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"Saito" -Talking

'Louise' -Thinking/ Human-Human Telepathy

"Explosion!" -Spell

:Master: -Master/Familiar Telepathy

Chapter 30: The Battle of Tarbes Part 1: Reconquista's Fall

Same Time

Professor Tsubaki Kaname's Office, Imperial Onmyōdō Academy of Mysticism, Kyoto, Japan, Earth

Sipping at a steaming cup of sencha, Tsubaki let a bone-weary sigh. The past few months had been a truly…trying time; they had been ever since his former pupil Saito had mysteriously vanished just outside of the Kiyomizu Temple. The outrage of a Junior Adept going missing right at the doorstep of one of their temples had been immense and had swept through the entirety of the Ministry of Onmyōji like a rising tide. Fingers had, of course, immediately been pointed towards the Black Star. Threats and condemnations had been thrown while sabres were rattled violently and it looked like their ancient war would reignite with renewed vigour at this breach of their long-lasting, albeit unspoken, détente.

The Heichi Kuroboshi themselves had been quick and extremely diligent in denying their involvement. They had gone as far as to provide proof that none of their agents were anywhere near the Kiyomizu Temple when young Hiraga Saito had vanished, all sworn under powerful magical vows to prove their veracity.

Some among the Ministry still had their doubts, but Tsubaki himself was certain that the Juxtaposed Black Star weren't involved with his former pupil's disappearance. First, the fact that they had been so vigorous in their denial of their involvement meant that Black Star had no desire to reignite their ancient war to its previous levels, and Saito, an orphan of no particular bloodline and not extraordinary talent, would only have been targeted if such a thing was their goal. The other major point was the amount of magic that had lingered around the sight of his ex-pupil's vanishing.

He had been among the first to arrive at the scene after Saito had vanished and the sheer amount of potent magical residue saturating the area had made his head swim. Tsubaki sincerely doubted that even the greatest masters of Heichi Kuroboshi could call on that much magical energy, even working working together. To be perfectly honest, he would be surprised if the ten strongest mages of the Ministry and Black Star combined could hope to match the kind of workings that had been used to draw away Saito.

All that effort to abduct a single Junior Adept? It made no sense for any force on Earth to call on that much power for such a mundane task. In fact, to Tsubaki's mind, this all pointed to a point…beyond their Earth. The mystery of it was truly fascinating and, were it any other circumstances, Tsubaki would have been delighted to study the entire thing from a far more scholarly angle. Sadly, the fact that it involved his favoured student's disappearance had drained any joy from investigating the magic involved.

Tsubaki had personally chosen Saito as his mentee when the young mage-in-training had moved from initiate to apprentice. Out of the five other members of his 'class' Saito had clearly been the brightest of the bunch. He had been honourable, kind, highly talented in the mystic arts and, while less skilled in scholarly pursuits, surprisingly intelligent. His only real demerit had been his strange lack of talent in fire magics, and even that had only shown his tenaciousness and willingness to work as he strove to mitigate that weakness.

A foundling boy, and an orphan at that, with such talent was, while not particularly common, certainly not a rarity. Those born with magic outside of an established magical bloodline always tended to have, at least, slightly higher than normal levels of magical power, though the exact reason why this occurs was still a mystery. Tsubaki knew that many of the older families belonging to the Ministry often targeted these 'fresh bloods' as prospective spouses for their children to help strengthen and shore up their own bloodlines. Saito was no exception and the teacher knew of at least three families that had been eyeing the talented young mage as a prospective bride-groom candidate during his later years at the Academy.

While they could not force such a union, the clans that practised this kind of poaching were more than willing to bribe most of the females around him to keep their distance and prevent any 'interference' with their own candidates. This had played a large part in Saito's isolation and had largely forced the young apprentice to withdraw inward and focus himself almost entirely on his training and studies.

While such a thing had its advantages, and Saito's talents and skills had soared due to it, it was far from healthy since it had cut the boy off from his peers. Tsubaki had taken the opportunity given by Saito's disappearance to loudly draw attention to the interference of these families in regards to a student, and had called in favours of his own to ensure that such a thing couldn't be done again.

'While it feels like shutting the barn door long after the animals have already fled, it was all I could do.' the teacher thought morosely. He was but a humble teacher, and while his ranking in Academy gave him some weight, he had no way of standing against the old and influential families that took part in that distasteful practice…unless a crisis such as this came and he was able to shine a very bright light on it.

The soft tinkling of a bell caught his attention a moment later and he quickly looked to the side of the room where the various trays that allowed students to submit assignment via magical transference systems in their rooms were situated. It certainly made collecting homework far easier, allowing students to submit it directly to him once they were finished rather than having to carry it around all day.

This was odd though, he was fairly certain that he hadn't set any homework recently, so what could someone be submitting?

Tsubaki suddenly froze and his eyes began to widen as he noticed exactly where the leather satchel (definitely not something issued to students of the Onmyōji Academy) had appeared, the tray that had until recently been assigned (and had yet to be reassigned) for one Hiraga Saito.

Quickly snapping out of his momentary shock, the teacher quickly raised one his arms, causing several talismans to emerge from his sleeve and began to hover around the bag before they began to glow in a variety of shades and intensity, scanning the bag for any threats, all without a single incantation being uttered. It was a high-level Onmyō technique, one that Saito would have learned once he reached the rank of Senior Adept.

"No magical traps, nor any compulsion or obfuscation spells. Nothing particularly extraordinary about the materials they seem to be made of…save for the ludicrous amount of background magic soaked into every part of them." Tsubaki murmured thoughtfully. "Just what have you been dragged into this time, Saito-kun?"

Saito had always been both a moral and upright young man but he also tended to be somewhat impetuous, particularly when he felt a wrong was being committed, like when he'd nearly lost his arm to that arrogant young fool back when he was twelve. Regardless of the costs to himself, Saito would always try and follow his sense of honour, and refused to bend his moral code or turn his eyes away from any misdeeds or abuses of power. It was one of the reasons Tsubaki thought he would go far and do great things within the Ministry, if he didn't throw himself into an early grave first.

Sadly, prudence and knowing when to act and when to wait for a more opportune time were skills he had yet to master.

Satisfied that there were no dangers present in the strange package, Tsubaki quickly picked it up and moved to his desk. A quick twitch of his finger undid the cord binding the bag shut, and he carefully started to remove the contents. Several scroll, all bound in red ribbons, as well as a letter addressed to him in Saito's handwriting. He quickly decided to open the letter first.

"Tsubaki-sensei, (He still hadn't lost that habit, it seems)

I understand that this must have come as something of a shock, having a bag appear out of nowhere and from me of all people. I deeply hope that my disappearance hasn't re-sparked hostilities between the Ministry and Black Star.

If you're reading this letter, then I have not returned home and likely never will, and thus I must explain everything that has happened to me since I vanished outside the Kiyomizu Temple…has it truly been just over three and a half months ago since I arrived here? Gods, so much has happened that it seems far longer than that.

The reason I have not returned is, most likely, that I have decided to remain where I am rather than using an opportunity to return to Japan that arises only once every fifty years. While as I write this letter to you I am, at the moment, determined to return home; I must admit that my Mind of Duty has been faltering recently and is on the verge of shattering utterly. It is entirely possible that, when the moment comes, I will find myself unable to fulfil my duty and instead choose to remain in these new lands I was summoned to.

Yes, summoned. I was summoned to across worlds by a ritual and bound as a familiar to my summoner. Before you make any harsh conclusions, Emereldas has scanned the bond and done a thorough study of the binding runes and has found no mentally corrupting elements besides a liberation of desires (which has likely aided in the erosion of my Mind of Duty) and a suggestion of self-honesty that forces me to be honest with myself about my own desires.

This new world I find myself in, Halkaginia, is a parallel world, different but in many ways similar to our own Earth. The country I am in greatly resembles the European nation of Belgium and its society, and magical system, are both highly primitive (positively medieval in some places) but the sheer amount of magic available here is simply astonishing, even VOID Magic exists here.

(Tsubaki almost choked on his own spittle as he read that last part)

Yes, Void Magic still exists here, with my summoner, my 'Master', being the first officially known Void Mage in five thousand years. Her name, for the record, is Louise Françoise 'le Blanc' de la Vallière, and she has a Void Alignment so strong that she cannot use any other form of magic aside from Void Magic, which I know sounds ridiculous, but I have included her Seimei Index Rating and Seimei Index Quantification in one of the scrolls that should have accompanied this letter.

Also included in the scrolls is a full account of the pertinent incidents that have occurred since my arrival in Halkaginia, right up to a day or so before I depart. I have taken a great many readings and gathered as much raw data as I could with my current means, in order to hopefully give the Ministry enough information to possibly locate Halkaginia and maybe affect a rescue of me should they be so inclined.

I know that you must be greatly disappointed in me for not returning to fulfil my duties as an Onmyōji, but if I have indeed not returned then it is because I truly believe that this world needs me more than my homeland does. I can make a difference here, whereas I cannot see myself doing so in Japan, at least not on the same scale as I could in Halkaginia. I hope that you will someday be able to forgive me for my selfishness and disloyalty, Tsubaki-sensei.

In faith,

Hiraga Saito, Junior Adept of the Imperial Ministry of Onmyōji."

Tsubaki read and reread the letter several times, noting the far-too familiar penmanship and wording that told him more than anything that this was indeed a letter written by his wayward student. Technically, this would make young Saito a deserter, a mage who should be hunted down for daring to betray his oaths to his country…but the teacher couldn't force himself to feel outraged, angry or even betrayed.

Instead, he simply felt relief and a growing excitement. Not only did he now have proof that his student was alive, relatively safe and apparently happy where he was now, but he had just been furnished with magical readings and data on an entirely new world beyond their own to study and examine. It was both a great weight off his shoulders and an exciting opportunity.

More than that, the way that Saito had written about his time in new land was strangely passionate. Not greatly so, but Hiraga Saito had never been an overly exuberant person (the boy had often been driven and determined, but rarely enthusiastic or passionate) so even the hints of passion he'd caught in the letter was something of a surprise. This world, this 'Halkaginia,' had clearly drawn his pupil in and allowed him to bond deeply with the realm and its culture.

And likely its people too. While Saito hadn't mentioned anyone in the letter bar his 'Master', this Louise girl, but it would take far more than a pretty girl to get his pupil to turn his back on his duties. Doubtlessly he would learn much more if he studied the scrolls as well.

Still, an entire new world complete with a new magical culture and even a foreign magical system…what an utterly fascinating situation to be drawn into. Tsubaki was honest enough with himself that, were he in Young Saito's shoes, he'd have been tempted to remain simply for the chance to study and learn, and he was sure he'd passed on at least some of his academic curiosity to his student. He was quite grateful for these scrolls of data that Saito had provided; not only would they make for very interesting reading, but they would also be incredibly helpful in persuading the Headmaster and other high-ranking Onmyōji to not have declare Saito as a rogue Onmyōji.

Reaching out, he picked up the first scroll, undid the seal on it, rolled it out and started reading.

Later

Command Tent, Camp of the Allied Albion/Tristain Army, Land of the Baronet of Tarbes, Kingdom of Tristain, Halkaginia

Louise de Vallière stared out across the field of battle, including the now evacuated village of Tarbes. The once lively and cheerful village was now just a hollow, empty shell with all of its residents safely evacuated.

One particularly idiotic courtier had questioned why they were wasting time and resources evacuating 'commoners that can just as easily be replaced afterwards' within hearing of both the Baronet of Tarbes and Queen Henrietta. Only the Queen's direct intervention had stopped the Lord of Tarbes from challenging the fop to a duel then and there, stating that they would need every man available to repel this invasion, before she had put the fop on latrine duty for the foreseeable future, as well as stripping him of his rank in the army and removing his right of command.

She had also made sure the fool had still been in hearing range when she casually mentioned she would gladly officiate the duel herself once the war was over.

Louise shifted slightly where she stood, wearing a light cuirass over her chest for added protection, her Cloak of Nobility fastened at her throat and her swordwand sheathed securely at her side. Queen Henrietta had gifted her with the cuirass personally, having had it made specifically for her, along with having Saito add several enchantments to it to both further augment its protective qualities and to have it resize to fit her as she grew and make it weight no more than a silk shirt.

She felt her heart clench in pain as she was once again reminded her of her Familiar/Master.

Wanting to distract herself, she forcefully turned her attention back to the approaching Reconquista Invasion Fleet with a wary eye. There were dozens of airships approaching, each bearing the symbol of the new 'Holy Republic of Albion' on their mainsails and pennants. It was basically just the traditional Albionian Flag, only with all the references and symbology of the Tudor Royal Family blatantly removed.

The reminder of the death of their Prince was certainly riling up the Loyalist Albionians, with Lord Rupert de Rhine cursing softly under his breath for several minutes after they'd first caught sight of it. The sight of the fleet's flagship, which bore the pennant signalling that an Emperor was aboard it, had the usually calm man nearly snarling in fury. There was only one person that pennant could represent…

'That cur Cromwell has come to the battlefield in person then…' the pinkette thought darkly. An hour ago another message had arrived from the dastard, again demanding the surrender to Tristain to his 'divine authority.' To 'signify their surrender and capitulation' they were to behead the Queen and mount her head on a flagpole.

Both Louise and her mother had been utterly incensed at that blatant audacity, once again showing that the apple hadn't fallen far from the tree. A fair few members of the Tristainian Army had been nearly as outraged as the two pinkettes at the outrageous demand. If Cromwell had been intending to pick a fight and piss his enemies off before the battle started, then he had certainly done a bang-up job of it.

Louise had no illusion about this battle; things were stacked far too evenly for this to be anything but a bloodbath. Man-for-man and ship-for-ship, the two sides were both roughly equal in terms of strength, with the only real disparity being in the size of their dragon wings. The Reconquista had a little over a third again the number of dragons that the combined Albion Loyalists and Tristainian Army possessed.

How and when the Reconquista chose to use those extra dragons would almost certainly play a defining role on how the battle would go, Louise had known that even before her mother had mentioned it in passing.

She turned her attention to a nearby table, which had Saito's Rampant Griffin Repeating Crossbow Pistol, along with two quivers full of enchanted quarrels lying atop it. The de Vallière Scion only hesitated for a moment before walking over to the table and starting to strap the quivers to the small of her back. Thanks to Saito's numerous enchantments, the quivers merely had to be nearby for them to automatically reload the crossbow once she'd fired, and it was now powerful enough to pierce dragon scales.

'Saito…I wish you where here with me…' she thought forlornly, at last allowing her mind to turn to her Familiar.

It hurt. Saito leaving and going back to his own world…it hurt so much. She had tried and tried to suppress and hide it, but like a wound, the feeling of loss was throbbing incessantly in her heart.

She hadn't had the courage to speak up about something as simple as her own feelings, even as Siesta, the shy and demure commoner girl, had given herself fully to him. Perhaps, if she had managed to speak her heart as well, he would have remained.

"Louise." her mother's voice snapped her out of her thoughts. Karin the Heavy Wind, now dressed in her full war regalia, was a very intimidating sight, but the look of concern that she was giving her took some of that away. "Look at you...all dressed up for war. It seems like only yesterday you were running around in nappies..."

"Mother, can you please not talk about me being in nappies when we're on the brink of battle?!" the woman's youngest daughter quietly begged her, face flushed red in embarrassment. It would be just the thing, to be embarrassed to death on the eve of battle by her mother!

"Of course, dear. How are you feeling?" Karin asked, putting a hand on Louise's shoulder comfortingly.

"A bit concerned. That is quite the invasion force." Louise said with a nod towards the incoming fleet. "I'm assigned to help protect the Queen, but what about you, mother-...I mean, Marshal?"

"I'm basically in command of the ground forces, while Lord Rupert will be acting as my liaison to the air fleet commanded by Lord Admiral Pellew." the Marshal said, one hand resting easily on her swordwand. "You're right to be nervous; this is not going to be an easy battle. A lot of good men are going to be dead before this day is done, come what may. I actually have orders for you, Louise. If it appears that the allied forces are on the brink of defeat, you are to take Queen Henrietta and her bodyguard and flee back to the capital. Knock Henrietta out if you must. So long as the queen lives, there is hope for Tristain."

Louise swallowed. "But...I have no rank to command Agnès; she's an actual titled noble, while I'm just the third daughter of a duke."

"You haven't been informed of this yet, but Henrietta has now officially named you the Heir Presumptive to the throne." the Marshal of Tristain informed her daughter quietly, who gaped at her mother in gobsmacked disbelief. "Strictly speaking, there should be a detachment of the Royal Musketeers guarding you as well, but that's something which will need to be settled after the battle. You can order Agnès as Crown Princess of Tristain to help you take the Queen to safety. That combined with her respect for your actions since the first assassination attempt on Henrietta should be enough to compel her obedience."

Shakily, the younger pinkette nodded. "Understood. What about you, mother?"

"Hmph. It'll take a lot more than this pack of traitorous dogs to take me down." Karin smirked arrogantly, but with justified confidence backing up her words. Karin of the Heavy Wind was worth an entire battalion of Mages on the battlefield.

Just then, a soldier in the livery of Tristain ran up to them and saluted Karin. "Your Grace! The Reconquista Fleet has launched its dragon wings to escort the transport barges. The invasion has begun!"

"Tch. They're eager to get started, aren't they?" the Duchess clicked her tongue. "Very good. Have the signal given that battle is imminent. To arms!"

"Yes, Your Grace!" the soldier saluted and ran off. Moments later, the sound of horns blaring and drums booming signalled the Tristainian Army and allied Loyalist Albionian Army coming to full battle readiness.

"I have to oversee that battle. To your post, First Lieutenant Vallière." Karin of the Heavy Wind ordered, using Louise's new rank. She had refused to allow her daughter to go onto the battlefield unless formally enrolled in the military, and had pulled strings to have her assigned to the Royal Tristainian Guard, who were nominally charged with protecting the Capital of the country itself. And as a Noble, Louise was automatically made an officer.

"Yes, ma'am." Louise saluted briskly before rushing in and hugging her mother. "Stay safe, please."

"And the same to you, my dear girl." Karin briefly hugged her youngest daughter back before they separated; Karin to go amongst the generals and direct the battle, and Louise to stand beside her childhood friend and monarch, surrounded by two-dozen heavily-armed women with itchy trigger fingers.

"Princess, did you really make me your heir?" she asked bluntly, making the musketeers around the two girls freeze in shock.

"Aunt Karin told you, I see." Henrietta smiled slightly. She was wearing light armour herself, mostly white with gold trimming, on her shoulders, upper chest, arms and legs. The rest was a yellow, black, blue and cream dress that had the skirt with a pair of long slits on the side to allow for freedom of movement. Carried easily in one hand was the traditional casting wand of the Heir to Tristain. "Yes, I did. There is no one I can trust more to look after Tristain if something happens to me than you, Louise."

"You do realize that the other nobles are going to throw a fit when they hear about this?" Louise pointed out. "Even if the de Vallière family is a cadet branch of the Royal Family, they'll complain about naming a non-royal the heir."

The queen scoffed. "Once they actually do something other than posturing and giving me empty platitudes in helping to keep this country intact, then they can criticize my decisions, not before. You are the only member of the de Vallière family who is suited to the role, Louise. You aren't too gentle like Cattleya, you aren't overly aggressive and arrogant like Éléonore, and your father and mother are out of the question due to their status as the highest-ranked nobles in Tristain."

"Anne...you give me too much honour with this." Louise said quietly. "Are you sure? Even after...?"

"I'm sure." Henrietta said with conviction. Then the attention of the two girls was drawn by the roars of dragons, the sound of magic and steel clashing, and the sound of men dying in the air, as the Allied Dragon Riders flew against their Reconquista counterparts.

Louise didn't turn her gaze aside. Her de Vallière ancestor, during the wars thousands of years ago, had earned his noble title as a Duke and the right to wed a member of the Royal Family by valour on the battlefield, and she wouldn't disgrace the proud martial tradition of her house by looking away from the grim work ahead of her, even if she had to force her gorge down a couple of times.

(Even if Éléonore now looked down on those who went to battle, it wasn't something she should do. Her older sister would really piss their mother off if she didn't shut up about that soon.)

"Incoming! An enemy dragon rider has broken past the line!" a nearby soldier bellowed, and Louise looked up sharply, seeing the red dragon diving towards the tent she, Henrietta and her mother stood in. Everything seemed to slow down around her as she raised the crossbow pistol in her hand, took aim at the incoming dragon, and pulled the trigger.

The bolt screamed through the air, propelled not only by the powerful mechanism, but by the wind magic acceleration granted by Saito's cunning enchantments. It slammed into the open mouth of the dragon as it opened its maw to belch flames, and promptly transmuted the insides of the dragon into solid stone, even affecting its brain, killing it instantly.

As the fire dragon dropped like a heavy stone, crushing its own rider as it fell atop him, Louise lowered the Rampant Griffin and looked around at the astonished faces around her. "My Familiar did good work with this crossbow. Attend to your surroundings, Musketeers; this is the battlefield, after all." she ordered mildly.

The gathered musketeers stared only a moment longer before they hurriedly returned their eyes to their surroundings. Henrietta gave her friend a concerned look a moment later. 'Are you okay?' her eyes seemed to ask.

'I am for now.' Louise tried to convey with her own. She was certain she was going to see that dragon and its rider's deaths in her dreams for a while, though.

Seeing that the sole unit that had managed to break through had been shot down so easily had quickly demoralized the Reconquista Dragon Riders, and they had already begun to pull back to the safety of the Ark Royal, harried by their Allied counterparts until it was too dangerous to continue.

"This is odd." Rupert de Rhine muttered with a frown on his face as observers reported in. "Why are they landing their forced behind Tarbes? Putting the village in the way makes things awkward in terms of deployment..."

"They don't care about the buildings, Lord de Rhine." Karin pointed out with a scowl. "I'd bet you a hundred Écu that those ships are going to bombard the village into fragments in a moment. If we are victorious here, we're going to have to rebuild the entire village from the ground up."

That had some nearby nobles wincing. Even a village on the average side of small as Tarbes would still cost a pretty Écu to rebuild, which was why it was the normal procedure to simply scatter and move the survivors of a destroyed village to other villages. As the Queen's feelings on the matter had been made clear, however, that wasn't an option.

As Karin of the Heavy Wind had predicted, a short time later, the cannon batteries of the Reconquista Fleet angled down and commenced a withering bombardment on Tarbes, obliterating the small village from existence. Louise winced as she heard the cry of anger from the Baronet of Tarbes. That was half of his entire fief that had just been destroyed, a blow that would ordinarily cripple most baronets financially.

But the end result was a clear battlefield between the newly deployed Reconquista Army and the Allied Army, save for the lumps of stone rubble and wooden detritus that were scattered about the centre.

Already, the soldiers were tense, waiting for the order to charge into battle. Straps were fidgeted with, shields were adjusted and grips were held tighter. Sometime soon, the horns were going to blare again, and the Allied Army would move to repel the invaders.

"Just where did all of them come from?" Louise muttered as the Reconquista's newly landed forces started their advance. "A number of them are almost certainly mercenaries, but where'd the rest come from?"

Some were indeed mercenaries while others were the troops of the turncoats and some were soldiers that had betrayed their oaths to their lords willingly in exchange for rewards. To Louise, it didn't really matter which they were. All of them were raising their blades at her home, and their leader had demanded the death of her sister-in-all-but-blood-slash-childhood friend. This meant that if any of them came within range of her crossbow, swordwand or talismans, she wouldn't hesitate to cut them down for Henrietta's sake.

Then...then an odd buzzing-roar sound started to become audible, making the Allied soldiers mutter uneasily and the nobles in the command tent quickly began to exchange confused looks. It sounded like no dragon they had ever heard of!

A traitorous bit of hope started to grow within Louise, but she firmly quashed it. The eclipse had occurred a mere ten minutes ago, which meant Saito was gone. He was gone and not returning.

And yet, as that growling, buzzing roar grew ever louder, Louise couldn't help but crane her head up in search of its source.

"What in the Founder's name is that?!" a soldier shouted, pointing to the east, making Louise whip her head around, only to huff when she saw the wall of a tent. Fortunately, what the soldier had spotted flew into sight a few seconds later. It was an unmistakable sight, one that she, and any member of the Academy's current student body, would know on sight.

"The...the Dragon Raiment...!" she said in disbelief.

"That means...Professor Saito is aboard it!" Henrietta gasped before smiling. She quickly turned and barked an order. "Lord Rupert, inform Lord Admiral Pellew that the oddly-shaped dragon is the Dragon Raiment, flown by Professor Saito of Tristain!"

"Yes, your Majesty!" the man replied with a smart salute. The Albionian military, as airship-focused as they were, had developed a messenger spell that allowed ground forces to communicate with their airships, albeit in short, terse bursts, no more than a small sentence at a time.

"But...why...?" Louise was dumbstruck by this sudden change. "He wanted to go home...he was adamant that he had to leave...that he had to follow his duty…so why?"

Henrietta laid a comforting hand on her friend's shoulder. "It looks as if he is finally deciding to live for what he wants as opposed to what his country desires of him, Louise." she said softly.

"Far truer than you know, Your Highness." a familiar voice spoke up, making all of the Musketeers draw and aim at the owner of it with commendable alacrity. Louise and Henrietta turned around to see the full form of the succubus Emereldas, white wings out and tail lashing behind her, arms crossed and that insufferably smug and all-knowing look on her face that never failed to make Louise want to slap it off.

"Miss Emereldas." Henrietta greeted the demoness politely, waving a hand at her loyal guardians to lower their weapons, which they did with varying degrees of hesitation. "I can assume that your Master has decided to join the fight?"

"But of course, as if my dear Master would miss such a grand festival." Emereldas replied smugly. "He has a message for you all: 'I shall decimate the Reconquista dragon wings and cause panic amongst the ships of the fleet. Be certain to capitalize on my actions.' That's the message."

"Wha-?" Henrietta started to speak, but was interrupted by the Dragon Raiment roaring overhead and speeding towards the Reconquista fleet at speeds that no fire dragon could ever hope to match. Seconds later, dull barking sounded as fire blossomed from the nose of the aircraft, cutting down the dragons flying to intercept it.

"That thing is armed?!" Agnès demanded angrily. She had let her Queen be around such a dangerous machine?!

"While no one is in the cockpit to aim and fire them, the weapons on the Reisen are mere harmless hunks of metal." Emereldas offered, giving the chevalier a dismissive look. "The bullets and overall weapon design make the weapons you currently wield look like crudely carved sticks by comparison."

That stung the pride of the Musketeers, but as the evidence was right in front of them, mowing down fire dragons one after the other in short, controlled bursts, there was nothing even Agnès could say to counter such words. Those weapons far exceeded their own in range, power and rate of fire.

"And Professor Saito called that craft over fifty years out of date." Henrietta shook her head. "I shudder to think what kind of things the latest type of 'aircraft' from his world can do."

"Both far more and far less than you might think, Your Majesty." the succubus shook her head. "Necessity is the mother of invention, and the birthplace of necessity is war. Some of mankind's most amazing innovations and creations have been born amidst the flames of war. Ah, two seconds."

Saying so, Emereldas raised one hand and snapped her fingers. A light glowed among the devices of the Dragon Raiment and nothing seemed to change.

"What did you just do?" Louise asked with a blink of surprise.

"I refilled his ammunition reserves." the succubus replied. "Each of his fuselage-mounted guns can only hold 125 rounds in its magazine. I mass-cloned a round that I stored inside of the Raiment for just this sort of occasion. I have one for his wing-mounted guns as well. So long as I am here, my Master shall have, as the mortals say, bullets for days."

It was a very clever thing to do, Louise realized with a slight start. Secure one good bullet, duplicate it endlessly when you had a need to, and you never had to worry about possibly running out of ammunition. Certainly, if you didn't want to risk spreading the technology of the bullet to those around you, it was a most wise way to go about it.

"You've been planning this for a while." she said aloud. "You knew that Saito would stay here?"

"I couldn't be absolutely certain, midget." Emereldas replied, though she still seemed particularly smug. "You see, one of the subtlest tools that the Ministry uses to keep their Onmyōji loyal is a meditation exercise taught to all students and graduates of the Academy of Onmyō Arts, which is essentially a basic self-brainwashing exercise that enforces a prioritizing of their duties and responsibilities to their Ministry and homeland over their own personal desires. Both myself and the oni have been working to wear that distasteful technique down by helping keep our beloved master extremely busy. So busy, in fact, that he had rarely had the time or energy to perform the meditation techniques needed to reinforce their Ministry's so-called 'Mind of Duty.' Combine that with his growing desire to stay in Tristain, with everyone he has come to like and befriend, and I was about 90% certain that he would choose to remain."

Looking up as the Dragon Raiment raked a Reconquista airship with bullets from bow to stern, Emereldas snarled as she spotted a Wind Dragon darting towards her Master's craft. "There! That toad Wardes is again assaulting my Master! That louse has escaped retribution one too many times! Come with me, girl!"

Grabbing a surprised Louise by the hand, Emereldas spread her wings with a snap, and leapt into the air, speeding towards where former Viscount Wardes was approaching her Master, a shrieking Louise dangling from one hand. No, she was sick and tired of this man interfering in her master's business. One way or another, he would cease showing himself before her Master, or by the Pit he would be tormented by the Malebranche by day's end.

With Saito

To say that the young Onmyōji was pissed would be an understatement of the highest order. Siesta's entire village, her and her family's home for generations, had been utterly flattened by the remorseless cannon fire of the Reconquista fleet. The only consolation he had about the entire affair was that he knew Henrietta would have made the evacuation of the villagers before the battle the highest priority. She was going to make an excellent queen.

Still, his lover's home had been destroyed beyond repair. That certainly called for some retribution to be delivered on his part and he was letting that righteous fury roar loudly as dragon and rider alike fell one after the other to the blistering rage of his guns. Banking sharply around, he deftly avoided the barrage of fireballs and even spells from one of the Reconquista's few Dragon Knights that had tried to take him from the side. Still, with the skill granted upon him by the Gandálfr Runes, he was able to effortlessly bring his plane around and flank them before cutting the entire group down in a withering hail of gunfire.

He briefly pulled low over the area where the bodies had fallen and couldn't withhold a wince as the distant 'thump' of nerveless draconic bodies hitting the ground. While the near-certain deaths of their riders would likely haunt his dreams in the nights to come, the death of so many dragons at his hands was taking a toll of its own. Dragons were, if not an endangered species, then one that was revered by the mystic culture of his homeland. Yes, among the western nations the dragons had been violent and destructive beasts that had been needed to be imprisoned by force, but in the East, and particularly China and Japan, the native species of Dragons had been largely benevolent and even helpful to mankind, so they had been hidden willingly from human society at large with the advent of technology.

One long-held and highly respected duty among Imperial Onmyōji had been the continued aid of the remnants of the Imperial Order of Taoists in China in their protection of the Dragon Sanctuaries from the encroachment of modern society. A task that was only made harder in China after the rise of the Communist Government, where their black organization of rebel Taoists and assorted other mercenary mages continued to work to destroy every remnant of the old Imperial Chinese government, including the Dragon Sanctuaries. Damned communist idiots that couldn't be bothered to look beyond their own thrice-bedamned dogma.

Shaking off his instinctive disgust, the Onmyōji banked his plane again and went in for another attack run, this time aiming for what he assumed was the flagship of the Reconquista fleet, given its sheer size. It was gilded and intimidating looking, and Saito could also sense that it had more mages aboard it than the others.

From all he'd heard, Cromwell struck Saito as your typical example of the cowardly supreme leader type. The ones that loved to gloat and bluster and bellow while strutting about like a peacock when they thought they'd won but would be the first to flee or beg for their life when things turned against them. Ostentatious ships like this one certainly fit that kind as well; something big and showy to stroke their ego while festooned with enough protections and secret, elaborate escape routes to keep them feeling safe and secure even in the midst of a battlefield.

A sudden movement in the corner of his eye drew Saito attention, causing him to turn to catch sight of a new dragon approaching at speeds far higher than what the Fire Dragons could manage. It was covered in olive-green scales, so Saito thought it was likely a Wind Dragon of some breed. However, such contemplations were quickly wiped from his mind as he caught sight of the of the familiar and despised figure mounted on the beast's back.

"Wardes!" the Onmyōji snarled out. On the ground, he also spotted one of the large Earth Golem that Fouquet the Sculptor favoured landing in the middle of the battlefield and starting to advance on the Allied line of battle.

Aborting his attack run, Saito was forced to grit his teeth as he banked sharply, bringing the Zero Fighter around in a turn that would have torn off one of its wings from the sheer g-forces involved. Thankfully, he and Esmeralda had done their work well when they'd reinforced every inch of the Zero Fighter and now it was even hardier than the dragon the native Halkaginians had mistaken it for. He was also grateful that she had thought to weave a spell in the cockpit to greatly reduce the effect of those same g-forces on the human body, otherwise his own turn might have knocked him out of the fight.

"So, it truly is you, Gandálfr!" Wardes called, a spell of some kind carrying his voice to Saito across the gulf between them, into the canopy and over the roaring engines and shrieking winds. "I will end you now, oh pest from another world, so that I will no longer have to be concerned with an annoying fly buzzing across my face."

"Smug bastard." the Japanese teen growled out with a scowl. "Eat lead!"

As soon as Wardes and his mount were in range, he opened up with all four of the guns mounted on his plane at the traitor's dragon. Sadly, the dratted beast was able to sweep out of the line of fire. While Wind Dragons lacked any form of breath weapon like their more aggressive kin, they made up for it with speed and agility. It was why they were favoured by the more skilled Dragon Knights, those that were capable enough to rely on their own magic for attack.

"Lightning Bolt!" Wardes roared, pointing his swordwand at the Dragon Raiment, a bolt of white energy leaping forth at his command.

Saito immediately banked the Reisen hard to the side, dodging the incoming spell by a considerable margin. Despite what casters may call it, human Lightning Magic could never hope to match real lightning in terms of speed, and even while mounted on a Wind Dragon, the traitorous Knight had never fought anything that flew like the Reisen, making dodging his magic all the easier.

"Run while you can boy, but you shall not escape me this day!" the Fallen Noble roared, magic crackling around his sword as he gathered strength for a far more powerful spell. "Lightning Bolt Storm!"

"Magic Shield, Circle 5!" a new, female voice interrupted. An instant later, a large red shield appeared, encircling the Reisen just before the barrage of electrical bolts could strike. The crackling blasts of energy bouncing off the shield without so much as cracking it.

"What!?" Wardes snarled out, eyes scanning the surrounding skies as he searched for whoever had cast that spell, only to gawp in shock as he caught sight of her.

The demoness Emereldas was flying straight at him, a rictus of fury across her normally beautiful face, while Louise de Vallière dangled from her hand, looking rather windswept…though obviously not disoriented enough to not recognize the bastard that had betrayed her, her family, her best friend and her country. She quickly raised the crossbow pistol that was clasped in a dead-man's grip in her free hand and fired a potshot at the flabbergasted traitor as they flew by.

"Shield of Wind!" the former noble barked instinctively, a dome of wind forming around him and his mount.

Then the bolt struck it.

In an instant, the dome of wind was engulfed in a massive fireball, the winds only feeding and fanning the flame higher and hotter to the point Wardes was worried he and his mount might be cooked alive within their shield. That bolt had been one of the few combustion bolts that Saito had managed to craft. They were designed to basically act as a magical hand grenade when fired, but using it against a wind-based shield had upped the power of the detonation by at least a couple of orders of magnitude.

"Gyaaaaaaahhhh!" Sadly, Wardes was not the only one caught off-guard by the sudden eruption of flames. The blast had knocked Louise free of Emereldas' grip and now she was plummeting through the air.

"Louise!" Saito shouted before bringing his plane around and diving beneath where she would fall. Opening the canopy, he lashed out with one arm and shouted, "Shikigami no Mai: Sen Mētoru Nawa Shibari! (Dance of the Paper God: Thousand Meter Rope Binding!)"

At once, talismans flew out of his sleeve and rushed outward, attaching themselves to his diminutive Master/Student before more joined together like a chain, stitching back to link up with their caster, who gestured with his hand sharply, drawing Louise in and into grasping distance.

"Gotcha!" Saito gasped as he latched onto the petite pinkette's wrist and tugged her into the cockpit, which was rather cramped for two people. He quickly sat her on his lap, as that was the only solution, and then pulled the canopy shut again. "What in the name of all eight-million kami are you doing so high up?!"

"Blame Emereldas, not me." the pinkette grumbled, unconsciously snuggling close to him, shivering both from the fall and the sheer cold of the air outside. No wonder Dragon Knights and Riders had heating charms woven into their clothes and armour as a standard if it was this cold up in the air!

"She just grabbed me out of nowhere when she saw you about to be ambushed by Wardes." Louise continued with a scowl, before she shook her head and glared up at him. "What are you even doing here?! I thought you left for your own world!"

"Let's just say my ever-loving Familiars engineered things so all it took was one last honest, heartfelt plea from Emereldas to shatter my ability to deceive myself any longer." the Onmyōji smiled in self-deprecation. "Either way, the die has been cast and my choice has been made. Looks like I'm going to be the Familiar of Louise of the Void, this time out of my own free will!"

"Saito...!" the girl in his lap said, eyes wide as her insides practically melting from a growing heat in her belly. 'He...he chose to stay here...with me...!'

Upon the Onmyōji speaking those words, the Familiar Runes on the back of his hand lit up with a blue light that surrounded Saito, Derflinger and Louise. Runes made of light seemed to fly from Saito's hand circling around the two for a moment before entering Louise's head.

"Gandálfr!" Wardes howled furiously as he once more charged toward the Zero Fighter, his skin looking red from his close brush with Saito's flame bolt. His swordwand was drawn back and crackling with electricity. "Today is the day that I shall write an end to your damned legend!"

Meanwhile, Derflinger had poked himself out of the sheath on Saito's back. "Awaken, Louise! The time is now! You, the Master of Gandálfr, are the Void Mage!"

Louise's eyes blanked out, as if she were possessed. She absently pushed the canopy open and dropped the Rampant Griffin to the floor, instead drawing her swordwand and holding it vertically in front of her face as she softly began to chant, the words lost to the roaring winds around them.

"Partner, Void Magic has the longest and most complicated chants out of all Halkaginian Magic!" the Living Blade shouted. "You need to buy her time to cast her spell!"

"Derf, what the hell is going on with Louise!?" Saito demanded as he started evading Wardes, who pursued them with a relentless fury.

"In order for Brimir's Alignment Binding to be undone, it requires a willing bond of true and heartfelt trust between Master and Familiar." the living sword responded hastily. "When you accepted Louise willing and freely, and she accepted you in turn, the Binding was shattered and Brimir's final gift was granted to her. Now a Void Mage will show these Royalty-killing miscreants what for!"

Louise's mouth was moving, chanting words under her breath so quietly that Saito couldn't hear them over the sound of rushing wind. He had grabbed her around the waist with his free arm to keep her in place and not fall out of the cockpit as he dodged Wardes' constant barrage of Lightning Magic. Those few that managed to actually managed to catch the plane were blocked as Emereldas maintained her shield spell.

Speaking of a certain demon...

:Emereldas! Where are you?!: he thought furiously towards his Prime Protective Demon.

:I'm watching your dance, Master.: the succubus' thoughts came back to him at once. :I would intervene, but the pinkette midget seems to be set on auto-targeting mode right now. Whoever last attacked anything around her is going to receive a Void Spell right to the face once she's done, and I am not confident in my ability to simply shrug-off a purely Void-aligned attack spell.:

Saito grimaced at that. Void was not considered the strongest of the Five Primary Elements for nothing. In addition to being a 'binding' element, Void spells also possessed the most innately powerful offensive spells in existence, capable of utterly removing all things from creation so long as enough magical power was put behind the spell. Given Louise's magical reserves, even an Avanta like Emereldas would be at risk if a Void Spell of that magnitude struck her.

:Understood. Get between the Zero Fighter and the Allied Army and Fleet.: he sent back. :Be prepared to shield them from any blowback from whatever the hell is about to happen! I have a feeling that it's going to be big.:

:By your command, My Master!: his Familiar replied. A small form darted out from beneath the Zero Fighter and moved to obey his commands.

Just in time, as Louise finished her incantation. With a final utterance, her blade was engulfed in a pure white light that seemed to burn like a flame. Turning to her former fiancé, Louise's blank expression morphed into a furious scowl.

"VOID EXPLOSION!" with a final roar, Louise brought her swordwand up and aimed it directly at the traitor, who rather sensibly (given the ridiculous amount of magic that Louise had been channelling) put his Wind Dragon into a sudden, steep dive.

For an instant the white light engulfing her swordwand amplified before they surged forward, gathering into a small ball of pure white light at the blade's tip for just a moment before blasting forth…directly toward the amassed Reconquista airships. It struck the outermost ship seconds later, before expanding into a sphere that covered three-quarters of the fleet. Ships were either completely shattered or burst into flames, men were literally wiped from existence and windstone was devoured by the hungry Void energy to fuel itself to greater heights.

Seconds later and it was over, leaving the Reconquista at a distinct disadvantage. Two ships, including the one that had been hit by the initial spell, had been reduced to nothing more than a few bits and chunks of debris that were even now falling to the ground, while at least three were ablaze and dropping to the ground without any form of control. Several more, including the Emperor Cromwell, the flagship, had lost their sails and most of their windstone and were being forced to make an emergency landing. Only the transport ships, those that had already landed on the ground, were spared the damage, but aside from them almost no ship in the entire Reconquista Fleet had escaped that single spell without some form of damage.

Aboard the Allied Flagship, the newly rechristened Prince Wales Tudor, Lord Admiral Pellew managed to maintain his usual calm and in control expression, even under such conditions.

"Gentlemen, I believe that this is a rather unique tactical opportunity that we are being presented with here." he offered with a small smirk. "Order to all ships: Engage the enemy closely! Order to all dragon riders: support the advance of the fleet and attack at targets of opportunity! I do not want a single transport ship to fly away, people!"

"Yes, Lord Admiral!" his Flag Lieutenant saluted him before moving to obey his orders.

'We have the blackguards now!' the Admiral thought, pulling out his spyglass and focussing it on the source of the spell (if you could call such magical devastation a mere spell!) that had turned this from a gruelling battle to a simple mop-up operation; a strange metallic dragon, and a small pink-haired mage who had collapsed into her Familiar's arms after casting her spell.

"Very well done, Miss de Vallière." Lord Admiral Pellew said as he lowered his spyglass, a slight nod directed towards the one who had blamed herself (unreasonably) for the death of his Prince. "Very well done indeed. Consider any dishonour you thought you may have stricken from the slate. You have done our Prince proud."

Hovering in the sky beneath the Dragon Raiment, former Viscount Wardes was pale and sweating profusely atop his Wind Dragon, having barely managed to escape the outer edges of that…spell! He had never seen magic on such a scale before, had never imagined that it was possible! Yes, Karin of the Heavy Wind had a battlefield-scale spell that could rip entire battalions apart, the infamous Heavy Wind of Tornados spell, but nothing that could cripple an entire fleet like that!

'Just...just what kind of monster can cast that kind of magic?!' he thought in mixed horror, fear and awe. 'It can't be Louise de Vallière...that crybaby little girl...it can't be!'

His first memory of the girl who had been his fiancée flashed through his mind, a little girl in a frilled dress crying in the row boat moored at the pier in the boating lake on the de Vallière estate. Back before bitterness had filled his heart, before he had ever thought of turning his coat.

Shaking his head, he banished the memory. That was then, this was now, and they were on opposite sides of a war. Sadly, it seemed as if the Reconquista had lost this day. The Albionian and Tristainian Fleet were already surging forward, escorted by wings of dragon riders, and at least four transport ships had been damaged by destroyed allied ships crashing near them.

"The day is lost for the Reconquista...but it need not be lost for me." he mused aloud, regaining some colour as he regained his calm. "He who fights and runs away, lives to fight another day, after all."

"A wise decision...sadly, you shall not leave here unharmed." a female voice spoke up, making him wrench around and stare. An inhumanly beautiful woman with red skin, white wings and ivory horns floated nearby. Her hand flexed ever so slightly and suddenly her nails extended into vicious-looking long talons.

"And you are?" he forced himself to ask.

"The only name I shall give to you is Emereldas." the clearly inhuman woman replied coldly. "I am the Familiar of Saito Hiraga, and you have interfered with him for the last time on this day, Wardes. Pray to your ancestors, for today you shall die."

Then she attacked.

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Next Chapter: The Battle of Tarbes Part 2: Sic Semper Tyrannis

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