I got some really good reviews for the last chapter and it makes me really happy that people seem to be enjoying this story as much as I enjoy telling me. To show my appreciation I try to make sure to always respond to your reviews as best as I can, although I have to admit I usually don't respond to ones that just say "good chapter" and the like. But if you have questions, suggestions or opinions you'd like answered just put them into the review and I'll get right back to you with a response as soon as possible.
I don't really mind getting reviews from guest accounts, but if you're using one of those please keep in mind that I can't respond to those through the site page. So I'm thinking I'll start responding to the few that I get it in the beginning of future chapters like this.
Animesniper: I've been frequenting the C&C wiki since I first started.
A big thanks to my beta, Poliamida for helping me beta this chapter!
Chapter 10
Off to Albion
Louise let out a huge yawn as she tightened the belt holding the saddle in place, just barely holding back a second as she went to make sure that no part of the saddle would be rubbing against the horse.
Next to her, Guiche had just finished setting up his own horse and had taken a step back to admire his handiwork. She felt that the boy was having way too much energy at such an early hour, and it was starting to grate on her nerves.
When he started going on about the princess' beauty and wisdom for the fifth time in a row, Louise finally had enough. She loved her friend dearly, but even she had her limits.
"Shut up Guiche!" she snapped at him. "I don't care how much you worship her highness, but at least do me a favor and do it quietly!"
"Someone woke up on the wrong side of bed this morning." he grinned. "It's not my fault, Vallière. I can't help but be excited at being sent out on a mission by her Highness, the princess herself!"
"Yes, well. Get over it." she muttered. "I didn't sleep well last night, okay?"
She had gotten used to dreaming of great and terrible battles between armies, but last night had been very different. Instead of large groups of people, it was just her and a faceless, shadowy opponent fighting each other in a staggering array of stances, counterstances, strikes and blocks. Over and over she tried to defeat her ethereal foe but no matter what she did, none of her attacks landed the way they should have. Completely ignoring even the fact that no punch, kick or strike she performed was the same.
It was easily the most annoying dream she'd ever had!
Whatever it was, it also seemed to carry over into the waking world as she had woken up to sore muscles and a splitting headache. Almost as if someone had put her to sleep last night using a club and then went on to apply it to the rest of her body as well, just to make sure they got the job done. She had considered going to the school healer for it but ultimately decided not to, she had a mission to complete after all.
Finally satisfied with the saddle, she turned her head to the pair of replicants standing nearby. "Is everything ready for departure?" she asked.
"Yes, Master."
"Good, then let's… not..." she blinked, her brain suddenly catching up to the fact that she had heard that voice through her ears and not as a rumble in her head, and she finished with an eloquent "Huh?"
Next to her, Guiche also looked over at them with a curious look on his face as he likewise had not expected to hear the response from her mysterious (and often terrifying) familiar.
"Did I just hear…?" he began, only to trail off as the two replicants stepped aside to reveal a third figure, previously hidden from view, standing between them.
Standing only slightly taller than Guiche, he was wearing a set of heavy NOD combat armor scaled down to fit his smaller frame with a traveling cloak on top, but what really set it apart was one significant feature.
He wasn't wearing a helmet.
Instead they were greeted with the face of a young man with pale, blemish-free skin and a head of short, platinum-blonde hair that looked like it had originally been standing straight up only to be blown back by a great wind until it lay mostly flat against his scalp. What made it truly obvious that he wasn't human was the fact that he lacked visible ears, instead there was a layer of some sort of rigid, black material covering the sides of his head that joined together in the back.
Then there was his eyes.
They were a bright citrine-yellow in color with black scleras, making them stand out even further than they normally would.
Neither of them could suppress the shiver that ran down both of their spines as they looked into those unnatural orbs and Guiche couldn't help but let out a small whimper at the sight of them.
"Oh god." he whispered in horror. "I think my nightmares are manifesting."
Raising a shaky hand to point at him, there was a shiver in Louise's voice as she spoke "Wha- wha- what… what the hell, Legion?" she stammered.
The person in front of them blinked once before raising an eyebrow with an expression of mild confusion on his face. "Master? What's wrong?"
"Why are you looking like that!?" she demanded, her voice rising a few octaves.
He briefly looked down at himself, as if to confirm that everything was in place, before raising his head to face her again with the same look of confusion still in place. "I'm afraid I do not understand the question, Master."
She took a deep breath and tried again. "Why are you," she pointed at him "looking like that," she then turned to point at one of the regular replicants standing to the side of him "instead of like that?" she finished.
He turned briefly to look at where she was pointing before refocusing on her again. "In order to avoid attention during stealth insertion-type missions it is advantageous to keep our numbers as low as possible." he explained evenly. "With this in mind, I designed this platform to serve you as a lone operative in place of a full squad."
Turning slightly he revealed that he was also carrying a sizable backpack that looked to be stuffed to the brim. "I have already taken the liberty of bringing all the supplies you might need for the duration of the mission and I am ready to go on your order, Master."
Louise massaged her brow for a moment as she once again tried and failed to understand the thought patterns of her familiar.
"Let's… let's just get going already." she said finally, letting her hand fall back to her side.
"Yes Master."
"Ah!" Guiche exclaimed suddenly, causing her to look over at him. "Hey Vallière, would it be alright if I brought my familiar along with us?"
Louise raised an eyebrow at the odd request. "Why are you asking me that for?" she asked "You're a noble, of course you can bring your familiar along!"
He beamed at her. "Then allow me to introduce you to my familiar, Verdandi!"
She took a few moments to look around before turning to him with a small frown. "Well, where is it? I don't see anything."
"Master," Legion called out to her and she noticed he was carefully studying the ground near where they were standing. "I am detecting something approaching us rapidly from below ground."
She was just about to ask him to clarify what he meant when a mound of dirt suddenly rose up right next to her, a furry brown creature emerging from it. Jumping back with a startled yelp, she watched as Guiche immediately came over to it and started fawning over it.
"Oh Verdandi!" he exclaimed happily as he hugged the large creature, it making happy chittering noises in return for his affection. "Are you well? Have you eaten your fill of earthworms yet?"
Next to her, Legion watched this with a sort of detached sense of interest. "It appears to be a… rodent of unusual size, Master."
"It's a giant mole." Louise agreed. "Guiche, you do know we're going to Albion, right? How do you expect to bring a creature that travels by digging underground to a continent that's in the ai- hey!"
At the end of her sentence, she suddenly found that the giant mole had started sniffing her and before long had poked its nose inside her clothes. She let out a loud yelp as she felt its cold nose against her skin and using both hands she quickly tried to ward the large creature away from her.
"Master!"
"Guiche!" she shouted in irritation and embarrassment. "Get your lecherous familiar off of me!"
"Don't be rude!" the he protested. "She's not being lecherous! Although this certainly is odd." he admitted a moment later, rubbing his chin with one hand as he studied the actions of his familiar. "It's almost as if she's searching for something."
"I don't care!"
"Hmm." he muttered for a moment before his eyes widened slightly. "Hey Vallière, are you by any chance carrying any form of jewelry on you?"
"What?" she blinked before reaching into the front pocket of her blouse, producing the Water Ruby ring that she had received the night prior. "I only have this, but- ack!" she exclaimed as the moment she did so, the mole redoubled its efforts to reach it.
"Enough!" she shouted at it, sliding the ring onto her finger she closed her hand into a fist while covering it with her other. "I won't allow you to have this priceless ring given to me by the princess!"
To Louise's great surprise, the giant mole was abruptly removed from her by a powerful gust of wind not a second after she shouted that. She watched as the animal was sent tumbling over the ground, letting out a warbling cry of distress as it did so.
"Verdandy!" Guiche cried out in alarm as he hurried after his beloved familiar, leaving her standing there in the same pose with a surprised expression on her face.
"Did… did I do that?" she wondered aloud.
Legion was at her side a moment later along with the two replicants, but she quickly noticed they were facing in a different direction.
"So sorry about that." a new voice cut in and her eyes widened a moment later as she recognized it. "I didn't mean to be so harsh about it, but I couldn't simply stand by and do nothing when a girl is being assaulted right in front of me."
Turning fully to face the owner of the voice which, she idly noted was the same direction her familiar was facing, she saw a man sitting on top of a magnificent griffin wearing the colors of the Tristain Griffin Knights.
"Viscount Wardes!" she shouted in surprised recognition. She also noted with some alarm that he was looking in her direction with a hostility in his eyes that she had never seen before, sword-wand grasped firmly in his right hand.
It wasn't until she noticed the gun barrels out of the corner of her eyes that she realized the reason for his behaviour was the pair of assault rifles aimed at him. Hoping to defuse the situation before it could get out of hand, she immediately ordered Legion to stand down.
"Wait, don't shoot!" she shouted hurriedly. "He's friendly!"
Legion looked between the man standing in front of them and his Master as he tried to gauge the danger she was in, not happy about the prospect of letting a potential enemy get to her. But orders were orders and he wasted no time lowering the rifles back into the at ease-position, muzzles pointed down at the ground.
"Complying."
Wardes visibly relaxed when he saw that he was no longer being aimed at, but still maintained a certain bit of wariness towards the trio of faux-people even as Louise came running over to meet him.
"Are you alright?" she immediately asked him, worry clear in her voice.
Wardes nodded at her in return. "Yes I'm fine, although I think I should be the one asking you that, my Louise." he said before taking a moment to look her over.
"I… yes, Viscount." she stammered, unable to resist blushing at the concern on his handsome features.
"Good." the smile he directed at her made her heart flutter, looking back over at the trio behind her along with the young, blonde noble who was only now making his way back to them, he added "So, are you going to introduce me, Louise?"
"A-ah, yes!" she stammered. "That's my familiar over there, Legion." she said, pointing at him with her index finger. "And that's Guiche de Gramont."
"Ah." Wardes noted with some recognition as he looked at the boy. "The son of General Gramont, correct?"
"Y-yes, Viscount Wardes." Guiche responded, performing a respectful nod while slightly out of breath. "Pleased to.. Haah.. make your acquaintance." he panted.
"Um, Viscount." Louise said, pausing to swallow her suddenly dry mouth as he looked over at her. "N-not that I mind or anything, but why are you here?" she asked him.
"The princess asked me to accompany you." he answered. "She was worried that even with the aid of your familiar and Mr. Gramont here, you would be in danger and unable to complete your mission. As your fiancé, I was the natural first choice and I of course immediately accepted." he said with yet another smile.
"Whaaaat!?" Guiche exclaimed, his eyes wide as he looked at the two. "He's your fiancé?"
"Oh." she she said, ignoring Guiche in favor of returning his smile. "Well you came at just the right time then, Viscount. We were just about to leave."
"So I see." he said with a nod. "Then we must leave with all haste, my Louise." Louise gave out a surprised yelp as he suddenly reached down and picked her up in a bridal carry. "You will of course accompany me on my griffin while these other two will have to follow us from the ground."
"V-Viscount!" she stammered out nervously. "This isn't necessary! I can walk!"
"Perhaps, but I like this way better." he chuckled. "Now let's be off, Albion awaits!"
Unseen and unnoticed by either the machine or his Master, Kirche watched the group leave from the window of Tabitha's room in the dormitory tower.
Despite the fact that they were nearly the exact polar opposites of one another, the two enjoyed a rather close friendship and Kirche had a tendency to hang out in the quiet girl's room from time to time.
In the beginning, it had been just to ensure that Tabitha wasn't sitting in her room all alone, something which she considered to be downright harmful. But it had eventually gotten to the point where they almost had actual discussions about things instead of just Kirche talking while Tabitha read her books.
It was still like that most of the time, sure, but little was still better than none.
Right at that moment however, Tabitha had actually lifted her gaze from her book and was now looking right at her friend with a nearly blank expression.
To most, this look wouldn't really mean much but to Kirche who had worked hard learning to understand her friend, it actually said quite a bit.
Right at that moment, her eyes seemed to say "Aren't you going to go after them?"
"Nah." Kirche said with a small shrug, propping her chin up with her hand as she watched them disappear into the distance. "I doubt they really need our help with this one. I mean, two-timing nature aside, Guiche isn't that bad of a mage and that griffin knight looked pretty capable."
Tabitha raised an eyebrow, her lips pressing together slightly into a narrow line.
"Eh. Vallière's got Legion with her, she'll be fine. Probably."
Not really sharing her friend's optimism, she shook her head mutely a few times before lifting her book back up into reading position.
"I do say so! And besides," Kirche reached down into her cleavage and pulled out the comlink that she still carried, much to Tabitha's distaste. "I still got this thing, so if they need our help I'm sure they'll call."
The younger girl let out a deep sigh through her nose and lowering her book just enough for Kirche to see how she was rolling her eyes at her, she then went back to reading.
"Love you too, Tabitha."
It took them a full two days to reach the port city of La Rochelle.
Situated on Gallia's northern coast and hewn out of the very cliffs themselves by skilled earth mages over countless decades, La Rochelle was the place to go if one wished to book passage to Albion.
As a nation floating in the skies thanks to the massive deposits of windstones present beneath its soil, it could not be reached by traditional means. Instead they used vessels referred to as airships that had windstones attached to the inside of their hulls, allowing them to sail through the air.
It was possible to reach it using a flying mount, but this was normally only reserved for emergencies.
When they finally did arrive, Wardes excused himself saying that he was going to find someone to take them to Albion.
"Alright." Louise nodded, feeling rather fresh next to a noticeably sagging Guiche as they stood at the front gates of the city. "We'll go find ourselves somewhere to stay, then."
"I usually stay at the 'Goddess' Temple' when I'm here." Wardes suggested, pointing in the direction of the massive tree that was used to load and offload the airships he added. "It's just by the entrance to the port itself, right by the roots. You can't miss it."
"Yes I think I know where it is." she responded with a small nod. "I'll see you there, then."
"Oh thank goodness." Guiche moaned as the Viscount moved ahead of them with his griffin in tow. "I can't wait to have hot food and sleep in a real bed again."
"As much as I agree with you, just standing here whining about it won't get us a room." she remarked. "C'mon, it shouldn't be far."
Thankfully, Wardes' directions proved accurate and it didn't take them long to find the Hotel in question.
When they were asked how many rooms they needed, Louise considered getting a suite for her and Wardes to share but ultimately decided against it.
So three rooms it was; one for each of them.
As her familiar and lacking the need to sleep and therefore had no use for a bed, Legion would of course stay with her in her room.
Guiche had immediately claimed the closest one for himself and as soon as he the door opened, went straight for the bed.
"Wake me when it's time for supper." he groaned against the silk sheets.
After settling in herself and spending some additional time freshening herself up after the trip, Louise ordered Legion to prepare all the necessities for her to take a bath while she headed downstairs. Passing through the dining area, she found her fiancé sitting at one of the lavishly decorated, spotless tables.
He smiled at her in greeting as she sat down to join him. "How did it go?" she asked.
"It was difficult, but I managed to book us passage to Albion." he said with a slight frown. "But the ship won't be able to leave until the day after tomorrow."
"What?" Louise said. "But this is a very urgent mission! If we wait too long..."
"I know." Wardes said, holding his hands up in a calming gesture "But tomorrow is the time when the moons overlap, pulling Albion closer to the mainland. Trying to take a ship through those air currents would be suicide, so we might as well relax for a day while waiting for the event to pass."
"I… guess you're right." Louise finally relented, letting out a sigh of defeat in the process.
"Good." he smiled at her before his face grew serious once more. "Now, mind telling me why you decided to split us into separate rooms instead of renting one we could both share?" he asked.
Aaand there it was.
She knew of course that he was going to ask about it, but it didn't make her feel any less guilty about it. "I-It just didn't feel proper for us to share a room, Viscount." she said, averting her eyes from his.
"But why?" he asked, disappointment clear in his voice. "We're engaged, are we not?"
"But we're not married yet!" she stubbornly objected, still unwilling to meet his gaze.
There was a few moments of terse silence following her outburst before she heard him sigh.
"I see." she finally looked up to see that he was watching her with one eyebrow raised. "Well if that is your wish I will honor it, but if that is the case then why are you allowing that boy to stay with you?"
"W-well, that's… he's not a real boy." she protested. "And he's my familiar, so I don't see the problem."
"So it is true, then?" Wardes asked. "I'd heard that you had managed to summon something, but the accounts seemed to differ from time to time so I wasn't sure what to think." he mused out loud. "I thought him some kind of manservant at first, so I was rather surprised when he not only came along with us but somehow managed to keep up with us while on foot. But if he's your familiar then it makes sense."
"And since we're on the subject..." he leaned forward, elbows resting on the surface of the table and his eyes boring into hers. "What is he then?"
Louise swallowed once as she tried to come up with a good answer to that. Legion was just so many things that it was difficult to classify him in the normal categories. While it was true that his central core was housed in what could only be called a building, he was so much more than just a simple residence so she couldn't call him that.
A spirit? No there was nothing spiritual about him. Her protector? That was true for a great majority of all familiars already.
Thankfully, she was saved from answering this question as a third voice cut in.
"I am her familiar."
Neither of them had noticed his approach so it was with surprise that they both turned to find the very subject of their discussion standing right there before them.
"Her loyal servant." Legion continued, no emotion in his artificial eyes as he watched the man before him. "I fail to understand the reasoning behind these questions, as this should be known to you already."
Now it was Wardes' turn to feel uncomfortable, a strange chill running down his spine as he looked into those unnatural, amber-on-black eyes.
"I, uh…" he cleared his throat once. "I simply wanted to be sure that the familiar of my fiancé was strong enough to defend her." he said at last, trying to ignore the way it felt like his soul was laid bare before that unblinking gaze.
"Since I was summoned to her side, my Master has endured several assaults on her person by people whose resources and experience far exceeding her own." Legion stated simply. Raising a hand to motion to Louise, he continued. "And yet despite all this she is now sitting right here in front of you, whole and undamaged. A testament to her own resourcefulness as well as my ability to defend her."
As he allowed his hand to fall back to his side, Louise turned her wide-eyed gaze from her familiar over to Wardes, watching how the man worked his jaw a few times in preparation for his response.
"Your name was Legion, correct?"
He nodded slightly in confirmation. "Yes."
Wardes stroked his goatee for a moment. "Is the name an abbreviation of some kind? Or does it simply refer to you being 'One who is Many'?"
"Yes."
"Yes to which one?"
"Both."
The man ground his teeth in irritation for a few moments. Getting answers out of this one was like squeezing water out of a stone! "Still," he said at last, "I would like to test your abilities for myself."
"Very well."
"H-hey, wait a moment here." Louise protested weakly, making them both turn to look at her. "I don't think this is a very good idea, I mean..." she gestured at her familiar. "He doesn't even have a sword or anything!"
The reason sounded lame even to her ears, but anything was better than watching her fiancé get shot full of holes as she doubted Legion had thought to bring rubber bullets. She sure hadn't!
"What am I, chopped liver?" a tinny, elderly voice cut in, much to her despair.
"Oh no." she sighed, bringing one hand up to massage her brow even as Wardes' eyebrows rose in surprise. "Don't tell me..."
Without a word, Legion pulled up one side of his traveling cloak to reveal the hilt of Derflinger from where the sword was strapped to his waist.
"Heya, pinkie! Fancy meeting you here! Bwahahaha!"
"A talking sword?" Wardes asked curiously. "Interesting."
"I can't believe you decided to take him with you!" Louise muttered to her familiar later that night as she was getting ready for bed.
"Apologies, Master." Legion responded calmly. "In the interest of keeping a low profile, I felt it prudent to bring a more conventional weapon."
"But why him, of all things?"
"Derflinger was available, so I brought him."
The blade was currently being sharpened by Legion, bringing the whetstone that Louise had gotten from Colbert down the length of the edge with slow, deliberate moments.
"Ohh, that feels nice, partner!" the sword remarked.
"You shut up!" she hissed at him before letting out a loud sigh. Her thoughts went to her fiancé and the sparring duel that had been decided would take place at noon tomorrow. She knew that if the physical capabilities of the replicants was anything to go by, Legion's current form was nothing to sneeze at.
"Just… just promise that you won't kill or maim him." she pleaded with him.
"Yes Master."
"Promise!"
"I promise."
"The conditions of this duel is simple." Wardes said as they stood facing one another in the courtyard the next day. "The first one of us to either lose their weapon or otherwise end up in such a situation that they can no longer fight, loses."
He was facing his opponent wearing only his white dress shirt on his upper body, foregoing his coat for better mobility.
He still wore his hat, though.
Legion on the other hand wore the same traveling cloak he had done the entire trip, parted slightly as to allow him to reach Derflinger's hilt more easily. He had yet to draw the sword however, arms hanging loosely at his sides as he watched his opponent in a rather dispassionate manner.
"Very well, I accept these conditions." he said.
Off to the side, Louise and Guiche were watching it with rapt attention.
"Is… is this really a good idea?" the boy muttered, hand involuntarily going to his side where he still bore the scar from his own duel with Legion. "Not that I doubt the Viscount's abilities or anything, but I can't really see this ending well."
"How do you think I feel?" Louise hissed agitatedly in return. "Even if Wardes did by some chance win this duel, he might be in such bad shape he won't be able to continue the mission!"
"At least I got him to promise not to hurt him too badly." she sighed.
Down in the courtyard the combatants had begun to circle one another. Or more specifically, Wardes had begun circling while Legion remained in the same spot, turning slightly every so often so that he was facing the man at all times.
Wardes began by performing a number of quick feints with his sword to test his opponent's reactions, frowning when it failed to produce even the slightest hint of a response.
Having correctly judged that none of the blows aimed at him would hit based on muscle movements, Legion remained in place while he analyzed Wardes' movements. Thus when the first blow actually came, he was more than prepared for it.
Quicker than the fastest of vipers, Derflinger left his scabbard with such speed that the blade seemed to almost materialize in Legion's hand in order to intercept the blow that otherwise would have struck his right shoulder. To his credit, Wardes only showed a moment of surprise at this before refocusing on the fight once more.
Quickly regaining his sense of equilibrium, he proceeded to test his defenses by unleashing a hailstorm of blows. Trying to find a weakness, any kind of weakness, that he could exploit to his advantage.
He found none.
If Wardes could be compared to a storm; tireless and all-consuming, then Legion was akin to a fortress. Resolute and unyielding.
Despite the fact that he was using only his right arm and wrist to move his sword, each blow was met with just the bare minimum of force and movement to stop it and it wasn't long before he disengaged once more.
Carried aloft on a cushion of air, Wardes cleared the entire length of the courtyard in a single leap. Putting himself a good ten meters from where Legion was still standing in a matter of seconds.
"Not bad, not bad." he acknowledged. "Let's up the ante a little, shall we? Wind blade!"
Gathering his willpower into his wand-sword, Wardes performed a single horizontal slash in Legion's direction. The action launched a vaguely fin-shaped projectile consisting of highly compressed air pressure, held together by magic and razor thin, racing through the air towards him.
He fully expected him to try and dodge or otherwise avoid it, as anyone else would. But much to his surprise, the golem-like "youth" simply stood there and waited for it to hit him.
"Dodge, Legion!" Louise shouted from the sidelines, but in a seemingly total disregard for her order he remained in place.
Legion looked down at the long tear in the front of his traveling cloak, revealing the black ceramic chestplate and the thin line that had now been scored into its surface. Running the fingertips of his left hand across it, he took a few seconds to assess the damage before giving a small nod in Wardes' direction.
"I am reading a structural integrity loss of 1.2% to my front armor section." he observed with a tone bordering on indifference "Impressive, Viscount."
The man in question just stared at him blankly for a few seconds before responding. "You… were supposed to dodge that." he said. "Why didn't you?"
"I have not yet had the opportunity to analyze the damage done by wind-based magic." Legion calmly stated, as if taking a straight hit from a mage was simply an observational event. "The knowledge of how it works will be very useful for me in order to devise countermeasures in the future."
"Now," he said as he assumed the pose of someone just about to attack, knees slightly bent and blade held out in front of him "my counterattack will begin now. Prepare yourself, Viscount Wardes."
Wardes' eyes widened as Legion shot forward like a bullet, the runes on the back of his right hand, which he hadn't noticed until now, shining brightly as he did.
Well, he thought grimly as he assumed a defensive pose, if that's how you want to play.
His polished blade flashed in the light, little more than a blue as he sent three quick, successive wind blades towards the incoming familiar in the span of a single second. The first one aimed directly at him while the following two went slightly on each side to handle any attempts to dodge the first one.
Legion became a blur as he dodged the first of the wind blades, reappearing again for a brief moment only to dodge the second and then the third as well. The next thing Wardes knew Legion was right in front of him, blade raised in preparation to strike him, and he instinctively raised his own sword to block it.
CLANG!
The force of the impact very nearly sent him to his knees, painful vibrations shooting down his arms to the point where he swore he felt his teeth rattle. Forcing himself to quickly regain his balance after being hit with what felt like a blow from a sledgehammer, he tried to retaliate only to find another attack already heading his way.
Hissing out a string of curses, Wardes placed his left hand against the flat of his blade and angled it just so that it would deflect the strike instead of stop it. Sparks flew as one sharp piece of metal skittered off another, Legion briefly losing his equilibrium as the kinetic force of his strike sent Derflinger pointing out and away from its intended target.
Seizing the opportunity, Wardes continued the movement of his blade to deliver a punch with the hand wrapped around the hilt right into Legion's face. Most people would be quite disoriented after a strike that made your brain bounce around in your skull, making it a very effective counter against your average person.
Sadly for him, you'd be hard-pressed to find anyone that would agree to using words like "most people" and "average" to describe Louise's familiar.
Wardes would soon be among these, as almost immediately following the strike that had enough force to make him turn his head away from the viscount, Legion simply turned his head right back and gave him a dull look, as if saying "Really? That's all you were trying to do?".
Without missing a beat, Legion then proceeded to reach up with his left hand to clamp it directly over Wardes' face, fingers gripping the side of his skull, and pushed.
Louise and Guiche watched with wide eyes, the former with her hands covering her mouth, as the unexpected move sent the man flying backwards with enough force to make him airborne for a few seconds. Upon making contact with the ground once more, speed and momentum sent him skidding backwards across the flagstones a good couple of meters before finally terminating against a pile of old barrels. Most of them old enough that they broke upon impact, sending splinters of old wood flying everywhere.
Wardes groaned in in agony, half expecting for Legion to finish him off as he lay there, pain and disorientation preventing him from moving for much longer than he would have preferred.
With their opponent in such a vulnerable position, most would have walked up to them to check up on them, either to help them back to their feet or deliver the last blow. But Legion remained standing in the same spot, watching and waiting until almost a full half-minute later, Wardes climbed laboriously back to his feet.
His fine dress shirt torn and stained by sweat, dirt and a bit of blood from his impact against the barrels and the sharp splinters that ensued, Wardes looked like he had lost a fight with some big animal. He had lost his hat at some point during the tumble but his sword remained tightly gripped in his hand. Breathing hard, he glared balefully at his opponent who calmly met his gaze in turn.
Legion, in stark contrast, remained looking almost exactly the same since the beginning of the duel, the sole exception being the one slash across his chest. Not even breathing hard - as he did not need to breathe in the first place - he showed none of the regular signs of exertion, much less exhaustion. Something which seemed to frustrate Wardes even more.
"Are you satisfied now, Viscount?" he asked in a flat tone. "Otherwise we can continue at your leisure. However, considering your present state I would not recommend this particular course of action."
When no response came, Legion raised an eyebrow and was just about to repeat the query when he noticed that the Viscount's lips were moving silently.
Almost as if he was chanting something.
"Partner!" the sword in his hand suddenly shouted. "Watch out! He's charging up for something big!"
Legion narrowed his eyes as Wardes thrust his sword-wand forward, sparks dancing off of it as he released a burst of willpower into the surrounding air. Strong gusts of wind immediately and suddenly came together as one, striking the spot where he was standing with massive force. The flagstones crumbling as if a great, invisible hammer came down upon them.
But Legion was no longer there.
Already moving by the time he detected the meteorological anomaly, Wardes once again found himself face to face with the terrible, blank-faced being that his fiancé had summoned to this world.
This time however, the attack did not come in the form of a downwards strike aimed at him, but as a powerful sideways-blow at his sword that sent it flying out of his hands. Thus unarmed, he could do nothing but watch as Legion pulled his fist back in preparation for a punch and then sent it in a beeline straight for his face.
"STOP!"
And stop it did.
Mere centimeters from touching his nose, Wardes' vision was filled by the visage of a tightly clenched fist, black as the abyss itself, as it halted its progress just before hitting him. A moment later there was a great rush of wind as the force of the blow made itself known, ruffling his already windswept hair in the process.
"Yes, Master. Withdrawing as per your orders."
As suddenly as it came, the fist disappeared and Wardes had to blink a few times as spots danced across his vision.
Stepping away from the man, Legion returned Derflinger to his scabbard with a faint 'clink' sound before turning away and walking back towards Louise. The girl came rushing over a few seconds later, kneeling at his side with a worried expression on her face.
Wait, hold on. Kneeling?
Wardes frowned as he noticed that yes, he was currently sitting on the ground, and it bothered him immensely that he hadn't even noticed it happen.
"Viscount! Are you alright?" Louise asked worriedly as she noticed the blank look on the man's face as well as the time it took for him to turn to look at her. "Viscount?"
"I'm… I'm fine." he rasped out, only to go into a fit of coughing a moment later.
"Wardes!"
"I'm fine!" he repeated a moment later, perhaps a bit harshly judging by the way she recoiled from him. "I'm sorry." he said immediately when he noticed this. "I'm just… just a bit winded that's all." he said, offering her what he hoped would be a comforting smile.
Louise's features were noticeably tinged with worry as she returned his smile before she tried helping him back to his feet. "I'm so sorry, I didn't know he would be so… violent." she apologized.
"No, no." he muttered, wincing in pain a moment later as every cut and bruise on his body made itself known.
"Viscount!" Louise exclaimed in alarm as she she noticed his back for the first time. "You're bleeding!"
"Yes, I noticed." he said dryly as he slowly made it to his feet, hissing slightly as he felt the wind jab at his wounds.
"We need to get you to a healer." she said worriedly, placing his arm over her shoulders to steady him. For which he was rather thankful.
"I think you may be right, my Louise." he agreed with a groan. Briefly looking around, he added "But before we go, would you mind helping me relocate my sword? I'd rather not leave it lying around here."
"Y-yes, of course!"
Little over an hour later, Louise was sitting in her room staring at the Water Ruby and the letter of introduction she had gotten from princess Henrietta.
After taking Wardes to a healer and having his wounds tended, the man had gone straight to his room to rest and she suspected it would take him at least a few hours before he was back in shape. Water magic was amazing when it came to fixing injuries and it hadn't been long before all splinters and dirt had removed and all his cuts and scrapes were gone as if they had never been there at all.
But the body still needed time to recover fully on its own, but at least he was able to rest without pain.
Still, she had felt quite bad seeing the state he had been in which was why she retreated to her own room and, lacking much else to do, ended up looking at the two items in question.
She'd been finding herself doing this ever so often lately. At first it had just been to make sure that they were still there, but more and more she had begun doing it while thinking of what to say when she actually met the man she was looking for.
But despite how many times she tried to come up with something, it never sounded very good to her in her head.
Sighing, she picked up the ring and after turning it over a few times in her hands, gingerly slid it onto her left ring finger as if it was an engagement ring. Looking at it for a few moments, Louise quickly shook her head before pulling it back off.
"Maybe someday." she muttered to herself, sliding it to sit on her right middle finger instead.
Oddly, the ring seemed to fit perfectly no matter what finger she put it on. She'd even tried putting it on her thumb and then on her pinky without any sort of issue.
Maybe it had something to do with the magical nature of the ring?
Well whatever, she figured it was as safe on her finger as it was in any of her pockets so she might as well wear it.
The letter on the other hand went into a pocket she had asked to be sown on the left arm of her blouse, right on the inside of the bicep area. She reasoned that no one was going to look for a letter there of all places, so it should be reasonably safe.
Letting out a sigh, Louise looked over at her familiar who had been standing by the side of the door out of the room the entire time. He had been oddly silent since the duel, even more than usual, and she had caught him looking at the back of his hand from time to time.
It still felt really strange to not only see him having any sort of expression as well as actually hearing him speak like a normal person, but she felt like it was getting easier to accept. Her eyes went to his chest where he had taken Wardes' wind spell to see that the tear in his cloak was almost gone, having begun repairing itself soon after the fight had ended.
She hadn't even bothered to ask this time, but she was pretty sure that the explanation for it would be something technical as usual.
Still, she could easily see how something like that would be useful. Maybe it would also be possible to apply it to her school uniforms?
She made a mental note to ask Legion about it once they got back from the mission, but for the moment she had other things she wanted to ask him about.
"Legion." she said, making him look up from examining his hand yet again. "What's on your mind?"
He looked at her for a few moments with those strange eyes of his before finally speaking. "During my fight with Viscount Wardes, a set of runes appeared at some point on the back of my left hand." he explained.
"Well, yeah." she blinked "It's your familiar runes, isn't it?"
Legion nodded. "Indeed, I assumed the same thing as well at first. But this particular sequence of runes does not match the one that appeared on the replicant-platforms I have constructed for you thus far."
Louise raised an eyebrow in disbelief. "Legion, that's simply not possible." she stated firmly. "The familiar's runes doesn't change unless you get summoned by someone else. That's how it's always been since the time of the Founder himself!"
"And yet it is so." he said, briefly running a thumb over the characters engraved into the back of his gauntlet. "Furthermore," he continued "I also noticed that these runes appear to have somehow altered the performance of this platform. Something which I never previously experienced regardless of situation"
"While they were active, I was considerably faster and stronger than what should have been physically possible for me to achieve without substantially increasing my energy output."
"Well, I..." Louise blinked a few times. "Hm." she muttered, rubbing her chin thoughtfully. "That is kind of odd." she finally admitted.
Had she been hearing this from, say, another person she might have had some doubts about whether what they were telling her was actually a fact or just something from their point of view.
But this was her familiar she was talking about, and Legion wasn't exactly prone to exaggeration any day of the week.
"That's 'cause those are the Gandalfr's runes, partner."
They both looked over to Derflinger who was still lying on the table where Legion had performed a post-battle examination of the blade to ensure that it hadn't suffered any damage.
"What are you talking about, sword?"
"Just what I said, pinky!" the sword chuckled. "I was pretty surprised too, don't think I've ever had someone get those runes AFTER they acquired me!"
Louise raised an eyebrow down at the blade, folding her arms she asked "Okay, what's so special about them, then?"
"Whaddaya mean, don'cha know already?" Derflinger exclaimed incredulously "An' here I thought you were the smart one here!"
Feeling a vein throbbing in her table, Louise glared daggers at the sword.
Noticing his Master's level of irritation starting to approach dangerous levels, Legion spoke up in an attempt to bring the discussion back on track. "I, too, would like to know the significance of these runes."
"Well, since you're the one asking partner!" the sword finally relented. "The Gandalfr's none other than the Left Hand of God, one o' the four Familiars of the Void!"
Every person near the hotel looked up as a loud cry of "WHAAAAAAT!?" echoed through the area, rousing anyone taking a nap and spooking great numbers of birds to take off into the safety of the skies.
In another, less reputable part of town at roughly the same time, the door of a particularly seedy bar called 'The Golden Barrel' was pushed open by the hand belonging to a hooded figure.
With a few locks of green hair escaping from the sides of the hood, Mathilda de Saxe-Gotha A.K.A. Fouquet the Crumbling Dirt, examined the patrons of the bar with a critical eye.
Not long after she had been caught and imprisoned, her mysterious contact with the white mask had visited her inside the prison itself. Somehow reaching her without any of the guards noticing him, he had criticized her failure to obtain the staff right off the bat and had questioned whether she really was as good as her reputation implied.
She had, of course, taken offense to this and had retorted with the simple fact that the situation had been considerably more difficult than she had been led to believe.
Even ignoring the fact that the "staff" in question had been incredibly heavy, fighting off a horde of heavily-armed golems armed with impossible weaponry had NOT been in the job description!
"We are well aware of this." the man had told her, "Which is why we're giving you this second chance at redeeming yourself."
"You will go to La Rochelle, there you are to use your golems to keep Louise de la Vallière from boarding the ship to Albion."
"Do this," he had told her, tossing a wand into her cell to clatter at her feet "And we will forget this particular failure ever happened."
He had left her alone after that, and it had been a trivial matter to escape with access to her earth magic once more. And so here she was, in a place she really didn't want to be in to perform a deed she really, really didn't want to do.
Although appearing calm on the inside as she stepped inside and sat down at a table near one of the corners to order some food and drink, she was seething on the inside. Who the hell did these Reconquista bastards think they were, ordering her around like this?
Thus, when her food and drink finally did arrive she didn't really pay much attention to how much she paid the barkeep and it was only when he remained in place that she even bothered to look up at him.
"That's, uh… that's a lot of money." the man said with a dumbfounded expression on his face, staring at the pile of money in his hands. "Is this really alright?"
Right, that was slightly over twice as much as he had asked of her. Well…
"That includes lodging, of course." she said smoothly. "You do have rooms empty, do you not?"
The barkeep almost jumped at hearing her cultured tones, only nodding before leaving her table.
None of this had escaped the notice of the various men present in the bar, many of them now watching her with undisguised interest. Many of them were mercenaries that had once been under the employ of the Albionese royalists, having abandoned their clients when it became clear that they were facing their imminent defeat.
As mercenaries, their one and only loyalty was to gold and neither of them felt any obligation to fight to the death for another person's cause. Besides, it wasn't really desertion if you never belonged to the nation in question in the first place, right?
They had been busy drinking and toasting themselves and each other over their successful escape, but this was quickly forgotten in favor of this mysterious woman. The hood prevented them from seeing much more than the lower part of her face, but what they did see told them that she was rather beautiful.
But more importantly, she had gold.
As soon as the owner had left her table, several of the men stood up to walk over to her.
"Excuse me, miss." one of them said, his voice dripping with false courtesy. "We couldn't help but notice you sitting here alone, this is a dangerous place you know?"
"Yeah," another one chimed in "there's a lot of unsavory characters around here. But don't worry, we're here to protect you."
The woman remained silent even as the man who had spoken first reached out with a grin to tug her hood back from her face. Whistles and catcalls erupted from the crowd as they saw the elegant beauty hidden beneath.
Matilda could endure their gazes on her easily enough, but when one of them reached out to touch the fair skin of her face she pushed it away from her with a firm hand, giving him a faint smile.
Not a second later, she found herself suddenly facing a dagger held in her face by another patron.
"Don't act so coy, woman!" the man grinned at her "No one who comes here is innocent any longer, so drop the act. You came here looking fer company, didn't ya? Well we're it!"
Showing no fear despite the fact that someone was pointing a dagger at her, Matilda quietly reached for her wand and quickly muttered an incantation under her breath. The look of surprise on the man's face was priceless as the dagger in his hand suddenly turned into mud, falling to the ground in useless clumps.
"She.. she's a noble!"
The men immediately backed away from her in both fear and confusion as neither of them had been able to spot any of the tell-tale signs of nobility on her.
"I'm a mage yes, but I'm not a noble." she corrected them in a rather laid-back, nonchalant manner.
"You are all mercenaries, correct?"
The patrons of the bar all exchanged worried looks with one another. Normally, doing something like what they had just done would be a death sentence against a noble, but if she wasn't a noble then that meant that their lives weren't in danger, either.
One of the older, more experienced mercenaries that had remained sitting, content in letting the young 'uns have their fun, now stood up and approached her. Dressed in hardened leather armor that bore the scars of many battles, creaking slightly as he moved, he came to a stop before her and folded his arms.
"Aye, we are. Who are you, then, and what business might you have with us?"
She smiled. "Does it matter? All you need to know is that I'm here to hire you." she swept her eyes across the group. "All of you."
The veteran looked at her with a puzzled expression on his face, mirrored by a great number of his colleagues.
"What?" she asked, raising an elegant eyebrow at him "Is there something wrong with me wanting to hire mercenaries?"
"No, it's just..." he trailed off for a moment before continuing "You have the gold for it, then?"
Matilda responded by placing a large bag on the table which, upon hitting the surface of the table, gave off a clearly audible jingle signaling it was filled with coins.
As the men examined the coins to ensure that they were in fact the real deal, the door opened once more to admit a man wearing a white mask. The same man that had helped her escape from prison.
"Well, well. I was beginning to wonder when you'd show up." she said, turning to look at him as he walked over to her. Her eyes narrowed imperceptibly as she noticed he was walking with what looked like a limp in his step.
How curious.
The mercenaries all gave him a wide berth, sending wary looks at his odd choice of dress.
"I have done as you asked and hired these men." she told him.
"Hmm." he said, taking a moment to examine the men. "You all used to work for the Albionese royalists, correct?"
The veteran nodded. "Until just recently, yeah." he smirked "But that was then and this is now, we hold no loyalties to them any longer."
A round of laughs and chuckles rippled through the gathered crowd of men.
"Good." the man with the white mask said. "I will sate your desire for gold, but make no mistake. I am nothing like those good-for-nothing, soon to be defeated nobles." he stated in a cold voice.
"If you decide to accept my money, then let me tell you this." he said ominously, hard eyes glinting behind his mask. "If you try to desert without finishing the job, I'll kill you myself."
Legion looked up from where he had been studying his Master's sleeping form to the lone window of the room, a small frown on his synthetic features.
It was nighttime and most of the city was asleep, including Louise and her two traveling companions. He knew that sometimes people came to hotels at odd times, but the fact that there were so many of them appearing at the same time was more than just a coincidence.
He immediately walked over to where he had stowed the pack containing his Master's necessities and started putting it on. At the same time, he sent a signal through the port that he had found through trial and error led to Louise's dreams.
"Master, I need you to wake up."
The result of this came a moment later as Louise shot up in a sitting position, looking around herself with bleary eyes and a look of confusion on her face.
"Wha- whazzat?" she mumbled.
"You are in danger right now, we must hurry and prepare to leave immediately." his voice rumbled in her mind.
Louise struggled weakly as she found herself helped out of her nightgown and into her clothes with a speed so fast it seemed to happen near-instantly. "What? S-Slow down, Legion!" she protested "What's going on?"
"I have detected multiple heat signatures converging on this building at this very moment, Master. Judging from the way they are spread out and positioned, they are preparing to assault it and I would recommend that we get out before we are overrun."
"What? You can't be serious-" she started saying but stopped abruptly when she heard what sounded like porcelain breaking from somewhere downstairs, followed by the sound of someone shouting.
Snapping her head up to look at her familiar, she saw him frown with a far-away look in his glowing, amber eyes.
"It appears that they have breached the perimeter."
Stepping away from her, he moved over to stand by the side of the door in preparation to take down the first person to try and make their way inside. "Make haste, Master. I will stand guard and ensure that no one will enter the room before then."
"I..." shaking her head once to try and dislodge some of her grogginess, she hurried to follow his instructions.
Almost fully dressed, she was just in the process of fastening her cloak with the school broach when the doorknob suddenly rattled as someone attempted to open it. Louise had the brief hope that it might have been either Guiche or Wardes coming to check up on her, and was just to call out to ask who it was when she heard a key being slid into the lock and turn.
The silhouette that appeared in the doorway belonged to neither one of them, instead belonging a rough-looking man she had never seen before. She couldn't really see much of what he was wearing, but she caught the light coming from the corridor behind him glinting off of the blade in his hand.
"Hello? Room service!" he chuckled as he stepped inside, only to be grabbed by the steely hands belonging to her familiar.
Bone met hardened alloys and armor-grade ceramic as with a firm grip on his shirt, Legion pulled the surprised man in for a brutal headbutt that effectively cut off whatever else he was going to say. Dazed and confused, the would-be assailant had no time to react as the synthetic reached out and grabbed his head in both hands and proceeded to snap his neck.
Louise could only stare in horror as the man slumped bonelessly to the floor, dead before he even hit the ground.
"You… you killed him." she accused him in a horrified, half-whisper.
"Yes, Master."
"B-but-" she stammered, staring into the dead man's glassy eyes "But… why?"
Legion shook his head "We can discuss the morality of my actions later, Master. There is no time. We must go now before more arrive."
Louise swallowed hard and nodded. "R-right, just let me get my wand and then we can-"
She was cut off as she suddenly heard a loud, girly and utterly terrified scream that she instantly recognized as belonging to Guiche come from the room next to hers.
Just like anyone else, Guiche had been absolutely terrified when he woke up to a pair of dirty, mean-looking men barging into his room unannounced with their swords drawn. Screaming bloody murder, he scrambled to get away from them but only ended up getting tangled in his blankets followed by him falling out of bed.
The two men were still laughing by the time he managed to untangle himself and stand up.
"W-what- who are you!?" he shouted in alarm "What are you doing in my room?"
Finally managing to get his laughter under control, one of them turned to his buddy with a rather sadistic grin on his face. "This snot-nosed kid looks like the right one, doesn't he?"
"Yup." his partner confirmed "He fits the description of the blonde boy. That's one o' them, alright."
"What do you want with me?" Guiche demanded fearfully, pressing himself against the wall next to his bed as he stared at the two men with wide eyes. "Is this a kidnapping?"
"Sorry, kid." the first one chuckled even as he walked around the bed to reach him "This is nothing personal, you hear? It's just business."
Guiche could see him bringing his sword back for a strike and he desperately tried to reach for his wand only to find he didn't have it on him. He cursed inwardly when he spotted it lying on his bedside table on the other side of the bed, right where he had put it before going to sleep.
Is this how I die? He wondered silently even as the man loomed over him.
Despite himself, he found himself unable to move an inch as fear overcame him and he screwed his eyes tight in preparation for the blow that would end his life.
But the blow never came.
Instead he felt something warm splatter his face and what sounded like a wet gurgle coming from the man in front of him, followed by the thump of a body hitting the floor.
"Guiche de Gramont."
His eyes snapped open upon hearing his name to find his assailant lying on the floor in front of him in a pool of his own blood pouring out from where he had been run through. Looking up he found de la Vallière's familiar standing over him, his menacing yellow eyes glowing in the dark as blood dripped from the blade in his hand.
"Are you unharmed?" the apparition before him asked.
Guiche could only stare in mute horror at his savior for a few moments before he finally found his voice "Y-yes!" he stammered after a couple moments of checking himself for wounds "I'm alright!"
Satisfied with his answer, Legion nodded once before he turned around towards the doorway again. "If you do not require medical attention, then I suggest you hurry up and get your things. We are leaving."
Scrambling to his feet, the young noble wasted no time getting across the bed to grab his wand before hurrying to get his clothes.
"Will you at least tell me what's going on?" he asked while pulling his shirt on.
Legion turned his head slightly, glancing at him out of the corner of his eye. "As you can see, it appears we are being attacked."
"But who's attacking us?"
"Does it matter?" he replied, turning to face the doorway once more "Now hurry, my Master is waiting and we are short on time."
The room secured, Legion stepped back out into the corridor that was now littered with the bodies of the men who had tried to stop him on his way to save the Gramont boy. He had of course objected when his Master had told him to save him, but Louise had been insistent and in the end he obeyed.
Luckily, it appeared that Viscount Wardes had recovered enough from their duel that he was able to successfully repel his own attackers. Legion had arrived in the corridor just to see a pair of men literally fly out of the Viscount's room just before the man himself appeared in the doorway, fully dressed and with his sword in hand.
"You go see to the boy, I'll defend the stairs." Wardes had told him.
Finding his reasoning tactically sound, Legion proceeded to do exactly that.
When they met up with him a few moments later, he was breathing hard and there were quite a few bodies lying at the end of the stairs. He smiled grimly when he noticed them, his eyes softening somewhat when he saw Louise.
"Good, you are fine." he said with relief. "Come," he said, motioning with one arm down the stairs "we need to hurry to the docks. With the four of us together we should be able to make it without much issue."
Louise nodded "Lead the way, Viscount."
The bar downstairs looked like a warzone with bodies strewn everywhere amidst broken glasses and furniture. More than few of the patrons had objected to a bunch of armed mercenaries trying to sneak in and a fight had quickly broken out.
It was obvious that they had put up a good fight, but simply by the fact that the mercenaries had been both armed and armored while they were not had only made it a matter of time before they were overwhelmed.
Louise tried hard not to look at the bodies and the blood as they passed them on the way out and was rather relieved when they finally made it outside.
They were very nearly at the docks when Wardes held up one hand, motioning for them to stop with a small frown.
"Hold." he called "There's something up ahead."
Turning to Guiche, he said "Gramont, can you use your earth magic to find out what's ahead?"
Standing hunched over with his hands resting on his knees as he tried to catch his breath, the blonde noble nodded. "Y-yes I believe so." he panted.
"Good, then you're up."
Pulling out his wand, Guiche closed his eyes and started chanting under his breath. While he was doing that, Wardes turned to look at Louise who had taken the opportunity to sit down on a bench to catch her breath.
"How are you doing, Louise?"
She took a deep breath and blew it out before giving him a reassuring smile. "A little winded, but otherwise I'm fine."
"Yes, I couldn't help but notice that you don't seem to be having that much trouble keeping up with the pace." he noted. "I'll admit, I didn't expect that."
"W-well..." she muttered, feeling strangely embarrassed for some reason. Maybe it was due to her conversations with Legion or the way she sometimes caught him looking at her with that calculating look in his eyes, but she felt very hesitant to tell him about her weekly training schedule.
Clearing her throat, she continued with as much pride as she could muster "I am the daughter of the Heavy Wind, after all!" she boasted. "It shouldn't be so strange for me to have superior physical ability compared to my peers." she said while giving a meaningful look in Guiche's direction.
Wardes studied her for a few seconds and she was relieved to see him smile as he seemed to accept her line of reasoning. "Yes, this is true. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised to see someone of her bloodline showing great promise even before reaching womanhood."
"Ahaha, yes, of course!"
They both laughed together for a few moments at this before settling back down.
"Louise." Wardes said, still smiling "There was something I wanted to talk to you about." he started saying, but paused when he noticed Guiche's eyes snap open, a wide-eyed look of alarm on his face.
"Something really big is coming!" he shouted suddenly with a sense of urgency in his voice "Everyone scatter!"
Louise drew in a sharp hiss of surprise as Legion suddenly grabbed her around the waist and leapt backwards with her in tow. She could see Wardes doing something similar using air magic to send himself away while Guiche simply took off running.
And it was a good thing they did as only a few seconds later, a massive fist made from rock and dirt smashed right on top of the spot they had been standing moments earlier.
"A golem!?" Louise shouted in surprise as they landed safely back on the street, staring up at the uncomfortably familiar mound of animated earth she could see a figure standing on its shoulder.
"Fouquet!"
"Ohohoho!" the woman on top of the golem laughed as she looked out over the people below her. "How good that you remember me!"
"How did you escape prison?" Louise shouted up at her "I thought you were supposed to be behind lock and key by now!"
"Yes, thinking never was your strong suit it seems." the thief sneered at her, making her grit her teeth in irritation.
"Why you-!"
"Master." Legion's voice interrupted her in her head, making her look at him. "Go with Viscount Wardes to the ship and start getting it prepared for take-off."
"What?" she hissed in a low whisper. "What about you?"
"I will keep her busy alongside mister Gramont and we will join you as soon as the ship is ready to leave." he said while drawing Derflinger, the runes on the back of his hand lighting up in a bright blue color.
"What are you whispering about over there?" Fouquet shouted down at them. "Ignore me all you want, it won't make me go away!" she said gleefully as she had her golem pick up a large piece of rubble from the ground and hurled it at them.
Legion saw it coming of course and once again he experienced the odd sensation of knowledge appearing in his systems. He already possessed a great deal of information regarding swordfighting that had been accumulated through the history of mankind, but they all described how to fight other humans. This on the other hand was… something else.
His first instinct and the most logical course of action would have been to use his own body as a shield to protect his Master before engaging the golem. It made sense.
He most certainly would NOT have attempted to cut that piece of rubble, no sir!
And yet as the two pieces of what had just been a single piece of rubble passed by himself and his Master at greed speeds, he found that he had done exactly that.
Most puzzling.
"L-Legion..." Louise said with wide eyes, also having trouble believing what she just saw happen in front of you. "Did you just-?"
"Master, there's no time. Go!"
"R-right!"
Taking off at a flat-out run, it wasn't long until Louise reached where Wardes was standing with his sword out as he, too faced off against Fouquet and her golem. "Louise, we need to-"
"We have to get to the ship!" she cut him off, making him blink as he looked at her. "My familiar will hold her off for now, but we have to hurry!"
He nodded. "Good idea!"
"Gramont!" Wardes shouted as they passed the boy who was huddling around a corner. "We're going to go prepare the ship, help keep the thief occupied!"
"What!?" he squawked fearfully "What do you expect me to do against that?" he said while pointing at the enormous golem with one hand.
"You'll think of something." the older man said encouragingly before he nodded at Louise and they both took off running at the giant tree.
"Where are you going!" Fouquet shouted as she saw her targets splitting up. She reached down with her golem to throw yet another piece of rubble at them only to find that much to her surprise, that particular hand was suddenly lacking fingers.
"You seem to be mistaken as to who your opponent is." Legion stated indifferently from the rooftop he was now standing right next to the golem, Derflinger in hand. "In the future I'd suggest you focus more on your immediate surroundings."
"Oh, you think you're clever don't you?" she sneered at him as she reformed the golem's hand with a bit of willpower before raising it in preparation to smash him and the building he was on. "Take this!"
"I can't believe this. I can't believe this." Guiche muttered fearfully as he watched de la Vallière's familiar fight off an opponent more than ten times his own size. "What am I supposed to do, have my Valkyries attack its legs?"
He let out a small shriek as a large rock smashed into the ground not far from where he was hiding.
"I can't stay here!" he shouted, more to himself than anyone else as he took off running through the streets.
Eventually he found a spot that seemed like it would be safer for him and beginning to calm down, it allowed him to start thinking of ways to handle the problem. Regardless of how vain and foolish he sometimes were, Guiche de Gramont wasn't actually a stupid person and he had been trained in the art of warfare since he was a boy.
But just as with everything else, things don't always work when you need them to.
"Come on, Guiche!" he hissed at himself as he slammed his head against one of the stone walls of the city. "Think!"
With his forehead resting against the cool stone and his eyes closed, he wracked his brain for any kind of ideas to aid with the problem.
"La Rochelle is a port city." he muttered "So there must be storage districts to handle all the wares coming in and out of the city. It has a lot of trade going on with Albion and there's a war going on there right now, which means that somewhere there must be stores of..."
His eyes snapped open, a wide grin stretching across his face. "Gunpowder!"
It had taken some convincing from Wardes in order to make the captain of the ship where he had rented passage to agree to take them earlier than planned, but some gold and a few threats straightened that out rather quick.
Fouquet had tried several times to stop them but Legion had remained right on her trail the entire time forcing her to split her attention between stopping them and avoiding his attacks. Derflinger had told him that he had been specifically forged to counter magic and he had used that to great effect, lopping off pieces of the golem forcing her to re-form them every time.
"Just DIE already!" she hissed furiously as the annoying boy dodged yet another one of her attempts to crush him.
"I will not comply." Legion responded as he leapt over the blow and landing on the arm of the golem, raced up it to strike at its head.
The earth mage had long since slipped inside her golem for protection and he kept trying to strike her through its shell, but hadn't managed to just yet. Slicing the head almost completely off with a single blow, he leapt back to avoid the retaliation that came in form of sharp spears of rock growing out of the constructs skin. He was just about to attack again when Louise contacted him through their shared connection.
"Legion! The ship is ready to take off now! Where are you?"
"I am on my way."
Landing on yet another rooftop, he turned and began sprinting off towards where the ship was moored.
"WHERE ARE YOU GOING!?" Fouquet roared as she tried to give chase, only for a number of bronze golems to leap off several other roofs to cling to her golem.
"Stop right there, evildoer!" Guiche shouted as he appeared on the street right in front of her, flanked by a couple more of his Valkyries. "I, Guiche de Gramont, will not allow you to advance any further!"
She looked at him for a few moments before she started laughing. "Ha! And what are you going to do against me, boy?" she taunted him "Smother me with numbers?"
"Oh, no." he laughed "I was thinking something a bit more… spectacular."
The thief blinked "What is that even supposed to-"
BOOM!
She was cut off as one of the golems violently exploded as the lit fuse to the powder keg hidden within its hollow bronze body finally reached the black powder within. The force of the explosion took out a good chunk of the golem's arm and it wasn't long until the next one went off, removing most of its left leg below the knee.
Guiche briefly met Legion's eye across the rooftops and nodded once to the synthetic before pointing his wand at the struggling golem. "Bomb Valkyries, forward!"
As he ran and jumped to reach the branch where the ship was moored, Legion couldn't help but feel impressed at the boy's resourcefulness and resolved to commend him for it later. As he approached the ship, he frowned when he saw that it had already begun to take off and was steadily moving further and further away.
"Hurry, Legion!" Louise's voice came urgently in his mind.
He was practically a blur as he ran the final stretch towards the ship and coiling his legs beneath him, pushed off with such force that he broke several of the planks that made up the dock. Shooting upwards like a bullet, the airship quickly grew in his vision until he could clearly see his Master standing by the railing, reaching out as if to catch him. He was almost there.
Louise grinned happily as she saw him leap up towards her, but just moments before his hand closed on the railing she was standing by, disaster struck in the form of a sudden gust of wind that buffeted the ship. Time seemed to slow as she saw his hand come up to grasp the railing and then just barely miss it. Armored fingers tearing long grooves in the wood as the weight of his mechanical body pulled him down.
He frowned as he felt gravity reassert itself on him and he saw the pure anguish on Louise's face as he fell.
This wasn't good. He could not protect her if he wasn't present, so he did the next best thing he could.
Shrugging off the heavy backpack of food and equipment he carried, he let it slide out along one arm before grabbing it. The displacement of weight sent him into a spinning motion and with a perfectly timed, mighty heave, he sent the backpack flying up towards the ship.
Even if he could not be there with her, he could at least make sure she had the equipment he made for her.
"Legion!" Louise shouted as she saw him begin to fall, leaning out to try follow his path to the ground she let out a surprised shriek as the backpack whizzed by her face to land on the deck with a loud wham.
"I'm sorry, Master. I could not reach you in time."
"Legion you stupid familiar!" she cried "Get over here this instant!"
"I cannot, such a thing is currently beyond my ability to achieve. Do not worry Master, I will send -ome-ing to h-lp you as so-n as poss-bl-."
Louise frowned, the voice of her familiar suddenly sounding hazy and unclear to her. "Say again? Legion I'm having trouble hearing you."
"Ma-r. Mas-, ca- -ou -ar m-?"
"Legion? What's wrong? Legion?" Louise's eyes widened in alarm, tears filling them as she received no response.
"LEGION!"
"Master, can you hear me? Come in, Master!"
Legion frowned as he found himself unable to contact his master, which was odd but not completely unexpected. He had theorized for some time now that their connection was not completely universal and at this point, she was further away from him than she had ever been before.
Although the timing of it was... highly suspect.
But he could do no more at the moment and it was with some sense of loss he watched the ship carrying his Master travel further and further away from him.
Please be alright, my Master. I will come for you, never fear.
Turning away from the ship, he focused his attention down at the ground where even now the thief Fouquet was trying to kill the Gramont boy. Time seemed to slow down as he reviewed his options, several lines of text scrolling in front of his vision.
Odds of [subject]: "Fouquet" having information regarding the situations surrounding the assault on the hotel: High
Odds of [subject]: "Fouquet" having information regarding who is targeting the Master: Very High
New objective received: Capture and interrogate Fouquet.
Triggering a command to send an electric signal to the reactive memory-cloth his traveling cloak was made of, it stiffened in some areas while clinging to him in others. Spreading his arms and legs, he caught the wind in what was now essentially a wingsuit and angled his descent so that he was on a collision course with the golem below.
Having finally exhausted the blonde brat's supply of exploding golems, Matilda leered down at the boy who was currently on his back after she made the golem give him a flick of one of its fingers. She hadn't been able to stop either of the other three, but at least she could say she took out one of her targets.
"Say goodnight!" she cackled and raised the golem's arms in preparation to finally squish him like the bug he was.
The next thing she knew, her world exploded as something hard and solid hit her golem at enormous speeds. She just barely had time to harden the dirt around her into a protective shell before she was sent flying out of the golem's body and into the remains of one of the many smashed buildings around.
As she lay there, dazed and achy, her only thought was: What the hell was that?
The fight had sapped her of almost all her willpower and together with the shell she had to form at the end, she was basically running on empty. She thought about staying there for a while in order to rest up a bit and regain some of it, but fate had other ideas.
With a mighty crash, a pair of midnight-black hands crashed through the rubble and the dirt and grabbed hold of the front of her cloak and shirt. With a mighty wrench she found herself pulled right out of the pile and out into the air where she was met with the furious visage of the young man with the glowing, artificial eyes.
"Fouquet of the Crumbling dirt." the owner of the eyes rumbled in a deep, bass voice that simply did not belong coming from a human being. "I was merciful with you once, trusting the authorities of this land to keep you secured and away from my Master. I see now that this was a mistake, and it will not be one that I shall repeat."
He narrowed his eyes at her.
"You will tell me everything."
She swallowed hard, her mouth dry as she found herself unable to look away from the luminous pair of eyes in front of her. "A-and if I refuse?" she croaked out.
"That option," he said slowly, carefully enounciating each word as he stared unblinkingly at the woman in his hands "is no longer available to you."
Then, he pulled his head back and headbutted her.
And Matilda de Saxe-Gotha knew no more.
Now how is poor Louise going to get out of this particular situation, hmm? Cut off from her familiar, unable to count on either of her friends or rivals to rescue her, it's looking pretty dire for her!
I had quite a bit of fun having Legion beat the crap out of Wardes, because let's face it: anyone going up against a machine that just looks like a human while trying to fight it like a human is going to have a bad time. Of course, since it wasn't a serious fight neither one of them went all-out, but still.
As for poor Matilda, what's going to happen to her? Is Legion going to kill her, experiment on her? Turn her into a cyborg? Who knows!
Well, I know of course, but that's beside the point. Moahahaha!
Ahem.
Thanks for reading!