Percidal runs out of the forest to the burnt-out space of grey ash. The air is acrid, bitter. He can't stop coughing after the first breath of it.
Finally he wipes his mouth with the back of his hand. The sword he's holding sneers "Done?"
Percidal straightens, hand still close to his mouth.
Before him, among the field of grey, an enormous brass flask on spindly legs is aiming a pipe-like arm at a slim figure in black.
She's tiny next to the metal thing. Her body a barrier between the thing and a fainting princess. Percidal has no idea what happened here and he spares it no thought.
In a leap he's with her. With his sword he blocks the strike.
"Let me out!" Rubilax demands.
The iop's first instinct is to throw his sword into the purple eye of the mechanical monster, but the shushu could merge with it, which wouldn't be good.
But if he has no strength to control Rubilax, has he enough strength to protect a lady? We'll see, he tells himself.
His arms grow weak, but he's standing tall. He isn't the iop Tristepin Percidal anymore, or rather, he is, but it's not important.
The only important thing is the life and safety of the two ladies. Knights protect ladies. That's what they're for. If he lets them come to any harm, if he doesn't sacrifice all he has to protect them, he'd render the very idea of knighthood null. Knighthood will be an empty word, and he'll be nothing at all. A knight protects ladies. It's so clear.
"Let me out!" Rubilax pleads, and this time Percidal agrees. He knows the request is sincere. Maybe Rubilax is a knight in his own way, too.
"Dally?" the lady behind him asks worriedly, but he reassures her "Yes, Eva, it's me! Rubilax left me in control."
And the shushu does yield to the knight's will. No struggles, no protests, without a word he lends the knight his strength, as if he made the choice as well.
A thousand pins, hot like ice, run through Percidal's heart, but it's nothing.
They never hit those he was protecting.
Rubilax's strength leaves him, but it's nothing. Then his own strength follows.
Percidal falls to his knees, he collapses into the lady's arms, but this is good. He let her come to no harm. Fulfilled his purpose.
Now others will take it over.
A hot tear falls on his cheek, but his heart feels light.
"Don't be an idiot" the lady pleads, and he explains, gently, like a knight should.
"I'm not dying, I'm entering the legend."
Darkness is clouding his eyes, but he remains conscious of this truth, it fills his entire heart.
A knight does not die.
He enters the legend, another defender of the limitless kingdom.