Chapter 1 Part 3
Moving through the frozen forest was more difficult than I had anticipated.
With each step, I sunk into the snow up to my ankles. With our vision completely obscured by white, we would regularly come across bushes and branches sticking out at unexpected angles, blocking our progress. Thanks to cold resistant charm Caules had given me, the cold wasn't so bad, but it still felt like my feet would freeze in place if I stopped moving.
Yvette, Karabo, and Melvin.
The four of us pressed on into the forest. Karabo held a Black Key in his hands, using it as a dowsing instrument. Though it was a practice still used today to find sources of water and veins of ore, when used by an Executor of the Church, I imagined the degree of precision was likely much higher.
One after another, our footsteps crunched through the snow.
It felt like each step took ten times as much energy as normal. Feeling like the scenery around us differed from that I had seen from the train window, I tilted my head to the side.
"Did it really look like this before?"
"The landscape itself is likely being manipulated," Karabo said with a heavy voice.
"As I mentioned before, the original Ainnash was something that appeared once every fifty years, lasting only for a few days, manifesting as something similar to a Reality Marble. The Children of Ainnash are similar, but the currently accepted theory is that no two of them manifest in the same way. Most likely, each one persists until it has completely exhausted its supply of magical energy."
"...the Children only appear once..."
Something about that had a sad ring to it. Normally, aren't children supposed to outlive their parents? But the Children of Ainnash appeared only once, before disappearing forever.
"Apparently it is fairly common for them to only appear for a short period of time. Though that depends greatly on the individual Child."
"Even so, it's not like we can just sit around and wait it out." At my reply, Karabo gave a small nod.
At the very least, we were all aware of that.
"You seem to be quite concerned about Waver," Melvin spoke up from beside me.
"...he is my master, after all."
"I guess that's true, but..." he replied with a bitter smile, not slowing his walking.
Unlike when we first found him, he was now wearing appropriate clothing for dealing with the cold, but he still seemed unexpectedly energetic. Even walking through this much snow, he was barely breathing any harder than normal. My master would certainly be gasping for breath at this point. That said, he had spat up blood twice already.
"...you are quite different from my master, aren't you?" "Hm? Ahh, yeah, he's not very good at Strengthening, is he? For something like this, you just need to let your Magic Circuits take over for your nerves, so if it just comes down to moving, it's nothing special. Unfortunately that doesn't work so well for your other internal organs, but as long as your heart doesn't stop, walking should be no problem."
It sounded like he had just said something incredibly dangerous, but I supposed magi were generally like that.
Spinning his wrists, Melvin frowned faintly.
"But, the Mana here is hard to use. Is the forest affecting the air here as well?"
"According to our previous investigation, that seems likely. However, it's not quite as bad as the original Ainnash. According to the Church's records, Mana is entirely unusable within the main body. Using any sort of large scale magecraft becomes quite difficult there."
"...I guess you could call it a magus slayer, couldn't you? Even just using Mystic Eyes for investigating is pretty tiring~" In response to Karabo's words, Yvette put a finger beside her eye, taking her usual pose. Even among all this ice and snow, her character seemed unbowed. To be honest, I was jealous of that strength. Maybe that was a bit strange for me, but I just couldn't find that quality in myself.
Melvin lifted up his violin case with a wink.
"Okay. If that's the case, then there's no problem. There should be something I can do about that. Yvette L Lehrman, would you permit me to take a look at your Magic Crest?" In response to his offer, Yvette frowned.
"And you're going to charge me the usual Weins family fee?"
"Well, these are kind of extenuating circumstances, so for now let's call it free."
"Well in that case, please do!" Flipping up her pink twintails as if it was payment in and of itself, Yvette revealed the nape of her neck. Though I couldn't tell just by looking, it seemed like that was where the Lehrman family transplanted their Magic Crest.
Taking a tuning fork out of his violin case, Melvin concentrated for a while.
Striking the tuning fork lightly against the case, a booming sound echoed throughout the blizzard. As the sound made the nape of Yvette's neck start to move, Melvin began to mutter.
"Living things all have their own wavelength. Whether it's an ant, a bird, or a human, they all have their own. While it is similar to that of one's blood relatives, it's never quite the same. ...as such, the problem with Magic Crests, being living things on their own, is that they have different wavelengths from that of their hosts." As he spoke, he took a number of vials of medicine from his violin case.
"As such, if these wavelengths can be made closer, the effectiveness of the Crest will grow considerably." With swift motions, he mixed the contents of the vials into another and mixed them.
After doing so, he struck the tuning fork once more, before using a finger to apply the medicine to, the back of Yvette's neck, as if drawing a magic circle there.
"
Activate."
The incantation was short.
I felt like I heard the sound of something exploding. It was probably just an illusion. Phenomena of Mystery that didn't completely reach the realm of reality were perceived only innately within the human consciousness - I felt like I had heard something like that in my Clock Tower lectures.
Rubbing the back of her neck, Yvette's eyes widened slightly.
"What's this? Suddenly my whole body is feeling warmer..."
"As I just said, I've stimulated your Crest temporarily. I've only increased the circulation of magical energy by about twenty percent, but that should feel pretty good physically, no?"
"As expected of a Tuner," she said with a shrug, as if trying to hide how impressed she was.
"Okay. I feel like I should have no problems at least until we fine the leyline."
"Hahaha, I'm glad to hear it. Mr. Karabo isn't a magus, so there's nothing to be done there, but what about you, Gray?"
"Oh, umm, I'm not a magus either, so..."
"But your right hand is....ah, well, if you say so," he said, shaking his head lightly.
"Anyways, back to the previous topic. About you and Waver," he said, swinging the conversation back around.
Though I was taken off guard by the sudden change in topic, Melvin seemed completely unbothered by my inability to keep up with his pace.
"Though it was just a rumor, I heard he took you on as a student for reasons other than you being a magus, right? But you still came to a place as dangerous as the Rail Zeppelin, and are even willing to step foot into a Child of Ainnash. That's not something that can be described as just a student-teacher relationship, I don't think."
"Doesn't that go the same for you though?"
Instinctively, I responded to his question with one of my own.
Though I thought that was a little rude of me, he didn't seem to mind as he nodded.
"Of course, that's because I'm Waver's closest friend!" So now he was not just a friend, but his closest friend?
"Though I've been funding his adventures since ten years ago, this was my first chance to experience them myself. And after coming this far, in for a penny, in for a pound, right?"
"Even then, you're still willing to risk your life?"
"Haha, well at any rate, I don't have a Magic Crest. As long as there's someone ready to take over my work, it's not like anyone would be terribly sad if I died. Oh, that's not a jab at the previous Lord El-Melloi or anything," he said, stepping energetically onto what others might consider a land mine. Of course, the reason my master and Reines were suffering so much was because the previous Lord El-Melloi hadn't prepared even in the slightest for the possibility of his own death, but listening to Melvin so nonchalantly poke that hornet's nest was somewhat refreshing.
The snow-laden wind swirled around his fingers, soon disappearing back into the raging blizzard. With his pure white hair framing his face, he looked like a character pulled out of a television commercial. Besides the faint blue of his eyes, he seemed far removed from any and all colour.
Almost like a spirit of Winter.
"Um, I heard you were a friend of my master's, but what sort of relationship do you two have?"
"Hmm. I suppose the most relevant would be as debtor and lender?" he answered, tilting his head to the side.
"He owes you money as well?"
"Actually, I was the first person to lend him money," he narrowed his eyes with a proud snort. As if recounting a fond memory, he continued with a bright voice.
"The first time we met was when I was bragging in class. I had a maid with me, carrying around a collection of jewel Talismans my Mom had put together for me. Apparently upset at all my bragging, he ended up punching me."
"You sound awfully cheerful for sharing such a terrible story about yourself," I said reflexively.
It was hard to put in words, but the fact he wasn't nearly as openly terrible as someone like Atram Galiasta made his own grossness stand out even more. And why did he always have to bring his mother up all the time? The one thing that surprised me about the story was that I couldn't imagine my master as he was now punching someone out of anger. Sure, when he was bringing Flat to task, he would muster up some physical strength when it was appropriate to the problem at hand, but that always seemed to be a nuisance to him.
"Well, back then, anything and everything made Waver angry. He was unapproachable, and was always writing some thesis or other, so he probably thought everyone else in the Clock Tower was an idiot. At any rate, he was a rather prickly character," Melvin continued to speak as we walked.
"Eventually, after one of our classes - was it Evocation or Transformation? Anyways - he came up to me and said 'you said you'd be willing to give money or whatever in exchange for an interesting story, right? Well I'm going to flip the whole Clock Tower on its head, so give me the money for a plane ticket.' Whether it was something I actually said or not, it sounded like something I would say at the time, so I bought him the ticket after all."
It was a version of my master beyond what I could imagine.
A master I didn't know. A time I didn't know. But a past that certainly occurred.
"Oh, I didn't expect all that much from him. Maybe he was finally planning on running away, and was going to return home? But even then, I figured I'd see something interesting if I had my maid tail him for a year, so I figured he'd keep up his end of the deal. Did you know? Watching someone break and fall after trying their best is a rather delicious sight." Melvin's soft words dripped through the blowing snow like rain.
The line he had just spoken seemed far too well matched for his pale lips, giving the impression of some sort of demon. Right after saying they liked people in an exaggerated tone, he immediately whispered about his own corruption and betrayal. Indeed, the difference between them seemed slight at best.
"When he returned to the Clock Tower, he paid back all the money I had lent him with some crumpled up bills. I don't know whether he made that money while he was abroad, or if he borrowed from someone else to pay me back. All he did was apologize, saying something like 'sorry, I couldn't show you an interesting story like I promised.' So this is my apology. I was just a powerless idiot. But there is something I definitely have to do, so please lend me some money again. I want to buy the El-Melloi Classroom that our professor left behind.' That was, of course, far too amusing.
I ended up getting interested as well, so I told him I'd lend him the money, so why don't we become friends? Best friends have the greatest right to ask for things from each other, right? Well, in the end, Reines ended up buying up all his debt, so she holds all of it now," Melvin said with a strange laugh.
I didn't even need to stop and think as to what event caused my master to change so much. The Fourth Holy Grail War. After that, he travelled around the world, teaching magecraft to a number of students.
But there was one more thing that caught my interest, that I wanted to ask about.
"Why...why did you take such an interest in my master?"
"Hmm? Ah, that. People are surprisingly able to grow, you know? In short, life travels only in one direction, so if you leave it up to itself, its abilities and skills will continue to develop. It's actually a lot harder to stay in one place. In a place like the Clock Tower, it's common enough to see people develop tremendous skills in magecraft. -but, very few people can ever change the entire direction their life is going. After all, that's like having one's truth, the foundation of one's own soul, be reborn as something new. At the very least, I don't know anyone else who was able to face their own uselessness like that. Don't you think that's interesting enough in itself?" Melvin's words somehow reminded me of what my master said to me, back in my hometown.
Can people really grow? And now, as proof of that, Melvin spoke of the person named Waver who had changed his entire way of life. Though the words they spoke were totally opposite, they somehow felt painfully close.
Though I couldn't really put into words why I felt so.
"Though I can't say I ever expected him to take El-Melloi's title of Lord and take over the Faculty of Modern Magecraft. After the resignation of the previous head, the seat had been open for a while, so maybe they were just that desperate."
"The previous head?"
"Yeah. Though he was a pretty skilled person in his own right, soon after Waver returned to the Clock Tower he disappeared. The Faculty of Modern Magecraft is typically looked down on by other magi, so even though it was a main Faculty of the Clock Tower, none of the other Lords seemed interested in taking it over. And so when the family now at the bottom of the Twelve Great Families, the El-Melloi family, was in a position that no one knew what to do with them, it seemed like a perfect match."
"Ah, I see."
I had been wondering who had been in control of the Faculty of Modern Magecraft up until the fall of the El-Melloi family, but if it had been vacant until that point, everything made sense. Maybe that was common knowledge to the people of the Clock Tower, but since I had only been there for a few months, everything was new to me.
"Can I ask you something as well?" Melvin spoke up.
"Who was it that hurt Waver so badly? There was someone other than me, right?" My heart jumped into my throat.
Though his expression was as innocent as ever, I felt like he was peering straight into my heart.
"...well, umm..."
As I opened my mouth to answer,
"-this looks like it," Yvette suddenly spoke.
"Right there." Pressing down on her eyepatch, she pointed forward.
I don't know if that exaggerated pose, one finger in her hair and half her face covered was necessary or if it was just some sort of appeal, but either way Karabo drove the first marker - one of his Black Keys into the ground.
Standing alone amidst the white snow, it looked to me like a small, lonely grave marker.
"That should be good. I was told we need at least two more. Miss Yvette, could I ask you to guide us to the next spot?"
"Of course~" Yvette replied with a carefree nod, setting out into the forest again.
Just as I was beginning to think that things might go smoothly after all, Karabo stopped in his tracks.
"...it seems that marker was enough to signal us as intruders," he said, glaring into the distance. Among the densely packed trees of the forest, some of the branches began to move.
Not due to the weight of the snow, but entirely on their own.
Like a whip, the branches arced towards us. Though they seemed easily strong enough to punch through a human being like they were no more than paper, the unnatural branches were cut down with a single flash of Karabo's Black Key.
"So these are the branches that brought down your helicopter?" Staring down at the branches now writhing on the ground, Karabo spoke in a cold voice.
Neither his gaze nor his earlier strike belied any agitation at the sudden surprise attack. Was that a sign of what kind of conflict he had overcome in his life within the Holy Church?
From within the blizzard, another branch began reaching toward us, prompting me to take a combat ready stance.
"Add!"
"Ihihihihi! Looks like it's our turn after all!"
Releasing the hook that held Add in place, he immediately slipped into my hand in the form of a scythe. Though I didn't really want to reveal him to everyone, this wasn't a situation where I could afford to think like that.
"Ooh, how dynamic!"
Blowing straight past Melvin's wide-eyed face, the scythe cut down the approaching branch.
"Please step back," I said, bringing the scythe around to bear again.
But at that point, I noticed another point of concern.
(...this is...)
My body felt heavy.
Just like Melvin had said, the air in this frozen forest was wrong. I couldn't even absorb half the magical energy I should have been able to in an instant. I'd have to sharpen my senses to compensate. Adjusting the flow of magical energy to allow for a sufficient amount of instantaneous output, I scaled back on stamina and physical strength.
With a sharp breath, I swung the scythe again together with the magical energy.
The branches rushing towards me were once again severed cleanly. Bringing the scythe to bear again, as I looked to the tree that was the source of the branches, my eyes wavered.
The branches I had cut down earlier were now moving at my feet.
The fallen branches reached for my throat once again.
At a timing I couldn't match. At an angle I couldn't protect from. Just as I was sure it would punch straight through my throat, a shadow passed through.
Karabo's Black Key struck the branches down again.
"Be careful. As an entity related to Dead Apostles, you can't assume they follow the same rules as other forms of life."
The old man from the Church's gaze flitted about, ready for anything.
There was one more of us whose gaze had changed.
Having removed her eyepatch, Yvette's eyes were sparkling. No, the eye beneath her eyepatch wasn't an eyeball at all, but a ruby giving off a vibrant scarlet light.
"Tadah! Yvette's Artificial Mystic Eye - Incineration Version!" With a roar, the empty space in front of us burst into flame.
The cluster of branches reaching toward us were consumed by the blaze along with the blowing snow. Following Yvette's eyes, the swirling inferno vaporized the snow and incinerated the branches all around us.
"...I see. I had heard that Mystic Eyes made from jewels could reproduce the effects of Noble Colours."
"I can't keep it up that long, though!"
"Understood."
Like a gale force wind, the Black Keys responded to Yvette's shout and flames.
The figure that stepped in to cut down the remaining branches looked like a dark storm, only borrowing the shape of a person. Completely defying all outward signs of his advanced age, he moved with a ferocity beyond that of even a wild beast.
In the spray of white snow, the black blades danced.
Like the scar marking the side of his face, it created a striking scene.
(...this is the strength of Mystic Eyes...of the Holy Church...)
In a way, I was moved. Though Heine, who I had met at the Castle of Separation had also been a member for a time, this was my first time seeing their true strength in person. Rather than taking a single Mystery to its limit, like a magus - this was a person who devoted his all to denying those Mysteries.
But there was still beauty in that.
At this uttermost extreme, Karabo's movements were refined to the point of perfection. Not just Karabo alone, this was likely the fruit of the hundreds that had come before him, polishing their skills, their art, and handing them down to him.
"Alright, time to switch!" Without hesitation, Yvette reached into her own eye socket.
Once again, she replaced the jeweled eye that was held there. This time, it was an iolite. From my lectures in Mineralogy, I had heard it was a stone that strengthened one's spiritual perception, and that there were tales of it being used in place of a compass on ships in the Scandinavian sagas.
"Owowowowow....okay, this way!" Without missing a step, the black-robed priest turned, following Yvette's instructions.
Preparing to take his place against the attacking branches, I took a position beside Karabo as he ran.
As I did, the ground collapsed out from under me.
Just as it seemed I would fall into the dark hole opening up below me, Karabo grabbed my arms and pulled me to safety.
"T-thank you..."
"That hole was just covered with snow a little while ago."
Hindsight.
Could he use his Mystic Eyes like that too? Moreover, he must have trained extensively to be able to us his ability to observe and make use of information from the past while concentrating completely on the present battle. After rushing forward for some hundreds of meters, Karabo wasn't even slowing down. The fact he was able to move at this pace while covering all of my movements from attack spoke of the long years he must have spent fighting as a team.
"W-wow, this is..."
Struggling valiantly to keep up, Melvin's eyes were spinning.
After a few minutes of running, a steep cliff suddenly appeared from within the depths of the blizzard.
"Whoa!"
"Don't stop!" the old man shouted.
The reason for his cry was clear. Behind us, the rush of branches hadn't stopped. Weaving together through each other, kicking up snow as they surged forward, the attacking branches seemed like some sort of enormous snake.
"We're going down!" Reaching the edge of the cliff, Karabo kicked off the ground. Watching him leap down the steep hill, Yvette blinked repeatedly before shaking her head in disbelief.
"Geez! This is why they call you guys from the Church savages!" Holding her skirt down, Yvette slid down the hill.
Turning around, I saw Melvin standing, out of breath behind me. Without hesitation, I pushed him down the hill.
"Sorry, Melvin!" "Aaaaaaah! This feels just like a roller coaster!! Bleahruovuagu!" As he slid down the hill, without slowing, Melvin managed to skillfully eject the blood he was vomiting.
It appeared he actually was using his Magic Circuits to stand in for his nerves. That was certainly something an ordinary person would never be able to do. I wasn't sure that was really something to praise him for, though.
With as much force as I could manage, I also threw myself down the hill, turning my eyes to the bottom of the hill.
Immediately below me, Yvette was pointing.
"There!"
"Got it!" Karabo threw a Black Key to mark the spot Yvette indicated.
I felt some sort of power run through the ground.
Two down.
"Just one more!" As he continued speeding down the hill, Karabo's eyes snapped down.
At the bottom - at the edge of a steep cliff, another wave of branches of death was rising towards us. The forest was anticipating our actions, and moving to intercept us. It also seemed like after placing the second marker, the forest's hostility toward us was doubled.
They were acting as if to protect something.
As if to say it wouldn't allow us to progress any further.
Or possibly...
(...it won't let the Rail Zeppelin go?)
Such a thought flitted through my mind.
Slicing through a particularly large branch as he was still sliding, the old man shouted.
"Miss Gray!"
"Okay!" Even without saying it, I knew what to do.
As if to stop myself from sliding down the hill, I sank the blade of my scythe into the side of the hill. Using the reaction from that movement, I polevaulted myself up into the air. Throwing the weight of the scythe into a spinning spiral, I drew a black half moon through the pure white world.
Slicing through the entirety of the branches attacking us, I grabbed one of the severed limbs. As the branch struggled to pull back, I used it to force my forward movement into another direction. I launched myself towards the tree that was the source of the branches.
It was like a glacier built up over a tremendous number of years, that had taken the form of a tree.
Immediately beside the cliff, the tree of ice sprouted more and more branches.
Reminding me of a spiderweb, the countless branches spread out in every direction. On top of that, each of the branches began to sprout thorns of ice as they filled the empty air. Most likely if I were pierced by a single one of those branches, my entire body would freeze over.
That being said, with my full force attack already in motion, there was no way for me to stop from falling to the other side of the cliff.
(-like, I care!)
I expelled the fear from my mind.
Paying attention only to my position in the air and in keeping my own balance, in a way that would make even my body collide with it, I brought the scythe down at an angle. Ignore the splintering branches, the shattered icicles, the pain of impact. Since long ago, I was always good at ignoring my own pain. Be it physical or not.
For an instant, the wind calmed.
The glacial tree, cut diagonally straight through, fell. As I watched the severed tree fall away from me, I was suddenly struck by a sense of weightlessness as the cliff face began to rush by me.
"Ihihihihi! Try not to go splat at the bottom!" Ignoring Add's commentary, I extended the scythe out as much as I could as I fell.
Just barely, I was able to snag the edge of the cliff face. Sliding down a number of meters, my desperate effort finally brought me to a stop about halfway down.
At the same time, there was movement above me.
Considerably behind me, I heard Yvette shout..
"There!"
"-three!" I heard the sound of Karabo's Black Key punching into the ground where Yvette had indicated.
Many times stronger than before, I felt a torrent of power surge through the ground. It felt almost like some enormous creature was struggling beneath the earth. Called a dragon in some places, or a god in others. Along the line of that distortion was what was called a leyline, the same as what supposedly ran through the classrooms in the Clock Tower.
(...did we do it...?)
At the very least, it seemed like no one else fell down like I did. It seemed the battle at the top of the cliff had come to an end. The magical branches that had pressed down on us like storm clouds had vanished, not a single one remaining. As had the formless animosity the forest had turned on us.
Looking down for the first time, I felt a flush of fear grip my stomach as I realized the bottom of the cliff was still some dozens of meters below me.
"Gray!" Though I couldn't see him through the blizzard, Melvin's shout barely reached me.
"I'm okay! I'll meet up with you later!" Recognizing that it would be difficult to ascend at this point, I answered him as I turned my sights to the bottom of the cliff.
Finding a handhold to support myself on the cliff face, I returned Add to the hook on my right shoulder. While I naturally had no experience free climbing, even if it was incomplete, I was able to compensate for my inexperience with my Strengthened body.
(If only I could use magecraft that would help me float down...)
As I recalled the conversation I had had the night before with my master about Flight Magecraft, I made my way down one handhold at a time.
Before too long, I had made it to the bottom. Now at the lowest point, my eyes were immediately drawn to a single point.
"This is...?" Buried in the snow was what looked like a silver seed.
Though it seemed to be no more than an empty, dried out shell, it still possessed a lingering scent that told of a tremendous amount of magical energy. If the cast-off shell held this much, how much more would the actual seed have held? The thought alone made me shudder.
I suddenly remembered Karabo's words.
It seems that once they have grown mature, the fruit begins to drip blood.
Some of those drops become seeds, and after a period of time, they evolve into a different form than that of their parent.
(...this is, that seed?)
Something like this just happened to be along the path of the Rail Zeppelin? It just happened to sprout at the moment we were passing through?
Really?
"Looks like you've found something interesting," a voice called out to me.
With just that, my thoughts froze over completely.
I felt my whole body, down to each of my individual fingers, go stiff. How much of that could I blame on the cold? As if to prevent me from fooling myself in that way, the figure in front of me had a terribly severe air. With just a single battle, even my soul itself had become spellbound.
Awkwardly, I raised my eyes.
"W-why-"
"I figured you'd probaby come here. But it seems I was wrong. My objective was that scowl, but... Perhaps I've lost a bit of my intuition from being away from the battlefield for so long."
Within the calm air of the forest, that voice had a majestic echo. As if her words were the only thing this forest couldn't suppress.
(....oh...)
The reason the branches had receded was no doubt because they were afraid of her.
Even if they were an existence born of a Dead Apostle. No, specifically because they were, they couldn't come close to this Heroic Spirit.
"Unfortunately, it seems that surly guy isn't here."
The crimson-armored Heroic Spirit - Hephaestion spoke, as if bored.
Originally Posted by Arashi_Leonhart
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
