing the pain itself wasn't real, but just an illusion created by his magic circuits.
"If you're a magus, that pain should be pleasure itself."
Luvia spoke as if it went without saying. Then, she giving a small nod,
"Indeed, for one who has the qualifications, the door will be opened. Obviously the case for a magus."
She spoke as if trying to insinuate something.
(Well, I guess she's not wrong...)
As far as magecraft was concerned, secrets themselves were life. Just as mysteries had meaning because they were mysteries, if they were understood, they lost that force. Of course, simply showing one's magecraft to another magus a single time wasn't enough to have an impact on it, but Lord El-Melloi II's discerning eye brought him frighteningly close.
If he was just interested in the history or origin of magecraft, that would be fine. But if he also delved into the thoughts and theories of those magi who regulated that magecraft...
Flue felt a shiver run up his spine.
(...I wonder if he realizes that?)
'But if you really knew magecraft, you would understand that all you are doing is destroying it.'
Lord El-Melloi II had clearly understood the meaning behind Luvia's words.
Whether it was consciously or not, the fact that he understood that made Luvia all the more angry.
Compared to the Edelfelts, called the world's most elegant hyenas, Lord El-Melloi II was even more of a thief. If he could see through to the nature of future magi just by looking at the properties of their magecraft, in a way, it was like he was stealing the mysteries from their future.
(...and he's a Lord, huh?)
The highest position in the Clock Tower, held by only twelve individuals.
Or maybe they were those heretics that refused to stay within the frame of the Association - Destroyers.
With the violet flame in her hand lighting the way, Luvia carefully descended the steps that had been revealed in the darkness. Even this simple act was carried out with the elegance of a dance. In short order, they came up to a wooden door, and without hesitation, she opened it.
"...the hell?"
Flue hurriedly covered his mouth and nose. Built up within the room was a horrid stench. If he had to put words to it, he would say it smelled like someone had torn the guts out of some livestock, mashed the mess of organs and parts all together, and left it to rot for a few years. Even with his nose covered, it seeped into his throat and lungs, and Flue had to desperately resist the urge to vomit.
"Well, it certainly seems like we've found what we were looking for."
Luvia, also with a hand in front of her nose, spoke with a frown.
Compared to the other rooms in the Castle, this one was much more cramped. The windowless room contained a bed, a desk, a silver pentagram and copper goblet. A variety of other small tools no doubt intended for use with magecraft lined the shelves. Aside from that, there were a number of bladed and spiked tools lying around the room that were covered in dark stains and rust.
(...torture devices?)
Flue was reminded of the various implements of torture he had seen in the past, like the Iron Maiden and the Brazen Bull. The most disturbing thing was that even the torture devices were engraved with and modeled after angels. The visage of the normally lovable Cupid, stained dark with dried blood, was unexpectedly repulsive.
It seemed this was Geryuon Ashbourne's private room.
Whether it was the furniture or the tools or the torture devices, everything was awash in images of angels. Thanks to the small size of the room, it gave off the impression of being trapped at the bottom of a deep bog.
"Is this where Geryuon Ashbourne restored the Magic Crests?"
"Or maybe its where he tore them from their hosts," Luvia replied.
Suddenly the image of torture devices being used to tear the skin off of victims of the witch hunts forced its way into Flue's mind. Even the seasoned mercenary felt a chill from those words.
"...a picture?"
Flue's eyes stopped over the out-of-place looking picture sitting on one of the shelves. It was a small painting, done in such fine detail that he had initially mistaken it for a photograph.
However, paying no mind to Flue, Luvia made her way straight to the desk placed in the room. On the dust-covered desk, numerous magic circles were drawn.
"...so, this is Ashbourne's foundational formula, is it?"
"-wait a second!"
Even ignoring the location itself, the chance that these magic circles were dangerous was high. However, seemingly without a care in the world, Luvia slid a finger across one of the circles.
With a snap, the circle reacted with a bolt of lightning. As if being drawn in, the lightning arced upwards and struck a ring on Luvia's finger before being swallowed by the jewel set there. As if nothing had happened at all, Luvia continued her inspection of the magic circles.
Seeing words written around them, Luvia read them aloud.
"Asmodeus, Belphegor, Baal, Adramelech, Lilith..."
Upon hearing the ominous names she read, Flue raised an eyebrow.
"Demons, or rather...fallen angels? Or maybe, members of the Qliphoth?"
"You catch on quick, don't you? The dark side of the Sephirot that symbolized Kabbalah - instead of describing the virtues and angels sought after by people who desired heaven, it's an arrangement of the vices and fallen angels that descended into Hell. It seems like this is the true nature of the foundation underlying the Castle of Separation."
After a short pause, Luvia smiled like she had come across a beautiful flower.
"Yes...with this, we have all the information we need. Shall we show them the way the Edelfelts do things?"
********
Rosalind Istari had stayed in her room the entire time.
As her brother had instructed, she ate breakfast and lunch in their room, and hadn't so much as stepped beyond the door. Normally her young heart would be restless from being trapped in a single room for so long, but after the case with Hishiri Adashino, she was more than content where she was. Thanks to her brother's intervention, Rosalind had been spared having to see the scene itself, but the loss of the beautiful woman who had inspired admiration in her weighed heavily in Rosalind's chest.
(Who...?)
The question of who would do such a thing circled endlessly inside her head.
She didn't have to even think to realize that for magi, anyone could realistically be the culprit. Having grown up in a place where magecraft was weighted more heavily than human life, it wasn't even a question. On top of that, she couldn't even put her own brother outside the list of suspects. She knew full well that he would become any kind of monster or demon if it was for the sake of protecting her - a fact she admitted rather sorrowfully.
Even so, she did nothing other than wait quietly in her room.
She did nothing other than sit, eyes downcast at the frustration of how powerless she was.
"Something wrong? If you aren't feeling good, I can grab you some tea. Though the stuff I brought is all Green Tea."
Her acting bodyguard in place of her brother spoke up with a friendly voice.
"I'm sorry...Mister Seigen."
"Haha, don't mention it. Getting to spend time with a lovely lady such as yourself is about as happy as it gets!" Lightly striking his own chest, Seigen closed his eye.
As far as winks went, she couldn't really call it that...skillful. It was no wonder he added the gesture of beating his chest. Though it was the first time she had spent this much time in a room with a member of the opposite sex that wasn't related to her, for some reason the Yamabushi's presence put her at ease.
"Did your brother say something to you?"
"No. Just that I'd be safe as long as I was with you."
"...I see."
Seigen's mouth twisted into a somewhat ironic smile.
Rosalind trusted her brother's words with a simple-minded innocence.
After discovering the murder of Hishiri Adashino, the first one Heine had contacted had been Seigen. Even though Heine was out investigating the incident further, as long as this funny Yamabushi was with her, the world seemed a little bit softer to Rosalind.
"Did something happen between you two?"
"...nope. Nothing. Not a thing."
After a short pause, "...well, I guess being seen through by someone like Heine is fine."
Shrugging, Seigen confessed.
"A while ago, I had given up on being a magus."
"You...gave up?"
"Yep." Seigen gently stroked the sleeve of his bizarre clothes.
"Magecraft is normally only taught to a single child in the family, right? Well, it turns out my father was pretty successful when it came to the art of love." Seigen spoke with a frivolous laugh.
While it was pretty uncommon in the common era, if you look back far enough there are plenty of examples of kings or other powerful families to have children numbering in the hundreds.
"So he thought. Why not have them compete with each other?"
"Compete?" Rosalind's expression moved.
"Right. Of course he was a Yamabushi, so it's not like there was a shortage of places to put us while we trained to be ascetics. Though magecraft in general gets weaker as it's spread between more people, Shugendou is a bit different. Since half of it is religion in the first place, having a lot of people learn the basics won't really make all that much of a difference."
Though he had many disciples, the real secret arts that made of his magecraft were taught only to a tiny portion of them.
Of course, that was the correct procedure, as far as magi were concerned. The most commmon pattern was families selecting one child, and then not teaching the other children even about the existence of magecraft. That being said, different regions and styles of magecraft had given birth to a variety of deviations from that pattern. It seemed Seigen's family was one of those deviations.
"Well, from the start, the systems of magecraft in the East are pretty different from those in the West. Our sect had taken to adopting more Western patterns in its practices, so there were even things like Magic Crests to pass down. And guess who that Magic Crest was passed on to? I failed early, so I didn't care either way. While I liked magecraft in general, I wasn't a big fan of the wide-eyed obsession everyone had over the Origin. Though I suppose more importantly than not having the interest, I didn't have the talent for it. Of course my teacher, or father I guess, was heartbroken, but he understood the situation and knew he could do nothing about it. And that's precisely why I had a brother."
"You have a brother?" Rosalind's voice became faintly excited. No wonder, since the situation Seigen was describing was starting to sound like her own.
"Yep. Couldn't tell you whether he was on the same level as Heine. Those are awfully big shoes to fill, you know? At the very least, there was no question he was the most skilled out of all of my siblings. As frustrating as it was for some of them, it was a lot better than the alternative of a magus Poisoning."
Poisoning.
In this case, it was a technical term related to magecraft. A magus would gather a number of creatures, typically poisonous snakes and spiders, and sometimes even things like giant centipedes and scorpions. They would put them all in a small pot and force them to kill and canabalize each other. Whichever particular one managed to survive until the end would be used as a catalyst for Curse Magecraft. It was a pretty widespread practice in continental Asia, and it wasn't limited to poisonous or venemous creatures either. There were even examples of people doing the same with cats, dogs, and even wolves.
In this case, Seigen was referring to having all of the students of a particular teacher fight each other to the death, and then having the survivor become the successor. Among families that taught magecraft to more than one of their children, it was a relatively common practice. One could say that the fact their father hadn't chosen to pursue that method was the one stroke of good luck Seigen and his siblings had had.
"But in this case, that ended up being a disaster." Seigen laughed weakly. "Because he left the useless ones like me alive. Among those who were rejected, a number of my siblings held a grudge. While none of them could measure up to my brother alone, when they worked together - stupid, isn't it? If they were planning on working together, they already had lost the requirements to be the successor in the first place - anyways, after the ritual for transfering the Magic Crest to my brother was complete, they launched a surprise attack."
Rosalind held her breath.
"The result was as tragic as you would expect. My brother was tenacious enough on his own, but when my master also got involved, the attackers were slaughtered to the man. Idiots. The only one who made it out alive was me, since I hadn't cared enough about the ceremony to go and had been playing hooky in town. In the end, the main temple went up in flames, and my brother and master were both burnt to a crisp along with it."
"..."
"Even through all that though, my brother managed to survive thanks to the Magic Crest he had received. Do you get it? It was fire made from Shugendou. It was normal for monks to perform various acts like firewalking, so we have a natural resistance to fire, but this was Tengu fire. He was honestly charred down to the bone. The Crest, though...it kept him alive. He was still moving when I found him. After hearing that much, you can probably guess what he asked me to do."
Seigen's voice had an uncharacteristic heat to it. It was as if he didn't want to talk about any of this at all, yet he couldn't stop himself from talking either.
"He asked me to...take the Magic Crest from him. Of course, my brother was virtually dead already, so you can probably guess what kind of condition the Crest was in. It's not like we were that much of a magus lineage anyways. Sure, we were more than ten generations old, but we were a branch family to begin with. So why not just leave everything to the head family and make our own lives? Apparently no one ever considered that. Preserve the magecraft, preserve the mystery, preserve the Crest, our goal is the Origin...like seriously, who cares?"
Seigen spoke as if spitting out his words.
"Bunch of morons. Every single one of them."
Once again massaging his sleeve, his face contorted. However, that twisted expression soon vanished, melting away into a gentle sigh.
"But even so, it was my brother who asked, so I couldn't just ignore it, right? I thought maybe there was something here that could help."
"You...wanted to do something?"
"Not really. But there was no other choice. Even after I had denied it so much, there was nothing else left for me. Even though I had given up, I had no talent and I had no guts to continue, with my brother and my father dead, there was nothing I could do except continue what they started. Funny, right?"
Seigen's face turned to a grimace. Even if he hadn't come to like the path of magecraft, the ascetic life wasn't exactly hard on him. No matter how difficult life got, living in nature with the beasts of the wild, it filled his heart with a sense of fullness, a sense of enrichment. Originally Shugendou was a practice that was born from the merging of a peculiar religion and a bizarre magecraft, so it made sense that its practitioners wouldn't be as obsessed with Mystery as the magi of the West.
Deep in the forest, the smell of earth. Or, watching the snow pile up while huddling with the wild animals for warmth.
The sky was always broad and open, and the stars were always shining. Even on the night where sickness took him to the brink of death, costing him one of his eyes, he had the natural medicine given to him by his brother. It was bitter enough to make his tongue go numb, but to Seigen it was the most delicious thing he had ever tasted.
"My brother really did like magecraft," he said with a calm seriousness, stroking his eyepatch. "'It's fun to feel your awareness expand,' or 'I feel like I could even grab those clouds.' Those were the kinds of things he was always saying. I didn't really get it, but I figured if I took the Magic Crest, maybe someday my kids would feel the same way. And I thought, maybe if that happens...then maybe my brother's death wouldn't go to waste."
Seigen's actions all stemmed from that one motivation.
Knowing he himself wasn't suitable, he was just waiting for...wishing for a true successor for the Crest.
Compared to Heine, who had once rejected the Crest and then been forced give up everything and take it thanks to Rosalind's condition, the situation seemed very similar. At it's core, however, they were more like polar opposites.
Maybe that was why he had been able to connect so deeply with Heine.
He was filling the gap in his heart from what he had lost long ago.
"...so it was something like that..." Rosalind dropped her gaze as she spoke.
"Hahaha. Heine really saw right through me, there. He was pretty convincing after that," he said, scratching his nose.
--I know who you really are.
Heine suddenly had approached Seigen after the incident with Hishiri Adashino.
To the Yamabushi who had stood petrified, he continued.
--You really do hate that Magic Crest, don't you?
--Then, it looks like we're the same.
Those words had cut straight through to his heart.
To Seigen, whose heart had always felt empty and wounded, those words certainly awoke a dull ache in him. But in return, they also healed something much more painful. For that reason alone, for Tokitou Jiroubou Seigen, he felt there was meaning enough in him coming to this Castle.
"I'm sorry for asking about something so unpleasant."
"Nah, not at all," Seigen said with a wave of his hand.
After scrunching his face in a way that made Rosalind think of some kind of small animal, Seigen rubbed his palm on his robes before lightly bopping her on the head.
"Don't worry about it. It's all old news anyways. It's just a convenient dream for me now."
A dream.
Because he decided entirely by himself to rely on others. For Seigen, the most selfish thing he could do was to pretend like he was a magus just like all the others.
That's why it was just a 'convenient dream' for him.
"Anyways, all we can do now is wait for Heine to come back, right?"
"...okay," Rosalind replied, unable to keep herself from letting a little yawn slip.
As if she was embarrassed, she immediately brought her hands up to her mouth.
"...Seigen, who do you think killed Hishiri? Do you think it was Ashbourne's curse after all?"
"Hm, I wonder. A magus leaving a curse like that behind is pretty normal, after all. But if it's just something like that, there's no way Heine will lose, right?"
"...yes. Because Heine...is my..."
At that, her words stopped. Leaning sideways on the couch, her breathing settled into the steady pattern of sleep.
After putting a blanket over her, Seigen softly stroked the sleeping girl's head.
*****************
Heine Istari was once again wandering the front gardens of the Castle of Separation.
It was a forest.
The sound of the leaves rustling overhead gave the impression of a witch's laugh.
"...it seems I'm going the right way," he muttered, continuing through the path of fallen leaves.
Luvia had joined forces with the Astrologer Flue, and was looking for clues within the Castle itself. Heine had decided on a different approach.
'An angel becomes a beast. Gazing at the western sky, it swallows the sun.'
Heine was in a very different place than the one he had reached the night before, where this message had appeared on his invitation.
It seemed that Hishiri Adashino's Angelic Name pointed to a different place than the others.
Heine, Lord El-Melloi II, and Luvia's Angelic Names had all indicated zodiac signs from Aquarius to Pisces. From a simple astrological perspective, that indicated a posision of 300 to 360 degrees. In short, if one were to divide the sky into the four seasons, they would point towards the end of winter. Knowing this, Heine was able to calculate a position based on drawing a line from each of their own rooms.
However, Hishiri's Hachasaiah and Orlocke's Nanael, which Heine had secretly investigated earlier, were attributed to the sign of Aries. That pointed them in the direction of 0 to 30 degrees, leading to a very different location.
After investigating where that direction lead, Heine found the same pedestals he had seen at the other location. As expected, the statues of angels that belonged there were nowhere to be found, but the same message appeared on his invitation.
'An angel becomes a beast. Gazing at the western sky, it swallows the sun.'
The message was exactly the same.
However, investigating the surroundings, there were traces on the ground as if something had been dragged across it.
After thinking for a while, Heine placed his hands on one of the nearby stone monuments, and pushed with all his might.
After a long effort, the pedestal finally moved, revealing a gap in the earth. From that gap blew a soft wind, travelling up a staircase that disappeared into the darkness below.
It wasn't all that unusual for old castles in Europe to have secret underground passages, but what set this one apart was the extreme depth.
"...is this where that beast is hiding itself?"
After considering his options for a few seconds, Heine steeled himself. If it learned that its hiding place had been discovered, it might move somewhere else. It was now or never.
Slowly, Heine descended down the staircase.
His footsteps echoed incredibly loudly.
(---Had Hishiri discovered this place as well?)
That possibility was highly likely.
That would mean she had gotten much closer to figuring out the secret of the Castle of Separation. As a result - or maybe, as punishment for that, had she been made an example of like that?
(Also, had Ashbourne intentionally given Mr Orlocke and Miss Hishiri different information...?)
If that was the case, what meaning was there in that?
Was she killed somewhere else, and then skewered on the sword afterwards?
Had she really been brought down by some sort of curse?
At long last, as he continued down the underground passageway, Heine felt a magical energy that was not his own.
(It seems this is the heart of his Workshop.)
He didn't exactly doubt that the entire Castle was an enormous Workshop set up by the magus, but the idea that it was the place where he created new magecraft was impossible. No, that place must have been hidden carefully away, and still working away even with its master's death. Or maybe it was part of the secret he left in his will.
"Convert."
Heine whispered, and the Living Stone hidden throughout his body responded.
In an instant, his body was encased in a knight's armor, and a spear was in his hands. Despite how anachronistic the armor was, no other look suited him better. Heine thought that it was probably because he was the product a family trapped in the past. Magi were, more than anyone, a group that buried themselves in the darkness of history.
In that way, Seigen was much stronger than he was.
Not in his magecraft, but the opposite.
Because magecraft was, in its essence, pleasure.
The euphoria of wielding a power that transcended the common world. Even if it was a discipline trapped in the past, giving up that joy that was greater than anything else life had to offer was difficult. Before the pleasure magecraft brought, even the pain and suffering brought on by the learning process was as nothing.
Seigen, who had thrown that all away by his own volition, was strong. Or maybe it was better to say he had a purity that was normally only found in animals. Even Lord El-Melloi II couldn't escape his thirst for knowledge.
In a way, that was a strength Heine himself had never managed to obtain.
"..."
Footsteps echoed.
The steady echo was so much that it made him somewhat doubt whether the footsteps were his own. Crossed fates. Inverted phenomena. Reality deceived by magecraft.
As magi, they were born from the shadows.
In that case, it was inevitable that they would return to them.
After all, the desire of magi to reach the Root seemed to have stemmed from a similar thought, didn't it?
"Ahh."
At last, his footsteps came to a stop.
To Heine's eyes, strengthened by magical energy, an even deeper shadow lurking within the darkness of the passage became visible.
That beast made of shadows, lurking almost invisibly in the passageway, gave no hints about its true form. As Heine recognized it, he gave a faint smile.
"We meet again."
Dropping his hips, Heine lowered his spear at the beast.
Even if it was a beast, Heine had no idea what level of intelligence it possessed. It might have been no smarter than a wild animal, but if it was being controlled by a magus, the possibility they had taken precautions for fighting against Heine himself was real.
So Heine couldn't let down his guard for a moment.
Without putting any confidence in the strength of his armour, he carefully held his spear to create a wide gap between them. If the beast was faster than it had been before, as long as their weapons were only that spear and those claws, Heine could leverage his superior reach and win. If the beast had another trick up its sleeve...
...well, he could deal with that when it happened.
-The darkness ran.
As Heine struck with his spear, a sharp noise resounded.
There was no blood, nor was there even so much as a scratch on Heine's armour. He had certainly felt his spear strike something solid.
But.
"...looks like you got me."
Heine clicked his tongue as he inspected the end of his spear.
It was gone. The beast's claws hadn't been aiming for Heine, they had struck out against the spear. The hardness of the spear was far beyond that of his armour. There was no doubt that the abilities of the beast were far above what they were at their last meeting.
The shadow backed away, as if laughing.
How's that? That's how easily I can tear apart your armour.
"..."
Without a word, Heine waved his spear. The pure metal shaft became slightly shorter as a blade reformed on the tip.
But what was the point in doing that? The spear made by your alchemy already lost to my claws. Do you think it will end differently if you try again? The beast seemed to be positively trembling with excitement.
It jumped.
Zigzagging across the narrow corridor, it seemed like a human-sized billiard ball. It jumped five times, eight times, far beyond twenty times. No matter how much Heine had strengthened his eyes, there was no way a human could physically keep up with that kind of movement. The movements at more than 300 kilometers per hour were far beyond the physical limits of the human eye.
Lunging at Heine from his blindspot, the beast's claws shredded through Heine's armour as if it was nothing.
Really, like it was nothing - in the middle of its attack, the armour had suddenly reached out and grabbed the beast.
"I thought of that, too," Heine spoke softly.
His armour could do a lot more than just 'be hard.'
In this case, he had done just the opposite - softening it so that it could ensnare his opponent. When the beast had sliced through the spear, Heine had changed the quality of his armour. As wary as ever, he reshaped it into chains, and used them to further bind the beast.
"Now, shall we take a look at what you really are?"
Turning around slowly, Heine raised his spear once more.
Though there was no sound, the beast still howled.
Originally Posted by FSF 5, Chapter 14: Gold and Lions I
Though abandoned, forgotten, and scorned as out-of-date dolls, they continue to carry out their mission, unchanged from the time they were designed.
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