Zero no Tsukaima

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Chapter 6 - Spirit Stone of Destruction[]

The Pope’s caravan was at slow pace towards Romalia, their arrival was somewhat delayed. Unfortunately for them, the travel took 3 days, compared to just a day if they have used dragons for transport.

But one should take into consideration that the Holy Pope’s visit was not anything. He must respond to the devotion of all those believers of Brimir that lived in villages they passed by. This was a primary task for those who had given the title of ‘Pope’.

However, if the Pope would stopped to give sermons in every person in his visit, the number of people would become endless. So, he only gave the blessing to babies, families who became faithful servants in the service of God and Brimir; and brave soldiers who served in the crusade.

For Romalia, they needed to continue with the developments of the crusade as soon as possible, so this visit of the Pope had a great and deep political gain.

So the fact that the Pope and his caravan were immediately surrounded by people at every village they stopped by, Saito and others found it extremely difficult to implement their rescue mission.

If they were to proceed in their plan now, not only did they have to deal with the Templar Knights, the people would also turn on them, and they would be immediately surrounded by enemies on all sides.

And besides, fearing a possible assassination, the escort staff of the Pope was in high alert not even an ant could slip through their impenetrable defense. Not even those rumored as Chevalier of North Parterre members seemed to made any move against the defense network of the soldiers assigned to directly guard to Pope.

It seemed that planning a move during the course of their journey was impossible.

Also, the guards of the Pope were always at the frontline, this would make impossible to setup a trap in advance. Thus, attempting a surprise attack when they were in the vicinity of a forest would be unsuccessful due to low number of soldiers at their disposal, compared to the vastness of knights guarding Pope.

So in the end, the progress in rescuing Tabitha was still stagnant.

Two days had gone by since leaving Lutetia ...

So if the Pope’s caravan continued with their pace, they would be able to reach the "Tiger Highway" the next day...

Meanwhile at an inn not far from there, Saito and his group held a meeting on how to continue the rescue mission.

“Soon in that place, a huge number of people will gather to see the Pope, so being dressed as monks, and mixing within that crowd was just easy task. We cannot fail, failure is unacceptable...” Kirche said as she rested her elbows on the table proving it was a difficult task as she thought.

“But it has to be soon, we must rescue her before they reach Romalia or else, the rescue would be impossible,” said Reynald with a face completely seriously.

At the same time, Saito was desperately thinking of a solution but in the end the anxiety overwhelmed him. The idea of Tabitha just within his hand but couldn’t rescue her made him angry. Beside him was Louise, who kept her eyes closed, seemed to be really struggling thinking a solution to this dilemma, but still, she couldn’t think of any idea.

“Just as I thought, then we do not have any other option but to attack in the front, if we can attack with everything we have, in the end maybe one of us will be able to reach and rescue Tabitha,” said Malicorne while nodding at himself.

“That will be suicide! But then if there is no other option, maybe, we can just use the decoy plan.”

“Decoy plan?”

“Exactly,” said Saito.

“I will begin to make a scene near them to get their attention, then you just have to go after Tabitha...”

Without completing, suddenly a voice came from behind him.

“If you’re the one to do it, then you won’t get anything."

“Huh?”

When they turned back, what they found was a large muscular man standing near them. Immediately, all present, from within their monk robes, prepared to arm themselves with wands and swords.

“It’s me Chikasui!” said the man.

“But you’re a man?!” cried Louise.

“This person is certainly Chikasui!”

Behind him, Isabella appeared who was accompanied by another man. As expected, they wore monk robes whose hood covered their head and eyes.

When the man lowered his hood, Saito couldn’t help letting out an "Ahh".

It was the man during that time, on the river banks of Leilian, who pretended to engage in a duel with Saito in order to deliver a letter for Tabitha.

Then he turned his gaze to Saito, the man smiled.

“Long time no see.”

“You are...”

“The captain of the Knights of the Eastern Roses, Bart Castlemont,” Isabella said presenting him to all those present.

“The first time I heard it I still couldn’t believe it,” declared Castlemont as he watched Isabella with a cold stare. “But, upon seeing that young girl who now bears the royal crown, I’m forced to believe it. She couldn’t be Charlotte-sama! We, at all costs, must recover the true Charlotte-sama and restore the throne that is rightfully hers! And so, because of all your invaluable help, I thank you deeply, Tristanian Knights.”

Castlemont then addressed Saito and the others and offered them a bow.

Afterwards, Isabella started observing all those present around her.

“All right, then I shall begin to explain the composition of our men. First, considering the order of command of Chevalier of North Parterre, including myself and Chikasui, there were a total of 7 members. The rest of the order were now monitoring the caravan of the Pope to keep us aware on the situation. Also, the members of the Rose squad knights commanded by Castlemont consist of 20 men."

“Our members don’t have experience in actual battle, however... each and every one of them have sworn their allegiance.”

All those present then began to stir.

“We are also accounted. All belonging to Tristain Ondine Knights, counting commander Guiche, there were 4 members, and among them is the one who was named the "Hero of Albion", Chevalier Hiraga-dono. Also, those two were friends of her majesty. Thus, our total force combat consists of 33 mages.”

“I would say, it’s a very good number,” said Guiche with voice of complacency.

“Very well, then as for a commander... Tell me, there isn’t any problem if I will be the commander, right?” Isabella said with a serious face. All those present gave their approval.

Certainly, no one within the group has any reason to object. Besides, leaving the command to the leader of the order of Knights of North Parterre, whose specialty was dirty work, was the best possible option.

“Alright, let’s start with the planning.”

Isabella then spread out a map on the table.

“Right here, we will take our position and begin the assault against the Pope’s caravan. Our sole purpose is the carriage of the Pope, who ever arrives first will be responsible for rescuing her majesty. After that, he must go on this path where we have already prepared a wind dragon. Finally, he and her majesty must then flee in the direction of Lutetia.”

Then with a skeptical face Guiche said:

“Are you trying to say that with only a handful of men, we will make a direct attack against two full companies of Templar Knights?"

“Precisely.”

“We will be annihilated! They will surely destroy us!"

“We cannot consider "team work" in this plan because all present here came from different nations with their own different ways of organization. So, running a precise and flawless plan was frankly impossible, the only possible option left is to buy time for someone to get into the carriage and perform the rescue, then that someone will take care and safeguard the Queen and bring her safely to Lutetia.”

“You might be right, we don’t seem to have any more options.” Castlemont said while nodding to Isabella.

“We are a squad of knights, there is a different way for us to act on frontal attacks. We cannot lose here, if we fail we will end up making things worse, we must give all that we have to make sure that won’t happen.”

Saito then said as he raised his head thoughtfully.

“I’m against this plan.”

“What did you say?"

“This will result to unecessary sacrifices. We will all have to die first before being able to save Tabitha.”

Louise also agreed with those words.

“Saito is correct.”

“But then what choice do we have?” Guiche said as he bent head.

“There should be another way.” Louise then directed towards Guiche.

“If Tabitha was not rescued here, it is likely that a terrible war might break out. If that happens, a lot more people will die in the end, is that what you want?”

Taking those account, Saito then began to notice each one of those around him. All appeared to be quiet, however, in their eyes he could see a complete resolution.

Then after seeing the nervous faces of Malicorne and Guiche, Saito finally understood:

"It seems that the one who is being naive...is me."

Everyone here had already prepared themselves for what lies ahead.

At that time, he desperately wanted to reach and take the hand of Louise, slowly moved his hand to her, but then stopped. It was a cruelty that he was about to commit, it was pretty obvious that everyone here also wanted to be able to hold the hand of his/her dearest, what he would do might be totally unfair.

But then, are we really engaging in this battle?

Do we even have a chance of winning?

Then from within his heart, Saito shook his head.

It’s useless!

We cannot beat an enemy that exceeds us 10 times in numbers, and moreover, they were not ordinary enemy, they were the Templar Knights. Considering the experience of all of us in real battle conditions, we are still weak and naive.

...Indeed, it would be useless to fight ... Before we can even approach the carriage, magic attacks would already be fired upon us, there is the possibility tha most of us survive. In that case, we can rescue Tabitha and run... But the Templar Knights have Pegasus, though we use dragons to escape they can still chase us mid-air, certainly it would be impossible to get rid of them... the chances of this might work were almost zero.

But still, even if the chances were zero, if at that time the luck was on our side, Tabitha could indeed be rescued. The only thing left is to go for that small gap that would open during that miraculous event. As expected to the Halkeginian nobles, when it comes to this, their resolution was unwavering.

But I...

Saito looked at Louise.

And then watched his comrades as they had been prepared to die.

I don’t want to die, I will not let them die.

After thinking this Saito started to say:

“This is not right, it’s not like I don’t understand what you’ve said, however, we will all die here: it may be true that the war would stop with our sacrifice but... it is more likely that we may not succeed, or rather we will surely fail. How is it that you agree with a bet so dangerous?”

“I never thought to hear that from the man who faced the 70000 soldiers alone.” Guiche said in surprised voice.”

“The circumstances are completely different back then, since I was the only casualty. At this time we are talking about the lives of everyone. Surely, I understand your reasons for we must do it to avoid greater evil, but, even after knowing that, I still don’t want to see my friends die in vain before my eyes.”

Again silence flooded in the room.

“Well then, what do you propose?” Isabela asked, breaking the silence in her own.

Then, at that time, Saito could remember those words spoken by Pope Vittorio.

"We must negotiate with the elves, and placed our power behind our backs."

Of course, if negotiation was not enough then it would be favorable to start a war.

But at that point the Pope thought there was still a room for negotiation.

So with this renewed thought, Saito started to say:

“Let’s try to negotiate.”

“Impossible! What position did you have to start a negotiation? You know that the only thing they really wanted to do was to start a crusade, it seemed that you don’t really understand them,” said Castlemont, to which Saito became silent while pondering, then asked Louise:

“Tell me Louise, can you create a large army using ‘illusion’?”

“For that power, I could but...”

"Well," Saito nodded in satisfaction.

The next morning...

The assigned group to lead the Pope’s caravan, was none other than the order of Arieste Knights of the Church, which was commanded by Carlo Trobontino.

After spending almost an hour after they left the last village, they reached an area of land that seems like a vast wasteland. Shortly, they arrived at the foot of the Mountain of the Fire Dragons. And soon, they would travel to the route which joined Romalia and Gallia, the ’Tiger Highway’.

Meanwhile, being in a state of a dream, Carlo recited a sacred hymn as he could almost see the illusion of the crusade that dwelt in his mind.

By his sacred magic, he imagined those hated elves burning until they were reduced to ashes; his chest dwelled with joy.

In this state, while immersing himself in his sick fantasies, his subordinates were already shaking and urged him to look in the location directly across from them.

“Commander!... See there!...”

“What? Behave vile worms! We are the distinguished gentlemen of the church!”

As he said this, Carlo then fixed his eyes in the direction pointed to him. He ended up losing his composure.

“What the hell? Are those...?”

In front of the about 500 mails away, he saw the ranks of several thousand troops, even at that distance, he could clearly distinguish the cannons from the cavalry.

“Stop! All Stop!”

Then, Carlo stopped advancing his own pegasus, all of his troops immediately halted. Afterwards, a messenger was urgently sent to the place where Pope was to inform him of the situation.

“What the hell, where did these morons came from? How dare they to stop the advance of his holiness the Pope...”

At that time, the sharp eyes of one of the subordinates of Carlo distinguished their banner.

“Is that ... The coat of arms of the lords of southern Gallia?”

“The Southern Gallian gentlemen you said!?”

What the hell are they thinking, marching right in front of us and stopping our progress?

But the southern lords who fought at the frontlines in the previous war, were supposed to be allies.

At that time, from within the marching army, the figure of 3 men on horseback came out to meet them, one was carrying a white flag and slowly approached the caravan.

“They were asking for a truce!”

“Truce? Did they seek a war? To wage a war against us, the army of God!? Repent, thousand times damn!"

While trembling with rage, Carlo prepared his troops as he pulled out his wand.

The suspected trio then stopped about 20 mails away, standing right in place where Carlo can clearly see them. One them, taller among the other two, dared to took a step in the front.

“I presume that this was the caravan of his holiness the Pope. I am the captain of the order of the Eastern Roses, my name is Bart Castlemont! And I have to proclaim to His Holiness the Pope that we demand for his immediate surrender! We must reclaim what is respectfully ours!”

While shaking with rage, Carlo responded:

“You dare to obstruct the passage of his holiness the Pope, this is BLASPHEMY! You have the guts of march all your troops behind our backs!? Are you stupid enough to start a war with us!?”

“My army has a sole purpose of getting back our master. So, if you don’t resist and returned our master, then we will immediately turn around and gladly escort you to the border.”

“Stop saying nonsense! No matter what petty reasons you have, by the time you bastards dared to raise your wands against us, we will immediately accused you of heresy!”

“Before accusing us of heresy, I would like you tell me who was the person currently sharing the carriage with his Holiness? Tell me, who has given you the authorization to take that person to your country? Depending upon your answer, I’ll immediately give the signal to attack you any moment!”

“Is that even a threat? Bastards! Perhaps you’re saying that you’re trying to threaten his holiness the Pope!”

Then, Carlo prepared his wand to make an attack, at the time he took a forward step, a voice was heard echoing behind his back:

“What’s the commotion here?”

“His Holiness!...”

Without thinking, Carlo immediately bowed down. With a calm expression, Pope Vittorio glanced toward Castlemont, Saito and Chikasui.

Saito was nervous while he was being gazed directly by Pope Vittorio. The Pope seemed to be traversing in his eyes, as if looking directly into his heart.

Are we discovered?

The army behind him was no more than the "illusion" created by Louise, though it would certainly be impossible to tell the difference between this and the real army, those mere illusions were obviously unable to attack.

Could it be that another Void user like Vittorio, was able to see through it and expose its falsehood?

If they had been discovered, they would have to continue their previous plan around this wasteland, as Guiche and several gentlemen of Gallia were hidden waiting for the opportunity to make a direct assault, but it would be obvious that if compelled to do so now, any benefit granted by the element of surprise would be lost. At this time their chances for success seemed to have shrunk drastically.

Unable to do anything as the icy cold sweat began to drop at his back.

“His holiness!”

Saito then took off the hood covering his face, this sudden action had perplexed Carlo.

“You bastard!...”

However, the calm expression of Vittorio didn’t change at all, so Saito decided to continue with his words:

“Tabitha...no, I ask you to return Her Majesty, Queen Charlotte; she has nothing to do with the war you want to start.”

Vittorio’s reaction was nothing but a smile. He didn’t even tried to deny the accusations brought against him.

“If you pledge your support for our plans, I will gladly return her.” With this, Saito became speechless. “You know, I’m not really concerned, it was never my intention to control Gallia nor anything of what’s in it, my only goal was always to lead them in order to complete again the four of four.”

“Why are you so persistent with this crusade!? Is it really important to wage this war? You should stop all of these and forget the holy land!”

“There is a reason to take back the ’holy land’. If you allow me, I would like you to join us, for there is something that I wanted to show you.”

You’re still trying to convince me?, Saito thought.

It was at this time.

"Chikasui" who was on the far left, suddenly started to cast a spell. From the palm of his hand, a blinding light began to radiate, everyone was wrapped around the intense light.

Saito instinctively look away from the glare, just as Carlo and the Templar Knights around him covered their faces to protect them from the light.

As if expecting this move from Chikasui, it seemed that Castlemont was the only one who still regained his rapid movements.

As expected from the square-class mage of "wind", in a blink of an eye, he covered a distance of about 20 mails separating them. He quickly approached Vittorio, put the Pope’s arms on his back, and immediately pointed his wand on his neck.

“Don’t move!” Castlemont screamed as the confused Templar Knights were about to take their wands.

“Drop your wands!”

From that moment, Castlemont began to give orders to all those knights gathered there, the expression on their faces was totally alarming.

They hesitated to move, they kept looking at the Pope and at their wands.

Pope Vittorio was calm, and a warm smile was still on his face.

“Drop your wands! It’s an order! Don’t force me to steal the life of his holiness!”

Then Vittorio started to say:

“Gentlemen, please do as this person says.”

At these words, the Templar Knights began to throw their wands to the ground. Chikasui hurriedly casted alchemy on these wands, and they began to melt.

Then Castlemont shouted to Saito who seemed to be confused on what was happening.

“Quick! Go to the carriage and rescue the Queen!”

Hearing that Saito turned back to his senses. Although he was against this hostage taking, this was not the time to ask questions, after all they were in the middle of a battle.

It was necessary for their goal, they had to set aside their emotions in order to make the most appropriate decision. He, himself, has been able to learn this hard truth, if not, he wouldn’t be able to save anyone.

“Eh, understood!”

Saito rushed to the carriage, opened the door and found inside, sitting next to each other, were Tabitha and Sylphid.

“You are...”

Saito then turned to a surprised Tabitha and said:

“I’m here to rescue you! We must hurry!”

“Kyui! Kyuikyui! I cannot believe this!” Sylphid screamed and hugged Saito.

“Sylphid, return to your dragon form and take Tabitha with you!”

“Understood!”

That said, Sylphid immediately returned to dragon form, took Tabitha with her mouth and mounted the queen at her back.

The Templar Knights saw their escape as Sylphid quickly ascend to the sky.

Meanwhile, their allies, who had remained hidden, began to approach the carriage.

“Saito! Are you okay?!?”

“Yes! Saito did it!"

Those were the knight members of North Parterre and Eastern Roses. One by one they began collecting the wands belonging to the Templar Knights, the next thing they did was to melt them with alchemy or split them into two. Carlo began to murmur as fury marked his face:

“Bastards!... You cannot even be considered as heretics, you’re just animals! You along with your entire family will suffer the inquisition, your name will not be heard as we will annihilate every last one of you!”

Addressing Carlo, Castlemont still kept Vittorio as hostage:

“Unfortunately, I don’t have any relatives.”

Every one of his companions was dedicated to disable one by one the wands of the enemy, however... The number of wands were an equal to the members of the two companies escorting the Pope, so destroying them one by one will take too long.

We have to gather them all in one place to securely hold them.

If the reinforcement came, we couldn’t stand a chance. So we had to take every possible opportunity to maintain this lead.

By the time they were about to gather all the wands of the Templar Knights...

Up in the sky, the shriek from Sylphid could be heard.

“Kyuikyui!”

Flying up in the sky, moving like a lightning strike, a wind dragon appeared before Sylphid.

The wind dragon began to chase the stunned Sylphid, with the sole purpose of stealing Tabitha.

“Julio!” Saito scream seeing the person riding at the back of the dragon, the one who was able to manipulate all beasts, Windalfr.

That dragon, manipulated by the familiar called the right hand of God, was tirelessly working trying to follow the movements of Sylphid to snatch his load.

“Flee in this direction!”

Not knowing if this instruction had reached her, Sylphid attempted to make a fast descend while Tabitha was still on her back, however, they couldn’t make it. As Azulo, showing a precise hawk like movements, and Julio was able to intercept them and snatched Tabitha.

Tabitha, not having her wand, was just a little girl; unable to put any resistance, there was no way she could change the situation she was now.

Holding Tabitha in its mouth, Azulo made a loud flapping sound and began to return to Romalia.

“Kyuih!”

Silphyd reached Saito, landing right next to him.

“This is bad!”

As Saito shouted this, he immediately jumped to the back of Sylphid.

“I’m coming too!”

By the time they were about to leave, Louise also jumped to Sylphid’s back, then followed by Kirche doing the same.

“Hey Kirche! What are you doing?!”

“I just thought you two cannot use ‘levitation’!”

Saito nodded for this, and then shouted:

“Go after them, Sylphid!”

"Kyui!" Silphyd roared and started to ascend.

“Hurry up! If they made it to Romalia, we’re in serious trouble!”

Sylphid flapped fiercely as Julio and Azulo looked like a point in the distance.

From the ground, Castlemont and company, as well as the Templar Knights, were still stunned seeing the spectacle in the sky, but... after a while, everyone prepared to ride their horses and pegasus and started pursue those two dragons.

“Damn! They’re really fast! Sylphid, can you fly faster?!”

“This is all the strength I have!”

Although both Azulo and Sylphid were wind dragons, the difference between them looked like a puppy comparing with an adult dog. No one could reach the speed of the wind dragon commanded by Windalfr.

“We’re about to cross the border!”

Right in front of them, they could glimpse the enormous mountain ranges of the Fire Dragons, this was the ridge that stretched from east to west dividing Halkeginia ... And right behind those mountains was Romalia.

The moment they saw the wind dragon something horrible happened; leaving the mouth of Azulo, they saw Tabitha falling to the ground.

“Saito! Tabitha is...!” Louise issued a desperate cry.

Propelling like a somersault, Azulo swooped at full speed, and once again captured Tabitha in its mouth. Without changing its direction, Azulo continued rotating reaching an astonishing rate of fall.

“They did it on purpose, they just wanted to hurt Tabitha!” Kirche said desperately.

Upon hearing those words Saito’s heart was set on fire. If they continue with that she could fall and hit the ground ... and yet they were playing with her small body as if it was a rag doll.

There was still a chance, an opportunity obtained by putting his life in danger, he will never allow them to escape.

“Come on! Sylphid!”

“Understood!”

Silphyd quickly began to shorten their distance, then Azulo tried to escape, but his speed didn’t increase.

“Attack them, Sylphid!”

“Kyuikyui!”

Silphyd prepared to attack with everything she had, however, Azulo swiftly dodge them, at that moment, Saito jumped while drawing his sword.

With his left hand, he was able to hang on at the claw of Azulo. Then following Azulo’s movements, he began to climb up and reach the dragon’s back.

Having faster reaction time than Julio, Saito took him by the neck and pointed his sword.

“Get us down!”

Despite the situation, Julio kept his calm face.

“You’re just in time, come, I want to show you something.”

“You got to be kidding me!” Saito scream furiously.

“Oh God! ... you’re always acting like this, at least listen for once to what people have to say.”

“Do you expect me to listen to a selfish person like you? Always talking about the crusade, always clinging to that foolishness, just GET us down!”

As Julio shook his head "As you wish," was when he finally decided to land Azulo.

Upon reaching the ground, Saito immediately ran to where Tabitha was.

“Tabitha!”

“I’m ... fine.”

After leaving Tabitha in Kirche’s care, he turned once more to Julio.

“Hey Julio!”

“What now?”

“We need to talk.”

“Alright, honestly for once, I always wanted to have a little chat with you.”

“What’s your purpose, the reason for continuing with this crusade? Can’t you just live in peace and forget about the holy land?”

To hear him say that, the face of Julio seemed to emerge an expression from someone who has to help a friend in his studies because he always gets bad grades.

“We must find something necessary for our purposes in this world. Just think a little, what do you think is the reason why we have repeated the war for the last 6000 years? If you look a bit, initially the people were still the same, they still fight just for a piece of barren land and for their pride ... Do you think that justifies all the blood that had been spilled so far?”

“I don’t know.”

“That’s because we are in a situation where our hearts cannot find a support to cling to, we are in a situation where our "sacred land" has been stolen by the heretics, and then, what should we believe then?”

“So, that was your reason for starting a war against the elves?”

“Yes, for they have unjustly established a land that was rightfully ours from the beginning.”

“... Dammit, was that really a reason?”

For a few moments, Saito remained starring at Julio, then suddenly he began to laugh.

“A ha ha ha! Don’t look!

“What’s so funny?”

“Nothing, it’s just that, I never really thought that petty reason would start this endless war. Really, it would be fine to just leave the sacred land alone. It’s really absurd to fight, you know. And it would be a hundred times, no, a thousand times more fun to just stay and play with your friends.”

“What did you say?”

Saito’s face turned pale. This guy is really getting in my nerves.

“You insist on going in this endless crusade forever without giving any logical reason, by the waging a war against the elves over and over again, do you really expect to win if you only fight for honor? How many times have passed since your ancestors were displayed as a pathetic losers after failing to recover their land even after a millennia?”

“You... Perhaps, are you trying to mock me?”

Filled with rage, Saito then threw his fist against Julio, however, he nimbly dodged it smoothly.

“Hey! Hey! Do not get mad for something so simple, things will get very bad if you cannot even control your emotion like this.”

Saito could only keep seeing Julio with full hatred.

“You ... that’s what people like you always think, always controlling and treating us like idiots! Do you really look at all the people around you only as mere pawns?”

“Of course not, I never thought something like that.”

“Liar! What about that girl, Tabitha’s sister ... when she wears that crown? What did you say to make her cheat? What did you say to her for her to betray her own sister? Surely, you’ve tampered her with a potion!”

Upon hearing this, Julio’s face turned slightly serious.

“Potion? I would never use something like that.”

“Well, then what did you do? Or perhaps, do not tell me you...”

Saito bit his lip because of the thought that overwhelmed him.

“Are you trying to tell me you make this poor girl fell in love with you?”

Then, Julio opened the palms of his hands. It was really strange that this young man felt proud for himself in such a desperate situation.

“If I say yes, what will you do then?”

Saito was outraged by the hostile tone of Julius and began to respond.

“Damn ... You’re the worst! How dare you use a woman who was in love with you ... seriously you are the lowest, I wonder what would your god do if he knew this!”

The color of Julio’s face changed at this.

“What did you say?”

His eyes were burned with anger and his grin had disappeared completely.

Demonstrating his contempt, Saito said as he lifted his lips:

“You, was it your "body and soul"? Or is it your god that tells you it’s okay to use women in love with you, for your silly purposes?”

With quick movements, Julio reaction was to deal a strong hit in Saito’s face, which Saito swiftly pushed back.

“Think what you’re doing, idiot!”

While recovering, Saito placed his hand on the hilt of his sword.

“Do you still want to continue?”

“What did you say about my own body and soul?!!”

Julio, without hesitation, then dealt a punch to Saito.

“Idiot!...”

In the time that Saito was about to draw his sword, he noticed what was in Julio’s face, an expression such fury, that prevented him to control himself. This combined with the disappearance of that mocking tone which mocked anyone talking to him.

“Are you really try to face me, Gandalfr, unarmed and without using any beast?”

In truth, Saito didn’t have the slightest idea on what was going on, and apparently, Julio wasn’t even considering the consequences of what he’s doing, but anyway, Saito never faced an opponent before who was unarmed.

After regaining his composure, Saito decided to throw away his sword, which was picked up immediately by a worried Louise.

“Saito...”

“You dare to talk about what’s inside of my soul... You know nothing!”

The tone of Julio made Saito to remember those of his childhood bullies.

Then, Saito fought Julio with the fist of his left hand, and immediately after, in less than a blink, deal a direct hit with his right hand.

This seemed to have become a boxing practice, however there were times when the fight was becoming more serious. Without the power of Gandalfr, Saito was just an ordinary boy. He will eventually lose to this match due to shock.

However, the physical abilities of Julio were worthy of admiration, he could dodge Saito’s punches easily, then respond by throwing a kick, even so, Saito caught his leg and with all his strength pinned him down and then began to strike punches one after another right in the beautiful face of Julio.

But then, the attacks of Saito didn’t last for so long, as Julio took one leg of Saito and then turn his body skillfully, thus changing positions.

Their fury seemed to have lasted forever, exchanging punches again and again. In such a display of tenacity and fury made Louise, Kirche and Tabitha speechless as they observed them in dismay, waiting to reach the conclusion.

Finally, both Saito and Julio were exhausted, they lay down and not being able to send another punch. The two of them had been in such a pitiful state as they seemed to be unrecognizable. Saito’s face was completely swollen, and part of his left eye was hidden behind his swollen cheeks. For Julio, an endless stream of blood flowed from his nose, this combined with the deformation of his face which was caused by the immense swelling in his cheeks.

This had been a contest of fists, so it was obvious that the hands of those two contestants were completely destroyed, their hands was so swollen that even their little finger was twice its original size, those limbs were completely impossible move right now.

So while in the state of breathing laboriously, Saito started to say:

“... This is very strange of you, you, who made yourself lose your sanity.”

At this Julio answered revealing the pain.

“You know, I envy you.”

“What did you say?”

“You can love someone without having to worry about anything.”

“What are you trying to say?”

“What, you really thought I had no feelings? I have done a tremendous effort to avoid falling in love... And yet I fell for it, and not only that, I also saw the need of having to use it. I really believed that someone like you would be able to understand what’s in my heart?”

“Well, I don’t understand the fact that it is "necessary" to use it.”

“That’s very unfortunate.”

“But then, use it for what?”

“Who do you think we’re doing this for? For them, for everyone, for you ... We are doing everything for you, you who are living on this doomed earth.”

From that moment, Julio began to cry, * gushih ** gushih *, in his eyes tears flowed, he then started a plain sob.

For Saito, he never would have guessed that Julio was able to mourn, so he was really surprised.

Eventually after crying for a moment, Julio stood up. With a puzzled expressions, Kirche and Tabitha rushed to them. Both Saito and Julio, though poorly, were treated with some "healing". Apparently, it was not enough to completely stop the pain, but at least it served so they could calm for a bit.

Then Julio said brokenly:

“That’s enough, do whatever you want, I do not care anymore on how you guys would able live in this land, nor for everyone who always like to kill each other for just a small piece of land.”

“Julio, what’s wrong? What are you talking about?” Louise asked confused from what she heard.

“See it for yourself,” said Julio with a voice that reflected his discouragement.

“What the hell are you talking about!?”

At the moment Saito approached Julio after saying this....

The earth began to shake.

***

Castlemont and the others, who still has the Pope as their hostage, were following the trail of Saito.

Right behind them, riding on their pegasus, the Templar Knights also followed closely, looking for answers.

One of the noble chasing the wind dragon has spotted Saito and the others, after using a ‘far-sight spell’, he shouted excitedly:

“They already landed!”

“Very well!” Castlemont said as his troops began to increase the speed of their horses.

After a few minutes...

A violent tremor began to shake.

“Uwa! An earthquake!”

As the knights lost their control on the horses, one by one they stopped, those horses started to panic as some of them began running, stumbling and inevitably ended up lying on the ground, even so the intensity of the shaking became stronger.

“It’s too violent!”

The shaking continued for a few moments... to then stop abruptly.

“That earthquake was so strong! I’ve never felt something like that before!”

At that moment, Castlemont heard someone muttering, it was the Pope. Pope Vittorio, who wasmounted in front right next to him bounded tightly with magic rope, started to say:

“It has already started!”

“What did you say? What was already started?”

“The "Great Uprising" has begun!”

“What’s that?”

At the time Castlemont wondered about this, a new tremor started and shook the earth violently, this new tremor was far stronger than before, the horses began to kneel, and even the soldiers who were on foot could not remain standing, as they felt the intensity of the earthquake.

“Hwuah!”

Castlemont was thrown from his horse, Vittorio also rolled after falling to the ground. Crawling quickly, Castlemont went to where Vittorio had fallen. The intense shaking of the earth felt like being swallowed in a violent storm.

“What the hell is going on?!”

Without answering, Vittorio only did was to observe something at a distance.

Castlemont then fixed his gaze in the same direction as Vittorio.

This time, he was completely speechless.

***

“Oi, what the hell was that?!”

Malicorne and Guiche kept their hands on the ground due to the intensive shaking, they soon noticed that Reynald remained staring in one direction.

“Hey Reynald, what’s wrong?”

Reynald didn’t answer. He just raised his finger slowly and pointed forward. Seeing the disaster right in front of them, they were completely shocked.

So, because no one could explain what was happening, they decided to extend their hands and then pinched each other’s cheeks.

“It hurts!” Both Guiche and Malicorne said almost wanting cry.

“... This is not a dream!”

Both men from the North Parterre, Eastern Roses, and the Templar Knights ended up forgetting their precautions and hostilities they had with each other when they saw before their eyes, that gigantic and horrifying natural disaster.

As if remembering something, one of these gentlemen began to murmur:

“So, it’s true, the continent of Albion that was once part of Halkeginia...”

***

A tremendous roar emerged echoing in their ears, the increasingly strong vibration did not show any signs of stopping.

With a voice as if not believing in what he was seeing, Saito said:

“The mountain... is floating!”

The mountain of the fire dragon that he was ... this mountain, that was once a part of the great mountain ranges, began to ascend up in the sky.

It was a spectacle that could be described in one word: "Majestic".

As if there was a rocket pushing those mountains up as they unstoppably ascended towards the sky.

At the time the mountain was fully in the air, a furious cloud of dust rose from where it came from; the surroundings darkened as if the night had started prematurely. The same dust came in the throat of Saito almost suffocating him.

“What the hell was that... what’s going on?”

Julio then explained it to Saito:

“This is the "great uprising", this happens when the gradual accumulation of wind stones began to raise an entire land mass.

“Wind stone?”

Certainly, they were used to raise "ships” to the sky, in addition for being a crystal that kept the power of the wind from the previous resident...

“... As you know, the lands of Halkeginia were rich of these wind stones. To put in simple words, a wind stone is a glass where the power of the spirits lies, so what happens is that it gradually crystallized into the ground forming a "spiritual power". So after tens of thousands of years, the amount soon be enough so that those wind stones will eventually raise the whole earth.”

“The whole earth, you say?”

Then Julio said in a tired voice:

“Unfortunately, right now a large saturation of wind stones were buried throughout Halkeginia, we soon be tossed like a pancake into the air and huge chunks of land will began to float. Do you finally understand? This is reason why we must reach the holy land.”

“Then why do you keep it secret all this time?!”

Then Julio replied as if spitting:

“Tell me, after finally seeing this, was it hard for you to believe in the sincerity of our words? An idiot not seeing things with their own eyes will never believe.”

***

After 30 minutes, the shaking subsided. With that, Vittorio, the Templar Knights, Castlemont, Guiche and company, together, they finally arrived to the place where Saito and the others were.

Apparently, what happen today in the mountain of the Fire Dragon, had came as a surprise to members of the Templar Knights, as they were confused not knowing what was happening.

“Are you surprised?” Vittorio asked Saito.

“Yeah ... this is the first time I saw a mountain rose up like that.”

After listening to Saito, a smile spread across the face of Vittorio.

“The land that has risen will gradually consume the power of the wind stones, so once again they will return to the surface. The continent of Albion is part of the remains of what has become the first ‘Great Uprising’.”

“What was really happening in Halkeginia?” Asked Louise with a worried face, to which Vittorio said while shaking his head.

“Actually ... It’s not all, according to research we have done personally, our estimate is that 50% of the whole land would rise up just like what you have witnessed, but there were some degree of error in our calculations, anyway, the damage to all the continent would be catastrophic, so within a few decades these types of events will began to occur throughout Halkeginia.”

“So, what you’re trying to say is that we will be left without a place to live by?” said Guiche in a shocked voice.

“Yes, it will not be today nor tomorrow, but in the near future, half of the Halkeginian population will lose the land needed to live, when that happens, there will be land conflicts, and a war with no real winners will began. And to prevent that from happening, we have awakened "the void", that is why we must recover the "holy land" that was taken from us by pagan elves.”

“In the holy land ... is there something?”

Vittorio then quickly answered that question:

“There is a giant magical device built by the founder, Brimir. The only one that can able to fight against this(spiritual power). We, the four of four who possess the power of "VOID", it is our duty to recover the Holy Land for our salvation lies in it so that we can rid of our land this threatening disaster!”

“This is something ... something important, why would you kept this hidden all this time!?” cried Saito as he clenched his fists tightly.

Seeing his reaction, Vittorio repeated the same words that Julio had said only a few moments ago.

“Do you really believe that anyone would even believe in a story like this? Unless they see it with their own eyes, people will never actually believe, and also, in the given case that we have told this story before, probably at least a few of you would say "Can we really believe what they said?", then rumors will begin to spread, which alone would lead to unnecessary panic among the people.”

That may be true, Saito thought to himself.

If I haven’t seen the truth with my own eyes, if I haven’t witnessed that such mountain could rise up to the sky, when I heard this story, I most likely would never have to believed it.

“See, I told you.” Julio said mocking voice.

“We must act "seriously", although this would cost us our lives, if it is to recover the Holy Land, we will do whatever is necessary, those words came from the mouth of the god, even Valhalla(Death) would cooperate to us in our crusade! The "great uprising" of today was what we might call, our letters of TRIUMPH, all of these were done with the sole purpose of us to believe!”

Vittorio then took Saito’s hand.

“Will you lend us your strength, Gandálfr? Everything is for the distant future, our descendants may live quietly in a safe land, which really belongs to them, no matter what happen in the crusade, our first priority now will begin with negotiations. If the elves peacefully return "the holy land", then there will be no problem, but if they don’t, we will continue initiating the attack, that would be our last option, we must fight for our right to survive!”

Saito and his friends began to look at each other faces.

As Isabela and Castlemont, Malicorne, Guiche and Reynald, Tabitha and Kirche, all evidenced in their faces that they did not know what to do.

The whole story was too incredible, too unexpected, while their heads still could not process what was really happening. But ...

The mountain floating in the sky right now, as they look up, it became the extension of the clouds in heaven showing how the unimaginable would turn into a reality, their reasoning were shaken uncontrollably.

But it was precisely for this reason that at the moment, they could not reach an agreement.

After what the Romalia had done so far, it was difficult to say whether they would accept to "cooperate" with them.

With these concerns clouding their judgment, Louise tried to calm Saito by taking his hand, and then head to Vittorio:

“We currently do not have the authority to respond to your request; so I ask to give us time to make our considerations, but before that, we have a few conditions.”

“Go ahead.”

“First, I ask that from this moment, that you won’t hide any information.”

“I promise.”

From that point, Louise looked at Tabitha.

“The next thing is, that the throne is restored to the rightful queen of Gallia.”

“I cannot do that.”

“Why?”

“Gallia is a huge nation, if you don’t have a queen in command, their moral in battle would not be enough to achieve victory,” Vittorio said in a calm voice as he could.

“But Tabitha can...”

Saying this Saito, Tabitha started to respond in her own:

“I, I intend to go with you.”

“Is that alright?”

“That was my intention from the beginning, the main reason I wear that crown was to help you, though I really don’t like it, I still agree with the plan that the crown be given to the imposter sent by Romalia...”

Having said that, Tabitha then took the hand of Saito.

“Then it’s settled.”

At that time, Vittorio began to look around.

“All of us here have seen, for the first time today that we shared here our truth and so, we have become true brothers! May the grace of God enlighten us in our future endeavors!”

All of the soldiers rose and began to see each other in amazement, however, after a time they decided to shake hands, and embrace each other.

Saito and others, who still had trouble accepting this, saw the how the things had become.

While he rubbed his face, Julio asked Saito:

“What’s wrong, aren’t you satisfied?”

“Well it is, or rather, still I do not like the idea that in the end, everything was finished just as you have planned.”

“Do not say something like that, but things finished well atleast for my part, I really have to make a great effort to resist.”

“What do you mean?”

“All this would have been easier, if we only waited for the new void user.”

“Why was it not done?”

After hearing this, Julio replied as if sighing:

“I was excited.”

“To what?”

“I wanted to fight you. I really wished to face you. In order to achieve greatness, one must remove the obstacles, that was the way to solve the problems. However, I’m not really that strong, damn, if only I could be stronger, I would have been more preferable.”

Saito then stared Julio, his face was haggard, swollen everywhere and blood could be seen from either side of the handsome face of Julio.

Then he recalled his words of just moments ago:

"You can love someone without having to worry about anything."

That guy ... Although we have almost be the same age, he can act so casually, while hiding the truth in his chest. He was also reminded of his tears before. Totally crying like a small child.

“Idiot!” Saito said.

“That’s what I should say.” Julio said while his eyes remained fixed on Saito.

“By the way, I would like to apologize, for what I said before, about who owned your body and soul, but it is also your fault for your bad habit of always wanting to deceive people.”

“...I haven’t truly deceived people before.” He said in a dejected voice.

Then Saito turned his face away trying to avoid to look into his eyes, he decided to extend his hand to Julio.

“What is this?”

“A handshake, but this does not mean that I have already accepted cooperate with you.”

Julio watched that hand for a moment, but in the end, he corresponded strongly against his handshake...

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