Chapter 35 – Why I Fight

"RAWWWR!" With spit spewing from its mouth, the zombie spirit flung its arms at Reina as it lunged forward with a guttural roar.

Reina, however, wasn't about to let it strike easily. She took a half-step back as she twisted her blade and swung it up, delivering a small cut on the zombie's arm.

The zombie flailed, swinging both its arms around at her. Reina was able to move out of the way of one and then diverted the second. It gave her a moment to take another step back and get into a better stance.

She might not be an expert on melee fighting, but like how Maria was a good teacher at magic, Grim was a good teacher in weapons. Despite his cleaver being quite different from the sword Reina copied, he was still able to teach her the basics during their sparring matches.

Reina also knew exactly how strong her spirit was. That wasn't to say that put her in a distinct advantage in this fight. While its stats were normally smaller than hers, it was buffed by two things. First was the template, which granted it higher attack and defense at the cost of agility, though that would allow her to more easily dodge and parry. The second was the bonuses provided to all her skills and spells from contracting with spirits. The other two powerup bonuses on her current weapon boosted attack rather than spirit attack, so she held a small advantage there.

A thick arm swung her way, but its speed wasn't anything to worry about. Reina easily ducked under it and delivered a quick jab. Getting beaten by Grim repeatedly really paid off. Reina knew how to move in her new armor much better than before. It wasn't as agile as her first set, but she was able to make the most of it.

All that would be enough to tip the scales in Reina's favor, but the spirit had other abilities it could use. Three were active right now, being Flaming Fists, Claws, and Immolation. Thankfully, the spirit didn't seem to have a strong sense of technique, since it just kept swinging its arms at her.

Reina already knew her spirit fighting by itself wasn't threatening to an equal opponent, but facing off against it really put it in perspective. If she wanted to make the most of things, she really needed to learn to fight with it, controlling it better as she does so. But that was for later.

The flaming claw neared her face, prompting Reina to duck under the swipe. A jab with her sword at its floating legs and another step back. There was plenty of light from the spirit's burning body, allowing her to see just how much room she had to work with.

In a surprising amount of agility, the zombie spirit slashed at her arm, scraping against the dragon scale armor. She hissed, feeling the heat from the contact.

"Help!" She called out to the entrance of the small cave. While she might be able to deal with this herself, she saw no reason to go it alone.

Unfortunately, there was no reply. There wasn't any sound of rushing feet or casting of any spells.

There was no reason they couldn't hear her down there. One hundred feet wasn't nearly far enough away.

"Maria! Vyrdrun! Lola!" She called out again, moving to the side to avoid an overhead slam. She delivered a heavy swing of her own, cutting into the zombie's side.

Still, there was no reply from up above.

"What the hell is going on?" Reina questioned, blocking a strike from the zombie by bracing against the flat of the blade. "I hope they're okay."

"Blur!" Shelving her thoughts on her party for the immediate threat, Reina's form became obscured. The skill should give her a little more ability to—

A flaming claw came right at her head, prompting Reina to bring up her sword in defense again. She'd forgotten. Her armor granted her blind-sense, and that ability extended to her spirit. Thankfully, that wasn't the only skill she had available.

"Turn Undead!" Waves of energy poured out of her, assaulting the spirit. Its HP went down slightly and it backed off, giving her more room. It was a skill she'd nearly forgotten about, seeing as she had no use for it at the moment. She had unlocked it in preparation for the next Wave, where undead might be present.

"Piercing Shot!" The last skill she had available. Angling the tip of her sword, a bolt of energy shot out and struck the zombie's chest and continued on.

Reina had time to try out a few things with her skills before. While she could simply fire Piercing Shot from her hand, she could also channel it through whatever weapon she wielded. Totems, amulets, and such weren't that good since they didn't have a real direction, but athames and her Crimson Blade Ceremonial Sword had a point to them.

There were only two skills left for combat, but neither were usable. Web would burn away before it did anything, and Deft Strike would use her other spirit for the single attack. Reina didn't want to risk the other spirit striking her instead, so she kept it back.

In the end, she didn't think she'd need them. All she had to do was keep going as she was. Once Turn Undead and Piercing Shot came off cooldown, she would use the combo to damage the zombie spirit, disorient it and make it pull back, then hit it with an attack that ignored its defense.

All it would take was time.

Reina continued to bob and weave, making small hits on the zombie as it tried and often failed to do any damage to her. Her skills would come off cooldown and she hit it with them, giving her a little more space and a momentary break.

The battle could be resolved much faster, though.

"If only my brother was here." Reina mused. "He'd take care of this in a heartbeat…"

The thought gave Reina pause as the zombie drew close again.

"My brother? I don't have…"

A yell from behind the zombie pulled her attention. Two heavy hands reached from behind it, gripping its arms and pulling them apart. The zombie yelled in frustration before the pair of hands came together and slammed the zombie into the ground.

With a swift thrust of her sword, Reina skewered the zombie's head, destroying its form.

"Brother!" Reina called out, seeing the man stand tall.

"Sister." He responded calmly. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah!" She happily replied, shifting her weapon to a totem form and stowing it. "What took you so long?"

Her brother stood right in front of Reina, causing her to tilt her head far back to look at his face. Brown hair fell down the sides and front, obscuring his eyes. Though he didn't often smile, she knew he was happy to see her.

"I was held up, Sister." He said, setting his large hand on the top of her helmeted head.

Whatever could keep him busy was probably a big deal. Reina couldn't think of much that would slow him down for long.

"Sister." He said, removing his hand.

"Yes?" She looked up at him.

"Sister." He repeated, his tone unchanging.

"What is it…?" She was about to say his name, but it fell away from her. It was strange, a little alarming. She couldn't recall the name of her—

"Big Sis!"

Reina's eyes snapped open. She didn't even realize they were closed.

As she looked around, she found she was lying on the ground, her helmet to the side. Right in front of her face was Lola's, her golden eyes staring down at her in worry.

"What…" Reina could hardly get a word out before another face filled her vision, quickly replaced by violet hair.

"Don't scare us like that, Boss!" Maria yelled, pressing her forehead against Reina's as the woman held onto her.

Reina simply blinked, trying in vain to keep her lover's hair out of her eyes.

"What the hell just happened?" Reina couldn't even begin to piece it together. She went into the burrow, her forged spirit went berserk and tried to kill her, she was easily fighting it back, and then her brother came down and…

"Brother?" The memory played itself back in her mind. It was strange to remember. She actually thought she had a brother when she knew she was an only child. Why did she think that?

"I knew letting you go down there was a bad idea." Shuffling and the light clanking of metal told her that Lola just stood up. "Vyrdrun, can you collapse the tunnel?"

"Certainly." The Gromnar responded.

As Maria pulled back, Reina could see Vyrdrun turn and move toward the burrow.

"Ah, I see." That made a lot of sense, though Reina didn't really realize it before. Maria once mentioned she saw Vyrdrun as an older brother, age notwithstanding. Seeing as both he and her so-called brother from…whatever that was, looked similar, it wasn't hard to put together where that inspiration came from.

"What happened down there?" Maria asked, helping Reina sit up.

"I'm not really sure." Reina muttered. It couldn't have been a dream, yet that seemed to be the case. "Did you bring me back up?"

"Lola did." Maria said, pointing to the draconic girl.

"I heard something heavy hit the ground and I thought you got attacked by something." Lola said, rubbing her claws together. "You were passed out when I went down. What happened? Did you see something?"

"I…" Reina felt herself over, checking the parts of her body she knew got hit. Nothing was out of the ordinary. There were no scorch marks on her armor or any bruising to be felt. That whole thing very well could have just been a hallucination.

Except her HP was down. It wasn't just from the attacks she took. A decent chunk was missing, much like what would happen to something that destroyed her spirit and got hit with Death Pact. Looking at Forge section of her status, Reina saw one of her spirits was destroyed.

"It really happened." It may not have been in the real world, but it could very well have been like when she meditated on the spirit contracts she had to make a spell.

Reina explained to the group what occurred down there. She didn't see the need to hide anything, one of the listeners being a potential enemy or not. Lola clearly knew about the spirit, so trying to hide something wouldn't help much.

By the end of it, Vyrdrun had come back over, the burrow's entrance having been swallowed up by the surrounding earth.

"That's not how you normally get spirit contracts, is it?" Lola asked.

"No, it's…" Before Reina continued, she remembered the reason she was down there in the first place.

As she looked through her status, Reina quickly found the section listing her current contracts.

Contract: Dream Eat
Restriction: cannot break contract!

"Well, that's not ominous at all." Reina read over what was given to her. She then answered Lola's question and told everyone what she got.

"Well, that's concerning." Grim remarked.

"Hm." Lola crossed her arms as she hummed. "Well, it doesn't sound too bad."

"Do you know what it does?" Reina asked. She was a bit nervous to test it out.

Lola shook her head. "Daddy's the only one who knows about all these evil spirits. He and Sister Maphai are the only ones who have any contracts with them, and I think it's only one for both of them."

The fact that Lola referred to it as an 'evil spirit' didn't inspire any confidence. Adding to that was how her family didn't use them much. Still, she didn't feel any different, and she wasn't actually restricted from doing anything. It would also be a permanent boost to her spells and skills, and her forged spirits. She'd take this as a win for now.

~Forging Legends~

The rest of the day passed similar to the last forest Reina found herself in. The giant animals were still a better alternative to the giant insects from a month ago. It gave them more time to practice with their formation, since Grim was still a relatively new addition to the party. The giant boars gave good practice for his and Vyrdrun's teamwork since it was a bit hardier than some of the other monsters.

During that time, Reina made sure to be aware of any changes she felt. Evil spirit or not, she did try out the spell. Based on its name, it was predictable that nothing happened. She figured she'd need to try it on a sleeping monster, though that was easier said than done. Monsters have a better sense around them and she wasn't about to look around at night for a sleeping one.

Reina was able to clarify something about scrying with Lola. It seemed a certain area around heroes was protected as well, plus those in a hero's party. The area was a few hundred feet, while the party members had to be within a mile, which was the same distance XP was shared.

As evening approached, there was no notable difference. Monster fell just as easily, tokens were accumulated, and there was even a good drop item for Vyrdrun. It was a large mace that seemed made just for a Gromnar.

"Ooh! Good choice! Brother Gau likes to use heavy weapons, too." Was Lola's view on the weapon.

"It is a simple weapon, very easy to learn." Vyrdrun responded. If he had any reservations about being compared to one of Lola's siblings, he didn't show it. Reina herself wasn't quite sure what to make of the connection.

"That's why he likes them so much!" Lola said, beaming.

Reina had a rope he could use to tie it to his waist. Once back in Lespax's capital, they could get something more reliable made to hold it.

By the time they were done for the day, the sun was about to set. All that was left was to rest and be prepared for tomorrow. That meant making camp.

Maria and Reina shared a look. It was obvious what they were both thinking. They didn't want Lola to learn about Maria's spell, if she hadn't already.

"Hey, Lola." Reina started. "I know we'll be in the Wave together tomorrow, but we'll be sleeping in separate huts tonight."

The girl's usual smile faltered at that. "Aw! But I was hoping to sleep next to you, Big Sis!"

Even if she wanted to keep the mansion spell a secret, Reina didn't think she'd be okay with that arrangement.

"Though we're friends for right now, that won't necessarily be true later." Grim offered, a knowing look on his face. "You sleeping with Reina would make that more difficult later, especially since conflict seems inevitable."

While Reina appreciated the effort, she could almost spot the beginning of a teasing smirk on his face. Whether or not he believed Reina would fight Lola at some point, she was certain he was thinking about their talk earlier about being interested in the girl.

"Yeah, but what if something gets her while she's sleeping?" Lola said to him before looking back at Reina. "Daddy said I had to protect you, and it'd be really bad if you died before the Wave. And during the Wave. And at all."

That was most likely Lola's own view on the matter and not what the rest of her family thought, except for during the Wave. Then again, Meru went out of her way to try protecting her from the templars after the last Wave. Reina never met Darvon or the newest brother, and Goalith seemed rather apathetic in Savia. Actually, from what little she heard about the man, he might act to keep Reina safe outside of a Wave. Lola talked about him more than her other siblings and she said he always let her win at Somnium. He might be a doting brother underneath that stoicism he showed while killing Savia knights.

It might just be Derdir and Maphai who would let her die outside of a Wave.

Reina decided to try another approach, one that might be used on a young child. "I'll play Somnium with you before we go to sleep. We can even play some more after the Wave, if you have time."

The girl's eyes lit up at that. "Okay!"

"Great." Reina smiled back. "Let's go get some water by the stream back there."

After collecting everyone's waterskins and giving a nod to Maria and Vyrdrun, the pair set off. Kuromo let out a sad 'gau' at her leaving with the girl who had been bullying him early, but Reina just gave him a light wave. By the time they got back, everything should be prepared.

The two of them arrived at the stream and began refilling.

"Hey, Big Sis?" Lola asked, not looking up. "We won't have to fight later, will we? I don't want to fight a friend."

Reina didn't respond right away. Despite how Lola acted around her, she knew what the winged girl was a part of. At the same time, Lola was still a child. She was brought up by Derdir and learned from him. Breaking his hold on her seemed like a difficult task, but Reina was determined to try.

"That will depend on your father." Reina replied, corking one waterskin before starting on the next.

"Daddy doesn't want to fight you." Lola said. "He said you're important."

"To fight the Waves." Reina nodded.

"And you're doing that." Lola continued. "And if you died and Daddy had to summon a new Ritual Implement Hero, he might get someone worse."

It was somewhat nice her survival confirmed like that, at least a little. The Demon Lord might also get someone he can easily manipulate if he killed her, but he doesn't want to gamble that.

"Well, I'm all for living." Reina gave a light laugh.

"Exactly! So, you don't have to fight Daddy, and then we won't have to fight."

Shaking her head, Reina finished with the other container and stood up. "But I can't just ignore what he's doing. Your family destroyed an entire city."

"But it was important!" Lola shouted. She wasn't angry, but still energetic. "There was someone there Daddy had to kill…"

The end of her sentence trailed off.

"You mean the prince?" Reina asked. She also remembered that's who Goalith was looking for.

"Well, yeah, but…I can't talk about it." Lola quietly spoke.

Reina could only wonder what the secret was. Derdir wanted to kill people. So far, the only ones she knew about were Prince Johan and some unidentified templar. There wasn't much of a connection, outside of both of them possibly being nobility. That thought began to fill her with worry for Maria, but she was able to dispel it. It's not as if only nobles could become templars, though it was supposedly the most common. Besides, Grim was a noble and Lola didn't say anything about that.

"If he keeps destroying cities and killing thousands of people, I'll have to fight him eventually." Reina said without doubt. Setting that limit should give her something.

"Daddy isn't going to keep doing that." Lola said as she looked at her. "Besides, that was Sister Maphai's idea and it didn't even work."

Reina raised an eyebrow. What Lola said implied that both killing Johan and getting Reina moving weren't the main goal. It also implied that there was someone else there that was worth killing an entire city's worth of people over, and that they lived. Who could be that important?

A growl came from Reina's stomach. Lola smiled. "Come on, Bis Sis! Let's go have dinner so we can play!"

It seemed like their talk was nearly at an end. Hopefully, she'd be able to get something more out of Lola before the girl left after the Wave.

"One last thing." Reina said as they walked together. "Last time we met, you asked what I would do if I could choose to go home right now."

Lola turned her head to look at her. Reina remembered the conversation from before and has had some time to think about it.

Reina continued. "Back then, I wasn't sure. I might have even said yes and let all of this be someone else's problem. But now, I can't do that. I have people here I care about, people I don't want to see die."

"You mean your party?" Lola asked. Reina nodded.

"Vyrdrun is kind of like a big brother to me." It felt a little weird to say it out loud, especially given he was younger than her. "He saved my life after I got caught in violet rain. He helped me figure out how to cast spells, helped people hostile to him just because I asked, and has continued to protect and fight with me, even though the last Spirit Forger killed someone important to his people.

"Kuromo is like a pet, but a very smart one. He can be moody and doesn't always listen, but I can tell he's protective of me. I'd be hurt to know something bad happened to him because I wasn't around.

"And Maria." Reina stopped, her face blushing slightly just thinking about what they did together. A smile adorned her face as she spoke again to Lola, who stopped and turned around to wait. "I love her. She's the first person I ever loved and I don't want to leave her behind just to be safe at home again. We haven't been a couple for that long and I don't know if we'll stay together, but I really hope we will. And if things go really well, maybe I'll spend the rest of my life with her."

She knew that was a far-off time and things might change between them. There were plenty of times she overheard others in her class, both boys and girls, who broke up with their significant other for one reason or another. That was then and this was now, and right now? Reina wanted to hold Maria, and not think about what a fight with the Demon Lord might result in.

Then, her expression darkened slightly. "As long as your father understands that…"

The slightly taller girl looked at Reina with her slitted, golden eyes. Reina didn't offer any information Derdir didn't probably already know or could guess at. She had a date with Maria in the city, after all. No, what she offered was an implied warning. If he did something to her party, she would deal with him.

"I see." Lola said as she stepped closer, dropping the waterskins she carried. Of all the things she could have done, hugging Reina was probably the least expected. The horns from Lola's forehead avoided hitting Reina with Lola's face next to hers. "For love. That's why you fight."

Not quite sure how to respond, Reina brought up her free hand and rested it on Lola's back, right where her wing came around her armor.

"Daddy would understand. That's why he does this, too. It's nice to see you have that in common. Maybe we really won't have to fight after all." Her tone was soft, but cheerful, hopeful even.

Reina could barely make it out over hearing Derdir being compared to her so lightly. The Demon Lord killing thousands of innocent people out of love? She could never accept anything so ridiculous. Whatever lies he told Lola to believe something like that, Reina could never forgive.

"Come on, Big Sis." Lola pulled back, a wide smile on her face, showing off her small fangs. "Let's go play while we eat."

"Yeah…" Reina nodded absently. Lola picked up her dropped waterskins with one claw while using the other to tug at Reina's hand.

Reina had to wonder, was this who Lola really was underneath her so-called father's brainwashing? A sweet girl who cared about the people she thought of as a friend.

Knowing what she knew now, Reina didn't try to draw back. More than anything, she knew Lola needed a real friend to help her out of that family.

Author's Notes:

Again, not quite where I wanted to end things, but it kind of got away from me. Next chapter will start the Wave…probably.

Oh, and I got my computer replaced. Was even able to get all my files off of it and everything. Not crazy about how much I spent on it, but my old computer was apparently 8 years old (time really flies), so an upgrade was probably due anyway.