Act 19 - The Wind's Sword

Seirei Gensoki 19 - Fu no tachi (精霊幻想記19・風の太刀)

## Synopsis

少年の不在。そして、少女たちの戦い。

リーゼロッテ奪還のため、ガルアーク王国を離れたリオ。

その不在を最大の好機とみたレイスは、リオへ復讐心を募らせる【天上の獅子団】の傭兵たちと共にガルアーク 城を強襲！

城内が騒然とする中、留守を預かる少女たちは襲撃者に抗うべく、否応なしに命がけの戦いへと身を投じること になるが――

「守られるだけの存在じゃないって、示したいんです。自分が弱いせいで、ハルトに距離を置かれたくないから ！」

少女たちの覚悟に応え、一陣の風が戦場を駆け抜ける!!

The young man’s absence. And then, the girl's battle.

The Rio that went away from the Galarc Kingdom for the sake of rescuing Liselotte. Reiss who uses his absence for assaulting Galarc’s royal castle alongside the members of mercenary squad “The Heavenly Lions”, who want revenge against Rio!

While the castle is in chaos, the girls who stayed behind fight against the assailants, regardless of they wanting it or not, it becomes a fight with their lives on the line---

[I want to prove that I’m not someone who just needs to be protected. I don’t want to get away from Haruto because of my own weakness.]

In response to the girls’ resolve a breeze runs through the battlefield.

## Content

### Prologue.

A place away from people, Liselotte and Aria were left by Aisia in front of a dense forest several kilometers away from Erikaburg. The battle between Rio and the beast was so intense that they were able to see Rio and the beast throwing their large-scale attacks at each other even from that far away with the help of the strengthening magic. The exchange of attacks ended minutes ago already, but they aren’t relieved, and Aisia has just gone back to Rio’s place.

Both Liselotte and Aria look silently at the sky, and Aria notices Aisia is coming back and tells Liselotte. The two see Aisia carrying Rio and walk in their direction. Aisia lands in front of the two of them, Liselotte loses her breath seeing Rio’s state and asks Aisia worriedly about his condition. Aisia tells her that Rio’s life isn’t in danger, but Liselotte doesn’t really believe it seeing Rio covered in blood and wounds. Aisia tells her she wants to let Rio rest and begins to prepare the soil for taking out the rock house. Aria is already used to this, but Liselotte is surprised at it and doesn’t understand what Aisia is doing but for the time being just thinks about Rio’s wellbeing and doesn’t ask any questions. Aisia takes Rio’s hand and takes the rock-house out of the time-space cache, then tells Liselotte and Aria to enter the rock-house. Liselotte hurriedly opens the door of the rock-house for Aisia so she can carry Rio inside quickly.

When they enter the house, Aisia tells Liselotte and Aria to rest in the living room while she nurses Rio. Liselotte refuses and asks Aisia if she can help with something. Aisia tells the two she intends to wash Rio’s body and to change his clothes now. The three go to the bathroom, and Aisia and Liselotte help each other to undress Rio’s upper half, while Aria prepares the water, soap and towels. Liselotte loses her breath when she sees all the scars on Rio’s body and asks what they are, Aisia tells her that those wounds aren’t from the fight with Erika but from his childhood, and they are all healed already. Liselotte isn’t relieved by that; she realizes immediately that Rio’s scars are traces of abuse and/or torture and looks at them worriedly and sadly. Aria looks at Rio’s wounds while she prepares the towels for cleaning his body and has strange feeling of déjà vu. Aisia asks Aria "is something wrong", and Aria says it is nothing and gives the wet towel to Liselotte. While Aisia supports Rio’s body, Liselotte receives the towel and begins to clean Rio’s body while crying, calling him “Amakawa-senpai” in her mind. Aria stands saying that it seems unnecessary to take off Rio’s trousers just for cleaning the blood, so she will wash Rio’s coat and shirt for the time being and picks up Rio’s clothes.

### **Chapter 1: First act before the turbulence.**

The time advances a little, in a mountain range near Galarc’s capital, Ouphia has finally found a suitable place for the teleportation point and is done preparing it and setting a barrier that will hide the activation of the teleportation magic. For the sake of pretending that she went away alone to look for someone before bringing them to the castle, she needed to wait until now alone in the second rock house. Now it is finally a good moment for teleporting to the spirit folk’s village and then teleport Gouki’s group from there to the Galarc Kingdom. Ouphia takes out from her time-space cache, the teleportation crystal she borrowed from Rio and activates it. Just before the teleportation, Ouphia sees a myriad of countless black things flying towards Galarc’s capital. The teleportation activates, and what Ouphia sees now is just the spring near the spirit folk’s village. Ouphia wonders about what those black things were and begins to fly hurriedly towards the village spurred by a bad feeling.

Almost at the same time, Celia’s father, the Earl Roland Claire, was visiting Bertram’s royal castle after being called there by the Duke Helmut Arbor. Roland asks the reason for calling him, and Helmut tells him that soon there will be a meeting with Restoration at Galarc’s castle and that he wants him to participate too. Roland asks why him, feigning confusion, and Helmut says that Roland’s face will be useful with the people from the other side. Roland feigns ignorance while shrugging his shoulders, and Helmut says that it seems Celia will be present too. Roland says he is greatly shocked by that too, and feigns ignorance again, sighing with melancholy. Helmut says, while frowning at Roland’s act, that someone in contact with them confirmed that there’s no mistake on her being the one with Restoration. Roland says that Celia really seems to belong to Restoration, and he doesn’t have any objection to that. Helmut says to Roland, looking suspiciously at him, that he should know already why he wants him to participate.

Roland says he doesn’t think he could be useful going there and asks Helmut if he’s fine with him just being there for adding to the numbers. Helmut says he is, but Roland doesn’t believe him, but he can’t ask further either. Roland decides to participate in the reunion because that way he may be able of understand better what is happening around him. Roland says to Helmut he doesn’t have a reason to refuse then. Helmut says that it is decided then, and he tell Roland to keep his schedule open until the date of the meeting is decided and that he will leave with that. Helmut tries to act self-important in front of Roland for pissing him off and leaves sulking after Roland ignores him.

Roland, now alone, begins to think about Helmut’s situation. Roland thinks what Helmut must fear the most right now is the factions different from his gaining influence in the capital. Roland thinks the Arbor faction was certainly weakened after Celia’s kidnapping and Christina’s escape, but at the same time the situation won’t change if there isn’t anyone who can match Helmut’s influence. There isn’t any such person now, and until such a person appears the things won’t change, and this way nobody will consider leaving Helmut’s side to be worth the risk. Roland thinks Helmut must be impatient, due to Charles being a hostage, that he’s even willing to have him in the meeting. Roland thinks being in the reunion will be good for him too, that he will take the chance to learn the situation better in a lot of ways, and he may be also able to meet with Celia again. Roland smiles softly remembering about Celia, he wonders if she’s doing fine, he makes a lonely face, then a melancholic one and…

Roland thinks as long as Christina is in charge, Celia should be fine, and as long as Rio is nearby, he will protect her. When thinking about Rio he remembers how worried he was after Celia’s kidnapping, and the relief after he met Celia again. How close Celia and Rio seemed to be with each other and then he enters in his stupid father mode, ”Kuu, as expected Celia-chan likes him”. Roland thinks he wants to support Celia’s love, but at the same time he feels complicated as a father,” Could it be that somewhere out of my sight they already… I won’t forgive it… I won’t forgive it… if it is after giving my consent and the wedding… but is it possible to have a wedding in this situation...? No, even if they get married to put his hands on her… but I want to see my grandchild’s appearance gununu…”. Roland’s thoughts are in chaos but he knows just one thing for sure,” No matter what if you ever make Celia-chan cry I won’t forgive you”,” Should I throw at him the family’s secret magic, if he makes her cry anyhow?”. Roland was like this without knowing that right now the devil’s hand was getting close to his beloved daughter.

### **Chapter 2: Surprise attack.**

A little before Ouphia’s teleportation, visitors arrive to Rio’s mansion - Christina and Flora, Charlotte who guided the two, and their guards who were waiting outside the room. Celia welcomes Christina and Flora. Christina says that it’s been a while and Flora says she’s happy of meeting Celia again. Celia says she’s also happy of seeing the two again, and Christina apologizes for the sudden visit. Celia says that unfortunately Rio is absent at the moment but…, Christina tells Celia that despite wanting to talk with Rio her business today is with only Celia. Celia asks her what she means, and Christina explains to Celia about the decision of Restoration and the Arbor faction of having a meeting at Galarc’s castle. Christina explains that after Celia’s wedding, Charles’ and Alfred’s capture and her incorporation to Restoration, the duke Arbor can’t ignore them any longer, and he seems to be getting impatient, since the offer of negotiating came from him. Celia asks if the Arbor’s house influence is finally decreasing, Christina says it looks like that, also she can’t let go of her chance of taking that influence back from him.

Christina also explains that they haven't decided all the points to be discussed yet, but that for the time being the duke Arbor has asked for Charles’ and Alfred’s release and the return of Alfred’s sword. Celia says that those two are powerful negotiation cards. Christina agrees and says that all of it is thanks to Rio, that she wanted to thank him again for that but that it looks like the situation has got quite terrible with the matter of rescuing Liselotte. Christina makes a worried face thinking about Liselotte, and Charlotte says resolutely that Rio will absolutely bring back Liselotte without any fail. Celia agrees strongly with Charlotte, and after Celia, Christina and Flora agree to it being possible if Rio is on it. Celia tells the sisters that she doesn’t know when Rio will be back but that she will inform them at that time. Christina says she will visit again when Rio and Liselotte returns, and that she will stay at Galarc’s castle for the time being. Celia asks if it is like that, Christina says she will stay until the meeting with the Arbor faction is held. Charlotte says that if it is like that it may be a good idea to prepare a place for them at the mansion when Rio arrives with Liselotte, that the two are invited.

Flora says quickly and happily that it seems fun and to please count her in. Christina scolds Flora exasperatedly for accepting too easily the invitation to a foreign noble’s mansion. Flora gets embarrassed after acting improperly and changes her words to if it isn’t a bother with flushed cheeks. Celia says that for a meal or a sleep-over they won’t be a bother, and to please not hold back. Charlotte agrees with Celia, she says she’s already half-living there thanks to the girl's kindness and tell the sisters to also please join. Right now, as an extra to Satsuki, Charlotte was admitted inside Rio’s mansion, for the moment, and also at the same time that she’s also Rio’s and the girls’ link with François. Charlotte is also managing the troublesome task of dealing with all of the nobles trying to make a connection with Rio, every time that anyone needs to do anything Charlotte will quickly arrange everything, taking care that way of the work in the unseen places the rest of the girls accepted her in the mansion, Charlotte also even has her own room now.

Christina thanks Charlotte for the invitation and says she will be in her care. Charlotte says that it is decided then, she says that Miharu and the rest of the girls will be happy too, that they said that they wanted to see the sisters again. Charlotte asks the two if she must call the rest of the girls there if they have free time after speaking with Celia, Christina says she wants to greet them too if they have time because she will end her talk with Celia soon, Celia asks Christina what else she wants to tell, Christina asks Celia if she would like to participate in the meeting with the Arbor faction, Celia doesn’t understand why also her, Christina says that in exchange of releasing Charles she plans to put some conditions as to how Celia’s family will be treated in the future, Celia asks why, Christina says that even if it wasn’t made public yet the Arbor faction must know already that Celia belongs to Restoration now, that her father was already put on a tight spot at the moment of her escape, that because right now they still have Charles with them they can’t do anything to Celia’s father, that it’s clear to see that the Clair family is in a troublesome situation, Christina tells Celia to please think of this as her way of making up for that, Celia thanks Christina for her consideration with her family, Christina says she’s still thinking about what kind of conditions to put.

Before Celia can answer a great boom is heard and the room trembles slightly, Celia asks what it was, she wonders if it was some magic training, the four girls look worriedly through the window trying to know what happened, meanwhile the noises continue, their source seems to be very disperse, Charlotte says those noises are to strong for coming from the training grounds, that some of them seemed to be close and inside the castle, suddenly the door opens and Louise and Vanessa enter looking rugged, Charlotte asks Louise if she knows what is happening, Louise says she doesn’t, that she doesn’t know of anything capable of making this noise, that she thought it could be a magic training but that the noise was too close for that, Louise says she saw something black falling from the sky through the window and ordered her subordinates to investigate it, that they should be back when they understood what is happening, Charlotte asks her if they must stay in standby in the mansion, Louise says everyone should go to the safe room just in case, Charlotte says she understands and tells Louise to meet with the rest of the girls first.

At the same time that Charlotte says that the rest of the girls enter the room with Satsuki leading them, all of them looking anxious maybe due to hearing the noises too, Sara and Alma even have their weapons on, Charlotte asks Satsuki if she wants to asks about the noises, Satsuki says yes and says that she got surprised because it was a big noise that normally she doesn’t hear, Charlotte says they don’t understand either what is happening, that they decided to wait in a safe room until her guards find out what is happening, Satsuki says she understands and then a guard hurriedly enters the rooms saying there’s a pack of monster-like things attacking the castle, Louise tells her subordinate to calm down and explain herself, Louise asks if the monsters aren’t goblins or orcs, the guard says she never saw those monsters, she describes the monsters as humanoids, with skin gray or black, very fast and fierce, when Miharu hears the description she makes a ”EH...?” face and Satsuki realizes it, Louise asks the guard about the number and the quantity of monsters, the guard says she didn’t investigate that much because she prioritized coming back to the mansion but that it seems the battles are occurring everywhere inside the castle.

Louise doesn’t notice Miharu’s reaction and instead of the flustered guard Satsuki asks her what is the matter, Miharu explains about the time Reis’ revenant attacked her near Amande and that she wondered if it was the same monster, Celia says she saw those monsters at Amande too and tells Satsuki that they’re strong enough for a knight to not be able of winning without using body strengthening, Flora says she saw them too at that time, Louise says that the chances of the monster outside being the same things seems high, she says the knights on guard should be able of defeating them and tells everyone to go quickly to the safe room, Charlotte agrees and tells the girls to go, Sara tells everyone she and Alma will go help the knights fighting outside the mansion, Louise hesitates to accept due to their condition of guests, Sara tells that protecting the rest in Rio’s absence is hers and Alma’s duty and that it will be easier for them if they know the situation outside instead of not knowing anything locked anywhere, Alma says it isn’t necessary to worry about her and Sara, Satsuki tries to tell she wants to fight too but she can’t when her doubts about how much the inexperienced her could do or the fear to be a hindrance stop her, Charlotte notices Satsuki’s feelings and tells Sara and Alma she will depend on them since the two are the strongest there then she urges Louise to end the talk touching her back.

Sara tells Latifa to stay with Miharu and Satsuki and to be ready, that in the worst case she will have to protect Miharu and Celia, Latifa tells to let it her, Celia tells Sara and Alma she will go with the two, everyone is surprised, Celia says it would be good if someone can confirm if they’re fighting the same monsters that appeared at Amande, that someone capable of healing may be needed and that she can give support from behind with her magic, that she took battle training with Alma and Sara for situations like these one, Charlotte says that it would be thankful to have information about the monsters and that if a mage of Celia’s level fights it will be very helpful, but that she doesn’t think she has any need of forcing herself to go, Celia says that it is precisely now that Rio isn’t present she wants to do what she can do, Sara says it will be reassuring to have Celia’s backing, Charlotte says that then it may be boorish to stop her and looks at Christina asking for her opinion, Christina says she lets it to Celia’s will, Celia thanks Christina for letting her do it and tells Sara and Alma she will be in their care, Sara and Alma nod to Celia, Louise tells Vanessa she will let to her group and two of her subordinates the protection of the safe room, Vanessa agrees, Louise guides everyone to the safe room and then the people who won’t leave separates from the ones who will.

At the same time, just several moments ago Reis was watching Rio fighting against Erika but thanks to the teleportation crystal he’s already at Galarc’s capital, right now Reis is looking at the battle between the knights and the revenants from the sky, Reis thinks it would be thankful if anyone important gets done in after having to use up his important revenants and magic stones from the beginning then he looks surprised at Sara, Alma and Celia joining the fight, Reis thinks it is troublesome that they are there because they’re tough, Reis thinks this time he won’t let anything to luck, Reis’ shadow expands and five black spheres several meters wide appear, Reis lets the spheres fall towards Rio’s mansion, after making sure they landed in their place Reis thinks now he run out of revenants but he fears they won’t last long as Sara’s and Alma’s opponents, that it is already time for bringing that people too, Reis takes out another teleport crystal smiling coldly and flew higher in the sky.

Sara climbs up the mansion’s wall for confirming the situation around it, after looking around Sara climbs down the wall and tells Alma, Celia and Louise’s group that there isn’t any monster coming to the mansion at the moment but that there are fights everywhere else, Louise thanks Sara for the information and tells everyone they will do protecting the mansion their priority, Sara says she understands and that she will continue keeping an eye on the battle outside, Alma says she will do it too but when the two were going to climb up the wall again the spheres thrown by Reis fall near the mansion, the shockwave of the fall rises a lot of dust and blinds the girls, meanwhile the spheres’ surfaces crack and open, then twelve revenants come out of each one, the sixty revenants run towards Celia, Sara, Alma, Louise and her six subordinates, Sara tells everyone that she and Alma will be the vanguard, Alma tells Louise and her six subordinates to protect Celia in the rearguard, both Sara and Alma run towards the revenants, Celia puts her hands on the ground and creates two earth walls ten meters high, five meter wide and one meter thick separated by just a meter in the revenant’s way to Sara, Alma so they can’t gang on the two, Sara tells Celia to take care of the ones that passes through the space between the walls and Alma to get the ones that come from the right side while she goes to the left side.

Celia bombards the revenants coming through the gap between the walls with fire balls, Sara shoots ice spears from her daggers to the revenants and Alma hits several of them at a time with a swing of her mace, Celia tells Sara and Alma, the revenants are the monsters she saw at Amande, she warms the two about their skins’ hardness, their vitality and the black ones being stronger and faster, at the same time some of the revenants hit by the fireballs try to stand up again slowly despite having body parts melted, the revenants who didn’t take Alma’s hit directly recover too, the revenants whose abdomens were pierced by ice spears are struggling for taking they out, Sara covers the blades of her daggers with a long and sharp edge of cold air and agrees with Celia’s warming while decapitating the revenants, Alma’s mace seems to be able of killing the revenants as longs as she hits their torsos cleanly so she continues swinging her mace at them while calling them troublesome, the blown away revenants explode and die, Celia launches the next volley of fireballs to the revenants and finally kills the burnt revenants, Louise and her subordinates look at the three wordlessly and impressed at the three’s cooperation, especially at Celia’s magic and tactical decisions.

Louise gets out of her daze and tells her subordinates to be careful about hindering Celia’s magic and to not let go of any monster that tries to enter the mansion, Celia creates thirty six ice spears above her and begins to fire them at the revenants, the knight women lose their words again, Celia takes a deep breath for keeping the nerves away, she focuses on observing the battle so the enemy doesn’t take the initiative away from her, near Celia Louise says that the people surrounding Rio incredible, Celia, Sara and Alma keep defeating the revenants at a steady pace and begin to believe that like that they should be done in just several more minutes.

The safe room inside Rio’s mansion, Miharu, Satsuki, Latifa, Christina, Flora and Charlotte are sitting there, Vanessa, her subordinates and two of Luise’s knights are protecting the only entrance to the windowless room, the six inside were informed about the begin of the battle outside, the noise of Celia’s magic and the screams of the revenants as they’re hit by it can be heard there too, Satsuki is worried about the ones fighting outside, she wonders if it is fine for her to wait in a safe place without fighting despite being hero, despite being older than Sara and Alma, despite how week Celia’s body is, despite finally have gotten along with Louise and the knights, she remembers when she wasn’t able of telling them she would go outside too, she thought it would be better to stay with Miharu instead, but maybe it was because it was scary, during her training with the rest of the girls she wasn’t able of ridding herself of the idea of simply being practicing some sport, she wasn’t able of preparing for a battle at all, maybe she got away on purpose from thinking about everyone else currently training because maybe someday a battle would occur despite already understanding it.

But now besides being made conscious of the possible fight with her life on it Satsuki thinks about her fighting too being fine or not, she thinks she won’t have a face to show to her friends who fought outside after the battle when she stayed in a safe place despite being a hero and having the power to fight, she thinks she’s disqualified as a hero, Miharu that was worried about Satsuki’s hard expression asks if she is fine, when Satsuki was just about to explain her feelings Charlotte interrupts her saying that her face looks like she’s just to say she will leave and fight too showing she didn’t like it, a little after that the noise of the battle stopped.

The castle’s roof, in the garden normally reserved just for the royalty, François is observing the battle from a temporary command post set there surrounded by griffin-riding knights in charge of protecting him and survey the battle, François asks the knights around him to report the things they found out about what’s happening, a knight tells François there is just a type of monster and that they are difficult to beat even after using body strengthening, another one reports the monsters seem to number several hundreds, another one tells the majority of the monsters are in combat with the knights outside the castle, that the few ones that managed to enter the castle were already subjugated but just in case personnel was sent to explore the castle in the search of more monsters, François nods to the reports and moves the knights in accord to them, in the middle of that he hears a big noise and asks what it is, a knight tells François about the monsters in Rio’s garden, François hurriedly orders a squad of griffon-riding knights to go to Rio’s mansion for protecting everyone there, he tells them too to do as Charlotte instructs after that.

François wonders about what is happening while watching the knights preparing to move, he thinks about the strangeness of the monsters’ way of moving at Amande and on this attack, he wonders if the black spheres are any kind of magic tool for sealing the monsters, if that is the case François thinks this assault has to be anyone’s plan, that those black spheres were thrown with a goal in mind, François wonders if the spheres were dropped from anywhere so high it isn’t on sight, if there’s anything hidden in the clouds or if they were somehow catapulted to the castle, François thinks the lack of evidence of what was done is really disadvantageous, after thinking for a little François decides to move to anywhere with sights to Rio’s mansion for finding out what is happening.

Two or three minutes after that, Celia, Sara and Alma are almost done with the revenants, from the initial sixty there are less than ten remaining now, when they can’t see more revenants and after confirming that there isn’t any of them hiding behind the earth walls Sara and Alma walk towards Celia and Louise’s group, Louise apologizes with Celia, Sara and Alma for just watching, Sara says that it isn’t like that, that she could fight without worries because her back was protected, Celia tells Louise she could use her magic without worries because she was there and calls out to Alma, Alma asks what it is, Celia asks Alma if she can remove the earth walls with the power of her mace, Alma agrees and goes to remove them, Sara says she will keep an eye on their surroundings from the mansion’s roof.

Sara sees a group of eight knights riding griffins approaching the mansion and tells it to the rest, Louise says they look like reinforcements and tells one of her subordinates to go inform Charlotte about the situation, Sara says there’s another very numerous group coming from very higher up in the sky than the rest of the knights, she asks Louise if they are allies too, Sara looks suspiciously at the second group of griffon riders that flies at a height of hundreds of meters while the knights just fly at some tens of meter high, Louise says it is certainly suspicious, the second group has fifty griffon riders with them, the equivalent to several of their squads, she wonders about why a quantity so big of troops is coming their way and uses strengthening magic for having a better look, Louise then sees that the second group wears uniforms different from the Galarc Kingdom’s and its members are preparing for shooting magic at them, Louise hurriedly warns everyone about the new enemies, Sara tells Alma hurriedly and flusteredly to take care of the defense while light bullets begin to rain over them.

### **Chapter 3: The Heavenly Lions squad.**

Two hundred meters high, right now the fifty members of the heavenly lions are raining light bullets on Celia, Sara, Alma and Galarc’s griffon-riding knights, every light bullet is just several centimeters wide but it is still like having a stone with a weight a little less than a kilogram coming at you at three hundred kilometers per hour, Sara and Alma creates big magic barriers over their heads, Sara for protecting the mansion and Alma for protecting Celia and Louise’s group, Sara and Alma manage somehow but the griffon-riding knights take the attack unaware and defenselessly, Sara and Alma look frustrated at their appearances free falling from the sky heavily wounded, Arein is annoyed because just as Reis predicted the girls were able of defending against the first attack, Arein tells Lucci to take care of the people outside with his squad and Ven to go inside the mansion with his while he himself and his squad keep the reinforcements away from the mansion, everyone nods to Arein’s orders, Rucci goes towards Celia’s group with another eleven men, Ven goes towards the mansion with another seven men, Arein and the remaining twenty nine men continue shooting light bullets from the sky at Sara and the knights outside the mansion’s walls, Sara thinks the mercenaries’ target maybe the princesses inside and decides to follow Ven’s group, she tells Celia and Alma she lets the outside to them while she goes inside, when the quantity of people shooting at her decreases a little Sara counterattacks shooting ice spears, when the mercenaries stop the bombardment for dodging Sara enters the mansion through a window.

Celia looks with frustration at Lucci’s squad using her earth wall as a cover against her magic while they land on the ground, Celia shoots four big balls of light at the same time at the walls, then uses another spell for rising their power, the balls of light hit the earth walls and a big explosion occurs, Celia’s magic breaks the walls in a way that makes their fragments fall on the mercenaries for burying them alive, immediately after that a torrent of darkness and a strong wind come out from below the rubble and sends it flying everywhere, Alma makes another barrier for defending everyone from the wind and the flying rubble, beyond that Lucci is laughing loudly and screaming that Lucius’ sword is incredible, Celia tells Alma she will clear the smoke and dust so they can see their enemies and clears the dust with wind magic, Lucci erases Celia’s magic with another mass of darkness and now him and his eleven men are visible for Celia. Alma and Louise’s group, Louise orders her subordinates to use strengthening magic and to prepare to fight, Celia tells Alma she will keep the barrier up instead of her from now and creates a barrier, Alma undoes her barrier and stand in the way of Lucci’s group, they stand with their weapons and stances ready too.

Everyone continue to look tensely at the other side while Lucci is still laughing, Alma asks Celia if she realized it, Celia asks what, Alma tells Celia that Lucci is one of the men who attacked them at the end of the trip to Rodania, Lucci tells Alma she finally realized, that he even wore the uniform of the mercenary squad so they can recognise them, Lucci tells Alma to continue where they let it the other time, one of the men next to Lucci asks him if Alma and Celia are the targets, Lucci confirms it, he tells his companions to aim at Celia, that he will let the weaklings around her to them too while he fights Alma because she is too strong for the likes of them, the man tells Lucci to not get carried away because he got Lucius’ sword, the rest of them look annoyedly at Lucci and the sword too, Lucci says in a good mood that he was the only compatible one, the man clicks his tongue and tells Lucci to not forget that the moment they get one hostage no matter who the mission will be complete, Lucci asks his companion for the sake of what he came to this place, Lucci was going to say that he came for making pay the bastard that killed Lucius but he changes his mind midway, he tells his companions he will be done for the time the enemy reinforcements arrive and to follow after him.

At the same time Celia and the rest talked briefly about her tactics too, Celia makes a hole in the front side of her dome shaped barrier for letting Alma outside, Louise and her knights line themselves there ready to intercept Lucci’s companions, Alma closes partially the whole in the barrier with an earth wall for shielding the people still inside the barrier, Lucci begins to run towards Alma, a little later his companions do the same, Alma realizes by their running speed that all of the enemies aren’t just strengthening their abilities with magic but their bodies too, she thinks it wasn’t a mistake to go with the tactic they chose, that if she lets the knights who can just strengthen their abilities with magic take the front line the enemies would have overwhelmed them, Lucci and Alma enter the other’s reach and swing their weapons at each other, Alma tries to push Lucci back with strength like the last time but she can’t, Alma is still superior in pure power but thanks to the power of Lucius’ sword Lucci can stand his ground now, while Alma is locking weapons with Lucci his companions catch up to him.

The two men at Lucci’s sides try to cut Alma when they pass by him, Lucci screams at them that Alma is his prey, Alma backsteps and hits the ground with her mace blowing back Lucci and his companions with the shockwave, Lucci recovers and tries to enter Alma’s reach again, Alma sends her magic power to the ground through her mace like crouching, she creates rows of earth spears in Lucci’s direction, Luccis erases them with a mass of darkness then he swings his sword at Alma but she blocks it with her mace, while locking weapons Lucci repeats to his companions that Alma is his prey and tells them to attack the others in the meantime, Lucci’s companions are annoyed but prioritize the mission and go past Lucci, Louise and her knights begin to shoot magic at them when they appear at Lucci’s sides, the magic stops their advance but it doesn’t hit them because the enemies are fast enough for getting out of the magic’s way.

At the same time Alma and Lucci continue to exchange’s attacks, thanks to the power of Lucius’s sword the different in strength between Lucci and Alma is small now, Alma is still on top but Luccis is too superior in speed, skill and experience, Alma is frustrated because she isn’t able of keeping all the enemies at bay, Lucci tells her that her tactic of strengthening their defenses won’t last long and point at his companions firing magic back at the knights, while dodging the magic shot at them, the mercenaries shoot their magic at the hole in the barrier, now the knights can just shoot their magic without risking their heads over the earth wall, they can’t shoot as much magic anymore or as accurately as before, while a part of the mercenaries keeps shooting magic another one surrounds the barrier for attacking it from behind, Celia looks nervously at the mercenaries hitting the back side of the barrier with their swords, she begins to worry about what will happen if she runs out of magic power, Celia tries to be optimist thinking about the magic power remaining in the spirit stone that Rio gave her and thinking reinforcements must be coming, when Alma sees Celia holding strongly that spirit stone she thinks she has no other option, Alma calls forth her contract spirit the giant lion Ifrit and makes it assault the mercenaries attacking the barrier.

A little before Ifrit’s appearance, François is looking impatiently at the battle in Rio’s mansion from his command post, the group in the garden being pushed back, a group of men entering Rio’s mansion and how the enemy griffon riders keep intercepting his reinforcements, François bites his lips with anger looking at all of that, the knights in the ground are still fighting against the revenants, because of that he already ordered to send more griffon-riding knights to Rio’s mansion, there are one hundred griffon-riding knights on their way to Rio’s mansion, right now they are still fighting against Arein’s thirty men group the other twenty griffin without riders that decided to help their companions in the sky and from higher in the sky someone is raining light bullets on his knights, a knight tells François that the assailants must be the Heavenly Lions squad going by the crest in the uniforms they are wearing, François groans worriedly about what kind of intentions the assailants have when attacking Rio’s, their captain’s murderer, mansion that also has inside the Christina and Flora that Lucius kidnapped recently.

A little after Ven’s squad entered Rio’s mansion, while the enemies are still looking through the rest of the mansion Sara goes directly to the window of the room next to the safe room where the rest of the girls are waiting, Sara knocks on the window for not being confused by an enemy and asks the knights inside to let her in, a knights hurriedly lets her in, Sara sees Satsuki with her divine spear, Latifa with her daggers and Vanessa guarding the safe room’s entrance, Sara silence the three putting a finger on her lips and opens the door, Satsuki sees the battle through the window and calls out to Sara with a low and worried voice when she understands what is happening, Miharu, Christina, Flora and Charlotte get close to the open door for listening to Sara, Sara tells everyone the enemy entered the mansion and that they aren’t monsters but humans, Satsuki asks Sara what will she do with an anxious face after knowing the enemies are human, everyone else is nervous too, Sara says she will defeat them with a face full of doubts.

Sara tells everyone to stay locked in the room and to strengthen their defenses while she takes care of the enemies and turns towards the room’s door, Satsuki says she will go too, Sara tells Satsuki that her spear isn’t a good weapon for fighting in the corridors where she can’t swing it around, Sara tells her to fight in the room where they’re now if she has to do it and that if any of the eight enemies she confirmed arrive it will be in her hands, Satsuki says anxiously she understands, the two of Louise’s subordinates who stayed behind tell Sara to let them go with her so the enemies can’t pincer-attack her when she leaves the corridor, Sara agrees, Sara tells Latifa to stay with Satsuki and be the last line of defense along her, Latifa nods rigidly, Sara tells everyone to close the door after she leaves with the two knights, to stay away from it and to be careful about the window too, Sara and the two knights leave the room after nodding to each other.

Sara and the two knights are at the end of the passage that leads to the drawing room they have just left, when Sara tells the two knights to protect the corridor after she separates from them a group of two mercenaries appears and begins to call for their other companions who must be searching through other parts of the mansion, Sara tells the two knights to guard the corridor while she fights, Sara runs towards the mercenaries, one of them warns the other to be careful of Sara, the other thinks it will be interesting to fight a sword that controls water, Sara thinks if they already know about her she doesn’t need to hide her skills, Sara swings horizontally one of her daggers and shoots a slash of water at the two mercenaries but the two dodge it, one of the mercenaries tries to hit Sara’s legs with the plain part of his sword, Sara jumps for dodging it and then the other mercenary tries to hit her body with the plain part of his sword too when Sara should be defenseless in the air, Sara steps on a small barrier she made in the air and doges with a backflip, then she shoots another two slashes to the surprised mercenaries, one of water and one of ice, they receive them with their swords.

Both Sara and the mercenaries step back and fix their stances, the men talk among themselves about the two new skills that Sara used that they weren’t told about, Sara begins to think the mercenaries could be the companions of the men who attacked them in their way to Rodania when she remembers about Lucci that is fighting Alma, Sara hurriedly warns the knights behind her about all the enemies maybe having magic swords strengthening them and tells the two to fight using magic from a distance, the two knights nod to Sara’s warning. Meanwhile Ven and the other five mercenaries observe Sara’s battle hiding in a nearby corridor, Ven tells two of his five companions to support the two fighting Sara while he and the other three take a detour, the two new mercenaries enter the fight screaming loudly for taking Sara’s attention away from Ven and the other three that were leaving the mansion.

Outside the mansion the battle rages more and more thanks to Ifrit’s appearance, Ifrit blows away a mercenary with a body blow, goes after him and lets it unconscious with a hit of his foreleg in the stomach, the mercenaries decide to let the barrier alone and to focus on Ifrit for the time being, Louise’s group wonder what Ifrit is too and are scared of it attacking them after it is done with the mercenaries, Celia looks worriedly at Alma who needed to reveal Ifrit’s existence, she remembers the village’s orders of keeping the spirits’ existence a secret unless in front of trustable people and only if you don’t have any other option, because one thousand years ago the spirits gave up on humanity and decided to left the Stralh region alongside the spirit folk because the humans were using forbidden techniques for enslaving them too, the village’s records also tell that there was an ancient magic that used spirits as its source of power but that it is lost now.

Lucci clicks his tongue and asks Alma while they lock weapons if she summoned that monster, Alma doesn’t answer, Luccis doesn’t mind it, he says it must her pet no matter how you look it if it appears in this situation and begins to attack them, that he will take care of it soon, Alma asks if he thinks she will allow it, Alma swings her mace with all of her strength and blows Lucci back, Lucci softens the impact jumping back but Alma follows after him, Lucci clicks his tongue and makes darkness overflow from his sword, Alma clads his mace in light in answer to that darkness but Lucci’s attack is stronger and pushes her back, Luccis says he wanted to get Alma alive if possible but that he has no option, Alma is suspicious of that, Lucci tells Alma he can’t control well his sword’s abilities because he hasn’t had it for long yet, Alma asks what he is saying, Alma feels a weird magic power around her stomach but made the mistake of looking at it because she thought it was weird instead of dodging, then Alma felt heat and looked down, she saw Lucci’s sword that stabbed her from behind protruding from her stomach, Lucci kicks Alma’s body from the front for making the stab deeper, Lucci apologizes to Alma saying it was his bad without any feeling on it after her scream of pain, then the sword stabbing Alma disappears and she falls to the ground, Lucci says is good he didn’t pierced the heart but that stopping the bleeding it is a bother, then he lets Alma alone, Celia calls out to Alma with worry, Ifrit lets the mercenaries alone and goes to attack Lucci while letting out angered screams, Lucci tells his companions to keep attacking the barrier while he deals with Ifrit, meanwhile Alma begins to heal herself with spirit arts.

At the same time, in the mansion, Ven’s group managed to reach unnoticed the window of the room next to the safe room, one of the mercenaries peeps through the window and confirms Miharu’s and Satsuki’s appearance talking carelessly, he tells with hand signals to his companions that they got the right place, after assigning themselves roles they begin the invasion, one of the mercenaries makes a magic barrier that expands towards the front break the window at the same time he jumps inside, Latifa hidden on the ceiling above the window makes the mercenary unconscious shooting light bullets at him from behind, it seems the mercenaries were ready for that as it didn’t surprised then, one of the men outside shoots light bullets at the wall above the window for taking out Latifa but she gets away from the wall, Satsuki immediately tells Miharu to go back inside the safe room, her role of being there for making the enemy misunderstand that they were unaware of them over, Ven orders the next men to enter the room, Satsuki blows him away with a mass of wind but Ven and the other man are still coming from behind him, Latifa attacks Ven’s companion with her daggers, the mercenary stops the first attack and dodges the next swings, Latifa separates a little from the mercenary and stands in front him holding her daggers with slightly trembling hands, the mercenary understands from it that Latifa lacks experience with killing or is disgusting for her.

Ven tell his companion to not let his guard down because Latifa seems stronger than the knights outside while standing in front of Satsuki, the mercenary says he understands and asks who is the target, Ven says that anyone inside the room in the back is fine, he tells his companion they will eliminate Latifa and Satsuki because they look like they will be a hindrance, the mercenary agrees, Satsuki gets angry at Ven’s words, swings her spear at him and sends him flying outside of the mansion, Ven’s companion is surprised and asks him if he’s fine, Ven stands again despite taking some damage thanks to receiving the blow with his sword and tells his companion he’s fine, Satsuki tells the other man to quickly get out too and attacks him, the mercenary runs away through the window, Satsuki says she won’t let him escape and goes after him, Latifa says Satsuki is incredible in a daze, when she finally comes back from it she leaves through the window too for looking at the situation outside, then she sees Ifrit attacking Lucci and Louise running while holding Alma in her arms.

High in the sky, Reis is supporting Arein’s group shooting light bullets at the griffon-riding knights, aiming accurately is hard due to the long distance but it is enough for keeping them away, when seeing Ifrit fighting against Lucci Reis begins to think Sara, Ouphia and Alma must be the demi-humans living in the wilderness, he’s surprised of seeing another spirit aside from Aerial that they already used for surveillance during the trip to Rodania, Reis thinks it was the right thing to give Lucius’ sword to Lucci, that it has a good compatibility with the spirits, that it won’t fall behind even against a mid-level spirit but that it looks like it will take a while, he looks for Sara’s and Ouphia’s appearances, he wonders witch of the two is Aerial’s contractor if Alma is Ifrit’s, Reis think if two of the three have a contract with a spirit the third having it too won’t be surprising, Reis thinks if Aerial comes out too he can deal with it but that it may be troublesome if a third mid-level spirit appears on the ground, Reis thinks the mercenaries should be able of dealing with the spirits if they fight together but that even without Rio and Aisia present the rest of the people around Rio aren’t weak and now to that he needs to add the power of the spirits, Reis sees Ven being blown away from the mansion despite having entered it before with three mercenaries and thinks he is struggling a lot, Reis feels Aerial’s presence outside the capital, he wonders why there, Reis takes off his gaze from Rio’s mansion, looks in the direction of a mountain range near the capital and sees Aerial flying towards the capital, Reis thinks he has no other option, that he will have to use too the hands that he can use, Reis stops the cover fire to Arein’s group and flies towards Aerial after ordering all of the revenants still alive to go towards Rio’s mansion with a move of his hand.

### **Chapter 4: Constant change.**

Ifrit is running around Celia’s barrier protecting it from the mercenaries, Lucci is running after him trying to kill it, he shoots slashes of darkness at Ifrit but it dodges them and attacks the mercenaries again, if Lucci tries to ignore Ifrit and attack the barrier it shoots its fire breath at him, Lucci then erases it with a mass of darkness, Lucci thinks that if it continues to be like this he will run out of magic power first, he wonders if Ifrit is aiming at that and what to do, he thinks he won’t be able of using the sword’s skills on him if he doesn’t stop its moves somehow, at the same time Celia looks worriedly at Alma wondering if she can’t help her somehow, Louise says she will help Alma, that if they are going to help her now that their enemies are in chaos is their only chance, Celia doubts, despite Ifrit’s rampage thanks to Lucci the rest of the mercenaries are freer to move than before, she thinks Louise maybe captured too despite the distance of just 15-20 meters between them and Alma, Louise says she wants to at least do this for the Alma and Celia that fought so hard until now, Celia agrees reluctantly, Louise tells her subordinates to give cover fire while she brings Alma, Louise strengthens her body with magic and begins to run towards Alma.

Lucci realizes Louise’s aim and tries to shoot a mass of darkness at her but Ifrit’s fire breath stops him, Louise reaches Alma and picks her up, the rest of the mercenaries try to attack Louise but the knights keep them away with magic, Lucci decides to attack Louise and Alma himself hoping she will be able of taking out the Ifrit that will surely come to their help, Lucci closes the distance with Louise while cladding his sword in darkness and as he expected Ifrit gets in the way jumping at him, Lucci changes direction towards the Ifrit trying to kill him with a bite attack and shoots a mass of darkness at it, Celia calls out to Ifrit worriedly while Louise finally enters the barrier with Alma, Alma loses consciousness after saying to Celia that Ifrit should be fine for calming her down.

Satsuki asks screaming at the mercenaries why are they doing this and screams at them angrily to stop fucking around, the mercenaries laugh at Satsuki’s anger, Ven tells Satsuki they came to take hostages in revenge against Rio who killed their captain, Satsuki screams at him that it was Lucius who did the bad things first killing Rio’s parents and kidnapping Christina and Flora, Ven says he doesn’t care about it, that it they get done in they will kill back, that if she doesn’t want to get done in to not do anything back even if she gets killed, that it is just a matter of that, Satsuki asks Ven how she can think in such a horrible way, Ven says that Rio is the same, that he’s someone who kills back too after he got something taken away, Satsuki tells Rio is absolutely different from them, Ven says he isn’t, Satsuki says that Rio is someone who was even willing to give up his happiness for protecting his important people, that he’s different from them, Ven tells Satsuki to not joke about Rio giving up his happiness when he lives in a mansion surrounded by women, that he’s properly being happy, that he won’t allow that, that looking at them he wants to mess up his life even more, Satsuki says there isn’t a way she allow that, Ven tells her that she can just kill them all if she wants to protect that happiness but that he doesn’t know if the she who tells those naive things will can, he asks Satsuki if she thinks she will be able of obtaining happiness like that.

Satsuki’s anger reached her peak, she holds her spear tighter than before with an expressionless face, Latifa stands next to Satsuki and says she will fight too, behind the two Charlotte says it is time already for them to get their part too, Satsuki looks back and sees Charlotte, Miharu, Christina, Flora and Vanessa lined up there, she asks why they came, Charlotte tells Satsuki that coming there is one half her woman’ resolve and half a joke, that as a princess is a disgrace to let be forever vulgar fellows like them so she came out and smiles widely, Ven tells Charlotte is a kid with a sharp tongue despite the cute face, he asks her if it is fine to come herself in front of the enemy who came to make her a hostage, he asks the same to Christina and Flora, Charlotte asks Ven if there’s any reason for fearing the coward lowlifes who can’t stand in front of Rio without taking hostages, Ven frowns angrily when he has his weak spot rubbed, Charlotte says she doesn’t know how they know it but that she’s sure that they attacked knowing that Rio wouldn’t be present, she says that as expected of a first class mercenary squad for them to not fear a big country, but that put the other way it means that they are that much scared of Rio, Charlotte asks Satsuki with a seductive smile if that means that they have some good eyes despite being lowlifes.

Satsuki tells Charlotte to not ask that to her, but she agrees with her, Satsuki says they’re being quite underestimated for them to think it is easier to fight everyone in the castle than fighting Rio alone, Satsuki recovers her smile a little thanks to Charlotte, Charlotte says that it is like that so they have to show them that if they want to kidnap them they will have to try first, Luccis stands next to Ven and asks him if that isn’t interesting, Ven tells Lucci that he is assigned to outside the mansion hinting he must take care of his own targets, Lucci tells they are outside the mansion, that all off the easy to kidnap looking targets came out themselves, that they have to close they cheeky mouths and that for taking care of Celia the rest are enough.

Satsuki asks the rest of the girls what will they do now, that they acted tough but the only ones who can move and fight are her, Latifa and Vanessa, that she can’t protect them if the enemy pushes them back, Satsuki asks Charlotte if it was fine to bring Christina and Flora too, Christina says that she owes Rio a big one, that those men were the ones who kidnapped her and Flora, that it is a royalty’s duty to fight in the emergencies, that she will fight even if she doesn’t have much power, Flora says she will work hard for Rio’s sake, Christina tells Satsuki to not worry about them while Flora stands next her full of motivation, Charlotte tells Satsuki to be at ease because Miharu and Latifa seem to have a plan, Satsuki looks anxiously at Miharu because she can’t imagine her fighting against someone, Miharu tells Satsuki to let it to her a little nervously but with resolve too.

Latifa tells everyone to begin the fight after her signal and Miharu takes action, that she and Satsuki will be the vanguard and the rest will give cover fire to them from the rear guard and asks the rest if they can hide behind a barrier if the enemies get close, all of the girls tell Latifa they agree to her strategy, then Latifa tell’s Hell, Sara’s spirit, to do it now, Hell appears behind Miharu, the surprise of seeing it paralyzes Lucci and Ven for a moment and Miharu uses that opening for riding on Hell’s back until Celia’s barrier and entering inside it, Celia asks Miharu what is happening, Miharu tells Celia she will make Ifrit to materialize again, Celia asks if she can do it, Miharu says she just needs to give the magic power needed for materializing with its wounds healed, Miharu calls out to Ifrit and tells it she will give him the magic power it needs and to go forth again, Ifrit makes a temporary contract with Miharu and appears again.

Hell and Ifrit begin to cooperate for defeating the mercenaries, one of the two gets their attention, when the mercenaries dodge its attacks the other appears and defeats then, the two spirits are changing between those roles constantly, they already defeated three mercenaries, from inside the barrier Celia tells the other about the skills of Lucci’s sword she saw until now like shooting masses of darkness, teleporting its blade and maybe more, when they hear Celia’s words Christina and Flora quickly identifies Lucci’s sword as the one used by Lucius, Christina hurriedly warns the rest about the sword, and the rest of its abilities, cutting the target from all directions from a distance, that it can teleport its blade to the target’s shadow and its user too and tells everyone to be wary of the shadows near them, everyone is scared of the teleportation skill and begin to look for shadows that Lucci could use, Lucci clicks his tongue looking at Celia and Christina after they share the information about his sword.

Celia wonders about why Lucci didn’t use more those abilities because he could have already kidnapped any of them if he had, Celia hurriedly makes a guess, she screams at the rest of the girls that he just used the sword’s abilities once for defeating Alma but that he hasn’t teleported even once yet, that he must be unable of using well the sword because it hasn’t been long since he got it because he never used the sword’s abilities despite having good chances for it, Lucci curses Celia in his mind, Latifa and Satsuki are a little relieved when they see that Celia’s guess must be right but that doesn’t last.

Several tens of revenants run inside Rio’s garden and begin to surround Hell and Ifrit, Satsuki asks nervously what they are, Celia hurriedly tells her that they’re the monsters attacking the castle and that she needs to aim at the heart or the head if she wants to kill them, Lucci thinks be it the monsters or Reis he can’t tell well what they’re but he’s thankful for the reinforcements, Lucci says laughing that fellow monsters should get along between them, Hell and Ifrit shoot their ice and fire breaths at the revenants but they keep moving despite taking the damage, Lucci tells Ven and another nine men to focus on getting the hostages now and the eleven run towards the girls, Satsuki tries to send them away creating a storm but she just defeats four of the eleven men, Louise makes her subordinates to get out of the barrier and capture the four men, Ven tells Lucci and the other five to keep going, before they reach Satsuki, Latifa and Vanessa Sara gets out of the window and stands in the way of a mercenary approaching the princesses, behind her the two knights that went with her came out too, Sara tells to the ones happy of her return that she took care of the men inside the mansion and apologizes for being late, Satsuki then realizes that Lucci isn’t in front of them anymore and asks the rest where he is.

Lucci teleports inside Celia’s barrier, Louise attacks him but a swing of Lucci’s sword sends her flying towards the barrier and collapses, Louise’s subordinate locks weapon with Lucci, before he defeats her too Miharu shoots a wind mass at him while apologizing, Lucci’s body hits the inside of the barrier, Celia undoes her barrier, begins to shoot light bullets at him and praises Miharu, Lucci screams angrily at Miharu while rolling in the ground for dodging the light bullets and gives a flying kick to Celia and the knight, when the knight stands up again Lucci lets her unconscious with a punch and put his foot on Celia’s back so she can’t stand, Lucci puts the tip of his sword in Miharu’s throat and threatens the rest of the girls with crushing Celia’s body if they move, Satsuki and Sara clench their teeth with frustration, Ven and his remaining five companions get away from them laughing mockingly, Lucci clicks his tongue after counting his defeated companions, Ven’s and his squad had twenty men but there are just seven safe now.

Lucci orders Louise’s subordinates to join the group next to the mansion and tells the girls to make disappear Ifrit and Hell that are still surrounded of revenants and have them clinging to their bodies, Satsuki screams fearsomely that that way the monster would be free to go anywhere else, Lucci tells he doesn’t mind, Ven tells him to stop and let Ifrit and Hell like that, Lucci asks why, Ven tells that Ifrit came back after being defeated once, that it would be troublesome if later they appear elsewhere so it is better to keep them in sight, Lucci agrees, Lucci then tells them to make Ifrit and Hell to stop resisting while they’re attacked, Sara trembles in anger, the rest has no other option that looking at Hell and Ifrit being attacked until they collapse, Lucci tells his companions go back because they have enough with Miharu and Celia, Satsuki tells him to wait, that they have their allies too, Lucci tells her to do as she pleases with them because they came after making their resolve, Satsuki asks why, she doesn’t understand it, she thinks it is too unreasonable to be even willing to forsake their comrades when they came for the sake of avenging one to begin with.

Lucci catches Celia’s body, throws her towards Ven and the rest of his companions and tells them to watch over her, after seeing Celia rolling in the ground Lucci looks at Miharu, Lucci tells Miharu that she’s pitiful, that because she get involved with Rio now they will take care of her and Celia until they regret to have met him, that if she’s going to hate someone to hate Rio, Miharu’s body trembles in front of Lucci’s disgusting smile and tries to keep her fear in check clenching her fists, Satsuki and Latifa tell Lucci to take them instead of Miharu and Celia, Sara and Flora offer themselves too, Ven calls Rio idiot for surrounding himself of so many that he can’t protect despite knowing there may be repressurizes, that if that happens that is his bad too if they’re kidnapped too, that he will teach them that plenty to feel free of telling it to Rio later, Satsuki frowns thinking it was precisely because of this that Rio tried to push Miharu away from him at the evening party, Satsuki makes a bitter face thinking at this rate things will be like he feared.

Miharu screams at Lucci that he’s wrong, that it was her who wanted to stay with Rio despite his attempt of pushing her away, that Rio did nothing wrong, Celia agrees, and stands slowly while saying that precisely because of that they have to send them away, for not being just luggage who Rio has to protect, Lucci tells they are seriously boring, he asks them what will they do, that the reality won’t change no matter how much they try to act brave, Ven tells to Lucci that it is enough, he tells Lucci to let the rest for after the kidnapping and to go back quickly because the load on Arein’s squad is big, Lucci says he understands and tells Ven he will put Miharu to sleep first because before she attacked him without chanting a spell and it will be a bother if she makes something while they move, Lucci removed his sword from Miharu’s throat and prepared for hitting her face with its plain side, Miharu closes her eyes when she sees the sword coming but what she hears is the sound of swords clashing and Gouki apologizing for being late, she opens her eyes and sees Gouki’s back while he’s locking swords with Lucci and saying ”Gouki Saga enters the fight for the sake of justice”.

### **Intermission: Travel chronicle.**

Time goes back a little, at the same time that Alma collapsed after being stabbed by Lucci, Ouphia has just brought Gouki’s group to the mountain range next to Galarc’s capital, Gouki tells Ouphia to hurry and that he will let her guide the way, Ouphia tells Gouki that Aerial can just carry eight people, maybe five if they take into account having to fight in the air, Ouphia can fly by herself but despite that Gouki’s group still has Gouki himself, Kayoko, Komomo, Sayo, Shin and twelve servants that followed after Gouki, Gouki tells three of his servants to follow him and Kayoko and tells the rest to stay behind with Aoi, Komomo, Shin and Sayo, Ouphia sets the rock house and tells the ones who stayed behind to wait there.

While flying at five hundred meter high Ouphia notices a great quantity of something diving towards them from far higher in the sky, more or less fifty of them, Ouphia tells everyone the things coming may be demi-dragons, Gouki looks at them with interest and amazement, Ouphia tells they are likely to be pterosaurs and wonders why there are so many of them there when their territory is in the wilderness, but the pterosaurs in front of them now are different from the ones Ouphia knows, they are black and can breath fire, Ouphia makes a wind barrier and protects everyone from the breath attacks, Gouki praises her, Gouki says that if those things came to get in their way to the castle they must be related to the things that Ouphia saw, Ouphia tells everyone the enemies are coming, Gouki says he has no option and jumps from Aerial’s back, he was going to fall to the ground but then Gouki begins to laugh and to praise Dominic while stepping in the air, thanks to the shoes that produces barriers below them that Dominic made for him Gouki can now fight in the sky and is very thrilled about it despite not being able of flying like Rio and Ouphia.

Gouki unsheathes his katana while charging at a pterosaurs, passes through it and cutting it down, after killing it Gouki praises Dominic again for the sharpness of Kamaitachi, the new katana he made for Gouki after getting curious about their weapons, it has the same abilities that Rio’s sword but Gouki’s is made for working better with the wind spirit arts he’s better at, the defeated pterosaur become ashes and its magic stones falls to the ground, Ouphia is confused when she realizes that the enemies are monsters and not pterosaurs, Ouphia decides to pick up the magic stones after the battle for analyzing them, Ouphia shoots balls of lightning at the pterosaurs as a test, they got shaken by the impact by they aren’t defeated, Ouphia thinks the same as the pterosaurs she knows the spirit arts that use energy have little effect in them, she decided to think about the enemies as just pterosaurs that can breath fire, Ouphia tells everyone to use spirit arts that make damage using mass or impact because the effect because of the ones using energy won’t be big.

Kayoko says she understands and asks the three with them if they’re fine with it, they confirm it, Kayoko tells the three to fight and prove that they didn’t came as luggage, the four jump from Aerial’s back and run towards the pterosaurs, Kayoko unsheathes her new kodachi, shoots a rope of water to a pterosaur and pulls, when the pterosaur is close enough she pierces its head, Kayoko praises in her mind the sharpness of her new weapon too, just like Gouki’s sword Kayoko’s kodachi has the same abilities that Rio’s sword and is make for strengthen more her preferred water spirit arts, Kayoko thinks if the pterosaurs can die from a single hit to the head she doesn’t need to bother in stopping their movements, she’s happy about it because she will be able of conserving her magic power for future fights on the ground, the next pterosaur comes close to Kayoko trying to kill her with a bite, when it opens its mouth Kayoko tells to it that it won’t be able of seeing if it opens its mouth so much and that it is bad manners, Kayoko waits until the last moment for dodging, she jumps over the pterosaur and them jumps down for piercing its head, after the pterosaur dies, the three servants are cooperating and defeating pterosaurs one after the other too, Gouki tells everyone to be done quickly with the rest, Ouphia thinks they’re incredible because she can’t fight like that, Ouphia too begins to shoot ice spears at the pterosaurs, Aerial makes the pterosaurs go back controlling the wind around them so they can’t gang on anyone.

After several minutes more than thirty pterosaurs have been defeated, the rest of the pterosaurs take distance from Gouki’s group and prepare a breath attack, Ouphia tells everyone to go back to Aerial’s back and the two protect everyone with a barrier of wind again, Ouphia thinks that a normal pterosaur will never attack an opponent they can’t beat, Ouphia’s faces gets clouded before the new strange thing, Gouki says he doesn’t see a leader inside the pack leading them, that as expected someone sent them for stalling them, Kayoko says it seems hard to go past them even if they can run in the sky now, Gouki says it is inexcusable to be stopped there without knowing yet what is happening at Rio’s mansion, Ouphia tells Gouki’s group to go ahead of her riding on Aerial’s back while she takes care of the monsters, Gouki asks Ouphia if she is fine with that, Ouphia says she is, that the number of enemies isn’t big now, that the city is near, that if something really is happening at the mansion it will be troublesome, she tells them that Aerial knows the way to Rio’s mansion, that it will take them to the right place.

Gouki thinks it will be easier for Ouphia to fight alone than while protecting them from the monsters that are still breathing fire at them, Gouki tells Ouphia that if nothing is happening in the ground they will come back immediately, Ouphia says she will take care of things there soon and follow after them, that she has been preparing the magic power for that while they talk, Ouphia tells she will make Aerial depart and after that she will use a big technique, Gouki says he understands, Ouphia orders Aerial to go and Aerial flaps its wings for accelerating towards the capital while protecting everyone with a wind barrier, the pterosaurs try to shoot their breath at Aerial but Ouphia creates a tornado around her that doesn’t let them fly freely, while they can’t move Ouphia kills them shooting ice spears at them, Ouphia was finally done with the pterosaurs at the same time that Gouki’s group arrived at Rio’s mansion.

Reis is observing the battle between the pterosaurs and Ouphia’s group from way higher in the sky, Reis is analyzing Ouphia’s battle, he thinks even if the number got greatly reduced, annihilating fifty pterosaurs shouldn’t be that easy, that for Ouphia who is rearguard type should be a bad match for the pterosaurs even including her spirit, Reis thinks the pterosaurs should have been able of stopping Ouphia for longer, that Ouphia’s attacks shouldn’t have been that effective on the pterosaurs that are resistant to spirit arts, that despite being the weakest of the demi-dragons they’re still strong and the ones released by him even could fire breath attacks and keep her away where Ouphia’s attacks should be weaker, Reis thinks with frustration that besides more strong looking reinforcements came, he wonders from where are they bringing so many troublesome people, Reis thinks he must have been too focused on Rio and Aisia and ended up underestimating the rest too much, no matter how skillful someone is that if he lets it alone that person won’t do anything to him, but that with some many skillful people gathered is the same that fighting against a big country now, Reis think Rio is without a doubt the most troublesome, that he wants an insurance against him, but in the worst case even if he gets a hostage for facing against him for the future’s sake he should change to a politic of reducing even a little the troublesome battleforces, Reis thinks fortunately what happened today can be blamed on the Heavenly Lions, but that he won’t be able of playing death any longer, at the moment that Reis decided that he doesn’t care about that.

### **Chapter 5: Hero(eiyuu) killer.**

Aerial finally reaches the capital, from its back Gouki’s group sees the knights fighting everywhere in the castle and the griffon-riding knights and mercenaries exchanging attacks in the sky, Gouki says things are more serious than he thought, he begins to look for Rio’s mansion, Kayoko says she found everyone and seem to be in a very bad situation, Gouki understood the situation just from seeing Miharu and Celia taken as hostages, Gouki tells Kayoko he will go get the pigs done in and jumps from Aerial’s back, Kayoko tells the three servants behind her to get down to the ground from Aerial’s back and to not do a shameful display on their first battle for Rio’s sake, then she jumps after Gouki, Gouki lands first killing the impact for appearing soundlessly next to [[Lucci]], when he sees Lucci just about to hit Miharu saying she will put her to sleep as his thanks from before. in Gouki's mind Miharu and Ayame overlaps, Gouki thinks he has to protect Miharu no matter what, that now that he entered the battlefield no one will put a finger on her, Gouki stands between Miharu and Lucci and stops Lucci’s sword with his.

Gouki apologizes for being late, and says he will enter the battle for the sake of justice, Lucci asks Gouki angrily who he is, Lucci tries to push Gouki back putting strength on his sword, but Gouki is the one who pushes him back telling him to shut up and calling him pig, Lucci has his stance broken and Gouki comes with an after attack for cutting him down, Ven runs towards Lucci to cover him, Gouki dodges Ven’s attack and gets close to Miharu again, Kayoko tells Gouki she recovered Celia while landing next to him with Celia in her arms, Gouki nods with satisfaction, Lucci asks when to nobody while Ven asks what that old man and woman are, Kayoko calls them disrespectful pigs and tells them she’s just a little over forty looking at them with cold eyes, Aerial lands behind them, the servants get down from it while holding Alma, Louise and her subordinate in their arms.

Gouki says the mercenaries seems to be pigs that knows how to move but now that he waited until their defence was solidified he can defeat them without worries, he asks Miharu if that is fine, that he began with protecting her because it didn’t seem necessary to asks what was happening, Gouki talks calmly but his eyes are boiling with anger, Miharu hurriedly and nervously gives Gouki the okay and thanks him for saving her, Gouki tells the mercenaries that he doesn’t know who they are but to not think they can just go back after attacking the important people of the one they call their lord, the mercenaries step back instinctively scared of the angry glint in Gouki’s eyes and because they understand his strength thanks to his battle experience, Latifa tells to Gouki screaming that the enemies are the subordinates of the man who killed Rio’s parents and warns him about the black sword’s abilities, Gouki is specially interested in their identity.

Gouki trembles with emotion thinking about the chance he finally got, he murmurs at last, at last he got a chance of being loyal to that person, the mercenaries can’t hear him but Kayoko next to him did and says she will go with him after telling the three servants to protect Miharu and Celia, Kayoko gives Celia to the three servants behind her and stands next to Gouki with her kodachi unsheathed and looking coldly at Lucci’s group, Gouki says it looks more and more like they don’t need to just wound them, that it isn’t necessary to asks further about the situation, Gouki and Kayoko introduce themselves with a loud voice, Gouki says that for the sake of the one they call their lord, Kayoko end his sentence saying they will take them down, both close the distance with the seven mercenaries, the mercenaries try to disperse themselves in a hurry, but Gouki and Kayoko divide themselves between left and right letting the seven men between them so they can’t disperse and begin to attack the two men at the sides, the two men prepare their swords but Gouki’s and Kayoko’s attack blows them away making they powerless, the next two behind the two just defeated swing their swords at Gouki and Kayoko, Gouki and Kayoko dodge crouching and diving into the mercenaries Bossom than they blow them away hitting their lower jaws with the plain of their swords and letting them unconscious.

Gouki and Kayoko go for the last three, Lucci tells Ven and his other companion to fall back and shoot a mass of darkness at Gouki and Kayoko, Gouki and Kayoko dodge it jumping and Kayoko call Lucci naive, Ven and the other mercenary attack by reflex the two that should be defenseless in the air, Gouki and Kayoko steps in the air and jump towards the ground, after they land behind Ven and the other mercenary the two collapse due to hits to their lower jaws from when Gouki and Kayoko passed by them, Lucci’s body trembles, Kayoko tells Lucci to be at ease, that aside from that person’s revenge they don’t have any intention of getting rid of him, that they will hold back for the time being, Gouki tells that the revenge isn’t just this much, that the dirty and bloody pigs’ corpses aren’t something for showing in front of the young mistresses, Kayoko tells they have to interrogate him for finding out if they have any other strange plan too, that later he will give to them the necessary information, Lucci tells the two to stop fucking around, Gouki says they are the ones fucking around doing things like this for avenging the defeated Lucius.

Satsuki asks who Gouki and Kayoko are, behind her except Latifa and Sara who already knew them everybody looks at them with a dumbfounded face, Latifa tells them that it is fine because they’re allies, Sara says it just rest the extermination of the monsters now, Sara looks sadly at Hell and Ifrit who continue to take the revenants’ onslaught so they can’t attack anyone else, then Ouphia appears in the sky and tell Ifrit and Hell that it is fine to disappear already, Hell and Ifrit spiritualize, Ouphia shoots a big light arrow at the revenants before they move to attack anyone else, the arrow divides in two and hits the mass of revenants letting behind two ten meters wide craters and magic stones, Ouphia lands next to Alma, in just two minutes from Gouki’s arrival Lucci became the last enemy standing in Rio’s garden, Gouki praises Ouphia for her flashy intervention and says he will put the curtain down too, Lucci runs towards Gouki while cursing, Gouki runs towards him too.

While the two exchange sword attacks Gouki tells Lucci he doesn’t understand it, Lucci asks what, Gouki asks why are they angry at the death of a companion, why to get so emotional about it, Lucci says that precisely because it was comrade, Gouki recriminates Lucci for not caring about anybody else that his comrades despite having the correct valours and calls him hypocrite for happily taking away from others, Lucci screams that the world is about the weak ones being eaten, that he isn’t a hypocrite because he doesn’t care at all about those who aren’t his comrades, Gouki blows Lucci back with a strong swing while screaming that that doesn’t answer his question, Lucci curses with his body full of wounds from the exchange with Gouki who is overwhelming him with pure skill.

Gouki says that then he will change his question, Gouki asks Lucci why are they attacking Rio who is stronger than them if the appreciation for the comrades and the strong ones eating the weak ones aren’t contradictory, Gouki tells Lucci to explain this contradiction, Gouki tells that Rio is the one who killed their leader, that if they really believe that the weak ones can just be eaten by the strong ones, they shouldn’t be hostile to Rio, they should prostrate before him, apologize and live hiding so they don’t get involved with him, Lucci tries to retort but he can’t, Gouki mocks Lucci and calls him an unreasonable child, Lucci calls Gouki miserable and asks him if he can die, Gouki screams at Lucci to die then, that if he believes that the weak ones can just be eaten by the strong ones and there is an opponent who he can’t take down, he can take on the challenge and die in a blaze of glory or go suicide alone anywhere outside of Rio’s sight, that that is what the men of arms do, Lucci can’t retort to that either.

Gouki says that if he doesn’t do that, that doing something like harassing from the shadows if there is an opponent who he can’t beat fighting fairly isn’t a funny thing, that standing on words like the strong one eating weak one just when one is in the stealing side and is convenient for oneself is the despicable prove of being a lowlife, Lucci screams at Gouki to shut up, that it was for not disappearing that they came for hostages, that that is a mercenary’s way, Gouki says that being a mercenary that moves for the sake of money and taking hostages for the sake of avenging one’s comrades are unrelated things, when Lucci can’t retort again the despise in Gouki’s eyes goes beyond the limit and becomes pity, Gouki tells Lucci they should have understood that, that their represaries aren’t any great cause, they don’t have something like a justification, that they should understand that if they just have a grudge for their defeated comrade they wouldn’t do something like attacking the target’s important people.

After saying all of that Gouki remakes his sword stance, he’s done making questions, Gouki tells Lucci is fine for him to fall under a regret beyond deep and runs towards him, Lucci curses while receiving more and more wounds from Gouki, Lucci gets even more impatient thinking he almost run out of magic power and realizing he will lose not just the words fight but the swords fight too, Gouki dives into Lucci’s bossom while saying that he is full of openings because the doubts of his heart are appearing in his sword, Gouki swings upwards from left to right, Lucci tries to defend but Gouki’s swing blows away Lucci’s sword in the air and send his arms upwards, Gouki swings down his swords while stepping forth diagonally and yelling punishment, Gouki cuts Lucci down when he passes by him, at the same time that Lucci collapses in the ground Gouki sheath his katana while saying that it is over.

After that Latifa greets Gouki happily, Gouki does the same and walks towards her, Latifa thanks him for his help, Gouki says it is his duty to protect everyone and that it was worth it to hurry to the mansion after hearing Ouphia’s warning about something falling over the castle, Charlotte orders the knights to begin to restrain the fallen mercenaries and asks Latifa who is the Gouki who talked about Rio as his lord during the battle, Gouki introduces himself after saying he was the attendant of Rio’s mother in the past and making a reverence in the Karasuki Kingdom’s style after judging that Charlotte must be someone important by her clothes and behaviour, after hearing Gouki’s words Charlotte begins to piece together things on her mind, she wonders if Gouki is an emigrant from the Yagumo region because she remembers Rio telling his parents were and because of Gouki’s accent when talking, besides, the most intriguing is that Gouki seems to be someone born with high status because his gestures and manners are obviously sophisticated and refined, above all he’s a super first class warrior, Charlotte thinks excitedly that Rio’s mystery is growing more and more and smiles in a good mood.

After her thinking time Charlotte introduces herself as the kingdom’s second princess and thanks Gouki for his help as the kingdom’s princess, Charlotte curtsies in front of Gouki after that, Gouki tells Charlotte he heard about them from Rio, Charlotte is happy about that and introduces Christina and Flora next to her, Christina and Flora greet Gouki after that, Chrisitina thinks Gouki must be the man Rio mentioned in his story and that he must be one of his kingdom’s main warriors looking at his strength, she thinks for someone as influential as Gouki to come all the way from the Yagumo region he must be very loyal to Rio, while thinking about this Christina remembers the things happened at the academy and clouds her expression with the guilty feelings that don’t go away no matter how many time passes despite Rio saying that he doesn’t care about that, Charlotte introduces Satsuki too, Satsuki greets Gouki while looking curiously at Gouki who is so similar to the japanese people.

Gouki tells the rest he heard about them too and greets them too, Kayoko comes next to Gouki holding Alma in her arms and says that she wants to take her and Celia to a place where they can rest, Miharu, Ouphia and Celia come with Kayoko too, Charlotte tells everyone to enter the mansion, then a light ball similar to a flare gun’s appears in the sky, a knight next to Charlotte tells everyone that that light sign isn’t one used by the kingdom, Charlotte says that it seems to belong to the mercenaries because they are beginning to run away, Satsuki says with suspicion that she wonders if they gave up on the mansion, Charlotte says that it is obvious, that it is clear that their target was the mansion and now that the squad send to attack was annihilated they can’t do anything else, Satsuki asks if that means that they will forsake their comrades, Gouki says it isn’t impossible for them to come, but that the duty of the enemies in the sky should have been to stall the enemy and to ensure the escape route, that they would have to abandon that duty if they want to come to the mansion, that without a plan that allows them to recover their allies without losing their way to escape they won’t come to rescue them because it would be suicidal, Satsuki says she understands with a bitter face, Charlotte says that if they are running away it means they doesn’t have a way to take back the people in the ground and that now it should be fine to let the rest to the people in the castle, then something’s loud roar was heard everywhere.

Before the light signal’s fall, at the castle’s roof garden, François is relieved about everyone at Rio’s mansion, François looks at the people still in front of the mansion instead of the people still fighting, François thinks it is obvious the enemies’ target was Rio’s mansion, too many surprising things happened there, François thinks about all the things he saw the girls, the spirits and Gouki’s group did, he couldn’t take his eyes off of the mansion during the battle, he let everything related to the other battlefields to his subordinates and kept looking at Rio’s mansion, François thinks it is incredible to survive to such an attack without loses, François thinks as a country’s representative there are a lot things he wants to ask about but that he will happily let it be for the time being, François thinks the people that came from the sky seemed to be related to Rio somehow, he thinks he doesn’t mind to wait until Rio’s return for asking about a lot of things but that he wants to make a chance of talking in private, he wonders if he must let Charlotte in charge of the negotiation.

In the middle of François’ thoughts, a knight comes and reports that the mercenaries are beginning to retire and asks if they must give chase, François tells the knight to give chase but not too deep, that it would be troublesome if the urban areas are damaged during the chase, that they have too the captured enemies for interrogating them so to give priority to verify the damages and healing the wounded, the knight says he understands and tells François that despite having wounded people there aren’t confirmed casualties for the time being, François is happy of hearing that and praises the knights’ performance, the knight says they managed somehow because the enemy was focusing in stalling for time, the knight tells too that the enemies strangely great speed seems to be due to their swords, a big loud roar interrupts the knight’s report, everyone there trembles and look up for finding out the roar’s source, what François saw there was an existence similar to the worst despair.

Hero(eiyuu) killer, more than one thousand years ago, during the God-demon war era, there was existence that received the title of hero killer due to the great quantity of them that it killed, even the magic sword users were afraid of him, it was called Dragul, its roars similar to screams of pain can be heard in the entirety of the capital, Dragul, the voice’s owner is now above Rio’s mansion, Gouki looks up at it and says that this monster is a mysterious one too, Satsuki asks trembling what is that, none can tell that that monster is the hero killer Dracul, if Aisia had been there she would know instantly that Reis is involved in this, after all Dracul was the monster she fought once close to Rodania, even though it wasn’t an opponent for Aisia it doesn’t mean it is weak, it is the kind of monsters that it takes the union and the sacrifice of several magic sword users for defeating it.

Its skeletal body is more than ten meters high, its one-handed sword is several meters long, it wears armor, it uses a shield too and has winds similar to a fallen angel’s, that’s Dragul, its eyes that have a sinister light in them and that seem to be full of hatred look down at the ground from one hundred meters high where it is visible for all of the capital, Satsuki asks Charlotte fearsomely if it is fine to let Dragul to the rest of the people in the castle in response to her sentence from earlier, Satsuki wasn’t even joking, she’s just afraid, if she can let it to others she wants to do it, Charlotte understand it and feels just like Satsuki says it may not be fine because she is convince of the people in mansion being necessary for killing it, Gouki says that it is clearly looking at them and that it is interesting while smiling fearlessly, Satsuki denies it with her all, she says that it isn’t interesting at all.

Gouki tells the girls to let Dragul to him, that while not knowing the opponent’s fighting style it may be better to make a barrier and protect themselves there, Kayoko tells Gouki that he seems eager for fighting alone but that she will go too while standing next to Gouki, Gouki tells to Kayoko smiling widely that she seems motivated, Kayoko says that of course, that it is precisely now and where Rio isn’t present that they have to prove their true worth, that if they don’t do it now than when will them, Gouki agrees he says that protecting everyone there is also a way of dedicating their loyalty to Rio, that if he knows that he is swinging his sword for that person’s sake, the monster are fine too, that there isn’t any unfitting opponent, that it will be as he wishes, Sara says she will fight too, Ouphia and Celia say the same, Gouki tells them to stay back and protect themselves that he doesn’t want anything to happen to them due to Rio not being present.

Sara and Ouphia says that it is precisely because of that, Gouki is still reluctant, Celia says that it precisely now that Rio isn’t present that they need to fight together and overcome this situation, that if now she just let herself be protected she will become someone who just can be protected by Rio, that she wants to prove that she isn’t someone who just can be protected, that she doesn’t want to get away from Rio because she’s weak, Sara says that because Aisia is the only one who can really fight alongside Rio even if the two had been present, Rio would have left Aisia behind protecting them and would go defeat the monster alone, that that is lonely and frustrating, Ouphia says she understands that that is Rio’s way of caring about them but that she wants him to rely more on them, Kayoko tells Gouki that disrespecting a maiden’s feelings is what the elders do, Gouki agrees reluctantly saying that he remembers Ayame did absurd things too, Kayoko tells Gouki to honestly accept the help because they should need Aerial’s cooperation if they plan to fight that monster in the air, Gouki says he understands and tells the girls to go defeat that thing together.

Sara tells to Miharu she will be in charge of protecting the ground, that she will let Ifrit and Hell in charge of making a barrier, Sara asks Miharu if she can provide the magic power for it, Sara tells that attacking isn’t the only important thing in a battle and that she can just ask this to her, Miharu tells Sara to leave it to her, Sara tells Latifa and Satsuki that it is possible the mercenaries will attack again using that chance, that it is their duty to stop them and that she lets everyone’s escort to them, both nod to Sara, meanwhile Dragul continues to look at the ground without doing anything, Flora asks tilting her head why the monster didn’t come down to attack them on the ground, Christina says that the monsters that appeared before were clearly helping the mercenaries, that she doesn’t understand how they do it but that it is obvious that someone related to the Heavenly Lions is controlling them from behind, that if it is like that they may be trying to not involve their comrades in the ground.

Gouki says that if the monster fights in the ground it may damage the castle or Rio’s mansion and that that is undesirable for them, Celia agrees with Gouki and tells Ouphia to call Aerial, Ouphia tells everyone to ride Aerial and gives Celia a spirit stone full of magic power for using during the fight, Celia thanks her, Gouki tells everyone to depart and Aerial takes flight, Dracul roars when it sees them come, Celia tells everyone that first she wants to see the monster’s reaction after she and Ouphia attack from a distance, Gouki agrees and says he , Kayoko and Sara will be the vanguard, Celia says she will try seeing how the monster reacts to several intermediate magics and tells Ouphia to shoot a big attack after seeing how the monster moves, Ouphia agrees, Celia shoots seven big balls of light at Dragul, Dragul waits for them unmoving and then it defends with its shield, Celia says it has to be a joke, after Dragul takes the seventh shot Ouphia shoots a light arrow a lot bigger than Celia’s magic at Dragul, Dragul parries the arrow with its shield and deviates it.

Gouki thinks Dragul must just be able of receiving quietly attacks below a certain power level, Celia thinks she must use advanced magic or above if she wants to damage Dragul, Kayoko says annoyedly that the armor should be as hard as the shield and that the shield is quite the hindrance, Sara agrees with her, Sara says that the attacks from a distance will be defended and even if they are strong enough it looks like it will dodge them, while everyone talks Aerial reaches the air above Dragul, Gouki says it was good to see the monster’s hardness, Gouki says that now that they saw how it handles the attacks from the distance next is close quarters and that he will go first, Gouki’s and Dragul’s gazes overlap, Gouki jumps from Aerial’s back and runs towards Dragul, Gouki says that looking from up close is stupidly big while laughing happily on his way to the monster that it is close to ten times higher than him, Dragul swings its sword at Gouki, Gouki praises in his mind Dragul’s reaction speed and its swing’s accuracy and speed, Gouki jumps over Dragul’s sword and runs towards its neck, Dragul tries to hit Gouki with its shield, Gouki says that as expected is a troublesome shield, he dodges and goes back to Aerial.

Gouki tells everyone that they can handle Dragul’s speed but that its shield and sword are troublesome, that its defence is hard, that if they want to kill it from a distance it may be fine for them to run around the monster hindering him and hit it where the shield can reach, Celia says it seems possible too to have her and Ouphia blow away the shield for the rest to hit it anywhere unprotected by the armor, Gouki says laughing that that is very exciting too, that if he thinks about cutting down that giant body his heart gets tempted, but that he doesn’t see yet an usable opening in the monster so he will research more its movements and weak points for the time being, Gouki charges again at Dragul, Kayoko and Sara follow him.

### **Chapter 6: The wind’s sword.**

A little before Dragul’s appearance, the squad lead by Arein is beginning to retire from Galarc’s castle, Arein hurries his companions to run away saying they can’t release the captured ones even if they can reach them, Arein curses in his head due to defeat despite the loss of more than half of his comrades and their magic sword imitations, all of it fatal loses for the Heavenly Lions squad, Arein thinks if at least he could recover the men in the ground still alive, Arein analyzes the situation and thinks it is impossible, he tells to himself over and over that he has no other option that forsake them, then he hears a roar that shakes the capital’s air, Arein’s griffon is scared too and its shaking almost throws him off, Arein asks what in the hell is that, both the mercenaries and the knights chasing them look dumbfoundedly at Dragul.

Arein wonders if that monster is under Reis’ control too, but he isn’t sure about why is there because he wasn’t told anything about it during their strategy meeting before the attack, Arein says that he doesn’t know why but their chasers are slowing down and tells his men to use that opening and get away now. Arein’s group lands close to spring in a forest anywhere in the capital’s outskirts several minutes later, they’re using this time for recovering their breath and rest, then Reis arrives to their place, he says they are quite reduced, when Arein tries to excuse himself, Reis says he already knows they didn’t achieve the objective, Arein and his companions make bitter faces.

Reis tells them he doesn’t intend to blame them, that both them and the people in the ground worked well, that even if just twenty from the fifty famous strong mercenaries were in charge of attacking the mansion they’re still strong enough for damaging whatever big country, that precisely because of that he thought they were enough but that his judgement was wrong, that the mansion’s defence was stronger than he expected besides the unexpected reinforcements, so he needed to take out something like that, Arein says that as expected it was Reis’ monster, Reis confirms it, Arein’s and the other faces begin to ask Reis why he didn’t take it out before if he had that strong monster with him, Reis tells Arein and the others that now that he let out that thing he lost something convenient too, but he doesn’t explain that he’s talking about the fact Rio’s group believed him dead.

Arein asks why he took it out then, Reis says he understood thanks to this attack that there are too many troublesome people around Rio, that if he can’t get a hostage he wants to at least eliminate as much people who look like can be hindrance as possible and because he wants to asks them for a favor, Arein asks what it is, Reis tells Arein’s group to go and recover Lucci and his sword, Arein refuses screaming, he says he wants to go if he can, but that even with the monster there the people in the castle should be wary of another attack, that if they go back now they will have everyone aiming at them, Reis tells Arein he isn’t telling him to honestly dive there and come back and gives him a magic stone, Arein asks what it is, Reis tells that he can teleport to near the mansion with that disposable teleport crystal and gives him another for escaping, Arein asks him when he did it, Reis tells he did it in a hurry because they looked like they were in trouble, Arein says he understands and praises Reis, Reis says he send more monsters for keeping the knights busy so the mansion’s defenses should be thin, Arein asks Reis if he minds if he helps more people if he has a chance, Reis tells Arein that as he knows the remaining disposable teleportation crystals are six, that as long as he acts knowing that it is impossible to save everyone he doesn’t mind as long as he can afford it, but that Lucci and his sword take priority, to not fail in recovering them due to greed, that if he fails the teleport crystals can be stolen and used by the enemy, Arein says he understands, that he will do it, that he doesn’t have a reason for not to, that he will prepare the assault team and go immediately.

On the other side, in the capital’s sky, Gouki, Kayoko and Sara are running around Dragul, Dragul’s specialty seems to be close quarters, its power, speed and skill are high, Gouki rates highly Dragul’s swordcraft and shield’s usage, Gouki says it is difficult to break its defence from the front, that when someone is in front of it may be fine to just get its attention, Gouki thinks Dracul seems to not have means of attacking from afar, Gouki dodges Dragul’s sword and shield several times in front of him before taking some distance again, Sara comes from the side and freezes Dragul’s head but that doesn’t hinders it at all, Dragul swings its arm for shaking Sara off of itself, Sara jumps back and takes distance but Dragul swings its sword in her direction as if having its head frozen wasn’t a problem for seeing at all, Sara dodges while wondering where are Dragul’s eyes.

Ouphia shoots several lights bullets at Dragul’s head, Dragul turns towards Ouphia seemingly undamaged and swings its shield for sending away the light arrow that didn’t impact yet, behind it Celia shoots several advanced magics at Dragul’s head, Dragul twists greatly its body for dodging, Kayoko shoots a water rope from her kodachi, ties Dragul’s neck and pulls with her all breaking its stance, Gouki appears behind Dragul and cuts its back with his second secret technique heavenly flash, Dragul’s body bends forward with cracks in the back of its armor, when Dragul can’t defend itself Ouphia shoots more light arrows at the back of its head bending it further forward, after Ouphia’s arrows Sara clads one of her daggers in ice making a greatsword two meters long and slams it with her all in the back of Dragul’s head, Celia shoots her big light balls of light again at the cracks that Gouki made in Dragul’s armor making them bigger, when the group was happy at the first big damage, Dragul roars while flying higher in the sky back to where everyone is, Gouki asks screaming how is it that it has so much strength remaining, Sara says that they cracked its helmet and armor, that if they continue to pile up attacks they should be able of finishing it off, Gouki says that it seems to be more cautious now.

Dragul begins to fly quickly keeping everyone at a distance at a speed just Ouphia and Aerial can keep up with it, Ouphia says that if it can fly so quickly it is difficult to hit and that getting close in a bad away is dangerous after having her light arrow dodged, Sara asks screaming if Dragul’s armor and helmet aren’t regenerating, Ouphia says she’s right with a rigid face, Seria says it is unfair for it to be so big, hard, fast and being able of recovering, while beginning to feel impatience and despair, Kayoko murmurs that it is more troublesome than she thought, Dragul changes direction towards Celia’s group and charges at them with its shield at the front after its helmet and armor are completely repaired, everyone disperses, Dragul goes after Gouki, Gouki waits until the last moment and manages to dodge by a small margin somehow, Gouki says that it is really troublesome, Celia tells everyone to go back to Aerial’s back for conserving their magic power and strength, Ouphia agrees and tells everyone the same.

When everyone is on Aerial’s back Gouki tells them that it may be hard to fight like until now surrounding it and attacking it from everywhere, Celia asks without any hope on it if Dragul won’t continue just flying away until anywhere else if they let it be, Gouki says that it is clearly aiming at them, that fortunately it hasn’t attacked the ground yet but that he doesn’t know how long it will be like that, that they should defeat it immediately but that it is quite difficult to beat, that it is troublesome, despite his words Gouki looks at Dragul chasing after them smiling belligerently while scratching his chin, Sara whispers exasperatedly that Gouki isn’t make a face that troubled, Kayoko tells her to not mind him because he’s just a battle junkie, that if they wait little he will tell them some absurd plan soon.

Gouki is analyzing Dragul in his mind, Gouki thinks about Dragul’s armor and shield, Gouki thinks it seems necessary to break its bones for defeating it, he thinks about the shield that is still unscratched and the armor’s regenerative ability, Gouki thinks with things being like they must focus their attacks anywhere, damage the armor faster than it regenerates and break the bones below but that that will be complicated with Dragul’s flying speed, Gouki thinks if he hits Dragul with his secret techniques enough times he should be able of giving the necessary damage but that he needs to stop its movements for that, Gouki thinks the better moment for attacking is when Dragul prepares for attacking itself but that it seems quite confident in stopping everything with its shield so it will ignore whatever half-baked attack and will continue its charge, Gouki thinks if it is at the moment Dragul charges… Gouki smiles widely when he realizes something and tells everyone he has a secret plan

In the ground the rest of the girls look at the battle while holding their breaths from inside Hell’s and Ifrit’s barrier, Louise next to Charlotte tells to her she thinks they should take their chance now for restraining the rest of the mercenaries lying on the ground, Charlotte agrees and asks if she can leave it to her when a group of knights from the castle comes to Charlotte, Charlotte murmurs that they arrived at last, the knights lose their words looking at the garden full of fallen mercenaries, magic stones and battle scars, and above all that two big beasts like Hell and Ifrit standing close to Charlotte, Charlotte says they came at a good time, she tells Louise to use their help for restraining the mercenaries that they have enough escorts with Satsuki, Latifa, Hell and Ifrit, Miharu asks Hell and Ifrit if they can make a hole in the barrier for letting Louise’s group out, they do it, Louise tells her subordinates to go, Louise’s group and the rest of the knights began to restrain the fallen mercenaries together but none noticed that there were people close to the mansion observing the situation and waiting for the moment they take the defeated mercenaries to the castle’s prison.

Back to the sky, when Gouki tells everyone that he has a plan Sara and Ouphia are impressed at the accuracy of Kayoko’s prediction, Celia laughs a little at Gouki who is he himself no matter the situation and asks for his plan, Gouki asks Celia if she has any magic that seems like it will work on the monster, that if there’s a fitting one he wants to throw it at the monster and weaken it, Celia says there’s one, the strongest magic she can use, but that she can use it only once with her remaining magic power and she doesn’t know for sure if it will hit the monster who is flying around, Gouki says once is enough, that it is fine if they make sure somehow that it hits, that it isn’t a problem, Celia is a little dubious because she doesn’t think it will be that easy but decides to listen to the rest first, Gouki says that it will be for just an instant but that he has a way of matching the monster’s flying speed, that he will attack from the front first, that the monster should slow down at that time and it should be easy to hit and tells Celia to attack at that time, Celia says she understands.

Gouki tells Sara, Ouphia and Kayoko that he will need their help too, Gouki asks Sara and Ouphia if they can do water ropes for holding the monster in place like Kayoko, Ouphia says she isn’t sure of being able of caching it while it is moving around, that if the three do it at the same time it seems like they can stop it but that she feels too like they may be pulled and dragged by the monster’s momentum, Sara isn’t confident either, Gouki tells he wants them to tie it after Celia shoots her magic, that then the monster should be slower, and that after tying it he wants the three to get away from the monster immediately, Sara says that like that they can do it, Gouki says he wants to be facing the monster anywhere and asks Ouphia if she can make Aerial to change their flying route, Ouphia says she understand and tells Aerial to do it, Gouki tells everyone to shoot the magic at his signal, everyone agrees, Celia tells everyone to wait a moment while she prepares for activating the magic, Celia begins to prepare for shooting the Clair family’s secret magic, the strongest magic currently known and that only those especially talented in magic that have the blood of the Clair family can activate, Celia chants.

“Unsealing solestal magic” (release the seal,wise God’s magic)

A magic circle appears around Celia.

“Authentication Celia Clair” (factor’s keeper certification)

The magic circle surrounding Celia gets brighter.

“Safety activation” (Activation of the user’s protection technique)

The magic circle condenses around Celia’s right arm.

“Charge” (Magic power’s filling).

All of Celia’s magic power gathers in her right arm that begins to shine due to the magic power that became so dense that it is visible now, Gouki says it looks like she can shoot a quite strong magic with surprise, Celia says that if it hits directly she thinks it will meet his expectatives, Ouphia whispers that it is incredible looking at Celia’s arm, Sara agrees with her forehead sweating coldly, she says she doesn’t want to deal with that magic power just about to rampage, that she can’t do it, Celia says she’s giving her all for controlling her magic power that’s why she has to let the rest to the magic circle.

“Standby” (waiting for activation)

After that last chant Celia says the preparations are complete, that she can shoot at anytime, Gouki says that now that he saw this he’s even more thrilled, Gouki turns to Ouphia and asks her to make Aerial turn, Ouphia asks if she just has to make Aerial fly facing that thing, Gouki confirms it, Ouhpia gives Aerial the order, Aerial slows down and turns, now Aerial and Dragul are facing each other from one hundred and several tens of meters away, Dragul roars when it sees Aerial coming at him and begins to charge with its shield at the front, the distance between the two is of just several tens of meters now, Gouki says he will go now and jumps forward accelerating his body with wind spirit arts letting Aerial behind, Sara says surprisedly that he’s fast, Ouphia recognizes it as Rio’s acceleration technique but she isn’t sure, Gouki thinks his acceleration technique can’t compare to Rio’s, that he can just push himself.

Gouki is now ten and several more meters away from Dragul, Gouki shoots heaven’s break, his first secret technique, at Dragul,Gouki shoots a slash of wind swinging his sword upwards from left to right, Gouki manages to slow down Dragul but he doesn’t damage it, Gouki gets closer to Dragul, hit its shield with his second secret technique, heavenly flash, Dragul slows down further with the hit, Gouki tells Celia to shoot her magic, behind Gouki Celia rises her right arm and swings it down like a sword while saying the last chant, “Durandal” (sacred sword slash magic), Dragul feels the danger and prepares its shield, Dragul screams in pain as Celia’s magic destroys its shield, the arm holding it and the armor of the side of the body behind it, Sara and Ouphia praises Celia and says she’s incredible, Celia says that with that she’s empty and sits powerlessly on Aerial’s back, Kayoko says that it was wonderful, as expected from Rio’s teacher, that it seems they won’t have a turn but, Kayoko Sara, and Ouphia tie Dragul with water ropes as planned.

Gouki says it was wonderful too, that with that his job got easier, Gouki says that even if it is a monster it would be rude to end this way such a strong knight, that he will assist its death with his secret techniques, Gouki uses his imitation of Rio’s technique for getting close to Dragul again while making a stance with his sword over his head, Gouki shoots his first secret technique heaven’s break, Gouki swings his sword down diagonally letting out a wind slash in the direction of Dragul’s chest, Gouki accelerates further until it catches up to his previous wind slash and uses his second secret technique, heavenly flash, for shooting another wind slash that makes an x form combined with the previous one, Dragul screams in pain when its armor breaks to pieces but doesn’t die yet, Gouki uses his third secret technique, heaven’s extinction, Gouki swings his sword horizontally, Dragul is cut in two halfs and dies, Gouki sheaths his sword after going back to Aeriel’s back, then everyone in the screams celebrating the heroes’ victory.

### **Chapter 7: The next upheaval’s sign.**

Up in the sky, while the cheers can be heard through all the capital, Reis thinks it is quite the uninteresting result that they could even defeat Dragul without erasing anyone, Reis is looking fixedly at Celia get down to the ground alongside the rest, he thinks he knew she wasn't an ordinary mage, he thinks if Celia can even use the wise god’s magic the Clair family must be descendants of the artificial mages once created by the seven wise Gods, that Celia inherited that strength strongly, he wonders if Celia’s childish appearance is an atavism too, Reis thinks Celia seems unable to use that magic without relying on the chants, that she mustn't have yet the power for killing a alone a hero killer but he doesn’t know how she will grow up, Reis think Rio and Aisia aside if he has to eliminate anyone it must be her, Reis thinks the current him can’t take out a Dragul in quick succession, that he doesn’t no other hand to play.

Reis lists in his mind Rio’s forces, a descendant of the artificial mages, three very talented demi-human girls that contracted mid-level spirits, top warriors come from the Yagumo region, Galarc’s hero, Rio himself who is strong enough for fighting the divine beast controlled by an awakened hero and the humanoid spirit, Reis thinks looking at all of that they’re as troublesome as the awakened saint despite her being more difficult to handle in a war situation, Reis thinks one day when executing the plan if Rio believes that his main forces are just Dragul and the black wyvern he should be more wary of the saint when he discovers she’s alive, Reis thinks for the time being he should let Rio and the saint to destroy each other and go to get some new force for his side, after that it is already time of having the duke Arbor who aims at Rodania’s fall make his move, when Reis is thinking about his next plot he smiles when he realizes Lucci’s and his sword’s recovery was a success, he thinks now it just rests to seal some mouths, Reis takes out a bag full of small magic stones and crashes it, after that Reis gets away from Galarc’s castle flying.

Some time after the battle with Dragul, the duke from the Galarc Kingdom Clement Gregory visits François who is busy with taking care of the after battle in his office, François asks him what he wants, Clement asks François if the attack’s target was Rio’s mansion, François says he’s fast to listen to things and that despite seeming very likely to be like that it isn’t confirmed, Clement says it won’t do if Rio isn’t questioned in detail about this, François says shrugging his shoulders he can’t do that because Rio isn’t at the capital, Clement is surprised at the beginning, he wants to criticise Rio for leaving at such an important time but then he remembers that Rio sent François a message from the kingdom’s border informing François of his progress in the rescue mission, François says half anxiously and half worriedly that Clement has really sharp ears, Clement says that youngsters without position like Rio shouldn’t be so imprudent moving around as they please, that he lacks self-awareness as nobles, François tells Clement that Rio is moving as ordered by him, he looks sharply at Clement implying that criticising Rio is like criticising him, Clement apologizes.

Clement pretends to be curious and to have just discovered it, François calls him the same damn tanuki from always in his mind because he knows Clement should already know that much if he intercepted Rio’s message, François says he will talk about Rio’s orders after his return and tells Clement to wait until then, Clement agrees but says that it is still necessary to interrogate the ones in Rio’s mansion about the raid and that because François seems busy if he tells him to he will go there right now for doing it himself, François says that Charlotte is already in charge of that, Clement agrees but says that before coming he heard a lot of intriguing things, that the mysteries around the recently arrived Rio are to boo big, that he understand that they have to be careful because he’s the hero’s friend but that there are lot of people wondering what is happening with this raid, François thinks he understands now, he thinks Clement came to get a promise from him, that he must want him to not stop anymore those who want to look for information about Rio and make him reveal what he knows, François thinks too that after the attack their justification for doing so is too big and difficult to refuse, François says that he will share the details at later date but just the necessary ones, Clement says he’s relieved by that and that he will leave for today, after Clement leaves François thinks depending on the mercenaries’ aim things can become really troublesome, François sights tiredly and looks towards Rio’s mansion thinking about the problems to come.

The next day, in the Saint Erika’s Democratic Republic, in Erikabourgh’s parliament a certain thing has just been approved unanimously, Erika says that it is decided in a low voice while the rest of the legislators stay silent waiting until Erika announces the votation’s results, Erika declares to everyone that their country will invade the Galarc Kingdom, the legislators cheer excitedly, no one believes that it is imprudent for them to attack a big Kingdom because they believe in the saint Erika who will guide them to victory, the legislators cheer screaming Erika’s name in chorus, Erika laughs kindly looking at them, her lips get distorted, the tips of her mouth rises, she’s like a saint and like a witch, there isn’t anyone in that room who knows at what kind of future Erika is looking but they believe in the saint, they believe the saint will guide them to victory, the day where they discover to what future Erika is guiding them to is closer than they think.

### **Epilogue.**

Galarc’s castle, three days after the attack, at noon, François is making a visit to Rio’s mansion, François wants to ask several things to the people in the mansion, Charlotte already asked all of the necessary things after the attack, François already received a report so his main reason is to thank everyone for their help in repelling the attack, he wants to meet Gouki’s group too, it has to do too with the reason why he’s the one going to Rio’s mansion instead of calling them to the castle, everyone in the capital saw their battle against Dragul, if he had called them to the castle the rest of the nobles would have got in the way for sure, François was explained about the spirit arts and the spirits but that Sara, Ouphia and Alma aren’t human is still a secret, he was explained that Gouki’s group are acquaintanced with Rio’s parents but he was told they won’t reveal Rio’s past without his consent, looking at Charlotte’s report there is too much information that shouldn’t revealed, revealing carelessly any of that will worsen his relationship with Satsuki and Rio, if he is to reveal something it has to be after getting Rio’s consent but because it looks like Rio’s return will take time he decided to make time for visiting the mansion.

The dining room of Rio’s mansion, the girls, except Christina and Flora, are watching the talk between François Gouki and Kayoko, after the necessary greetings and thanks François tells Gouki and Kayoko he welcomes them to Galarc Kingdom, Gouki thanks François for his welcome and for forgiving them for entering uninvited in the castle during the emergency, François laughs, he says that something like entering a caste flying from the sky usually wouldn’t be treated as normal, François says he wants to talk more detailedly with them after Rio’s return but that for the time being he wants to confirm their intentions, François asks Gouki if he should think about them as Rio’s private army or retainers, that their relationship with him seems different from the one with Sara, Ouphia and Alma, François says that if it is their wish he can give them some status as thanks for their help during the raid, Gouki says with a troubled smile that it is a complicated question, he tells François to think about them as Rio’s collaborators instead of retainers because Rio doesn’t like to see them as people under him, François says that it certainly looks like a complicated matter, that as expected it is better to have this talk when Rio is present.

Charlotte tells François that if he can fly he should be back soon, he could be back even today, François smiles at her, François says that the talk about the spirit arts and the spirits was quite shocking but that thanks to that they could follow the saint, Sara raises her hand a little and slowly and tells everyone that Rio may be back already, Charlotte stands up in a good mood and says she will go receive Rio at the main gate, Satsuki tells her to not do it, that Rio still doesn’t know that they know about the spirits, that he will be surprised if he sees she knows he’s back and waiting for him, Charlotte says excitingly that precisely because of that it will be thrilling, Satsuki agrees, smiles widely and decides to go too.

The castle’s main gate, everyone looks at Satsuki, Charlotte, Celia and Miharu looking at Rio’s group walking towards the castle, Satsuki whispers that it is incredible, that he really brought her back, Charlotte says that it is because it is Rio, Satsuki says that getting convinced by those words is incredible too, Miharu agrees and she and Satsuki smile wryly, Celia laughs softly looking at Rio in the distance, Satsuki tells everyone to go and begins to walk towards Rio after calling out to him swinging her arm, Charlotte goes after her, Satsuki says welcome back to Rio and the three with him, Rio says he’s back with a confused face, Charlotte laughs a little at Rios confused face, Charlotte says that a lot happened in Rio’s absence, but that the most important is that they’re fine, she tells welcome back to Liselotte, Charlotte walks next to Rio and entwines her arm with his, Liselotte thanks Charlotte for her words with a face as confused as Rio’s, Charlotte says they already made the entrance procedures for them, that they will do the detailed talk inside because Gouki’s group is waiting at the mansion too, implying that it is something serious while observing Rio’s reaction, Rio loses his words wondering about what happened in his absence, Satsuki tells Charlotte to wait because there are two people who didn’t greet Rio yet, Satsuki says she has a lot she wants to talk about too but that Miharu and Celia worked really hard while he was away so he has to listen to the two too, Satsuki pushes Miharu’s and Celia’s backs towards Rio, the two look at the other shyly and then the two tell Rio welcome back.

### **Next volume’s preview.**

My place isn’t in this world. That’s why, I asked for a wish. For the sake of fulfilling it. The only wish remaining in this empty me. That’s why I took action. This is my crusade.

精霊幻想記20.彼女の聖戦 Seirei Gensouki 20 - Kanojo no Seisen, The lover’s crusade.

Scheduled to be released on summer of 2021.

## Gallery

Ifrit!Haruto-san isn't wrong!Haruto-sama.... Amakawa-senpai...Raining ice on the revenants.Alma collapsing.Is there a reason for fearing you?Magic power for Ifrit.Gouki Saga enters the fight.Kayoko's water rope.Gouki praises Ouphia.Durandal!Welcome back.Thanks to @ooPeaToo for sharinf the rest of the illustrations quickly.