Welcome back, guys. Another chapter, once again, and more gets added to the story. Hope you all enjoy.
Unity can only be manifested by the Binary. Unity itself and the idea of Unity are already two.
-Buddha.
Brillant streaks of electricity zoomed through the air, the eardrum-shattering sound it produced managing to incapacitate a few of the frontline soldiers who manned the ground artillery. One could barely hear the shouts of the soldiers to their left and right, only able to get by with hand and arm signals. For the past 3 days, the battle, or rather, this battle in particular carried one, with less and less ground being held by the second. Swarms of familiars drove down upon the foot soldiers who ventured too close to their assailant. With morale low, and supplies even more so, the vast numbers of soldiers 10,000 strong were whittled down to 2,500.
''Watch out!'' Ake's entire form was essentially tackled to the ground, the shift in air pressure nearing causing his neck to fold into his chest. A cloud of dirt and dust kicked up all around him. Another bout of ringing filled his ears. His heart wanted to leap out of his chest, his hands shook quicker than ever before, and he nearly wanted to cry. Craning his head where he stood, a giant, spiked thorn imbued with magic stood lodged in the ground. ''We're in the kill zone, we need to move! Go! Go! Go!'' Ake was picked up by his hand, slung over someone's shoulder, and taken down the strait of fallen artillery, soldiers, and weapons. Ake cast a look to his savior, only to gasp and blush at the beauty of the woman who saved him.
Her name was Eclair, Ake was pretty sure. The daughter of Lord Seatto, a close and trusted ally to Queen Mireilla. While her beauty enthralled others when first meeting, some knew better when dealing with the knight who truly embraced the full meaning of the word. Even in a literal war, she only thrived, being one of the first to set out once the news of Siltvelt's campaign, only to be thrown a whammy when the Spirit Tortoise emerged in the middle of the battle. Never before had he seen the only beautiful display of steel and grace at the same time. For those who managed to live through the initial attack saw her, as well as a few others as a beacon of light to keep the fight going.
Expertly weaving through the assault of mountainous spikes with a soldier on her back, not to mention with both of them in full combat gear hit the young soldier's pride, just a bit. In a blur, he was on the battlefield, and the next; he was safe.
For the moment, at least.
''There.'' Eclair set Ake down, handing the soldier his sword that came unsheathed in the chaos. A soldier without a sword might as well be bait for the enemy, at least in her mind. But, the kid did have spirit, if nothing else. ''You ok? Anything broken?''
''I. . .uh,'' Ake stammered, trying to find the right words to respond, only for them to get caught in his throat. The reality of almost dying, again did tend to make him freeze up.
''Yea, you're fine,'' Eclair gave Ake a quick once over, nodding to herself when she was done. He was a soldier, she figured as long as he had all of the limbs that he started with, then he was still fit to fight the good fight. ''I need you to wrangle together a few bodies and go with the mages to provide aid support; we have too many of our soldiers dropping like flies out there,'' Eclair's face scrunched up as she paused to soak in the true account of the what her eyes gave her. ''Can you handle that?''
Ake was still too lost in his mind to respond, his previous brushes with death slowly beginning to catch up to him. Could he do this? Was he strong enough? Maybe he was the-
''-Focus!'' Eclair slapped both sides of Ake's face with her hands, eliciting a shout of pain from him. ''Can you do this, or not?''
''Y-Yea. I think I can.'' Ake replied, the stinging in his face making him wince.
''Not think,'' Eclair shook his head back and forth, Ake's eyes focused on her. ''Know. I need to know you can do this; I won't send you back out there to your death if you're not 100% confident.'' Eclair searched his eyes for any hint of betrayal of his words. She knew all too well the false power of soliders who had good intentions, only for said intentions to get them killed on account of bravado. Too many had been lost already, and if she could help avoid more bloodshed, then what Eclair would.
If the battle at hand didn't force him to undergo a bit of introspection, then the words of his savior did. On the inside, past the soldier that the citizens of Melromarc saw in their day-to-day, what the queen expected and entrusted, and the power of the vow behind his pledge to defend the true home that he knew all rushed into Ake's mind.
''What would the Shield Hero do?'' Eclair's question instantly gave him the answer he was looking for.
''Keep fighting, despite it all. He would tell me to be brave, and not give in or give up,'' Ake clutched his fist, slowly breathing in and out to steady himself and the growing headache he felt growing. ''I haven't backed down from the enemies of this kingdom, and I don't intend to start now. I can do this, ma'am.''' Ake said, sheathing his sword and standing up straight. ''I won't let you down.''
''I know,'' Eclair softly replied, the environment seeming to quiet down for a moment as she laid a comforting hand on his shoulder. ''Remember your training, trust your instincts. I know you can do this, soldier.'' Eclair made to head to the command center.
''Have you met him? The Shield Hero, I mean.'' Ake asked when Eclair tilted her head. ''It seems like you had.''
Shaking her head, Eclair could honestly say that was one of the things she had not done. In a way, it was a shame. The word of mouth and the effects of what he accomplished in his life only confirmed what Eclair herself already knew about the young man who came into their world, not knowing how it would attempt to chew him up and spit him out. However, he never let his morals be affected by those with ill intentions. He did so much and received so little in return. ''No, but from the different accounts, I agree with what you said that he would tell you. He seemed nice; I would have been honored to meet him.'' Eclair said, waving Ake away.
There was a battle to win.
''And what took you so long to get back?'' Eclair heard the voice of Sgt. Takt he called out to her walking into the command tent. ''You wait on God, not the other way around.''
''Roger that, Sgt,'' Eclair stood at the correct position as she stopped near the map table, her expression and posture stock still. Though she was a military brat in a way, she believed that Takt was not quite as powerful as he led others to believe. The way he carried himself, his demeanor when talking to Queen Mireilla, and even the way he engaged targets gave Eclair. . .a unsure feeling. ''Our reports tell us that the viable weak points to slow down the Spirit Tortoise would be its legs; we would need to only cripple one, which I have an entire demolition company currently posted adjacent to the path of the Spirit Tortoise. It needs only to continue on its current path.''
''Some good news, from what it sounds like,'' Takt said, rubbing his chin.
''The next step once that is done would be for you and Queen Fitoria to take care of its head,'' Eclair gestured to the matriarch in question on the other end of the table as she discussed her part of the plan with a few of the mages who give her the magical boost needed to give her cover. ''The Spirit Tortiosise's defense with the number of familiars have begun to drop, and with some of Siltvelt's forces essentially becoming a buffer for us, it seems the battle ahead may just be won.''
Casting an unimpressed look to Fitoria, Takt hummed, throwing his hands up in mock defeat. ''Me and little Mama huh? And Siltvelt being engaged with the giant reptile, two birds, one stone. Guess I can't argue with that plan; just make sure you're where you need to be. You hear that?'' Takt called to Fitoria, watching her head perk and stare at him in surprise before narrowing her eyes. ''Now, what to do with you? Send you back to the line? Or-''
''-She can come with us,'' Fitoria said, walking over and waving her hand to Eclair to relax. ''Unless you disagree.''
''And why you would do that? The only thing she'll do is slow you and me down; plus the mages we have for support-''
''-May not be able to reach or cast their spells in time at the speed I will be moving versus if she,'' Fitoria pointed to Eclair and then to herself. ''Rides on my back with you to provide backup just in case. We can't discount the fact possibility that the Spirit Tortoise may still be hiding its true power. The 4 Spirit Beasts are older than you can know and are the literal last defense of this world. This. . .is all so wrong; how did it get to this point?'' Fitoria sighed to herself, shaking her head.
''Maybe when you took it upon yourself to help kill the only three smucks with half a chance at winning this; myself excluded, of course.'' Takt grinned from ear to ear.
''Not helping, Sgt,'' Eclair replied in a neutral tone, ignoring the pointed look he gave her. ''And are you sure? I don't want to slow you down when the stakes are so high.'' Eclair felt a tad uneasy in the conversation, not knowing fully if her idea would even yield the results that she wanted.
''You forget, Eclair. The stakes have always been high; ever since the start of this world, the fact it has trickled down to us means little.'' Fitoria closed her eyes, resigning herself to what could be the hardest battle.
At least one that she could remember.
Frontlines. . .
''Rock Blast!'' Leri chanted, uprooting parts of the ground to send a barrage of medium-sized rocks as a cover, utilizing his agility to scale up the nearest cliff, weaving to avoid the strikes of bat familiars. Crouching as he landed, Leri felt his connection to his magic grows, summoning a hammer of Earth in one arm to intercept the sword aimed for him in an arc, the nearby air forming a dome of pressurized air. ''You sneaky devils, if I had known you had this little trick up your sleeve, I would have been through in me breaking the both of you.''
''Shut it!'' L'Arc growled, holding the stalemate to the best of his ability on the rough semicircle of the earth around the pair, Leri's smile only serving to anger him the longer the fight carried on. These cheap weapons broke too easily, they weren't made from metals from his own world, and above all else; it wasn't his own scythe that he trained with for hours on end. ''Therese!''
Following close behind her companion, though looking a bit worse for wear, Therese chanted her spell. ''Shining Stone! Showering Thunder!'' the already darkened skies flickered with light before striking down true on its target.
CRACK!
''Hmm, feels different. . .like you're not even trying,'' Leri noted, his other hand and arm, wrapped in leather unaffected by what he assumed would be a solid attack, only for his arm to tingle. ''WEAK!'' Leri pushed L'Arc back over the edge, slamming the head of his hammer into the ground to produce a rocky dust storm of sorts. A rumbling sounded off in the distance, causing Leri to narrow his brow and stare ahead at the form of the Spirit Tortoise preparing to fire a beam from its maw, only to be seemingly in an inner conflict with itself, the beam growing and shrinking. ''What the?''
ROAR! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! THUD! FWISSH!
The Spirit Tortoise trudged forward slowly, an explosion larger than the ones over the past few days erupting near its bottom leg, causing the gargantuan beast to nearly collapse under its own weight if not for its other legs. Another flash of light came from its mouth, only for it to be snuffed out by a distant blast of magic that forced its mouth closed. Leri looked to the sky to see a giant white speck soar toward the Spirit Tortoise's head.
BLAM! A gruesome kick was delivered to the walking mountainous beast that sent it reeling, in slow motion. Landing on the ground with the combination of Sgt. Takt and Eclair Seaetto on the back of the Filolial Queen, in all her magnificent glory throwing a cold stare to the enemy of essentially the entire world. Using her mastery of Wind magic, she climbed into the sky.
''Well, well, this little plan of yours may just work; God is pleased,'' Takt spied the troops on the ground shrinking in size as Fitoria climbed higher and to clear in front of its head to the very top, shifting back to her human form as the trio landed, nearly being tossed to one side if not for the folds of the tortoise's neck being a handhold. ''Go!'' Takt called to Eclair as she steadied herself, breathing in and out to focus the flow of her mana.
''Hengen Muso: Multistrike Demolition!'' Eclair unsheathed her sword, trails of her mana emanating out and upwards towards her sword's tip. Crouching down low with her blade grasped securely, her attack came forth in a blinding flurry of strikes, slowly piercing through the tough skin with each passing second to provide enough of an opening.
ROAR! HISS!
''Watch out! Zwiete Tornado!'' Fitoria quickly managed to cast her spell to deter the fleet of Demon Bats preparing to surround the trio and give Eclair more time, the movement of the Spirit Tortoise's neck causing Takt's predatory attack to miss. ''Takt!'' Fitoria called out, the hero nearly falling off of the great beast, if not for the hand that outstretched to catch him.
''How?'' Takt questioned less his savior, he couldn't care less about that. What intrigued him, or drew him in was. . .her radiant beauty. ''Who?''
The woman, dressed in a green dress, adorned with hexagonal patterns, with healthy and bright skin simply replied as the swarm of Demon Bats froze in place, parts of their essence leaving them and going to her with a bright glow. ''My name is Ost. But we have more important things to worry about.''