Episode 68 Failures and Desperate Measures
Mira’s eyes widen as Arai saunters towards her, his eyes gleaming dangerously. She steps away from the portal, carrying with her the box of soul capsules.
Passing by Mira, Arai glares at her out of the corner of his eye, thought not without the faint trace of a smile on his face. Raising his right hand into the air, Arai now summons the Shield of Wizet. The shield glimmers dully in the sunlight, its smooth metal contours rigid and beautiful at the same time.
“That Ryuu…I can’t have him leaving doorways back and forth between the two dimensions open.”
“W-Wait!” Mira shouts, at once realizing what Arai is about to do. “Ophelia hasn’t—”
Silently, Arai casts a spell using the Shield. The shield glows with an eerie blue-white light for a moment. Then, like a wound in the sky closing, the portal through which Mira arrived immediately closes, leaving no trace. Mira quickly sprints towards the space the portal had occupied, pounding on the empty air with her hands.
“Ophelia!” Mira hollers frantically. “Ophelia!”
Wake watches with widened eyes. He turns to Silver next to her. “Does that…mean we don’t have a way of going back home any longer?”
“Yeah,” Silver hisses back, her cold eyes trained onto Mira and Arai, “but right now that’s the least of our worries…”
The others remain still, silenced by the events that have transpired. Fayvard is the first to react to the situation. “Hey, you!” he shouts hurriedly to Mira. “You came because you brought those soul capsules, right? The hell are you standing around for then?! Aren’t there two Fatalists standing in front of you right now?!”
Jerked out of her trance, Mira yells back. “Y-Yeah!” She reaches into her box, withdrawing from it a metal canister. “Everyone stand back!”
Hurling the canister into the middle of the field, Mira dives backwards as the canister begins to fizz. Fayvard pulls his sword out of Lillia’s shoulder, hurrying out of the way himself.
Arai stands still, calmly watching as Mira, Fayvard, Rill, Wake, and Silver all retreat from him. However, Lillia, unable to move from her injury, remains sprawled weakly on the ground, while the canister explodes into a vicious plume of black fog.
The black fog cloud mushrooms high into the air, forming a massive dark bubble around Arai and Lillia. It swirls dangerously, churning about like a miniature tornado before finally collapsing on itself.
Several loud explosions engulf the battlefield. When the smoke finally clears, Lillia is lying on the ground, eyes closed, her face deathly pale. Arai waves the smoke away from his face and spots Lillia on the ground, his eyes widening and showing surprise for the first time.
He teleports quickly over to Lillia’s side, bending over her and inspecting her weakened face. Arai holds a hand to her clammy forehead. Opening up her eyelid, Arai’s eyes widen even further as he spots seven new pupils in her right eye. He turns back to glare at the others gathered around him. “So you guys had this kind of weapon up your sleeves…”
Fayvard takes a step back in surprise. “No way…Arai just took a direct hit from the soul capsule. Why isn’t he hurt?!” He turns to Mira, looking for answers. However, Mira merely shakes her head uncertainly, her own eyes wide with awe and confusion.
Slowly and silently, Arai returns to his feet. He turns to stare at Fayvard, his dazzling yellow eyes cold. In return, Fayvard takes another huge step back in surprise as he spots the eleven pupils in Arai’s right eye. His mouth drops open. “The hell—?!”
“It’s not that it did not work,” Arai explains, “it is that it does not affect me. I told you before, didn’t I? My Fatalist ability is the power to split my soul as many times as I like without impunity. This is the extent of my power. Your soul capsules may work on my underlings, but they will not work on me. You cannot kill me this way.”
“Then…I’ll just kill you right here the old fashioned way!” Fayvard howls, drawing his sword and sprinting at Arai. Out of control, he swings blindly, looking for Arai’s chest.
Arai sidesteps the attack, swiping with his hand and creating a blast of ice that freezes Fayvard in place. With a flick, Arai throws Fayvard back with a touch of lightning. Fayvard lands on the ground on his rear, as Arai gazes down at him sternly.
“Pathetic. You may have once been our mentor, but Ryuu was definitely never as reckless and foolish as you are.”
“You…dare speak Ryuu’s name?!” Fayvard barks, leaping back to his feet and brandishing his sword threateningly.
With a shout, Fayvard leans forward with his sword. Arai teleports out of the way again, reappearing with lightning speed behind Fayvard. He grabs Fayvard’s shoulder from behind, plunging a spear of thunder into his body. Turning, Fayvard manages to avoid a fatal blow by contorting his body. Nonetheless, blood gushes out of the newly pierced wound.
Landing on the ground with a thud, Fayvard hurriedly scrambles back to his feet, clutching his injured shoulder tenderly. He frowns at Arai, gazing at him with blazing eyes.
“Enough,” Arai says commandingly, “this fight has become a battle of attrition. I believe it is in both of our best interests to not continue this little rendezvous any further.” He puts the Shield of Wizet away, allowing it to dissolve into thin air.
Bending over and picking up Lillia in his arms, Arai waves goodbye to those gathered before him. “I will take this opportunity now to retreat.”
“Hey, wait! I’m not done with you yet!” roars Fayvard, chasing after Arai. However, in a flash of blue light, Arai merely disappears, leaving nothing but a trace of wind, blowing peacefully through the grassy field by the stream.
On the other side of the portal, Ophelia scrambles about in a panic. She throws herself against the portal hovering before her, but for some reason, she cannot pass through it. The portal remains as solid as a brick wall.
“Why can’t I get through?!” Ophelia panics, pressing her hand against the portal wall. She turns to the person standing behind her, who is carrying a child in her arms. “Sasha…”
Sasha walks calmly up to the portal, inspecting it as well. “Strange…your sister passed through it just fine. I wonder if there’s something going on on the other side? I hope Ryuu and the others are all right…”
Ophelia stares at the youthful face of Sasha, partially obscured by her locks of long blue hair. “I hope everyone is all right on the other side too…”
Sasha sighs, walking away from the portal. She glances at the various instruments in the laboratory. “Let’s get to work, then.”
“What? What about Mira and the others?!”
“If we can’t get through to the other side…then all we can do to help is to keep making more of those soul capsules, right? Then, if the others manage to find a way back, we can have even more for them to use.”
Ophelia nods in understanding. “All right…” she murmurs resignedly, glancing back at the stubbornly locked portal behind her.
Arai sits still in his throne, absentmindedly chewing a muffin. A knock sounds from behind the closed doors of the throne room. Looking up, Arai booms, “Come in.”
Through the doors comes Arai, bearing Lillia in his arms. On the throne, Arai stares as his clone enters the room, looking slightly disheveled from the encounter with the others.
“Lillia!” Arai cries, leaping to his feet as he spots the injured Fatalist. The Arai clone deposits Lillia on the floor in front of Arai, placing her gently in front of his throne as Arai scrambles to Lillia’s side.
Bowing low, the Arai clone suddenly glows with a bright white light, before disappearing completely. A tiny blue marble falls to the ground in front of Arai, though he ignores it.
“Seraphe,” Arai says to the still air.
Another Fatalist teleports into view, her face hidden behind a white skull mask. Her long black hair is bound up into a ball behind her head. “You called, Your Majesty?” she answers, bowing to Arai.
“Can you heal her?” Arai asks bluntly. He opens Lillia’s eyelid to reveal the multiple pupils created by the soul capsule attack.
The Fatalist named Seraphe gasps with some surprise as she views the extent of the damage. “What could have done such a thing to her?”
“Can you heal her?!” Arai presses again, more urgently this time, as he looks sternly at Seraphe.
Slowly, the other Fatalist nods. “Y-Yeah, probably…”
“Then please do so.”
Without another word, Seraphe picks up Lillia in her arms, and teleports away from sight. Returning to his feet, Arai stares forward, through the wide open windows of the throne room into the wilderness outside. Sunshine slants into the room, drowning Arai in its light.
‘As expected of you, Ryuu. Even in death…’
The campfire burns low as the night grows older. Several stars twinkle in the black sky above, while a waning moon leers down at the darkened landscape below.
Fayvard sits back on his log, leaning against the trunk of a tree. His sheathed sword rests by his side, propped up by his knees. He stares at the others gathered in a circle around the campfire, all of them asleep in their sleeping bags. The fire dances up and down, casting long black shadows across Fayvard’s face.
To Fayvard’s right is the sleeping figure of Mira. She is sleeping on her side, her face furrowed with worry. Fayvard stares pensively into her youthful face. The memory of Arai’s words back inside the castle echoes in his head.
‘“You can only acquire the Sheath of the Sword of Nexon the same way I acquired the Sword of Nexon. You must find the three Anti-Phonemes and use their souls to piece together once more the Sheath of the Sword of Nexon…”’
“The Anti-Phonemes, huh…?” Fayvard hisses in the lowest of voices. The fire crackles in front of him. Several sparks fly out. Rising to his feet, Fayvard stares down at the sleeping Mira. He turns, and punches the tree behind him.
‘Two of them are already in this dimension…if I can somehow reopen the portal to our dimension… All right, it can be done! If I just…’
‘“You may have once been our mentor, but Ryuu was definitely never as reckless and foolish as you are.”’
Shaking violently, Fayvard punches the tree again. Several pine needles fall to the ground with a rustle. ‘Yes, I am reckless and foolish! But I also do what it takes to win… I’m sorry, Ryuu, but there is no way to beat the Fatalists at our current state.
‘Even you would agree, Ryuu…that the only way to win against them is to acquire the Sheath of the Maple Hero’s Sword.’
—END SIXTY-EIGHT—