Weiβsilber
One day, the Red Devil was sent to kingdom of the White King, told to bring ruins to the land. The Red Devil went confidently.
Soon, he arrived at his first victim near a suburb village in the land; an elderly grandma who was walking with stick and a huge basket of wood chips on her bent back.
Haha, it's your last, woman! Be prepared to die! The red devil told the grandma relentlessly. Mine, mine, young man. I am always prepared to be taken by God. But before that, I was told to treat others nicely by God. How about it? Want to have a bowl of soup at my house? Although it's a quite shabby place. The grandma replied the Red Devil. The grandma was blind.
The red devil stayed at the grandma's house for a night. The next day, the grandma took the devil to the town of the King for shopping. The devil was among all the people for the whole day.
However, the devil didn't kill anyone for the whole day…
A wave of loving aura approached and washed upon Freu and Ruu. Freu managed to hide her joy of finding her new friend and Liebea came before the two.
"Ms. Freudia!" Liebea exclaimed as she covered her mouth in courtesy.
"Liebea? What are you doing here?"
"Yes, about that…" Liebea rubbed her face a little.
"Liebea was abducted by the church you see," Sichte walked up from behind Freu, "we just came to get her back."
Following Sichte, Grolla and Kahl came right after and joined Liebea. Their focus involuntarily fell on the ground, where Pamela laid like a lifeless puppet.
"This person…!?" Grolla seethed silently; the ominous blade of Grollschwert dangled belligerently besides her waist. Kahl placed himself between Grolla and Pamela, signaling Grolla to calm down, "Lord Kahl…"
"Ms. Freudia," Liebea hid herself behind her brother.
"Freu?" Ruu sat herself on Freu's shoulder and murmured into her ear. Freu nodded slightly and walked towards Liebea.
"Liebea, please take care of this person."
"But…" uneasiness mingled with fear in Liebea's eyes.
"Right now, she is nothing but a witch like the rest of us."
The six looked back at Pamela; a silent understanding seemed to be achieved. Turning away, with Ruu smiling sweetly on her shoulder, Freu prepared herself to leave, "then, I will have to go after Ir-"
"I…" Pamela's lips moved lifelessly, as if pre-programmed to move, "am not… a witch…"
Closing her eyes in pity, Freu and Ruu left the corridor.
A sad trail of tear rolled down Pamela's eyes and drifted into dirt beneath her. Liebea knelt down besides Pamela and summoned her aura to heal Pamela. Broken shards of Weiβsilber gradually fell off as her wounds healed.
"Stop doing that!"
Pamela suddenly lifted herself off of ground, blowing Liebea aside; chunks of blood sputtered out and spilled on the ground and the corner of her mouth was stained red. Rage was flowing out of her eyebrows for a second but quickly drooped into a cloudy shade.
The Red Devil was lost. The Red Devil asked himself, for what is he living? He realized that he couldn't answer himself.
"Kill me…"
The words struck at the four standing in front of Pamela like a hollow brick; hard but empty.
"You, do you understand what you just said?" Grolla asked grimly; her fingers traced the dark hilt of Grollschwert.
"Grolla Seyfarth, your sword is screaming for my life." Pamela leaned back her head and her eyes lost color, "Right, your sword and you should both be hating me. Come, I won't resist now…"
"SILENCE!" Grolla drew out her blade, which grown even sharper and gleamed even more ominously, and pointed it at the throat of Pamela, "How dare you belittle me and my sword!"
Pamela only laughed darkly. The tip of the blade was only a hair bit apart from Pamela's neck but she approached the blade herself, sinking the hatred into her flesh. A stream of blood quickly rolled down her neck. However, Grolla dropped her blade.
"Hmph, laughable." Grolla sheathed her blade, "right now, you are not worth my blade."
Memories started to resurface from the depth of Grolla's brain. The figure of a tall magi wielding a long scythe and a thick sword, the pain of thousands of wounds all over the body, the regret for not accomplishing something, the hatred for one's self for not being able to accomplish, the effort spent in eliminating one's weakness, the endless cycle of failure, and the one line engraved into Grolla's body;
"Go straighten yourself out!"
Grolla stared into the empty eyes of Pamela and walked away, Sichte following with a bitterly smiling face.
"Brother…" Liebea, confused about what to do in the situation, sat on the ground with one arm in front of her chest.
"Liebea, are you alright?." Kahl helped Liebea to her feet. Then, turning towards Pamela, Kahl approached the Weiβsilber on the ground. Lazily, Pamela lifted her head to face Kahl.
"Brother…?" Liebea whispered behind Kahl.
"Captain of Schwarzkreuz, you have fallen quite a lot since we last met."
"…"
"Are you giving up?"
"…so?"
"The pride of Schwarzkreuz, is that only some blather?"
" …"
"The time you spent with your comrades, is that meaningless?"
After that, the Red Devil trapped himself in the house of the grandma. Instead of chasing him out, the grandma still smiled serenely everyday and fed the Red Devil like her son.
But one day, the grandma past away. The Red Devil stared at the corpse of the human lying in front of him; the image slowly blurred away. The Red Devil remembered his mission, being told to bring ruins to all people.
However, he couldn't hold himself back. Tears rushed out of his eyes like a spring. He couldn't forget…
The warmth of this shabby little house…
The soup that the grandma prepared for him everyday…
The smile that never left the grandma's face…
The time he spent with the grandma
Pamela's head lowered again, hiding her eyes from Kahl's. Her lips trembled slightly and then stopped. Kahl shut off his eyes and let out a sigh.
"Liebea, let's continue the heali-"
"There was…"
Kahl turned his head around; a scarlet blaze flared up around Pamela and the shards of broken Weiβsilber danced up to the flame like phoenixes fluttering their wings.
"There was meaning in our time!"
The golden corridor was suddenly lit brightly red by Pamela's flame. A dark purple shadow flew past Liebea, raising a silvery glimmer.
"GROLLSCHWERT!"
Grolla swung down her blade from behind her shoulder full strength and a web of dark violet beams sliced through the air, advancing towards Pamela, "LET THIS ENGRAVE INTO THAT BODY AND ROT!"
Pamela's lips, however, curled up with an air of arrogance, "hmph, I refuse."
Raising her hand, a vortex of fiery aura swirled around the broken shards of Weiβsilber and completely embalmed them. Then, just like Grolla, Pamela flung down her hand. The fire was as if commanded by its owner and gathered in front of Pamela. Reaching into the fire, Pamela slowly pulled out a hilt and soon the body of the blade itself.
"WEIβSILBER!"
The Red Devil abandoned his hatred. The red skin shed from his body, revealing an angelic figure.
Standing on top of a mountain, the Red Devil looked over the land that he came to destroy; all he saw was a beautiful land covered by emeralds of plants, sapphires of lakes, and gold of people's smiles.
When he looked back towards the cave from where he came, all he saw was pitch black. And thus the Red Devil made his first move, for the grandma whose name he didn't even know, and the people in the land that the grandma loved.
Cracks lined the pillars and crevices filled the floor. Three heavy beams fell on the ground and shattered off chunks of powders and dusts into the air.
"Looks like you are fine now." Grolla sheathed her sword.
"Well, well, what's wrong? Are you not going to come at me anymore?" Pamela, sword in hand, bore a confident smile on her face. Grolla grunted and walked towards Sichte.
"Milady…"
"Ah, got it. We have to be at the frontier as well, don't we?"
"Therefore, the fight with you shall continue another day, Pamela Arwig. That hatred, I won't forget."
"Is that so?" Pamela also sheathed her sword, "Eifer…" Pamela blushed the moment she called Eifer's name. Hiding her hands behind her, Pamela half-clenched her teeth and rubbed her fingers together.
"Healing is no longer necessary it looks like."
The red on Pamela's face somehow spread even more after hearing Kahl's words.
"You…! This muscle-head!"
"Go."
The furrow of embarrassment disappeared slowly from Pamela's forehead. Her empty eyes cleared up and her lips shut together, as if gathering strength to make her resolution.
"I'll go even if you don't say so."
Eiferstachel
It's just not fair that they judge you based on who you are not, the Fallen Seraph said to the brother of the White King. But if you don't know what to live for, I will give you a meaning…
With that, the brother of the White King stepped off in his journey towards the kingdom, towards the Red Devil and the White King…
The world has gone pale suddenly. A huge orb was positioned in the middle of the sky, covered by a layer of snowy aura but still glowed brightly, making it hard to discern between afternoon and evening. Glittering flakes filled the water of the lake which was flowing quietly.
"Somehow reminiscent…" Freu murmured silently.
"What is it, Freu?"
"No, nothing. Let's go, Ruu."
Tia…
The area was quiet. Wind past by the travelers like a weightless dress. The statue of an angel crucified on a pillar slept serenely while red stains encroached on her dress.
"It feels like we had been wandering around the same place for a while…"
"Ruu is getting tired…"
"What a child." Freu coaxed, "We'll find the exit soon."
"This place…"
"Do you know this place, Ruu?"
"Umm, this world is created by aura of Ai-chan's heart "
"Eifer!?" Freu was stung by the name, remembering how Ruu told her that Eifer was a homunculus. Freu looked around once again; the colorless-looking world, the quiet and tranquil water, the angel stabbed in the heart…
"This is… Eifer…?"
Ruu smiles softly and flew ahead, "Freu, this way."
The path that was ahead of Ruu was full of stings, jutting out of both sides of the way. Freu's eyebrows lowered a little and she followed Ruu down the way of shambles.
The brother of the White King marched forward. However, the person who greeted him was not the Red Devil, but an innocent-looking child and the White King himself…
"Eifer, I've heard… that you are a homunculus."
Freu and Ruu arrived right in front of the statue of the stabbed angel where Eifer awaited. Eifer no longer wore any gloves; her hands seemed extraordinary small and delicate.
"Right. I am a homunculus created by Master for the sake of smoothing up this stage."
"Frankly, that's unbelievable." Freu waved down her hand, as if trying to drive away the annoyance of the thought, "you ARE the human and the fairy…"
"Freu…" Ruu's eyes shrunk a bit; what would appear as sadness only showed as a kind of serenity on Ruu's face.
"Is that all you heard from the bug? Then that's incomplete." Eifer said emotionlessly, "that bug is missing memories of when she was created."
"?" Ruu stared innocently at Eifer, her wings fluttering silently.
Slowly, Eifer reached above her head. As if dragging a veil of mud away from her, she pulled off her hat and her hair instantly turned snow white. When she reopened her eyes, her pupils were bloodshot and scarlet, like Freu's.
"Ei-fer…?" Freu's eyes widen at the sight.
"Correct. I am a homunculus based off of you, Freudia."
"For the secret art of Rosenkreuz to be exploited like this…" Freudia soliloquized.
"But your copy split in two in the process of being created. For that reason, both clones lacked a certain part of their emotion…"
Looking grimly over Freu and Ruu in the midair, Eifer seemed to bear a certain resemblance to the crucified angel.
"… one clone was a human who didn't understand happiness and joy, the other one was a fairy who didn't know anger and sadness."
"Ruu is also based off of me…?" Freu turned towards Ruu, who was rather surprised this time. A confused expression flashed across Ruu's face before a spot of white emerged from the top of her hair and sprang all around her head, dying her hair and eyes the same color as Freu.
"Ah, Ruu didn't know… Ruu can do this, too "
"If we are just like sisters, there is no reason in us fighting… Eifer!" turning back towards Eifer, Freu appealed bitterly. However, it was too late. Eifer slit her wrist with a shard of plant. Blood rushed out and feel into a devilish cradle that Eifer conjured with all her remain aura.
"Wrong…" Eifer's voice grew obscure and resonated through the space, "killing you is all I got!"
Eifer floated into the midair. The mixture of her blood and aura became a mist of murky black. The dark cloth wrapped around Eifer one round after another and eventually formed a sphere around Eifer.
"Idiot…" Freu murmured weakly, her voice trembling.
A monstrously big, dark violet hand ripped through the dark cloth followed by another. The dark mist cleared, revealing a bloodshot eyeball in the middle of a spherical body.
FrEuDiA!
The White King's brother darted towards his sibling as if having lost his mind. He drew out his sword and brought down one violent slash after another. The White King was expressionless; his face was masked. But he could see the attacks and dodged all of them. With a slight movement of his foot, the White King tripped his brother to the ground. When the King's brother turned himself around, he found the tip of a sharp blade pointed at this forehead…
"Eislanze!"
"Der walzer von elf "
Among the fierce clashes of Eifer's black aura blocks an Freu's frozen lances, Ruu danced through the air, dissipating Eifer's aura.
The monster roared with an ugly voice. Black mists started to clear from the air while a deep green orb gathered in front of the eye of the monster.
EiFeRsTaChEl!
"Freudenstachel!"
Looking past the blade, the King's brother still couldn't see the expression of his older brother. However, a clear bead of tear floated out of the socket on the mask of the King; the innocent-looking child smiled as if in relief.
The King was unable to kill his brother…
Freu knelt down besides Eifer and held her into her chest.
"Eifer, what is it that you can gain by killing me?" Freu inquired.
"I…" Eifer was choking on her own words. Her voice barely made a whisper, but it was quite enough for Freu to hear, "I m no… replicat… i-i… kil yu… den~"
"Ai-chan, is passing away?" Ruu came down from the sky and landed herself on Eifer's shoulder, "Ruu wanted to become friend with Ai-chan…"
Eifer was shivering weakly; there wasn't a nuance of warmth in her body, "so cold… not again… in s-such… col place… no…" Eifer's body grew transparent; pieces of diamond dusts seemed to be scattering away into the air.
"Eifer, don't move." Placing one hand on Eifer's forehead, a white sparkly snowy fluid flew into Eifer's near transparent shell.
"S-stop… cold…" Eifer whined painfully.
"Be still… if you are based off of me, my aura should help you recover…"
Half-visible, Eifer clenched her teeth in Freudia's desperate attempt. Moments elapsed like eternity; Freudia's aura became more and more worn out as the needles of time intertwined in sewing a transparent clothe for the figure in her embrace with the threads woven off her power.
"Freu…dia…" Eifer's voice trailed off; her lunar silhouette dissipated into the wind as a swarm of emerald powders.
Freu hid her face as Ruu rose up from the ground, "at such times, people cry… but Ruu can't really cry well…"
A few steps ahead of Ruu, Freu strove to keep her voice straight, "instead of real tears, the desire to cry is more important… that's what I think…"
The dissipated powders drifted in the wind and eventually found their home in the river below as ripples. The ripple flowers were not intricate at all, but all were very pretty...
Like they always had been.
Die Legende "Weiβer König und Rote Teufel"
The brother of the White King walked on. He held his forehead hard, which hurt from the anointment that the King applied.
Soon, he came a huge tree and leaned himself against it. The air was warm; fragrance of flowers around him embraced him like Mother Nature. However, another one sat on the other side of the tree.
It was the Red Devil…
Pamela sprinted forward according to her memory of the church. Things flew past her in oblivion as her mind was occupied by intertwining moments of embarrassments, anxiety and confusion.
That muscle-head… how dare he preach me? But he's right… Eif
"ahh!" Pamela's thought was brought out of her mouth as a choked surprise by an erect spring fountain that Pamela smashed her stomach into.
"It hurt it hurt…" Pamela knelt down on the base of the fountain, holding her stomach, "That muscle-head idiot…" Pamela flushed badly, trying her best to divert herself from the reason of the shame.
That revealed body full of muscles… how lowly! It totally tainted my sword…
As the pain in her stomach subsided, Pamela looked around her. The tranquility of the place as if washed away all thoughts from Pamela's head. A huge frozen orb replaced the sun in the sky; crystalline powders wafted through the air.
"By the way…" Pamela said half-mindedly, "it's evening isn't it… what a pretty moon…"
The fountain floated freely on the river; but the water dried from the fountain. Pamela sat down and leaned her back against the fountain. A slightly wet breeze caressed her face, seducing Pamela to close her eyes.
The brother of the White King stood up and drew his sword at the Red Devil. The Red Devil didn't dodge. A smile just like that of the White King showed up on his face instead.
The brother of the White King was lost…
"Freudenstachel!?" Pamela stood up, hand on sword, and blindly searched around for the source of aura that interrupted her from her sweet dreams.
"Eifer!" realizing a half-transparent figure on the other side of the fountain, Pamela turned around and found Eifer lying on the floor, teeth half clenched, "w-why are you here?"
"P-pamela?"
"Eifer, how did you become like this?"
"F-freu-dia… where is she?"
"Freudia should have passed here a while ago. But," Pamela's eyes scanned Eifer's aura, "Eifer, you abused your aura again didn't you? You force yourself too much… even though you are a homunculus."
It took Pamela quite some courage to word the last part and earned nothing but a sharp glare from Eifer, "Tsk… you knew… about me? How annoying…" Eifer coughed out the words.
"It wasn't me. It was Schirach… I simply wanted to know more about my fellow teammates." Pamela knelt down besides Eifer and lifted her head onto her knees.
"You… s-stop!"
The moment Eifer's head landed on Pamela's knees, a wave of grim chill passed to Pamela's knees and Eifer's hair instantly turned bleach white.
"Argh!" Eifer let out a scratchy scream, her bloodshot eyes glaring at Pamela. Struggling badly, Eifer retreated herself from Pamela's knees, "get off me!"
The Red Devil looked totally foreign to the brother of the White King. The brother of the White King didn't want to accept and immediately refuted. But he hesitated and was confused. He was also annoyed a little, but didn't know why…
Eifer panted badly while solidity returned to her body. The white also started to fade from her hair.
"Eifer… is that why you are always after Freudia?"
"Damn it…" Eifer straightened herself with some difficulties.
"Don't even think about chasing if you are going to, Eifer. You won't be able to beat her."
"Say what?" Eifer hissed vehemently.
"Being brainwashed by evil, losing your sense of justice, you won't win." Pamela poured out the words from her heart; the feeling was freshly new to Pamela, "In comparison, Freudia has lots of friends. It just happens that she is alone this time. If not, you know what's going to happen…"
Pamela stood up in front of Eifer. Sensing that this would probably the only chance that she would get, Pamela reined her nerve and hid her fiddling fingers behind her back, "I revived because I want to be serious this time, for the Schwarzkreuz. This time, I want to know more about everybody. So Eifer, why don't you break with Iris and walk with me again? I will one day settle the things with RKS, the chance for you to meet Freudia again will surely come as well. Our interests are the same"
"Tsk…" Eifer shook her head around with a bitter laugh, "who the heck is going to join you, you waste piece."
"Aren't you also a waste piece of Iris now?" Pamela asked back, creasing Eifer's eyebrows, "how are you different from me in terms of being manipulated by Iris?"
"…"
A sad warmth filled Pamela's eyes as Eifer adjusted her breath, returning her eyes back to their original chestnut color, "always fulfilling the orders of Iris, do you plan to just die like that without even minding your own goals? If you are not just a doll, you should be able to understand…"
"Shut it!" Eifer croaked out; her emotion burst out in lieu of her dried up aura, "I am…!" stopping herself in mid-sentence, Eifer face trembled a slight bit. Snowflakes floated down like tears of the crucified angels. Pushing herself up from the ground, Eifer left without saying another word.
"Eifer…" Pamela waited for Freudenstachel to disappear from the air from letting out a sigh, "haa… although I was because of my ego, it is certainly so awkward not being able to have anyone turning back…"
Shaking everything off, the brother of the White King ran away. But the Red Devil didn't stop his journey there.
Right…
The Red Devil… he… she knew what to do…
All of a sudden, an overwhelming dark foreboding washed over Pamela as she lifted her head towards the central building of the church.
"Iris…"
Pamela sank deep, through all the images in her brain and reached that before Eifer's; thousands of chains lined Eifer' body, whose eyes were closed. Her silvery hair drowned helplessly in the ocean of black. Drawing her sword, Pamela made up her mind.
So Pamela dashed out to slay the fate.
In Walpurgisnacht
"I've been waiting for you, Freudia. Welcome to the VIP seat of this stage, where a God shall be born "
Iris's eyes greedily scanned her preys. Freu's nerve tightened while Ruu appeared totally unaware of the direness.
"Iris, this is it. Give Tia back."
"You are chased down~" Ruu chanted in.
"You really entertained me; fighting all your lowly battles was such a joy to my eyes." Iris stroked her blonde hair, which flew in the mid-air nonchalantly, "As a token of my gratitude, I will present you with the lowest, cruelest and saddest death "
"You… what do you think life is?" Freu's tone was heavy. However, Iris only laughed harder, "Life? Ufufufuu To God, that is only a toy; because I can make as many as I want "
Glancing condescendingly down at Ruu, Iris's eyes narrowed in contempt, "Didn't you see Eifer and that fairy there which I created to kill time and the Count that I revived for fun?"
Raising her hands to shoulder length, Iris laughed heartily. A dark poison effused out of her sweet voice, "They are all worthless "
"Ai-chan?" Ruu questioned, a deep bewilderment on her face.
"Iris," Freu's aura grew dark of belligerency, "Tia believed that you would change… but you didn't. You shouldn't have been left alive!"
Ruu winced a little at Freu's anger, but closed her eyes in admittance. Filling herself with the magic revolving around in her necklace, Ruu looked with to Freu like a child.
"Well, well! How foolish! It's unforgivable for a bug like you to point dagger at the God!" flinging her hand down at, Iris worded slowly, "I will break you down, Freudia "
The White King found her enemy. Anxiety and urge drove her hands, but fear and uncertainty dominated her heart…
A jet black cloud spewed out around Iris, filling the black hall with an unbearable, rotten stench.
"Uuuuu~" Ruu pinched her nose under the stench. When the cloud cleared, a broad, golden-lit hallway broke out from behind; a giant conglomeration of rocks showed itself where Iris was. A single mechanic hole was etched into the rocky façade; blood was oozing out from the machine, intensifying the rotten odor in the air. On top of the rocky block, Iris sat with her legs crossed on a crown seat.
"Not fighting by yourself? How unpleasant…"
"Freu, fighting?"
"Yes, be careful, Ruu." Freu murmured back and made her resolution.
"Freudenzwinger!"
Freu gathered a huge chunk of her aura; thousands of icicles flew to the machine. From far, it looked like a web of white chains a central dark core.
"Ah, Ms. Freudia, look how much you are striving "
Despite Freu's attacks, the machine didn't quite bother that much. A spark of purple gem conjured in front of the machine, aiming at Freu. The sphere speedily grew in size, pushing asides the pillars with a loud crumbling sound.
"Ouuhohoho Freudia, please vanish like a bug "
In a split of a second, rhyming with a giant roar, the machine fired the purple beam at Freu.
I… I can't get around this… but even if I can…
"…!?" turning her head, Freu noticed that Ruu was still behind her, "Ruu…!"
"Freu, looks like we have to do it~"
Swinging her hand around Ruu, a sphere of snow crystal embodied the two.
"Eislanze!"
If I can focus on one point… just one point… for Ruu, for Tia…
"Ruu will help too "
Hold both of her tiny hands towards the barrage of the ice lances. The elf's orb on her necklace illuminated and waves of transparent blue flew towards where Freu was aiming. Freu's aura suddenly grew in madness and slammed into the center of the energy ball. The clear blue touched the purple and instantly vaporized. However, a dent grew more and more visibly as the purple doom approached Freu's barrier.
"Ruu, hang in there!"
"Y~es "
The bloody smell soon encroached upon the snow crystals, slowly eating away while pushing back the firing point of Eislanze, which fiercely stood at the frontier with Freu's eyes clenched shut. The dent in the middle of the energy ball was so deep that the top and bottom of the energy ball already stretched past Freu and Ruu.
"Ruu… I'm sorry…" a choked apology escaped Freu's mouth.
"Yes?"
"I…"
Flowing through the depth of time, an emerald wave of aura embalmed the grandiose hall, covering everything in a layer of silver which quickly elasped.
"…can't…!?" Freu was cut off in the midsentence by the sudden burst of aura behind her, which she urged to set her eyes on to confirm rather than relying on her instinct.
"ALL FIRE ALL OPEN, LUSTATEM!"
A smoldering block of blazing orange air blade slammed itself through Iris's attack, dissipating it into ghostly remains of purple smoke, and cut into the machine that Iris was sitting on. The contemptuous smile vanished from Iris's face almost immediately.
"My anti!?" Iris's expression hid a layer of venom; her glare was directly straight at Luste who was nonchalantly flying in the midair with a triumphant smile on her face.
"WAAAAAAA!"
The fighting yell of thousands emerged from behind Freu as thousands of aura sprang into live.
"First long-distance class, FIRE!" Kahl's voice pierced the battle-simmered noise of the crowd and a barrage of magic bullet hell flew towards machine, cracking it even more speedily as the miasma invaded the air.
However, Iris didn't let her usual poise leave that easily as she dusted her hair, put back on her condescending smile, and lifted a finger at Luste.
A bewilderment took hold of Luste for a second as she abandoned her hesitation, "the hero of justice is here! Prepare yours-"
"Blitzstrahl "
A raging bulk of laser flew towards Luste, who didn't have the time to process the attack.
"Mine, mine, I won't let you do it that easily ~" Sichte's nonchalant voice, smoldering a dagger-sharp tone, resonated through the hall.
The same silver frost flew across the dimensions as two shades dashed up from beneath and chanted in unison.
"TRUE ART UNLEASHED! GROLLSCHWERT! WEIβSILBER!"
The ray of laser deflected just in front of Luste, subsiding into sparks of violence. Pamela revealed herself standing on a magic platform in front of Luste; Weiβsilber scarlet in her hand. Grolla was pushed back by the impact of the laser a little bit, flipped her around in midair and landed with her back to Iris, a weakness which she instantly destroyed with an angry slash of sword pressure that engraved a deep line of fissure in the ground in front of her.
"Iris… I was right to not let you live." Grolla hissed darkly, a deep hatred swelling up in her voice in eruption, "Spiritia is not around this time. This time for sure, your life is forfeit!"
"Iris!" Pamela claimed calmly, hiding her emotions, "I shall have Eifer. In exchange for that, I shall have you disappear!"
Freu slowly descended from mid-air, holding her arm, and landed on one knee.
"Freu, are you OK?" Ruu gently whispered to Freu besides her as a crisp breeze blew past in front of her.
"She's OK. Freudia won't fall easily like that ~" Sichte appeared in front of Freu; her cloth were ripped as always, but this time the ripped linings were laced with knives. Slowly focusing her sights on Iris, Sichte's gaze sharpened into a glare, "Iris, this is the end."
"Alas, so many outspoken bugs " Iris's machine groaned, a dark purple mist oozed out of where Lustatem cut through, making the stench even more unbearable. "You really think you have a chance at the hands of God?" Iris's eyes narrowed in a morbid pleasure.
A huge circle of red emerged from the ground underneath the Iris machine. The color intensified and violently erupted in a pillar of lava mingled with a tinge of blue, burning into the bottom of the machine.
"Sometimes God also needs a cleaning don't you think?" a pile of water seeped through the floor and formed a mirror of water, from where Trau and Zorne walked out, fully armed. Zorne's expression was a gloomy rage, "the debt of my father…YOU WILL PAY FOR IT!"
Zorne's yell screeched at the top of her lung. Her crimson hair flew up in a lunatic dance; the lava responded with even more violence and swallowed the whole machine in scorching ash.
"Zorne!" Trau rushed up from behind and grabbed Zorne from the back. Thousands of pieces of burning dusts rained sporadically on the floor like Zorne's tears as she collapsed into Trau; her aura disturbed beyond limits, "you idiot…" Trau whispered helplessly into Zorne's closed eyes; the tears from her shut soul slowly boiled into an ominous whirlpool of desperation.
"That was some good entertainment as far as a bug goes " emerging from behind the flame, Iris floated in the midair with her phony wings. The machine was falling apart like a burnt out piece of giant charcoal. However, an overwhelming shroud of cadaverously purple mist oozed out and engulfed in hall in semi-darkness.
The King's followers came to his aid… but the King's enemy didn't even budge to move… right, she has more plots up on her sleeve…
From behind the screen of the mist came millions of clattering of chains and the soft, rotten noise of wood striking against the floor. Iris looked down at the mist, seemingly trying her best in containing her pleasure from ruining her poise.
"Well then, let the dance start, between you and your comrades "
Emerging from the mist as if a giant devil egg has been spawn, thousands of corpses stepped out of the mist. Flesh has yet to completely rot away as they dangled loosely from the frame of the skeleton. Pure desire for life rushed out of their hollow bones as formless screams for souls.
"The gate of the Netherlands… let it open here "
Slowly and steadily, the zombies wriggled, stepping out of the shadow. Those at the front line stopped in pace and started to make hand signs. A blaze of fire flickered weakly between the hands of the zombie and flared up into a fireball. Gathering the ball into its right hand, the zombie flung the fireball towards the crowd of magi that rushed up. Following the lead, other zombies followed, like a shooting class. The scream of pain of hundreds immediately followed.
"Wriggle like bugs, and please me more " Iris's cruel laughter accompanied the shamble below her cold stares.
Sichte's eyes narrowed in plight, "Magic? Don't tell me!?"
Freu furrowed along with the dark omen as Iris's mouth curved into a mock, "That' right. There are the respect-deserving martyrs of the holy empire. Of course, all were the victims of the church "
"I knew it…" Sichte's voice was soaked in a heaviness that doesn't characterize her at all.
"Klageharnisch!" pillars of water swarmed up from the ground; the fierce vortex rolled up the lines of zombies as their figures disappeared into the depth of blue.
"How dare you hurt my friend like that…" a menacing darkness emerged from Trau's aura. Swinging Leviathan adroitly around her like a protective armor, the blade of the spear glowed a deep blue, "farewell, you shall vanish from my sight with all the sea weeds!"
"What blather," Iris smiled and waved her hand. Another swarm of zombies emerged from the miasma, "numbering more than one million, can you really handle it? But please don't hold back; I will summon back as many as you can handle, for the sake of this grandiose party "
"Then, I will word my thanks and do all I want…"
"…!?"
"well… LET'S ROCK IT!"
A destructively violent earthquake followed Schirach's belligerently trembling voice. The shivering impact lifted the zombies off the ground as a pair of glowing shadows danced through the myriad of corpse in a crisply devastating round of shatter.
"Falschegestalt!"
"Bugs… looks like you don't know which side to stand on "
Following Iris's command, a crowd of zombies encircled Freu and Sichte. A confident laugh masked Sichte's face as the daggers in her hands hid her eyes. But before she moved, Schirach's shadow flicked into the circle of zombies. At that very instant, all the zombies went flying off in all direction, shattered into pieces. Wielding her giant hammer into the sky, Schirach wrought it down onto the ground, sending a fighting shiver through the ground.
"Listen up, my lovely fellow RKS members!" Schirach's voice carried her simmering joy through the army of RKS that came to the front line, "Let's inherit the will of the Count, put an end to this devil's plot and snatch back Spiritia Rosenberg!"
The crowd started to calm down a little bit from the uneasiness from the zombie's attacks; a noise similar in fashion to Schirach's fighting will brew in the crowd and soon erupted into deafening bellows.
"FIGHT!"
"THAT'S SCHIRACH THE DESTRUCTION QUEEN!"
"VICTORY IS WITH US!"
The fighting formation spread out through the RKS army as the morale rose to its high point. Sichte approached Schirach, "Mine, mine, should I say that's what I expect from the previous RKS leader?"
"Alas, Sichte-chan! Your breasts grew bigger again!" Schirach flung her hammer over her shoulder and laughed at Sichte.
"Thanks a lot I guess."
"Then," Schirach took off her glasses and opened her eyes again. As Sichte's precursor, Schirach's eyes looked just as dagger-ly as Sichte's, "It's been long."
"If I follow your pace I will probably collapse… but I guess once is fine." Turning towards Freu, "Freudia, I'll leave the rest to you. Go and accomplish what you have to."
Freu nodded gently and the two disappeared from in front of her. In the distance, piles of zombies flew into the air one after another while others vanished into the water.
Standing up, Freu stared through all the chaos and found Iris.
The White King realizes it; it's time for her to end everything. The stage is set, and the showdown has begun…
"Freudia, as promised, I will provide you the best stage " Iris left and words and departed towards outsides of the roof.
Freu stood up, her fists half clenched.
Tia…
"Let's go Freu. For Tia-chan's sake, too" Ruu encouraged lightly.
"…" Ruu waited in the silence that surrounded the two of them, for Freu to make up her final resolution, "Freu's friends are also here "
"… You are right, Ruu."
Behind Freu, the sword of Holiness glimmered strongly while the blade of Demons seethed violently; their wielders were just as determined as Freu herself.
Am Ende der Wunder
"Sylph of the wind, spirits of the nature!" Liebea screamed her prayer into the golden twilight, as if soliciting the power of the dying sun. Kahl stood erect in front of his young sister, whip in hand, in face of thousands of corpses. A pouring rain bombarded down from the sky; the rain drops were so clear as if washing away all the taint but as soon as the droplets touched the zombies, the rain revealed its acidity relentlessly as the angry sparks smolderingly eat down the army of the past.
"Not bad at all. But I can't lose; Lustspirale!"
"Fesselspirale!" Dolis's emerald shuriken flew through Luste's giant air blade and scattered it into hundreds of meteors that slammed down upon the horde of zombies, "W-wait a sec, stopping giving weird names to other people's weapons!"
"WHYY~~~? That name's so cool!" Luste whined back. The two were so occupied with each other, the looming shadow of a zombie fell upon them unnoticed. However, what landed on their bodies were not the claws of doom but rotten parts of a cadaver.
"What?"
Dolis looked up around her and saw swarms of fly-like crystalline shuriken embalming Luste and herself.
"Geisterwand." Schwer worded tentatively with a rare determination in her voice. The shuriken shields slowly whirled back to their owner, as if crowning Schwer as a queen in dying Walpurgisnacht.
"Y-you, Luste!" Dolis turned back and screeched at Luste, "get serious!"
"Got it got it!" Luste blew off Dolis's warning with deliberateness and marched on to continue her rampage.
"Kui kui"
"Mister Zeppy…" Schwer paused a second and lifted her head; the impact of Iris's machine left a huge hole on top of the giant hall. Faint light of the day melted into the palace as the air of tranquility became encroached by the zombie's perishing desire.
"Tia…"
But the White King had not realized…
That a separate end is approaching…
"Show yourself! Iris!" Grolla screamed. The day is dying, but the night has yet to show any sign of beginning. The scorching color of the sky triggered an awakening a decaying part of Grolla's memory.
The huge suspended bridge joined one side of church to the other side in the distance. The carved pillars reflected the same color of desperation as the sky. The statuses of goddess carved into those pillars seemed to be crying, out of fear, out of desperation, out of sadness. A river of sparkling blue flew quietly underneath the bridge and gently imprinted its image into the sky. This same image was as if engraved onto the campus of the church from the model of the Count's imperial training hall.
"Grolla, calm yourself down." Freu warned.
"hmm… not round after all…" Ruu stared thoughtfully at Grolla and finally commented on the side.
"Here comes…" Pamela grasped her sword tighter, in response to her already overreacting nerve.
From the floating river image in the mid-air, a huge vortex of aura merged into a magic platform and a shadow jumped out. The same twilight camouflaged the figure that suddenly appeared until it landed right in front of the four.
The White King knew at that moment; that it was the end of the miracles…
"T-tia…" a mix of doubt and joy took over Freu's mind.
"Freu, that's not Tia-chan." Ruu murmured, managing her most urgent expression.
"IRIS!" Grolla dashed out and swung her slash of hatred through the air towards the girl with blonde, long hair.
"Klageharnisch " a pillar of water shot out from underneath and pushed back at Grolla with full strength.
"Garrghh!" Grolla was violently thrown backwards. Stabbing Grollschwert into the ground, Grolla stopped the overwhelming momentum against her and landed on her feet, dragging a long sliver of crack across the ground.
"This is… Spiritia Rosenberg." Pamela whispered to herself. Emerging from behind the whirlpool was the figure of the Spiritia with deep blue hair but with an exaggeratedly sweet tone that wasn't characteristic of her.
Slowly, Spiritia raised her head. The moment she opened her eyes, a piercing killing sense took hold of Pamela and instantly disrupted her train of thoughts, making her lose her stance. Seizing the chance, Spiritia whipped a water slash towards Pamela and drown Pamela in water.
"Ahaha, how unbecoming " Spiritia laughed at the sight of Pamela trying to shake the water out of her face, trembling slightly on her knee.
"Tia?" Freu murmured and her eyes met with those of Spiritia's; almost immediately a cold wave of chill flew into her bones that struck Freu more than all the absolute zeros that she had experienced, "Iris…"
"Correct " a darkly pleasant aura surfaced as a distorted form of Luste's air emerged. A barrage of violet air blades flew towards Freu. Waving her right hand in front of her, Freu conjured a huge mirror of ice that shielded Ruu and herself from doom.
At the moment when Iris focused her attack on Freu, Grolla and Pamela rushed up in an attempt to sandwich Iris from left and right. Iris, however, didn't budge as her hair blackened and two metallic crystals fastened themselves onto her arms, block both attacks from the sides. The blades struggled badly against Schwer's aura but barely made a dent in the shield.
"This is the power of Rosenkreuz, to merge auras of different people?" Pamela pressed in hard, images of Eifer flashed across Pamela's brain. Gone with all the hesitation, a holy aura burst out of Pamela and a blaze flared up.
"Fall and shatter!" fire seemed to be burning in Pamela's eyes as Weiβsilber sparked against Iris's shield.
A similar purple demonic aura that had been simmering in Grolla flooded out; an abyss of hatred, a refluxing hell of vengeance, the cycle of eternal powerlessness and the never-ending pity.
"GUUAAAAARRGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!"
The force of the demon and the angel were both on the side of the White King. But her enemy was beyond an angel in appearance and beyond a demon in cruelty...
Following a chipping sound, fissures showed themselves on both of the shields, yielding to the pressure from both sides.
"Laughable "deliberately loosening herself from the deadlock of Pamela and Grolla, Iris instantly brought up Zorne's explosive aura. A huge detonation followed and the strong gust of wind caught both in the lower and pushed them back. However, the moment Grolla and Pamela got pushed back, a huge ice flower locked Iris in the frozen jail.
"Shatter, Iris!"
Freu's aura pierced the ice prison and shattered it into thousands of tiny ice flakes. The fainting light danced off one flake onto another, weaving an intertwining web of light onto the silhouette of Iris.
"Bugs… looks like you don't know what's what." Iris hissed heavily like a snake. It looks as if Spiritia was wearing a demonic mask as a dark thought brought a curve to the side of her mouth, "fine "
The world then froze. A nasty algae green covered the body of Freu, reviving the scars from eariler. Pamela and Grolla also fell on their knees due to the impact.
"I-iris…"
"You can still talk? That's surprising " Iris taunted, "According to Tia's memory, this aura is so anti of yours that simple contact could easily kill you "
"Freu?" Ruu tempted.
"Iris… what is this?"
"As you see," Iris looked down, "at the sacrifice of thousands of humble magi, I was able to borrow Spiritia's body although I don't quite like this unsightly face of Spiritia's, but I will change back later."
"Tch…" Grolla managed to lift her head, earning nothing but a contemptuous look from Iris, "but I didn't know Sichte's aura is also an anti to both of you "
Turning her attention back to Freu, Iris's mockery grew more acidic, "so, Ms. Freudia, what are you going to do? Fight me?" Freu's eyebrows twitched as ice climbed up her own body from the tip of her feet, "Oh scary! Don't fight me Freu, please. I don't want to fight Freu! Something like that?"
The ice slowly gained speed and soon crept up Freu's body and spread itself apart.
"But this is such a sight. The reason that you are weak against this aura is because the time control disturbs your control of aura so as to cause overflowing. How does it feel to be killed be your own aura?"
Floating in front of Iris is an ice statue and a disbelieving little fairy who kept on shaking her head.
"Then, let's end this "
Holding her hand out towards Freu, dust particles of transparent blue air of heat gathered into a ball of energy inside of Iris's hand. To exacerbate the situation, Iris deliberately put on the serious expression that Freu last saw on Tia's face when they were fighting.
A roll of ice droplet thawed at the corner of the ice statue's eye.
"Seelegewehr "
The blade of the beloved one ran straight through the chest of the White King; what awaited was only the abyss of no return…
"Freudia!"
"Freudia Neuwahl!"
The spirit rifle shot blew Freu's ice statue off into the air. The statue seemed to be in free float for a while, as if lingering to wait for Tia to come back. But eventually, accompanying the choked yell of Grolla and Pamela, Freu fell to the bottom of the river below. The world then went silent.