.
The dawning sun was about to rise into the chilly air. It was already giving a band of the eastern sky a blue cast above the pink-to-yellow backdrop of the mountains across the valley.
I was one unhappy fairy knight, but somehow, I wasn’t quite as embarrassed as I would have felt two months before, when I did that armor fitting with Firgolmir and Drusella.
My unhappiness was pretty easily explained with the moment the previous evening as I read a note written by Mother.
By now, you have learned what pride other fairy knights hold in the design of their armor, and the displeasure they feel for the designs you have chosen for yours. My suspicion is that you would ignore your fellow knights and continue, but I have decided it is time for you to accept reality. As you are representing my husband and your king, you have a duty to show your opponents his worth through the quality of the fairy knight kneeling to him as her lord. You are still my ward and I am still your parent and guardian, and so I have taken this liberty. I hope you will find the heart to forgive me for it someday.
And why had she written such a note?
At the time I was reading it, I had just received an armor bag, which is basically the same as an athletic bag. With some trepidation, I opened it to find my armor. Except, as I pulled it out, I discovered that Mother had ordered some adjustments.
Basically, everything from the waistband up to the cuirass, which ends where a bra band would be, was missing.
My cuirass, gorget, and pauldrons were unchanged, but my surcoat was no longer a surcoat. Nope, I could only describe what was left of it as a miniskirt.
Naturally, I couldn’t wear the old underclothing anymore, so the armorer had nicely used some of the sea serpent hide that used to be the midriff portion of my surcoat to create a strapless, elastic athletic bra to replace the tunic cups. A cuirass doesn’t press down on your chest. Firgolmir the smith had measured quite carefully to make sure mine had room. Without those support cups, I would bang around inside it rather painfully, so I was glad for the thoughtful touch.
My wyvern hide bases was gone completely. Other than the equipment on my arms and legs, I was down to just a halter-top cuirass and a skirt over fairy mail panties now.
Like I said. Chilly. Maybe it was fortunate that I had been too busy dealing with Melione’s scandalized reaction to be embarrassed for myself.
The answer to the question, ‘why hadn’t the fairy knights on the other side already wiped out the Arelian troops holding the base guarding the pass?’ turned out to be stupid fairy pride.
I was now face-to-face with that stupid pride.
It seemed Feraen and Lilhàn had specifically demanded our appearance. The Berado force had moved in the previous day but actually had to hold off their attack because their fairy knights demanded that we appear on the battlefield for a rematch.
The cost of that pride was that Rufin’s cavalry had been able to come back over the pass and was standing in columns below us, ready to sally through the short valley leading down from the base to the Great Trading Road and the Berado position.
Rod and his aerial cavalry were waiting somewhere out of sight for my cousin and me to hopefully pull the other fairies away from the battlefield, making it safe for him to come in and attack the ground forces.
The same threat of fairies in the air was keeping the birdkin soldiers on both sides out of the air. Ours were up on the mountain, where they could use the slope to take off rapidly.
Although I had my fan and mithril sword back, I had left them back at the headquarters. Durandal hung at my hip and the Starfire Jade Writing Brush rested in my left hand. I had become more accustomed to fighting with these in the last month, and I wasn’t going to give up my partner now.
Speaking of whom, I sent to him, Go ahead and manage the shields yourself, Old Man. Don’t wait for me to call them out.
I understand, My Lady. Don’t forget you have to call the attacks out loud.
I’ll remember.
“Ëi onar lâ, Fele Feraen. I hear you still haven’t had enough?” I mocked as she drew into hearing distance. “You personally asked for your beating, this time!”
Naturally, I was preparing mana in all seven elements and Healing as I spoke. I was also preparing an extra dose of Healing within my spiritual body, the same way I had managed during my fight with the archdemon Zagolig. I was doing so, because of what I could see on the ground behind her, in the command entourage of the Berado land force.
“You’ve returned to playing a make-believe fairy knight, I see,” she jeered in return. “I see you’ve made changes, Monster, but your panoply is still ridiculous. Do you find your body so unsightly you must hide it, or are you that much of a coward?”
I’m still not showing enough? I wanted to retort, but I stayed calm.
“I’m leaving enough exposed skin for a skilled knight to easily find good targets, My Lady,” I answered. “If you still can’t hit them, it speaks to your lack of skill, not my lack of courage.”
She tipped her head, her eyes narrowing, and her sneer deepened. “Perhaps you’ll still have that smirk on your face when I bring your head back to my lord. Can you make sure to hold it when I cleave your neck?”
“What a funny joke, the suggestion that your dull blade could ever get past my sword,” I observed. “Almost as funny as the idea of a fairy knight willing to do battle for the sake of demons.”
Her brow clouded. “I battle for Lord Parna! Apologize for your offense immediately!”
“What offense? From this very spot, I can see the commander of your army on his horse. Is your fairy sight too weak to see through his illusions? The beast is a disguised demon horse and the rider is a disguised lich!”
“You are mad!” she retorted, astounded. “The commander is King Perim of Beradia! He and his horse are clearly no demons!”
I turned toward my cousin. “My Lady Dilorè, what do your eyes show you?”
“They show me a lich mounted on a demon horse, Your Highness. I can see several larvae near him, as well.”
“What sort of joke is this?” Lilhàn demanded. “Do you think such a thing is funny?”
“I find nothing humorous about fairies fighting in the vanguard for our most ancient enemies, no,” I declared coldly. “I don’t find such an abomination to be funny at all. I already knew that your Lord Parna would ally with a maggot like Cullen and turn traitor on his liege lord, King Owen. That fact was horrendous enough. Now, he is sending the fairies who have taken his gold to defend demons. My Lady Lilhàn, I find that thought to be a travesty beyond description.”
Feraen’s eyes had grown fierce and deadly. Through gritted teeth, she ordered, “Draw your blade, Monster!”
“I’m in no hurry,” I said airily. “I can wait to hear your repentance for this sin later, and I’m certainly comfortable with letting you draw your weapon first.”
I wanted to see her draw it, frankly. Something very unsettling seemed to be leaking from within that scabbard. It was just faint traces but…
As she whipped it out, charging forward at me, I gaped in shock as demonic mana poured from the blade like thick smoke. How could she even hold that thing?
There was nothing wrong with her eyes when it came to [Fortress of Gaia]. When it appeared in her way, she attacked it. If she couldn’t see the demonic mana in her sword, I would have expected her to slam into Durandal’s invisible Earth mana wall without seeing it.
The backlash blew her back as she shattered the shield, but, as always, I wasn’t budged while within the [Fortress].
As she returned for a second strike, I drew Durandal and coated him in Water. I dashed forward while secretly intoning, [Purification], casting it using the circulating Healing in my spiritual body.
Our blades clashed, producing another crashing shockwave, as either the Water blade coating Durandal or the [Purification] reacted violently with her sword. All I could see was the thick mass of Demonic mana filling it, so I couldn’t tell if she was using elemental mana on her sword as well.
“That magic sword of yours isn’t going to hold out against my new blade,” she boasted. “My lord sent it to me. He guarantees that no magic sword can last against it!”
I laughed out loud, strongly enough to not say it in initials. If I ever wanted verification that Parna was complicit in this demonic involvement, she had just given it to me.
Had somebody seen me fighting with Durandal and determined that he was a spirit sword? Zagolig had acted as if he knew about the old man, but I had assumed he had figured it out on the spot, and he never had time to tell anyone about it.
Clearly, the word was out at least that Durandal was a magic sword, since she had just said so. But a magic sword is just a magic tool. At most, it could recharge one mana type and execute a single, simple attack. A spirit sword, the ancient weapon class that vanished due to its vulnerability to becoming a cursed blade, contains spirits capable of decision making and complex sets of magic functions.
Was her secret weapon a device to curse a spirit sword, the way Zagolig had attempted, or just a means to destroy a magic sword? Or could I just assume that either it wouldn’t work against a Holy weapon filled with [Purification], or that the [Purification] that I had filled Durandal with would take care of it?
As we eyed each other, Dilorè and Lilhàn finally clashed… or rather, Lilhàn was backpedaling in a hurry after her initial charge, as Dilorè unleashed a vicious dragon’s breath blast.
In her hands, rather than her sword and magic focus, Dilorè held a spear carved from giant’s bone. The fact that giants are an intelligent species had made it too cringeworthy for anyone to claim from the drops we collected in the cavern below our feet, but I had told Dilorè to commandeer it for this fight.
Giant skeletons are light, super strong and mana-conductive, worthwhile material for magic weapons and focuses, so it had not been surprising to find an asura carrying a spear carved from a giant’s femur. And this one was a truly powerful magic weapon.
I didn’t know how much use Dilorè would get from it, since she didn’t normally use spears. She might have to throw it away and draw her sword after a bit. But I knew she would get a good initial attack with it, throwing Lilhàn a dose of uncertainty to offset the confidence she would start with. When they last met, Lilhàn had been clearly winning against my cousin before the fight had ended due to the Berado retreat.
Lilhàn finally stabilized herself, stopping in a guarding position, uncertain how to deal with the nasty surprise. She had taken visible damage, too, nasty burns on a wing, an arm and down one side of her body.
Feraen was also visibly shaken. I gave her a broad smile.
“You were expecting to dispatch my cousin, then double up on me, weren’t you? It’s time for you to stop looking down on us, My Lady.”
